total time: 32.1 minutes
total words: 1431
[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. All right, welcome and thanks for joining me today. If you don't mind just starting with an introduction, so your name and pronouns and a bit about who you are.
[Justin Tseng]: Thanks, Daniel, for having me on the podcast. I'm a big fan of it. My name's Justin Tseng. My pronouns are he, him. I am a city councilor here in Medford, and I'm serving out my first term. I'm the first, lucky enough to be the first Asian American elected official here in Medford, which is a great growing community, and it's great to see some representation in government. I was a proud product of the Medford Public Schools, After I went to Harvard for university, I came back and wanted to serve. I thought that our city could, you know, I thought that our city was at a turning point. And I really wanted to capture that energy to move our city forward. And I've been working hard ever since.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks, Justin. And we'll hear a little bit more about that in a minute. But first, I'm going to ask you, I know you've been on the podcast before, but that was almost two years ago now. So I'm wondering if you could share your favorite place to eat currently in Medford and what you like to eat there.
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, the famous question of the podcast. This is such a hard one especially since we have so so many new places coming in. Um, I was trying to prep for this and it was, it was getting difficult. Um, I can't actually remember where I said last time because I feel like the answer changes every once in a while. Um, I think chili garden is always a safe bet. But, um, I've. you know, sometimes I'll pop over to Deep Cuts for a sandwich. I live close to Medford Square, so I'll pop over to Deep Cuts for a sandwich at lunch, or to Cuba is a great place, too. I've already been there twice since it's opened, and I'm just trying to bring all my friends there, since it's something that we can be so proud of.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I've been waiting my chance. It looks, it looks great. Well, thank you. Yeah, I think it's always, I'm always, I always find a little chuckle when that's the question that catches people up. But you're right, I think over the last two years, especially lots of new spaces, and food to check out. So thank you. So great. So you're running for your second term. I'm wondering if you could sort of reflect on the first term kind of, you know, what you're sort of proud that you accomplished, any other sort of reflections about, you know, what, what you were able to do, what you have in the works, just sort of, you know, mentioning yourself as the first Asian American city councilor, any reflections on that, that experience? Yeah.
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, that's a great question. It's a it's a big question. Um, I think when I when I think about the work that I've done over the last two years, and the goals that I came into government with, I think really, I'm creating a city government that better represented people's lived experience on the ground was really central to central to what I wanted to do. And so a lot of the work that I've done, you know, when I talk about representation, it's not only about skin color or language or things like that, it's about interests, about issues. What I was seeing two years ago was that we finally, I think, started to have this different conception of a city government as one that dared to solve bigger problems. And I think that there's been an attitude in city government that hasn't necessarily tied issues. to make, I guess, to make issues more relatable to residents, to make residents feel like we're really addressing their concerns. And I think ultimately that's been my goal, is to communicate better, to make sure that people's, the issues that people care about, the issues that I was hearing on the doors are reflected better in the work that we're doing, both on the city council and in city government at large. When I think about the work that I've done over the last two years I think I really organized them around three general principles. I think we all can acknowledge that we have a cost of living problem in the country and and the city government's not going to be the one to solve it but we can make people's lives easier. And when I think about affordability, I think about rents going up. I think about my friends being pushed out of the city. I think about my own future here as someone who wants to stay but can't afford a house. I think about just everyday things that we can do to lower people's bills. But I also think about the long term. And I think about how can we make the city more affordable in the long term. And so, how can we make the investments into water and sewer infrastructure, how do we make the investments into our physical infrastructure to save people. in the long, money in the long term. Another principle I like to organize my thoughts around is sustainability. I think that if we want to build a future built to last, we have to build a sustainable future. And so I've been really proud to get to work on the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan Really, I'm really excited to hopefully continue that work if I get a chance, especially with zoning, because a lot of the climate goals or policy actions, especially for the city council, are zoning focused. We've