Dear Billy T and Somerville News Weekly Speakup Line,

The issues pertaining to Broadway serve as a reminder of a meeting held by several councilors at the Synagogue on Winter Hill, about 2 years ago. It was well attended and residents voiced many of the same concerns. One of the city planner’s fielded questions if he couldn’t answer them himself. You could feel the tension in the room, residents were not happy. The ward councilors 4 and 5 were in attendance as well as one councilor at large taking notes. Overall, the message was that Ward 4 will have the most new housing than the rest of the city to include new apartment buildings and condos, think mini skyscrapers. Also, one of the former OR nutjobs protested for pot shops on every corner of the city, and “not the medical kind”, as well as complaining why Wards 6 and 7 will not have as much multi-unit and dense housing than Ward 4. That question was not answered to anyone’s satisfaction. Hopefully, she remains out of state–the bohemian shill was a menace to our community. My point is– the city administration in my opinion, is not going to do anything to help small business owners operating in this city who are not making hefty donations like the ruling class (condo and lucrative business owners) and their spawn. In fact, I will go so far as to say it just might be an experiment to see when those areas get more customer traction. They will play the game until business owners give up. Look at Davis Sq., as an example. How many businesses have lasted over the past 10 years? It’s been run like a hotel–vacancy signs are frequent and no one stays. If you were living here from 1970- 2000, you would have seen businesses that never left. That’s because the politicians at the time were on the side of the working class constituents– not big business development. That’s how they make so much more money. Think about it from a business perspective. If your costs rise, you need to attract clientele who are willing pay your financial obligations. This is not rocket science folks. The single home landlords are struggling in the same way as business owners and it’s the same diabolical plot that has been going on for years. The devil is in the details. They are not going to admit it to your face, instead they use traffic obstacles to do their dirty work. I wish I had an answer, but hopefully it’s coming in the next election.

WWorthy