The Alewife

Yerxa Road underpass opens Wednesday

by Neil W. McCabe

Cambridge Arts Council will sponsor the re-opening and dedication celebration Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. for the newly reconstructed Yerxa Road Underpass, located between Pemberton Street and Walden Square Road in North Cambridge, which will feature a permanent public art designed by artist Randal Thurston, said Lillian Hsu, the city's director of public art.

Deborah Mason, the director of the Deborah Mason School of Dance, will lead her students in a special performance at the underpass opening. Mason is standing in front of the new tiles designed by Randal Thurston in the underpass.

The celebration of the Yerxa Road Underpass reopening and Randal Thurston’s public art project features greetings from Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves and Dep. City Manager Richard C. Rossi, remarks on the public art from Charles Norris, chair of the Public Art Commission, and dedication of the Underpass to Pam L. Curtis by Councillor Anthony D. Galluccio, she said.

The program concludes with a dance performance by Cambridge Youth Dance, led by their director Debrah Mason, she said.

Thurston was commissioned by Cambridge's Public Art Program to create permanent public artwork for the Yerxa Road Underpass. From 2000 to 2006, Thurston developed a design for the walls portals of the tunnel in steel silhouette forms and etched tile that incorporate birds in flight, butterflies, and tree branches, she said.

Thurston said, “I want the primary experience of seeing the tunnel and slowly approaching it to be one of wonder and curiosity.”

The enlarged Yerxa Road Underpass allows pedestrian passage under the Fitchburg MBTA Commuter Rail line, and links two neighborhoods of North Cambridge. The reconstructed underpass is fully accessible, has improved lighting, and was made more welcoming with the inclusion of public art and new landscaping, Hsu said.

Kerry ridicules troops as uneducated

Our junior senator was caught on video explaining why he thinks our soldiers overseas are losers.

Seidel comes out swing for fusion

Alewife columnist Sam Seidel posts this on his Web site samseidel.org:

Fusion Voting in MA -- An idea whose time has come.

A yes vote on Ballot Question 2 will allow a candidate for office to receive the nomination of more than one political party.

Here's the language:

This proposed law would allow candidates for public office to be nominated by more than one political party or political designation, to have their names appear on the ballot once for each nomination, and to have their votes counted separately for each nomination but then added together to determine the winner of the election.

Fusion voting has long been in place in New York State. It allows for third (and fourth) parties to have a voice in choosing candidates, without diluting election majorities.

It also means that voters can register "protest votes" without throwing their vote behind candidates who will only act as spoilers (think of Ralph Nader in 2000, and the dire consequences that has had on our country's well-being).

It also encourages coalition building around candidates and around ideas, a healthy outcome in a state where politics can seem very stultified and foregone.

Fusion voting will activate the electorate, a good result.  Yes on Question 2.

(Note: if you're on the mailing list for candidate Rand Wilson, you know he's been promoting it state-wide.  Good for him.)

Cambridge Ideas

Running Off

Though Americans like to see themselves as the authority on democracy, the truth is that we do better at sports than we do at democratic elections. As I write this, the Detroit Tigers are playing the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. As nearly everyone knows, both teams had to survive a sequence of playoffs in order to compete for the World Championship.

Robert Winters

Eight teams were reduced to four, then two, and soon there will be one World Champion. Of course, many of us would argue that in 2004 the “real world series” between the best two teams was the contest between the Yankees and the Red Sox, but the Sox still had to face the Cardinals before it was all over.

Compare this to the current Massachusetts gubernatorial election. Deval Patrick, Kerry Healey, Christy Mihos, and Grace Ross are each trying to achieve a plurality in the general election. There’s a good chance that Patrick may get an outright majority, but a plurality is all that’s needed to gain election.

However, Tom Reilly and Chris Gabrielli would both have likely outpolled Mihos and Ross if their names were still on the ballot. In fact, one of them might have even outpolled Healey. So, are Massachusetts voters really given the opportunity to weigh all the choices? I don’t think so.

Imagine what it might be like if all viable candidates were allowed to proceed straight to the general election – without any primaries. Vote-splitting among the three Democratic candidates would most likely give unacceptable results.

Now imagine that voters were given the opportunity to rank their choices and that an “instant runoff” system was in place that would sequentially eliminate the candidate with the lowest number of ballots and transfer those ballots to the next available choice – basically the same mechanism we use in Cambridge for our municipal elections except that only one person is to be elected. The governor’s race would effectively become a nonpartisan election.

