total time: 33.76 minutes
total words: 656
[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.
[Justin Tseng]: First of all, thank you so much for having me, Danielle. My name is Justin Tseng. I'm one of our city councillors here in Bedford, Massachusetts, and my pronouns are he and he him.
[Danielle Balocca]: All right, thanks, Justin. So we're going to talk a little bit about your campaign for re-election for city council tonight. But before we do that, I'm just going to ask you to answer this question that I know you've answered before, but a lot has changed in Medford in the last few years. So I'll ask you again, if you could share your favorite place to eat in Medford and what you like to eat there.
[Justin Tseng]: I always find this question to be the hardest one of the interview. I bounce a lot between different places, especially with so many new places opening. But I found myself bringing my friends to Starby BBQ a lot in Bedford Square. They do a really great Korean barbecue all you can eat. It's super reasonably priced and the setup is really cool as well.
[Danielle Balocca]: Is that like near donuts with a difference on that same block?
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, it's right across from the bubble tea shop by where the CVS used to be.
[Danielle Balocca]: Oh, nice, nice. Yeah, it looks cool in there through the window. I've never been in, but maybe I'll have to give it a try.
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, it's always pretty popping as well. There's long lines out the door on the weekends, but you go in, you get the table, and honestly, the options are just endless and everything is good.
[Danielle Balocca]: All right, well, thanks, Justin. So, um, we could just start by, you know, talking a little bit about your current campaign. So this, if you were reelected in November, this, that would be your 3rd. Um, term as city councilor in Medford, um, so this is your 3rd time running a campaign as well. So I'm wondering if you can kind of like, reflect on the last few years and. Kind of what you've learned and what you're kind of hoping to take into the next, um. The next term, yeah.
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, this is a, it's a huge question. Over the last few years. We as a city have made record investments in our schools and in our streets. We've hired a new road repair crew, built big sidewalks as well, and we've saved 40 teaching jobs as well. We've made historic progress when it comes to reforms to make housing more affordable and to make City Hall much more accessible and transparent than ever before. And, you know, I believe that at this election, we have a chance, we have the chance to turn these moments of progress into momentum for the future. But, you know, when I look at, especially this last year, we can see that the world is a rapidly changing place. National politicians are really gambling with our economy. They're threatening the safety of our neighbors. We're seeing big money influences trickle into city politics as well, attack ads, mailers. And I think it contributes to this tone of instability and uncertainty about where we go heading forward now. And my perspective is that through these really uncertain times, we need steady leadership and we need bold leadership as well. And ultimately, that's why I'm running for re-election. I'm running for re-election to keep standing up for our values, for who we are, and to keep building a future and a city that's made for us all. You know, I think this is a moment where effort can really shine amongst neighbors. We can really prove that when we lead with heart, when we lead with the values that bind us all together and do what's right, we can really turn our values into real tangible results for our residents. When you ask this question about the retrospective, going back my four years on the city council, I always return to why I ran in the first place. And when I first ran, what we saw was decades of inaction, leading to our schools suffering huge cuts during the pandemic. folks being priced out of the city, real racial reckoning on our hands with the Black Lives Matter and the Stop Asian Hate movement. And I think simply put, the status quo just wasn't working. But when I look at what I've learned over these last four years trying to work on these issues, I've learned that our city really does have a shared vision for our future. I think when you share a vision for a future that's inclusive, that centered around growing together, saying yes to new opportunities. I've learned that we have so much work to get done, but we can't actually do a lot of work when we work as a team together. And I think that's been an especially real success of the last two years. When I think about the colleagues that I've been working with on the city council and the school committee, the city staff that we've been working with, and also just expanding the table so that more people have seats at that table to participate in that. you know, policymaking process to have more of a say. And, you know, working with residents directly to pass so many of these reforms that I've been talking about. That's been a real lesson for me in terms of, I've always known that teamwork was important, but teamwork really does get us across the finish line. And I think another lesson I've learned is that it's easy to sit there and scream and shout about issues, but it's a lot harder to roll up your sleeves and to do the hard work, to do your homework when it comes to what policies will actually get us to that finish line. that shared vision, that shared future that we all see together, to know, you know, when to speak up, to know when sometimes speaking up can jeopardize that future, you know. And so those are real lessons that I've had. And so when I think about my goals in Medford, working towards a better city for us all, I think about Oh, without, you know, the lessons I've learned over these last few years, we wouldn't be able to make progress. I was worried when I first ran that the kids coming after me in school, my friends, brothers and sisters, wouldn't be able to have the same opportunities that I would have. The world was in such a shaky place in 2020 with the pandemic and with everything that ensued afterwards. And, you know, it's, again, I spoke a little bit earlier to the uncertainty of the moment, but I really do believe that working together, that teamwork, that response, that sense of responsibility can really help us move forward and not turn backwards.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, you're reminding me of when I started this podcast. It was right around that time. I think right before, right during your first campaign and what everything felt like in Medford then. I was sort of new to paying attention to local politics. even in those, like, these, like, last four years, so much feels like it's changed. And my question, I think, that I posed to, like, a lot of those candidates in that first year of doing this was, like, how can we make Medford more of, like, an equitable and inclusive place? And just in terms of, like, representation, like, in these, like, in city government, but just, like, generally, I think we've come a long way just in those few years. What work do you think is upcoming in that way?
