1. In light of a recent federal executive order on homelessness that incentivizes local policies to ban outdoor camping and to require mental health and substance use treatment, how would you assess Salem’s responses to people experiencing homelessness, and what would you plan to do if elected?
The need for more reasonably-priced housing is perhaps the leading challenge of our time. Supply does not match the demand, driving up home prices and rents. Because of today’s affordability crisis, more and more of our neighbors, in Salem and throughout the Commonwealth, are becoming housing insecurity and homeless, even without mental health challenges or substance use disorder taken into account. And while individual homelessness is the most highly visible symptom of this crisis, the most prolific is, sadly, family homelessness.
To address this we made the grant-funded Housing Stability Coordinator role a permanent position and maintained the Housing Stability Service as a permanent service. We added outreach workers to nonprofit agencies and to the City’s Community Impact Unit. And we’ve adopted policy changes like an inclusionary housing ordinance and a condo conversion regulation. Projects, like the North Shore CDC’s Schools projects, will add units - including deeply affordable and workforce units, as well as units specifically for seniors. And new City programs, like UpLift Salem, are providing direct support to our most vulnerable residents in need.
More is needed, however, to ensure that everyone can have a home they can afford. For example, we’re reforming arbitrary parking mandates that have resulted in unnecessary and unused parking spaces instead of needed housing on project sites. That could unlock changes to the affordability requirements in our zoning, which are already 25% lower than the state standard. Because, ultimately, the only solution to homelessness is to provide homes.
2. Since the federal government has withdrawn its support for combating climate change, including eliminating tax credits for wind and solar energy and halting federal permits for wind power, what would you propose the city do to mitigate climate change and its effects locally?
As a member of Climate Mayors, I believe that while we’ve made progress on climate action here, there’s still work to do. An indicator of our progress, though, is that Salem this year was one of the first Massachusetts municipalities to earn the Commonwealth’s Climate Leader designation.
Resilient Together is identifying options for climate vulnerable areas and we convened the Massachusetts Coastal Communities Alliance, a coalition of communities addressing coastal resilience challenges. Shoreline projects are in planning, design, and permitting. We’ve acquired emergency preparedness equipment to respond to climate disasters, and new zoning was put in place to ensure that future growth is forward-looking.
A new energy code ensures future buildings meet emissions reduction goals. A multi-year energy efficiency project is underway in City buildings, saving tax dollars and reducing emissions. Over 500 trees have been planted in the last two years. Programs for micromobility, ride sharing, and safe streets reduce vehicle emissions; work furthered by our new electric vehicle policy for City vehicles. Salem PowerChoice has avoided 420M pounds of CO2 emissions, and we’ve advanced the offshore wind project, including a commitment from the developer to work toward port electrification.
We’ll continue our resilience projects, construct the net-zero high school and implement clean energy projects at other schools and City buildings, finish the fleet conversion, advance the South Salem Commuter Rail project and other measures to reduce vehicle emissions, carry out the roadside EV charging study, implement the private property resilience pilot, and work to complete the port project.
3. With the loss of federal grants and funding for food pantries, and the closure of Daily Table, what ideas do you have for helping residents who are food insecure?
While there is an abdication of support for struggling people in our communities by the federal government, Salem is not backing down here on the local level. Fortunately, in our community, we have a strong foundation to provide food assistance to those in need.
Salem directed a substantial amount of our ARPA funding to the Salem Pantry, which made the Truck - a mobile food distribution vehicle - possible. The City-funded Mack Park Farm has grown and distributed, for free, close to 35,000 pounds of fresh produce for residents in need - a program modeled on a similar initiative at Palmer Cove Park through the Salem YMCA Greenspace. Few municipalities Salem’s size has an official board, here the Salem Food Policy Council, exclusively dedicated to this important work. And through creative local funding and state and private grants, we’ve been able to expand our free Summer Eats program this past summer to add additional distribution locations and more weeks; in all, over 27,000 meals have been served this summer through the program. Initiatives like UpLift Salem provide direct financial assistance to our most vulnerable neighbors, and subsidized services like the Salem Skipper and PowerChoice keep more money in residents’ pockets, so folks can better afford groceries. In our schools our Food and Nutrition Services Department provides free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to thousands of kids throughout the school year and, thanks to a new state grant, we’re linking that with school gardens and local agriculture
4. Do you support or oppose the plans to build a new high school in Salem and the debt exclusion proposal to allow Salem to fund its share of the cost of the new school? Why or why not? What points would you make to communicate with Salem voters about this project?
I strongly support the High School project. Salem students are excelling, with our district now among the top performing districts across Massachusetts Gateway Cities and with enrollment growing. The current building does not serve our academic needs, and has mechanical and energy system failures and under-sized classroom spaces. It’s an incredibly inefficient building to operate, responsible for nearly 30% of our municipal electrical budget. The current high school building is not up to code and, if left unaddressed, could cost our district accreditation.
A YES vote builds a new school on the same campus, with new facilities for world-class academics, career/technical education, the arts and athletics, net zero or net positive energy, and new athletic fields, including a baseball field, soccer and lacrosse fields, and a new home for the Salem Diner for concessions. It will be safer, more energy efficient, and more accessible, and it will cost roughly $456M, with about 50% funded by the state.
A NO vote means the City will need to renovate our existing high school to bring it up to code, at an estimated $354M price tag, with 0% funded by the state. It would consume most of the annual capital budget, meaning effectively zero funding left for paving and sidewalks, park improvements, fire trucks, seawalls, or other City capital needs, including other school buildings. With interest and cost escalations, the bill for a NO vote to taxpayers will approach $1 billion.
A YES vote is the educationally and fiscally more responsible vote.
5. How do you plan to keep your constituents informed about policy issues before the City Council if you are elected?
I’m proud of the communication measures we’ve taken in the Mayor’s Office over the last two years that I’ve had the privilege to serve in this role.
My office publishes a biweekly newsletter, the Salem Compass, and an accompanying podcast. We’ve taken City services out of City Hall and into the community through both the City Hall to Go pop-up and our recurring Mobile Mayor’s Office. Staff from my constituent services team engage in Wednesday Walks, canvassing neighborhoods and business corridors to meet directly with community members and hear from them about issues in their neighborhood. We’ve expanded the City’s presence to new social media platforms and revamped the City website to make it more searchable and user-friendly. To help make our City budget more accessible we publish a Budget in Brief summary each fiscal year and, to make all City publications and documents more accessible, we’ve instituted and begun to implement a comprehensive Language Access policy across all departments.
If re-elected I would continue this work, with concerted efforts to grow the number of subscribers to the Salem Compass, CodeRED notification system, and the City News email list. We will continue to expand the Language Access efforts to include Spanish-language interpretation at more public meetings and to bring both City Hall to Go and the Mobile Mayor’s Office into even more locations and community events across Salem.