Draft Goals for 2018

Please find here my draft goals for my first year on the Board of Aldermen. Please share your feedback.

Remnant Spaces Inventory Project Proposal

I proposed a Community Preservation Act project that was initially approved, but then got tabled. If elected, I hope to push forward with this. Here's a description, and linked here are more details:

Detailed description
PowerPoint presentation

In this project, the City of Somerville will:
1. Contract with a consultant who will study historical and current maps, deeds, assessors’ data, current open space uses, and neighborhood demographics to identify locations and legal mechanisms by which the City can: a. reclaim and find uses for remnant spaces for purposes such as pedestrian paths across blocks, picnic areas, tot-lots, community gardens, off-leash dog areas, and other public uses and/or b. permit private property owners to develop their land as permanently public and accessible open space; and
2. Test the feasibility of repurposing remnant spaces by completing an engineering and schematic design for the development of pedestrian paths through the wooded area below Corbett McKenna playground.

Position: Affordability and Housing

THE NEED:

Affordability tops most people’s worry list. It means something different to different people. Some people live on only $40,000 a year and have trouble paying for water or tax bills, even as their property is worth almost $1 million. Younger people may have two degrees and high earning potential, but they still struggle with student loan debt and have no way to get into the market. Low-income renters face the most struggles.

• Displacement: Data on housing show that people’s fears are real. Based on data compiled two years ago, almost 80 percent of households in Somerville will need to move if their housing situation changes (their lease ends, their rent increases, they outgrow their space, or they need to sell their home). That means, we can expect to see a huge shift in who lives in Somerville, and that’s destabilizing for the fabric of the community. The odds have gotten even worse since the City released that data, though there has been softening of the rental market in recent months.   
• Declining housing stability: While the rate of home ownership has remained relatively stable for the last 50 years at around 32 percent, historically, families have lived together in units in multi-family buildings. Now, more buildings are owned by absentee landlords. The percent of residents between the ages of 18 to 34 has grown to almost half of the population. Many people I’ve met while door knocking, especially seniors, have talked about a decline in the feeling of community. They believe that it’s because of an increase in residents who stay for just a few years and because of fewer children. The younger people I've talked to are worried about getting a toe-hold in the market. Having such a large population of young adults, while good for attracting certain employers, means that most of these people will not be able to stay if they want a different living arrangement for the next stage of their live, such as ownership or a family-friendly unit. It's like a five-lane highway converging to a one-lane road. If we keep building small high-end apartments and if only young adults can find space to rent in the older housing stock, we are building this transiency and lack of commitment into our population.  Young renters will have no way to get involved in Somerville's future, because they won't be able to be part of that future when they "settle down."
• Additional household burdens: Finally, additional burdens handicap household finances. The cost of city services, fees and fines has increased, as has costs of transit, childcare, and healthcare. Meanwhile, wages for some have fallen. Immigrant families without residency status are experiencing more stress and destabilizing forces as they fear or experience deportation of family members. Many people are experiencing increased hardship.
  As we try to address affordability pressures, there are five groups that I believe warrant special focus, given their unique needs:
• Families with children: Children are almost twice as likely as other residents to be living in poverty. Families generally make less money and have more expenses, unique housing needs, and more dependence on municipal/district services. They face much more housing discrimination. The population of children in Somerville has continued to shrink over the last 30 years, and Somerville currently has one of the smallest percentages of children among larger communities (only Cambridge is lower). The vast majority of Somerville School students will face displacement pressure in coming years.  If we want to retain children, especially any low-income children, we will need to create and preserve housing with families in mind. Our goal should be to do AS MUCH preservation, protections, and production of affordable units as possible in the face of our growing economy.
• Seniors: Many seniors I've talked to may be ready to leave their home, because of issues with maintenance or mobility (I know from door knocking how many houses are atop many, many steps!). Or, perhaps they worry about social isolation. Most want to, however, stay in their own neighborhood with their same social network. I believe we need to focus on housing for seniors that allows them to stay in their own neighborhoods.
• Middle-income households: While we need to create more low-income housing, we also need to have a special focus on middle-income households. They need less support, but do need some subsidy and technical assistance. Middle-income households and families are a key part of creating a strong community. This includes employees of the City, the Schools, non-profits, and smaller businesses.
• Artists, artisans, and small business owners: This is another group of residents that has contributed to the character of Somerville. We need to look at models of housing that enable artists and entrepreneurs of all types to live and use business space in Somerville.
• Owner occupants: In order to create stable blocks where residents live together for more than a few years and residents can be assured of their housing stability, I believe we need to increase our percentage ownership or permanently affordable housing units. For this reason, any of the policy plans should have special accommodations for owner occupants. Also, if we do not limit new opportunities to owner occupants (e.g. development of accessory units), properties will become even more desirable and profitable to developers, who will almost always outbid owner occupants. If that happens, it will have the opposite effect on creating an affordable and stable housing market.

POLICY GOALS:

There are no easy answers to address the above-listed points of pain. Everything we do will require the best possible technical, legal, and analytical work. Equally important, it will require a community discussion in which people can share their stories and understand one-another’s needs, combined with a call to action from all corners. It will be hard, but if we don’t make these hard choices, our demographics will look like those of wealthier suburban neighbor communities within a decade or two.

Here are the tools we should explore and then implement in some form:

