Why do you want to represent District C on the City Council?
I would like to represent District C because I felt we weren’t being heard during the Watertown Square Redesign process particularly in regard to traffic and public transportation improvements that were provided as options at the time. My goal is to advocate for improving public transportation, especially on the 71 bus by building a partial busway to help improve throughput and station access/quality. I also want Watertown to get more serious about building-out our bike network with quality infrastructure not just some lines of paint on the road with no sort of barrier, that’s not conducive to the safety of children, teens, and elderly riders. I also believe I can be a voice to help expand the level of affordable housing people have access to, ultimately helping elevate our housing crisis as referenced in my WCA-TV debate. Lastly, I want to advocate for the environment, to push the city to take up the burden of environmental restoration on our public lands while also embarking on a public education campaign about our local ecology. People are divorced from the land and if asked probably couldn’t identify many native plants, this is a historical oddity that I believe is a huge impediment in helping push people to become more active about climate change. We must go into the neighborhoods and schools, teaching and encouraging the Watertown students would be a good way to build a new way of thinking. while also actively meeting with the community and educating and encouraging them to take things into their own hands.
Tell voters about your background and qualifications for being a City Councilor.
I feel I have a rather unique background as I’ve lived my whole life in Watertown and have gone through our public school system. I have a background in Environmental Science, which I believe will be very helpful to my district as I understand climate policy and climate change in a deeper way than perhaps the average person. This will be an asset as we barrel towards breaching our planetary boundaries which will cause great suffering to the Earth but also to our city as we will have to deal with more intense weather and the increasing cost related to maintaining our society as our biosphere collapses. I’m also currently pursuing my Masters in Urban Planning at Northeastern, which will provide me with a skillset to help navigate the city in the upcoming years as we see greater development in Watertown Square and in the city as a whole.
What would you like to see built on the municipal parking lots in Watertown Square that are proposed to be redeveloped as part of the Watertown Square Redevelopment?
I would like to see a mixed used building there, specifically social housing as our city along with the state is currently battling a housing crisis that is showing no signs of abating any time soon. This building would be geared as a transit-oriented development and would not prioritize cars but instead people. I also want to mention that social housing is different from affordable housing and public housing. That is because unlike other government owned models all income levels are welcome thus helping middle class families have access to cheap housing, that being said the social housing would be owned and managed by the city in perpetuity thus keeping it off the free market and away from speculative interests. I would like Watertown to embrace a pre-2004 Austrian model in housing as I ultimately believe social housing is the only real cure to the
current housing crisis.
For more details about the Austrian model, I’ve linked an article here: source
Residents often talk about rising property taxes. With the potential of declining commercial property values and cuts in State aid, how would you keep residential property taxes under control?
This is truly a tough issue as the city doesn’t have many levers to pull to raise funds worsened by the fact that we are also seeing less aid from both the state and federal government. I would advocate for the city council to petition the state legislature to give us greater tax authority over our finances so that we have more avenues to raise funds beyond property taxes. Massachusetts municipalities have some of the weakest Home Rule Charters when it comes to taxes in the country. I also think we must make it easier to build housing so that our tax base can expand and hopefully reduce any sort of budgetary shortfall we may face in the future.
Watertown has an opportunity to completely renovate or rebuild Watertown Middle School and use the temporary school currently at Moxley Field. Would you like to see this happen and if so how would you like to see it financed?
I would have liked for the city to rebuild the Middle school like has been done with the high school but sadly it’s not in the cards for us with current economic headwinds. That being said I do think the city should pursue renovations to help extend the life of the building as it’s the most fiscally prudent path for us currently. Though I wouldn’t close the door to a rebuild if we somehow were able to get federal/state monies that could make it possible to build another first-class school, though the likelihood of that is vanishingly small but who knows.
There are two unused City-owned buildings in District C — the old Police Station and the former North Branch Library. What would you like to see done with these buildings?
I would either like the police station to have housing on it or be used as part of an expanded library in some way or even both. I think the site is ripe for redevelopment, but I would also like to see what the community would want to see from it. They ultimately should be the deciding voice on what happens to that site. Though if the land was used for a library expansion, I think that would give us huge opportunities to really improve the library offering but whatever ends up happening I certainly wouldn’t want it to look like a soulless modernist building that has become far too common that in my view robs folks of beauty.
For the North Branch Library, I would love to see it converted into a community space where people can freely gather, especially during the winter where there are very few places’ people can just exist in a space for free. It can provide a space to host community workshops as well as a place where people can relax away from home in the company of neighbors, which I think can help foster greater community ties, perhaps even a renewed sense of civic engagement. That being said the site will demand a pretty penny to pull it into modern standard such as ADA compliance so, that would certainly be a project that’ll be many years in the making.
During your campaign, what was the biggest issue or concern for voters when you spoke to them about District C?
The two biggest issues that kept coming up with folks in conversation were traffic mitigation and affordability. People don’t want clogged streets or cars racing down the streets at dangerous speeds. They also are having a tough time making ends meet year after year as prices continue to rise so I believe as a city we must prioritize these issues, by reducing traffic and finding ways to make sure people can afford to live in our city.