![\"Then-Somerville](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/RUSYNYMU6ZAM7A3RJDQDIWDJHU.jpg\")
Then-Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone spoke about state aid to cities and towns during a news conference in 2009.Pat Greenhouse<\/p>\nI was young and had never tuned to CNBC, which seemed an order of magnitude less interesting than anything else on television. But in the fall of 2008, the economy was imploding. So I clicked over to financial news and tried to make sense of the breathless missives that anchors and guests were unfurling.<\/p>\n
The stock market, then on a precipitous downward journey, is not the economy, of course. But during the global financial crisis, the bottom fell out of both. And even in places like Cambridge and Somerville, even in a state like Massachusetts, the Great Recession sliced municipal services, and ripped through the lives of a lot of Cambridge and Somerville residents. <\/p>\n
Turned out there was someone else glued to financial news at the time: then-Somerville mayor Joe Curtatone. Today, who knows if another recession is around the corner \u2014 or, if here in Camberville, we\u2019re in one already. But after walking by some vacant storefronts and vacant lab space this week, I rang Curtatone to ask what the bad old days were like. He was mayor from 2004 to the beginning of 2022. And, let me tell you, he has some thoughts.<\/p>\n
Then-Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone spoke about state aid to cities and towns during a news conference in 2009.Pat Greenhouse<\/p>\n
What does he remember about the Great Recession?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the personal hardship of our constituents,\u201d he replied with his trademark intensity. The Democrat was in municipal government during the dot-com crash of the early 2000s, and he saw plenty of people face financial difficulties. But during the recession that officially lasted from the end of 2007 through the middle of 2009<\/a>, but felt like it lasted much longer, Curtatone witnessed \u201cthe complete elimination of people\u2019s personal wealth, whatever they had.\u201d People were struggling to make their mortgage payments and hold onto their homes, struggling to keep their businesses open, he said.<\/p>\n Curtatone remembered economic development projects that had been in the works for years, some that were on the brink of breaking ground, were suddenly put on hold or stopped altogether. \u201cAssembly Row, the developers call me. Basically overnight what happened is the value of their portfolios for that project and others went down exponentially,\u201d he recalled. And suddenly they had an unfathomably large financial gap to fill.<\/p>\n He remembered the key foundations that supported Somerville\u2019s government got wobbly very quickly: State aid was cut and tax revenue got shaky. As money coming in faltered, health care costs were going way up. The recession jammed the city up something awful.<\/p>\n \u201cWe resisted layoffs,\u201d he told me, and his team tried all kinds of fiscal maneuvering. But \u201cwhen layoffs had to come,\u201d he said, \u201cit was painful for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n So what does he see today?<\/p>\n Curtatone, who is now an executive at Woburn EV company Indigo Technologies, said he has lots of faith in Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson, and leadership at the state level. Lots of faith in leaders\u2019 creativity. But, he said, things are looking kinda grim.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenges are certainly formidable right now. Being in the private sector now, tariffs are killing us, jobs numbers are down, people can\u2019t afford to stay in the place, in the community they love,\u201d he told me. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not going to get better anytime soon, right? Look around Greater Boston, Josh, how many cranes do you see?\u201d<\/p>\n I acknowledged very few.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s President Trump, whose economic policies from tax cuts for the rich to tariffs are, he said, \u201ckilling all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n He also emphasized that federal infrastructure money helped save the day for a lot of municipalities 17 years ago. Under Trump, \u201ccities and towns are going to have to be even more creative.\u201d<\/p>\n Overall, he said, the \u201cstorm might be a few years on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n There was one more thing that Curtatone remembered about the Great Recession.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery morning I turned on CNBC.\u201d He asked for my help trying to recall that morning show with the endless stock chatter.<\/p>\n Squawk Box?<\/p>\n \u201cI watched that show religiously for two years \u2014 for. two. years. \u2014 and I can remember, at the very beginning, [this guy] says, \u2018I believe, at the end of this, we\u2019ll see the greatest bull market!\u2019 \u201d Curtatone seemed enmeshed in the memory of the recession and all its hardship.<\/p>\n \u201cMan,\u201d he recalled thinking as he heard the talking head, \u201cI hope this freaking guy is right. Because this sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joshua Miller <\/p>\n P.S. Have thoughts about the state of the Camberville economy, the American economy? Hit me up.<\/a> I welcome any and all musings on boom times, bust times, the peril and power of capitalism locally, and ideas for future Camberville & beyond newsletters.<\/p>\n![\"Customers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/QIMVSD6AHNFUXNZQZM7FK22V24.jpg\")
Customers purchased scratch tickets at 350 Food Mart in Somerville in April 2009.Yoon S. Byun<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/VMNZJWNI4VEP3BWRRG6QZQKLXU.png\")
A page from the Boston Sunday Globe on Aug. 16, 2009.Boston Globe Archives<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/RWOXCRTI2TQGE463K2WJMUJF3Y.jpg\")
The spot where a Somerville lab project stalled and a waterlogged pit remains.Barry Chin\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3eccd586-ab41-1b55-f2e1-c42395dd77e4.png\")
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Cambridge\/Somerville Editor<\/p>\n