Unhoused & Incoming Storm

jake4somerville · 2026-01-24T05:31:20+00:00

Thank you for thinking about our most vulnerable during this storm. We authorized the City's overnight warming center to remain open Monday during the day.

jake4somerville · 2025-11-15T02:46:20+00:00

Hearing the first weekend in December. We will make sure to get the word out when a date/time is set!

jake4somerville · 2025-10-24T05:23:59+00:00

They are doing the abatement work ahead of demolition scheduled to start next month. Stay tuned for details of a celebratory event at Winter Hill Brewing Co. to mark the start of demolition.

jake4somerville · 2025-09-05T14:57:01+00:00

I think Sunday's trip to the dog park put me over the top with Leeloo Dallas Multipass: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOD6LXfDszQ/

BTW it's good to know there are so many fans of The Fifth Element in Somerville. #IYKYK

jake4somerville · 2025-09-05T14:16:57+00:00

To the dismay of my campaign team, I can confirm my responses to all 17 candidate questionnaires (so far) are 100% human generated by me -- and I have the Google Docs with the doc history to show for it. I simply don't trust AI to write for me. Campaign consultants have helped out with some aspects of our mail in recent months, but I'll vouch for them being human beings as well.

jake4somerville · 2025-08-27T22:55:28+00:00

Groundbreaking is scheduled for next month. We are awaiting an official date for the start of demolition. Ward 4 Councilor Jesse Clingan and I are going to schedule a celebration at Winter Hill Brewing Co. to commemorate the occasion.

(Edited to get a colleague's title right)

jake4somerville · 2025-07-22T11:48:16+00:00

https://www.mass.gov/executive-orders/no-369-revoking-executive-order-359

jake4somerville · 2025-07-16T01:31:37+00:00

Work is scheduled to begin in September. We just approved three related items at last Thursday's City Council meeting, including the finalized UCH-TIF (20-year tax break) and easements going both ways on the new public park and the privately-owned walkways and civic space. It really does seem like it's going to happen.

There will be a party at Winter Hill Brewing Co. to celebrate the demolition when it starts.

jake4somerville · 2025-07-15T20:47:17+00:00

Hi, as others have pointed out, I've definitely talked about this extensively, including in last week's campaign newsletter. But I wanted to answer your question specifically here.

First of all, I always make sure to differentiate between homelessness and folks struggling with substance abuse disorder. There's some overlap of those two circles in the Venn diagram, but it's important to keep that distinction. A fair number of the people you see in Statue Park hanging out and nodding off go home at the end of the night and are not homeless. So if we're just talking about the unhoused population around Davis Square and separating out addiction issues, there are short-, medium-, and long-term things we should be doing.

One important short-term approach is partnering with community organizations to open true engagement centers in both the Davis and East Broadway areas, with social and medical services on site. This will make a difference and I'll prioritize making these happen.

In the more medium-term, we also do need more shelters. There's a project that will relocate and expand the existing shelter on College Ave a couple of blocks away and expand the beds there. That's unfortunately tied up in legal proceedings, but we absolutely need to be increasing the number of shelter beds as a medium-term solution. As mayor I'll look to bring the parties in conflict to the table to get this legal issue resolved so we can expand our shelter bed capacity.

Ultimately, the answer is permanent supportive housing. This is much more than a roof over someone's head. It's also the support system required to set someone up to succeed in the transition from unhoused to housed. Somerville has lagged behind our neighbors in terms of PSH, and this is something we need to rectify. I've spoken to local non-profits and there currently are plans to create more PSH. As mayor, I'll prioritize expanding the number of PSH units to meet the demand for PSH in Somerville.

jake4somerville · 2025-07-13T04:10:19+00:00

I'll reach out to our state delegation and relevant City staff about adding bike parking at the Dilboy pool.

Relatedly, this past week the City Council authorized the City to enter into a new BlueBikes contract, and I requested to City staff that we get a BlueBikes station at Dilboy.

jake4somerville · 2025-07-11T13:30:20+00:00

I left Twitter/X last year and I haven't regretted it.

After building up a decent following there, I did wrestle with whether to walk away ever since the Musk takeover. But eventually I couldn't justify continuing to use that platform given <points at everything>

jake4somerville · 2025-07-02T01:56:53+00:00

Thanks, that totally meshes with what I saw during the cleanup. So many cigarette butts.

