Gotta love this town

Somerville named state's healthiest city

By Danielle Dreilinger, Globe correspondent

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Image from: istockphoto.com

De-paving Winter Hill

From boston.com By Marion Davis:

Striking a blow for a softer, greener world
The ‘de-paving’ movement comes to Somerville

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It was a small victory, but combined with dozens like it, that ceremonial smash helped reclaim about 400 square feet of green space in a backyard in Somerville, a city that is 77 percent paved over. A few blocks away, behind another Winter Hill house, volunteers cleared about 200 square feet of asphalt.

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Boston.com feature: Endless winter on the Hill

Boston.com ran a piece on challenges of the slowly developing Winter Hill area. Here's an excerpt:

By Danielle Dreilinger, Globe Correspondent

All across Somerville, people and businesses are revving up for spring. The 'dozers are about to start again in Union and Assembly squares for government-funded improvement projects. New Davis Square restaurants have filed for sidewalk café permits. The East Somerville Main Streets business development group holds itsannual party/meeting March 9. And surveyors traverse the future Green Line, which promises to improve property values and business along its track.

But for Winter Hill's businesses, it's still winter. "We're the Rodney Dangerfield of squares lately," lamented Vic Leone in his family's sub shop. In summer, Foss Park draws soccer-playing crowds, but right now, the once-thriving Broadway strip looks drab as a rainy day.

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Leones Sub & Pizza ·
(617) 776-2511
294 Broadway ·
Somerville ·
Directions

Picture from simpliciter's photostream:

An article written by Peter Ungár, Friends of Foss Park president, in the new boston.com yourtown Somerville section:

A better future for Foss Park

A gathering at Foss Park during National Night Out.

By Peter Ungár, Friends of Foss Park president

Somerville’s Foss Park was founded on June 18, 1876. Originally named Broadway Park, it was renamed in 1921 after Saxton Conant Foss, son of Somerville’s poet laureate, Sam Walter Foss. Saxton Foss had been killed during World War I in France, at the age of thirty.

In 1951, the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) took over ownership and maintenance of Foss Park. Further development of Foss Park was halted in the 60’s due to the threat of creating the Inner Belt, which would have taken a portion of the park.

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Memories of the Winter Hill Star Market (not good ones)

Most people seem to miss the old Star Market, but not Rona Fischman, for good reason it seems:

From boston.com

Living well at the grocery store

Posted by Rona Fischman May 22, 2009 03:06 PM

"Some chains are individually owned and operated; some just price differently depending on demand. I knew this. I used to live in Winter Hill, Somerville. The nearest grocery store was the Star Market there. The prices were outrageous. Once we figured this out, we only shopped there for fill-in items. It sort of became our extended convenience store. We grocery shopped elsewhere; it was worth the gas."

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Photo from:

rnolan1087's photostream.

Decline of the Dive Bar

A documentation of the decline in dive bar culture throughout Somerville:

From Miller Lite to ... mojitos

Once upon a time, $2 beers were everywhere in Somerville. Today some devotees worry, is it dive bars' last call?

By Danielle Dreilinger Globe Correspondent / September 28, 2008

As Somerville's fortunes have gone up, its dive bars seem to have taken a dive.

In the '70s and '80s, recalled East Somerville bar owner Michael Philpot, Davis Square was so down and out it didn't even have a McDonald's, but there were "all sorts of little pubs down there that are now gone." Now the square draws people for sushi, burritos, crêpes, and fancy cupcakes.

Belly up

Here's what some old haunts have morphed into:

O'Malley's became Thirsty Scholar

Irish Eyes became Cantina La Mexicana

Tabs became Sally O'Brien's

Canty's became Olde Magoun's

Virgie's Rendezvous Cafe became Highland Kitchen

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Good Time land to become expanded park in East Somerville?

Land swap would expand park

Hidden oasis to gain access, improvements

Ellin Reisner, shown near the Winter Hill Yacht Club, says Draw 7 Park is one of the largest pieces of open space in Somerville. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

By Danielle Dreilinger Globe Correspondent / September 14, 2008

With demolition of the Good Time Emporium set to start as early as Friday, the undeveloped part of Assembly Square looks ever more derelict. But follow Foley Street's cracked pavement past the cab company and construction fencing, and there's a small oasis of green.

A home-rule petition signed last month as part of the Assembly Square development promises to expand and rejuvenate a little-known park on the Mystic River.

The expansion will follow a planned land swap between the state Department of Conservation and Recreation and the developer, Federal Realty Investment Trust. Currently the conservation department manages Draw 7 Park southeast of Foley Street and a thin strip of riverside land with a bike path heading northwest to Route 28. The swap will enlarge the northwestern part.

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Extending the Green Line to Medford??

Eric Moskowitz recently documented the controversy surrounding the extension of the green line through Medford in the Boston Globe:

"State officials will decide this fall whether to extend the Green Line just to College Avenue, amid Tufts University and thousands of students and staff eager for a link to Boston, or continue the tracks for another mile through the Medford Hillside to Mystic Valley Parkway, near a Whole Foods store and within a half-mile walk for nearly 10,000 residents of Medford, Somerville, and Arlington."