Introduction from David W.S. Lieberman - Candidate for Alderman

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Hi.  My name is David W.S. Lieberman, I am a candidate to be the next Alderman from Somerville Ward 6.

My experience working with students as a City Year AmeriCorps member, prosecuting corruption, fraud, and environmental crimes with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, and advocating for clients as a private attorney, has helped give me a set of skills that will make me a strong advocate for our community.

I fell in love with Somerville in 2003, when I moved here to attend Tufts University. After we graduated from law school, my wife, Jessica, and I decided to purchase a home on Powder House Terrace and start our lives here because it is a wonderful, growing, vibrant place to live, work and raise a family.

I am excited about Somerville’s future, but I believe it needs strong leadership to ensure that as it grows and develops, it maintains its essential character and remains a place that both its long-time citizens and newer residents can call home.

Some of the issues I am most passionate about include pursuing a housing policy that will help assure our residents - both owners and renters - that they can afford to raise their families in Somerville for the long term; making local government more responsive to the needs of our residents and businesses; and making sure that all those who do business in and benefit from our City pay their fair share.

If you are interested in learning a bit more about me, you can visit my campaign webite, my facebook page, follow me on twitter, e-mail me at davidwslieberman@gmail.com or call or text me at 617-863-0311.  I posted my full bio from my website below.  I will be out knocking doors and meeting people all summer, so I hope to run across you .  In addition, I've been thinking about doing a meet-up in Davis Square some time this summer to get a chance to meet more people, hear what they think about our community and give them another chance to size me up in person.  Is that something that some of you might be interested in attending?

I have been following DSLJ for some time and I was excited that Ron Newman suggested that I introduce myself here.  I'd love to hear what you all think about the future of Davis Square, Somerville, Johnny D's, 240 Elm Street, etc, and I look forward to answering any questions you have about me

About David

David learned the value of hard work from his parents, small business owners who woke at 4 AM most days to open their coffee shop and bakery.  David’s first job was working at that coffee shop, often baking, beginning late at night and continuing through the early morning.

David has always been a strong advocate for service and community.  In 1999, he left Boston University to serve as an AmeriCorps member in City Year Boston.  There, David worked with under-served students in Boston Public Schools, and spent the following year helping to found a new City Year site in Washington, D.C.

David first moved Somerville in 2003 to complete his degree at Tufts University, where he met his wife Jessica, and they both fell in love with the Davis Square area.  After attending law school at Columbia University and serving as a judicial clerk for a federal judge, David returned home to Somerville in 2010.

As a lawyer, David prosecuted public corruption, fraud, and environmental crimes with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.  He now works in private practice, where he represents parties suing for fraud on behalf of the government and other parties in civil disputes.

David maintains a strong commitment to public service, remaining active in City Year as a member and former co-chair of the Alumni Board, a mentor for corps members seeking legal and public service careers, and a three-time vice-chair of the City Year Legal Breakfast, among other roles.  He has undertaken many pro bono projects, including helping an Iraqi refugee obtain asylum in the U.S after he was threatened by terrorists.  In 2014, he was selected as a Boston Bar Foundation Public Interest Fellow for his commitment to public service, and in 2015 was presented with an Excellence in the Law Award from Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

With your help, David can put his passion for improving the lives of others to work in our community.  As Alderman, he will be a strong advocate for Ward 6, responsive to the needs of his constituents and tireless in his efforts to make sure that our neighborhood remains the diverse, vibrant place we love.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Liz Weinbloom's earlier post generated quite a bit of discussion about issues important to Ward 6. You may want to look through all of that and respond to some of it here.

(Also, your campaign website doesn't have your e-mail address on it, if people want to talk to you or ask you questions privately.)

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Thats a good idea. I will see if I can offer some thoughts in the next day or so.

I think my website is too clever for its own good. The email logo at the bottom pops up my email davidwslieberman@gmail.com.

[ron_newman]

I would never have found that. I suggest you make it more prominent, such as by putting it on the "Contact" page.

I have also invited Lance Davis to introduce himself on DSLJ. I'd also invite Charlie Chisholm if I knew how to contact him.

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Thanks - thats a great a great suggestion. I also edited the post above to include the email.

Charlie Chisholm's campaign postcard

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

Hi Ron,
My husband and I got CC's campaign postcard in the mail. There is a postal return address/ campaign HQ listed. Did you get the postcard? Maybe try and drop him a note?

RE: Charlie Chisholm's campaign postcard

[ron_newman]

No, I didn't. Does the postcard have an e-mail address on it?

RE: Charlie Chisholm's campaign postcard

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

No email. Just a postal address.

