total time: 16.79 minutes
total words: 929
[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 change maker. 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, thanks so much for joining me tonight. If you don't mind just introducing yourself with your name, pronouns, and who you are.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, thank you. I'm Milva McDonald. I use she, her pronouns. I'm running for a seat on the city council. A little bit about me, I've lived in Medford for a pretty long time. I'd say maybe 32 years. I live in West Medford and I love it. I worked in journalism for a long time. I worked about 30 years at the Boston Globe in the calendar section, which some people might remember people of a certain age, I guess. And then I worked in the regional sections, Globe West and Northwest. eventually worked for Boston.com, and now I work for a publicist, a very niche publicist. We promote exclusively jazz musicians. I have four kids and three grandkids. I love music. I sing in a few choruses, and I also took up pottery a couple of years ago, and I really, really love that. And you can see me at craft fairs around town this fall.
[Danielle Balocca]: And at the Arts Collaborative, I feel like I saw.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, I do have some things at the gift shop at the Arts Collaborative Medford, which is a great place.
[Danielle Balocca]: Great. Well, OK, so we have lots to talk about. I learned actually stuff about you just now that I didn't know. So it's really nice to hear. And this, I think, is your third time on the podcast, right?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, the charter, yes, definitely. We'll be talking about that tonight, I'm sure.
[Danielle Balocca]: Lots of progression in your participation on the podcast, but I know you've answered this question before, but a vitally important question to the podcast. What is your favorite place to eat in Medford and what do you like to eat there?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. So that, you know, I thought about that and I'm like, well, you know, Goldilocks is always a good pick, but I know, but then I thought, well, you know, I think I said that last time and it's still, it's still up there. Um, but I thought maybe this time I would give a plug to the farmer's market. Um, because I love going to the farmer's market. Um, they, you can get empanadas, you can get samosas. you can get really delicious cupcakes. Um, these are all the things I like. I love the bread that you can get there. Um, and, and, you know, you can, you can just put, put together a dinner from these awesome vendors. Um, grab a nice loaf of bread, grab a nice hunk of cheese, get a nice fresh tomato and like have a picnic or something, you know? Yeah. And, and that's right. And they, um, They take snap too, so that's also a plus.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, my kids are very picky, but they could polish off a full baguette from that bread place any time of week. Awesome. Well, thank you. I know we're here mostly to talk about your campaign for City Council, and people may know your name from other things, like especially charter review over the years. But I'm curious to hear, also you had a child who ran for City Council a few years ago. I'm curious to hear kind of how you arrived at this moment and kind of what has motivated you to run.
[Milva McDonald]: You know, sort of been a person, always been a hard worker. I kind of got my work ethic from my mom, who is an Italian immigrant. She came to the United States in the 1950s at the age of 27. And it was kind of a culture shock for her, because the first time she had experienced running water, electricity, and heat. So being raised by her and my Italian heritage and my experience as the daughter of a working class immigrant contributes to sort of who I am today and who I've sort of become and my views on the importance of tolerance and listening and empathy and kindness. I also like to get things done. And a few years ago, I decided that I'd been hearing about charter review in Medford for too long. And that it was time to get it done. So. In 2021, I sort of tried to rally people together, and we started this group, or we sort of continue to group. I mean, I was connecting with Jim Silva at that point. He had been very involved with charter review. Um, in previous iterations, or the attempts to get charter review to happen. Um, so we sort of revived the Medford charter review coalition, and we were pursuing different ways to get a charter review. And 1 of those was. To ask the mayor to form a committee, because what we learned was that most communities. Review their charters that way using. a special act, which is what Medford ended up doing. So the mayor said, yes, I will form a committee. And I was honored to be appointed as a co-chair initially. And then Laurel Siegel, the other co-chair, left and I became the sole chair. And we went from about 2022 to 2024, which you know, because you were on the committee. Thank you. And we, yeah, so we dove into all things charter. So, um, and I know we'll be talking probably about that more. But it was basically my experience on the committee learning about local government, listening and talking to residents. Um. All of it just was, you know, it was inspirational and inspired me to stay involved with the city council run. I'd like to just sort of continue that work and bring that level of research and depth and listening to work on the city council.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. Yeah. And I, you know, having witnessed a lot of your work and in some part of it, like, I think that was, it was a huge undertaking and it did involve a lot of like, deep research and also involvement with the community and hearing what people think and trying to like, interpret that and make that into a charter that felt like it represented all that we learned. I'm wondering for you, so like you kind of started that description out with like why like equity and empathy and like belonging are important. How does that to you, like how does that connect to the importance of a charter?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, in the charter is the sort of foundational document for the city. And It involves sort of how people are represented. And what sort of, because it's a structure of the government and so representation was 1 of the big things that we talked about and Medford being 1 of the only cities left in the state. For a long time, it's been one of the only cities that doesn't have board representation for particularly city council. I feel like that addresses some of what you just talked about. Not only because it allows people a more localized representative, it also creates more accessibility for running for office. So, you know, the, the hope is that when this charter passes, which I'm very much hoping that it doesn't November by 2027, we will have that new structure in place. And that could open doors for a lot, a lot more people to run for office that maybe couldn't do it or wouldn't have considered it before. And we heard some of that, you know, we heard that from some people in the listening sessions we did around the city. Um, You know, some people said, oh, well, maybe if there was ward representation, I'd run for office.