also passed a number of ordinances, and we're still working on a number of ordinances that really further our climate goals. We've passed regulations on polystyrene. We are currently working on leaf blower ordinances, we're working on tree protection as well. And I think these are goals that are going to set us up for a better future. And I think the last overarching goal, the last overarching category that I work around is this idea of inclusion and a welcome government. And so that's a lot of the work that I do behind the scenes that doesn't necessarily come out. And I'm working, hopefully, on a few draft ordinances that we can, knock on wood, task next term, if I do get re-elected, with regards to data equity, language access. But in the meantime, I've worked a lot to make sure that we're doing the most that we can given limited resources when it comes to language access. I'm personally helping constituents in Chinese and Spanish, languages that haven't traditionally been served by city government, working on how we can make the building of the City Hall building more welcoming. I know Zach talked about this on his episode, but we've spent a lot of time modernizing city council rules. making that side of city government, City Council more accessible to residents and to make the environment less hostile and more welcoming. And I think that's really, we've seen a real change with people coming into City Hall, who have to come before the City Council meetings. And I think That's basically the vision, is keep pushing forward on making city government more inclusive. I've sent out, this year I piloted a budget survey, a feedback form basically, before we started our city council meetings on the budget to basically see where people were at, what suggestions they had for the budget, what issues they really wanted to see funded, and that was really helpful. for guiding our work and our negotiations with this current budget. I would want to expand those efforts, if given a second term, and also just to move even beyond surveys and to more collaborative more engaging forms of feedback.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I feel like that's a big, a big sort of, I don't know, barrier or like issue that I've heard a lot of is like, how do we get participation from people in the city? And, you know, the thing I hear a lot about is like, we don't have a newspaper, that's a that's a big barrier. But, you know, I think that it's a question, like, I'm on the Charter Study Committee, and like the how getting people to come to our meetings, getting people to participate, what like the importance of community feedback, and how to like, get to the people, get to hear what they want to hear. It seems like a big issue. I do see that even in the last two years, that language capacity, the multilingual lines, all these things have seemed to have had some impact, but it's a big job.
[Justin Tseng]: It is. Yeah, I mean, I think it's difficult to, you know, when all the systems are built in a certain way it's really difficult to adjust them all to make sure they match the needs of a growing and diversifying city. We need to think about what it means for government to meet people where they are, instead of expecting people to come to government. And that's a difficult task, given that your time on the Charter Study Committee is volunteer time. A lot of us and city staff, it would mean expending more time outside of our day jobs to do it. But I want to help think about ways that we can do that within the scope of our day jobs. I've been talking to a few candidates who are running for city council this election, some new candidates who would be interested in working with our community liaisons to reach out to our immigrant communities and hold meetings there, just listening sessions and to introduce us and what we do. And I think that would be a really exciting project to work on next term as well. And the mayor has said that that's something that she would want to work on too.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, so I didn't really plan on bringing this up, but I do think it's a great point that you just made. And I like this. I'm a social worker, so I like hearing this sort of social worky element to city government, where really meeting people where they are. And the resource there that you're bringing up is your salaries, right? That this is essentially, I don't know how transparent or how much people know about compensation for city council, but it's very low. It's essentially the amount of hours that you're putting into it very, you know, almost volunteer almost volunteer time in general right so I think that, and we expect a lot of city council and they're an out of our city council members and that, you know, if this were something that people were able to make their full time job what that would change. So I think it's an interesting question. And especially looking at like, if we're discussing changing the size of our council, what that would mean for budgets and, and the budget seems to be a big topic that could have a really big changing the budget or increasing the budget could have a huge impact on the city. I don't know if that's a question really, but, but yeah, I'm guessing who, who I'm asking are thinking about, like, I'm wondering. who are kind of like your like allies or like partners in the community or like groups or commissions that have been helpful in supporting kind of your goals on the city council?