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

One of the issues you mentioned (http://davis-square.livejournal.com/3573978.html?thread=37220058#t37220058) in Liz's post was the West Branch Library renovation. I absolutely agree. The Mayor included $4 Million (yes that number is correct :) ) for the project in the current Capital Improvement Plan. While that doesn't guarantee that the project will go forward or that the budget won't change, I would advocate strongly on its behalf. I believe that late this summer, the City will present some options for the renovation to gauge public opinion.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Too vague.

Who is not paying their fair share?

How would you make government more responsive?

What specifically do you think should be done on housing policy?

I think a policy page on your website would be good.

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the comment. I'm happy to be more specific about any of the issues I mentioned, but it takes a fair amount of time and space to give each issue thoughtful answers and I didn't want to make the introduction too hard to read. I will add a policy page to my website going forward. I also want to say that my goal here isn't to suggest that I have all the answers, but to give you a sense of where I am coming from. I genuinely want to know what you think about these things as well.

Let me try to start a discussion on everyone paying their fair share. Tufts University owns nearly $300 million of property in Somerville. Because it is a tax-exempt organization, it pays no taxes on that property, but if it did, those taxes would have been nearly $6 million in 2014. Tufts has an agreement (these are usually referred to as "Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) programs) with the city under which it will contribute $275,000 million annually. It also provides certain assistance to Somerville High School students in admissions.

Contrast this with Boston's PILOT program. In 2014, Tufts would have paid Boston about $12 million in taxes for the medical campus. Tufts was assessed $2.5 million in PILOT payments (about $ 1 million in cash - the rest a community benefits credit).

There is certainly a debate to be had about the value of the services that Tufts provides to the community, but when you look at the closing of the Tufts Educational Day Care Center, the manner in which the University is treating the janitors, and some of the ways in which it has dealt with housing and property acquisition, I think it is hard to argue that Tufts is paying its fair share.

Katjana Ballantyne has proposed that Somerville implement a formalized PILOT program for the city rather than individualized ad hoc deals. I agree with her and would argue that under such a program, Somerville should insist that it receive as good a rate as is being offered to Boston. I should also point out that Tufts is just a very large example, this is an issue with other large non-profits like Partners.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Something is wrong with your numbers here --

"Tufts University owns nearly $300 million of property in Somerville. Because it is a tax-exempt organization, it pays no taxes on that property, but if it did, those taxes would have been nearly $6 million in 2014. Tufts has an agreement (these are usually referred to as "Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) programs) with the city under which it will contribute $275,000 million annually. It also provides certain assistance to Somerville High School students in admissions. "

Do you mean it will contribute $275K annually to the city to compensate for the lack of taxes on the $300M of property? Because contributing $275M or even $270B seems a lot..

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Yes you are totally correct. Thank you for catching that. Tufts pays $275k annually under its current agreement.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

So if they were normal business owners paying property tax their annual fee would have been about $6M annually?

Hmm. I bet they can afford more.

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Yes exactly. The commercial rate on that property would be about $6M.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Can you be more specific about your proposals for housing? 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.

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Sure -

I am happy to discuss affordable housing, I think it is the major challenge facing our city right now. Over 40% of Somerville households (owners and renters) pay more than 30% of their income to housing costs. In 2010, one in five tenant households was paying over 50% of its income to housing costs. Apart from the obvious issues this suggests, I am deeply concerned about the effects on our community if residents do not believe they can afford to be here for the long term.

So what can we do about it? I certainly think you are correct that there is no single solution, but rather the city needs to pursue multiple avenues to address this issue. Here are a few:

- I support the City's decision to increase in linkage fees (one time charges on large commercial developments in to offset the pressure that they exert on housing.) The money goes to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to assist in the development of affordable housing, provide loans to individuals to assist with down payments and closing costs, and provide rental stabilization and related assistance programs.

- I support a revised zoning ordinance that will increase the affordable housing requirement for new development from the current 12.5% to 20%, at least in areas near the T.

- The Mayor has proposed, and the Board of Aldermen is considering, a transfer tax. I think this idea is worth serious consideration, particularly if the tax is tied to holding property for very short periods (i.e. flipping) and the revenue used to support affordable housing programs.

- I would like to look at extending the residential exemption to landlords of long-term tenants. We offer this subsidy to owner/occupiers because we believe they make an investment in our community, long term renters do the same. I believe rewarding landlords who do the things that encourage and assist tenants in staying put (not raising the rent at every opportunity, keeping a property in good repair, etc.) is good policy. In addition, a tenant would need to assist the landlord in the application, which would ensure that some of the savings go to the tenant.

