Crystal Huff (they/them)Good afternoon to everyone, but especially those who are also gonna zoom into the fuckin' #SomervilleMA Finance Committee meeting and watch our local electeds talk about how maybe they want to become even more enmeshed with Dept of Homeland Security, maybe now with SWAT trainings and AI surveillance software to go with the camera "upgrades" they accepted last week. Yes, I'm angry. This meeting starts up in 7 minutes.
In case anyone is interested, two facts:
1. Somerville's Finance cmte meets tonight (in 30 min) with open public comment session on next year's budget. You get 2 minutes if you sign up.
2. My public comment is turning out to be approximately shaped like the meter of the Modern Major General song. I've tentatively decided to lean into it. Perhaps I will at least get people to giggle and pay attention.
Idk if this is helpful to anyone else, but I dashed off this email to my Somerville electeds (plus the public comment email account). Anyone who wants to can use/modify this text for your own use if helpful.
The worst feeling is when we feel we can't do something about horrors.
We CAN do something. I swear. We just need to decide to do things, and it's gonna take some of our resources, but it's worth it.
It occurs to me that there is plenty of time between now and March 1st to ask a city council or town meeting to put in place a new eviction moratorium, given how many neighbors are impacted by ICE kidnappings (making it unsafe to go to work, etc., and having knock-on effects for ppl regardless of immigration status). In the current instability, protection against eviction seems important.
Now is better than never. #USPol #SomervilleMA #SomerPoli #Boston #MAPoli
Wowwwwwww. Public transit in Somerville is still so fucked that Google maps legit suggests taking a bus from Somernova (on Somerville Ave) out to ARLINGTON and then back out again in order to go to Taco Loco in East Somerville. O.o #SomervilleMA #SomerPoli #transit #bus #publictransit
I am in no way gonna do a blow-by-blow reporting on tonight's #SomervilleMA city council meeting, but if anyone else would like to watch online with me, your options are the Zoom link off the agenda (downloadable from Legistar here: https://somervillema.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1325976&GUID=A432A1ED-B7B8-4497-9535-4E245747B81C&Options=info|notes|&Search= ) or the CityTV cameras (with a slight time delay) online here: https://somervillema.granicus.com/player/camera/2?publish_id=1&redirect=true&embed=1
Welp. I thought I knew what to expect re funding sources for the "No on 3" campaign, but this legit astonished me.
$20k of donations from one wealthy Somerville family, another $19k from 69 other donors in Somerville ... and that makes up less than 20% of the total funding that's paid for all these "No on 3" and "Focus on Somerville" ads????
$204k has gone into opposing a non-binding measure to try to divest from killing babies in Gaza. WOW.
#SomervilleMA #SomerPoli #Gaza #MAPoli #USPol
I'm a YES on the charter proposed (even though I have quibbles with it). It'd be better than what we have now on several fronts (particularly audits for the city budget and periodic review of the charter and multi-member bodies). It'd also be way easier to submit further charter updates, going forward.
I'm a NO on ballot question 2, which is asking if we want the mayor to have a 4 year term (but keeping city councilors to 2 year terms).
http://crystalhuff.com/2025/10/21/somervilles-question-2-and-voting-analysis/
In terms of the Somerville ballot Q1, re the proposed city charter, here's a website made by my friend Bev (who was also on the resident charter committee).
The questionnaire from SEPAC and responses are also now out! No reply from Burnley Jr, Walles, or Mbah yet, though. I plan to check back here later on, in case there's an update.
https://somervillesepac.wixsite.com/sepac/municipal-candidate-questionaire
