What I’m fighting for – and what I've accomplished

 

 🏠 Housing affordability and supporting renters 

 

Greater Boston is enduring a surge in housing costs, and Medford is no exception: over a fifth of all Medford households are burdened by the cost of housing. Everyone is feeling the effects of unaffordable housing costs: owner-occupiers, renters, people aspiring to rent or own for the first time, and people looking to downsize while staying in the community. To adequately contend with gentrification, un-affordability and displacement, we need to use every tool at our disposal. 

 

• In 2021, I promised to establish an annual program to distribute information on renters' rights and resources to every renter-occupied property in the City. In March 2023, I led passage of Medford's first Housing Stability Notification Ordinance, creating a new requirement for housing resources information to be sent to all tenants at the beginning and end of every lease as well as to homeowners in the event of foreclosure. As this ordinance takes effect, more residents in Medford will know the rights to which they're entitled and where they can turn for support – before they're in crisis. 

• When I ran for office, the City Council was beginning to contemplate an Affordable Housing Trust. Municipal AHTs are an incredibly impactful tool for cities, allowing us to collect and protect funding and assets for various affordable housing-related projects and programs. I was a strong advocate for our Affordable Housing Trust, and now that it is finally on the books, the real work begins. I will advocate for developing reliable multi-stream funding sources for our AHT; transferring in underutilized City-owned assets; and advocating at the state level for legislation that would allow us to use transfer fees to create a new, stable source of funding from for-profit development.

• As a candidate, I promised to help pass the City's Housing Production Plan. The Council passed this important document in September 2022. The official passage of our HPP will make it easier for the City to recruit and work with housing developers and affordable housing developers to create the right type of new housing for our specific needs. 

• I am currently working with City Hall staff on a draft Condo Conversion Ordinance. When for-profit developers take already-scarce rental units off the market and make huge profits, we need to make sure that the community gets something back as well. This ordinance will regulate those conversions by commercial flippers to fund community assets and protect displaced residents 

• I will continue to advocate for progress towards an operating budget that can support an Office of Housing Stability. Currently, Medford outsources many of its residents' housing issues to overburdened regional nonprofits. The work of supporting Medford residents on housing matters must be brought in-house. 

• As the Council's zoning re-codification ramps up in 2023–2024, I will be focused on modernizing our zoning rules so as to make it easier to meet our existing need for denser and more affordable housing – while maintaining the things we love about our neighborhoods and improving walkability, bike-ability and safety for pedestrians of all types. 

• I work directly with Medford community groups and City Life/Vida Urbana to organize and support tenants that are actively going through displacement, such as the Bradlee Road Tenant Association. 

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📚 Our public schools are non-negotiable

 

Fully funding our public schools is non-negotiable. I graduated from a public high school that was in the midst of a budget crisis; my classmates and I saw firsthand how quickly extracurriculars and whole areas of study can disappear when there isn’t enough funding to go around. 

 

Setting up every teacher, school worker, student, and family up for success requires passing a city budget that materially supports that goal. In my first term, I helped pass two budgets that reduced funding gaps for the Medford Public Schools and Medford Public Library. We must chart a path towards an operating budget that supports:

 

• fee-free arts programming, sports, and other extracurriculars

• expanding mental health and supportive programming for students

• competitive pay for every teacher, paraprofessional, and staff member

• a safe, affirming and enriching experience for every student

 

I will continue to insist that the Council do everything within its jurisdiction to help get us there faster, and to work with the Administration to craft budgets that will manifest the Public School experience that this community deserves. 

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🚸 Investing in infrastructure

 

For decades, Medford has under-invested in our public infrastructure: roads, sidewalks, public buildings, not to mention constituent services. Our backlog of road repairs alone is $200M – nearly an entire year’s operating budget. Underfunding our public goods passes costs on to residents in myriad ways – from vehicle repairs, to private school tuition, to after-school care.  

 

We have to start holding ourselves to a higher standard. I am a loud advocate for a city budget that truly funds our values. Residents deserve safe and well-maintained roads; sidewalks that are accessible for all pedestrians, whether they walk or roll; citywide protected bike lanes and proper bike parking; and a supportive, responsive City Hall that isn’t staffed by a skeleton crew. 

 

So many of our goals for Medford come down to the funding available. And since we’re not there yet, we need to do the hard work of negotiating a path towards a more robust future, and figure out exactly how we’re going to expand the pie. Creating a more business-friendly environment in Medford’s squares, exploring a Prop 2.5 override, improving our grant-seeking capacity, and renegotiating our Payment in Lieu of Tax (PILOT) agreements with our large nonprofit neighbors are just some of the options on the table. 

