Introducing myself: Elizabeth Weinbloom, candidate for Ward 6 Alderman

[lizforalderman.livejournal.com]

Hello Davis LJ! I'm Elizabeth, and I'm running for the Somerville Board of Aldermen in ward 6 (the greater Davis Sq area). I'm a tenant, an educator, a cyclist, and an artsy type -- you can find my complete bio below the jump. I intend to run an open-source campaign, publicly discussing issues of interest to the ward and Somerville generally. You can join the conversation on my campaign Facebook page and Twitter, but I'm also happy to chat here on LJ.

Please don't hesitate to ask any questions about me and my ambitions for Somerville, and I would love to hear about your priorities, concerns, and ideas. I've been lurking on this community for awhile now, by the way, and I really appreciate everyone's engagement with the various commercial vacancies and turnovers in the square - thank you for being an excellent resource!  This is going to be an interesting race, with four candidates trying for the open Ward 6 seat; put Thursday, September 17 on your calendar for the primary.

To get the conversation started: what's your biggest priority for ward 6 right now?

Elizabeth has chosen Somerville as her home and community since 2009.

Her involvement in local politics grew out of a desire to ensure that households like hers can continue living in Somerville into the future. The many developments that make Somerville ever more desirable also make it ever more expensive; changes must be made to keep our neighborhoods livable for a diverse community of renters, students, immigrants, young families, retired people, and artists.

Elizabeth came to the area in 2003 to study at Harvard, having grown up in the New York suburbs. Her first apartment was in Union Square, and she continued renting in Union while completing her studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. At the start of 2014, she began making her home in a rented house on Chandler St with her wonderful roommates.

Elizabeth is a registered Democrat, but she would love the opportunity to choose a viable progressive third-party in federal elections. She is a feminist and strives to be an ally to people of color and the LGBTQ community. She intends to run an open-source campaign, focusing on public discussion of community priorities.

The arts community was Somerville's first draw for Elizabeth, and she is involved in the local arts scene as a creator, performer, and consumer. She has produced several large-scale public events in Somerville, including collaborating with the Somerville Arts Council to create the Ides of March street fair last spring and producing the Disco Ball at the Somerville Armory. Elizabeth is a core member of a Somerville-based living room theater troupe, as well as an amateur cellist, a blues and swing dancer, and an occasional playwright, and her household has hosted performances for Porchfest and throughout the year.

Elizabeth's current career is in education and she holds a master's degree in educational technology. Her work as an instructional designer – developing lesson plans, teaching guides, and online courses – requires Elizabeth to be a quick study, working with subject matter experts to gain a thorough understanding of previously-unfamiliar content; these skills will help Elizabeth serve Somerville as she can quickly learn about and digest new issues for action. Elizabeth's work has the added benefit of being flexible and remote, which will make her highly accessible as a resource for ward 6 residents.

Elizabeth walks, cycles, and rides the MBTA to get around. She is a Hubway member and thinks the bike-share network is a fantastic supplement to traditional public transportation, but Hubway's host communities must push the network into expanding into lower-income neighborhoods. Improving bike lanes and signage will be of particular importance in her advocacy for Ward 6, as well as making public spaces more accessible for people with mobility impairments.

Elizabeth holds a bachelor's degree in social anthropology, which she mainly employs through focused travel. Although her traveling will be curtailed by her commitment to the city of Somerville, her connections and experience will help her engage with other municipalities' approaches to common problems, pushing Somerville to be a leader among small cities. She also speaks tolerable Spanish.

Comments

[ron_newman]

My biggest priority for Ward 6 right now: getting rid of the scaffolding around 240 Elm Street and getting one or more businesses into the building that the neighborhood will patronize and support. Why did the city not facilitate Roche Bros. getting its necessary construction easements so they could build the project that the city had already approved?

[lizforalderman.livejournal.com]

I would love to know the answer to that question too. I attempted to broach the subject with Rebekah Gewirtz but she was reluctant to discuss it. My suspicion -- and I have no insider knowledge here, as I'm currently still just another resident -- is that Roche Bros. backed out for the same reason that Elm St was shut down recently; the disrepair of the building. The landlord should be fined for allowing the property to reach this state.

I do think that a grocery is a great choice for the location. I would have been happy with Roche Bros. but now that they're gone, I'd like to see the city advocate for a more affordable grocery option. I hear that Daily Table (the new nonprofit supermarket from the Trader Joe's founder) is looking to expand within the greater Boston area.

-Liz-

[ron_newman]

And after 240 Elm Street, my second priority is a renovation and restoration of the West Branch Library, including full ADA accessibility and air-conditioning.

[lizforalderman.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I intend to look into whether there are any still-applicable maintenance requirements from the original grant, as it is a Carnegie library. Such a pretty building deserves better. And as a performer, it pains me to see that sweet little stage on the upper level in an unuseable state.

-Liz-

[keithn.livejournal.com]

It's pretty sad that Gewirtz won't discuss what happened. She's an elected official who is supposed to be working on our behalf. She's probably just embarrassed of her failure with that site.

If you are elected, I hope you continue to come here and engage with us.

[lizforalderman.livejournal.com]

I'm sure she has been working hard on getting the site filled.

And of course I'll keep frequenting this message board and others, whether or not I am elected. I'm a lifelong dork so internet forums are my native setting. :)

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

A priority for me (in addition to sharing everyone's interest in seeing the old SS building rehabbed and occupied with good tenants*) is a better review/approval process which prevents horrendous buildings like the one at 377 Elm Street. I assume that there is some sort of process already in place but it clearly failed with this building and now we are stuck with it forever.
* "good tenant" – for me, is one that adds to the community that is here, as in services, grocery & non-chain retail. Not a huge fan of yet-more-destination-bars.