• Tax deferral: The City and State law currently permits residents who meet certain age and income requirements to delay paying their taxes at a 3 percent interest rate. Very few people, however, are aware of this program. I believe that we should carry out an aggressive advertisement of the program, such as by using a third-party company that can sign up interested residents. As part of tax bills, the City could send a statement on the estimated value of the home and annual appreciation (similar to a pension statement) so that residents are able to see how much their home will be worth at sale even after settling deferred taxes. The City should also work with local banks to create a loan program for owners who do not meet the age/income requirements so that they too may tap into their extraordinary gains in housing values. We should also explore offering owners an opportunity to permanently deed restrict their property (so that the property would become part of the inclusionary housing stock after they sold it or passed on) in exchange for tax forgiveness.
• Regulation of smaller developments: While larger, new developments need to pay for a number of community benefits (inclusionary housing, a proposed CBA and infrastructure payment), smaller developments and rehabs currently do not require owners to pay for any community benefits.  I believe we need to regulate smaller developments and rehabs so that those developments are required to build (or pay into a fund to build) affordable housing and to contribute to community benefit funds. Some have proposed a higher inclusionary (IZ) housing percentage, which I support. However, I think it’s important to move increased regulation of the smaller developments forward in conjunction to any change in IZ percentages. If that doesn’t happen, I believe there will be increased pressure on speculative development activities that fall outside of the ones currently regulated by the inclusionary housing law. For example, I’m thinking of an old building of about 20 units where a lot of Somerville Public Schools students live. If/as the IZ percentage increases for new construction, it may create an incentive for developers to buy and gut rehab that building because current law doesn’t obligate them to build any affordable units. If/when that happens, all the low-income tenants will be displaced. There are a number of ways that the community benefit requirements could be applied to smaller development, and this should be spelled out in the code so as to leave no room for negotiation. They could be required to pay into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund according to an as-yet undetermined formula. Or, they could create one middle-income inclusionary housing unit, with a subsidy required that matches the payment to the Trust Fund. As mentioned above, with every new housing policy, owner occupants should be given special consideration. Thus, a resident owner of a triple decker should be able to renovate without payment into a community benefit fund.
• Implementation of Sustainable Neighborhood Working Group (SNWG) recommendations: The SNWG met for more than a year to hammer out detailed recommendations on affordability published in May of 2016. However, few of the report’s recommendation have been implemented. This is in part due to a lack of staffing in the housing office, which needs to change. Those recommendations include some of the ideas mentioned here, but also the following: work with universities so that they house their students, centralize our affordable housing waiting lists, create a housing assistance center (that would work to ensure landlords and tenants know rights and responsibilities, and to identify and track tenants at risk of displacement), and other ideas of varying level of difficulty to implement. The report had planned as a next step for a detailed implementation plan, however, we have heard little in terms of updates and progress made. We need a living, evolving plan that we pursue with urgency and for which we track and report on progress made. 
• Right of First Refusal (ROFR) Program: The Sustainable Neighborhoods Working Group recommended that the City pursue a ROFR program. This program is modeled after Washington DC’s First Right program, and Rep Provost has currently proposed as a State law that would enable communities like Somerville to adopt the program without a home rule petition. The model permits tenants to have the first option to purchase their unit. Tenants can also assign their right to purchase to a third party, such as a non-profit developer or the city. That non-profit can use subsidies to develop the housing into limited equity ownership opportunities or permanently affordable rental units. The benefits of this program include: currently affordable units (that are below market rate because they are in older buildings) can remain affordable and tenants do not need to leave; middle- and even higher-income buyers have a better chance of purchasing a unit rather than competing with developers; it promotes ownership even for low- and moderate-income households; and it creates affordable units in traditional buildings and neighborhoods. Note that the program requires a source of local subsidy, such as more funding for the affordable housing trust fund from a transfer fee and/or payments from smaller developers.
• Community Stabilization or Transfer fee: I currently participate in a task force that is analyzing options for how to implement a community stabilization fee. This fee, if implemented, will require some sellers or buyers to pay a small percent of their total sales price into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. That funding would then be used to support subsidies, such as those used for the 100 Homes program of for the creation of limited equity ownership opportunities through a First Right program. Much needs to be considered as this proposal gets reviewed. Property sales or transfers to family members will be need to be exempted. Also, many homeowners are very frustrated by fines and fees, and will be very opposed to a new fee. If the proposal moves forward, I believe we should enable owner occupants to waive or reduce their transfer fee payment if the property is sold to a current tenant, to an owner occupant or to a resident who earns less than the average income. Also, I believe that funding from the transfer fee should help pay for more senior housing and to help expand a low- or  no-interest tax deferral program.
• Municipal marketplace: Another idea to explore in addition to the First Right program (or if that program proves too difficult to implement) is a municipal marketplace. The City or a third party non-profit developer would maintain a clearinghouse of residential properties in Somerville. If an owner sells via the marketplace, their transfer fee will be waived. Only owner occupants may purchase from the marketplace. This could be built into the functions of a housing assistance office and could also take over the sale and transfer of a future pipeline of deed restricted units.
• Producing of housing in the right places and at the right scale: The recent YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) advocacy has given voice to a new strand of housing activism. The YIMBY approach argues that because the region needs an additional 430,000 housing units to meet demand, we should discourage NIMBYism. NIMBYism stands for “Not in My BackYard” and it refers to when neighborhoods or communities shut out higher density housing. While I think this approach is an important perspective, it does need context and refinement. The voices of neighbors and abutters must always be considered. When we live in such close quarters, people feel very powerless when they have no influence over any major project (buildings, streets, parks, etc.) that’s just feet or yards away from their front porch. That said, I support higher density construction in the transformative districts, like Boynton Yards and the Inner Belt, where there are few residential neighbors. In all cases, higher density within the same building envelope should be tied to other benefits, often more affordable units and/or in some cases other community benefits, like shared public indoor or outdoor space. Also, we should consider the pros and cons of enabling development of some accessory units, such as basements and exterior buildings (garages, carriage houses) into living spaces. These, as well, should be granted with affordability incentives and only if the accessory or primary home can be designated as an enforceable car-free unit (see below). The development and use of accessory units should be limited to owner occupied properties. I don’t think that Somerville can take the burden of building too much more density, but if we can do higher density successfully and with community buy-in, it can help other communities see that smart growth can work.
• Car-free status: One of the key barriers to higher density is worries about increased parking and traffic congestion. I support the creation of a permanently “car-free” property status that would will owner occupants to develop accessory units without increasing car traffic and parking problems in neighborhoods. In a property that elects to adopt this status, current and future owners and tenants will be unable to acquire a parking permit, create a curb cut, or add pavement in their yards. City planners have said that legally this is possible.
• Live/work space & creative models: Artists and artisans are a critical part of our community. They do not make much money and often have special needs for workspace. Places like Brickbottom, Artisans Asylum, Greentown, and Canopy provide models of shared workspace. I believe we need to continue to test models of shared live and work spaces that meet the needs of artists and artisans, and others, like entrepreneurs and non-profit employees or managers.
• Air BnBs: While door knocking, many residents express frustrations with Air BnBs. They felt that the properties hurt the quality of life in the neighborhood. While renting a room or renting a whole property on occasion can help owner occupants pay their mortgage, I believe that we should prohibit whole-unit, not-owner-occupied AirBnB (or similar) rentals. Cambridge recently passed an ordinance that we can use as a model.
• Citywide zoning: The City currently is soliciting feedback on a zoning overhaul. The overhaul provides updates to the patchwork of amendments that makes up its current code. Once passed, it will require less scrutiny of some kinds of renovations and development projects, and more scrutiny of other types. Most importantly, however, it provides a superstructure onto which additional housing policies can be build using municipal code (under the jurisdiction of the Board of Aldermen) and City Policy. We need to give the proposed zoning a final round of careful critiques and reviews, and then move ahead so that additional rules can be added via zoning law, ordinances, and municipal policy.
• Neighborhood design and incentives for family friendly new housing models: I believe that we need to work hard at preserving affordability in our traditional neighborhoods, which I think are ideal for families with kids. I do think, though, that when new neighborhoods get designed, we need to plan intentionally for all walks of life in our new neighborhoods. When we build out a new neighborhood, like the Inner Belt, its housing and amenities should reflect the composition that we hope for the city, including people of different income levels, children, seniors, and people requiring supportive services. It should include ownership opportunities, and not just rental. Neighborhood amenities will need to include childcare, grocery stories, parks, and schools
• Advocacy for pressure on other communities: As we know, housing is a regional problem requiring solution at higher level of government. While YIMBY argues for building higher density locally, I believe we need a YIYBY (Yes in YOUR Backyard) strategy as well. We need our Governor and State legislature to take leadership in creating incentives and mandates so that higher income, suburban communities must build more high density housing. I will also continue to work on lobbying for changes to the State’s education accountability and funding formula. Both penalize communities that serve low-income families, rather than rewarding and providing more support to them, enforcing what amounts to an institutionalized classism and racism.

