By Arthur Moore

Spring comes to Somerville

Once again we welcome Spring to Somerville. Warmer air, flower and garden planting. The of course we have the other side of it. The dreaded street cleaning monster.

So many out of work and no place to move their cars to until we somehow recover from this pandemic and the city adding insult to injury. And we get to look forward to once again the city installing its failed street programs like shared streets which was a real disaster accomplishing nothing but problems. And probably adding more plastic to the environment I expect we will see more of those plastic poles that make our city look disgraceful and ugly and many of them accomplishing nothing but havoc on the businesses and those with mobility problems which of course this city ignores very well. Maybe even more of those orange plastic cones added to the ones we already have to make it more unsightly. And the ugly orange barrels we have so many of. Not so long this was a decent looking city but now with all these orange things and painted streets for 12 year olds it is not the city it once was. This is a time to make it nice looking. Like plant flowers instead of ugly orange plastic. But no. Making fixing up the streets some to make them usable. Biking is horrid on many streets here. I am not expert enough to know but maybe a small strip of hot top can be added for bikes to go on would be helpful. I know I would not set my bike on some of these streets due to the condition they are in. But if you want to encourage anything you have to make it usable. Speaking if which is the senior trippers. Those uneven street crossings, bad sidewalks aplenty. They could use some tlc also. Or are we just going to go on the usual ignore mode and do nothing to solve these problems of our city? What do we have a mayor and a city council for? Can they not work for us? The taxpayers. For problems in this city? Seems like they have plenty of time to handle non related things than to be running this city. I am not expecting any help from the city. But knowing it is the last year for this is encouraging. Here is an example of wasted money on Temple Street in the picture. Not only look stupid and does nothing but look ugly it is a waste of badly needed resources. We are in the middle of a pandemic and don’t need to be wasting money. People are trying to hold on to their homes and possessions as it is. The money from this could help feed the homeless in this city rather than sitting in the road looking ugly. IS it that nobody cares about our fellow person? Do we want homeless children still going to school in Somerville when if we stop stupid spending we can house and feed them? I guess from the neglect the people have gone through here we know the answer. Looking at Lowell Street and Albion Street that mess of poles in the street to make things harder for the small businesses to exist Is still there and also keeps people from parking at the new coffee shop and grabbing a coffee to go. I have not seen all the spots where they tossed poles in but this has to be the worst in terms of any common sense. Certainly makes it more dangerous. But then I guess we don’t have anyone with any common sense sticking these into the ground making the city more ugly.