[Justin Tseng]: I mean, this is another huge question. I think there's a few buckets, generally, that I think of when I think of that question. I think of affordability. I think of what's happening to us federally, the cuts that we're seeing, the attacks on our safety and our our rights that we're seeing from the federal government and the fear that that's creating in our neighborhoods. I think of schools and city services and those basic operations that we need to move forward. And I mean, let me leave it there and then we can we can kind of delve into those topics.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, no, I definitely have some follow ups. I think one of the in talking to other candidates, I think there's some like some sort of like divided thought about what the place that city council, that local government has when it comes to matters of the federal government. It feels obvious to me why we need to be involved, but how do you see your role on city council as impacting, or I guess having an impact on the city in this sort of greater context that we're in?
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, I mean, since day one of my very first campaign back in 2021, I've always said national politics can be local politics. National issues can be local issues. I think what we're seeing with ICE taking people off of our streets, deporting them without due process, you know, creating fear in our communities. Just as an example, you know, I always, because of how I look, I always carry around my passport card with me to be able to prove my citizenship. I've trained my parents and their friends and tons of neighbors who don't speak English about their, you know, basic due process rights, their rights to a lawyer and their rights to be able to, you know, navigate this really scary moment. And that's a real tangible thing on the ground. I mean, it's something that's really happening in Medford. And around us. I mean, I think two really egregious examples come to mind, right? Like Rumesa in Somerville, who was taken for expressing her opinion in an op-ed. She was taken off the street in Somerville, just a few streets away from Medford by Tufts. I think of just this week, there's the 13-year-old kid in Everett who was taken to the police station and then disappeared from there all the way to Virginia. And right now, that's a super recent case, so we don't know what's happening there. And I think that's a really clear example of how a national issue can have a local effect. And in order to deal with those issues, I'm proud to have worked with Councilor Leming and for People Power to really rush through and passed the Welcoming City Ordinance, which enshrines our non-cooperation policy when it comes to non-criminal matters with the Metro Police. And to make sure that our residents know that they can trust city services that they can trust city workers when they go up to them and ask for help or report crimes. That's just one example. Another example is the economic effects of what's happening nationally are trickling down to us locally. The Trump administration is raging a war against science. So many of our residents work in science. My parents are scientists. And the cuts to federal grant funding mean that people are losing their jobs. And that has another effect of making it even harder to afford living here in Medford, to afford continuing to call Medford home. The big, beautiful bill, the so-called big, beautiful bill, is threatening our community with cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and health care service. And that's something, just last week, we held a city council meeting, a subcommittee meeting to deal with that, to work with our health department to create solutions and to channel resources to help residents who are really going through a tough time because of those cuts as well. And I think that really just, you know, encapsulates my core, that core argument of why national issues can be local issues, because we feel those effects right here at home. And, you know, when we talk about What we normally think of as local government functions, I mean, just like, again, going back to immigration, take public safety, right? When we think about what it means to really create public safety and community safety here in Medford, it means trusting our neighbors. And it means not scapegoating, as regrettably some candidates have done, not scapegoating immigrants as criminals. And that kind of rhetoric doesn't help public safety at all. And I think this whole situation shows that that very kind of basic level of trust between neighbors is inherently tied to some of what's going on nationally as well.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, no, I think it sounds like there's been there been attempts on different levels and and like I think successful attempts on different levels for you all to sort of address the issues of like belonging in our city and equity and inclusion. One thing that we just heard about recently was that the I think the efforts that you all had made around like divestment um had been vetoed by the mayor um but i feel like that that issue was something that came that's been talked about a lot is like is this how is this uh well i guess like yeah maybe you could talk about how you decided that as like an important issue to take up yeah i mean um i have to be upfront in saying that that's uh you know president bears has been working really hard in that effort um in terms of writing the ordinance and working with stakeholders