[Justin Tseng]: It's really hard to just choose a number of groups. I think a lot of the work we do, I mean, I would say basically all the commissions that we work with are very helpful in giving us feedback. I mean, the way I describe it is in some ways, jobs like mine, elected positions, we're expected to be experts on everything, but we can't be experts on everything. And so one of the parts of this job that I like the most is relying on experts for feedback, talking to them, asking them engaging questions, thinking about ways that we can connect different topic areas as well. And so with that, all these different activist groups, community groups become really important. I learned so much just from talking to people and housing Medford and safe Medford and meant for people power, but also in our commissions in our human rights commissions are even things like traffic commission, and I, this is you know I think. My job is to synthesize all that information think about how it all works together, how we can make it work comprehensively. But I really like it's, I think it's, that's, it's a difficult question to answer because it's so broad and I think even. I think Kit and Zach are Councilors that I work with all the time, but, you know, I'm working on the Youth Commission idea with Councilors Garpelli as well, and their ideas that I work on with Councilor Caraviello and, you know, these, I think the projects that I've been working on really are transcending a lot of these political lines and I think it's the same for Councilor Councilors bears and columns as well they spend so much time working with people who have very different views on issues with them I think that I think a lot of a lot. Most of it happens away from Tuesday night meetings and so. I just wanted to say that they deserve a lot of credit for that as well. And I think our job is way more holistic. And yeah, it's just a difficult question to answer.
[Danielle Balocca]: No, I appreciate that. I appreciate the thoughtfulness. And what I'm hearing is it sounds like I'm always impressed whenever I meet a group from Medford or people from Medford that are involved in anything that there's like a lot of really smart people in Medford, they have great ideas. They are very like committed to the city and to sort of trying to make things work. And it sounds like you're kind of like, in many ways, like translator and interpreters, like, okay, here's how city government could help you with that, or could sort of address those concerns or issues or things that you're needing. Which is great, and I think that's, you know, I talked to the mayor a few weeks ago and she made some points about her hopes for just changing the culture of City Hall and it sounds like in alignment with kind of what you're saying there.
[Justin Tseng]: I think I think there's great alignment across you know different, I mean I think everyone notes that like a lot of us have different political philosophies when it comes to how to work in City Hall but I think something that goes a bit under kind of underspoken I guess is. just that I think there's a lot of alignment and a lot of common goals with regards to how a city should, you know, what our city goals should be, how a city should function. I think that, you know, the differences come in how we execute those plans and how many, how much we're ready to expend in resources towards those goals. I think that's where a lot of our debates You know, come, come out but I think there's generally just a lot of alignment that folks don't see. And I think when you're doing this job. you're engaging with all this information every day. And I think even if we have different ways to get to a goal, we oftentimes see very similar goals. I mean, I think revenue, you talked about how the budget is always a big question. I know Zach's episode really talked a lot about the budget, but I think revenue is one of those examples where I think we do all see the need for more revenue in the city. I think we have very different ways to get there. And I think, I, you know, I believe in a certain way, a certain philosophy to get there. I think that our timeline is tighter than others imagine it to be. But I think we can all, we are united around this goal that we really do need more revenue. And I think we just have different ways of interpreting the plans. And that's what something like the financial task force is meant to do is to iron out a lot of those differences and to create a solid plan moving forward.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you, and I think one element of the budget that we heard both candidates for mayor talk about in the debate was this idea of like the, how will we fund a new high school? And I've heard lots of different ideas about that, like debt exclusion, tax override, examining our priorities for whether or not we need a new high school. I wonder what your sort of thoughts are on that specific issue related to the budget.
