Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition

Ben Ewen-Campen

We need cities where our housing, work, errands, childcare, and fun are all easily accessible via public transit, safe bike routes, walking, or rolling in a wheelchair. Since my election in 2017, I have helped lead aggressively on both major streetscape projects in my Ward (including Spring Hill and Highland Ave redesign, see below), and on citywide zoning and parking policies to allow dense, sustainable housing and commercial building near transit, and to reduce congestion by eliminating parking minimums and the availability of on-street parking permits for new housing units.

Ben Ewen-Campen

Whenever we are redesigning a street, I believe that the default must be to prioritize MBTA bus improvements, accessible pedestrian routes, and protected bicycle lanes, period - its a matter of life and death. Two recent examples: when the Mayor's office proposed a Highland Ave redesign without bike lanes, I worked closely with advocates (and, directly with Liveable Streets - thanks!) to push for protected bicycle lanes. Ultimately, we succeeded in winning a public commitment from the Mayor to pursue protected bike lanes. Similarly, the Spring Hill Streetscapes redesign that is planned for a large portion of Ward 3 includes several major improvements which require parking reductions, and I have worked hard to build community support and to address concerns that have been brought up, without sacrificing elements of the proposal.

Each time that a plan to replace parking with a better road use is proposed, there is always understandable fear and strong push-back. Yet, once the work is done and the public sees the final outcome, it is nearly always embraced. I believe it is my job to respectfully work through those fears and concerns with neighbors, without sacrificing our values.

I was very proud that my Resolution calling for funding a citywide bike network was ultimately funded (http://somervillecityma.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?ID=20845), and now that the planning is under way in earnest, I am committed to seeing it through. I am particularly interested in learning what aspects of Cambridge's network implementation Ordinance can be applied to Somerville, and I want to make sure that our bicycle network is also inclusive of our transit infrastructure needs and pedestrian infrastructure.

The accessibility of Somerville's sidewalk network is atrocious - the result of decades of poor planning and maintenance. On the one hand, I am proud that recent streetscape redesigns have all prioritized accessible sidewalks, ramps, and infrastructure for the visually-impaired. Yet on the other hand, it is clear that effectively the whole city is need of this type of make-over. Given this, I support the City's ongoing efforts to identify and prioritize the most egregious and high-priority sidewalk repairs, and believe that we should increase budgetary support for our in-house ability to repair and replace inaccessible infrastructure. I have also led the charge to implement sidewalk snow-clearing, and I'm proud to say that a pilot program was included in this year's budget under the Department of Public Works (http://somervillecityma.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?ID=24501&highlightTerms=sidewalk%20snow)

In addition to being an outspoken advocate for a Complete Streets approach, even when there is pushback, I am committed to using my leverage on funding requests to ensure that any new street redesigns prioritize MBTA bus infrastructure, walkability, accessibility, and protected bicycle lanes.

I am honestly floored by the amazing advocacy of the Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets, which has made more progress with MassDOT on improving our "Corridor of Death" on McGrath & Mystic than has been made in decades. I will continue to work closely with this amazing coalition of community members, advocacy groups, and elected officials at all levels to support this work.

I believe that improving bus infrastructure is the single most important thing we can do to achieve the "triple win" of environmental justice, good jobs, and racial justice. This is because buses reduce fossil fuel consumption, they create good, unionized jobs and also bring people to and from their jobs, and we know that buses are disproportionately used by people of color and immigrants. I have strongly supported every proposed Bus (and Bus + Bike lane) during my time in office, even when there is pushback, and will continue to do so going forward.

I will continue to use my platform to spread awareness of this effort, and will support the efforts of our amazing networks of service providers and community groups who connect so many of our residents and who have redoubled their efforts to organize around transit justice. In particular, shout out to CAAS for becoming a major organizing powerhouse in our community, not just for housing but also for public transit.

After decades of neglect, it seems that the advocacy from SASS and from my colleagues who represent East Somerville has finally begun to open the door for sound and pollution barriers along I-93, which is the single worst air pollution issue in Somerville. On the Land Use Committee, we are working to leverage development interest along this corridor, in Assembly Square, to fund pollution mitigation and physical protection. And, looking forward, grounding McGrath & right-sizing it as an urban street will be a vast improvement along the 28 corridor.

As I have so many times before the State Legislature, I will gladly use my platform as an elected official to amplify the most pressing issues identified by our community and our advocacy groups, and to build political pressure on decision makers.

