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Oh, snap: Somerville warns Cambridge it is ON
By adamg on Thu, 04/14/2011 - 10:03am
It's put up or shut up time for Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone, who wonders where Cambridge City Councilor Ken Reeves gets off calling Somerville boring and challenges him to an Interesting Cities slam:
It's really not fair of me to issue this challenge. Cambridge stands no chance. For instance, I remember in my youth when Harvard Square used to be fun and funky. You know, back before it got turned into a mall. Seriously, when did Cambridge become Natick? And when does Harvard Square officially change its name to The Cambridge Collection?
Ed. note: Reeves's comments came at the same meeting where Cambridge officials carped about Boston's complaint apps; maybe next week they can follow up by bitching about Watertown and Belmont.
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Comments
he's right about harvard square
it used to be the coolest place around. all the soul is gone now. where have you gone mary lou lord?
Harvard Square still has some unique things
the Brattle Theatre
the Cambridge Center for Adult Education (Brattle House and Blacksmith House)
Club Passim
the Globe Corner Bookstore
Harvard Book Store
Grolier Poetry Bookstore
Schoenhof's (foreign) Bookstore
Grendel's Den
Cardullo's
As long as these are still here, I wouldn't completely write off Harvard Square. But I do miss WordsWorth, the Tasty, Elsie's deli, Paperback Booksmith, Reading International, Bailey's ice cream, Warburton's bakery, and much else.
You missed one
The Garage is still the funkiest mall-like space out there. I hung out there as a teen, as did my husband when it first opened. I can find my teen there fairly often now, too.
Wursthaus, Discount
Wursthaus, Discount Records...
There was an even bigger, better record store.....
... right down the street from Discount Records (in the 70s) -- but I can't recall its name. And the Harvard Coop had a great record section back then also.
There was a Strawberries a
There was a Strawberries a few doors down which, in the 1970s, was a decent place.
Not Strawberries
This was a large two-floor record store -- I bought lots of stuff there. It was not part of any chain (at least not as late as 1974). It was at least twice as large as Discount Records -- and was usually the cheapest place for most things. I'm thinking it had a name like Minuteman (or some other revolutionary-esque type of name).
New England Music City?
I used to frequent the one in Kenmore Square, back in the day. Might there have been one in Harvard Square as well?
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Minute Man Records
I tried googling Minuteman and Harvard Square -- and my faint recollection turned out to be almost right. Not Minuteman but Minute Man. ;~}
Apparently Strawberries later took over Minute Man's location. (Never was a Straberries fan -- they always seemed pretty hit or miss).
I can't remember now - it's
I can't remember now - it's been too long. I used to go the Harvard sq. to get jazz records during the early 1970s. It was always a visit to the Coop and down to JFK to one of the shops there. It was right when they started re-releasing a lot of classic records from the 50s and early 60s in double LPs. Great days, searching for new releases, finding great classics along the way.
Cafes
Cafe Algiers and Cafe Pamplona are still fun, funky spots. I've only been to each once in the past couple years, but they haven't lost their appeal for me.
Well, if you're going to
Well, if you're going to mention Cafe's. The Boston Tea Stop is one of my favorite places in the whole world.
"I remember in my youth when
"I remember in my youth when Harvard Square used to be fun and funky. You know, back before it got turned into a mall."
Bring it.
Uh oh
So is it going to become a three-way with Natick now?
Oh no he didn't!
I'd love to see a 6-way with Cambridge, Somerville, Natick, Allston, Watertown, and Belmont! I bet Allston would mess them all up and tag their walls too.
If Watertown Is Involved...
... bring your own falafel. We usually share, but this is war!
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Belmont? Don't take it the
Belmont? Don't take it the wrong way, but what does Belmont have. It's a really nice town and I know a few people from who went to their high school, but I never heard of anything that would put Belmont in the same category of the other 5.
Belmont Center has Ranc's
Which, frankly, beats his brother at Toscanini's all to hell.
(Yes, both ice cream makers are Rancatores.)
When did they move to Belmont Center?
I see from their web site that they are now on Leonard Street in the center of town, but I remember them being on Belmont Street in the "it's almost Watertown" section of Belmont. When did they move?
About A Year Ago
As I recall, Ron, it was about a year ago. We live just a short two or three minute walk from where they used to be. It was a sad day in our lives when we knew we couldn't just walk down the street for some Callebaut Chocolate ice cream, but had to decide to get in the car and drive fifteen minutes if we wanted some that badly.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Belmont has a really old-fashioned single-screen movie theatre
The Studio Cinema on Trapelo Road near Waverley Square. I don't know how they stay in business, but they do.