I would very much like to get your thoughts on these ideas particularly the last one as I believe it is a novel idea that I think could be beneficial. I am also very interested in any other ideas or concerns you have around this issue.

Thanks

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

What about supporting the construction of new housing in general, especially increases in density and decreases in parking requirements near transit?

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Thank you,

I think that encouragement of building near transit was one of the strengths of the last revision to the zoning ordinance. I am hopeful that a new revision would also support that.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

The tax break idea seems really complicated and indirect - even the tax break for owner-occupied properties is kind of an odd one, even though it's quite popular. If you want to help renters, help them directly.

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I appreciate your interest in discussing these issues - what do you mean by help them directly?

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

I totally disagree. I'm a landlord and I'd take advantage of this in a second. I don't see how it is so complicated - it was more complicated to get my water heater replaced, honestly.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. Trickle-down economics == fail. Help the people who need it, directly.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

I have no opinion on this specific proposal, but it is not "trickle-down economics," not even close. This is a direct incentive to landlords to keep their tenants around for the long term. "Trickle-down economics" is a very indirect theory that postulates that giving tax cuts to the very wealthy with no strings attached somehow benefits the poor more than giving the money directly to them.

Both the landlord and the tenant have a say on whether a lease is signed or renewed. Giving money directly to the tenant will not encourage the landlord to keep tenants for the long term, and it will encourage them to raise rents (people now have more money to spend on rent - the money just goes back to the landlord anyway) and it will not encourage them to be better landlords in general.

The opposite of "trickle-down economics" is not pretending that economic forces don't exist at all.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

It is a serious problem that you do not include a single reference in your response that addresses supply and demand, specifically the lack of increased supply to meet demand. Not to call you out, a lack of understanding of basic economics is missing from most politicians (except for our mayor) and our local citizenry. I've observed the same politicians complain about density in one breath and complain about housing costs in another breath. Part of the problem is that the government, local, state, federal, deeply subsidizes auto transportation, so increases in density are coupled with increase in auto transportation and so local citizens oppose it.

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

I don't think you are calling me out at all. I think you are looking to have a back and forth on important issues and I appreciate your willingness to engage.

You are absolutely right that the creation of new housing is a vital part of the solution. And, to be clear the Affordable Housing Trust Fund does invest directly new housing development.

However, to my mind the best way to encourage new development is with an appropriately revised zoning ordinance. As I noted above, one of the strengths of the zoning ordinance submitted by the Mayor last year was that it was designed to encourage transit oriented development in appropriate locations. I believe that a revised plan will be submitted this year and I am hopeful that it will have a similiar commitment to smart development. What are your thoughts on the zoning overhaul?

In addition, I'm going to be out door knocking today, if you or anyone else would like to speak in person, please feel free to email me at davidwslieberman@gmail.com or call or text me at 6178630311 and I'm happy to meet you somewhere and discuss.

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

I love this idea:

"We offer this subsidy to owner/occupiers because we believe they make an investment in our community, long term renters do the same. I believe rewarding landlords who do the things that encourage and assist tenants in staying put (not raising the rent at every opportunity, keeping a property in good repair, etc.) is good policy. In addition, a tenant would need to assist the landlord in the application, which would ensure that some of the savings go to the tenant."

I've had the same tenants for 4 years and it'd be nice to get some perks for it from the city.

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Are there other things you think the City could be doing to help residents live here for the long term?

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

I know there are a million things my tenants would love, including curbside composting, more pressure to get the greenline into Ball square, and a less crazy parking ticket policy. The greenline might be outside of what any council person can do :P

Also, not to sounds too negative, but as a landlord I definitely respond to and pay attention to incentives, discounted items the city offers and freebees whenever they are available.

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that. I know that Rebekah Gewirtz and the Mayor are leading a task force on curbside composting -- I look forward to seeing what the task force comes up with -- my wife Jessica will be thrilled if I stop trying to do composting in our driveway.

The Greenline is coming to Ball Square. For each new station, the city will be leading planning sessions related to improving the streets around the stations. The sessions have not yet begun for Ball Square, but its a great way to get involved in making sure we all get the most out of the effort. I have spoken to several of our neighbors on Josephine and Willow aves and they pointed out that the crosswalks in Ball Square are not very intuitive and could stand some rethinking.

You know several people have brought up parking issues to me, whether they think the guest pass policy is unclear, or the city is too willing to re-ticket cars. I'd love to know how you all think we could streamline parking issues.

fire safety issues

[sd210.livejournal.com]

I confess that I live in Ward 7 (also near Tufts), but I think this is an issue that impacts folks in Ward 6 as well. Most "long time" residents around Somerville are familiar with the fire ordinance that prohibits the use of gas and charcoal grills on balconies, decks, roofs, etc. I believe the rule is that the grill must be at least 10 feet away from any wooden structure. The purpose of this ordinance, of course, is to prevent the building from catching on fire (which could then spread quickly to neighboring homes, given the density of houses in Somerville.)