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, with the new high school, I mean, I went to that school and I think there's something to be said that we need a building that students can be proud of. Walking in, I love the teachers and I love my experience there, but sometimes, and I think people my age who went to that school can relate to this, you walk into the building and you're just so depressed. You're just so, you're just, it's just such, physically, it's a gloomy environment. And I do think that affects student outcomes. I think that affects how teachers feel about their jobs, teacher satisfaction, and teacher retention. And I'm not saying that the building is the reason why things are the way they are, but I do think it plays a role in it. And I think If not for city if for city pride, we should really look at how we deal with that building. What I've been telling people is that I am in favor of a new high school, I think, I think it's time, I think our current building doesn't serve the needs. that we see now. I know the report that came out after the incidents at the school, basically a lot of it was basically saying resources, there's the staff component and the physical component, and the fact that, and the staff component, you know, that's separate, that might be a conversation about an override or different revenue capacity, you know, revenue streams. But I think the physical component is the fact that it doesn't align with what we need now is troubling. I think there's a future in which maybe we salvage B building, maybe we keep parts of the building, we renovate others. Maybe we need to redo the whole building. I think that is better. That question is... better left to the experts at the MSBA to create a suggestion for us. That's part of their job, is to basically create a realistic plan in cooperation with us. But really, they're experts on these issues, and they can study what the needs are of the building. And I think it'll be up to the financial task force study the issue or the funding issue more in detail. I would support what the task force comes up with and I be it a debt exclusion or an override but I do think it's long past the due date for change in that building.
[Danielle Balocca]: Could you say more about the financial task force like who's that made up of?
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, so I know the council leadership, so President Morell and Vice President Bears, they're currently working with the mayor on it, and there might be agreement on it, but this is something that was negotiated this budget season. And basically, with the understanding that we have this need for a new high school building, need for new fire headquarters. We have these road and sidewalk improvement needs that I think we can all agree on. And we have the reports to back them up, to basically make suggestions about the order we do the streets, the amount we expend each year on it, and this idea that next year, a lot of city and school staff are going to fall off of federal funding. And so, federal funding and what will end, and we have to find a way to bring most of that staff, if not all that stuff into our general funding. And so, the financial task force is a tool that we created to basically deal with these four big question marks. And I think I hear a lot about commercial revenue, which I wholeheartedly believe that we should work to improve on. I think a lot of that is long term. And so the financial task force's goal isn't only long term. It really focuses on the short term. Basically, before this 5 to 10 years in which new construction comes in after we do a rezoning package, When, you know, how do we fund these needs? How do we, how do we create something for maintenance? How do we make sure that we can, that we can make sure that we can keep our community liaisons and business office and teachers and literacy specialists, you know, these are really important questions for us and so It really, I mean, I think in the long term, we're doing a lot with zoning. We're doing a lot with commercial and new housing to come in and increase basically new growth, which, as Zach said on his episode, is basically the only way that we can really increase our city revenue without an override. I think the question is in the short term, what's the realistic goal? What are realistic needs? And how do we get there? And that's what the financial task force is set up to answer.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. Yep, that was new information to me. So that's helpful to hear. So great. So it's I love hearing about, you know, the past couple of years. I wonder if you could think about what you would hope for in the next term, sort of what your priorities would be to keep working on or begin working on.
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, I mean, I think there's, there's so much potential and I I've been working a lot on a lot of drafts of ordinances that, um, I think, well, so basically, my, what I see my first term is is setting up the foundation for a stronger future. the first term, we spent a lot of time in the council, basically doing our phase one of rezoning, which became our first reform in basically 60 years. We spent time, as I said, reviewing the Climate Action Adoption Plan. We've spent time reviewing the Comprehensive Master Plan and these open space plans. And so the first term is really about building that foundation for us to build on. Um, I think the second term to me is I'm just, I'm campaigning hard because I am very excited for it, you know, I think zoning is going to become a big. big area of potential that we can work on. I think we, because of the high housing costs and the rental costs we really see a need for increased housing production, and the housing production plan gives us a lot of tools to do that. I was really proud to pass that. on it in my first term, and the second term I want to spend basically integrating those goals into our zoning plan. I think similarly with the climate plan. There are a lot of great suggestions about where to identify about how how to grow in a way that protects our climate and protects our open space, how to incentivize developers to become more energy efficient in our city. We recently passed the first reading of a new net zero energy stretch code, which basically holds our city to the highest standard when it comes to energy issues. And I like to talk about zoning and climate because 70% of our carbon dioxide equivalents come from buildings. So zoning is something that I am really excited to work on. And something I should mention this, another way that we've set ourselves up for success in zoning is to make sure that we protect our important bus routes. And so when the MBTAs first bus network plan for the future came out, the bus network redesign plan came out, they were basically planning to axe a bunch of routes in Medford Hillside and South