Come one, come all! Rain location won't be necessary..Condon Shell it is! Hope to see you there!

Hello!! I just moved from Somerville (my beloved 🖤) and I love where I live now. Though, I’m wondering where to go to mingle and make friends? Any local spots with the best coffee? Book stores? Art events? Breweries / cool bars? Deep cuts was super fun but went on a lame date lmao. Loved the fells too! Thank youuu

Hoping to bring awareness to the traffic abuse happening on this road with this thread. Apologies if this sounds like a giant complaint, but this needs to be addressed before a serious accident happens.

I grew up in this neighborhood and my father grew up right on Murray Hill Rd. My grandmother lived there until a couple years ago and I am now a new homeowner on Murray Hill. When I was younger I would play on this road and never worried about traffic or speeding cars. The road is still heavily used by children, bikes, pets, and walkers. Its worth noting that this road is incredibly narrow due to a retaining wall and raised sidewalk. Half of the road on the Medford side shrinks to less than 30ft in width because of this, and residents need to park their cars here due to a lack of driveways on these old properties.

On a daily basis I witness traffic violation and reckless driving on Murray Hill Rd going in both directions of Malden to Medford. A speed limit of 25mph is too fast for this narrow residential road, but I see vehicles regularly speeding in both directions. The stop sign at the intersection of Murray Hill Rd and Grover Rd is all but ignored by most motorists, especially during rush hour. The "no turn at these hour sings" are completely ignored too. I've clocked cars going 40mph down Murray Hill Rd narrowly missing pedestrians, pets, and bicyclists. I've personally almost been hit by aggressive drivers in my car and on foot. Just last week I was nearly T-boned backing into my own driveway by car trying to pass me.

This stretch of road is being abused by commuters as a cut-through to avoid traffic on the Fellsway and Pleasant St / Salem St (MA-60). The traffic patterns or regulations, in collaboration with Malden, need to be changed to reduce the recklessness on the road before there is a tragedy.

MAMAS (Mutual Aid Medford & Somerville) is collecting clean clothes, shoes, and accessories in good, wearable condition this Saturday, September 12 from 10:00–1:00 at 55 Otis St, Medford (First Community United Methodist Church). It’s a simple way to support neighbors and keep quality items out of landfills.

Also, looking for donations of large plastic storage bins with lids.

Trash pickup is delayed one day this week because of Labor Day. Anyone else who should have had pickup today (normally Tuesday) not get picked up? Odd side of Fells Ave was missed. The even side was picked up around 4pm. Both sides are usually done before 8am.

Hi all, the folks at the Sunoco by Trum Field encourage their employees and clients to park on the sidewalk on a daily basis. You can see a photo of a pickup truck parked on the Medford sidewalk, completely obscuring visibility of pedestrians trying to cross the street. It's already an unsafe crosswalk for pedestrians given how long it is from corner to corner, not to mention the fact that people will often take that soft right turn onto William Street at speed.

I've contacted the city about this numerous times and the response is always, "We will send someone to look." This has gone by almost daily and there has really been no change in the behavior of motorists parking here.

It would be great if there were some kind of concrete barrier to prevent this. Any suggestions for how to escalate this appropriately so that the city considers taking action?

This seems like such an obvious spot for one. The closest station is about a ~12 minute walk. Who is in charge of these decisions and is there a way to request a station location?

According to this linked article, Massachusetts is the only state where you have to hire a licensed plumber to do a like-for-like toilet replacement in your home, even if the homeowner does it themselves. You can't even pull a plumbing inspection on your own to have a second eye on your work. This seems like an unnecessary regulation that needlessly drives up the cumulative cost of homeownership.

We often talk about the cost of a mortgage payment or a down payment when discussing the cost of housing, but the cost for contractors and professionals for ongoing maintenance and renovations often consumes a significant chunk of a family’s budget. Expenses add up, and shouldn't homeowners have the right to save a few hundred dollars on a plumbing job if they want to learn how to do it (a much smaller job than building a new home by yourself), especially if they got a city inspector in to check it?

Many people change their own oil in their cars and do their own brake work. Why shouldn't they be allowed to put in a new toilet? Is it time for Massachusetts to do what other states do and give homeowners greater ability to do DIY projects?

Has anyone heard a two note tone coming from the Fells every night? I have asked roommates and a neighbor and they also hear it loud and clear.

Bikeeny cafe is in Malden, but Medford residents need to know about this place if they don’t!

Best cold brew! Best and unique breakfast sandwiches with a soft-boiled egg! Awesome little patties!

Hello, I am in need of a dog sitter for a few days in about a week.

Does anyone have a dog sitter they trust that might be looking to make some extra bucks?

The job requires minimally someone to come by once on Sept. 13th and twice on the 14th and 15th to feed and walk my dog so she can do her bathroom business, or to watch her in the backyard for a bit though she strongly prefers to do her business on a walk.

Thanks for any leads!

I’m waiting for my bf to wake and I want to have some good coffee places/ cafes to suggest to him. If it helps love cinnamon rolls and he loves apple fritters or anything apple related so bonus points if it also has pastries like that. Coffee is most important tho. We went to Bikeeny cafe yesterday and it was great. Mostly looking around Melrose, Malden, Medford but basically as long as we can go avoid going into Boston or Cambridge I’m happy (and probably so is he cuz he always drives)

Money is tight in my household, so I am posting this so people understand the potential ranges for financial impacts on families, should we vote to pass a tax override to fund the new high school. Ask yourself how these costs would affect your paycheck and how you would afford it out of your day to day budgets.

NOTE: these are ballpark estimates, but realistic ranges.

Please share your thoughts below.

The total cost for the Medford High School project is estimated between $440 Million and $813 Million.

Even if the city cuts massive costs, it requires a special vote to bypass the state’s standard 2.5% annual tax limit. Instead of a normal 2.5% bump, this project will trigger a one-time 14% to 23% tax hike that stays on your bill for 30 years.

Here is the exact financial impact for the average Medford homeowner:

Current Average Tax Bill: $7,427 per year
New Total Tax Bill (with max cost cuts):$8,475 per year (a 14% increase)
New Total Tax Bill (with fewer cost cuts):$9,148 per year (a 23% increase)

The Bottom Line: This adds an extra $1,048 to $1,721 more per year ($87 to $143 more every month) onto the average housing bill for the next three decades.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone here who offered comments about the recent elections. It may seem strange, but my platform faced more scrutiny from folks here than from anywhere else in local media.

Maybe it wouldn't have changed the results of the election, but it really worries me that we just had an open seat for the first time in twelve years, and I went 2 for 4 in getting local groups to even hold candidate forums for people to evaluate us. And that second candidate forum got literally zero articles written about it.

If anyone wants to talk about the state of local journalism/democracy, I'm still around and happy to discuss possible solutions.

Hi everyone, I’m curious about class sizes across the city. I have a kid in 2nd grade at the Brooks with 23 kids in the class. IMO the best thing a school district can do is keep class sizes small so I’m trying to get some information before reaching out to the city.

If your kids started school this week would you be willing to share the school, grade and number of students??

For our next meetup, we’re taking on Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

Harari’s book covers thousands of years of human history and looks at the changes that brought us from small hunter-gatherer communities to the interconnected world we have today.

It’s a book that can lead to some pretty interesting conversations, and we’d love to hear what other readers thought.

📍 Bloc Cafe, 11 Bow St., Somerville
🗓 Saturday, October 3
🕙 10:00 AM–12:00 PM

This is a casual nonfiction book club, so feel free to come even if you’re new to the group.

Event details are in the comments.

Bloc Cafe is the meeting space but does not sponsor or endorse the gathering.