total time: 13.93 minutes
total words: 923
[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelley. Shelley is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And Danielle is a community mobilizer and changemaker. And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat.
[Unidentified]: Yep.
[Danielle Balocca]: Alright, thanks for joining me. If you could just introduce yourself with your name, pronouns and a bit about who you are.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sure. Thanks for having me. Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Mayor of Medford. And my pronouns are she her.
[Danielle Balocca]: And if I know you've been on a few times, maybe this has changed. But I'll ask you the same question we ask everybody, which is your favorite place to eat in Medford and what you like to eat there.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Gosh, I love a number of spots, the Ford, the vault. The last place I ate probably a few weeks ago was Fiore Italy, and I got this seafood risotto. It was to die for. And it was just great atmosphere, a little restaurant right on Salem Street. So that's probably the most recent, so I'll go with that.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, we love that place too. It's great. Awesome. So I just want to acknowledge that this is, I think this is like your fourth time coming on the show. And I think you were one of our first guests in the beginning. We started the podcast during the last municipal election or leading up to the last municipal election two years ago. And at that point I was recording out of my shed. So thanks for being brave enough to come to my backyard to record that. And, you know, you're pretty deep in coven two years ago and you're running for your second term. And so now you're running for your third term as mayor of Medford, and hopefully the big crisis of coven is mostly behind us so I kind of wonder how. Like, you know, how you kind of figure that into your third term and maybe like how it's kind of impacted your the four years that you've been our mayor and kind of how you see kind of the retreat of COVID impacting your goals for the third term.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sure. Yep. COVID lasted a good two, three years and I think it's only made me a stronger leader, just having to deal with emergency after crisis, after emergency, after, you know, working with our Board of Health Director and making sure everybody stayed healthy and safe, while at the same time trying to create a culture change in the city and make sure that we have the best people for each job. So although we were dealing with COVID, I was still working to build a team in City Hall. That's obviously my main role. And we were able to do that. And because we have such a strong team, I feel like even throughout COVID, we were still working every day on issues, on projects, on anything and everything that you know, affects our residents. So as you see now, it's, I mean, you're three and a half and you look out driving around Medford, you see patchwork being done on our streets, you see tree stumps being removed, you see multiple parks getting rehabbed or completely redone like Carr Park, Morrison, Hickey Park, the list goes on. You see our fire stations getting new windows, new flooring, new roofs, because of all the hard work that the team that I put in place has done. So I didn't never take credit for any of the work myself. Every part of this is a team effort. And it's exciting to know that even though we went through COVID, we were still in the office working for the best interests of our community. So I think Even though COVID's over, we still are seeing the effects of COVID. And with that, we are moving into year, almost into year, end of year four. And we were able to get an MVP grant. So now we have nine people on staff that speak another language. We've been able to try to reach out to all of our communities, Brazilian, Haitian population. We're trying to build trust. trying to make sure that every person in Medford is involved in what goes on from the charter survey to the trash pickup survey and so forth. So we're still trying to work through the effects of COVID, not only by marginalized communities, but also what's going on in our schools and the mental health crisis that's out there. You know, we still have, you know, a lot of issues, but we're working through it. And that's kind of where I see the future, continuing to build on what we've done, continuing to build a strong team, hold people accountable so that, you know, our residents know who they employ is out there doing the tough, the hard work. And that's all I ask. Honest days pay for just do your work. So you'll see sometimes that I have opposition, but that's the hard work of trying to get the best people in these roles and make sure people are held accountable so we can get the best results for our city.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. You said something earlier about a culture change that you're hoping for. It sounds like any new mayor coming in maybe wants to create an identity with the city or have a lasting impact on the city and the culture of the city. What do you mean when you say a culture change for Medford?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Well, part of it's what I spoke about, about holding people accountable. Before I came into office, there was no human resources. So it's almost as if nobody did anything wrong. And I come in, I create the office. We now have a new HR director, Lisa Crowley, who came from Methuen, fixed what went on over in Methuen, especially within the police department. And she's amazing. So the culture change is happening. grief from it, from people that are just used to doing things the way they used to do them, but now... And that's a small percentage, but still, that's part of my day. I drive home from work, and I make myself think about all the amazing people we have working hard, getting projects done, and busting their butts every day, sometimes every night, for the best interest of the community. But I, during the day, have to focus on, OK, who did what? What are we going to do about it? And how are we going to just shift this culture so people understand you have to do the right thing. You have to be qualified for a job. I'm not gonna just hire friends. That's not how it should be. And sometimes I'm like, should I be in government? Because it is politics, and there's an election every two years. But I don't really think of it that way. Maybe I should be in the private sector, because I am tough, but I'm doing it for the right reasons. And I feel the shift, and we're gonna just keep moving in that direction.