[John Petrella]: Hello everyone and welcome to Medford Happenings, a show for and about the City of Medford. I am John Petrella. The purpose of this program is to give Medford citizens facts and information to help you make informed choices. We have not one but two very special guests, Nell Escobar-Cokley and Chris Stevens, the founders of Guttano-Metford. And they will be sharing their thoughts on the results of the recent elections for the Method City Council, school committee, and also we'll discuss the revised city charter. So, I also want to mention that Wendell Waters was supposed to join us today. We're going to miss her, but she couldn't join us. So, unfortunately, she's also with Guttenroh Medford. So, okay, we'll start right off. We'll begin by looking at the candidates who won. And, you know, why do you think they were successful? get the, how did they win, what did they do?
[Chris Stevens]: I think you can't fault the machine. I mean, our Revolution Medford is, all of them are our Revolution Medford winners, with the exception of George Scarpelli, which they sort of noted on their website when they said that we won 12 out of 13 seats.
[John Petrella]: Right.
[Chris Stevens]: I can only assume the seat they did not win was George's. But, you know, I mean, I think, like I said, I mean, they're a machine.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: They were prepared. They knew what they were going to do. They worked as a team, as a block, and they pulled that off.
[John Petrella]: You know, were you surprised at all by how good some of the candidates finished?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Yeah, I thought they did extremely well. I thought there was a really good supply of candidates this time around. They were a lot of really good people. They had really great ideas. They were really well informed. They all worked really hard. They showed up for events. They answered questions. they went out and hit the pavement. So, I don't think Medford was at a loss for, you know, any good candidate. And I'm not just talking about the incumbents, I'm talking about the- No, the challengers were great. The independent slate, there were a lot of really good people. Yeah. A lot to choose from.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, that's what I felt, yeah. And I thought they did well, and I mean, I was surprised by the results. Were you guys-
[Chris Stevens]: I don't know. I don't know if I was surprised. I mean, once you get in, you're an incumbent. Sometimes it's, it's, it's, you know, they hang out of those seats sometimes. Yeah, it can sometimes be difficult to balance them. You know, I mean, from our standpoint, it's always a little disappointing. We want to see new people come in there. We want to see somebody come in and shake things up. Right. So we're like, oh, yeah, we got, you know, but but Liz is in and that's great. Or Miranda, I don't know.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: It's it's close right now and historically in Medford You have people who have been in those seats once like it's hard to shake out an incumbent, right? Usually when you shake out an incumbent is when someone leaves retires they leave they go do something else and that's usually when you've seen those big changes so without You know, with an empty seat, I thought for sure we would see at least two more new people.
[Chris Stevens]: I mean, there were so many. There were so many people. It was 17 to begin with for City Council. I mean, oh, good Lord, as a reporter, that is like impossible to cover, to write about, to keep track of. And even, and I was like, OK, so they're going to have a I know it's not a primary, a preliminary vote. You know, that'll knock it down great. Well, it only knocked it down by three, which is, I get that's their city cap, but still, from our standpoint, it's like, oh my God, there's 14 candidates to write about.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And it's going to be more in the next election.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah, yes.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Because of the charter, we will have four more people.
[Chris Stevens]: That's right.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Yeah, I didn't even think of that.
[Chris Stevens]: So that, I would think, is going to be a free-for-all. people coming out to run for that.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And that'll be exciting. Although it's gonna be even more interesting because you're gonna have them in wards. So you're gonna have eight wards and three people who are at large. So now you're gonna have pockets of the city where you're gonna have those mini battles. So you can have three or four people running from the eighth precinct or the first precinct. So that's gonna be really tricky to see but it'll be like really fun and exciting because we've never done that before.
[Chris Stevens]: So here's an off-the-cuff question that I don't know because I'm still familiarizing myself with the city and with the wards and precincts. So of the incumbents now, do they cross over in wards?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: That's a good question, John, do they?
[Chris Stevens]: I believe some of them do.
[John Petrella]: At least three of them. That'll be really interesting. Maybe four.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Maybe four will cross over.
[John Petrella]: So that makes it difficult.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: It does. And I think that's why the old city councils, at some point, that's why they didn't want to switch to each other. Because they were like, we're in the same ward. We don't want to fight each other.
[Chris Stevens]: That'll be really interesting.
[John Petrella]: Because I think a few of them are. It's going to be interesting.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Well, maybe they'll move. I don't think any of them actually own homes, so they're not tied down to that space.