[Justin Tseng]: Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, Palestinian, with our city staff financial team on that effort. And so, I can't speak too much to it, but I do know of a lot of that kind of cooperation with local community stakeholders. But on the divestment issue, I do want to make two points. I think the first one is that the critique that we are just focusing on this one national issue and not tackling local issues is false. It presents us with a false choice. between focusing on local and focusing on national when in fact you know at those meetings I think it's easy to look at those meetings and look at participation public participation and see how long it took and to think you know this is all they're focusing on but at those very same meetings we pass resolutions and funding measures for our infrastructure or fire department or We passed resolutions when it came to affordable housing and so on and so on. So we can do more than one thing at once. And I actually think that voters should expect us to do more than one thing at once as well. That should be what voters expect of city government, of politicians. They should hold us to a high standard with that regard. And the second point I want to make And to respond to the critique is that ultimately people want to know that their local government works. They want to see government work in general. And that means responding to their concerns and their comments. I think that divestment is a really interesting case of this, where you might not expect it, but we did receive hundreds of emails asking us to work on divestment to pass this ordinance. And I think that shows that a lot of community members really do care about this issue. And when I first spoke about this on the city council, I made the point, and I think this is really true. I think people are feeling like their national government, the federal government has failed them. And then below that, they went to their state government and their state reps and their, you know, the governor, and they felt like that they were failed on that level as well. And so we became the last line of defense. And I think it's really important. to build trust and legitimacy with the people, to let people know that when you come to the last line of defense, we will protect you and we will stand up for your values. So those are my thoughts generally.
[Danielle Balocca]: I like that a lot. I think, too, it makes sense that there's a lot of mistrust around institutions in general right now. Like, how are they going to follow these federal changes, and who's going to stand up for me, basically? I think it's nice to have a clear sense of where folks stand in the city. whether they are aligned with you or not. So the other piece that I was hoping we could talk about was affordable housing and how you kind of it sounds like there's like we've heard about zoning and lots of drama around zoning and how that's like related to affordable housing and it seems like there have been a lot of efforts to address affordability like you know you all helped with this past this override there like And I think Councilor Leming was talking about this kind of like Swiss cheese thing where there's like all these different layers of things that you hope to address. So I guess I'm wondering kind of what your hopes are there for how we can keep moving forward in those efforts.
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, I know this has been a super hot topic in local politics here, especially this year. And I think it's really helpful to take a few steps back and just look at the big picture first. And I ultimately start at this kind of idea of what makes Medford special. And to me, what has always made Medford special is diversity. Our diversity of age, our diversity of culture and background, diversity of vocation and profession, and even diversity of ideas, and the different ideas and perspectives that we bring to the table. And ultimately, that diversity is at stake. Manfred is and has been facing cost of living challenges, particularly with affordable housing. My parents moved to Wellington over 20 years ago because it's where they could afford a house. It's where they could afford to raise me paycheck to paycheck. And I look around and I look at our neighbors. And now we have to pay, we're facing the prospect of extra tariffs. that are really just taxes on us. We're, again, facing federal cuts to health care and social services. And, you know, people's jobs are being affected by federal cuts as well. And this government shutdown that's been going on. And then I, you know, think about myself, and, you know, I'm a young person in my 20s. I love Bedford, I want to stay here, and I can't afford a house here. I can't afford to live here. And you know, even making rent is difficult. I have student loans. I've had to get surgery this year and broke an arm last year. I have medical bills that are piling up in rent. I know I'm not alone. I have friends who, for a lot of these same reasons, are now priced out, they have to move to New Hampshire, they have to move to Worcester, just really far from their families, and you know their parents don't like that either. Seniors who have lived here for decades can't find homes