Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello and welcome to Somerville Neighborhood News on January 28th. I'm KyAnn Anderson.
And I'm Joe Lynch -- we're the co-hosts of Greater Somerville, right here on SCATV, Tuesdays
at 7:30 pm. And we're tonight's guest anchors.
Somerville Neighborhood News is a community service production of SCAT-TV... put together
by staff, interns and your neighbors. We bring you the news every two weeks right here on
Channel 3, and on website -- scatvsomerville.org/snn -- where you can watch the news in your language
with subtitles. The instructions are on the website.
Tonight's newscast takes a look at what's its like to be a new student from overseas
at Somerville High School, how the Green Line extension will affect our city's back yards,
why girls love indoor track, and we focus the rest of the show on the rise in real estate
values and how its affecting your tax bills.
But first, let's look at the some of the news from the past several weeks. Police are asking
residents to keep an eye out for this man who they say has assulted women in the Union
and Porter Square areas. Remember folks, be aware, travel in pairs and leave the ear buds
at home. On a lighter note in terms of Somerville safety,
the city needs more crossing guards! Morning shifts are 7:30 to 8:30, and in the afternoon
from 2:30 to 3 pm. Guards will get $25.47 per day if they work both shifts. If you are
interested, you can get an application at the City Hall Personnel Office or can email
your resume to: employment_opportunities@somervillema.gov , or you can also email the Somerville Police
Safety Officer Sean Sylvester: ssylvester@police.somerville.ma.us There are a lot of meetings regarding housing
issues coming up... the city, the Somerville Community Corporation and the Metropolitan
Area Planning Council are hosting three sessions on different aspects of how to keep housing
affordable. The first meeting is scheduled for February 4th. Get the full calender by
going to the city's website - http://www.somervillema.gov - and clicking on the link to "housing roundtable
discussions."
Even as housing costs rise, Somerville still receives new residents from foreign countries
every single year, many of them with children. Reporter Marcelo Brociner is at the Somerville
High School to tell us more.
Every year, about 60 students enroll in Somerville High School from foreign countries.
The students come from all over the world. The largest three populations in Somerville
are from El Salvador, from Brazil and from Haiti. But we have students from Asia, we
have a lot of Nepali students, Tibetan students, Indian students, more and more are different
African countries, even a couple European countries recently. And then other places
in Central and South America apart from El Salvador as well.
My name is Kenia Lones. I am from El Salvador and I'm 19 years old.
One of the best things that happened since I arrived is that I made a lot of friends.
I am learning a new language. And I am learning about all the cultures of all the different
home countries of the people who are here. Also I am learning to eat many different foods
from different countries.
Hi, my name is Khaled, 18 years old, from Syria, specifically Damascus.
The best thing about the United States is that when we arrived here, the people were
very kind and helpful. They treated us very well and helped us so much.
The most difficult thing that we faced was, we left Syria, we left our families, our property.
We left home.
When we arrived here, it was so crazy, everybody's talking another language and that was stressfu
for us.
My students struggle extra because they don't have as many supports or don't know as many
resources in the school, so when they first start here, my job is to orient them, so I
meet with them and their families for one to two hours, I help them understand a little
bit about what they can expect here at the school. I help them pick their classes, I
help them understand how they might compare with other students in terms of their English
language skills and their other academic skills, because some kids come with strong academic
skills and just no English and other kids barely went to school in their country before
coming here.
So I help them in any way that I can, but at the beginning really helping them understand
that it is going to be a difficult transition, not to be too *** themselves, help the
parents understand that the students should be doing homework at night, but also to understand
that it they don't understand the homework, that doesn't mean they're not trying.
One of my biggest surprises here happened when I started math classes. In my country,
I didn't understand math in Spanish, but here I understand everything!
I really just love seeing students succeed. So seeing them come in, they're scared, they
don't know English, they're not sure if they'll ever make friends, if they'll be successful,
and seeing them how excited they get.
Like this week they found out that they passed MCAS, a lot of them. So excited, going from
not knowing English to getting a "proficient" or even a "needs improvement" on a state test
is such a big deal for them.
