Archive for May 7th, 2008

I while ago I heard a rumor that there was a border dispute between Cambridge and Somerville. I wasn’t able to get any confirmation, so I put it out of my mind. But now it appears that I might have fallen right into it. I know what you’re thinking. This is just the sort of thing that could happen only to me. Perhaps.

As you may know, I live in Central Square, Cambridge, and work in Davis Square, Somerville. My car is registered and permitted to park in Cambridge. I don’t normally drive to work, but sometimes if I have to drive somewhere after work, it makes sense to drive there and then hop in my car directly after work. So I decided to try and optimize things by finding the point in Cambridge closest to my office in Somerville, and parking there free. It was surprisingly difficult to find an authoritative map of the border, but I eventually dug up this street cleaning zone map on the Cambridge DPW web site.  For what it’s worth, the Somerville web site had zero helpful information.

Based on this, I decided that parking on the East side of Russell street near the corner of Elm would be the optimal location, just inside the Cambridge line, but about as close to Davis square as possible. In the past, I had parked lower down Russell street where both sides are clearly Cambridge. Today I got a spot in front of 44 Russell street, a couple of houses from the corner.

Officer Soares saw it differently.

For $20 I might have sucked it up, but for $40, I decided to stand by my city’s DPW map and look into this. I visited the Cambridge police station near my home and consulted the large map on the wall. It seemed to match the street sweeping map. An officer asked me what I was doing, and I explained the situation. He picked up a phone, called some number and asked, “44 Russell street, is that us or Somerville?” and told me that it was in fact a Cambridge address. He did note that it was possible that the city line existed between the house and the curb, but could not confirm one way or the other. One could argue that the DPW map above shows that, but I assumed it was sloppy illustration.  That’s what happens when you assume, but it still sounds like reasonable doubt to me.

The back of the ticket states, “This violation may also be appealed and adjudicated by mail if supporting documentation is mailed within 21 days of issuance.” I got home and began to assemble my case. I checked a source perhaps even more respected than the police. I searched “44 Russell Street, Cambridge, MA” and got a nice map. Just to make sure, I then tried “44 Russell Street, Somerville, MA” and look what I got:

Very interesting. I think I can say with certainty that #44 is in Cambridge. Now I have to go back to the scene and double check the signs to see if there are any clues to the ownership of the street itself. So far, I haven’t been able to see any “permit parking only” signs that say Cambridge or Somerville on them.

No doubt, this story is to be continued…

I set out on a beautiful spring night with a nearly full moon a week ago Thursday to troll some Newbury street galleries with the Young Members of DeCordova (YMOD) and my frequent museum buddy L.

We began at Gallery NAGA, where the work of John Eric Byers was on view, entitled “Squares and Rectangles.” It turned out this was my favorite work of the evening - sculpture or furniture or painting I’m still not sure, but I really liked the black on black carved paintings, each one a slab of wood with almost regular gridmarks that start to move around the longer you look at them.

Next up, the Chase Gallery featuring Kathryn Frund’s mixed-media paintings and then Lynda Lowe at the Arden Gallery. Frund’s mixed media paintings took cues from Rauschenberg and Johns, resembling landscapes at times, memory pieces at others. My favorites, a series of six-inch square landscapes. Lowe presented multi-panel paintings with combinations of asian-themed still-lifes and scenes of birds and trees, and her gallerist showed us some interesting stuff in the back room — be sure to check Arden gallery soon and again after the shows change.

Next door at Kidder Smith Gallery we saw Melissa Hutton’s Rough Landing, a series of paintings or prints covered with a thick acrylic-like glaze that formed dangerous-looking stalagtites at the bottom of each canvas. The gallery also had a small stash of David Levinthal photos in the back room, I hope they hang them soon.

Across the street at Judi Rotenberg Gallery, new video work by Mary Ellen Strom and Ann Carlson held the crowd in an odd sort of mesmerism as we watched some hay, a cow and a woman in a clear plastic dress half filled with money wander about a gallery space.

The art evening finished up at the Copley Society of Art where the Patrons’ Choice show was on. Called City Escapes, the show featured the work of many member artists and their takes on various kinds of getaways. The work was too diverse to even start to describe here. If you go, don’t miss the downstairs gallery, too. Even more packed than upstairs, with some real gems.

Stay tuned for more tales of art-peeping. Spring is here, so get out there while the walking is good and see some art!