CONNECTIONS TO OTHER ISSUES: (Coming soon for some issues...):

• Transit: As mentioned above, creating parking for new development adds to the cost of units. While many households do need a car, some can go without or with one fewer if they have good transit and employment within reach of the transit. There does, though, need to be an enforcement mechanism. Go to the LIVABLE STREETS section for more ideas related to transit.
• Community safety net: Housing is part of a household’s total cost burden. While we work on the cost of housing, we can also address the other household costs, such as transit, out-of-school time, and city fines/fees. Go to COMMUNITY INSTIUTIONS, SAFETY NET, AND CONNECTIONS for more ideas (coming soon!).
• Transparency: Residents have expressed a lot of frustration with the decision made by the Planning Board in the Federal Reality IZ waiver case. I believe that we need to revamp the City’s powerful boards, including their scope, appointment process, and methods of soliciting public comment. If elected, I will work with the administration and colleagues to launch a process to review the boards. In the meantime, however, the Board of Alderman approves candidates for Boards, and I will use that authority to work with colleagues to vet candidates in a transparent and rigorous process. Go to the TRANSPARENCY, DATA, AND EMPOWERING NEIGHBORHOODS section for more thoughts.
• Open space: Thoughtfully designed open space can relieve the need for private open space. As we build out areas like Union Square, we can think about how open space affects the design of neighboring housing. See OPEN SPACE for more thoughts.
  Small carbon footprint: Energy efficient, small households with one or no cars have a small carbon footprint at the same time that they are more affordable. See ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES for more thoughts (coming soon!)
• Empathy and community building: Implementing these and other policy initiatives requires a community conversation. Some require sacrifices. We need to continue to build relationships and exchange stories that help us make decisions together. Go to the TRANSPARENCY, DATA, AND EMPOWERING NEIGHBORHOODS section for more thoughts.
• Employment and business development: Having access to stable employment, particularly in close proximity to Somerville, helps households pay for housing costs. We need to support small businesses and non-profits such as by subsidizing their business AND personal household costs. Municipal employees also should have access to special housing programs. See BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT ISSUES for more thoughts. (coming soon!)

WITH APPRECIATION:

The following people provided feedback on and additions to these policy ideas. Fred Berman, Alex Bob, Cory Mian, and David Tisel. In addition, Canopy.City hosted a brainstorming session on housing preferences and models. Ideas from attendees of that meeting helped inform these policy goals.

Affordability Forum Questionnaire Responses

Please find below complete answers to a questionnaire regarding affordability for an upcoming candidate forum sponsored by the Affordable Housing Organizing Committee (AHOC), the Union United Coalition, and the Winter Hill Neighborhood Association on Tuesday October 10th, at Warehouse XI in Union Square (11 Sanborn Court). Doors will open at 6 pm, and the event itself will begin at 6:30 pm and run until 8:30pm. 

1. The Board of Aldermen is about to consider a new draft of the Administration’s citywide zoning proposal. How can the zoning ensure that residents have a greater say in development in our neighborhoods? What concerns have you had with prior drafts? What changes will you push for in the current draft?

Here are a guiding principles on how I’ll evaluate zoning. As I’ve been door knocking, I have heard about both the desperate need for housing and anxiety about changing neighborhoods due to development. I believe that zoning and our community need to try to balance those tensions. A third issue that has roiled the community is a sense that we can’t trust our powerful boards to make decisions in the best interest of the community. Our new zoning needs to provide more transparency so we can make key decisions about trade-offs as a community. Finally, it’s important to note that the zoning is just one set of rules that shape our future. Municipal and traffic ordinances, administrative policy, and other tools also matter, so we must monitor design and rollout of each, making course corrections as we go. My goals include:

• Create better ways to collect public comment/process (discussed in zoning section 15);
• Have at least some IZ and community benefit requirements apply to rehab and to non-resident investors that renovate and resell multi-families and small apartment buildings (Section 13);
• Create a permanently car-free property status with enforcement mechanisms to reduce cost/increase density without increasing parking problems (Section 12);
• Tie density bonuses to benefits like affordability and civic space (Sections 9 and 13);
• Allow units to be smaller, especially if they can accommodate families, such as with small bedrooms and shared public indoor and outdoor spaces (Section 9);
• Require a certain portion of new housing development to include family-sized units (though I understand this may not be legal);
• Regulate non-owner occupied short-term rentals;
• Provide some kind of bonus or incentive if commercial owners creates permanently affordable commercial rents and/or provide leases to minority/women owned businesses;
• Consider the right level of SF for that triggers the commercial linkage payment, and tie linkage fee rates to CPI or a construction cost index, so linkage fee can increase without new nexus study every few years; and
• Consider down-zoning in residential - areas to reduce speculation.

Much of what’s baked into the zoning law are major community dilemmas, and I will help facilitate discussion on these, such as the ordinance regarding unrelated individuals or the creation of new accessory units.  Also, we should evaluate each aspect of the zoning law as to how it impacts owner-occupant vs. investor and how it impacts traditional neighborhoods vs. transformative.

2) Every ward has at least one lot that has been vacant for years.  What steps will you take to ensure that these sites are finally developed, and that their development meets the needs of current residents?

As I’ve been door knocking, residents have expressed a great deal of frustration with stalled development at sites like “the hole of Teele Square”, the Cobble Hill plaza, and the notorious Star Market site in Winter Hill.  Each location has its issues.  I’ve checked with the City, and the Teele Square site has given the City some new proposals, but all ask for more units than permitted in zoning law. At Cobble Hill, there is a legal fight underway between owners, which has contributed to delay. The original project approval has expired. While awaiting any action, the City can monitor the sites for code violations and residents can organize to put pressure on the owners to move forward.

For any site – in particular at present Star Market -- the last-ditch step is for the City to develop an urban revitalization plan that builds off of a neighborhood plan.  The City can take this site by eminent domain and find a developer that can build based on the Winter Hill neighborhood plan. People worry about the whether or not eminent domain is the right thing to do, but it’s an important tool I believe to have available for use sometimes. However, if the City takes the property by eminent domain, work going forward must be scrutinized extra carefully to make sure it leads to significant public benefits, to justify the legal/admin cost to the City, the moral weight of taking property expressly for community benefit, and the cost to the prior property owners.