Things that I think a lot of American students take for granted, maybe they don't want to
come to school maybe they're sick of it, maybe they don't feel like they are learning anything.
A lot of my students are so excited because every day they are learn new words, they learn
new things and they are more able to interact with other people because of the skills that
we've given them.
The most surprising thing -- in Somerville High School, there are 1,300 students from
all over the world, from different religions, nations and races.
All communicate with each other very well, and that does not exist in Syria any more.
Somerville High is one of the most diverse high schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The addition of foreign students enriches all of us. Reporting for the Somerville Neighborhood
News, I'm Marcelo Brociner.
Thank you Marcelo, for that report. It certainly speaks volumes that our city has and will
continue to be welcoming to all.
Next up, reporters Em Nguyen and Petros Kasfikis cover one of the meetings that the Mass Department
of Transportation and the MBTA are holding to tell residents about how the Green Line
extension might affect their neighborhoods.
Residents from the Ward 5 neighborhood braved ten degree weather to hear details about the
noise reduction and retaining walls that will soon be built along the tracks proposition
for the green line extension.
Karen Arpino-Shaffer Senior Project Executive tells us more.
So the considerations are aesthetics, we understand the importance of what these look like in
your community. Long-term maintenance, that's a critical issue for the mbta. Graffiti resistance,
that's a critical issue when we're talking about miles of walls. Constructability. We
spend an awful lot of time with the designers and the contractors thinking about how can
we build this from the right away so that we're not working on peoples' property and
we can be less disruptive to abutting neighbors. And we have to put cost on here. We're a public
project. We have to keep the project within reason. So we need to put this on the list.
It wasn't a major factor.
Jason Ross then informs the residents about the potential noises.
So with noise impact comes the need for noise mitigation. Noise barriers are the preferred
method of mitigating noise. It provides a general reduction of noise to the whole community,
to outdoor land uses, as well as interior spaces. People can leave their windows open
and have the benefit of a noise barrier reducing noise into their property.
Residents learn that they might temporarily lose a piece of their own property.
If we do feel as we walk through with the contractor that that's a situation where having
ten feet or close to ten feet would be ideal, for construction purposes, in that case what
we might do is, we might actually look to acquire a little sliver of land at the back
of the property that we're going to call a construction appeasement. We need it for a
certain period of time while we're building the walls and when we're finished we will
restore the property at or better condition than we left it in.
But look at how close it is.
Well, here, see it's on it. See, here's our fence.
I think it's a good way to spend our money providing I'm very much in favor of mass transit.
Bigger worries are the construction period. The inconvenience of that. And I think that
we will may end of losing some parking spaces on our property,
Ten-year community path advocate and resident of Porter-square Alan Moore, tells us his
concerns about the construction.
I am very pleased that it's coming to Somerville. I think it could have been done less expensively
by not having such full stations. I would prefer if they could find a way to fund it
without having to borrow money to make it a $1.1 billion dollar project instead of a
$1.3 billion dollar project. But I don't even know if they are looking that that option.
Ward 5's new alderman, Mark Neidergang was on hand.
I imagine you'll have the typical kinds of complaints that workers will be infringing
on people's land and there will be noise from construction and things like that. I don't
really know. The area that I'm responsible for, Ward 5, it's not clear when the construction
will actually happen. It may be many many years from now.
MassDOT and the MBTA seem to have everything planned out and hope to keep their residents
happy. They hope to answer any of the following questions in the beginning of February. For
Somerville Neighborhood News, I'm Em Nguyen. There are two more meetings coming up... At
the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center on Tuesday, February 4th for the Glass Factory
Condominium area in Cambridge, and on Wednesday, February 5th at the St. Clement School on
Boston Avenue in Medford for the area of Broadway and Winthrop streets. For more information
go to mass.gov/greenlineextension Now let's hear from Dan Atkinson to find out
what's going on at the Somerville Journal.
Hello. This week in the Somerville Journal, we'll be checking out the latest in the debate
over whether Somerville will be a "surrounding community" for the Wynn casino inEverett,
we'll be looking at the difficulties in getting a liquor license in the city, and we'll also
be checking out the celebrations of the Somerville Theater as it turns 100 years old.