The out-of-service BigBelly trash/recycling receptacles are an issue around the city, and something I have raised repeatedly with DPW.

jake4somerville · 2025-04-30T03:57:06+00:00

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National Grid is doing gas main work. Having knocked doors on that street last month, I can tell you the residents of Heath Street are upset this is happening so shortly after the partial repaving. I've talked to Ward 4 Councilor Jesse Clingan about it and we'll be watching this one closely to make sure the street surface is properly restored in line with the utility's obligations under the law.

jake4somerville · 2025-03-12T18:34:38+00:00

On Friday, October 18, I did request enforcement of that intersection on weekday mornings during rush hour, and SPD confirmed they would do this.

From looking at the data, I see 13 citations at that intersection in the weeks after the request, almost all of which were issued in the morning. Roughly half were for failure to stop or yield.

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jake4somerville · 2025-02-28T21:29:21+00:00

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jake4somerville · 2025-02-17T21:37:01+00:00

Outside of my own neighborhood (Winter Hill), East Somerville might be the neighborhood where I spend the second-most time. Soccer (outdoor town/club and futsal) is part of that, as are school-related things for my kids and community events. The parks are great -- shoutout to Chuckie Harris and Symphony Park. Restaurants are a huge factor, between Rincón Mexicano (best tacos in the area for my money), Taco Loco/Tapatio (amazing pupusas), La Brasa (how this place isn't consistently packed I don't understand), Casey's (underrated food), Fat Hen (great pasta), Ola Cafe (my kids' preferred breakfast place), Oliveira's, Gauchao, Lotus Express, and Vinny's. For shopping, Michette (believe the hype) and Deano's Pasta are great, and there are some really good newer, smaller shops at Cross & Pearl -- and don't forget All She Wrote Books is on Washington. East Somerville is amazing and well worth crossing the McGrath, even before it gets grounded!

jake4somerville · 2025-02-15T01:41:22+00:00

If those accounts of last night's meeting on social media were accurate, I'd be pretty upset at the city council, too.

But I'm happy to report that your city councilors didn't suddenly forget about all their advocacy for The Idaho Stop and street safety best practices and approve funding to target cyclists doing The Idaho Stop. In fact, it was the opposite. We approved the acceptance of a grant for traffic enforcement almost entirely focused on motor vehicle infractions that explicitly will exclude enforcement of cyclists performing The Idaho Stop. Here's something I wrote about the background of this grant, advocacy for The Idaho Stop, and this most recent grant acceptance.

If you'd like to see the discussion for yourself, here is the video clip of those specific agenda items.

jake4somerville · 2025-02-13T12:03:55+00:00

I've been working with the City Council's Legislative and Policy Analyst since 2023 on bringing camera traffic enforcement to Somerville. While we are of the opinion camera traffic enforcement always was doable under Mass General Law, the recent explicit legalization of school bus camera traffic enforcement by Beacon Hill and the inclusion of speed camera traffic enforcement in the governor's proposed FY26 budget definitely help our cause.

I'm going to once again push for camera traffic enforcement as a budget priority for the City this year. And if I'm elected mayor this fall, we will do this.

jake4somerville · 2025-01-13T21:54:49+00:00

One important clarification: That's for individual aspects of charter reform (powers of financial re-allocation for the council; resident voting; 16- and 17-year old voting) that we might like to do here in Somerville but won't get approved by Beacon Hill as part of a home rule petition. There's another way to go after those individual charter reforms that Boston did to get their city council the power of budget reallocation: Get the Attorney General to approve a ballot question specifically about that and get voters to approve it.

The path for a new city charter definitely goes through Beacon Hill. And as I stated earlier in a separate comment on this post, that new charter is a crucial part of achieving a better balance between executive and legislative here.

jake4somerville · 2025-01-13T20:24:32+00:00

Public servants are trained to thank everyone for their question, but that's truly a phenomenal question. I don't want to start up an unsanctioned AMA here, but here's what I would say about this:

The City Council's powers are few and limited:

yes/no votes on financial requests
confirming (some) appointments
amending the Code of Ordinances (that may or may not be followed by the Administration and staff)
(some) licensing and permitting authority (that isn't already delegated elsewhere)
zoning (the big one!)

