[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much to Jim Silva. Links to more information about the topics he mentions can be found in today's show notes. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. And as always, if you have feedback about this episode or ideas for future episodes, you can email medfordpod at gmail.com. You can also subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Thank you so much for meeting with me today. If you don't mind just introducing yourself with your name and pronouns and just a bit about yourself.
[Jim Silva]: Yes. Hi, I'm Jim Silva. My pronoun is he, him. I live in South Medford. I'm a resident for the last 18 years of South Medford. I grew up there and left in the late seventies and went and searched the world. So it was, lived in the city of Boston for a long time, lived in New York city as well. And I came back to Medford, purchased my folks home in South Medford back in 2004. And started really involving myself in community. I started the South Medford residents together organization because we had a mothball school in South Medford, two of them actually the Lincoln Kennedy. And the concern was some of the zoning aspects, it was ambiguous we didn't know what was going to be there so we collaborated. And from there, it's sort of parlayed into the need to advocate for city services, and ultimately other things started to arrive with that. It's been a pretty interesting journey, one that I never thought I would be on, but it's really amazing when you immerse yourself in community, what you find and what you learn. And the fabric in South Medford is so varied and so wonderful. So it's really been a great experience and continues to be. I was one of the founding members of Safe Medford. in 2017, paused for Medford in 2016 to get our first dog park built in Medford. I think there's a need for equity. We all have our children, and some of us have those children that need to have their own playgrounds. So it was really a wonderful experience as well. I've been part of Charter Review since 2013. I have gone through this for a number of years and really this value in educating folks about review and what review means. It doesn't necessarily mean a change of legislation or the way that we do our business, but oftentimes it amends or improves upon something so that's really really sort of what I feel I've helped to advocate, but also to educate people. You know, every city has a right to review, so people need to realize that. And I've been on the GLX, the Green Line Extension, since 2017. I was a co-chair of parking policy and enforcement for Mayor Longo Curran, and I'm a former member of Arts Collaborative. part of the group who was advocating for Medford's first art center, which is coming together here on Mystic Avenue in South Medford. Just recently, the news has been put out, I think you met with Laurel Siebel.
[Danielle Balocca]: Awesome. Well Jim I know you were a lot of hats and I appreciate your reflection on what it feels like to be immersed in the community and that's definitely something I'm experiencing by talking to so many folks within Medford and your name certainly comes up a lot. So, hopefully we'll flush out some of those things that you brought up some of the different different places where you have your paws. I always try to start out each episode with a question about food, so if you don't mind sharing what your favorite place to eat is in Medford and what you like to eat there.
[Jim Silva]: Well, there is carols, and I love the oysters, and I love the South Medford drink, which is just amazing. It's something I collaborated with, and so you have to go, you have to have the oysters, and you have to try the South Medford drink.
[Danielle Balocca]: What is the South Medford drink?
[Jim Silva]: I can't tell you, it's a secret. So, but really it just works well. And it allows us to celebrate South Medford. I love Semolina Kitchen. I spend a lot of time there. I love Tasty on the Hill for breakfast. I love Oasis down the end of my street. When I feel like I need to have a meat fix, it's really helpful. Colette's Bakery. another. I try to avoid that a lot unless I walk backwards really quickly to kind of burn off some of that. But so I have a lot of places. Love Snappy Patties. I love Bistro 5. But those are my favorites. I eat a lot. I go out a lot. I spend a lot of time, you know, at the Danish pastry. They have great coffee. Certainly once in a while I do partake in the pastry. Quite a few places.
[Danielle Balocca]: Hard to choose, yeah. And I think restaurant week is coming up. Is this next week?
[Jim Silva]: We actually had Shop the Squares. I'm also, I'm sorry, I'm on the Chamber of Commerce. I'm on the Board of Directors and we had Shop the Squares in February and it was where people would go and go to restaurants and some of the other locations actually. It was really a great way to sort of bring people out as we were kind of winding down from the pandemic. And, you know, it was good. It was a very successful program. We're just going to build on it every year, small time of year, but it's really wonderful when people can get out and explore and discover some other places. And we're discovering it too. And it just opens up, you know, places that we would never imagine.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, you're hoping to win those Jonathan Van Ness tickets for sure. Yeah, awesome. Yeah, that was fun. That was actually really fun to participate in. I think we found out about it kind of late in the month. And so we were like, oh, these are all places that we would normally go to. So yeah, great. Awesome. Great. So I know there's a couple of sort of like timely things we could talk about. So the Green Line extension and I know the parking changes are happening. So is there one that you'd like to talk about first?