Though it is likely that most Democratic ballots would remain with other Democratic candidates, many ballots would freely transfer across party lines. If Reilly was eliminated, some of those ballots might help Healey, and many Ross ballots might transfer to Patrick. Healey would likely gain ground with the defeat of Mihos.

There’s a good chance that the two candidates who make it to the final round might even be of the same party.

Holder speaks to Alewife contributors

Poetry tyrant promotes Nov. 12 Somerville News Writers Festival

by Nyrie N. Emslie

The poetry and arts page editor of  spoke at the Oct. 19 contributors meeting of The Alewife held at the Porter Square Books store to promote the paper's fourth annual Writers Festival.

The festival is scheduled for Nov. 12 at Davis Square's Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway Theater and will feature Nick Flynn, said Douglas Holder, who founded the festival with author Timothy Gager, who also runs the Dire Series. David R. Godine will be receiving the Ibbetson Street Press lifetime achievement award.

The host of the event will be comic Jimmy Tingle, who has been a big part of the festival's success, he said.

Douglas Holder

The motivation behind starting the festival in 2003 came from his own pondering the number of writers in Somerville, he said. “Since it is such a literary community,” it is a great location for the writer’s festival to take place.

Holder said, “Somerville has more writers per capita then the island of Manhattan.”

Frisoli meets with The Alewife

by Will Larson

The former vice-mayor running for state attorney general on the Republican slate spoke to the Sept. 1 contributors meeting of The Alewife held at Porter Square Books.

Born a Democrat, Larry Frisoli, said his political journey began on the streets of Cambridge when he was a 12-year-old boy ringing doorbells and handing out flyers for John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign.

Frisoli said he switched to the Republican Party slowly in the late 1980s out of frustration with the antics of his old party. “I got tired of the using sections of the budget to buy votes.”

Best known as the attorney who represented the family of the late Jeffrey Curley, a 10-year-old molested and killed by two men in 1997, Frisoli was the youngest member of the city council and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s 2000 “Lawyer of the Year.” Now he finds himself opposing current Middlesex County District Attorney Martha Coakley, the Democrat.

Larry Frisoli

Coakley has a record of falling to pursue political sensitive cases and is beholden to the Big Dig contractors and other special interests, who have give her campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.

Her contributions from interests he would target for reform more than doubled after he announced his candidacy, he said.

One prime example of Coakley’s reluctance to prosecute is the case of the former Somerville police officer, Keith Winfield, he said.

Love and Fashion by Arpine Babloyan

Anna, we will not forget you

Freedom of the press is one of the main attributes of democracy. Journalists are people whose duty is to inform, to let people know what’s going on around the world. The right to report is as important as the right to know.

That’s why even during wars journalists can’t be touched. When soldiers are taken hostage, it is, of course, terrible and the world is trying to do it’s best to save their lives.

Anna Polikovskaya

But when journalists become hostages, we are all shocked. Because it prevents them to report, and it deprives other people’s right to know the truth. Because journalists are not fighters, their goal is not to win the fight, but to reveal and retell.

And when our colleagues are murdered because of their work, because of their willingness to tell the truth and somebody’s unwillingness for this truth to be discovered, we can’t keep silent. The least we can do is to pay tribute.

And the fact that we have to do this is distressful for all the journalists in the world, and for the whole country where such things happen.

In October 7, 2006, one of the most well-known Russian journalists Anna Politkovskaya was killed when she was returning home from a store. She was just 48 years old.

All the journalists in Russia knew her, not necessarily in person, but everyone had read her articles. And in the universities, at the departments of journalism, she was always one of the examples of how we should work, and what we should do. She was one of the best political investigative journalists may be not even in Russia, but in the whole world.

And most of the world state leaders, including US President George W. Bush, presented their condolences to Anna’s family and her Russian colleagues, staff of the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, where she worked.

Anna was born in the USA, but she devoted her life and love to the motherland of her parents, who worked in the Soviet Embassy in the United States. She became well-known because of her investigations of anti-terror operations in Chechnya.

Although not everyone agreed with what she wrote, all acknowledged her braveness, courage, and fidelity. Her career started in 1980, when she graduated from the department of Journalism of the Moscow State University. She received numerous Russian and international journalistic awards and awards from human rights organizations.