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I think anytime you try to change a culture that people are comfortable with, it's hard. And we made a point earlier about the way that different communities in Medford have maybe not historically had great access to City Hall. And I think COVID crisis really highlighted that when people learned that we sort of do rely on our city government for a lot. And so it sounds like that's a big piece of what you've been working on as well.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, the diversity is a huge piece of the culture change too. We worked hard over the first few years to diversify our police department. I got a lot of pushback on that when we tried to move people that spoke a second language up underneath the veterans. And now you'll see last week or the week before pushing out the fact that the fire exam's coming up on the 29th and we put it out in multiple different languages because I've been able to work with City Hall and a number of different departments, and I just wanna keep moving the needle because diversity is, we want representation. The representation, the people that live in our community should represent every department, every facet of our city, including our schools and our police, fire, Department of Public Works, City Hall. And you are seeing the change there too, which I'm very proud of.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, seems it's like also during COVID people sounded like they got a little bit more engaged with city politics and, and like, I noticed that diversity like of all kinds right is it's changing the city if you look at like, I mean just going like listening to are going to some of the city events where I think it was your Was it your inauguration or something where every person who spoke was a woman except for Terry Carter? Just highlighting the increase in women that are part of city government. It sounds like that's a change since you started on city council. How long ago?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, that's the reason why I ran for city council. At the crazy age of 20, I say my brain wasn't fully developed now that I think back, I'm like, why did I do this? But at 20, there was I believe one woman, and they were all older men. And I'm like, why? We need more young representation. We need more diverse representation. And that's why I ran. And I'm still in it trying to, like I said, move the needle. And we're making a lot of progress. I'm proud of it. There's great men that work for the city, and there's great women that work for the city. And that's all I want to do is just put the best team in place and make sure we give everybody an opportunity for every single job.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, so I think when I know hopefully I'll also talk to the other to other candidate for mayor, but I feel like one thing that that come that will probably come up comes up a lot is like the the budget. And I know we've talked before about sort of your hope for new revenue streams from new businesses coming into Medford. So I wonder if you could like kind of update us on your hopes for the next couple years.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sure, you'll see this year and next year, you're going to see a lot of shovels in the ground. We have the rise building that will be put up right above Bertucci's. That's going to be eight stories. That's fully ready to go. There was a lawsuit holding it up. That's ready to go. We just negotiated with 40B Development right behind Wegmans. That's going to be, I believe, close to 350 units. 25% will be affordable. 100% of those will count towards our affordable housing stock. Mystic Ave, Combined Properties. After I won the second election, they really started to turn their idea around, and it's going to be a billion-dollar life science project, fingers crossed. We have a number of other small places. We have Theory that's almost ready to open, which is our first cannabis retail shop. We have three of those that we're working through. We have two delivery companies with diverse owners. And then we have one potential Cultivation Center on Mystic Ave. Then we have the Great American Beer Hall. We'll be kind of cutting a ribbon for the groundbreaking next week for that. That's going to be a great spot to, you know, hang out. We're trying to bring in new business everywhere we can. So that's just a little bit. We're getting ready for Square. We're working on an RFP4. We're hoping MAPC will continue that work with us. We're trying to develop the waterfront. We do an RFP for consultant to help us draft the full RFP for the air rights above Wellington Circle. And that is going to be a huge, huge development that we hope to move forward. That's going to take obviously several years, but we're working hard and we have been able to double our staff in the planning department. So we now have a housing planner, we have We have people on staff that are really interested in all types of development in Medford. And we're trying to bring the community, we get the community involved by asking each developer to have a community meeting. We wanna know people's concerns. We wanna make sure what we're doing is the right place, the right fit for each neighborhood. So not only we're trying to move a number of development pieces, but then also making sure the community is involved. And I think that's the most important part. Because we do. We need new growth to be able to afford not only new ideas, but we have several positions and several things that we're using one-time funding for, which is the ARPA funding, that is only going to last for another 18 months. So when you talk budget, my mind's always, you know, going through, okay, how much money do we have left? Where are we gonna spend it? Let's be thoughtful and let's make sure that the people we have in certain positions, we're able to do all we can to keep them, like our social worker and like our community connectors that are out in our community. We have an economic development planner that's on opera. So we're always looking for ways to boost new growth in the right way.