Somerville Parking Advocacy and Reform Coalition (SPARC) Forms to Advocate for Better City Parking R

[somervilleparc.livejournal.com]

Somerville Parking Advocacy and Reform Coalition (SPARC), a group of business groups, neighborhood associations and concerned residents advocating for a more thoughtful and comprehensive approach to parking regulation in Somerville, has formed to addresses the recent citywide parking changes.
 
SPARC is concerned about that impact that these changes will have on the economic vitality of Somerville businesses and artists, and quality of life for Somerville residents and visitors.  SPARC is also concerned that such sweeping decisions were made by a commission appointed by the Mayor and not by an elected body, and that the Traffic Commission took the vote quietly and without real opportunity for public process.
 
On May 21, 2009 the Somerville Traffic Commission approved city-wide changes to change meter and resident permit parking regulations.  Changes include making all city streets resident only parking, and increasing meter enforcement to 10pm in Davis Sq and Magoun Square and 8pm in other Central Business Districts. Meter rates will also increased from $0.50 per hour to $1.00 per hour.  The Mayor formed the Parking Solutions Task Force to recommend modifications to the parking regulation changes and the Task Force’s recommendations were released on June 10th.
 
The Traffic Commission will vote on the Task Force’s recommendation this Thursday July 30th at 5pm at the Traffic and Parking Office, 133  Holland St. SPARC encourages anyone concerned about the impacts of the changes to attend the meeting.

SPARC’s mission is to work collaboratively with the City of Somerville towards the creation of an innovative parking plan, devised through community input, which allows the City to serve the vehicle parking needs of residents and business patrons, to maintain active business districts, and to generate the revenue needed to continue vital City services. SPARC strives to ensure that Somerville establishes itself as a national leader in managing parking for economic vitality.

SPARC members include:
Davis Square Area Resident Business Initiative (DARBI)
Somerville Local First
Union Square Main Streets
East Somerville Main Streets
Magoun Square Neighborhood Association
Somerville artists
Somerville residents

SPARC is calling for the postponement of the implementation of the parking regulation changes and the opening up of a city-wide community process to evaluate the impact such changes will have on the community. An online petition is available at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SomervilleParkingAppeal2009
 
More information is available at  www.somervilleparc.blogspot.com
To keep up-to-date on SPARC email SomervillePARC@gmail.com to be added to our list

Jehovah's Witnesses Invasion

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Why are there so man JWs around Davis and Porter Sq these days? Last night I saw more than 20 while I was taking a short walk around Davis Sq, and they were pretty aggressive at trying to start a conversation, despite the fact that I was already having a conversation with a friend. They keep knocking at my door too. Did they get some recruiting orders saying that these are good times to convince people to join them? When does it become harassment...?

fiesta

[fluffpot.livejournal.com]

Hallo!

Does anyone know of any Colombian Independence Day festivities going on tonight or tomorrow? It's my first independence day away from my family, I miss the music and food. :<


x-posted to other area communities.

Somerville Garden Club

[kjc.livejournal.com]

Hello to all the folks who stopped by the Somerville Garden Club table today at ArtBeat! It was lovely meeting you all!

I wanted to remind people that we're getting down to the deadline for nominating gardens for the 2010 Somerville Garden Tour. More information here: http://www.somervillegardenclub.org/

Direct link to the nomination form: http://www.somervillegardenclub.org/docs/SGC_Nomination_Form.pdf

Nominations are due by July 21, 2009.

This year, we're focusing more on edible gardens, including fruit trees and berry bushes as well as the standard vegetable plot.

You don't need to know the person you're nominating! You can nominate anyone whose garden you appreciate or admire. You don't even need to know their names, just write the address on the form. And we're not going to be exclusively presenting edible gardens - feel free to nominate ornamental gardens as well!

We have a CD of pictures taken by a variety of photographers (who went through their hundreds of pictures and winnowed the results down to a few really gorgeous shots for each site) of the 2008 Somerville Garden Tour. If your garden was on the tour, the CD is free. It's $5 for everyone else. The CDs are available at our meeting (along with free copies of our fabulous newsletter, $5 SGC tote bags of unbleached cotton, and whatever other goodies people bring in to give away).

Also, if you're looking for an organic way to get rid of fruit flies, I wrote up a recipe here: http://kjc007.livejournal.com/185110.html (and a friend commented with an alternative recipe).

Notes on handling pantry moths here: http://kjc007.livejournal.com/185405.html (not completely organic, as we've used diluted bleach in the past for handling the lil buggers)

And organic suggestions for dealing with slugs & snails here: http://kjc007.livejournal.com/185632.html

We'll be launching a new website soon, at which point I'll probably put these posts up over there as well.

The SGC meets on the second Wednesday of every month 7:00–9:00 p.m. at the Tufts Administration Building (TAB), 167 Holland St., second floor. The meetings are free, open to the public, and are wheelchair accessible. Most meetings begin with a roundtable discussion of seasonal gardening issues, followed by a speaker, and ending with a raffle.