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
By bostnkid
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 10:17am
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
By Ron Newman
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 10:25am
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
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 11:18am
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
By NotWhitey
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 11:52am
Wursthaus, Discount Records...
There was an even bigger, better record store.....
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 12:03pm
... 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
By anon
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 1:24pm
There was a Strawberries a few doors down which, in the 1970s, was a decent place.
Not Strawberries
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 2:48pm
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?
By Suldog
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 3:37pm
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
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 3:51pm
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
By NotWhitey
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 4:16pm
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
By dga
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 4:12pm
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
By RhoninFire
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 6:33pm
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
By Tricky
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 10:18am
"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
By Eighthman
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 10:38am
So is it going to become a three-way with Natick now?
Oh no he didn't!
By LifeStar
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 11:07am
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...
By Suldog
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 11:37am
... bring your own falafel. We usually share, but this is war!
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Belmont? Don't take it the
By RhoninFire
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 6:31pm
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
By FlyingToaster
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 7:49pm
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?
By Ron Newman
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 10:01pm
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
By Suldog
Fri, 04/15/2011 - 8:38am
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
By Ron Newman
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 10:03pm
The [url=http://studiocinema.com]Studio Cinema[/url] on Trapelo Road near Waverley Square. I don't know how they stay in business, but they do.
What Belmont has
By Kaz
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 11:12pm
Craft Beer Cellar.
Seriously, it's pretty good and the owners are incredible.
Chicken Express
By Suldog
Fri, 04/15/2011 - 8:43am
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
By benos
Fri, 04/15/2011 - 11:43am
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
By TerrierBill
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 11:45am
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
By anon
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 12:37pm
I didn't know that Liberals could get so feisty!
Golden Arches
By Harvard Sq.
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 12:53pm
Hey Davis, who you callin' a "mall"?!
At least I don't have a McDonalds or a Dollar Store!
SERVED!
HQ
but...
By Jimmy
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 2:22pm
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
By Manny
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 3:39pm
The.Gap.
Cambridge shouldn't mess ...
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 12:53pm
... 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
By spenser
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 12:57pm
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
By anon
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 1:25pm
Maybe Mayor Curtatone forgot it but remember when Utne Reader called Davis Square the "Paris of the 90s"?
Not Utne
By Ron Newman
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 1:49pm
Their article [url=http://www.utne.com/1997-11-01/hip-hot-spots.aspx?... used those words[/url] though everyone now seems to misremember that they did.
Both of the following
By anon
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 2:14pm
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...
By bandit
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 6:00pm
... 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
By anon above
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 7:54pm
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
By Tricky
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 9:13pm
I probably still have the print issue down in my basement, if you guys can point me to an issue date...
November, 1997.
By adamg
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 9:42pm
November, 1997.
Jonathan Franzen
By Ron Newman
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 1:37pm
Much of his novel Strong Motion is set in Somerville, and quite accurately, too.
Cambridge doesn't do enough
By anon
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 2:01pm
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
By amanda
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 4:16pm
"Somerville, we're more doable!"
Not fair to compare the heart
By anon
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 5:02pm
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
By adamg
Thu, 04/14/2011 - 11:03pm
@Somerbridge (no doubt because @camberville was already taken, no doubt).
Second Coming Records
By Spork
Fri, 04/15/2011 - 2:22pm
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
By anon above
Sat, 04/16/2011 - 8:04am
It was a good one but it's been gone a long, long while.