Second Inaugural Address – 1/2/06

Joseph A. Curtatone

Mayor, City of Somerville

January 2, 2006 – Somerville High School

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Welcome and Happy New Year.

Two years ago, I stood on this stage, surrounded by friends, colleagues, family and fellow citizens, and was sworn in as Somerville’s 35th Mayor.

It was only yesterday.

It was a lifetime ago.

Many of you here tonight were also present then.  And as we gather for this second inaugural celebration, there are several new and welcome faces in the hall.

In a minor breach of protocol, I’d like to take just a moment to welcome my youngest son, Joseph, to his first inauguration ceremony.

In fact, I’d like to welcome all of the new residents who have come to Somerville in the past two years.

We’re honored to have you join our community and we hope you’ll want to stay.

Your arrival reminds us of how much things can change in only two short years.

A city is – at least it should be – a living, breathing organism that changes and evolves over time.

Somerville is a stronger, better city than it was two years ago – not just because of the actions of municipal government, but because of our new residents, our new businesses, and a new sense of optimism and purpose that is beginning to take root in every neighborhood, every town square and in the heart of every citizen.

So I certainly don’t mean to single out Joseph.

But as I embark on a speech that chronicles the past two years – that touches on many promises kept, many problems overcome, and the many challenges that remain before us – I know you will forgive me if I begin by acknowledging my greatest pride, my greatest joy, and my greatest source of inspiration and purpose.

It is, of course, my family: my wife Nancy, and both my sons – Cosmo and Joseph.

More than anything else, I am determined to make sure that Somerville continues to be a place that they, and all our children, are proud to call home; a diverse city where opportunity, quality of life – and a sense of community and shared purpose – are all made stronger and better with each generation.

I know these goals are shared, and made easier, by the many distinguished leaders who have joined us for this evening’s ceremonies, and so, before I get into more trouble for violating the normal rules of protocol, I would like to acknowledge them:

Congressman Capuano; Senator Jehlen; Register Brune; President Heuston; Distinguished Aldermen; Chairperson Harris; Distinguished Members of the School Committee – welcome.

In the spirit of welcoming new arrivals, I’d like to extend a special welcome to our newest addition to the Board of Aldermen, Rebekah Gewirtz, and our two newest members of the School Committee, Paul Bockelman and Mark Niedergang.

I’d also like to offer a special word of welcome and thanks to our dynamic Superintendent of Schools, Tony Pierantozzi.

Welcome, all.  I know we will all benefit from your energy and ideas.

Unfortunately, there is one leader who has graced this stage in past years who is with us no longer.  Of Senator Charles E. Shannon, we say tonight that we honor his memory, and we thank him for his service.  He, and all those who have served Somerville with distinction at every level of government, will never be forgotten.

It is for us – all of us – to carry on their work and take up their legacy.

Like every one of you, I take great pride in being from Somerville – and one of the biggest reasons for that pride is the way this town comes together in the face of adversity.

Two years ago, I told you that if we were willing to pull together, face our problems squarely, and, above all, commit to vigorous action, we could overcome the difficulties we faced and make this city a showplace for the rest of the state.

Tonight, we can celebrate the progress that we’ve made, but we cannot celebrate a lasting victory.

Our work is well begun, but it is not yet finished.

The promise is brighter than ever, but it is not yet secure.

So tonight, even as we take stock of how far we have already come, let us not lose sight of how far we have yet to go.

Two years . . .

It isn’t that much time, really.

Yet it in only two years, we’ve seen a significant turnaround in many of the most important indicators of our community’s strength and health.

For example:

• Our Moody’s bond rating – always an accurate barometer of our underlying fiscal condition and our economic prospects – has been upgraded from A2 to A1. This is perhaps the single best indicator that the investment and public-sector financial communities recognize that we’ve laid a firm foundation for future success.
• In the past two years, we’ve issued nearly fourteen percent more building permits than in the previous two-year period – and we’ve seen the value of new construction in Somerville soar 35 percent, to a two-year total of over 195 million dollars. 
• Property crimes fell 4 percent in 2004 and an additional 10 percent this past year; overall, crime went down 4 percent in 2004 and 9 percent in 2005.
• Somerville High School enjoys a 99 percent graduation rate, making us the envy of many wealthier suburban communities.
• Standard and Poor’s, in its national ranking system called "School Matters", rates Somerville as an “Outperforming” School District.  This a major achievement: Somerville is 1 of only 29 “outperformers” among the state’s 363 districts – and we rank the highest of the three urban school districts in Massachusetts to receive this coveted rating.