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, that's exciting stuff. I hadn't heard about the beer hall. That's exciting.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: All that stuff sounds great. I think they posted a picture on social media recently, but I'll highlight it next week. We're just going to do a quick groundbreaking. They want to do a groundbreaking event. So that hopefully will take about a year.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great. Thank you. Is there anything else that you're excited to promote or that you want people to hear about?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Gosh, just that the work needs to, you know, that I work hard every day with our team and we have so many projects that we're working on, so many that I've mentioned today, so many more like, you know, our climate goals and, you know, furthering arts and culture. So there's just so much more to do and that's why, you know, I'm running again to to continue the hard work that I do every day and because I do it for the right reasons. I sleep decent at night because I'm always, I may not be perfect, I may make mistakes, but I always try to do what's in the best interest of the community and listen to everybody. I'm not gonna just listen to one side. I really try to do what's best for the entire community. We have a lot more work to do, and we're plugging away. It's been great, as you see when you drive around the city. A lot going on.
[Danielle Balocca]: And I see that you've had some office hours at different local businesses. What's the best way for people to get in touch with you or share their thoughts with you if they want to?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I have five email addresses, I check them all myself. So the mayor, email mayor at medford-ma.gov is the best way to get me because I'm on that 6am, 9pm, weekends. So I really try to check that on myself so that I know what the concerns are. I know what issues are out there. I am able to read it and grasp it myself. So I try to block out at least two plus hours a day just on email. And that's seven days a week. Then we have office hours. I'm going to be doing another one at CB Scoops in September. I'm going to try to do one through the campaign on a Saturday. So I'm trying to do different times, different locations. Administrative assistant's always there to help with anybody that wants to call. She gets compliments on how nice she is to residents all the time. We can't necessarily fix every single issue, but I always say, even if it's bad news, at least I'm getting back to people and communicating and getting them the answers that they deserve. So I'm pretty accessible, especially by email and through my office staff. I'm always at as many events as I can be. know all the different functions that are happening around the city.
[Danielle Balocca]: So I feel like I say this every time we talk but it's like sometimes I it feels like you're in multiple places at once when you see all the events that you're going to. So
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: It's hard because I'm sick of the pictures, but then if I go to four things on a Saturday and I don't post one, then it's like, why didn't you post our event? People can say too many pictures, but I'm like, you don't understand. Why didn't she go to that event when she went to this? So I just like to highlight all the organizations that are putting on some great events and the nonprofits that are working so hard for our community. It's important to highlight new businesses that open. You know, we had a grand opening yesterday for dentists, Smile Forever, that's right on High Street. So it's important. It's important work.
[Danielle Balocca]: And if it's not on social media, it didn't happen.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Didn't happen.
[Danielle Balocca]: Right. Well, thank you. I have one final question, which this episode will come out after we already know the answer. But right now, do you have a prediction for who will win the Women's World Cup?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think it's going to be Columbia.
[Danielle Balocca]: Ooh, that would be interesting. My top predictions are Japan and England, but it would be great to see somebody over there.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: It will be on in my house, because my husband's a huge soccer fan. So he was up at 5 AM, I think it was Saturday morning, watching. And I'm like, you're crazy, because you had family over the night before. So he was right there with you, watching. I wish all the team the best of luck. It's great for our female athletes just see role models. My one soccer player is my daughter, my middle child. And yeah, it's great to have those role models for them.
[Danielle Balocca]: For sure. All right. Well, thank you and good luck with the rest of the campaign.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thanks for having me. All right.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Casherman. Music is made by Hendrik Irenys. We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. You can reach out to us by email at medfordpod at gmail.com, or you can rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites. Never Bites. Good job.
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total time: 13.93 minutes total words: 923 |
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