SomerVision2040 Kickoff

To start off, we used a sticker board (pictures at the end of this page) to ask participants to share information about themselves and help us all think about who was in the room (and who wasn’t!). We learned that about a third of participants worked or went to school in Somerville, and residents who participated were evenly dispersed throughout the city. About a quarter of participants had been living in Somerville for over 21 years while half had been living in Somerville for less than seven years. We also asked participants whether they rented or owned, and had about half of responses in each column–we are happy to have such a strong showing from the renters given that about 66% of housing units in Somerville are occupied by renters. We also asked participants to name their favorite place in Somerville which you can see below.

Next, we heard from George Proakis, the Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development and Major Joseph Curtatone. The Mayor spoke to a need for participants to be bold and creative in their suggestions and even called for help in creating an “abnormal” plan that can push the envelope in envisioning the community participants want to create. Melissa Woods, Senior Planner, then outlined the basic process for updating SomerVision before introducing the main activity for the evening. When we asked for values that were missing from SomerVision, participants suggested transparency, accountability, youth, the environment, and collaboration. We also received feedback about the need for more focused, specific, and clear value statements–something we hope to accomplish in SomerVision 2040.

Each table of participants was asked to consider each of the values in SomerVision and identify ways that the community was achieving these values and ways it was falling short. Following is a summary of what we learned, you can also view the full Kickoff Activity Results.