Despite the very grave challenges that remain before us, all these indicators give us good cause for optimism – and hard-earned pride.

In no area have we made greater – or more urgently needed – progress than in the field of economic development.

We achieved a major breakthrough in the development of Assembly Square, where a comprehensive rezoning plan and aggressive negotiations led to a welcome new owner and partner, Federal Realty Investment Trust.

It also led to a new commitment to smart growth, and to the opening of a revitalized mall that is the precursor of a whole new neighborhood that includes housing, office, entertainment and transit components as well as new retail facilities.

When Federal paid 64 million dollars for 45 acres at Assembly Square – where Federal’s holdings alone represent a development parcel larger than either Cambridge’s North Point or Boston’s Fan Pier – their CEO said very clearly that their interest went far beyond the redevelopment of the existing mall.

Instead, Federal has put its money behind a much larger idea of what Somerville already is – and what it can be.

Not that the mall isn’t welcome: the newly-opened stores have already been embraced by the Somerville community – and the mall has, in turn, already provided hundreds of new jobs to Somerville residents.

Yet the most important thing about those stores – and the Ikea store that is still on the way, and the new Orange Line T stop, and the open access to a public waterfront – is that they represent a bridgehead to a new urban village where people will not only shop, but live, work and play.

Federal’s investment underscores the strength of our city’s far-reaching vision for the potential of Assembly Square, and its central role in the economic and civic future of the entire metro area.    

This is the first fiscal year in which we will begin to see a trickle of new tax revenues from this project – with a much more substantial flow to follow in Fiscal 2007.

Those revenues are the fulfillment of a promise I made to the people of Somerville two years ago – and they come not a moment too soon.

We are also expanding our housing stock, with 113 new units completed in 2004 and 2005 and another 137 units approved and in the pipeline.

Nearly forty of these units – 16 percent of the total – are classified as affordable housing, reinforcing Somerville’s commitment to providing homes for a broad range of economic and social groups.

We are creating pragmatic and forward-looking redevelopment plans for Brickbottom and the Inner Belt.

We have begun the essential work of repaving our streets, repairing our sidewalks, and re-landscaping our parks and public squares.

Now, with these tasks behind us, we can begin to look ahead to the economic development challenges of the next two years.

Our first challenge is to integrate our transportation, economic development and community planning agendas in a way that provides for long-term, balanced – and environmentally sound – economic growth.

One crucial element of that integration effort is the fulfillment of the state’s long-delayed commitment to extending the Green Line to Union Square and on to Medford.

When the state announced last May that it was committed to a Green Line extension, we applauded their action as the culmination of years of hard work by city officials, our legislative delegation and a dedicated corps of community activists.

This commitment is a vitally important milestone in the recent history of our community, and a cornerstone of our long-term development plans.

Yet just last week, when the Executive Office of Transportation recommended rule changes that could further delay – or even eliminate – the completion of a Green Line extension, we were reminded that the state is fully capable of backpedaling and foot-dragging that could easily break this crucial link to a sustainable economic future.

By contrast, the completion of a new Orange Line station at Assembly Square was brought much closer to reality by the inclusion in the most recent national transportation bill of 25 million dollars in construction funding.

We are deeply grateful to our congressional delegation – and most especially to Congressman Capuano – for taking the lead in this effort.

We are also grateful for the state and federal funds we’ve received to pursue the next stages in the Community Path – our pedestrian and bicycle thoroughfare linking Somerville’s neighborhoods to Belmont, Arlington, Cambridge, and Boston.

With the help of civic-minded volunteers at the Friends of the Community Path, we’ve combined those funds with our own resources in order to extend the path from Cedar to Central Street.

The design for this new stretch of the path will be completed in 2007 and construction is scheduled to get under way in 2008.

Despite the help we’ve received, however, we must stay vigilant and active in support of all these projects.

On transit – and indeed, on our entire development agenda – Somerville must send a message to Beacon Hill and Washington that we refuse to be shortchanged.

We’ve been put off and put down in the past, but we’ve come too far to let that happen again.

We know we’re a high-density community – in fact, the most densely populated city in New England – and we know we’re not the wealthiest town in the area.

But we also know that we have a superb location – close to downtown Boston, close to Logan Airport, and at the center of the Harvard-MIT-Tufts Triangle – and we know we have plenty of historical appeal and a lively arts scene.

With judicious investments in rapid transit, in parks and open space, we can ensure that our very density becomes an economic resource, attracting the businesses, residents and visitors who thrive in busy urban environments.