“Unfortunately, there is every reason to believe that this murder is related to Politkovskaya’s work” – the Union of Journalists of Russia wrote in its address regarding Anna’s death.

“We consider that this crime is the defiance to all the journalists of Russia, the defiance to the future of the country, which all of us want to see prosperous, free and safe. We appeal to the law-enforcement authorities to hurl all effort and resources into the quickest disclosure of this terrible murder” they also wrote.

Smith snubs Drinking Liberally

A reporter for The Cambridge Comical, Erin Smith, blew off the gang at Drinking Liberally, after arranging to profile the city's chapter of the progressive social movement.

Many of the DL regulars are members of the Progressive Democrats of Cambridge, which recently merged with the city's chapter of Democracy for America, the legacy of the Howard Dean campaign for president.

The  group meets every Tuesday at  Central Square's Middlesex cocktail lounge, but this week the reporter was  a no-show.

"When we talked on the phone, she sounded interested to hear about PDC/DFA too, as though she didn't know PDC/DFA existed - which is a surprise to me, I thought she was already fairly well-versed in that sort of thing.  But, maybe I heard her wrong," said Shai Sachs, who organizes the group with political satirist Baratunde R. Thurston.

"At any rate, she never ended up showing up last night, so who knows whether that will ever pan out," he said.

Challengers vie for 25th, 29th seats

by St. John Barned-Smith

Incumbents for both the 25th Middlesex and 29th Middlesex District seats in the legislature both face opponents in the upcoming November election.

Republican candidate Henry R. Irving and Independent Joseph P.Donnelly are challenging State Rep. Alice K. Wolf, D, in the 25th, which includes Porter Square and other parts of North Cambridge and Republican Keith Mercurio is taking on State Rep. Rachel Kaprielian, D, in the 29th, which includes the city’s Ward 9 by Fresh Pond.

“My greatest success this term was the comprehensive health care plan, though it will undoubtedly need some tweaking,” said Wolf.

Wolf's challenger Republican Henry R. Irving with his wife Kate

She has been a state representative for the last ten years. During that time, Wolf has focused on education reform, the environment and healthcare, she said.

Wolf said she began her career in Cambridge politics as a member of the school committee. She later served as city councilor, vice mayor and mayor before moving to the state legislature.
Besides the health care plan, Wolf helped raise the minimum wage to $7.50 by the end of this year, and then to $8.00 by the end of next year, she said.

She also hopes to enact legislation capping kindergarten class levels at 15 students, to help close the achievement gap, and champion environmental legislation to make the Charles River clean enough for swimmers, she said. “Environmental issues, from the crowding and constant clogged traffic, to keeping families in the city and making sure schools stay strong.”

“Cambridge’s most difficult issue is that we’ve always prided ourselves on having a diverse mix of people, but I think we’ve lost some of that because it’s so expensive,” she said.

Her opponent, Irving, said he entered the race after he spoke at a Cambridge Republican City Committee meeting. “I argued that committee members should try to fill as many ballot slots as possible Cambridge-wide. My suggestion didn’t get very far, mainly because those people, who have a lot more local-politics experience than I do, know how much work it takes to get a name on the ballot, not to mention to campaign. They did encourage me to go for it, though.”

Irving said he the Democrats in control of the legislature are unable to address the real problems facing the citizens. “My priorities are education, taxes, and finding out why it is so hard to get things done, even good works.”

Palette Palpitations by Julie Burba

30-minute meals & me

I’d been waiting for about a week when my latest must-have kitchen accessory finally landed on my doorstep: a navy blue body suit. I quickly changed out of my chef’s whites and into the body suit and the tightest pair of jeans I own. Off to the kitchen I went, a la Rachael Ray.

Julie Burba

My mission, to cook a number of recipes from Ray’s infamous 30 minute meals to see if I, a trained cook, could indeed make one of her recipes in 30 minutes.

Okay, I admit I’m mildly fascinated with Ray. I’m not a fan and I don’t necessarily dislike her. I think I’m more fascinated by how many people think she’s the culinary antichrist.

It seems self-proclaimed foodies, gourmands, and chef-razzi take issue with the notion that Ray isn’t a real chef and that she’s cute and perky. Since when did perkiness become the blight of our society?

So what if her perkiness has a trailer park edge to it? People relate to her.

When the bough breaks

High winds ripped through the neighborhood Friday night knocking down branches and tossing gear adrift.