[Jim Silva]: Well, they are kind of together. GLX Green Line extension was This ruling that was done in 2007, the state agreed upon, the Conservation Law Foundation had filed suit, big dig, great mitigation. And the Green Line was part of that mitigation, part of that agreement. Ultimately, it was a plan to go to Route 16. We're hopeful it will continue on the phase two part of that. but it's currently seven new stations from Lechmere, which is a renewed Lechmere across the street, up to Medford Tufts, and also a spur to Union Square, which is opening this Monday. So after all of this time and our monthly meetings, we've been able to actually see something on Monday to get on this train to be able to ride and the convenience factor is so important. There's so many people in the city of Medford 20 more than 25% of our community takes public transportation or wash your bikes. And equity is important. Quality of air, quality of life with traffic, the convenience factor. A commute should not take you forever. So I'm someone who rides the green line. I'm someone who rides. I have clients in my own business. I do technology support and development and a lot of clients here in the city. I took the bus and the orange line this morning. So I'm always on public transportation. I think it is such an important balance. It provides people with an option. So my role in this, I split my time at the Ball Square Station with my Somerville counterpart, Jennifer Dawson. We've worked to ensure that people in the community were notified when there was closures, specifically the Broadway Bridge. We worked with the businesses. We tried to advocate for the businesses throughout both communities. And an interesting part about the Ball Square Station is 95% of the station sits in the city of Medford. So we're also working on trying to actually have a sign that says South Medford under the Ball Square if you're familiar with Davis Square. It has Tufts University and they make an announcement when you come into the station, because it's important both communities share that load and share that responsibility so we want to share that name. It won't be on a map, but ultimately we're hopeful again, it will be announced as you come into the station. Interestingly enough, three of the stations are identified as Medford station to sit in the city of Medford, but Magoon Square for the lower Main Street is really a walk to station. So we look at this when we're doing wayfinding and working with Walk Medford to sort of identify that so people understand what the walking sort of locations are and pointing people into that direction. as somebody who works in the Chamber of Commerce, I think it's important for businesses to be part of this process because it opens up their possibility to a whole new group of people who are from Somerville who might transport to say to go to Collette's Bakery or to go and visit Oasis if they're having their meat moment and you know so this is great sort of process and it was an opportunity as me as a liaison to work with community people to advocate for the construction noise to mitigate any kind of problems that would possibly happen from construction. This project was interesting because it was not only building a green light or a rapid transit, it was actually rebuilding a commuter rail. So it was two systems built simultaneously. And as we always said in our meetings, you know, The GLXC people, the contractors, they have never built in an urban area like this, the density, the noise, those kind of things. So we learn together on what could work and what doesn't, and we tweak things accordingly. And every month we meet, it's open to the public, and we're continuing to do this until the Medford Tufts station opens. in late August of this year. But we also then meet with the Mayor of Medford, we met with Mayor Burke before Mayor Lungo-Curran, and we talk about and discuss issues. We talk about issues that are related to pedestrian egress, safety, all of those things, traffic mitigation, to things such as where is the Uber and Lyft you know, space is going to be in relation to the station. You know, from the beginning in 2007, when this was approved to 2022, the world has changed. The way that people do that last mile is different. We didn't have what ride sharing in 2007. So now that's something that needs to be. So it's been an ongoing dynamic process. It's again, it's been a great way to keep people informed. but also opening people's eyes to the possibility of issues with affordability and so housing issues and things that will change. These projects are built for people who depend on public transportation, but oftentimes people are tossed to the side because it becomes an affordability issue. So that has been on our mind as well and part of our process.
[Danielle Balocca]: Can you say again where the stops for the Green Line will be in Medford? Sure.