[Danielle Balocca]: Because that would mean you're only running against your ward, not the whole city, which is how it currently is.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. And covering, I mean, there's about 60,000 people in the city, and the wards are about 7,000 to 8,000 people. That's a huge difference in terms of mailings, in terms of canvassing. I mean, all that sort of work of campaigning, and it's a pretty big difference. So that's one thing. Also, the other thing, when we looked at Article 8, the citizen participation mechanisms, would hopefully give people more opportunity to be involved in government respond to issues, um, maybe, um, have the opportunity to be able to get something on the ballot if they sort of tried to go through, um, the local government and they didn't and they couldn't do it. They have a mechanism to use where they can make that happen. Um, so those things, I think also, um, I mean, if you're talking specifically about sort of equity and representation and things like that.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I know, at least for myself, there is a lot that I learned just about how the, how our local government operates and other options for how it could operate under a different charter. And so I wonder if, if elected, if there were any things that you'd look at sort of changing about the way that the city operates in terms of like. Yeah, or just like any sort of critiques or things that you would hope for, we'd be like, priorities for change.
[Milva McDonald]: So, I mean, you know, there's definitely people talked a lot about. how long the council meetings are, and I know that the council is aware of that, and I know it's something that they're already thinking about. But that's one thing in terms of just operations. There's so many issues. Zoning is what people are talking about right now quite a lot, and that's definitely something that we need to change. We need to redo the zoning for because we need more housing we need and we need to increase our tax base. So, I think that is definitely a change that. I think it's, I think it's going to happen so much work on it has already been done. And at this point, the good news is, I think that that people are really aware of it now more than they have been in the past. So it gives people an opportunity to. uh, offer really constructive, specific feedback and so that we can move forward with that. Um, cause I think that's important. Um, there's also a lot of really important work to be done, um, like with, uh, uh, funding the affordable housing trust. Um, the board just recently released a really great action plan. Um, and part of that is a community land trust, which is also something that I really support. And, um, you know, hope that that can evolve. That's where this community land trust sort of becomes a non-profit that holds land to benefit the public basically. And so it's affordable housing units that aren't going to go away. I think traffic calming is kind of something that I would like to see change. Um, and that's important, um, especially with the, um, you know, this eventual change in rezoning and things like that traffic is increasing anyway. Um, so I think, um, and I know that that's been worked on, like the street where I near where I live, they just put speed tables on and it's making a huge difference, but, um, bump outs, things like that. I think we need to look at all those things. Um, I think climate resiliency is really important and our city's done a really good job at that so far, but we need to just like, keep on that and make sure that the benchmarks in the climate action adaptation plan are being met. Um. But, you know, some of them I'd like to even see increase, like, I'd like to see even more people use the curbside composting program. Um. The community increase in the tree canopy. Um, and and there's a lot of really great ideas. I loved some of the ideas I've heard from fellow candidates. Like, when I listened to Miranda on your show, she was talking about more benches and shelters at teas. And I just, yeah, I think that's great. I love that idea. Um. Another thing that I would really like to see happen is I'd like to see an arts coordinator at City Hall. I've talked to people in the arts community and we have so many great arts organizations in the city, but we don't have, we have the Arts Council, but there's not really a central kind of unifying anchor at City Hall. And I think that would, I think that could be really good for the city. Yeah. So those are just some of the things.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. So when I hear and see people kind of talking about who they would vote for in the municipal elections, there's always this idea of people voting for folks that are with our revolution and that a lot of people may be voting for those candidates exclusively. I'm hearing, though, a lot of your points seem very similar to theirs. And so I guess I'm wondering, you made the decision not to be part of our revolution or if there's or if you sort of see yourself in a different like in a different space as those folks.