What Belmont has
Craft Beer Cellar.
Seriously, it's pretty good and the owners are incredible.
Chicken Express
Belmont also has the Chicken Express restaurant, on Belmont Street somewhat near to where Rancatore's used to be. Tremendous rotisserie chicken, perhaps the best I've ever had.
(I can't recommend much concerning sides, as they're fairly pedestrian, but that chicken... Fantastic!)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
I've lived in Belmont a
I've lived in Belmont a combined three years now, and I have noticed a progression towards the town trying to improve its appeal (dry town with no alcohol vendor when I first moved there). More and more is starting to sprout up in Cushing Square and the Center, but yeah, that having been said, it's no Cambridge. I'm glad I live in a part close enough to Harvard Square to jaunt over there whenever I want. That's right; I jaunt.
As someone who's lived in both places
As someone who moved from Davis Square to Cambridgeport I know I should be rooting for my home...but Ken Reeves should've kept his trap shut. We're going to get clobbered.
I didn't know that Liberals
I didn't know that Liberals could get so feisty!
Golden Arches
Hey Davis, who you callin' a "mall"?!
At least I don't have a McDonalds or a Dollar Store!
SERVED!
HQ
but...
Mickey D's and the Dollar Store are only in Davis Square ironically. They are the PBR and fixed-gear bike of the dining and retail industries; they only add to Davis' hip factor.
Enjoy your Au Bon Pain.
Two words
The.Gap.
Cambridge shouldn't mess ...
... with a community named for one of the first known suicide bombers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Somers
It doesn't mention Somerville here, but I read the story in that park on Somerville Ave. that the city constructed where Bay State Lead used to be.
Let's do this Somervillains
We sack Inman Square at midnight.
I'm surprised the mayor didn't mention Somerville's literary credentials -- Claire Messud and James Wood live in Union, and Jonathan Franzen used to live here. And when David Foster Wallace began his descent into the deep depression which sent him to a the halfway house that inspired Infinite Jest, he lived in a dilapidated house in, hells yeah, Somerville.
Maybe Mayor Curtatone forgot
Maybe Mayor Curtatone forgot it but remember when Utne Reader called Davis Square the "Paris of the 90s"?
Not Utne
Their article never used those words though everyone now seems to misremember that they did.
Both of the following
Both of the following statements are testing my memory and could be wrong but 1) I am pretty sure the print edition did have those words because I remember sitting in my friend's apartment in Union Square discussing the article when it came out; and 2) I also remember those words being (facetiously) on the marquee of the Somerville Theater.
it definitely was not in the article...
... i have always remembered it as belonging to the Utne Reader article, too. and i have always assumed, since it's not in the online edition, that it was in some weird sidebar of the print version.
but it's been bugging me.
so i tracked down the original writer of that article, (how many jay walljasper's can there be in the world!?) and i emailed him. figured it couldn't hurt. he just wrote me back with this answer:
many thanks to Jay!
i still don't know where the darn phrase comes from, but it didn't come from him :)
Nice work bandit! And it
Nice work bandit! And it goes to show how faulty my memory can be. I certainly remember using that phrase with my friends in Somerville back in the late 1990s so now I'm stumped.
Paris, Massachusetts
I probably still have the print issue down in my basement, if you guys can point me to an issue date...
November, 1997.
November, 1997.
Jonathan Franzen
Much of his novel Strong Motion is set in Somerville, and quite accurately, too.
Cambridge doesn't do enough
Cambridge doesn't do enough to retain working people who contribute positively to the culture of the town. MIT and Harvard people focus on campus. Most people need affordable housing, not just the poor people who get the 'affordable' (handout) housing. Somerville is more doable than Cambridge.
Somerville slogan
"Somerville, we're more doable!"
Not fair to compare the heart
Not fair to compare the heart of Lambridge (Harvard) to the backwaters of the 'Ville. Davis is so out of character for Somerville. I think the real heart of Somerville lies on Winter hill, where there's nothing but small businesses and long term residents. If you want fun and funky then you should take a long walk on Broadway.
The inevitable Twitter account
@Somerbridge (no doubt because @camberville was already taken, no doubt).
Second Coming Records
Second Coming records was always a favorite of mine. It is (hopefully not was...haven't been out there in a while) just off the Square on Mass Ave in the bottom half of a split-level strip mall.
They had great rare stuff and "most likely not authorized" live recordings.
It was a good one but it's
It was a good one but it's been gone a long, long while.