[Jim Silva]: So it'd be Medford Tufts, which is right at College Avenue. So if you go by the new Cummings building, if you're coming up College Avenue to Boston Ave, it's right on your right-hand side as you're coming up College Ave. If you're coming from Boston Ave up from Harvard Street, it's straight ahead as you pass towards the Hillside Shopping District. It's on your right. All square station is off of Boston Avenue is an egress from the ground level from Boston now, and there's one from the Broadway bridge which will bring you to a lobby, which will have stairs to go down to the station. and also elevator down because most stations have two elevators in case one is out for people with mobility issues, but because Ball Square is at grade one of the entrances, we only have one elevator. We have some beautiful art on the elevators themselves. We have stained glass and it's just beautifully done. We have an opportunity, there's a substation there, a DC Power substation, and we're looking, the City of Medford, collaborating with the City of Somerville to do a community canvas, the possibility of doing some type of muraling or something of that nature, and it's really early on. The way the T handles this is usually they wait for the station to be working for about a year, up and running, and then they sort of go the next step. And there's a huge parcel in front of the station on Boston Avenue that is going to be a transit-oriented development. We don't know what that looks like, and as I said, the T generally waits until things are up and running and what needs to be tweaked. and what etc. But that's just how they do it and we have more information if you if you email me at jfsilva at smrto.org I can point you to these different locations about real estate and how the team kind of works with people in developing and what the criteria for development is and who's the market segment that they are really interested in working with. So, they're very thoughtful in their approach, and, but it would really be helpful for people. there's also some issues along the corridor that we're putting on to the city website because of the light rail vehicles are overhead with with electric propulsion there's a concern if there's any construction within 30 feet of the right away, you have to get a special permit, so the city of medford will have that as part of their. criteria for any work along there, but these are the things that we've been able to take to community to tell folks along the corridor that this is something they need to be aware of. And we're learning as we go along, but these are an important part of a working group as a liaison.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. What are you most excited about for the Green Line coming up next?
[Jim Silva]: Um, I do love the one-on-one it's, you know, it's beautiful. It's like being in Ikea with the blue and yellow of the interior of the bus, but I prefer to just. So from my perspective, it's, it, it's a convenience factor. I have a cluster of, of at least me a station at what point there are a number of, uh, condo buildings. I'm the IT person for the management of those buildings. So I being on this committee, I've been able to help them navigate through that and keep people on the green line of aware about those folks in those communities. So I'll be able to get off there and get off at Science Park slash West End, similar to Ball Square slash South Medford. but have folks in there and North Station. So along the line, it will be, for me personally, wonderful. But I also think we are having the E-train. And when the E-train ends at Heath Street, it will allow us to go to the Museum of Fine Arts. We just get on a train, get off a train. My accent comes back every once in a while.
[Unidentified]: It's Willow.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. No, I always like, I work in Central Square in Cambridge and the commute to get there is, it was like riding my bike to the Orange Line. It would take me, it would add so much time to my commute. So this is exciting to hear about, yeah.
[Jim Silva]: Interestingly, my house is point seven miles from Davis Square subway station I live in Medford. And so, every morning there's numerous people that walk by my house that are going to the subway. My friends live up on Broadway near Trump Field, and I'm actually closer to Davis Square than they are and there's some of the restaurant residents so It's interesting how commuting is, but the Red Line has been an amazing difference in Davis Square. From when I was a teenager, which you would never go there, to someplace that you want to go to. Transportation makes that difference. It changes. It gives people a streetscape that it didn't have before.
[Danielle Balocca]: Any concerns or anything that's giving people pause about the Green Line coming to Metro?
[Jim Silva]: I think the uncertainty of the noise, I think that people feel that there might be some noise issues. What we had recommended and we actually advocated for the community liaison group is sort of a post-monitoring of the noise, certainly in areas. If you know where Semolina is on Boston Avenue, there used to be a building there that Tufts took down. And so now it's an open sort of area. St. Clements Road is Medford. Tufts installed noise proofing in the first six homes on St. Clements Road, but the echoing of that. So with that said, we want to make sure that there is some noise monitoring that happens post to alleviate. So that way we want to continue this relationship. We want to make sure that you know, folks are well taken care of. If there's an issue, we need to have that open communication to make sure we can make some changes. There'll be vegetation that's going to be planted along there that supposedly will absorb it. And it's a light rail. It's not like the red line, the orange line, the blue line. It's light rails. So it's not as noisy. It's not as heavy, which is probably going to be a little bit different as far as the noise is concerned. We also have been advocating to keep the 80 bus. Now the 80 bus runs parallel, it comes from Lechmia to Arlington Center, and it runs through Somerville, Pearl Street, Bedford Street, Broadway, and then Boston Avenue. We have many folks who depend on that, folks who live on North Street, children that go to Arlington Catholic High School. We want to keep that bus and there has been sort of this idea that with the Green Line, you know, we're going to potentially take that away so the city of Medford from our liaison, working with the Green Line has been advocating to keep that and explaining the importance and advocating for the importance of people on North Street, people in West Medford, people in Arlington that come to our city, and also for people to show up.
[Danielle Balocca]: It's exciting. Yeah. And what's the connection with Parky?