that meet their needs. Young families can't want to put roots down here. They can't afford to stay. Teachers, nurses, first responders who work in the city can't. And so people are being priced out and left behind. The status quo hasn't been working. And so the question is, how do we move forward from here? And I believe that affordability means real changes and hard choices to protect people from being pushed out. And I think of, you know, the buzzwords and what they actually mean. I know a lot, you know, a lot of people talk about neighborhood character. And yes, I think of the historic buildings. That's really important to me because that's part of what makes us special. but I also think about that diversity of the people who live in the city. And so even though there's a wide range of views, and I certainly see that in my email inbox as a city Councilor, I do think our community share is common priorities and share values when it comes to addressing these issues. I think that people wanna prioritize protecting residents and small businesses from displacement. They want us to assist them through tough times. And they want us to build more affordable homes and inclusive neighborhoods, a lot keeping big developers and institutions accountable and so some of the, the city council through its voting efforts for particularly on Salem Street, and. Mr. Gav, I think, you know, encouraging mixed-use units, raising affordability requirements for big developers, making sure that we are requiring more open space for developers, a lot of that has been progress, but the way I see it is that we are halfway through, or partway through this conversation. It's a continuous conversation that needs to continue to go forward and in reaching out to residents and knocking on doors and through phone calls and emails over the last few months. I think that there are certain concrete policies that we can work on that folks generally agree on. Updating impact and linkage fees to make developers pay their fair share, strengthening our community benefits approach by creating a new ordinance and more community input into a lot of these projects. Continuing to push forward on requiring affordable housing and new developments with more and stronger incentive zoning and inclusionary zoning affordable housing overlays. creating an office of housing stability to help residents who are facing eviction or displacement and to connect them with resources and provide emergency assistance. So I see a lot of those things. And you can learn more on my website. I have way more policies there. But I think that these are things, are concrete policies that residents do agree on that we can agree on moving forward. I think it's also important to see this opportunity, housing reform, as an opportunity to do even more. A lot of the, you know, there has been a lot of misinformation out there, and I just want to say on the record, we are not tearing down single-family homes. We are not building, we're not going to set an apartment building, a six-story apartment building down in the middle of a residential neighborhood. That's not, number one, city government can't do that, but number two, that's not what we want. And I know that's not what residents want in the city. But, you know, a lot of the concerns that residents have raised to me are very valid. And, you know, we need to do a better job addressing those concerns and in reaching out and informing residents of what changes are to come through our housing reform process. And we need to present, again, this opportunity, this reform process as an opportunity. For example, I think You know, a lot of residents are worried about traffic that will come in, but the housing reform process, the zoning reform process gives us an opportunity to implement a new traffic demand management ordinance to make sure that we are incentivizing. developers that come in with big apartment blocks on transit corridors to have ways to get their residents to Wellington Station, to Medford Tufts, Ball Square, to big bus routes as well. Encouraging transit-oriented development as well so that we don't have to rely as much on car use and on parking spaces in the city. This is an opportunity, like a lot of, a few residents have brought up to me, they're worried about the tree canopy and how we are, as a city, losing trees over time. And I think this process is a really good opportunity for us to pass tree protection ordinances, to protect the trees that do exist at our neighborhood, and to use the revenue and growth that we generate from this process, you know, more businesses, to fund the planting of more trees and better infrastructure in our city. This is an opportunity for us to address commercial development in the city as well, because when I talk to folks who are thinking of starting businesses here in Medford, the top concern I hear is that there just aren't enough customers that live close to where they would open a business. And so more mixed-use development would bring that in. People have concerns about Historic buildings, preserving that. The housing reform process gives us a chance to write a new ordinance that lets people protect the exterior of their homes while updating the inside of their homes to move it from a single family to maybe a two-family residence. And, you know, I think a lot of residents are worried about what this means for, you know, I think there's