Other possible strategies include: changing the zoning to allow for higher density, helping with infrastructure, providing technical assistance, or subsidizing environmental remediation (or seeking grants to do so).  Some of these approaches come with their own dilemmas.

3) Do you support increasing the inclusionary zoning rate from 20% to 25% or higher?  Please explain your answer.

I would support increasing the inclusionary housing rate, however, I believe it needs to be done in conjunction with other strategies. First, I think it needs to happen in combination with adding new requirements for developers of smaller properties. Also, the IZ rate should, explicitly apply to rehab (currently, it’s unclear). Without adding these two elements, I believe that development pressure and funds will shift to rehabs and smaller properties. I often think about an older, 20-unit building that’s right across from a park and close to a grocery store and schools. It houses many families I know. Its rent is below market because it’s an older building with no new amenities. I’m very worried that this building will be purchased and undergo a gut rehab, therefore displacing all residents and effectively eliminating 20 units of affordable, family-friendly housing.

Also, in general, I think that our community, activists, and City staff and elected officials only have so much bandwidth as to what issues we can take on. I want to be sure we are taking on the highest-impact ones. We can look at publicly available assessing data and cross-reference it to other data to see which approach has the biggest impact on reducing displacement and on slowing speculative buying/flipping.

4) Do you support the creation of a City Office of Housing Stability or a position in the City’s Housing Division to inform tenants and landlords of their rights and responsibilities, to facilitate resolution of landlord/tenant disputes, to help tenants and homeowners at risk of displacement, and to maintain data on displacement?  Why or why not?

Yes!! This is an issue that has weighed very heavily on my mind over the years. The very carefully developed Sustainable Neighborhood Working Group report was issued in December of 2016, almost two years ago, and the City’s housing department has had trouble implementing many of the recommendations, such as consolidation of the affordable housing wait list. I believe this is largely because they have very, very few staff. Also, they also have significant operational work to do, such as running lotteries. I would like to see staff added to:

• Meet with each senior owner to help them access the deferred tax programs and, if interested, to help them restructure ownership of multi-families to transfer ownership to adult family members. Many of the kids in our school system live with their parents and older grandparents. Their future in Somerville is uncertain. If the older generation sells, the assets gets split among siblings and then the middle and younger generation needs to move. I have heard about this happening so many times.
• Meet with each Somerville family with kids to develop a housing plan. This could be done in schools, working with school staff as well. It is so needed for low-income families and for middle-income families. The middle-income ones may just need advice and technical assistance, while the lower income ones other resources.
• Implement the SNWG recommendations and any new policy initiatives, track and report on displacement of individuals (and perhaps small businesses), and allow for better real-time problem solving. 

I believe that the City should consider moving the housing division (or at last some functions of the housing division) under the Health and Human Services Department to improve coordinated responses to each household’s needs, to coordinate better with the Schools, and to help approach housing issues in a way that considers substance abuse, mental health, disability, aging, and out-of-school time.

5-A) Condo conversion is a major factor in increasing rents and home sale prices. Which of the following steps do you support to help address the impact on tenants?
(a)  Eliminating the City’s existing condo conversion ordinance and defaulting to the State law
(b)  Revising the City ordinance to increase the amount of relocation and notice time that tenants are given to the maximum allowed by State law
(c)  Revising the City ordinance to increase the amount of financial relocation assistance that must be given to tenants to the maximum allowed by State law
(d)  Revising the City ordinance to require owners to provide more advance notice about condo conversion to tenants and the City, including for buildings with two or three units, that are not covered by the State law. 5-B) Explain why you chose the items you did in question 5-A, and what other steps you would propose:

I do not believe we should focus on revisions to the condo conversion ordinance but, instead, we should focus on implementing the right of first refusal (ROFR) initiative. I believe that condo conversions should be treated as property transfers and thus ROFR rules should apply to those as well. I am worried that focusing on the condo conversion will divert attention and exhaust political energy with less results, as it has, I believe in the past year.

I support the ROFR proposal put forward by Rep Provost, recommended by the SNWG, and piloted in DC. A program like this will help preserve housing in traditional neighborhoods, support both low- and middle-income buyers, create opportunities for ownership, and reduce the speculative buying that residents are finding so unsettling. As the proposal gets refined, I believe we need to pay special attention to the timeline of how quickly the tenant (or their designee) has to make an offer. This issue was flagged as the most hard to handle for sellers and realtors. I believe this can be helped by crating short-term financing strategies and by enabling third party non-profits to hold the property until a tenant association can be formed and/or longer-term financing secured.

6-A) The deal the Administration made with Federal Realty, which allowed them to avoid their obligations under the new Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance and to provide cash in lieu of onsite affordable housing, set a precedent. Should the new zoning allow the "cash in lieu of affordable units" option? Yes, cash in lieu of onsite units should be allowed in the new zoning. No, cash in lieu of onsite units should not be allowed in the new zoning. 6-B) If cash in lieu of on-site units is an allowed practice, which of the following should be used to set the payment? (a)  Yes, cash in lieu is acceptable if it creates substantially more affordable units than would have otherwise been required. b)  Yes, cash in lieu is acceptable if it create units with substantially deeper affordability than would be required in onsite units. c)  Yes, cash in lieu is acceptable if it creates substantially more 3-bedroom or larger family-size units than would be required onsite. (d)  No, cash in lieu is never an acceptable practice.

I support a, b, and c and, in general, funding for off-site unit for the following reasons. I know that this is a point of disagreement for many who share a passionate support for the goal of affordability. With such limited sources of subsidy, it’s really a discussion for the community to decide where to us scarce resources. I welcome the discussion and perhaps will change my view, but believe that first I’d need to see a thoughtful study of the needs and wishes of families (and seniors, people with disabilities), strategies to preserve housing in our traditional neighborhoods, and ways to make the newer neighborhoods more family friendly.

My top concern with affordability is housing for families. I think families are in a special position for these reasons: Kids are almost twice as likely to be living in poverty than the rest of our population, they are more dependent on City services since moving involves a tremendously disruptive change of schools (a kid’s whole world at that age!), they have special housing needs, and they face major housing discrimination. Without subsidy, there will be zero affordable housing units on most traditional blocks perhaps within a decade. The families I have spoken to consider it to be a better, easier, and safer place to raise kids in the older blocks, where housing built 100 years ago got designed kids in mind. Also, paying into a fund enables the possibility of crating limited equity ownership opportunities and of having existing tenants at risk of displacement turn into owners (such as in the 20-unit property I’ve described). I believe a non-profit developer like SCC could work with the school system to identify properties that have multiple SPS families and then target those for acquisition and conversion to limit equity ownership or permanently affordable rentals. Finally, some local sources of funding, which I believe may be applicable in this case, provide more flexibility, while state or federal funding comes with many more restrictions on who can live in the unit and sometimes prevents giving Somerville residents first priority. That leads to pretty heart-breaking situations. It happens too often that a Somerville family who is homeless and in temporary housing in Boston and has kids bussed to their Somerville school, doesn’t get a unit. When a new unit opens, a family from Boston may get a unit, while the Somerville family remains homeless. The same situation can happen in the reverse for the Boston family, and both families ultimately need to transfer districts.

