Notes from March 26 Davis Square stakeholders meeting

[Christopher Beland]

This document is also posted in the City Projects folder on our Google Drive.

Davis Square stakeholders meeting

City Council chambers, Somerville city hall

March 26, 2026 

(consolidated notes from Chris Beland and Elaine Almquist)

The main speakers from Somerville city government were:

• Jake Wilson, Mayor
• Shumeane Benford, Police Chief
• Luisa Oliveira, Director of Public Space and Urban Forestry (PSUF)
• Dan Bartman, Director of Planning, Preservation, and Zoning (PPZ)

PPZ and PSUF are both divisions of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development; OSPCD Director Tom Galligani also attended.

Main announcements:

• The city is looking to "meet the moment" of warming weather with regard to public safety concerns in Davis Square from previous years
• The city and the MBTA are in the final stages of negotiating hours during which Statue Park and Seven Hills Park would be closed, and how this would be enforced. (MBTA owns the land except for a small sliver near Meacham Road and Buena Vista.)
• Somerville Police are working on reorganizing around community policing; the mayor wants foot or bike patrols during day and evening in Davis, Union, and Assembly Squares, and on East Broadway. This contrasts with in-car patrols in other parts of the city and at other times.
• The city will be putting seating in the former slip lane in front of Mike's, and there's a community-led Buskerville initiative to make various places like this and Statue Park bookable online by performers.
• Davis Square Neighborhood Plan update: 6 of 11 city planning positions have been vacant; a new deputy PPZ director was hired earlier in March, and two more planners have offers of employment and should be starting in April. Community meetings are expected in May, possibly starting with targeted conversations before moving to big public gatherings. Expect to be finished by fall 2026, but that depends on public feedback.
• Mayor Wilson described his model of addressing unhoused people and drug use as the "housing-first" model, which has been more difficult, since Trump has cut funding for permanent supportive housing.

Regarding on-demand police response, the Chief said:

• We'll have an enhanced, affirmative, balanced police response, focused on anti-social behavior; SPD is still committed to wraparound services.
• Call 911 if you feel unsafe.
• Call 911 if you see public drug use or public drinking. Police will respond, even if they won't be there in time to see the actual act of consumption.

The mayor believes we can't arrest our way out of this problem, and a diversion program that provides drug addiction treatment services instead of jail will substantially improve the situation. The judge at the Somerville District Court is not a fan of diversion and the city is working to convince them to embrace an "evidence-based approach". The mayor may reach out to the Lieutenant Governor (who handles municipal relations) to apply pressure from the state.

There were concerns from local business or property owners that the curfew would be ineffective.

Hannah O'Halloran from the Somerville Homeless Coalition pointed out that much of the problem behavior happens during the daytime, and the curfew may push people into residential neighborhoods (as happened a few years ago). The mayor agreed that daytime behavior needed to be addressed by the police and sometimes we need to have conversations about norms instead of making arrests.

On pro-active policing, the Mayor and Chief said:

• Police will be doing walk-and-talks and engaging with business
• Officers are eager to sign up for community policing, but understaffing and the need to respond to existing 911 call volume is hindering progress.
• SPD currently has budgeted for 88 patrol officers. They currently have 78 employees and 10 vacancies; ten people were recruited to fill those positions, but seven dropped out or weren't advanced. It can take 9-12 months to do vetting and police academy training, followed by 3 months on-the-job training before officers can do community policing patrols on their own. Officers who transfer from other Massachusetts police agencies don't need to go to the academy.
• Other police departments are having similar problems; Boston wanted to graduate a class of ~200 and got ~150.
• A captain has been promoted to head of Community Relations, will build out community policing team there. At first, patrols will be drawn from city-wide staff, but eventually they hope to have the same people assigned to Davis all the time so they can get to know the neighborhood.

