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February 18, 2020 | Sitting Down with Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui
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February 12, 2020 | Cambridge Dance in ‘Crisis Mode’
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On Jan. 6, Sumbul Siddiqui was inaugurated as Mayor of Cambridge. She is currently serving her second term as city councilor. A native to the city and graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin, she is devoted to using her position to improve the public school system, increase affordable housing, and make herself accessible to the community. Scout Cambridge sat down with Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui to ask a few questions about her first month as mayor. Link in bio. 📸: City of Cambridge

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"Once I became the editor, I think the way that we collaboratively shaped it was that with me at the helm, it became more devoted to serious journalism," first ever Scout editor-in-chief Ilan Mochari says. "Adam (Vaccarro) and Tom (Nash) were serious reporters. We wrote stories that I think people really liked. They might have even, in retrospect, been too serious. But I think that what was important about what we did was that it showed people that this wasn’t going to be a pennysaver. There were going to be real stories about their communities." Read our full oral history at the link in our bio. 📸: @sashapdro

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This fall, Green Street Studios—a flourishing dance space that served as a hub of creativity in Central Square—closed due to a change in building ownership that caused a massive spike in rent. The closure reflects a growing trend of prohibitive costs affecting the city’s arts spaces. Cambridge rents have doubled since the early 2000s; Green Street Studios opened in the early 1990s. Formerly located at 185 Green St. in Central Square, the studio was a home base for some of Cambridge’s most prolific dance teachers and students for 28 years. Now that the ownership of 185 Green St. has changed hands, the studio space sits vacant and will not be redeveloped as a dance studio. A paradox of the studio’s closure, highlighted in the studio’s online press release, is that the studio was “thriving both financially and artistically.” Link in bio. 📸: @goldenlionphotography

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There’s a small park, colorful three-decker homes, community restaurants, and local and franchise stores on Somerville Avenue, near Central Street. It’s a sparse and quiet area. And in a couple of years, a six-story luxury hotel is expected to squeeze into this environment. The city of Somerville currently has three hotels: La Quinta, Holiday Inn, and the Row Hotel in Assembly Row, which opened in August 2018 and is ranked in the top 100 hotels by Travel + Leisure. Several hotels are in the nearby areas of Cambridge and Boston. But as of late 2019, three hotels have been approved and are in the works, doubling the amount of hotels in the city, according to Thomas Galligani, the director of economic development in the Mayor’s office. Link in bio. 📸: @adriannelacy

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🤯 😋 @corazondefridacantina If these outside-the-box chile rellenos are any indication of the rest of menu, you will find us here often! 🔥 ❤️ 👏🏻

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As skyrocketing real estate prices cause rents to soar, maintaining space for the arts in Somerville is increasingly difficult. Still, arts and recreation thrive in a recently developed non-industrial complex—located in a historically industrial space. Along the abandoned B&M railroad line and within one of Somerville’s oldest industrial neighborhoods lies the Somernova business complex. It occupies several repurposed buildings that previously housed older manufacturing facilities, collectively known as the Ames Business Park. This 300,000-square-foot space once housed the former Ames Safety Envelope company that shuttered in 2010. It now includes several newer Somerville businesses, like Brooklyn Boulders Somerville, Artisan’s Asylum, Aeronaut Brewing Company, and the first Greentown Labs building off Park Street. Link in bio. 📸: @adriannelacy

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Boston College photography professor and longtime Cambridge resident Karl Baden is often better known as “the guy who has taken a photo of himself everyday since 1987.” This project, entitled “Every Day,” has earned Baden a sort-of notoriety in the local photography community; every few years, the media coverage of the work returns in waves. Baden’s most recent project, however, turns the camera around to face his environment. The series, called “Mass Ave, Cambridge,” documents how Cambridge is changing through photos of the iconic street taken over a two-year period. He began the series after a conversation with Lillian Hsu, the director of public art at Cambridge Arts. “Mass. Ave. is this defining route that goes through Cambridge,” Hsu says. “It’s very different depending on where you are. The four miles that it goes through Cambridge are all very different. … From the people coming into our gallery, it’d be hard to find someone who doesn’t really know some aspect of Mass. Ave. if they live or work here.” Link in bio. 📸: @karl_baden

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Thank you to the Somerville Media Center for inviting Scout editor Lilly Milman to participate in an episode of Community Lens! Watch the full video at the link in the bio.

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There are some 81,000 people living in Somerville’s 4.2 square miles of real estate, but there’s really just one you’re going to blame if our trash isn’t picked up or the roads aren’t plowed: the mayor. Since 1872, 35 people have held that office. The current occupant, Mayor Joe Curtatone, is the city’s longest-serving mayor. The incumbent since 2004, he’s serving his eighth term. Gene Brune held the office for a decade, from 1980 to 1990. They each shared some insights on how being mayor has changed over the decades. Link in bio. 📸: City of Somerville, Gene Brune (respectively)

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Mohammad Abo-Sharkh runs the Zaaki Food Truck with his sister-in-law, Samar Abdalelah. By trade, he’s a software engineer, while she’s an experienced cook who graduated valedictorian from culinary school. Abo-Shakh says neither of them knew much about starting a business. But thanks in large part to a program that the city plans to expand in the coming months, Abo-Sharkh and Abdalelah were able to find their bearings and establish what he described as a successful business with close ties to Cambridge. Link in bio. 📸: @sashapdro

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“None of us are getting out of here alive," Somerville resident and discussion leader Alan Bingham says while leading a Death Cafe at the Somerville Public Library. A Death Cafe is a group-directed discussion of death—not a grief support or counseling session—with no specific agenda, objective, or themes, according to the movement’s official website. Bingham, who has now hosted four Death Cafes in the city and has another coming up later this week. Link in bio. 📸: @lilly_milman

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Thank you to all who came out to our celebration of another decade of local media done right last night! Swipe right to hear Scout editor Lilly Milman say a few words about why we are celebrating, and why we need your help. For access to more invite-only Scout events planned throughout the rest of this year, support us on Patreon for as little as $5/month. In addition to invites, you’ll get the magazines delivered right to your door! And shoutout to @grafton02138, @mikespastry, and @aeronautbrewing for donating the refreshments!

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