That said, I believe that as we design new neighborhoods in transformation al districts, like Assembly Square, Boynton Yards, Union, Inner Belt, and others, we should be looking to build new family-friendly housing and neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods should have the services families want, like new schools, parks, grocery stories, and childcare. We will, though, need to look at new models of subsidy for big projects and purpose-built housing. Our goal, I think, should be at last 1/3 each of low-income, middle-income, and market rate for family friendly housing and neighborhoods. I believe that programs like 40R and 40B may be worth investigating, though they come with some trade-offs as well.

7-A) In 2011, the Mayor threatened to veto an ordinance that would require developers who have contracts with the City or receive City assistance with development costs to hire a specified percentage (or more) of their workforce from the local population. If such an ordinance were to come up again, would you support it? 7-B) Please explain your answer about such an Ordinance requiring a minimum percentage of Somerville workers.

I would support it, though I would like to look at the details. I do think there’s a risk of tying employment to residency (such as for labor contracts), especially in such an expensive real estate market. I believe that any employee who needs to move shouldn’t lose their job because of changes in their municipality.

8) How do your respective track records in addressing development and affordable housing issues set you and your opponent(s) apart?

I have spent the 25 years of my professional life in anti-poverty and community development efforts. In my 20s, I worked in direct service in non-profits in North Philadelphia and rural Georgia. Seeing how local government systems had failed people and prevented them from becoming providers for their families and community, I resolved to spend my life trying to fix the brokenness of government systems. I studied statistics and finance at Harvard and the University of Chicago, and then went on to work to improve child welfare with NYC and reduce youth violence with the Boston Police Department. Working for the City of Somerville and its schools, I started SomerStat, ResiStat, 311, SomerPromise, and the City/District’s Children’s Cabinet. I worked with Code for America to spearheaded creation of a tool and intervention process that helps kids get more of what they need to do well.

Though I think I accomplished a lot, there’s so much more to do. I can see the faces of kids who fell through the cracks while I was working for the City and Schools and living in Somerville. Every other week I learn of one of my kids’ classmates who needs to move to Everett, Chelsea, or Lynn. I wasn’t able to figure out how to help in my prior roles. I am running to try to do more, to work with other residents to mobilize to address affordability, to increase investment in community institutions, and to improve life outcomes. Personally, I have spent thousands of hours with kids and families (like volunteering to run after school programs and a before-school gym program for ELL students who take the bus each morning), and trying to help many, many families find housing. I want to do so much more. Every day I am reduced to tears at a story I hear. The issues are so complex and hard to fix, I believe we need the best tools available —ones that will set a precedent for regional and national problems. I think my knowledge of how the City works, my strong will, and my deep knowledge of people’s experiences and needs will help me take on the biggest problems to identify ground-breaking solutions. Note that I have pledged to not accept donations from developers, because the stakes are so high, and there should be nothing interfering with trust in the public process and a clear view of priorities.

9) We are in the midst of an affordable housing crisis in Somerville. What are the first 2-3 steps you will take as Alderman to make Somerville more affordable?  What have you done to address the crisis in the past 2-3 years?

Relief for seniors: I will do all I can to (respectfully, but relentlessly) pressure the city to reach each household with the offer of a tax deferral. We need to figure out how to address the needs of our long-time homeowners in conjunction with thinking about a transfer fee.  Note that the 2016 Special Senate Committee on Housing report introduces a concept called property tax relief and municipal right of first refusal that could work in Somerville. The proposal suggests giving older residents property tax relief if the resident gives a right of first refusal agreement with the city. (In another scenario, the owner could have a reverse mortgage with the city or a non-profit developer so that some of the equity gradually gets transferred). This could help create a pipeline for the 100 home program and could help take properties off the speculative market.

Organizing tool kit: I will work with activists and community groups to think about a complete tool kit of activism at the local level. I will help the people I’ve met to connect to one another. This includes people in the immigrant households, where sometimes only one person may be able to vote, but 10 people live in the home and have ideas about what can and should happen here. I believe we can think of a rapid response approach to help us act on the different drivers of affordability, such as pressure on Tufts to come up with a master plan that results in more students housed on campus, help for Rep Provost with getting the proposed RORF enabling legislation moved forward, volunteering to inventory vulnerable small businesses, and weighing in on budget hearings. We can produce our own statistics on displacement and display them on places, ranging from billboards to websites. We can produce can annual report and report card.

Zoning: I will read the proposed citywide zoning line by line to try to understand how it impacts affordability. I will meet with stakeholders to get their views.

11-A) Do you support the Administration’s proposal for a Community Benefits Ordinance? 11-B) Please explain why you do or do not support the Administration’s proposal for a Community Benefits Ordinance.  What changes, if any, in the proposed Ordinance would you like to see?

I believe that the 1,000s of hours of work of people involved in the Union Square Neighborhood Council has been long, arduous, and very important. They are getting close to a second neighborhood vote on a proposed design for the council. I think we as a city can learn from this ground-breaking effort and then look at the proposal for the CBO after that. Among the issues that have been raised are:

• How do we make sure a new group represents the neighborhood?
• How do make sure it represents the needs of people who have typically been less active in local politics for different reasons
• What are the boundaries and should neighborhood councils be not overlapping, but covering the whole city?
• What’s its relationship to the City?

As long as the majority of neighborhood residents support a proposal and believe it represents their interests and perspective, I’ll support the NC enthusiastically. More specifically for the CBO legislation, I think we have to balance the wish of developers to have predictability about their financial commitments with having one or more group that can hold them accountable for delivering on what the community wants and needs.

12-A) The State Legislature enacted a Home Rule petition over a year ago allowing the City to assess commercial developers with a linkage fee that would help fund a local jobs training and job placement assistance program. A nexus study has been conducted to calculate the appropriate amount of such a fee.  Will you actively support prompt passage of an amendment to the zoning to ensure that regardless of the outcome of the City's comprehensive rezoning effort, commercial developers must comply with a jobs linkage requirement? 12-B) Please explain why you do or do not support prompt passage of jobs linkage legislation, regardless of the outcome of the City's proposal for comprehensive zoning reform.

