Assembling Kelly Gay

Somerville mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay rode into office on promises of unity and inclusion. Now, after just three months, a controversial development plan is putting her rhetoric to the test.

Somerville by Ben Geman

Dorothy Kelly Gay may never look back wistfully on her first few weeks in office.

In fact, she says, they really kind of sucked.

"I felt like I was rolled over by a Mack truck," said the 56-year-old mayor from her office in Somerville City Hall recently. "Anything that happens in the next two years will never surpass the first three weeks. It was a nightmare."

Kelly Gay, who is the first female mayor of Somerville, has occupied the post since a special election in mid May, when she took over for temporary mayor Bill Roche. But her real predecessor is Michael Capuano, whose decade-long hold on the office ended when he departed for Congress last year to replace Joe Kennedy. Capuano was effective, but also autocratic and brash -- his pugnacious style led to both accomplishments and divisions in Somerville. In a mostly upbeat campaign punctuated by some nasty attacks on her opponent, Alderman John Buonomo, Kelly Gay promised something different: she pledged to unify the politically combustible city, open up city planning to community input, and set a progressive housing agenda.

She won office on the strength of that high-minded platform -- overcoming criticism about her less-than-spectacular grasp of nuts-and-bolts policy -- and right away was hit by a street-level mess. The city's public-safety building, home to the police and fire departments, was revealed to be suffering from a bad case of "sick building" syndrome. She had to write a new city budget almost immediately. School construction was on a tight schedule at a time when she had yet to bring in a Department of Public Works commissioner.

She didn't even like the feng shui of the office she inherited from Capuano.

But, finally, the storm of problems eased. Kelly Gay cranked out a budget. She replaced the DPW commissioner and brought on other new hires. She even rearranged her office. Despite criticism of the way she handled the transition, she had reached a point where she could look forward -- and do so with intact goodwill from the coalition of political factions she cobbled together to win the election.

As everyone in politics knows, this is where the trouble begins.

It's easier to create a coalition when you're campaigning than it is to keep it together once you start making decisions. And now, as if to illustrate that fact, a controversial new plan to redevelop the Assembly Square Mall has placed difficult decisions before Kelly Gay. At a time when expectations for Somerville are rising, developers looking to the largest and most enticing swath of land in the city have laid out a plan that critics call bad for Somerville. And, of course, the mayor has to respond. It is, in the words of many, the litmus test that will set the tone for her term in office -- and probably sooner than she would have hoped. The honeymoon is ending.

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In contrast to the upscaled Davis Square in West Somerville, East Somerville remains a gritty place that evokes the days before gentrification set in. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the Assembly Square area along the Mystic River. Whereas Davis Square now overflows with lattes and microbrews and bee-pollen smoothies, Assembly Square -- where the Ford Motor Company once assembled the ill-fated Edsel -- is home to a concrete jungle of parking lots wrapped around a dying retail center, flanked by a Home Depot and a strip mall with a bar and a gym, among other businesses.

Many Somerville residents look at the riverside area, tagged by many as the city's "last frontier," and see the potential for development that will enhance the neighborhood, much as the mix of developments in Cambridge's Kendall Square has done. Jim Robertson, a lifetime resident of East Somerville, ticks off his wish list: he envisions restaurants with views of the adjacent Mystic River, a concert pavilion, maybe a public park. "A restaurant on the water would be nice," he says. "We'd have boats pulling up to the dock, casual or dressy dining. We should basically build the area so that people of Somerville benefit."

Robertson is not the only one thinking along these lines. For months, a group called the Mystic View Task Force has been pushing for "mixed use" development along the river area that includes Assembly Square. Members envision office buildings, housing, and open space along the water. (Think of a micro-version of Mayor Thomas Menino's vision of a new South Boston waterfront.) This, too, is a wish list, but it's one they see as benefiting both the city's aesthetics and its bottom line -- members of the Mystic View Task Force and others point out that mixed-use development has the potential to add jobs and money to the city's commercial tax base.