[Jim Silva]: So, as I said, early on, part of the South Methodist Together organization was to get a resident parking program. We had a lot of people, as I said, my proximity to my house to Davis Square Station, people would park their car and walk to Davis, creates a problem. We have a community of students, which allow it to be vibrant, but also creates a lot of parking problems, potentially. So, I have worked with folks in the community and if you go to the smarter website SMR to.org. It gives you the procedure on how to get resident parking you can download a petition, you can do this process so I've worked with a number of ministrations and Councilors over the years. and been part of sort of looking at this parking program. And it's a little dysfunctional, it's a little interesting, and it needs to be tweaked a bit because of the potential GLX coming in. There are some streets, main streets, for instance, currently you can't get resident parking. So if you have street sweeping and all the streets around you have resident parking, You can't park your car on there because also the dysfunction of the current system is you have to be a resident that street to park on that street. So, it doesn't work for everyone equally you have people who live on small streets like Burke Road, where there are. I think there are 20 spaces, but there are 47 resident parking in visitors. So it needs to be looked at. And we pointed out in our report, we produced a 60 page report on parking policy enforcement, which we gave to the mayor a year ago this month and made those recommendations and actually had statistics about population and talked about You know specific streets we identified 17 streets that had some real problems and inequities that needed to be addressed. And, but also there is, you know, a growing population of folks who were were older who needs services who needs to have a visiting nurse so there needs to be specific. sort of parking needs for movers, for people who just arrived that haven't had their car, for a new car, for a rental car. The product needs to be tweaked. So we wanted to tweak this in a way that we could get feedback. We had over almost a thousand people respond to our survey, and we talked about what they'd like to see. So the main charge of the parking areas were the GLX area, South Medford and the Hillside area, because they're most impacted from the change of public transportation. And, you know, for instance, our private ways, a private way is a private way. You cannot post a resident parking, the city can't ticket on those streets. So 34 streets in those areas, that charge area, that are sort of left on their own. So the city's responsibility really needs to step up and have policy and to help people manage this potential change. And that's really what Milonga Curran looked at when she had the charge, the GLX was the area that was looked at. You know, Medford, we started off with Medford's a tale of two cities. We have an urban part of Medford and we have another part that identifies with Winchester or Arlington or whatever. And rightly so, it's a different topography, it's a different density. So we kind of approached it that way. What works in South Medford, Wellington, Glenwood, West Medford by the commuter rail area may not work in North Medford or the states. but one size does not fit all. And we need a product, we need a parking policy that's dynamic, that changes based on need, that takes an annual review and sees what needs to be, it's just attention paid. And it's an important part of our process. We did not have an in-house policy before. We did not have overseeing of Anything. And so it ran them up to a certain point we point that out strongly. So we have an opportunity, we have an opportunity to have these very simple growth, as we go along and allow a program to be dynamic and to work with the public and to ensure that people's needs are met. And that's an important part of this. So the green line had a lot to do with finally getting this change happening because it really is important.
[Danielle Balocca]: I have a friend who lives on Princeton street and if when it snows, it's like, you know, there's some, like, you know, you can only be on one side of the street and she has kids. So she came over to my house before one of those snowstorms and she took an Uber because she couldn't move her car. She would lose her spot. And that's like, yeah. And we live in North Medford where there's no like restrictions really on anything. Nobody cares what side of the street you park on in a snowstorm really. But it's, yeah, it's really interesting to think about all the different considerations for the different parts of the city.
[Jim Silva]: Absolutely. I mean something as simple as enforcement of, you know, people are parking on the sidewalk they're parking the wrong way. You know, it's, it's, it's not the fault of people from doing that. I just don't think there has ever been any sort of idea that this is a responsibility you have, you know how you live impact your neighbors decisions you make. And so this is an important part of community. It's an important part of getting the response back from people and to ensure that whatever you're presenting or providing, it's working for people. And that's an important consideration.
[Danielle Balocca]: Is this parking program tied at all to the metered parking and the changes with that?
