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Boston's Morning Newsletter
Heading to Somerville's Porchfest this weekend? Here's what will be different
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
It's déjà vu for the Celtics. The defending champs are now down 2-0 to the Knicks after losing Game 2 of their playoff series in remarkably familiar fashion last night. The series now shifts to New York this weekend for the next two games.
But first, let's keep the focus on a local event happening this weekend.
Porch perfect? Hundreds of bands and tens of thousands of local residents are set to return to Somerville's stoops and sidewalks this weekend for the city's annual Porchfest. But this Saturday's iteration of the roving citywide music festival will look a little different. After last year's Porchfest (including special guest Guster) drew street-paralyzing crowds, organizers are instituting a few safety changes this year. " Guster kind of put it over the edge, but it had been getting almost way too large before," Gregory Jenkins, the executive director of the Somerville Arts Council, which has organized Porchfest since 2011, told WBUR's Amy Sokolow. Here's what to know:
- The basics: Porchfest runs from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday (May 10), with nearly 500 bands and dozens of music genres. The performances are spread across three, timed zones, running west to east across the city. You can see the map, and search for band locations and set times here.
- Street restrictions: This year, organizers are not permitting concerts on over a dozen "connector" streets, including Broadway, Highland Avenue and Cedar Street. Jenkins says the change is intended to ensure cars and emergency vehicles can still get around Saturday, as well as to keep crowds of pedestrians away from potentially fast-moving vehicles. " We haven't had, knock on wood, anyone getting hurt, but that's the whole point ... keep people out of major roadways."
- More help... and porta-potties: Organizers are deploying dozens of temporary porta-potties across the city, after last year's smattering was plagued by long lines. (Here's a map for that, too.) There will also be volunteer "ambassadors" stationed around the city to hand out physical maps, answer questions and monitor safety.
- Safety alerts: Somerville is rolling out a new day-of event alert system for severe weather or safety alerts. Just text "SOMPORCHFEST" to 888777.
- The big picture: Jenkins says the aim of the tweaks is to make Porchfest safer while maintaining its spontaneous “decentralized” vibe. "You just sort of walk down a street and find a neighbor performing," he said. "We want to keep that. We don't want to turn it into a controlled festival."
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On Beacon Hill: Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka says the chamber will explore the idea of a statewide ban on cellphone use in schools. Spilka told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce yesterday it would be a way to cut down on distractions, cheating and cyber-bullying, adding she personally has a hard time processing the "constant stream" of information from her phone. "And I have a team that manages my social media and a fully developed prefrontal cortex," she said.
- Zoom out: A growing number of states have laws or policies to restrict cellphone use during school hours, including four that have statewide bans.
- Zoom in: In Massachusetts, state officials have dolled out grants to support individual school districts that want to experiment with cellphone restrictions. Attorney General Andrea Campbell has also proposed a "bell-to-bell" statewide phone ban, but no legislation has been advanced on Beacon Hill.
- ICYMI: Here's what local students, teachers and parents think of the idea.
Motion denied: A federal court has ordered the Trump administration to transfer detained Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk to Vermont for a hearing by next Wednesday. As WBUR's Jesús Marrero Suárez reports, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected the administration's request to keep Öztürk in Louisiana yesterday, a day after hearing arguments from both sides' lawyers.
- Catch up: Öztürk has been detained in an ICE detention center in Louisiana for six weeks. She was swept off the street in Somerville on March 25 over an op-ed she co-wrote that was critical of Israel's military offensive in Gaza. Click here for a timeline of the developments in her case since being detained.
P.S.— Want to get a preview of what this year's Boston Calling will sound like? CitySpace is partnering with the music festival to bring you a concert this Friday featuring three local musicians who will be on Orange stage later this month. Get tickets here!