just uncertainty about what this means for what they can do with their own property as well. And this is an opportunity for you know, families who maybe their kids have gone off to college and won't come back to Medford, but they've moved across the country. And now it's two people living in a house with four rooms, right? And a lot of those folks reach out to me and ask what they can do about that. And this opportunity gives them the chance to use more of those rooms, those units for affordable housing as well. So that's just a snapshot of the opportunities that we can use, that we can generate with this process. It doesn't have to be as Divisive as I think some people make it out to be or certainly wanted to be. I think that we can unite around a lot of these common goals and zoning reform gives us the opportunity to have a real number 1 conversation and. That develops into a plan and then number 2. real action to solve one of the most dire crises of our time. And one that's not just a Medford problem, it's a regional problem, but one that we have to step up to. And actually, this brings me slightly back to what we were talking about with larger scale issues. I think for a very long time, this label of national issues has become almost like an excuse not to act. I think for a long time, people saw rents and, you know, high housing prices is something that wasn't a local issue because it wasn't, you know, it wasn't schools, it wasn't police, it wasn't trash. But in fact, you know, this is something that local government can do a lot on. And we can't use this label of national politics or state politics as an excuse not to act on it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, no, I think there's like some interesting conversations about like, What does affordable housing mean for the population of Medford? Who can afford to move here versus who can't? Who can afford to stay here versus who can't? And how that impacts You know, I think like the diversity of our population, and you said you couldn't afford to live here just and I couldn't afford to live here if I had to like we bought our house like 10 or 12 years ago and like, we looked at buying, we looked at a house in our same neighborhood, we couldn't afford it today like, and it's wild like how fast grown. and like yeah I don't know it's it's uh really distressing but one point that I have heard a few times is um what would an increase in affordable housing units mean for um like the um like the student population like increase in size of schools or like just yeah class size things like that
[Justin Tseng]: I mean, before I say anything, I should point everyone to Jenny Graham's really well written explainer on her website. I think it's on her website. She definitely posted it on social media and through her email list. of what we're actually seeing with school enrollment across the state, the trends over time. And it's actually quite surprising. I think what we're finding is, what the state is finding through deep social science research by experts, is that enrollment doesn't actually necessarily go up with more housing units in the city. It does tend to take up with more affordable housing. But that leads me to my next point, which is that I know a few school committee candidates have brought this up, but there is an imbalance in our schools, where we have one elementary school that is experiencing overcrowding, one that's not, that actually has way fewer students, and then we have two that are kind of in the middle with what we would expect for class sizes. And so I know that the school committee is working hard, and this leadership at the public schools is working hard to develop a plan to realign that so that things are more balanced across the city. And I want to note, too, this next city council will likely vote on whether we rebuild Harvard High School. You know, we need at least five votes for that on the city council, if not more. You know, this requires a really strong vote on the city council. And that means voting leaders, voting for progressive leaders that you can trust to make that investment, to put that question to the voters. And, you know, no matter if it's a full rebuild or a renovation, we'll have to do that. And so, and so I encourage voters to think about that when they think about, you know, when they cast their ballots this fall. But in this new high school process, the building committee has really thought quite deeply about addressing a lot of these long-term vision questions when it comes to building. And so right now, we have a high school that's weird for a city. just to say, you know, say the least. It was built for a time when we had about 4000 students at Medford High and now we have basically a quarter of that, just above a quarter of that student population. And so it's not right sized. But there are also ways to build high schools, build modern high schools, up-to-date, state-of-the-art high schools that plan for future growth to the city as well. And so the building committee is very much considering that as well and factoring that into their plans.
[Danielle Balocca]: I don't think I knew that part about the the intended size class size and have now. Well, yeah, no, these are really helpful points for us to think about. I'm saying move towards the election. But is there anything that we haven't talked about that you want to make sure to mention?
