r/Somerville

Huzzah! More, please.

"The city tries to prevent deadly crashes on its roads by intentionally making it harder to drive on them, turning side streets into comfortable routes for people who aren’t traveling by car, and cutting down on the risk posed by too many cars going too fast."

"The city has been getting results: It has not had a single traffic death in four years,"

Hello all! I am one of the people affected by the Teele Square fire, and I thought it would be helpful (if allowed) to have a thread for those of us that have been affected to share resources and information, and for those who have resources to share and post about them.

At the moment, the city has neither released the building for the recovery of items nor contacted us about the fund for displaced residents. We have not been allowed back into the building (at least on the more damaged half). This crisis is far from over for most of us.

Today unlocked a new achievement in boldly entitled and bad behavior around double parking and stopping in the middle of traffic.

I was following two cars in a rotary when the lead car put on their flashers and slammed on the brakes. They just stopped in the middle of an active rotary with cars backed up behind them.

It was a ride share driver picking up a passenger! They blocked traffic until a woman eventually arrived, fought her way into the rotary on foot and entered the back seat.

Whenever I've gotten a craving for no frills Tex-Mex food, El Potro in Union has pretty much always been my go-to. The last time I went I was surprised to see that the once complimentary chips and salsa were now $6.

I know it's a silly thing and $6 isn't some crazy amount of money (well, maybe it kind of is for chips and salsa that used to be free) but the free chips and salsa always felt like a nice bonus when choosing to go to El Potro, and now that's gone. It's just a psychological thing but I would have much preferred to spend a small percentage more on everything else on the menu to cover the cost.

Are there any decent Meixcan places in the area that still have complimentary chips and salsa?

So, I pulled into one of the two spots dedicated to the ChargePoint charging station, hoping against hope that it would work because it seemingly never does. I wasn’t disappointed. It didn’t work. I called ChargePoint and they confirmed that the charger has been down since June 2025. That’s not a typo—2025. I asked if ChargePoint intended to get around to fixing it. Apparently, they need the permission of the property owner to fix it, and I was told they’ve attempted several times to contact the property owner and have not received a reply. For 17 months.

“The Mix at Porter Square”—formerly known as The Porter Square Shopping Center—was purchased by TA Realty, a Boston-based real estate investment firm, in May 2022 for $390 million. (Tell your friends that you’re headed to “The Mix” and see what kind of quizzical look you get.) TA Realty has “managed, acquired, or invested” $44 billion in real estate since 1982. That, too, was not a typo. That was billion with a “b”. You’ll remember that one of the first things that TA Realty did was to remove the solar panels that had been there for forever. TA Realty does have a Director of ESG, so they at least give a nod to sustainability. Not going to name him here, because that would be a crappy thing to do.

“The Mix” is managed by Wilder, a real estate management firm. Wilder has a contact for Porter Square on their web site—not going to post it here either, but it’s easily found.

If you’re inclined to ask about why no one cares to work with ChargePoint to fix the EV charger at “The Mix” (I wince every time I write it) then reach out to TA Realty’s ESG Director and/or the Wilder contact. And while you’re at it, ask them why they removed and did not replace the solar panels.

Attention must be paid by our corporate overlords.