Dear Ward 3,
First off: an enormous thank you to each one of you who voted in the historic 2018 midterms last Tuesday. In our Ward, there were 5,409 ballots cast, out of 8,008 registered voters, representing an amazing 67.5% turnout. (The full results are here.) I was particularly proud to see that Question 3, to protect transgender rights in Massachusetts, passed with nearly 90% of the Ward 3 vote. The incredible level of democratic participation in Somerville is something to celebrate, and I feel enormously fortunate to represent such a passionate, engaged community.
And now, some local news and updates:
1) Another bicycle tragedy. Over the weekend, we received the awful news that yet another person was killed while riding a bicycle, this time in front of the Museum of Science. The victim was a 24-year old B.U. graduate student named Meng Jin, who was hit by a turning truck. This comes just weeks after a pedestrian was killed in Cambridge by a truck backing up, and it is now being investigated by the State Police and the District Attorney's office. It is no coincidence that trucks were involved in both deaths: trucks and other large vehicles are responsible for nearly all of the fatal crashes with pedestrians and cyclists. Just a few weeks ago, the Somerville Bike Committee helped to create an educational video for truck drivers, and thanks to their tireless efforts this video will now be required viewing for all public sector truck-drivers in Somerville, Boston, and Cambridge. As we mourn the death of Mr. Jin, we must always remember that these deaths are preventable, and we must continue our work to push for major investments and policy changes to make our streets safer for all.
2) The Board of Aldermen has passed recreational marijuana business regulations - the final step is deciding where retail businesses will be allowed. Earlier this year, the State's marijuana committee released a set of recommendations for cities and towns as local regulations are being written. In particular, these recommendations emphasized that municipalities must work to ensure that this lucrative new industry is welcoming to "communities disproportionately affected by the enforcement of previous cannabis laws, small businesses, and companies led by people of color, women, veterans, and farmers." This issue is especially important given that many powerful big-business groups at the national level are already seeking to dominate the industry (see, for example, this article about former Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, taking a new job as a marijuana lobbyist.)
Last week, after much careful deliberation, the Board unanimously passed a set of regulations that I believe will do an excellent job addressing these issues - in fact, I hope that our regulations will serve as a model to other communities in Massachusetts striving to promote equity and fairness. We created a mandatory two-year period during which time only "priority applicants" can apply for a retail license - this means businesses run by folks who fall into the description quoted above, and/or Somerville residents, and/or co-operatively owned small businesses. In addition, we require that going forward, at least 50% of the retail licenses in Somerville must be owned by such priority applicants. I believe, and hope, that these regulations will help encourage more equity and fairness in our local economy. Following state law, no one under 21 will be allowed to enter any retail facility, smoking marijuana in public remains illegal, and the city will dedicate a portion of the new tax revenue to public health and educational programs. (Many thanks to Alderman Scott, who put in much of the legwork to draft these regulations.)
The next step will be to finalize a zoning map dictating where retail businesses are allowed. Myself and several other Aldermen have been advocating for a equitable distribution of retail establishes across the city, not concentrated into any particular neighborhood, and also to instruct the licensing commission to deny license applications within 500 ft of schools, similar to how alcohol stores are regulated today. (After all, the original ballot question was to "regulate marijuana like alcohol.") There will be a Public Hearing on this issue on Tuesday, Nov 27th, 6:00pm, at City Hall - I welcome your feedback on this issue.
3) Important change to snow emergency parking - **School lots are now off-limits.** Last week, the Mayor's office and the School Committee announced that, for the first time, snow emergency parking will be prohibited in school lots. (Other municipal lots will remain open - see here for a map of all available lots.) While the Board of Aldermen was not involved in this decision, I fully appreciate their reasoning: too many times each year, school is cancelled simply because the parking lots are full. These extra snow days place an unnecessary burden on working parents, who are unable to work on these days, and even more critically, they threaten the food security of over 400 students in our schools who rely on public schools for meals.
As I said in our last Board meeting, while I fully support the goals of the policy change, I have been concerned about the lack of public process and the many questions that remain to ensure that we have sufficient parking for residents without a driveway. I will continue to work with the Mayor's office to address these concerns and look into alternative lot locations, and I will pass along additional information as it becomes available.
4) "Ask yourself: do you think our City has been holding developers to high enough standards in recent years?" In case you missed it, Alderman Niedergang and I wrote an article in the Somerville Times about the work that this Board has been doing to prevent bad development, and to promote affordability, sustainable design, and green and open space, by holding accountable the Mayoral-appointed boards that oversee development in Somerville. You can read the full article here. I am proud of the work this Board has been doing to improve the transparency and rigor of the confirmation process - and keep in mind that this process applies not only to these Boards, but also hiring and promotions within the Police and Fire departments, heads of each city department, and also members of every Board and Commission in the city. You can find all of the agendas of the Confirmations of Appointments Committee, as well as videos and meeting minutes, here.
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5) Somerville Ave. Detour *delayed* until (at least) beginning of December. As I hope you're now aware, there is a major, six-month detour planned for Somerville Ave. near Union Square, as part of the full sewer overhaul. This detour was originally planned for November, but due to conflicts with Eversource, this has now been delayed until early December. (In fact, I've been pushing the city to delay it past the holidays, in order to support the small business community during the holiday shopping season, but so far this has not been agreed to.) You can see all of the details, including a map of the detour and bus detour, here - please do take a look, as this will represent a major traffic change (and headache) for six months.
6) Somerville Hospital. Many of you probably read the devastating Boston Globe article about a young woman who died at the entrance of the Somerville Hospital in 2016, despite having called 911 in the midst of an asthma attack. Her husband, Peter DeMarco, who wrote the article, gave a moving statement to the Board of Aldermen last week. This event has deeply affected many in our community, and has led to many proposals for ways to ensure this never happens again. There is clearly much work to be done to improve our 911 system, and for the Somerville Hospital to do to eventually regain our community's trust, and I thank Mr. DeMarco for his bravery for bringing this tragic story to light.
As always, you can follow along with the Board of Aldermen meetings here - in the coming weeks, we will be continuing our work on a number of important legislative issues, including a law would increase air quality mitigation near highways, a law that would require more green and open space for tall developments, and a law to greatly increase tenant protections when rental units are flipped to condos.
Thanks very much for reading, and please reach out with any questions or concerns,
Ben Ewen-Campen
Ward 3 Alderman
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