But their picture doesn't quite match the current plan for Assembly Square. Newton-based National Development of New England, in partnership with Boston-based Taurus of New England Investment Corp., is proposing to give the area where the mall is now a new name and a new identity: Riverside Square, a "power center" of massive stores such as Linens 'n' Things, Staples, and Home Depot. Another developer, Steve Samuels of Boston-based Samuels and Associates, plans to locate the first New England branch of Swedish furniture chain Ikea next to the proposed development. Samuels may be the linchpin in the whole deal: he also controls the long-term lease of the dying mall's existing anchor tenant, Kmart, which gives the store huge power over what's built alongside it. The Riverside Square plan would encompass only part of the area, but many say it will set the tone for Assembly Square development for years to come.

Last Wednesday, August 25, National Development and Taurus pitched their plan to about 200 Somerville residents gathered in Assembly Square's food court. It didn't go over well with many of the city residents, activists, and officials in attendance. So-called big-box stores, they argued, employ relatively few people at low wages and add little to the area's urban fabric.

"I hope this is the first step in a participatory process," said John Rossi of the Mystic View Task Force last week, after the developer's presentation. "I hope this is the beginning of the conversation, not the end."

Translation: this is unacceptable.

For the moment, Assembly Square is Somerville's biggest issue, and it has put Dorothy Kelly Gay in the hot seat. Several of her key backers from the mayor's race are staunchly against the Assembly Square plan. That includes Alderman Joe Curtatone, standard-bearer for the city's progressives, who supported Kelly Gay after losing his own bid in the preliminary. "This will be a litmus test," says one Kelly Gay supporter and Somerville political activist. "She built this broad coalition to get elected, which was brilliant, and I admire the hell out of her for doing that. It was brilliant strategy and brilliant for what the city needed, but now comes a time when she will be forced to make decisions that make some people in that broad coalition unhappy."

Says State Representative Pat Jehlen, who is a founding member of the Mystic View Task Force: "I think the challenge for her and the city is to make some big decisions about the long-term future, and that requires some courage and some vision. She says she favors high-end use, and the question is . . . how much she is willing to use the city's power to make that happen."

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Kelly Gay is not thrilled with what National Development is pitching. And in the abstract, she is firm about Somerville development: as Jehlen says, Kelly Gay wants, among other things, to attract higher-end use.

"The city of Somerville will not take anything for granted," she says. "We want the full loaf. We do not want the crumbs anymore."

But in talking specifically about Assembly Square, she moderates her tone. Despite her displeasure with the big-box stores being advanced, she points out her worries that brash steps, such as Alderman Bill White's proposed moratorium on any Assembly Square development, would give the city an anti-business image. In a recent interview she said the current developers' plan is "at odds with what all of us want," but also pointed out that as mayor, "I'm in a different place than the Mystic View Task Force. And while I buy into their concepts . . . I have to look at the financial ramifications of these proposals."

At the Assembly Square meeting last week, she struck a similarly moderate note, saying what politicians always say when they're not ready to come down on one side or the other: she pledged to initiate a dialogue.

"I want to bring all sides to the table," she said. "Nothing is carved in stone. You have to understand that. Things can change."

This moderate approach puts Kelly Gay at odds with those who want the city to regulate development at Assembly Square aggressively, right now, before it's too late. "A sea of parking amid big boxes would be the final blow to that site," says Rossi.

Ironically, the man leading the charge to regulate development has been White, the board of aldermen's lone Republican. In addition to floating the idea of the city-imposed moratorium on development in Assembly Square, he has suggested that the city seize some of the land by eminent domain to gain more leverage.

Rossi, too, would like to see the mayor take a more aggressive approach. His advice? "You put your [expletive] foot down and say stop the presses until we know where the city and this district can go for the next century."

