Safer streets & Sidewalks.

In small cities across America, new street features are making it safer and more comfortable to walk, bike and drive around town. As ward councilor, I worked with my neighbors and the city to bring hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment for new school sidewalks, better pedestrian and bicylist access to sports fields, transit, shopping, and recreation spaces.

Since taking office in 2021, I have joined a multi-community working group and established working relationships and a reputation for fighting for safe streets with decision-makers at the state and local level, incuding Melrose DPW, MassDOT, DCR, and the state legislature to ensure we leave no idea behind.

idea: Neighborhood Traffic calming for safer streets

As at-large councilor, I will continue the work I led in 2020-2023 to create the first Melrose Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program (called Slow Streets) to give residents city-wide more proven options to improve the safety of their street for people of all ages and abilities. I’ll continue to push for smart improvements to major roadway projects such as a proposed 2023 redesign of Lebanon street, intersection improvements at Melrose Street, Fells Parkway and Main Street near the Middle School and High School, and planning for a new, friendlier Lynn Fells Parkway corridor design.

Protect our parks and conservation lands

Melrose is fortunate to have more residesnts living within walking distance to open space than 95% of cities in America, through a combination of fields, parks, and conservation lands. These important spaces must be properly stewarded and planned for so they remain accessible and fun for all generations.

idea: Community Preservation act (CPA) for conservation and recreation improvements

The Community Preservation Act is the best and fastest solution we have to fund our city’s affordable housing, historic preservation, & open space and recreation needs. For half the monthly cost of Netflix per household, we could secure $300,000 or more in state matching funds earmarked only for affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space and recreation. Better yet, the $1m in revenue it would bring into the city would offset other expenses, allowing us to move forward with less debt and lower taxes. The CPA is initiated by ballot, and funded through a small fee on property taxes that does not increase over time. We can exclude low-income households, and low/moderate income seniors, and waive the first $100,000 in assessed value, leading to an approximate increase in costs of around $50-$100 per year.

Adopting the CPA would also protect Melrose from “40b” developments that ignore our zoning and allow us to bond against future CPA revenue for large projects.

Your Voice at City Hall

I provide residents with easy access to city hall decision makers, and work closely with city staff, other councilors, and the mayor’s office to ensure transparency and accountability from our city budgets so we can be sure the tough decisions we have ahead are made with maximum community input, and not only influenced by the loudest voices among us.

idea: New Community committees for safe streets, CPA, innovation, and climate

I will work with the Mayors Office to create and recruit new committees of councilors, citizens, and city staff to develop recommendations on our most pressing problems and engage the community in identifying the best solutions, as we have done with the Public Safety Building Committee. Some of the committees we could easily create include a working group on safe and complete streets, a tree canopy protection committee, a climate/net zero committee, and even an innovation committee that would be tasked with generating new ideas, for example exploring the economic benefits of placemaking, pursuing new grant funding opportunities, and bringing new recreation and arts and culture opportunites to the city.