Nowhere in Somerville is this potential more evident than in Union Square.

We are working closely with Union Square’s businesses and residents to create a new vision for a neighborhood that is both steeped in history and full of energy and opportunity.

Union Square’s proximity to Cambridge – to Harvard, Inman and Kendall Squares – makes it the next logical frontier for smart growth in Somerville.

Union Square offers a prime location to take advantage of the fact that Somerville is second only to New York City in its number of artists per capita.

Working with local arts collaboratives and the City’s Arts Council, we can make Union Square a cultural, performance and exhibition destination that supports gallery, café, restaurant and other related businesses.

That’s why we’re working so hard with our legislative and congressional representatives to invest in our vision – whether it's through our successful effort to secure federal funding for transportation improvements, or through grants we've received from the Commonwealth to study redevelopment of city-owned properties.

Perhaps the most visible sign of our commitment to Union Square is our impending reconstruction of Somerville Avenue.

We’ll be breaking ground later this year on this federally funded, 15 million dollar project.  Its combination of roadway, water, and sewer improvements will lay a solid infrastructural foundation for residential and commercial development throughout the Union Square district.

In Union Square, in Assembly Square – and across the city – this administration is taking care of business, but we are doing so in a way that remains sensitive to the needs, the hopes and the values of our residential neighborhoods.

Because I grew up savoring life in those special neighborhoods – and because I want my children to experience the same feeling of community and tradition – I know that we must find ways to plan for a successful future without cutting ourselves off from the older, more traditional Somerville we know and love.

That is why the second of two great issues that will shape our future is the question of how to improve our shared quality of life.

We've worked hard to make Somerville a more desirable city in which to live and build a business – but there is no question that we can do even more to secure and enhance the health, the safety, the sustainability, the cleanliness, and the recreational amenities of our city.

That is why I am proud to have become a co-signer of the United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, a document endorsed by nearly 200 mayors across the nation.

This agreement commits our cities to meet or beat Kyoto Protocol targets in each of our own communities.

Here in Somerville, that means we will be placing a heavy emphasis on energy conservation – and emissions reduction – in every area of city government.

To that end, I will soon be bringing a proposal to the Board of Aldermen to use money from our new waste transfer station contract to create the new post of Environmental Programs Manager.

This new senior manager will coordinate and monitor all citywide environmental initiatives and will oversee Somerville’s new Office of Sustainability and Environment.

In the coming year, Somerville residents can expect to receive reports on such energy-saving and climate-friendly innovations as:

• Comprehensive energy audits of city facilities;
• A cost-benefit analysis of switching diesel-powered city vehicles to cleaner-burning bio-diesel, and the conversion of some smaller vehicles to compressed natural gas or other lower-emission fuels; and
• The development of emissions, water-quality and open-space improvement initiatives that can help our neighborhoods maintain a healthier and more livable environment even in the midst of economic growth.

But there is more to environmental policy than just air quality.

How a city looks is both an indicator and motivator of how it feels – so we've been aggressive about rebuilding and cleaning our streets – and refurbishing our parks.

One of the quiet success stories of the past two years has been the “Adopt a Spot” program, which has enlisted the aid of local businesses in the beautification of boulevards, parks and squares throughout the city. 

This year, we’ll be opening one new park, Perkins Playground, and we’ll be breaking ground on four more.

In the past two years, we’ve resurfaced 65 city streets and we’ve designated funds to repave at least 20 more in the next 12 months.

Still, when it comes to essential infrastructure – and in shaping the image and spirit of our city – nothing is more important than our public school system.

A city’s schools should be its crown jewels – and under the leadership of a dedicated school committee and a dynamic new superintendent, our schools have made great strides in meeting the high expectations of our city’s students and parents.

We know that good schools are crucial to attracting – and holding onto – the young families that give our city its future, and we cannot talk about quality of life without talking about education.    

But while environment, education and sustainable development must all rank high on the list of our quality-of-life priorities, they must be matched by our commitment to public safety.

That is why I am calling on the city to embark on two additional public safety initiatives in the coming year.

One of these is the creation of a pedestrian and traffic safety task force that will be asked to evaluate every aspect of our traffic and pedestrian systems – from crosswalks and signals to crossing guards and traffic-calming technologies.

For Somerville to be truly livable, it should be walk-able and bike-able – not only for our children, but for all of us.

Within the year, I will charge the members of this task force to come back with two sets of recommendations.

The first, which I will ask for within three months, will be for low-cost and procedural changes that we can undertake immediately to improve pedestrian safety and traffic flow.