 

With so many urgent needs going unmet and directly impacting residents' quality of life – from dangerous roads to school buildings overdue for repair – we can’t afford to just go with the status quo. This is why I was a strong supporter of the Better Future Budget Plan during the FY24 budget cycle and continue to work on policy and ordinance projects that would improve our capacity for long-term budget and capital needs planning. 

 

 ♻️ Climate resiliency and sustainability  

 

For the sake of current and future generations of Medford residents, we must act urgently to make our city more sustainable and resilient. We can’t wait any longer to ensure that Medford is prepared for the adverse effects of climate change – from intense storms, to stormwater flooding, to dangerous heat during summertime. To protect our population, we must invest in modeling and planning for how our community will be affected by changing weather patterns in both the short-term and long-term futures, and develop concrete safety and resiliency plans for all Medford neighborhoods. 

 

• I support taking bold action to mitigate Medford’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Through the Council's zoning re-codification work, I will focus on rules that incentivize (and, where possible, mandate) developers to build as energy-efficiently as possible; and to create a net-zero requirement for all municipal buildings. 

• I will continue to be an advocate at the state level for legislation that allows cities to impose a net-zero or carbon-neutral requirement for new developments. 

• As a first-time candidate, I was deeply concerned with Medford's track record on recycling. I joined the City's Solid Waste Task Force to help prepare recommendations for the City's next waste-hauling contract – so as to make sure this next contract raises the bar on waste reduction and environmental sustainability, through measures like expanding recycling to more residents and businesses citywide, and offering composting to more households. 

• Together with the Office of Planning, Development and Sustainability, I spearheaded a comprehensive update to the City's waste and recycling ordinance. This update closes loopholes in the previous version of the ordinance, and will allow us to strengthen the mandate that all waste haulers in Medford provide recycling to all types of buildings in Medford. Expanding recycling means faster progress towards our waste-reduction goals, and mitigating a source of greenhouse gas emissions. 

• I’ll continue to work with City Hall staff and my Council partners to finalize the Tree Ordinance, protecting Medford’s tree canopy on both public and private lands by strengthening rules for conservation and planting on large developments.  

 

🤝 Public safety and community wellness

 

I have always felt safe and secure here in Medford. We must make sure that the same holds true for every single person in Medford, regardless of their circumstances or background. 

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• In my first term I helped pass Medford's Community Control Over Public Surveillance ordinance, which passed in March 2023 after years of advocacy by Medford People Power and the ACLU of Massachusetts. This ordinance ensures a public process for costly, nascent surveillance technologies that are aggressively marketed to municipalities. I am proud to be a part of this first step towards greater transparency and community involvement in issues of public safety, especially since this technology has so many implications for personal privacy and civil liberties – especially for marginalized communities. 

• I worked with the Medford chapter of Moms Demand Action to pass a Safe Gun Storage Resolution, making Medford the first city in Massachusetts to have a Safe Storage program endorsed by all branches of local government. 

• I support establishing alternative crisis response and mental health crisis response teams, so as to more appropriately and effectively support people in times of urgent need; and I support the calls to create a civilian oversight board over MPD policies and practices. I endorse the existing non-cooperation policy between MPD and the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

 

No conversation on community safety is complete without talking about roads, sidewalks, and infrastructure.

 

• In my second term, I will prioritize passing a Cycling Safety Ordinance. I am strongly in favor of expanding our network of bike lanes citywide with as much speed and urgency as possible, and implementing protected bike lanes wherever possible.

• I support the implementation of a Vision Zero plan for Medford.

• At every opportunity, I work with our Traffic and Transportation department to find solutions to individual problem areas on our roads, crosswalks and intersections. 

 

Finally, we must make it a priority that every resident’s fundamental needs are met. We will not truly know safety and wellness until we have rooted out food and housing insecurity in every neighborhood, and ensured that every Medford worker has a living wage and just working conditions. 

 

🗣️ Transparent, accessible city government

 

No one – regardless of age, background, language spoken at home, politics, disability, or documentation status – should feel intimidated to participate in city business, to serve on a committee, or to show up to a meeting to speak their mind. City Hall must be a space where every resident can trust that they will be welcomed, listened to, and respected. 

 

We must embrace any measure that increases public participation in city business. In my first term, I helped pass new Council rules that made hybrid (Zoom and in-person) participation in City Council meetings a permanent measure. 

 

To be a truly representative and inclusive city government, we must remove all barriers to access and participation. That’s why I want to see all city meetings, mailings, and online resources communicated in every major language spoken in Medford. We must secure funding for translation services at every public meeting, a full translation of the city website, a full-time translator at City Hall; and work towards the creation of an Office of Immigrant Outreach. Many of these goals will become achievable when we are no longer operating under an austere budget scenario. That is why I focus so much of my energy on advocating for a budget that truly meets our needs as a community. 

 

I am a listening ear, resource, and advocate for Medford residents. Please reach out to me at any time.