[Jim Silva]: So, yes, so we made some recommendation made 21 recommendations on our report, and nobody loves the kiosk. In fact, people hate a kiosk, and I totally understand. I use an app. So, park the old park mobile that you use in some of the works of network. Now we have our new pay by phone, which is the same one you have in Cambridge. So if you drive places, you have an opportunity to use that one app. But not a lot of people, as I said, a lot of people are very comfortable getting out and putting money in or actually using your app with the indicator. So we need to up our game. We have You know, some of these kiosks have never been updated the software has never been updated the batteries are dying, and some of it is the communication was like to G network. So that's no longer even available so. If it's time to upgrade, be purposeful and look at what your options are. And convenience needs to be one of them. Longevity needs to be the second one. Part of our process, we actually reached out to three different vendors who do this kind of thing. We went from uniforms to decal to design to all of the soups, soup to nut, we handed a report and we handed resources. And we looked at that and we did surveys based on how people had responded to those particular items. So again, they were all metered, they were looking at flexibility, what can be done with those meters, even is something as simple as doing traffic study based on counting as pass or by would be helpful. for any planning, etc. So again, the kiosks are there. The kiosks will be phased out. That's my understanding. That was our recommendation. I'm sure there'll be more on this as we go along. As you know, the parking department just started. Faye Morrison is the new parking director. She's unbelievable. She's from Newton. She was there. She built their program. She has been just somebody who it was just such a wonderful fit because she has all the equipment. She knows what she's doing. She's been there down this road and you get a great value from that because it's your eyes are wide open. So I'm hopeful And I know that things are sort of moving along. But with parking, you also need to have policy that works to help you manage the process. And so the policy part of that is an implementation process that's ongoing. So we're all in this sort of way of moving forward. Um, and it's really kind of exciting because it gives us an opportunity to develop it the way that we see fit at based on our needs and based on a viable solution. And this is the opportunity that people have. So it's exciting.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. And when you say the kiosks will be like, well, we'll be losing the kiosk, what will replace them would just be the using your phone.
[Jim Silva]: It's still, no, I think they probably will go to a meter kind of environment, but a smart meter. Those are some of the recommendations. I haven't seen since the recommendation what the plans are, but because the kiosks are reaching their end of life, they have to be replaced. So a practical solution has always been the convenience of a meter, what people are used to. you know, so these are recommendations that we made. I am not in part of the planning process and what's happening but I know that, you know, the mayor acted on recommendations, understands what needs to be accomplished. You know, being a city councilor for 12 years before she was mayor, she's been there. There are many times I've been in traffic commission meetings with her. Yeah. In regards to safety. So, we we you know, kind of gets it. Um which is great. It acts upon it. So, You know, this will be, it's not, people have a hard time with change and I get that, but if they look at this as an opportunity to make it work for them, it's really going to be a game changer.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: I know myself, like when I hear, like parking really makes a difference for me if I'm going to go somewhere or not. Like the, we used to live in the South end and we had, you know, the parking, the resident permits are zero dollars. And I said, that's because they're worthless because we got ticketed all the time, but the convenience of being able to park really makes a difference and so it's exciting to hear.
[Jim Silva]: I lived in the south end for 22 years.
[Danielle Balocca]: How many times did you get touched?
[Jim Silva]: My office was on Clarendon Street until August of 2020. So yes, I've been there forever.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great, so any other things that you want to mention or things that you're working on or events that you're excited about?
[Jim Silva]: If we can bring up charter review just for a minute. Yes. So it's a very exciting time in Medford. Again, an opportunity to discuss and talk about review. You know, every community has the right to review. And I think a lot of our sort of misinformation is the fact that There really hasn't been a great deal of resources available to people, unless you have to really look for and discover. Having a beginning of the conversation and having a group of people who are sort of interested in working with community to kind of educate people on what the possibilities are. And this is not a game changer or whatever. It's just oftentimes just amendment. Something as simple as, an amendment that says to the charter, every five years, you're going to review your charter. It's not 36 years. And people did a great job before and made the changes. Quite honestly, one of my first elections, if not my first, in 1978, was for the change of charter from Plan E, which is like Cambridge, to plan A, which we currently have. And that wasn't implemented until I believe 86. So from 78 to 86, it took a little bit of time just to get the commission and all of that. But we've looked at other communities who have made some changes with the city of Melrose, for instance, some charter review. City of Somerville is doing that now with a committee and they're incredibly resourceful. They have a wonderful website. They've invited us to their meetings. It's a real community outreach and it's really a wonderful opportunity to see how things could work possibly.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I went to the committee of the whole where they were talking about the voting on the home rule petition and it seems like There was some interesting, I thought, really important comments about democracy and the importance of being able to have, you know, the people's opinions really counting. And the it's, it's, I know, there's a lot of people doing really great work to try to move this forward. And it seems like, I don't know, it's, it should be easier. But it's Yeah, I think it's a, I'm really, like, interested in the prospects of word representation as being one of the outcomes that could come from trying to review. And that seems like something that some people are scared of.