You can always look at the paper at wickedlocal.com/somerville and you can get in touch with me at datkinson@wickedlocal.com
or 617-629-3385.
Next, we go back to the Somerville High School. This is the fifth news report from students
in Craig Leach's TV/media class and it's about girls indoor track.
Track is one of the most popular sports during the winter season. Many students have been
participating on pre-season workouts to prepare for the season.
I've been in track for about three years now. I started doing track just because my brother
thought it would be a good thing for me to do and after that I just loved it.
Adjusting to a new track team, I did it pretty well, just because I meet new people, compete
against new people, and it's a whole different setting.
So, it should be good.
What I like the most about track mainly is the competitions and how I compete against
people and being very excited when I win my events.
Mark, get set, go!
I think a new girl to the high school would really adjust really well because we have
such a large group of kids and they're usually pretty friendly and I think they are very
accepting and welcoming towards new kids and it doesn't matter where they're from or how
fast they are as long as they come in and follow the rules, they'll really have a good
time on the track team.
This is the best it's been in a long time. We have a really good group of girls that
have been showing up after school. It's been real consistent and more girls have been showing
up and I can't be happier with this group. I just told Sarah Grace and Catherine the
oteh day, what they're doing is great, and th captain, Samantha, too, so I think this
is awesome, it's really going to help us.
The track team has high expectations for the season. The team has been working hard to
win the Greater Boston League, States and hopefully Nationals.
Boy, hard to think about putting on shorts in this kind of weather, but at least they
are indoors, and it seems like they are doing pretty well so far this season...
We are ending the program with a look at an issue that has been in the headlines, discussed
by aldermen, argured over at the coffee shops and talked about by your neighbors. Benjamin
Franklin supposedly said that "Nothing is certain except death and taxes."
Well, in Somerville, the new property tax bills that came in the mail are certainly
causing a lot of discussion.
Reporter Colby Smalzel talks to the city's chief assessor and to a few Davis Square business
people about the recent hikes. Fiscal year 2014 is a reevaluation year for Somerville.
It's been four years since our last reevaluation.
And you know, KyAnn, from what we hear, most properties went up in value, according to
the city. Some by 50 % !
At the beginning of January Davis square businesses opened their bills to find a major increase
in their property taxes because of the 2014 revaluation.
It was a surprise to me because actually my payment was double for this quarter anyway
which took me by surprise and when I reached out to other business owners and property
owners as well as the alderman I came to realize that that was what was happening in Davis
Square.
Owner and manager of Johnny D's Carla DeLellis worries that the rise may discourage small
businesses from succeeding in Somerville.
I can see the impact of such a high increase is independently owned businesses will very
much struggle and or find that this is not a good community to exist in.
The cities chief tax assessor Mark Leveye explains that the revaluation process is not
flawless.
What the assessors do under mass general law is mass appraisal. We're trying to put a value
on a great number of properties. In this case 16,000 properties. We're trying to hit the
target as many times as we can for as many tax payers as we can. Invariable there are
going to be some folks who feel they're over valued and indeed the board will likely decide
in their favor.
Levye agrees that revaluations can be tough on both parties but that the increases are
not out of the ordinary.
Revaluation years are tough. They're tough on the assessors and they can be tough on
the taxpayers. It's not unusual to see major swings in value in a re-val year. The assessors
certainly not here to drive businesses out of the city we're certainly not here to put
people out of their homes.
D Squared Business owner and Davis Square resident Melisa Christie understands the double
edged sword effect of an area becoming more popular
I'm all about things getting better and change and the vibrancy and the energy is really
fun. I understand that with that thought can come you know like property taxes going up
and rents increasing dramatically. So I guess I'm sort of on both sides of the fence because
I own a business here but as living here I think its fantastic.
The great thing about this area is that people love small local businesses and so they really
come out and support that. They don't want big boxes to come in here. So that's again
the riding the fence because if the rents are supper high small local businesses can't
afford it.
We stand by our values but we will review any and all abatement applications we receive
and we will consider any and all factors why particular property owners feel they may be
over valued.