This hazard to land  navigation sat on Rindge Avenue until a motorist pulled off to the sidewalk.

Alewife Photo by Neil W. McCabe

Losing Interest by James A. Norton

Do your homework

[James A. Norton, the manager of Able Funding in Somerville, has held his real estate license for more than 20 years and his real estate appraiser's license for 13 years.]

When it comes to doing your mortgage homework, school is never out.

If the best thing you can do for yourself is find a mortgage consultant that you are comfortable with, the next best thing is to do your own research as well.  Almost everyone on the planet has a computer and internet access – use it to your advantage – it’s not just for chatting online and updating your MySpace page.

Even the most seasoned and efficient mortgage consultant can be lacking in the explanation department, so it’s up to you to understand some of the crazily named mortgage programs.  A low rate today might mean something completely different in 3 to 5 years.  Sounds almost like a prison sentence and in some ways it is.

One of the latest fads is called a “Hybrid Option ARM.”  Sounds attractive, doesn’t it?  That’s because it is – the starting base rate today would be around 1.75%.

I don’t know about you, but for most people, 1.75% sounds pretty attractive.  If your mortgage consultant is on the ball, then he or she will explain that while this payment might be tempting at probably less than 1/3 the normal payment, it results in what is called “negative amortization.”

This is when the difference in interest between your normal payment and the base payment is tacking onto the principal on the back end.

Yes, you read that right – tacked on as principal on the back end.

Picking up business

The branch manager of the USAlliance Federal Credit Union in Porter Square finishes making her rounds of the parking lot, landscaping and sidewalk for litter this morning.

"Don't you dare use that picture," said Carmen J. Tirado, who has led the branch since its soft opening in August.

The branch is hosting a blue ribbon cutting ceremony Oct. 27, she said.

Alewife Photo by Neil W. McCabe

Closed Verna's cake supply store hit

by Neil W. McCabe

The now closed Verna's Cake Decorating Supplies at 2346 Massachusetts  Ave.   was vandalized today at or around 2 a.m.

A baker at the donut shop heard the crash of glass and looked out to see what had happened, said an employee of Verna's Donut Shop, next door.

When the vandal saw the baker, he ran away, she said.

Developing...

Century Bank on Mass. Ave robbed

by Neil W. McCabe

The North Cambridge branch of Somerville-based Century Bank at 2309 Massachusetts Ave. was robbed Tuesday afternoon by a white male between the ages 17 and 20, said Officer Francis A. Pasquarello, the city's police's information officer.

The man handed the teller a note and the money was turned over, he said. The department's policy is not to release amounts of thefts.

When he left the bank, the thief entered a white car on Shea Road and escaped, he said.

The suspect wore a red hat and had facial acne, he said.  There are security camera photographs of the robber that will be released today.

The FBI bank robbery task force is working with city police and the matter is still under investigation, he said.

Decoding the Deal by Paul Martinez

What you need to do

[Paul Martinez is a real estate consultant at RE/Max Destiny in Cambridge. His Web site CambridgeHomeSales.com offers free real estate information, advice and special reports to buyers and sellers.]

It seems like every week we hear something new—and usually negative—about the real estate market in and around Boston. Sales are down. Inventory is up. Prices are falling. However, not all the news is bad—in fact, I’d like to share a few strategies with you that will help you get the best results in this market.

Paul Martinez

It’s no secret that homes are sitting on the market longer.

Maybe you’ve even had your home listed with an agent and it hasn’t sold—a very frustrating experience. Buyers seem to be sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see if the market will shift again. Meanwhile, you’re left wondering what you can do to get your home sold and move on with your life.

Relax—things are not as bad as they seem! Yes, the market has slowed and prices have dropped from their peak last year. However, it’s important to put this in perspective—we have just come off the biggest run-up in real estate prices in history. In 2004-2005 alone, prices went up 10% or more in certain markets.

So, if you bought your home at least 2 or 3 years ago and have a decent amount of equity built up, you should still be able to sell your house and walk away with money in your pocket. Of course, if you were one of the lucky ones who bought 3 or more years ago, you should have plenty of cash sitting in your home—which means you can either rent the property and create a positive cash flow or sell it outright and pocket the difference.

Love & Fashion by Arpine Babloyan

Lost and Found

We are living in a very big world with billions of people around, and only few of them are people we love and care about.

Sometimes I try to imagine, how many nice people live on the same planet with me, and the only reason we are not friends is that we don’t know each other.