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, you know, 1 of the 1 of the reasons was because I, I entered the race on the way side. So, you know, that was a practical reason. But I also, I tend, I feel like I just tend to be sort of an independent minded person. I do happen to align with a lot of the. Policy ideas, but I also. I, you know, I, yeah, I just, I consider myself independent. So, I mean, it wasn't like... Like I said, it wasn't so much of a tough decision because of the point at which I entered the race kind of made the decision for me anyway. So, yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: I think that sometimes when folks are trying to understand, obviously it's not a partisan race, but that when people are trying to understand where people sit politically, that's an easy way to know that about somebody. So it's helpful to hear higher thinking about these issues and that you agree with, you know, kind of more progressive ideas. Yeah. Are there any other points, like any other campaign points you want to mention or any important issues that you want us to know about?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, one of the other things that I would really like to work on, um, if elected is the creation of an LGBTQ plus commission for the city. Um, I know that the council's working to overhaul the human rights commission, and I think that's great, but, um, you know, other cities have LGBTQ plus commissions, um, in Arlington it's called the rainbow commission and I'm a little partial to that. And I like that name, but, um, I think that that that would be an important step. In the city towards sort of promoting equality visibility for our LGBT plus community and empowerment. And I, I see that work as maybe separate from what. You know, or separate or enhancing and what might be done on the human rights commission. So I think. You know, there's different commissions in other cities. They do cool programming, obviously pride, but, you know, I think we don't have to limit things to just June. I think an LGBTQ plus commission would be a year round endeavor and. whatever the commission worked on, but the sort of, it would be focused around the mission statement, obviously, but they could look at policies, programs, advocacy, um, community conversations, community buildings, crosswalk painting. I mean, there's just so many, um, you know, so many options. So I, I would like to see that. I think that would be, um, a pretty great thing for the city.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's not something that I've heard of and it makes a lot of sense and Medford is a it seems to be a great place for that because there are a lot of a lot of us. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Any like any ways people can get involved in your campaign or any events that you're having that you want to mention?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, absolutely. I am having a couple of events with music, because I love music. I love to sing, but I love music, and I have musicians in my family. make sense for me to bring music into my campaign. So on, and they're both going to be at Mrs. Murphy's, which is an Irish pub on Salem Street. It's I believe 25 Salem Street. On August 29th, which is a Friday from six to eight, we're going to have Celtic music with Alistair White, who's a great fiddler and Eric McDonald on guitar. Alistair used to play in the Battlefield Band, which if anybody out there knows Celtic music knows that that's a pretty big name in Celtic music. And he's a, you know, he's a Scottish guy and he really knows the tradition. So that's going to be a really fun night of music and networking and etc. And on September 7th from 3 to 5 p.m. we'll have the Shereen Klezmer duo. And for people who aren't familiar with Klezmer music, it's really fun music. It's basically Eastern European Jewish folk music. Um, it's very, it's very fun. So, um, and both of those, uh, events, I will be there to meet people, talk to people about my platform, et cetera. Um, people will be able to order off the menu, um, and just have a great evening and afternoon and, uh, learn about the campaign. So those are the two events. Um, there's probably going to be other house parties too in the works, but those are the main things right now.
[Danielle Balocca]: And a good excuse to go to Mrs. Murphy's.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, exactly.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, thank you. Before we wrap up, is there anything else that you want to make sure that you mentioned for us tonight?
[Milva McDonald]: No, just my website, if people want to sort of look more closely at my platform and there's information about the events and how you can get involved. It's www.milva4medford.com and Facebook and Instagram, it's the same handle. Uh, slash number for Medford. So, yeah, that's where you can find me. And if you want to. If it might the email is at for Medford dot com. If you want to shoot me a line, I'm happy to talk to anybody get together. have coffee. I really like, that was one of the things I loved about the Charter Study Commission committee was connecting with residents. So I'm happy to do that anytime. I love meeting people, talking to people and hearing about what they want for the city.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. And all that information will be in the show notes for people to access as well. Thank you so much for your time and good luck.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Thank you so much, Danielle.
[Danielle Balocca]: 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 Hendrik Ydernis. 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? Medford Bites. Medford Bites. Good job.
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total time: 16.79 minutes total words: 929 |
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