Medford, and to reduce service capacity in West Medford and basically across the city. near Wellington as well. And so something that I was really proud to do was to work with community members and set up a committee, the whole meeting where we basically compiled all of these notes, all of these complaints and notes that we've had and to work with our city staff on that front to send it to the MBTA, send it to our state level elected officials. And that won us back. a ton of bus routes and bus service. And there's still more work to do with it. But why bring that up in the context of zoning is because I think we can do more to develop along these transit corridors, particularly Route 16 near Wellington and Mystic Ave. And protecting those bus routes, protecting that service is really central to the development that we can bring in. I think revenue, I've already brought it up, but I'm really excited to basically continue to study this question of revenue in the second term. I think we've been taking all these very specific small steps that we can do to expand our revenue sources and to expand our revenue stream. I, in the next term, I think we have these bigger questions of, do we need an override? Of do we, which the answer, it seems like it's a yes, but I'll defer to the financial task force on that. Of owner occupied exemptions and the economic effects that they have. Basically these big revenue questions. I think become central, because with these longer term goals of equity, of community development, of better schools, parks, better public services, that all kind of comes back to this big question of revenue. I think I'm also just excited to work on all these accessibility inclusion related, included policies that I've been working on the last two years and really codifying a lot of the progress that we've made in the last two years, both regards to things like language access, with regards to community engagement, making sure that these things aren't things that become the first items that get axed when the budget becomes difficult. And so, those, those are basically just as I've organized my first term around this these ideas of affordability sustainability and inclusion. I want to keep working in these in terms of, you know, these values, moving forward, making sure that we are. doing actionable, setting in place actionable policies on all three of these fronts as a city. And I think that's how we can continue to move forward. I think a lot of folks have seen that the city is starting to turn a page. And I think this is the time to capture that energy, to capture that, you know, all these moments of progress and turn it into real momentum for the future. And I'm just really excited about that prospect. I think there's so much that we can do. I think we can have a more ambitious city government that serves its residents better.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. And yeah, so the theme of the podcast is hoping to center around the equity and inclusivity. I'm wondering if you could say a little bit more about those ordinances that you're working on or hoping to get passed in the next term.
[Justin Tseng]: Right. Um, so we, I'll start with the ordinances that I, um, that we have before us on the city council right now. Um, and so, um, on Tuesday, October 24th, we're going to be working on, um, two ordinances, basically one on a youth commission to make sure to basically, um, empower youth. to make policy recommendations to city government, to give us their perspective on issues, to give us an idea of what programming they would like to see, and how we can better integrate youth into into our city government basically. I think the Youth Commission is something that's really close to my heart. I know it's something that Councilor Scarpelli and Councilor Unite have been really passionate about as well. The Gender Equity Commission is the other commission ordinance on that agenda. And this is an idea that Councilor Morell worked on even before she became a city councilor and something that she was really eager to get done and which kind of just stalled in committee and flamed out. I want to bring that back and bring back those efforts. And I think to basically study these ideas of gender intersectionally. gender identity, gender. and how it affects our city processes, how it affects city hall. How can we make our city better prepared to deal with the intersectional aspects of gender? So that's coming up this week. I'm also working on a welcoming city ordinance that basically codifies our city's policies with immigrants and a police cooperation with ICE. That's something that, you know, it's really about making permanent what we already have to give folks in our community more peace when it comes to these issues. I think something that I've heard from folks in the Hispanic community is that they actually don't know that we have our current non-cooperation policy with ICE. And sometimes they can be wary of city government when they realize this non-cooperation policy is theoretically not permanent. And so codifying it, I think, is about giving folks peace and to make them feel safer in city hall and more willing to engage with city services. In the future, there are cities around us that have been working on language access ordinances. I think the big question that I've been working on is how do we write that ordinance with the resources that we have. But I think it's something that we can set into place and increase. the scope of our the capacities of our city government with regards to language access, I know there, we've done a lot of work, especially with regards to these core immigrant languages that are immigrant immigrant community speaking, but we have a lot of languages that are left out as well and I think having a comprehensive process to basically provide those services or to provide alternatives to what we currently have that helps those immigrants. I think will is really important data equity is another one where. I think this is very policy wonkish, but this is an issue that comes out of a lot of Asian American Pacific Islander activists where, particularly in our community, outcomes can be so, so different for different issues within our general racial category. And I think data equity is about using better data that is more specific and doesn't treat you know, one racial group as a monolith and having that inform our work, and in so doing also making our city services more efficient. And so that's, that's another kind of inclusion oriented ordinance that I would want to work on and pass in a second term and I've been kind of talking to state level activists and legislators about what this might look like. And they finally got something passed at the state level, which means that something at the local level can now move faster.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's really exciting stuff. Thank you for working on that.