On activation, from Director Oliveira:

• Currently negotiating with the MBTA for permits in Statue Park for music and other positive community events
• Hope to have activations go live by end of summer 2026
• City will use "tactical urbanism" techniques like seating, planters, and paint.
• Hoping to make the former slip lane bookable for social events, busking, and maybe have library events there and people just going to eating lunch
• Department of Public Works will maintain the enhancements, and the city is going to redo the locations of trash barrels.
• Reactivating vacant storefronts with art is starting with the Copper Mill site. (Louisa from DSNC is coordinating and gave an update.)
• She specifically noted that increased foot traffic and positive community programming dissuades bad behavior

The mayor mentioned the city hired a new DPW Commissioner, Eric Weisman, and they hope to do more frequent cleanups, and are working with Health and Human Services on sharps cleanups.

A local property owner expressed concern that the curfew and activations won't prevent drug use, fighting, and break-ins.

Another participant expressed concern that Somerville has a relatively low number of police compared to Boston and Medford. They were skeptical problems of homelessness and drug use would be solved by art and police and a better judge, and said building the Copper Mill tower would help solve the problem of low foot traffic.

The mayor cited the closure of the Long Island treatment facility and people getting pushed out of Cambridge as factors, and expressed optimism that diversion would help here as it does in Cambridge. He expressed concern that the Trump Administration was cutting funding for permanent supportive housing, but celebrated that housing was recently found for the person who had been camping in Statue Park.

On the neighborhood plan from Director Bartman:

• Progress on neighborhood plans was historically delayed by staff getting pulled to work on specific site project applications from developers.
• PPZ hired a new Deputy Director, Fiona
• They are also hiring two new Senior Planners who will post an overall project timeline so the public knows where we are in the process (some people have historically refused to participate without this).
• The two new staffers (hired away from long-term planning consulting firms) will be co-managers of the Davis Square Neighborhood Plan process and recruit help internally from other OSPCD divisions.
• Proposed zoning code changes will accompany delivery of the Neighborhood Plan. (These are within the expertise of the new hires.)
• PPZ staff is now located in the TAB building on Holland Street, and they eat lunch in Davis every day.
• Planners will post an overall project timeline so the public knows where we are in the process (some people have historically refused to participate without this).
• PPZ is currently focused on finalizing the scope and schedule of the Neighborhood Plan process. He described the average timeline as about 18 months. Their target is fall, with broad community engagement over the summer.
• They are not starting from scratch, they are going to be relying on some of the previously drafted plans.
• Planners will look at residential-commercial mix, sewer upgrades, pedestrianization, etc.
• This plan can inform local 40B applications, but cannot stop them. We're not restarting the planning process here just because of Copper Mill.
• The plan may have some sketches of what a pedestrianized Elm Street could look like, but would not be a construction-ready document. Implementing Elmway would require there to be a separate detailed planning process, similar to the Union Square Plaza and Streetscape Project. It might look at keeping a bus lane in the pedestrian zone (similar to a pedestrian mall in Minneapolis, because Elm St. carries about 200 busses a day)
• Dan mentioned that an urban planning document can have: illustrative drawings, impact reports, means to address traffic, and ways to manage construction.

Chris from The Goods asked if this group of stakeholders could meet again in 6 weeks. Various city staffers said they were open to continued conversation and feedback.

Brenna Broderick (Community Partnerships Liaison at the city) invited participants to the Davis Square Merchants Association meeting at the Elm Street Taproom on April 6.

After the meeting, Chris, Louisa, and Elaine had a short conversation with Dan Bartman and Fiona (the new Deputy Director) to ensure DSNC will be engaged throughout the process of the new Neighborhood Plan. Director Bartman mentioned he has read the entirety of the DSNC Google Drive (!!) and was very helpful. We discussed hosting an informational session of the DSNC for members to learn more about the Neighborhood Planning process and points of engagement. Elaine also offered a slot on our monthly meeting agenda during the planning process, and to be given updates via email, which Director Bartman sent on March 30.