If you're trying to take exactly what it is that made the area popular and now make it
so that those exact types of businesses can no longer exist what does that mean about
the long term? That means that you're taking away our ability to exist and therefore you're
taking away the very thing about the area that made it popular or valuable to begin
with.
Here in Davis Square, business owners are concerned about rising real estate taxes and
the impact they might incur. We'll be keeping an eye out as this story unfolds. For Somerville
Neighborhood News, I'm Colby Smalzel.
What an important story... It reminds us how critical it is for us to support our small
and locally owned businesses in Somerville. Here's another reminder, property owners can
file for an "abatement" which is a way to contest the value that the city's Assessor's
office has given your property. As of January 24th, about 100 property owners have done
that. If you would like to do so, the forms for an abatement need to be filed by February
3rd.
Even though the city has explained to us that the tax rates went down, most of us are paying
higher taxes because the value of the property has gone up. The city has held two meetings
to try to explain the process, and to justify the higher taxes ... Somerville Neighborhood
News director Jane Regan covers the meeting held on January 24th .
On January 23rd, the City's Chief Assessor and his staff held a meeting at the West Somerville
Neighborhood School in order to explain how real estate values are determined.
In essence, all we're doing is interpreting the market. It's basically buyers and sellers,
tenants and landlords who shape the market. We simply come along and interpret the numbers
we see.
We've been hearing in the Assessor's Office a lot of second and even third-hand information,
what peole are feeling relative to valuation increases. We've heard things in the media,
we've read some articles. But of the 16,000 properties that had to be valued this year,
there were only 110 that wen tup 50% or more. That's a small number.
110 is a small number, but the numbers on many tax bills were significant. Somerville
Neighborhood News randomly selected ten residential properties o compare their 2012 and 2014 values.
One went up only 1%, and one actually declined. But all the other properties rose in value
by anywhere from 11 to 25%, like Alan Ball's house.
It went up 25%. I looked at all the other singles around my area, and they all went
up by maybe 9.5 and 14 and a half percent.I haven't touched anything on the house as far
as improvements for three or four years.
My taxes went up $1800 since 2010. And I understand the assessment and all the houses are worth
that! I'm not going to argue with you. In 2010 I put in an abatement, you know, to get
a check, and once I checked I saw, yeah, the property's worth that. I understand that part.
My property's worth that much money now. But I'm not making the money that these investors
and the people that are turning into condos so the long-time people from Somerville, that's
who are the ones getting hurt. I know my kids can't buy a house around here. They're out
of reach for us.
I'm up to almost $9,000 a year, and I get good rent, however, that rent will now have
to go up if my taxes go up. I have a full-time job at one of the local colleges. I won't,
it's not Tufts, it's another college, and I make a good salary but if the taxes keep
going up I will have to possibly sell and that makes me really upset. Because I don't
want to leave my home.
I know not everybody's happy, and I wouldn't be either if I got a 50%, 75%, even a 100%
increase. But I'm going to ask you to keep things in perspective. For most taxpayers
it's been 7 years since there's been a major adjustment in value. That is a long, long
time. I know there's a reaction now but remember, for 7 years, things have been pretty flat.
Median household income has also been flat... for decades, and since 2007, the incomes of
all but the super-rich have actually declined.
I think what underlies a lot of these concerns is the ongoing gentrification of the city
and I understand that there are meetings set up to discuss that specifically, but I think
that that's what we're all getting at here. That, as folks like myself, young urban professionals,
are moving in and moving into these condos that these developers are putting in, we're
driving up the cost of living here for everybody.
There are cities around the country that have taken steps to mitigate the impact on the
community so that the cost of housing does not spiral out of control upwards and push
the community out, that has been there for a long time.
So as I sit here in a room full of people who grew up here, raised their families here,
I don't feel right necessarily as I am shopping for a home to settle into, being a part of
that kind of a problem.
My question to Somerville is: Are there any plans to take steps to mitigate what is already
happening and what is only going to continue to happen?
