Somerville Wire

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TENANTS RALLY IN FRONT OF 6-8 MORTIMER PLACE

CAAS Tenant Rally on July 29, 2022. Photo courtesy of Community Action Agency of Somerville.

Protest “tidal wave of gentrification sweeping the new Green Line Extension corridor” (Somerville Wire) – Responding to soaring rents and increasing economic uncertainty, the Community Action Agency of Somerville organized a protest last Friday in support of three Brazilian families who are at imminent risk of displacement in September, after a new landlord bought their […]

DAVIS SQUARE DEVELOPER PLANS LAB SPACE AS SMALL BUSINESSES AWAIT UNKNOWN FATE

Photo by Jason Pramas. Copyright 2022 Jason Pramas.

“The Sligos of the world might become history a lot quicker than people might think” (Somerville Wire) – Scape North America, the US arm of the UK-based company of the same name that has for years planned to build in Davis Square, is set to officially propose its new project to the Somerville Planning Board […]

THE GREEN LINE EXTENSION: TRANSFORMING TRANSPORTATION OR CAUSING DISPLACEMENT?

Photo by Cindy Weisbart New transit arrives in Somerville, met with a mixed bag of emotions (Somerville Wire) – Somerville celebrated the opening of the first phase of the Green Line Extension, with new stations in Union Square and Lechmere, on March 21. The moment was historic, the result of decades of planning, and passengers, […]

OPINION: ONE TOOL AGAINST DISPLACEMENT, RENT HIKES, SPECULATION

“TOPA would allow communities to slow displacement and gentrification by removing some homes from the for-profit, speculative, escalating market, and making them permanently affordable.” Speculators are driving up prices, blocking new home-buyers, and promoting destabilization of neighborhoods, displacement of long-time residents, and gentrification. Is this inevitable? Those issues were the topic of my last newsletter. […]