[Justin Tseng]: It's super exciting. And honestly, it wouldn't be possible without the residents of the city. And I think Medford is such a is so, I think, ready for inclusion and diversity and equity these ideas. I know we have had our fair share of, you know, moments when it comes to these issues in the past, but having, you know, been working in this sphere in the last two years I've I think Medford is in such a prime spot to move on these issues, and that the residents of our city are so ready to to get these kind of these goals across the finish line to make sure that these aren't just you know these, the words aren't just a slogan for diversity that we actually implement policies that address that question. I think we're such a unique community in that sense. I have friends who are doing this in other cities, and this work is just really difficult for them. And there's so much pushback. And in Medford, I think if we do get any pushback, a lot of it is decent questions about how do we implement it. And I don't think it's as much just challenging the goals of equity and inclusion. And so I think we're really lucky to be living in a city like Medford.
[Danielle Balocca]: For sure, yeah. No, it's exciting to think about what can happen in the next couple of years with all this energy. Yeah, so I'm wondering if there's anything else that you want to mention or plug before we wrap up for today.
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, um, my website has more information about the work that we've been doing this past term, and the, the platform I'm running on going forward to be reelected. Um, you can visit the website at www dot Justin for the number for Medford calm. The accomplishments and plans page has a lot of information. It goes into very specific details about housing, environment, inclusion, education, all these issues. There's so much that I wish I could mention on this episode that inevitably slips my mind or we just can't fit in. And so please check out that part of the website. I've also created a map of all the funding decisions are almost all the funding decisions we've made and how they will affect you on a local level on a street by street level. And that's its own tab. If you go to Justin for Medford.com backslash. I think it's backslash EN for English backslash map, but it's a tab on my website as well that you can check out, you can see how the important decisions that we've taken on the city council last two years, a lot of it was contentious, how those decisions have affected you on a very local level. I also if you know I, I'd be remiss if I didn't plug the volunteering in the donations. This is a, you know, every campaign season is difficult. We are all running very people centric operations, which relies on the work volunteers and becomes really expensive. Even local elections can be expensive. And so I'd be remiss not to plug those two things, which you can also find on my website. And please feel free to follow me on my social media at justin4medford, again, the number four. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And I try to post as many updates from the city council as I can. I think I've been finding that it's helpful to to basically like explain what we're doing on the city council to explain the votes that we've taken on there and every I try to do this more often sometimes they can't but I try to post council updates on on those pages for people to see what we're we've been up to.
[Danielle Balocca]: And those updates are appreciated. I think it's definitely a benefit of having some younger folks on the City Council to translate those things into social media for us. But thank you, Justin. Thank you so much for being here with me today and good luck in a couple weeks.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you so much for inviting me. No, thank you for all the work you do. I mean, as you said before, there's really a lack in media knowledge, in media, local news in Medford. It's unfortunately common across the country nowadays, but there's so much important work that we're doing, so many important issues that we're debating, that we want to get residents to give us their input on. podcasts like this, I think really help, you know, just reach out to more residents. Thank you so much.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, happy to do it. Thanks, Preston. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Keshaman. Music is made by Hendrick Guidonis. 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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