[Jim Silva]: But, you know, again, we just have to have that opportunity to have that conversation, and we can't get over the threshold, but we can get over the threshold, because as we're going through this process we're learning there's other ways to sort of tackle this into look at this, you know, every city has the right to review. They just do. It's a right. And nobody can sort of prevent you from doing that. It just doesn't work that way. So, you know, we'll see how this goes. And I'm a firm believer. I never, I personally never give up. I always like a challenge. I think this has been, everything you do is a challenge, right? It'd be wonderful if I just went to the gym and was just fantastic. That's not the case. It's always a challenge. to continue and to be consistent and to do that. You know, we review our health, we review our financial considerations, our transportation, you know, our roof.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. Well, and it sounds, and just for the history, it sounds like the, we've sent Charterview to the, to the state, but they've sort of, because there wasn't strong enough support in the city council, they didn't really take it up. Is that what's happened in the past?
[Jim Silva]: Yep. That's very true. So yes, Mayor Burke had submitted, I think it was 20, I want to say 2017, maybe 2018. I do apologize for the dates specific, but yes, it was. And It was a four three boat I believe in the city council and it went to the state and they said they send it back. We have. We've done the, the work of doing the signatures to kind of bypass. made over 5000 signatures before there's a certain percentage that we need to have of the number of voters, before we can submit it, and then there's all of this gathering aspect in a pandemic which has been difficult, but also, you know, the, the clerk's office has to go through all of them. because it takes such a long period of time, people have moved, people have left, people have left. So this is the kind of an ongoing thing. So you have to build in that buffer for those reasons. So now, potentially, another 5,000 to 1,000. And so we have to look at how we're going to do that. And then there's the resource aspect. I mean, we're volunteers. Are people willing to commit two hours a week for the next 52 weeks? If the hand is up and certainly but if you know it's hard people have a lot or involved with a lot of different things, but we need commitment it's like everything else right it's a challenge, but you need a commitment to make it work and. To go together.
[Danielle Balocca]: yeah. Good luck, I hope it's I hope it's not a much longer rose.
[Jim Silva]: We get to, we get to, we get to discover so many, you know, this is the thing that's wonderful about this group too. It's like, we have people who are incredibly progressive, incredibly conservative, and people in the middle, and we're all walking the same direction on the same street. I mean, when does this happen? Maybe daylight savings time but beyond that I don't I haven't heard of anything else. That's exciting. And this is exciting because then you work with folks, and they work with you and you accomplish something together and you no longer. pieces you oftentimes you're no longer suspicious you're like wow this person really has the same as me yeah and it's so it's it's sort of a way of really focusing people in a healthy way yeah it's the yeah personal opinion it is like the striking part about charter review that it is so there is so much of a consensus in terms like with the voters around it and it's it is a confusing part too to me about like what's the what's the hold up here but We have our work, we have our work ahead of us, and we are, you know, I rebuilt the website just yesterday or the day before to give more options to give more information by, you know, added language translation, I, it's so it's sort of we're building that. And these are the things that are important to help people sort of see what we're doing and see what we can all do together to potentially review this product we call government.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, awesome. Okay, any other things that are coming up for you that you want to mention?
[Jim Silva]: I'm hopeful I'm going to vacation. No, I'm kidding. I honestly, again, I'm available anytime at my website, my email, JFSILVA at SMRTO.org. And please email me any questions, any sort of concerns or something's happening and if I can assist in any way,
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah.
[Jim Silva]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: These seem like all, you know, all the things that you've mentioned today seem like pretty complex processes. And so it's nice to have a point, you know, to know that there's somebody that we can reach out to if their questions are concerned. Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Awesome. Absolutely.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, I, yeah, this feels like a good place to wrap up unless there's anything else you have to mention.
[Jim Silva]: just get involved. Just get involved in so many things to pick from. There's so much activity. This is such a wonderful opportunity in our city. We really have an amazing place and it's just getting better. So just improve upon a brilliant kind of place.
[Danielle Balocca]: Keep it up. Yeah, that's certainly been one of my takeaways from doing this podcast. But yeah, thank you so much.
[Jim Silva]: Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Of course.
[Jim Silva]: Enjoy your day.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much to Jim Silva. Links to more information about the topics he mentions can be found in today's show notes. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. And as always, if you have feedback about this episode or ideas for future episodes, you can email medfordpod at gmail.com. You can also subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites. Never Bites.
[Jim Silva]: Good job.