I own a home in an area full of student renters, and the residents in these apartments tend to "flip" annually. Every year, come spring, the weather turns nice and I can see all the kids drinking beers and grilling out on their balconies. In a perfect world, the landlords would be around to educate their tenants and enforce this ordinance, but unfortunately, in my neighborhood this is not the case.

I think that the City (and Tufts) should do a better job (bi-annually, in both Fall and Spring) of making this fire ordinance known. The City could post more reminders on social media and should mail reminders to all addresses (just like they mail other notices, such as DPW schedules and pick up requirements).

Also the City should ask (ahem, demand) that Tufts' police/public safety department send out an email blast in the beginning of the school year and in the spring, reminding the students living off campus that it is a violation of the local law to put your grill on your deck or balcony, and to remind them to have the grill at least 10 feet away from the house or any other wooden structure.

I also think that people caught violating the ordinance should be issued fines. This ordinance needs "teeth" to be effective and to promote public safety. Maybe the fines could be put into a fund that helps Somerville residents that are displaced by fires in the future.

It's a small issue, but important to long term residents who live here and deal with this issue on an regular basis, particularly in the summer. I have a baby and several pets who live in my home, and I don't need my house catching on fire because some drunk Tufts student leaves his grill on after he has too many beers one night.

My other big gripe is that Powder House Boulevard (in Ward 6) needs to be repaved, badly! Pot hole city over there.

RE: fire safety issues

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that thoughtful comment. Totally agree on paving Powder House Blvd.

The BOA passed an ordinance this year that will give the city access to a list of off-campus Tufts students. I like your idea of using the list to share with the students important public-safety information. I would also like to see the city publicize ways in which Tufts students can volunteer and get involved in the community. In my experience, young people want to make a positive impact on their community and welcome the invitation.

RE: fire safety issues

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

What I think is particularly bizarre about the rule regarding gas grills is that ones that are plumbed into the house are allowed, but ones with tanks are banned. If anything, wouldn't it be better to have one that isn't tied to the house, should something go wrong?

Re: fire safety issues

[dwslieberman.livejournal.com]

You know I've never had a plumbed in grill so I didn't know they were treated differently. That is strange.

RE: fire safety issues

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

Can you provide an actual example of a fire caused by Tufts students barbecuing on their deck? I've searched the fire logs and can't find a single one.


This sounds more like another moral panic/hating on students issue than a real problem that has caused fires.

RE: fire safety issues

[sd210.livejournal.com]

So we are supposed to wait until a Tufts student actually burns down a house before we educate them about an existing fire ordinance? Why, so we don't hurt their feelings? I understand that all of the students are "special snowflakes" and all of that, but that is ridiculous. If enforcing an existing fire ordinance on Tufts students is "hating," then yes, I am a hater.

As for whether Tufts students have violated the ordinance, again, yes they have. I have personally witnessed Tufts students grilling on their back porches. I can see them from my own back porch. My family has lived in my neighborhood since the 1940s, so yes, I know which apartments are being rented to students. And I know that they are in violation because I have called the fire department on them and I have watched the firemen come out to enforce the ordinance. (The firemen actually stand there and won't leave until the offending grill is extinguished and removed from the porch.....they take these calls very seriously.)

As for whether the fire ordinance is necessary, I trust that the Somerville fire department has good reason to establish and enforce this ordinance. Thousands of house fires in the US have been started by grills that are too close to a structure. One study I read by the National Fire Protection Association said that US fire departments responded to 8,800 grill fires between 2007 and 2011. These fires resulted in 10 civilian deaths and over $96 million in property damage. Of these fires, almost 56% arose from grills being on decks, balconies, patios and terraces. Less than 1% of these fires originated in an "lawn, field or open area," so yeah, I would say it is safer to put your grill at least 10 ft. away from your house than on a patio. But it doesn't matter what I think... it's the Somerville FD's ordinance. It's the law and the students should respect it.

We don't need to "prove" that a Tufts student has started a fire. The Somerville FD has already caught them violating the ordinance on my street and that is enough.

RE: fire safety issues

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

Did I say that? What I merely asked is "can you point to any instance of it happening". You are acting like this is some sort of enormous problem, and I asked simply that you show show that it has been.

FWIW, the people I see violating this ordinance the most are actually 60 year old dudes in stained tank tops. For some reason, the FD doesn't bug them. I wonder why that is?