Nearly two years ago, my fiancé and I moved into a new apartment. Priced out of Davis Square, we moved to the nearby Ball Square, where the neighborhood still skews closer to its pre-1980s counterpart and the rent is cheaper. The first landlord we tried to rent from, a man with graying hair and an Irish accent who’d lived in Somerville his whole life, denied our application. Looking at the paper, he muttered that he was “tired of renting to these young yuppie students”—and beneath my breastbone, I felt the white-hot curl of shame.
Just a few months after we moved in, the MBTA opened its brand-new Green Line extension station in Ball Square. Like its Red Line companion, the Green Line extension was also accompanied by a public art project designed to adorn the new stations with installations from local artists. In a public statement, MBTA officials wrote that “this GLX Enrichment Program seeks to contribute to the vibrancy of the GLX communities by investing in the success of local artists … The goal is to create a warm and welcoming environment in key areas experienced by the riding public, and to enhance the connection between the station and the community” (McNeil). The Ball Square station, resplendent with a series of publicly-commissioned paintings on the glass panels of the elevator tower, officially opened to the public in December 2022, to a joyful community celebration complete with a jazz band and food truck.
Last week, I walked into Ball Square to mail an envelope in the mailbox on the main street. After passing a rundown liquor store and a diner that hasn’t changed its prices in at least a decade, I startled to a sudden stop, doing a double take. Where there had always been a nondescript empty building, housing a vacant storefront with a dingy “FOR RENT” sign in the window, now, suddenly, there was a cozy-looking boutique pizza spot. It had popped into existence here seemingly out of nowhere, like a hydra growing a new head. Inside, young couples shared glasses of wine at bistro tables covered with candles, and plant vines trailed down from the ceiling.
Looking into the restaurant, I caught sight of another shape in the window—the reflection of the new Green Line station.