Maybe that’s why, when I get to know someone who becomes my friend, I consider it as a gift, and I’m trying to do my best not to lose this person.

Arpine Babloyan

There are always ties between us and someone we know, but these ties can be torn so easily… We can never tie ourselves to people we don’t want to lose. And that means, we can lose them any time.

Maybe that was the initial purpose of marriage – to tie ourselves to people whom we love and don’t want to lose, no matter what happens? But there is nothing that could be close to marriage with friends. And we lose them. Sometimes we think that we have close friends among people we see often – our classmates, colleagues or neighbors. But when we graduate or change workplace, or move to another town, this friendship dies. It happened to everyone.

Each of us has someone, who was our good and very close friend of ours, and now this someone still lives somewhere – but he’s not around, and you don’t know what’s going on in his life. You still remember him, and this memory is sweet and dear to you – but you lost each other. Personal life, work, leisure take all our time, and it’s very hard to keep ties to people.

Parenteau drops his link to The Alewife site

Terror laureate Chad Parenteau declares he will not fall for our tricks:

I won't comment anymore on this subject. To take McCabe's comments at face value, let alone give them more attention, leads one to believe that he can't be taken seriously either as a critic of poetry or a representative of the world of journalism. I suspect part of the reason behind McCabe's inane arguement, which totally ignores the legitimate, mature arguement he could have used against me (re: my poor treatment of Lo's correspondence, the usual time her articles are uploaded, etc.), is to insprire me to argue and link his site even more. That, aside from my side link, ends now, and I stop playing.

Drawing the curtains by Franklin W. Liu

Luce Women

“The Women” is a most wickedly witty comedy of manners by playwright Clare Boothe Luce; an inquisitive play sampling the curious companionship women offer each other, and on women’s dissimilar treatise on love.

Swirling with impudent gossip, this saucy 1936 satire is now presented with aplomb by The SpeakEasy Stage Company as their 16th season opener at The Boston Center for the Arts.
It is said that Luce (1903-1987) completed this two-Act play’s first draft in just three days; its inspiration came directly after she overheard two women dishing dirt on a wealthy friend’s troubled marriage while in the powder room of the El Morocco Club.

Clare Boothe Luce was subjected to frequent societal gossips herself and her own storied-life was as romantically riotous as the play she wrote. People who follow her career and colorful life have dubbed her, “the Hillary Clinton of her era.”

Traveling the world, working as a war correspondent for Life magazine, she filed stories from China, India, Africa and the Middle East; this immersion in world affairs buoyed her passion for politics. Twice she won the 4th Congressional District seat and served as a two-term Republican from Connecticut (1943-1947,) and starting in 1953 she was U.S. Ambassador to Rome for a period of three years.

In 1977, Gore Vidal wrote, “After Eleanor Roosevelt, Clare Boothe Luce was easily the most hated woman of her time,” because “she was too beautiful, too successful in the theatre, in politics and in marriage.” Her envied success was remarkable considering she was an illegitimate child born into poverty.

Luce’s first marriage at 20 was to an alcoholic, wealthy clothing merchant who was 24 years older than her. In divorce, she declared in a letter to her mother, “I’m not living my life for anybody but myself from now on.”

Harvard Crimson coverage of Sept. 28 debate

Read the Harvard Crimson's article on the paper's Sept. 28 Candidates' Night.

Tails out of school

We were pleased to hear from a number of readers of the paper that Lesley University has replaced the American Flag above the Porter Exchange building. Our photo of the torn flag that we put on the Web site got hits from all over the world. Glad to see this item is old news.

Word is the neighborhood’s Jimmy Gondolphe, who for two weeks was a candidate for the 24th Middlesex District before he endorsed Brownsberger, will be joining John Buonomo’s team as an assistant register of probate. Buonomo must have done quite a sales job for Gondolphe to leave his sweet office on Beacon Hill, where he has worked for Senate President Travaglini for the last nine years. Good Luck, Jimmy.

Well, another order got liquid. The Franciscans sold their house at 14 Lancaster Ave. for $1.4 million--and it wasn’t to Lesley!

Verna’s Cake Decorating Supplies is closing soon. If you hurry you can pick up so cool items as they clear the shelves and clean up. Through the window, one of us saw some mixed-gender wedding cake dolls, now useless relics.