I support a linkage fee. I do recognize the need for more commercial development so think that any new obligations imposed on commercial developers need to be weighed against the need for revenue (as well as daytime traffic for other small businesses). Somerville continues to be one of the lowest per capita revenue generators in the state. State aid has fallen dramatically, along with some federal, like CDBG. Between 2004 and 2016, our revenue from the state fell by 6%, in part because of our rising property values and changing mix of student enrollment. Everett, in contrast, increased by 167% or $46 million. Expenses have continued to rise, including fixed expenses like pensions and spending on backlogged issues, like capital projects or small increases to departmental budgets that jut fill small gaps. We haven’t been able to dramatically increase commercial development because our transformative areas (like inner belt) don’t have the infrastructure.

As a result, Somerville continues to be among the poorest communities on a per capita basis. Between 2004 and 2016, Somerville’s total revenue has increased by only 38%. Cambridge’s increase, meanwhile, was 72%. In that time period their revenue rose by $240 million, which is more than all of Somerville’s budget – Cambridge now has almost three times our revenue.
Municipal revenue pays for the very long list of needs, including expansion of our housing office, staff who can support small businesses, out-of-school programming that can help take the stress off of families who are living in doubled up housing.

Position: Transparency, Connections, and Empowering Neighborhoods

THE NEED:

Many people in Somerville feel a sense of worry (ranging from dismay to a sense of doom) about challenges at all levels, from neighborhood to the world. We need to tackle the toughest issues by working together. Moving forward requires us to understand one another’s needs, AND have the tools to make change. Here are the challenges in this area, as I’ve seen them:

Feeling of powerlessness in neighborhoods (and beyond): While door knocking, I covered all of Wards 1, 4, and 7, and much of Wards 2, 3, 5, and 6. Throughout the community, people feel a sense of dismay, loss, or powerlessness about issues they or their neighborhoods face. The worries include a sense of diminished community connections (see less stability below), uncertainty over a neighboring development, frustration with a stalled developments (like “the hole” in Teele Square, Star Market in Winter Hill, or Cobble Hill on Broadway) to fears that they or a much-loved neighbor will need to move. So often, people share concerns, but feel isolated and don’t know how to connect with neighbors or know who may share their concerns. They may not know what tools they can use to impact neighborhood issues. Or, even if they do, most people don’t have the many hours it can take each week to read through zoning law or attend public meetings.

Transparency and accountability for powerful boards: Residents have expressed frustration with the decision made by the Planning Board in the Federal Reality inclusionary housing waiver case. One point of frustration is the lack of tracking of concerns from residents for that and other cases or proposals (such as feedback given to US2 in their recent Coordinated Site Plan public workshop). Insufficient transparency creates distrust and makes it harder for the public to evaluate whether or not the decisions that get made are fair and not biased by influence of some type. And a lack of trust makes moving forward with all major policies and projects even harder.

Less stability in neighborhoods: Many households I have talked to – most especially seniors – feel sad because they believe neighborhood ties are declining. While the percentage of households who rent has remained relatively stable over the past five decades, in the past Somerville had many resident landlords who shared their building with other family members or close friends. They were, in essence, benevolent landlords who rented to people with kids, disabilities, or quirks, and they didn’t raise the rent much or at all each year. That meant more blocks had family ties, kids, and long-time residents. Housing stability helps people put down roots. As I was door knocking in West Somerville, I saw one triple decker that had three generations of family members listed as living in the three floors. However, when I stopped, a young man was out front. He said, “My family just bought this triple decker as an income property. We live in Lexington.” As I moved down the block, I saw him showing one of the units to two young people in their 20s who’d most likely be tenants for a year or two. Given housing prices, those young people are very unlikely to be able to put down roots and thus develop those long-term ties. The percentage of young adults ages 18 to 34 is growing and has reached almost half our population, while the percentage of children is falling. The young adults don’t get the chance to stay and turn into middle-aged adults and then seniors. This dynamic changes the feel of each block.

Isolation and issues that disproportionately affect sub-groups: As I’ve been door knocking, I hear a sense that there’s a social or cultural gap between different groups within the city. The most poignant case of this is with the opioid epidemic. At least 40 people died in 2015 and 2016 of overdoses in Somerville, and more died of related causes that weren’t classified as overdoses. This epidemic, however, has disproportionately affected the long-time Somerville families. Thus, for that sub-group in Somerville, people are experiencing a death of someone they know either directly or indirectly every other week. The rest of the community may not be plugged in to how catastrophic the impact is. As we think about OneSomerville, we need to work harder at understanding all of the points of suffering and loss in Somerville and everyone’s needs.

Need for more information about trade-offs: An area of particular interest to me is helping the community understand budgeting and the decisions our elected officials need to make when spending limited resources or deciding to create a new tax or fee. Decisions are often made in isolation, so that residents can’t easily determine how spending in one location affects spending or a tax/fee in another.

Under-represented households: Many people in Somerville don’t vote in municipal elections, either because they can’t legally or because they are not as engaged in local issues. This means that their voices are not well represented in local decision making, which is a missed opportunity.

Challenges in using tools that do exist: There are some tools available that a neighborhood can use to advocate on issues, but sometimes we may not know what they are or how to use them. The City shares a lot of data (https://data.somervillema.gov/) and laws permit residents to have certain powers, such as to request a public hearing or request datasets. But some of this work is so specialized it seems to require the help of an architect, lawyer, or software engineer.

POLICY GOALS:

Connecting people: At the heart of organizing is relationships, I think, and I will work to help people connect to their neighbors or others who share their concerns about issues. Here are some of my ideas

• Block party challenge: I hope to host a block party challenge next summer. I’ll get the word out as to how easy it is to get a permit for a block party and encourage every block to do it. We will keep track of how many block parties each part of the city hosts and give out an award for the most.
• Know-your-neighbor challenges: I hope to issue a know-your-neighbor challenge. Using social media and other resources, I’ll ask residents to carry out a series of challenges each week or month, such as: find out your neighbor’s names, favorite food, life story; collect any trash on your block; introduce yourself to a new resident; set up a neighborhood mailing list, etc.
• OneSomerville and Empathy Building: We can build on the idea of OneSomerville by working as a community to understand each person’s story and needs. We can carry out empathy building efforts, such as a Somerville Stories effort (a similar project got done about a decade ago with some success). Or, we can encourage everyone to help in some way – such as one hour of time volunteer/week, or $100/month of donating per month. I believe that we should focus on both the challenges faced by immigrant and low-income families, and by families struggling with the opioid epidemic, so as to acknowledge that people are different but have in common a need for support.

