Mayor Ballantyne prioritizes environmental sustainability and climate change in 100-Day Progress For All Agenda
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City of Somerville's 2022 Virtual Inauguration Ceremony
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In her inaugural address on January 3, Mayor Ballantyne discussed the importance of addressing climate change. "We face unprecedented pressures to act boldly and swiftly on climate change. And my administration will get straight to work on environmental sustainability and climate change initiatives."
Soon after, Mayor Ballantyne released the 100-Day Progress for All Agenda. The agenda identifies environmental sustainability and climate change as a key area and includes the following actions:
- Raise our carbon-reduction goalposts to target a Net-Zero Carbon-Negative Somerville by 2050.
- Set a path for creating quality “Privately Owned Public Space” (POPS) in Somerville.
- Increase equity and access within the Blue Bikes bike-share system.
- Establish Mayor Ballantyne’s Climate Justice Summer Youth Jobs Program.
- Set a goal to create the most ecologically restorative City landscape in the region.
While many priorities such as climate change, housing, and racial and social justice will require long-term work, Mayor Ballantyne’s 100-Day Progress for All Agenda is designed to make quick, meaningful, and actionable progress on the greatest challenges and most urgent needs facing community members.
You may watch and read the inaugural address here, and view the complete 100-Day Progress for All Agenda here.
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Somerville Recognized as One of 95 Global Climate-Action Leaders on CDP 2021 A List
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Somerville has been recognized as a global leader in climate action by environmental-impact nonprofit CDP. Somerville is one of 95 cities to make the 2021 CDP Cities A List, scoring top marks for its ambitious, transparent work to address climate change.
Designed to encourage and support municipalities to ramp up their climate action, the Cities A List is an annual rating based on environmental data provided by participating cities. To make the A List, a city must publicly disclose a citywide emissions inventory, have set an emissions reduction target and a renewable energy target for the future, and have published a climate action plan. It must also complete a climate risk and vulnerability assessment and have a climate adaptation plan to demonstrate how it will tackle climate hazards. Of the cities scored by CDP in 2021, 9.8% made the A List.
The City of Somerville works to exceed these benchmarks, prioritizing bold, innovative policies and actions that will advance the urgent work of mitigating carbon emissions, building climate resilience, and alleviating the unequal burdens of climate change.
You may read the full press release here and check out an article from the Tufts Daily by Ella Kamm here.
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Tell us how Somerville should spend federal funds through a brief survey
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Somerville is preparing to invest more than $77 million dollars in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Ensuring an equitable and prosperous recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is the City’s top priority. To do that - we need your help!
The ARPA survey (linked here) is intended to gather input from the Somerville community about priorities on how to spend ARPA funds. The survey is now available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian-Creole.
This survey will ask you some questions about what your priorities are for spending the City’s ARPA investment. You will also have the opportunity to review relevant background information about the project and about ARPA. Your answers to this survey will help the City identify community priorities for spending. We will also keep your answers to this survey anonymous and will not collect any personal information unless you provide it voluntarily.
To stay up-to-date about the project please visit the project website:
www.somervillema.gov/ARPA. If you have any questions, please reach out to Erica Satin-Hernandez, ARPA Specialist, at eshernandez@somervillema.gov.
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Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is seeking participants for the Triple Decker Retrofit Pilot
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The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) is seeking 10 affordable housing triple deckers to participate in the Triple Decker Retrofit Pilot, building on the lessons learned from our Triple Decker Design Challenge. This new pilot will offer technical support, incremental financial incentives, and performance monitoring to implement high-efficiency, all-electric retrofits of triple deckers. This is a great opportunity to get the technical support and financial assistance to bring your triple decker into the 21st century.
MassCEC is evaluating applicants on a rolling basis as long as funding remains. The first funding review deadline is March 4, 2022 at 5:00 PM. MassCEC will have an informational webinar about the pilot on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 2 PM. You may click here to register. If you might be interested, please reach out with any and all questions to buildings@masscec.com.
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Join the Resilient Mystic Collaborative for the Lower Mystic Regional Climate Assessment Webinar
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The Resilient Mystic Collaborative was founded in 2018 with Somerville as a founding member. Today, the RMC includes 20 communities covering 98% of the watershed and has raised over $5 million for regional climate resilience projects.
In February 2020, the City of Somerville, along with Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Revere, Winthrop, and the Mystic River Watershed Association, were awarded a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Action Grant to conduct a regional vulnerability assessment. The assessment identifies impacts to infrastructure caused by extreme weather events.
Members of the public are invited to learn more about the assessment through a webinar from the Resilient Mystic Collaborative on Tuesday, February 15 from 6-7 PM. The webinar will be in English with Spanish translation and other languages upon advance request through the registration. You may register for the webinar here.
This work supports two priority actions of Somerville Climate Forward. The first is to form a regional coalition in the Mystic River watershed and the second is to assess potential interventions for flooding.
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Announcements and upcoming events
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Happy New Year!
Christine Blais, Acting Director, Office of Sustainability and Environment
www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville
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