The second, which will take more time, will be a set of recommendations for long-term capital improvements.

But any capital improvements proposed by the traffic safety task force must also be balanced against an even larger public safety initiative – the development of a new police station.

We’ve known for years that the current public safety building has to go – not only because the police need a better facility, but also because it occupies a key site in the larger Union Square development district.

We know that any new police station has to be accommodated within our overall capital agenda at a time when – due to the impact of a record-breaking hurricane season, and the soaring cost of energy – construction costs are rising at a truly alarming rate.

Even at the Lincoln Park Community School, where our redevelopment project continues on time and on track, these unforeseeable inflationary pressures have driven up the project’s budget by an astonishing 50 percent.

Somerville is by no means alone in confronting these new cost hikes: across the Commonwealth, cities and towns are facing the same financial pressures.

Unfortunately, the state has been unwilling to acknowledge this new reality and to revise the level of support they are giving to capital projects at the municipal level – so, once again, we are going to be stuck with having to make the hard choices about how best to keep the city moving forward.

In Somerville, those choices include both our existing plan for the former Powder House Community School and the increasingly urgent need for a new police station.

I am therefore directing my staff to undertake a comprehensive review of the current plan for the redevelopment of the Powder House, and to create an alternative proposal that includes a new police station supported by substations at other key points in the city.

Given the evolving fiscal environment, we owe the Board of Aldermen, and taxpayers, a new Powder House redevelopment plan that recognizes both our financial reality and the needs of our public safety agencies.

All of these initiatives – and indeed, everything we do to improve our city – will require continuing support from our partners in the private sector – and from government at the state and federal level.

Two years ago, I spoke of a “perfect storm” in municipal finance.

At the time, we worked closely with our legislative and congressional delegations to seek redress, but we knew the bottom line – if the city was heading in the wrong direction, we were going to have to make the necessary corrections ourselves.

In the end, the choices were ours to make – and so we made them.

Across the face of city government – from the Department of Public Works to the Law Office – we began to pull back work that could be done both less expensively and more efficiently in-house.

We moved quickly to get the long-delayed Conwell School bid-and-purchase process on track and in motion – and we completed a successful sale of the Durrell School in the spring of 2005.

We negotiated a first-ever “town-gown” agreement with Tufts University, providing us with a welcome new source of revenue.

We also raised selected parking, permitting and trash collection fees – not because we wanted to, but because the costs associated with these activities were rising and because the alternative was to cut basic city services and programs.

In all these ways – and by pushing ahead with a host of other cost-cutting and revenue enhancement measures – we took responsibility for a fiscal crisis that had largely been imposed on us by the state and federal governments.

At the same time, we began to enhance accountability and performance so that we could manage our limited resources more efficiently and more effectively.

We established the SomerStat program to improve the way we track and manage city operations.

We introduced the Neighborhood Impact Team that combined fire, health and building inspectors to monitor and improve the health, safety and appearance of Somerville’s businesses and residential neighborhoods.

We provided the fire department with a state-of-the-art computer-assisted dispatch system.

But our most ambitious administrative initiative has come in the area of police reform.

Our city deserves a police force in which the concept of community policing – so effective in other cities – isn’t tacked on as an afterthought but is an integral part of the organization and operation of the department.

And our police force deserves leadership that is both professional and accountable.

Under the watchful eye of former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and the Police Advisory Committee, we have developed a wide-ranging reform plan that includes removing the position of police chief from civil service and making it an appointed position.

Our Board of Aldermen showed considerable leadership and determination in taking up this proposal and making it their own – and I ask you to join me in expressing our appreciation for their unanimous backing for this important reform.

Without their tenacity and teamwork, we could not have succeeded – and I know I speak for all of them and for our legislative delegation when I say that we look forward to this change being signed into law in the next legislative session.

We should note, however, that change at the top is only one element of our overall police reform agenda.

In the past year, we have:

• Purchased four new cruisers, a prisoner transport vehicle, and new weapons;
• Invested in necessary training and firearms recertification;
• Cut overtime, improved fiscal management, changed the cost recovery process for paid police details and, most important of all,
• We have made the commitment to hire, train and deploy six new police officers, three of whom are currently in the academy and will join the Department over the next several months.

With these reforms and economies in place, we have begun – steadily and surely – to restore and enhance city services.

We’ve expanded our commitment to senior services and community health programs through such initiatives as new flu clinics, and the RUOK reverse phone system.

We’ve reestablished a Human Rights Commission and revitalized the Somerville Commission for Women.