Building and changing systems: In addition to the people side of the equation, we need to pay attention to systems that help give people and neighborhoods a voice. Here are some things I’d like to do:

• Revamp boards: I believe that we need to revamp the City’s powerful boards, including their scope, appointment process, and methods of soliciting public comment. If elected, I will work with the administration and colleagues to launch a process to review the boards. In the meantime, however, the Board of Alderman approves candidates for Boards, and I will use that authority to work with colleagues to vet candidates in a transparent and rigorous process. Zoning needs to be amended to ensure that City staff are responsible for recording residents' comments and developers' responses, and for ensuring that developers take those concerns seriously.
• Toolkits for change: In order to take advantage of the tools that do exist so that residents can understand how to use them, I will work with residents and groups to create a toolkit that covers topics like open meeting law, public records requests, the roles and powers of public bodies like School Councils, ballot questions, and other laws designed to empower residents. We can learn together and then test out what these tool enable neighbors to accomplish.
• Support for neighborhood and issue groups: There are some neighborhood and issue groups running and working in Somerville, and they take different forms. Some are very structured and have goals and annual reports, while others are more loosely knit. We will inventory all of the best practices, as well as all of the groups that are open to having more members. I will work with residents to create a centralized list where the groups are described. We can organize trainings and discussions so that groups can share best practices. We can do “hackathons” or, what should perhaps be called, analysis-a-thons of the public data and collect our own new data, such as traffic (or rat!) counts. We cans share metrics for each neighborhood or each issue on one master report cards that gets posted on websites or even on billboards! We can help raise money for funding for groups to advocate, such as immigrant parents or families affected by the opioid epidemic.
• People’s budget: I helped create the City’s first performance and program-based budget. The City has a great deal of budget information, while the District has much less. I would like to work with residents and groups to analyze budget data and ask for more information on the District side so that we can better understand the very important decisions about where we make investments. I hope to analyze financial information by whichever topics interest people, such as spending by neighborhood or by issue. Consider me YOUR budget analyst.

CONNECTIONS TO OTHER ISSUES:

Housing and Affordability: As we think about housing policy, I believe we need to work for ownership and other means of permanent housing. We need to create space for people of different ages and incomes, who can help create cohesive block. Longer-term roots help people get involved and form ties that help them organize. Go to HOUING AND AFFORDABILTY (Coming soon) for more idea.

Community safety net: I believe that community institutions are critically needed to enable people of different backgrounds to be together to form relationships, which I think are at the root of community problem solving. Well-funded and inclusive spaces like recreation or a YMCA, school, or churches are shared community assets that undergird relationships across difference. COMMUNITY INSTIUTIONS, SAFETY NET, AND CONNECTIONS (Coming soon) for more ideas.

Open space: As with indoor civic spaces, thoughtfully designed open spaces are where we can meet to exchange ideas and form friendships. See OPEN SPACE (Coming soon) for more thoughts.

Introduction to Position Statements

On this site, I will be sharing my position statements on a some of the issues that I plan to work on if I am elected. Please share your comments in the comment section, or by emailing me at contact@stephanieforsomerville.com or calling me at 617-512-4847. All of these topics are complicated and require a community process, so they are in draft form -- I want to hear from you!

BACKGROUND ON POSITIONS: I have spent the last 13 years working for the City and Schools to build decision making, customer service, and safety nets systems for Somerville children and adults. Prior to that, I did similar work in Philadelphia, Georgia, and Boston. The experiences taught me a great deal about local government and how it operates. More recently, I have been door knocking since February and have had a chance to reach almost 6,000 households. I have spoken with more than 2,500 people and have listened to their concerns. The needs and policy recommendations discussed here reflect a combination of the two decades of work in local government and stories I've heard in the last seven months.

OVERALL THEMES AND APPROACHES: Across all of the focus areas below, here are some general approaches I will take in trying to understand and address each challenge:
Looking for systems connections: The most exciting part about working at the local level is that we have both a challenge and opportunity to work across systems to find solutions. An education challenge may relate to an open space challenge, or a jobs creation challenge may relate to transit. For each topic considered, I mention how other systems relate to the one being discussed.

• Testing solutions: Almost everyone is troubled by the scope of problems our government faces at all levels. These positions focus on what’s possible to address at the local level. I believe that Somerville can be a laboratory to test approaches that will help address the problems of the region, state, and nation.
• Practicing empathy in policy making: For each initiative, we should work for broad-based support among residents. We can use the best available technical tools to find ways that a policy can help the most people or require the smallest sacrifice – those are the win-wins. When there is no opportunity for both sides to be happy, we will need to split the difference and compromise. We will need to find every opportunity to hold onto our community connections – to listen and hear one another’s stories. Then, when we make a sacrifice or a compromise, we will be doing it to help another resident, because our neighbors’ voices and lives matter.
• Taking money out of the equation: I support Somerville being a business-friendly city adn want to make sure those businesses benefit residents by creating jobs and tax revenue. However, harnessing the private sector requires constant vigilance because sometimes the incentive of a for-profit business differ from those of the community. Also, there is some business activity that has less benefit to the community and, instead, takes value out. I think this particularly the case with non-resident investors/developers who purchase smaller buildings and hold them as investment properties.  A more serious effort to weigh the costs and benefits of development needs to replace the current environment in which development is allowed to proceed, unless significant nonconformities with zoning requirements or other adverse consequences are identified. Because I believe that we need to be clear-eyed about each policy that relates to development and business – both supportive sometimes and challenging others – I have committed to forgo taking contributions from real estate developers and investors, including our larger realtors. We want our policies to reflect our goals and community values so that the future Somerville aligns with our aspirations.
• Connecting evidence: I believe that human stories help us understand what’s going on, and then data analysis confirms or sometime refines that understanding. We need both to make the best decisions. 
• Getting things done: My focus is on results, and for each of the topic below I will work out with residents and other policy-makers and community leaders to set goals and metrics for success. We will track progress on each of these and advertise where we are succeeding and where we are falling short. If elected, I will work on the Board of Alderman position as my primary job so as to get as much done as possible.

Please read and weigh in on the forthcoming position statements! I'm learning as I go and I want to hear from you and incorporate your thoughts, critiques, and ideas.

Text of SCATV Candidate Profile

Below is the text of my SCATV Candidate Profile, which can be watched here: https://archive.org/details/Candidate_Profile_-_Stephanie_Hirsch

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Thank you to Somerville Media Center (also known as SCATV) for giving all of us candidates an opportunity to introduce ourselves. I’m really happy to be here. I think places like SCATV are so important to our community. They are a place where people meet and work together – like a community living room or a community workshop. People working together on projects here is one way they create community. But also, the shows get broadcast out to all of you. I remember hearing from sleepless new moms – they said they watched SCATV in the middle of the night while rocking their baby, and watching made them feel less alone. And I know some of you are homebound. SCATV connects people across Somerville, wherever you may be watching from and whatever your situation may be.

With my 10 minutes of fame, I’d love to tell you a bit about my background and what I hope to do if I get elected. I’ll do all the talking today. But when I meet you in person, I want to hear YOU talk and to hear YOUR ideas.

First about my background which I what made me who I am today. I grew up in north central Wisconsin. It’s a community that’s just about the same size as Somerville, but it’s the biggest city for miles around. All around it are farms and forest.

