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T HE T UFTS DAILY VOLUME LXXXIV, ISSUE 5
Thursday, October 6, 2022
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
LOCAL
Families face eviction from property near GLX
by Daniel Vos
Assistant News Editor
Five families in Somerville are facing eviction and potential displacement after their home was acquired by landlords seeking to raise rents on a property close to the Green Line Extension. The 182–184 Tremont Street home currently houses primarily Salvadoran and Haitian families, some of whom have lived there for more than 25 years. On Sept. 25, the Community Action Agency of Somerville organized a rally to support the tenants who are negotiating with the new owners, the Cambridge-based company BBD Holdings LLC, to avoid losing their homes. Many of the residents are “tenants at will,” meaning owners can end their
tenancy at any time with 30 days notice. Because Massachusetts lacks rent-control protections, the new owners would be able to raise rents from $1,200 per month to $2,000 per month over the course of one year. Camila Gutierrez Plata, a community organizer for CAAS, says the families initially did not know who the owners were and received warnings from strangers that the property would be torn down. “Their tactic is to buy the building, increase the rent by an unpayable amount for the current tenants, … fix it up a little bit and then charge really high rents, or totally tear down the building and build either condos or luxury housing, and that is what is see EVICTION, page 2
NATALIE BROWNSELL / THE TUFTS DAILY
A row of Somerville houses is pictured on Oct. 5.
LOCAL
LOCAL
Somerville city councilors introduce resolution to end Cuba blockade
City of Somerville announces Pollinator Action Plan
by Ava Autry
by Coco Arcand
Assistant News Editor
Somerville City Councilor At-Large Willie Burnley Jr. introduced a resolution on Sept. 22 that calls upon President Biden to remove Cuba from the State Sponsor of Terrorism List and pressure Congress to end the “failed policy of regime change.” Similar resolutions have been introduced by Cambridge, Boston and the town of Brookline in the past year. Cuba is the subject of a U.S. embargo that has persisted since the Cold War. This blockade has made economic growth, cultural exchange, travel and immigration extremely difficult between the two countries in decades since. Cuba has faced debilitating poverty since the Cold War, which Associate Professor of Political Science Consuelo Cruz, who specializes in Latin American and comparative politics at Tufts, says reflects the embargo’s severe repercussions. Cruz also connected the summer 2021 protests in Cuba to the longstanding blockade.
“You got to see how impoverished the Cuban population is,” Cruz said. “Not only were they met with horrible repression and really beaten back and forced into place, but you also got to see how they live. They barely survived. There is malnourishment, there is scarcity and … it’s a very dire way to live. … The blame for this should not be placed at the feet of the U.S. government’s policy, but the policy doesn’t help.” Burnley Jr. witnessed this poverty firsthand on his delegation trip to Cuba with the nonprofit Witness For Peace, which inspired him to introduce this resolution. “The premise of the trip was going to learn about the Cuban systems — health care, education systems — and to learn about how policy happens in Cuba,” Burnley Jr. said. “[We] really saw up close and personal, the impacts of the blockade on all of those systems as well as on people’s daily lives … Every day had some small or large reminder of the U.S. impacts on Cuba.” Somerville Ward 3 City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen,
who co-sponsored the resolution, explained that its goal was to join other municipalities in moving towards the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations. “Our goal here was to join with dozens of cities around the country that are voicing our support for ending the embargo and for facilitating a real relationship between the United States and Cuba,” Ewen-Campen said. “I think the goal of resolutions like this is to contribute to a kind of national conversation. … I think it’s important to try to specifically do it strategically with other cities, at a time when we feel like large decisions are being made and when there is momentum.” Lifting the Cuban embargo could have important repercussions in the cities of Somerville and Boston as well as the country more broadly. Burnley Jr. noted the potential for collaboration opportunities with Cuba in the area’s burgeoning biotechnology industry. He also mentioned that a loosening of restrictions see CUBA, page 7
News Editor
The City of Somerville announced that they will establish an advisory committee to create a Pollinator Action Plan. The plan aims to protect pollinator species and preserve the health of the local urban ecosystem. The Somerville Pollinator Action Plan comes as a response to a decrease in pollinator populations throughout New England
and worldwide, resulting from pesticide use, habitat loss and climate change. The SPAP will be the first of its kind to be put into effect in a city as densely populated as Somerville. Cortney Kirk, a senior planner in the Somerville Public Space and Urban Forestry Division, touched upon the issues this plan will address in an email to the Daily. see POLLINATOR, page 7
DAVID KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY
A bee pollinates a flower at a Tufts Pollinator Initiative garden in front of Tisch Library on Oct. 3.
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