Cambridge Ideas by Robert Winters

The Evolution of a Cambridge Idea

Cambridge was settled as a town in 1630 and incorporated as a city in 1846. The Plan E charter of today is basically the same as that adopted in the 1940 election. Civic activists today tend to focus on downzoning, commercial and university encroachment, affordable housing, and open space, but during the span from 1969 to 1994, the defining issue was rent control, and it determined the us-against-them lines that dominated Cambridge politics for 25 years.

A hundred years earlier, another defining issue dominated, namely the "no license" law prohibiting saloons and the sale of alcoholic beverages in Cambridge. This was one facet of what was at the time known as "The Cambridge Idea," a socio-political movement with roots going back to the 1880s that found its name in the early 1890s. Other facets of "The Cambridge Idea" were non-partisanship in local government and a focus on local, rather than national, issues. An excellent exposition by one of its greatest proponents, Rev. David Nelson Beach, may be found in "The Cambridge of Eighteen Hundred Ninety-Six," a must-have for anyone with a serious interest in Cambridge history. A companion volume "Cambridge - Fifty Years a City," also published in 1896, contains the text of many speeches that shed light on the thinking of the day.

Robert Winters

John Fiske, speaking at the Sanders Theater on June 2, 1896, had this to say:  "Our city government has from the outset been upright, intelligent, and helpful. We are satisfied with it. We do not wish to change it."...."Now to what cause or causes are we to ascribe the contrast between Cambridge and the cities that are so wretchedly governed? The answer is, that in Cambridge we keep city government clear of politics, we do not mix up municipal questions with national questions. If I may repeat what I have said elsewhere, 'since the object of a municipal election is simply to secure an upright and efficient municipal government, to elect a city magistrate because he is a Republican or a Democrat is about as sensible as to elect him because he believes in homeopathy or has a taste for chrysanthemums.'"

Anita L. (Wilson) Crayton passes

Hello Everyone,

My sweet Mom made her final journey to a peaceful place this morning [Oct. 10].  She was able to say good bye to almost everyone and was delighted to see her first Grandchild.

We will be holding a Memorial Service on Wednesday, October 11th from 5-8pm at the Keefe Funeral Home in Cambridge and would love to have you there. The details are below...

http://www.keefefuneralhome.com
Keefe Funeral Home
2175 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-547-5544

--Stephanie (Crayton) Dillon

[This notice was posted to one of our articles, but we felt it needed to put forward.--Editor]

ADAA anounces $10k script contest

by Neil W. McCabe

The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance announced Sept. 6 the inauguration of its annual The Frances Paul Lyons/ Almas Paul Annual Screenwriting & Playwriting Award for a play or screenplay based on Armenian themes, which will include a $10,000 prize for the winner.

The deadline for submissions is May 15 and winner will be honored in the fall of 2007, said Bianca Bagatourian, the spokeswoman for the ADAA.

The ADAA appreciates the generosity of such donors and welcomes the benevolence of future donors, Bagatourian said. "The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance's mission is to make the Armenian voice heard on the world stage through the dramatic arts of theatre and film.  The organization accomplishes this mission by supporting playwrights and screenwriters and provides production opportunities, commissions, scholarships, research tools, networking resources and writing awards."

Cambridge Politics by Sam Seidel

The Brownsberger/Patrick ticket

It's campaign season, and that means it's time to make my own endorsements. Here are a couple of them:

1. I endorse Will Brownsberger for state representative in the 24th Middlesex District.

2. I endorse Deval Patrick for governor.

Brownsberger's thoughtful politics represent his district well, and his well-researched approach to the challenges we face as a community will mean the track record established by retiring representative Anne Paulsen will not disappear from the State House. This is especially important with the advent of the multi-talented Democratic political phenom of 2006, Deval Patrick.

I believe Deval Patrick is going to out-perform Republican Kerry Healy over the next four weeks, and will take the governor's oath in January of next year. Patrick is himself a man of tremendous talent, as his primary campaign demonstrated. Healy must realize this, since she's already chosen the low road of a negative campaign, including the really offensive "pushing polling" being put out by her forces -- designed to sound like a poll, but really geared as a smear tactic against Patrick.

Whoever paid for this poll, whether it's the Healy campaign itself, or some third party supporting her, really shows their stripes by aiming to our most base qualities as human beings, and it's a shame that Kerry Healy has nothing else to offer.