We have, for the first time in the city’s history, created and staffed a Multicultural Affairs Commission that is working to improve the outreach, language capacity and responsiveness of every aspect of city government.

We’ve expanded programs for young people, including the very popular Safe Haven after-school program at the East Somerville Community School.

We’ve received a quarter of a million dollars from the state to support our Teen Empowerment Program – and to expand its success in training and enlisting teens as community leaders and problem-solvers.

All of these services have made a real difference in the lives of real people, and I’m very proud of them.

But just because they’re working doesn’t mean we can guarantee their survival

The fiscal storm has not yet abated, and the clouds on the horizon remain ominously dark.

This past fall, the Metropolitan Mayors Coalition issued a sobering report entitled “Local Communities at Risk.”

This report documents a harsh reality that we here in Somerville know only too well: costs for health insurance, pensions, energy, and even MWRA water rates, have continued to soar and show no signs of moderating.

In fact, the runaway cost of health and medical care has made these items the biggest areas of increase in our city's budget, with projected increases in health costs likely to consume 75 percent of the anticipated growth in next year’s tax levy.

Somerville and other communities will do what is necessary to keep our budgets in balance but – in order to mitigate the effect of these rising costs – we’re going to need legislative help.

I hope that our legislative representatives and other state officeholders will lead the way in addressing this problem – indeed, I expect them to make it their highest priority – but I recognize that the situation may well get worse before it gets better.

In that case, city administrations and city unions – in Somerville and across the Commonwealth – will soon face the unfair and unpleasant alternative of having to choose between making concessions on health benefits, forgoing even modest salary increases, or enacting cutbacks in city services – including layoffs.

That is why our city must continue to find ways to do more with less, and why we will continue to seek an active partnership with our residents in solving our shared problems and improving our shared quality of life.

I would therefore like to conclude on an optimistic note – something that’s easy to do here in Somerville where, despite our fiscal challenges, we have been able to achieve so much over the past two years.

In just the past two weeks, for example, we’ve activated a 311 operations center.

Our 311 center is the first facility of its kind in New England and, so far as we know, the first in the nation for a city of our size.

We created this capacity in order to help Somerville residents request information and services without having to negotiate a maze of different city agencies and departments – and we’ve staffed our center with trained personnel who speak the multiple languages of our city and can provide true customer service to the people who call city hall.

This approach to customer service – offering “one call to city hall” – is an example of the way that we will continue to make city government more open, more transparent and more accountable to the citizens we serve.

The 311 system is yet another illustration of the undeniable fact that, despite all our problems and challenges, we are making real progress.

This can be our time, if only we have the courage, determination and vision to make it so.

Perhaps more than any other city in the metro area, Somerville has a chance over the next few years to assume a leading role in our region’s economic, social and cultural life.

The actions we take today will have a direct impact on whether Somerville will be a genuine community with a genuine future, or whether it will become a city without an identity, a plan or the resources to realize its dreams.

We must seize our chance before it slips away – and we must do so in a way that preserves the traditions that make us who we are and show us what we can be.

So tonight we rededicate ourselves to our city’s proud traditions, and to pursuing a brighter future with all the energy, perseverance and talent we possess.

Those traditions certainly aren’t hard to find.

Here in Somerville, we are never very far from reminders of the debt we owe to those who have gone before us: in the memorials to our war dead; in the historic homes and farmsteads built by our earliest citizens; in the names of our streets and squares.

At this time of year, we are especially mindful of our history, since Inauguration Day is always preceded by our celebration each New Year’s Day of the Continental Army’s raising of the first Grand Union Flag on Prospect Hill.

The vision of the patriots who gathered on Prospect Hill to salute their new flag on the first day of 1776 is a legacy that has passed down to us fresh, clear and undiminished.

No matter where our ancestors came from, or how recently they arrived, we can rightly claim those patriots as our forbearers – and we can rightly claim their vision as our own.

They wanted to build a better community for themselves and their children.

They wanted to create a community that would last.

They recognized the value and the necessity of progress – and, despite the heavy odds against them – they were willing to put aside their differences, to work together and to take tremendous risks to make things better.

Now it is our turn.  Surely we, too, can work together in a spirit of cooperation, enterprise and shared sacrifice.

Let us work hard over the next two years to build on what they achieved for us – to honor our debt to those who have gone before us – and take advantage of the real opportunities we have been given in our own time.

Together, we have proven how much can be accomplished in two short years.

Together, let us do even more in the two years that lie ahead.