377 Elm Street.

[ron_newman]

nitpick - the address of this building is 377 Summer Street.

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pointing that out – would correct it but I can't edit my post for some reason.

[ron_newman]

Unfortunately LJ doesn't let you edit a comment that has been replied to.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Why is that building horrendous? I mean, aside from the self aggrandizing plaque. It's archetectually consistent with the citizen's bank across the street and it's only slightly larger than abutting structures.

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

Oh! I don't see it as consistent at all. The materials are completely different, cheap and inferior (some sort of "faux marble" on the lower floors), the street wall is poorly designed/defined, ending in the "oops" triangular corner entrance that is not an entrance and has planters to prevent pedestrians from "cutting the corner", The sad little "courtyard" which I guess is where the proposed donut shop is intended to go.

Maybe I am being overly picky – but it seems to me like that building is a good example of bad, cheap "architecture".

[lizforalderman.livejournal.com]

On the plus side, cheap materials means we probably aren't stuck with it forever. :)

-Liz-

[keithn.livejournal.com]

To me this looks better than 90% of the buildings in Davis Square. While Davis Square has many strengths, architecture is not one of them.

[lizforalderman.livejournal.com]

Sadly this is true throughout Somerville. I guess we aren't all lucky enough to enjoy the fruits of architectural investment from the rich people of previous centuries (*cough* Cambridge), but at least we've had some! Many of our civic buildings are beauties and they deserve better care.

-Liz-

[lizforalderman.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I know there are some rules regarding attractiveness and fitness for the surrounding block, but I don't actually know what they are. I also wonder if there have been any changes proposed as part of the potential zoning overhaul. I'll look into it. Thanks for your thoughts!

(is the Greek flag always flying on that building? If so, I've never noticed!!)

-Liz-

[gruene.livejournal.com]

I think the only thing actionable might be setbacks. Cheap materials and shape seem to be out of the scope of zoning, but serious_noir's sense that the building is too imposing is correctable. (Or correctable for future buildings anyway.)

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

nit pick – it's not that I think it is too imposing – as a "bookend" to the square and a companion to the Citizen's bank building, I think the scale of the building is good. It's the design and implementation which I take issue with.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

And yes, it is a Greek flag. The developer who built it is Greek. (He's a somewhat controversial figure around here, for what it's worth.)

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's always been up. Ugh.

[ron_newman]

I don't mind the Greek flag, but shouldn't there then be a Greek restaurant in the building?

[guthmeister.livejournal.com]

FWIW, at a ResiStat meeting last year, I heard the mayor refer to this building as the "Greek embassy." Just in case you wanna bring it up with him...or any of the other shenanigans this landlord has been up to in Davis Square.

[jbossbarr.livejournal.com]

This is Christos Poutahidis' horrible legacy that will be with us forever - a horrendous, unusable monstrosity that I told Rebecca Gewirtz would ruin this corner when it was being constructed. Poutahidis even named it "Christos Poutahidis Square" (see the plaque on the side of the building). We nicknamed it "The Greek Embassy" with the flag on the the flagpole outside.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

240 Elm Street is the biggest issue in this ward, but I disagree with some of the other posters here. It's much better to have a restaurant/bar there than for it to sit empty for another 2+ years. Trying to force your own preference for a business into that building isn't going to work and is what got us where we are now.

I live here too and I'm always happy to have more dining options. Grocery would be good, too, but it's not worth keeping the building empty forever for a grocery store that will never come. I feel like as far as retail goes, I'm all set with Amazon.com. The pipe dream of a square lined with quaint mom and pop stores isn't going to happen, and it's not that great anyway.

[lizforalderman.livejournal.com]

I'm with you there, Keith. Of course we all have our priority lists for what we'd like to see come into a big space like that, but waiting for the perfect fit probably helped get us into this mess. At this point we need the space in active use and, even more importantly, in good repair.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

It is not the developments that are the driving force for housing prices to increase, it is historical suburban-urban reverse migration and macroeconomic trends. If no new units were built, existing units would be bid up more because supply/demand imbalance would be even worse. I'm tired of our local politicians complaining about prices and in the next breath fighting density.

[lizforalderman.livejournal.com]

My apologies for being unclear. I use the word development to refer to things like the Green Line Extension and the general sense of developments as in change. I support the construction of new housing units as long as there is a high percentage of dedicated affordable units. Somerville was once a lot more dense than it is even now: we have room for everyone.

Would you also cover Ball Square?

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

I'd like to mirror the comments regarding Davis Square especially the Social Security Building. My goodness, something must go in there and a grocery store would be fantastic. But I also live near Ball Square, and have concerns that it is often ignored/has high business turnover in favor of Davis Square.

RE: Would you also cover Ball Square?

[lizforalderman.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your comment Bob, and my apologies for not seeing it til now. Ward 6 includes part of Ball Square, so the answer to your question is, technically, yes-ish.

More to the point, I agree that Ball Sq is often over-looked as anything but a brunch hub (though a fine brunch hub it is). I actually live slightly nearer to Ball than to Davis, and while I do frequent the brunch places and Lyndell's and True Grounds, it can't be ignored that Ball is just not as lively. I would love to help Ball attract more foot traffic and lasting businesses.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Can you be more specific about your proposals for housing policy? Lots of people think the rent is too damn high, but there are a lot of competing ideas about the best way(s) to address the problem.