Eau Claire Wisconsin was a great place to grow up. It had a strong middle class. We all lived together on the same block, we played together in the street – kick the can, ditch, capture the flag - until our parents called us in. We all went to the same public schools. People looked out for each other and they looked out for the community. They invested in the schools, in our community organizations, like the YMCA or Little League. My parents were teachers, and there were people who made more money – the lawyers, doctors, orthodontists. But those were the people who donated to make a new wing of the library or the children’s museum. A lot of them probably voted republican, while others voted democrat – but that didn’t matter. We all agreed that each person in our community matters.

I’ve been door knocking since April and I have reached 3,000 doors so far. The life-long residents describe growing up Somerville of the 50s, 60s, and 70s just like the way I remember growing up in Eau Claire. When I was door knocking in the States/Aves, I met different members of families like the Cassessos, Lapianas, Deangelis, and Cantalupes. They loved their years growing up. Everyone was like family, and each kid belonged to everyone, just like in my hometown.

I took this value with me – that we are all responsible for every person in our community and that we all need to take care of our community organizations. 

After college, I worked in two places where people really struggled, where there were not enough community resources to go around. First, I taught in an elementary school in North Philadelphia. By the school, one of every three houses looked bombed out. The sidewalk was littered with brightly colored crack vials. Then I worked in rural Georgia. Georgia had its own problems. In both places, the systems of education, health care, governance, and public safety did not work well. There was not a strong, core middle class. There were very few jobs. And, as a result, a lot of people’s lives did not work out well. Many girls got pregnant before age 20 and many boys had a criminal arrest. Systems had failed them and, as a result, they had so much trouble becoming successful providers and community contributors.

I saw how these failure of government affected people, and it broke my heart. I decided to spend my life trying to make government work better so people can have good lives. I studied statistics and business to try to figure out how to improve our local government. Using those skills, I went on to work for NYC, the Boston Police Department, and then for Somerville. In Somerville, I started programs like SomerStat, 311, ResiStat, and helped the schools achieve big gain.

We did a lot, but I want to do a lot more. If I get elected, I’m going to keep trying to improve how well government runs so that the lives of OUR city’s residents are happy and healthy. I want NO ONE to fall through the cracks in my community on my watch.

I’ve had a chance to listen to community hopes and the points of pain in Somerville all this spring and summer. I’ve reached 3,000 households so far and I’ve heard so many different worries. I’ve thought about those conversations a lot, and here’s what I plan to work on if I get elected:

Affordability: Affordability tops most people’s lists of worries. This means something different to different people. Someone may live on only $40,000 a year, so have trouble paying for water or tax bills, even as their property is worth almost $1 million. Young people may have two degrees and high earning potential, but they still struggle with student loan debt and can’t figure out any way to get into the market. Low-income renters face the most struggles. Here are three groups I hope to give special thought.

•     First, I’m worried about families with children. Children are almost twice as likely as other residents to be living in poverty. Families generally make less money, have more expenses, have unique housing needs, have more dependence on municipal/district services, and face much more housing discrimination. Many families will need to move. I think we should create and preserve housing with families in mind.
  
• Next, I believe we need to focus on housing for seniors that allows them to stay in their own neighborhood.
   
• Finally, I think we need to have a special focus on middle income households. They less support, but do need some subsidy and technical assistance. Middle income families – including municipal employees -- are a key part of creating a strong community.
  

So, what are the tools? There are no easy answers, no silver bullet. I think we have to use all of the tools, and find a balance among them. The step we have to take include:

• Holding developers to do as much as they can to build affordable and family-friendly housing, including the smaller investor/developer currently not affected by law like inclusionary housing;
   
• Moving ahead with zoning and projects even though they remain a work in progress;
   
• Give owners easy access to a tax deferral program that allows them to forgo paying any taxes until they sell their property;
   
• Pass a transfer fee that’s thoughtfully designed that creates funding for subsidies;
   
• Create a right-of-first-refusal program that makes it easier for owner-occupant to compete with developers for the purchase of a home;
   
• Add units, both through accessory units and through taller building in transformative districts. Whenever possible, we should do this without adding cars; and
   
• Control budget expenses which may mean discipline in the funding of new initiatives, including capital projects that we desperately need.
  

We have to take all of these approaches. We will look for the win-wins. But when there is no opportunity for both sides to be happy, we will need to split the difference, to compromise.

Quality of life: In East Somerville, almost every household talked about rats. Many people throughout the city have also talked about cut-through traffic and feeling of being unsafe on and around streets. While these are also tough issue to fix, I promise to redouble efforts to find solutions. As we think about the big picture, we will need to continue to focus on the little things – the day-to-day issues that weigh on our peace of mind.

Community institutions: As I mentioned, I believe that having strong, integrated, accessible community institutions help people be happy and form friendships. I will work hard to add funding for recreation and support for community-based providers to do more out-of-school programming and activities for people of all ages. I’d like the city’s public buildings to be open from 6 AM until 10 PM, I’d like new community space in each of our squares. And, we need to make progress on improving/expanding our athletic field space.

Community: Community institutions help us meet together and form friendships. And I want to continue that focus in all I do. I believe the more we know and are about one another’s needs, the better able we will be to make hard decisions. I will work to form neighborhood groups, helping them set up ways to communicate and annual events, goal and metrics of neighborhood goals. And a special note, in door knocking, I have often heard division that are rooted in people’s own, unique struggles. Some people do not feel heard. As one of the most poignant examples, Somerville has experienced at least 40 deaths to opioid overdoses in 2015 and 2016, and those deaths were concentrated in a smaller demographic group within Somerville. It feels like we should be shouting these statistics from every the rooftop. When think about the concept of OneSomerville, I believe we need to have the most inclusive definition, looking at the pain and experience of EVERYONE so as to increase our understanding of one another.

Transparency: I will work to make the decisions of our local government as transparent as possible. On the School side, I believe we need more information shared about district budgeting and decision making. On the City side, I will dig into publicly available data on any issue residents care about. We can use data to set goals and metrics, and regularly report on them. One of my heroes, Maura Healey, promise to serve as the “People’s Lawyer”. And I promise to be the “People’s Bean counter.” Maybe you didn’t even know you wanted your own bean counter, but I plan to prove that it’s a powerful tool for change.

Other goals I have include using my political capital to help settle open contracts and support the work of environmental groups like Mothers out Front and Somerville Climate Action.

You may be thinking this all sounds hard, and I agree. Should we do it? I think – yes. Almost no place has figured out how to stay connected, integrated, and well run. Let’s us do that – even if it means sacrifice and compromise, hustling and bootstrapping our way to groundbreaking policies. Let’s us be the proving ground and the antidote to a country that’s being pulled apart by income inequality and division.

So, that’s a little about me, my background, and what I care about. But I am learning as I go – I’m learning from YOU. I have another 6,000 doors to knock, and I hope to meet you on your front step. When we meet, please tell me your hopes and worries, and we will figure out what to do about them together.

Thank again to SCATV for this opportunity.