Meanwhile, Patrick, like Brownsberger, speaks the language of progressive Democrats, and understands the frustration and disaffection many rank-and-file Dems feel toward the party poobahs. He has a commitment to re-energizing the party with new ideas -- and his voice will be welcome state-wide. Brownsberger can join Patrick ushering in a new era in the Commonwealth.

Firenze, Brownsberger square off

Paper sponsors 24th Middlesex District Candidates' Night

by David Taber

Neighborhood voters joined campaign volunteers and candidates Sept. 28 for the paper's Candidates' Night for the 24th Middlesex District seat in the state legislature held at the Masonic Hall in Porter Square.

"Both candidates did good preparation and gave good answers. They didn't dodge any questions and there was a good sized crowd," said Baratunde R. Thurston, the political satirist, who moderated the debate between M. Elizabeth Firenza, the Republican, and William N. Brownsberger, the Democrat.

Throughout the evening, Firenze, a former vice president in the information technology department at the State Street Bank, repeatedly said that her experience in the  private sector and her party affiliation would contribute to increased balance on Beacon Hill."More complete and thoughtful decisions can be made when ideas are debated among people with unique and diverse perspectives."

Firenze said 87 percent of the legislature are Democrats, 75 percent are men, and 30 percent are defense attorneys.

Candidates to replace State Rep. Anne Paulsen, D, North Cambridge, M. Elizabeth Firenze, the Republican, and William N. Brownsberger, the Democrat.

Brownsberger, a three-term Belmont Selectman and defense attorney, said that his public service experience and understanding of the issues make him the superior candidate. He has also served as an assistant state attorney general and teaches course on public health law and drug use at Harvard University.

In the hour-long debate, much of the discussion centered on issues important to North Cambridge, including questions to the candidates about their committment to encouraging the state to maintain the public space over which it has stewardship -- including MacCrehan pool, public housing units at Jefferson Park and the pedestrian crossing on Alewife Brook Parkway.

Brownsberger said that the state has allocated $75,000 to improving the crossing of the Alewife Brook Prkway and that he is committed to making sure the money is spent and spent effectively.

He also said he would be a hands-on representative."I will be present on the state's properties in the district on a regular basis looking for issues and seeking out citizens for their feedback."

Parenteau blasts late posting of his profile

Chad Parenteau in his blog Freak Machine Press, criticized The Alewife and its editor, Neil W. McCabe for postponing the posting Lo Galluccio's column in the September edition of the paper, which featured him and his poetry.

Along the way is let on how he feels about the paper:

The fact that the feature was the last thing from the September issue to be posted (first day of October) really gives insight into the mind of the editor, who, it appears to me, is just trying to sell the equivalent of the real estate and personal pamphlets you see on sale in Dunkin Donuts, diners, and convenience stores once in a while. Only, he hedges his bets on making money by taking on local writers, eager to publish, who will do their part to promote the hell out of the paper.

Chad Parenteau

Parenteau relied on a conversation with Galluccio, whom he said told him the reason for the delay was that McCabe felt his poems undermined soldiers fighting overseas.  He wrote:

The initial concern, Lo told me, was that the editor assumed I was "against the soldiers." Whenever I hear anyone bring this up, I always want to ask what soldiers they're referring to. Soldiers like my friend who threw candy to children? The ones who tortured people in Abu Ghraib? The guy who threw a grenade into a tent of his fellow soldiers? The ones coming back and speaking out against the war?

Artist Loft Launch Saturday

by David Taber

Despite construction delays, a North Cambridge based furniture maker will host an open house in Oct. 7 to begin showing the artists lofts he is building in an old factory building on Harvey Street that also houses his woodshop.

"Everyone smirks when I say this, but it is taking longer and costing more than I planned.  Of course who's ever heard of a construction project taking longer or costing more than expected," future landlord Michael O'Shea said.

At one point during a guided tour of the building, he ducked into a small, dark room with unfinished walls and started spinning around.

Michael O'Shea

"The the washer and dryer will be here, the toilet will be here, the sink will be here, and the bathtub will be here.  That's everything you need for a bathroom, I think," he said

The completed project will have seven units, ranging in size from 600 to 1,000 square feet, where artists can live and work - as well as a communal space on the second floor, where residents can exhibit their work and host events, he said.

He is going to encourage his tenants to display their work in the space, which he described as an 'allee', on a regular basis, he said.

Each unit will include one full floor with a full kitchen and bathroom and an open half-floor loft, he said.