You Ask, Patch Answers

Where is Somerville's Closest Electric Car Charging Station?

NSTAR and crowd-sourced websites offer tips and locations for charging electric cars.

Considering a switch to an electric vehicle? Do you already own one and need a place to charge your ride? In Somerville, the closest charging stations are in Cambridge, accoridng to a crowd-sourced website, carstations.com. One of your best options for charging might be the Porter Square Shopping Center. You can also try: Carstations.com allows users to upload new car charging locations to a Google map and (when applicable) provide information about the stations. According to the site's About section, "this website is designed to encourage participation and welcomes user interaction in the form of comments, updates and user generated content." There are also more official sites providing electric car charging information. This week, NSTAR …

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You Ask, Patch Answers

You Ask, Patch Answers: Registering to Vote in Massachusetts Special Election for Senate

The deadline to register for the primary is April 10, and the deadline to register in the final election is June 5.

We now know five candidates are running for Senate in Massachusetts this year. The race will determine who replaces John Kerry, now secretary of state. We know the primary in this special election takes place on April 30 and the final election takes place June 25. One person recently asked me, "So, when do I need to register in order to vote in this election?" According to the city of Somerville Election Department's website, the deadline to register for the primary is April 10 at 8 p.m. The deadline to register for the final election is June 5 at 8 p.m. Remember, in Massachusetts, even if you are registered as "unenrolled," you may vote in primaries. When you check in at your polling location, you will request the ballot for one of the …

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You Ask, Patch Answers: Getting a Firearms License

To get a firearms license in Somerville you'll need to provide references, set up an interview with police and complete a safety course, among other things.

Somerville Patch recently posted a short story about the number of firearms licenses in the city. In the comments section, Joe Lynch asked, "Is it possible for Patch to publish, for the readers, the Somerville rules and regs any resident has to follow in order to receive a permit for any type of firearm license in the city? The MA laws rule, but I know that Somerville has some additional requirements." I took a quick look at the Somerville Police Department website, which has some information about this. According to the police department's website, Somerville residents who want a firearms license need to do the following: You can visit the Somerville Police Department's page here. Here's some additional information about state rules and …

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SomGuy

4:21 pm on Monday, January 28, 2013

I've been a guest many times at the Malden club. Nice place, good group of people. also, I think they're the least expensive indoor club around. Easy parking too.   more ›

You Ask, Patch Answers: What's Going on at 120 Beacon St.?

A long-vacant space near one of the city's best restaurants could be home to an Xfinity storefront.

I recently got an interesting question via Twitter. J.J's Boston (@JJReardon1) asked, "Any idea what'll be going in next to Bergamot at 120 Beacon? I see construction workers in long vacated spot." Mr. Reardon was asking about a space near Bergamot, a restaurant at the corner of Beacon and Washington streets, that I believe was once home to a video rental place. (In fact, I think I still have the membership card, which you can see in the photos section to the right.) That spot has been vacant for a long time. I asked Somerville's planning department what's going on there. Daniel Bartman, a senior planner with the city, said there's an application before the planning department to divide the storefront into two spaces. The bigger of the two…

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