Perhaps the cold kept many residents away, but those who did show up had strong feelings
about their higher tax bills, no matter what explanations were given. Reporting for Somerville
Neighborhood News, I'm Jane Regan.
It's clear that for many property owners and renters alinke, this year's tax bills will
be tough. To explore the topic, we invited Alex Pirie into the studio. He's the Coordinator
of the Immigrant Service Providers Group and has also been a Davis Square resident and
an active community member for over 30 years.
This week and for the last couple of weeks there's been a lot of discussion in the city
about the new assessments of property, for both residents and commercial property. And
I was wondering, who could I get in to talk and help us figure out this subject?
A real estate person, a professor, a community organization... and then I thought, "Well
Alex Pirie always has a lot of opinions about things, and he's been around here for 30 years."
So, I'm really glad you came down. Thanks a lot.
Thanks for having me.
Now, you've lived in the city for 30 years. What have you seen?
Well, I've seen profound changes. The street that I'm on, when I first lived... I was actually
gentrified out of Cambridge in 1977, 1978 and moved onto a very quiet street, very low
key. We had three houses that were occupied by retired custodians. It was like, old and
young, whatever.
The change has been profound, particularly in the last ten years and even more in the
last five years. It seems to be accelerating. I could no longer afford to buy the house
that I now own.
Isn't that what every city wants? Property values go up, great restaurants, places to
go get a beer, you can get your dog shampooed here, you can get a massage there, isn't Somerville
living the urban dream?
It's a very temporary dream. We're at a cusp here where the people who make the city interesting
-- older working class families, immigrant families, newer families coming in -- is really
interesting. There's a lot of artists, there's a lot of creative people, there's a lot of
eccentric little stores and fascinating restaurants... It's going to be very temporary if things
continue to escalate, and it will wind up ultimately looking like Harvard Square, which
is a concrete wasteland with a lot of banks and cell phone companies and nobody goes there
anymore.
It's true, I don't go there anymore and I live... I go there to catch the T to come
here!
Exactly, it's a transportation nexus!
I take the T up to Davis!
Ha ha!
So, as you know, as we saw already in the program, we've been looking in the issue and
talking to different city officials on camera, also off-camera. I've talked to a couple of
aldermen. And everyone seems to say, "Yeah, this is very disconcerting, except our hands
are tied."
The assessors say, "Hey, we're just doing the math. We send the figures in to the Mass.
Department of Revenue. And then the tax rate is set and that's it."
The aldermen say, "Hey, it's not us. We're not the ones who set the taxes."
But, what kind of makes me wonder is, the last time I checked, we called this country,
and this city, it's a democracy, which means "rule by the people." Isn't there something
that people can do? I mean, I know you're not a law expert, but it just strikes me as
odd that everyone says: "There's nothing we can do." There must be something we can do.
Well, there are things. I'm sure what exactly what they are, but we're also, you have to
put it in a larger context.
Somerville and most of the other old, similar cities, are in a sense a fiscal fantasy. We're
not self-supporting and we could raise double of what we're raising and still not... About
20% of our income give or take comes out of the state. This is true for Medford and Revere
and whatever. We're all in the same boat.
Well, we don't really have time to solve the issue here.
Really? I was looking forward to it.
But I appreciate that you came down.
I just have to say, I'd like to end by saying, I feel like too many things that happen in
this city and other cities are determined by the market. That the market sets the value
of a house, but a market shouldn't be telling us who can live in a community and how we
can run our lives.
We're not going to solve that here, but I hope that the city has a really honest dialogue
and tries to figure out ways of preserving the Somerville that we all know and love while
we embrace the positive changes.
That does it for us. Thanks for joining us. We'll be back on February 11th. But don't
just tune in once every 2 weeks. Get involved with Somerville Neighborhood News.
What's happening on your block? Who's your neighborhood hero? What issues aren't being
covered? Become a reporter, or just send in your ideas. Call the SCATV studio - 617-628-8826
- or write news@scatvsomerville.org.
And don't forget to watch our show: Greater Somerville. You can watch it on SCATV on Tuesdays
at 7:30 pm, or catch us on local media or on Youtube.
Thanks for joining us.