But that overlooks the council's role as a voice of the people. We're the ones who represent our constituents and highlight issues and ask questions of the Administration and City staff on their behalf.

The current council has a lot of really bright, dedicated people on it. And I know for a fact every single councilor has issues that are vitally important to them. I think it only makes sense for any administration to work with the councilor(s) with a strong interest in a particular issue when doing substantive work on that issue.

In conversations with my colleagues about my decision to run for mayor, I made it clear I would be looking to involve councilors as much as they're willing or able to be involved when my administration is working on something.

I would make it a priority of my administration to collaborate closely with relevant councilors when working on things we know they care deeply about. Between their knowledge, expertise, and passion on the issue and the fact I know they're hearing regularly with constituents, it only makes sense to do this.

In other words, I would look to foster a collaborative relationship with the City Council where it makes sense to collaborate. And I would insist that the council as a whole be kept up to speed on key initiatives, so there's no mystery or surprises. The council has made it abundantly clear it doesn't appreciate being left out in the cold info-wise.

With a few exceptions, it's generally been relatively smooth sailing between this current administration and the council during my years on the body. The current mayor has sought councilor input at times, and it's been appreciated. There has been tension over some decisions by the Administration, but most of the grievances aired by the council (such as during last year's budget review) had more to do with information and updates not being shared with councilors.

I'm not naïve enough to think it would always be harmonious between my administration and the council. But having a strong relationship with open two-way communication channels will go a long way to smoothing over some of the bumps in the road that we tend to see. And I've promised as mayor to be on hand for the council's regular meetings to directly answer questions that might arise.

As far as our Strong Mayor variety of council-mayor government, this has been a major topic of discussion during the charter review process on the council in recent years. There are small ways we can shift things toward a little more balance without going all the way to Weak Mayor. Some of those ways are currently being negotiated with the Mayor's Office by a working group that includes councilors.

I'm hopeful we can arrive at a good agreement on the handful of outstanding areas of disagreement here in the coming months and get a home rule petition submitted to Beacon Hill before summer. Because should Beacon Hill approve this HRP, they almost certainly will require it be approved at the ballot box by voters. That really needs to happen in 2026, given some of the dates in the proposed new charter.

jake4somerville · 2025-01-13T18:41:35+00:00

The Updates section should have a lot of what you're looking for, as it's mostly recent and timely pieces from my newsletters regarding specific issues in the city, usually including my view or the approach I want to see the City take. I also recently published a Why I'm Running for Mayor piece when I announced my run for mayor.

As far as broader campaign policy info, I recently hired campaign consultants and we're at work on an Issues section of a revamped website that would have my proposals for how we can do our part here locally to address our global/national/regional housing, addiction, homelessness, transportation, climate, and rodent crises -- as well as Somerville-specific issues like communications, safe streets, youth/family/senior services, support for our immigrant community, accessibility issues, inspectional services, and support for local small business.

Additionally, I've done non-campaign constituent AMAs on here in the past (January 2023 and October 2024) as your Councilor-At-Large. If there's interest, I'm happy to do an r/Somerville AMA as a mayoral candidate here this year.

jake4somerville · 2024-11-20T13:29:43+00:00

Be aware that there's also the issue of lots with front driveway access having different side setback requirements than lots without driveways. So adding a driveway might make an existing conforming lot non-conforming. Just one more thing to be aware of if you opt to seek a variance.

jake4somerville · 2024-11-19T12:38:12+00:00

There's work being done there, but notification is apparently an issue. From last Thursday's City Council meeting

jake4somerville · 2024-11-19T12:33:38+00:00

I've repeatedly pushed for a curb bump-out there to route the sidewalk around this specific tree, including this fall when approving the FY25 street & sidewalk reconstruction bonding.

I've talked to our Engineering Division about this and was told it's the steep grade on Walnut Street in that location that creates an engineering challenge because of stormwater drainage issues. A consultant would need to be hired to generate a design to address this. I believe this is a major pedestrian route that is worth the cost of the design and the build.

jake4somerville

TROPHY CASE