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, I mean, I just want to really stress to our residents that this is a really crucial time in politics writ large, but also in our city's history. We have the chance to forge a path forward that really makes us a city upon a hill, as John Winthrop said hundreds of years ago. You know, I think, when I think, this has been on my mind because I've been thinking about the No Kings protest that's coming up, and about, you know, what, how so much of what's happening in our world is so antithetical to our values, and the values that have gone back generations and generations, right here in Medford, Massachusetts. And, you know, it's, right now I'm talking in these big lofty idealistic terms. they have real-world lived impacts on the ground. And, you know, when we say that we've made progress on schools, that we're making these record investments in schools and our streets, when we made historic progress on transparency reforms and accessibility reforms like Creating a new city council newsletter, uploading our, you know, live streaming our meetings on YouTube and upload uploading them online after creating listening sessions with particularly with underrepresented populations. They're working with our community liaisons and with the Medford senior center. Yeah, those are just those are examples of how. those lofty ideals have translated to real world action. And it's easy to say that we shouldn't be so idealistic, or that we're losing sight of what's happening. But the truth is, it just takes connecting our values to our mission, right? It takes really being able to translate what those values are, what these shared goals, and building consensus around these ideas, and putting it on paper as an ordinance that we can pass, as funding bills that we can pass. And that's why I think it's so important to continue with progressive leadership in the city, with bold leadership, with steady hands, because we can't afford to turn back. When I grew up in Medford, when I was growing up here, City Hall was a place that felt like you got something done if you knew who to call, if you knew someone in City Hall. You know, we can't afford to turn back to that status quo. We can't afford, and Medford residents don't deserve it. You should, you know, we deserve a city hall that functions according to our ideals of fairness, of equality, of inclusion, accessibility. And that is at stake on the ballot this fall. And, you know, I'm someone who can work with anyone, but it really does help to have that team. Going back to what I was talking about in the first place. And, you know, a team that brings really varied life experiences. A team that brings varied perspectives on issues, that has worked on many of these issues before. Like, I'm thinking of For example, like Miranda Bresenio, who has done so much work when it comes to helping small businesses out in Medford, when it comes to safe streets, when it comes to just basic infrastructure, like putting more benches along our bus routes. Anna Callahan has been incredible at transforming our city to be a more democratic, fair, inclusive, transparent place. And she's been doing so much on protecting our tree canopy as well. I'm thinking of Matt Leming, who does so much to bring science into our work, to bring data into our work, and to move forward on affordable housing goals. I'm thinking of Emily Lazzaro, who you know, as, you know, working at the Malden Warming Center, has that really real-world experience working on tough issues of substance abuse, of homelessness. Thinking of, you know, Elizabeth Lane, who knows how to bring that know-how and, you know, functionality to City Hall, who's managed these projects before and knows how to create that strategic vision for a city. We bring in and of course you know I've already talked about President Bears Zack bears is hard work but he knows how to organize and he knows City Hall, in and out, and he is an expert on these issues. And this is a team you know. I know I came on here to talk about my own campaign, but truly, so much of this progress and these policies and this vision would be for naught if we didn't have a team on the city council to work with that can work with each other, that can delegate projects and know when to tag team in and out of different projects to keep Medford progressing on all these different fronts. So those are my concluding thoughts.
[Danielle Balocca]: No, that's exciting. I think it's exciting to think about the potential for the future and a little scary to think about all the other alternatives. I was remembering one thing. I think this was you from like maybe a couple of years ago talking about adding different languages and different translations for the city website and just improving the city website. And I have to say it's much better. Thank you.
[Justin Tseng]: We've been working hard on that. And we've been working hard on translating a bunch of resources into different languages as well. For example, there's a housing assistance flyer with a bunch of resources to legal aid, to links to our ordinances and rights. We've been working hard to expand tenants' rights as well. And that's been translated into all of the main spoken languages here, Spanish, Creole, Chinese, Arabic, I'm missing a few I'm sure. I personally work a lot with, I spend a lot of time with residents who can't speak English. So I spent a lot of time, particularly in Spanish and Chinese. to help people be able to navigate City Hall and outside resources as well. So it is something that's near and dear to my heart because, again, when I was growing up, I had to help my parents through all of this stuff. And we're only just starting. There's so much more that we can do, especially with what's going on with immigration, what's going on with finances. Finding jobs, being able to access financial aid for folks' kids. There's a lot more that we can do at City Hall. And we need to be able to create action plans for that and to have a team at City Hall that is intent on moving this forward. Because it definitely takes more than one person.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, you got a lot of hats there, Justin. Well, thank you so much. It's been really informative. And yeah, thanks, as always, for coming on the podcast.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you so much for having me. You know, this is it's always a great pleasure to come on. Thank you for the work you do in informing our residents of what's going on, be it politics or non politics. It's always, you know, really fun to listen to what's going on in town, too.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, thanks, Justin. Good luck.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you so much.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Kasherman. Music is made by Hendrik Giedonis. 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: 33.76 minutes total words: 656 |
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