How to spend the enormous infusion of stimulus dollars that is coming to Somerville will be easily most important and challenging series of decisions we make over the coming term. And, we will be doing so with a new Mayor and many new city councilors. It will be essential that we equity to be at the center of this spending, and to me this means the lions' share of this funding must go towards housing justice. Somerville *already* had an urgent displacement crisis, and the pandemic was like a match to gasoline. In addition to direct assistance to make sure our neighbors who have fallen behind on rent are made whole, this is also our opportunity to subsidize the creation of an enormous volume of new permanently affordable housing, primarily on city-owned land adjacent to transit (Union Square, Gilman Square, Winter Hill, 90 Washington.) We can also use this money to grow our 100 Homes Program, to provide legal counsel to tenants in need, and to directly support community-led groups including land trusts and CDCs who build affordable housing. And beyond housing, this funding should be used accelerate local complete-streets projects, which will create good-paying jobs and will make it easier for people to travel to and from their jobs and homes.

One of the most important things about the GLX contribution being returned it is that it lightens the City's current debt, and thereby makes it easier for us to borrow money for many other crucial investments. In other words, this is even more valuable to our community than just the value of the money being returned - it also means that we can leverage the current bond rates to invest in many other community priorities. Top priorities in Ward 3 include: increasing the amount of affordable housing and green space that can be built on the Homans' building site in Gilman Square, expanding the 100 Homes Program to create permanently affordable housing throughout our neighborhoods, turning the Cummings School & the Walnut St. Rec building into affordable housing home-ownership opportunities, and strategically acquiring vacant buildings such as the church at 125 Highland for adaptive re-use affordable housing developments. There are many, many other investments we need to make, but these are a few of my top priorities in Ward 3.

The simple answer is that we need rent control and just-cause eviction - without these policies in place, lower-income residents don't stand a chance against the tidal wave of displacement. Here in Somerville, I have helped to pass the most ambitious set of housing policies in the State (you can read all the details on my website), but the simple fact is that, without rent control and just-cause eviction, we will always be nibbling around the edges, and there will be no way to stop landlords from simply kicking their tenants out and jacking up the rent. That said, I am deeply committed to doing everything in our power in the current political reality, as well, and I am very proud of our recent accomplishments such as the Affordable Housing Overlay District, re-writing our Condo Conversion Ordinance, regulating AirBNBs, and continuing to build the statewide coalition to pass a transfer fee, eviction sealing, and tenants right to purchase.

In our Zoning Overhaul, we approached this issue in two important ways: we removed parking minimums within 1/2 mile (and I believe we should do so citywide), and we made it such that new developments do not qualify for on-street parking permits. Thus, new developments will not create new on-street parking issues. That said, I continue to believe that we are long overdue for a hard look at our existing parking permit policies, and am glad that the city is undertaking a comprehensive citywide parking study and will make recommendations soon.

I believe that we should continually set the inclusionary percentage as high as possible to allow these units to actually get built. Today, it is abundantly clear that 20% is doable in Somerville - this may not be the case elsewhere, but given how much can be charged for the market units, 20% is doable. And, I have seen no evidence that it is leading to smaller projects - nearly every project that has come across my desk has maxed out the allowable size and unit count under our new zoning. In the coming term, I will be focused on looking at zoning provisions beyond simply the percentage of affordable units that can be used to further our fair housing goals, inspired by the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing work that Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards led over the past three years.

One of the things I love most about Ward 3 is that the overwhelming community input we receive on larger developments is about equity and about building *more* affordable housing, making projects more sustainable, and in fact not about shrinking projects (though of course we do hear that, too.) That said, one of the major reasons that we passed a fundamental overhaul of our Zoning system is because, under the old system, the fate of nearly every single development was effectively up to the discretion of our Planning or Zoning Board, and the people who benefitted under that system were the politically-connected insiders who knew how to work that system. In our new zoning, we intentionally removed that level of discretion, which means that basically, what you see on the zoning map is what you're allowed to build. I do think there is room for improvement on the map itself (i.e. there are areas in West Somerville near transit that should be zoned for more housing), but overall I think the current zoning is a transformative improvement over the previous zoning.

We have passed an enormous number of anti-displacement policies with our municipal power: we have created & funded an Office of Housing Stability, who manage hundreds of cases each year, we passed the Housing Notification Act to ensure residents receive notice of their rights & support agencies during an eviction, re-writing our Condo Conversion Ordinance to provide tenants with relocation time & expenses, regulating AirBNBs and other short-term rentals, allowing for accessory dwelling units (though there is room for improvement in our current policy!), passing an Affordable Housing Overlay district, and helping to launch the a Community Land Trust, where I'm a founding Board member. Going forward, I will be working with a diverse task force to find ways to include Fair Housing principles in our zoning policies and procedures, and additionally I hope we will use municipal funds to subsidize Right to Counsel for tenants facing eviction.