Kelly Gay says she wants to initiate a planning process for the whole Assembly Square area, soliciting participation from developers, state officials, and community groups. Her repeated pledge to bring all parties to the table is worthy, but underwhelming in light of how much momentum the developers have built up behind the concept of Riverside Square. The Wednesday meeting made clear that National Development isn't at the starting point for a "dialogue" on Assembly Square. They have tenants lined up. They know exactly how many parking spaces they'll have when their landscaping is complete. They even have their excuses ready for why they cannot create something else: contaminants at the site render it inappropriate for residential use, they told Wednesday's audience, ignoring the possibility of clean-up. They're ready to roll.

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Kelly Gay's tentative steps on Assembly Square have implications well beyond how many jobs will be created, or how much the city can hope to gain in tax revenues. One thing both sides agree on is that Assembly Square matters to Somerville: the area is indeed a gateway to the city, visible from several major roadways. How it shapes up -- or doesn't -- is a window onto what the city can expect in the future.

Somerville is a city in transition, and Kelly Gay campaigned for the mayor's office pledging that her administration would reflect the city she wanted to govern. The Somerville she envisions is a place where many different cultures mesh, where the city's blue-collar base and its newer, more well-to-do residents are equally well represented. (In a recent interview, Kelly Gay said she felt her office was a place to which housing-project residents and wealthy bank managers should have the same access.) As a progressive, a former nurse, and an Irish immigrant, Kelly Gay has the potential to serve as a visible and unifying face for the emerging Somerville.

Three months into her term, she's drawn praise for her openness. "She's been everywhere," says Barbara Rubel, director of community relations for Tufts University. "There's a lot going on in the city, and I know she's been at different agencies and been at every meeting. She's really been very visible."

Looming over her first few months in office was the possibility of a re-election fight this fall -- John Buonomo, a veteran alderman whom she narrowly beat in the special election, was threatening to run again. But July 23 -- the deadline for taking out nomination papers -- came and went, and Buonomo decided not to challenge Kelly Gay, leaving her without an opponent this fall. "This gives me the chance to fulfill the stuff that we talked about in the campaign," she says. "To look at the agenda and start attacking it and put it into place."

But Kelly Gay's still-embryonic term has also brought criticism. Even some of her supporters are scratching their heads at Kelly Gay's failure to significantly diversify City Hall. It's true that she's bringing in some people of color. But after a campaign that stressed diversity, she named a series of department heads who are mostly white and male. In some cases, women have been replaced with men. Some appointees -- such as housing-and-community-development chief Steve Post -- already served in Somerville city government under former mayor Gene Brune.

Solid picks, maybe, but not the kind of bold choices that you'd expect from a mayor trying to remake a city. It adds up, says a transition-team member who requested anonymity, "to probably too much caution, and that's not the kind of caution we elected her for."

One supporter, Somerville attorney Todd Kaplan, says he's generally pleased with her leadership to date. "She's done a remarkable job, considering she's had no lead time," he says. "She jumped straight into a budget crisis and had to fill a number of key positions." Still, he acknowledges concern about her hires. "It is frustrating," he says. "She has made a compromise there."

No doubt Kelly Gay will have to make many more. Her calls to bring Somerville together are worthy -- and a lot easier said than done. It won't be easy to unite the city's political factions and bring the cohesion to city governance that she stressed repeatedly in her campaign. Indeed, even keeping her allies behind her could prove difficult. As the struggle over what's built -- or not -- at Assembly Square continues, the potential for bruised egos and conflicting goals will build.

Somerville, like many Boston-area communities, is reaping both the benefits and the disadvantages of the economic boom. Houses are being fixed up, but rising rents and home prices are rendering Somerville unaffordable to many. And, as in Boston, the raging economy has developers hungry -- and residents wary. It's a tough hand to play: go too fast and you might get stuck with a bad plan; dig in and fight, and the opportunities could slide by.

None of it will be smooth. After years in Somerville politics, that's a fact not lost on Kelly Gay.

"I can take the heat," she says of the discontent surrounding Assembly Square development. Good thing, because plenty more may be coming her way.

Ben Geman can be reached at bgeman[a]phx.com.