[John Petrella]: They could, absolutely. Yeah, I think maybe two of them do. But anyhow, let's take a look, you know, if you guys can, the support, where their support came from. Did you notice any strong you know, strong areas of Medford that voted for the independents, we'll call them, or strong areas that went for our revolution.
[Chris Stevens]: You've been studying. No, yeah, but I don't know all the wards and whatnot. It's interesting, I know, like you very kindly printed out a map.
[Unidentified]: Right.
[Chris Stevens]: That it does seem to be like this section with 3-2, Ward 3, Ward 2, what is down here, 4. They seem to have the highest turnout. There seemed to be a lot of, that was a very heavy turnout. West Bedford?
[John Petrella]: It seems like the West Bedford Fire Station, they did Our Revolution. did very well.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: There's a lot of younger families that moved into that area. That's a whole different neighborhood over there. That makes complete sense.
[John Petrella]: Where the temple is in West Bedford, the independents actually did very good. Really? Yeah, they did better. Yeah, they did good. They really did. Well, they were out there too. Yes, they were out quite a bit.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I got to drive around some of the polling locations on Tuesday, and that's what I saw. I saw a lot of people out with signs and then got yelled at because, you know, we took pictures or I took pictures of, you know, the people who were out standing with signs, and they were, quote, unquote, the independent slate. They had a ton of people out. I didn't see anybody at all at the fire station, but there was a line out the door. It was a line out the door there. It was crazy. And the polling areas were all busy. I talked to a lot of the wardens and they were like, it has been like steady, steady all day long.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah, what was the percentage? I feel like the turnout wasn't... Oh, no.
[John Petrella]: I think the total voters, the total turnout, I have the numbers, 14,175 was your total.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Total vote.
[John Petrella]: So yeah, total people that voted, not the numbers. So that was your total number of people. And this always bothers me. It always will. And I can't forgive people.
[Chris Stevens]: OK, 14,000 is a lot of people. It's a civic duty to vote. But that's a lot for Medford. I know. I know.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: If you look at Medford's history of voting, this is a lot. I know it is. It's the block. The block came out with at least 7,000 votes for themselves.
[Chris Stevens]: And compared to the number of registered voters or people of voting age that live here, it's not a lot.
[John Petrella]: No, it isn't, because you have 44,000 registered voters. Yeah. And you had 14,000 people came out.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: So you have a lot of homeowners.
[John Petrella]: Our revolution basically run won with 7,000 votes.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: They have a solid block of people who will come out. And if people say, well, we've never seen that. We have seen that. Yes, we have. We've had Mike McGlynn, who always used to pull out at least 5,000 votes for himself. You've had that in the past. You've had those blocks. And you've had what people would refer to as the machine. And as Chris said, they have a machine. They have it down pat. And that's going to be tough. You know, unless one of them leaves.
[John Petrella]: Listen, honestly, they're a national organization.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: They are.
[John Petrella]: And I don't know where the money comes from. But we all got how many mailers from them? I mean, it's incredible. Yeah, they spend money.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And it's not just Medford. I mean, I live in Malden. Malden's like that now. You know, it's hard for it's hard for people to get in. They're getting a lot of money.
[John Petrella]: It's national money, that's what it is. Where is it coming from? Yeah, I don't know.
[Chris Stevens]: Where is it coming from? That I don't have any answer.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: But we will find out. We will find out. I hope so.
[Chris Stevens]: What's interesting is, you know, you say once you get in there, it's tough sometimes to get incumbents out. And these guys are all young. Yes. So I mean, unless they get bored with the gig, they could potentially be in there for a very long time.
[Unidentified]: For quite a while.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And you know, and some of them might have bigger ambitions. We don't know, right?
[John Petrella]: I'm sure they do.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Mr. Bears, are you running for mayor?
[John Petrella]: I'm sure there's going to be more up the road. I really do. All right, so let's move on a little bit here now. So your thoughts, and what I'm looking for here, you know, your thoughts, the results of the city council, you know, Moving forward for the city of Medford, you know, we're talking, let's talk budget, zoning, economic development. I mean, they control the whole council. Sure. Where are they going with these, with the zoning, with the? What do you think? What's your opinion?
[Chris Stevens]: I'm curious to see where the rezoning is going to go because the mayor put the kibosh on that when she declined to further fund their consultant. So that sort of put the brakes on the six-year journey. I would assume that city council and the mayor are going to have to come to some sort of agreement at some point. Either that or it's just going to be dead in the water. I can't imagine it's going to be dead in the water after all these years.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: They had an idea that they worked on for two years. And they wanted to rezone the entire city at the same time in two years. And that's crazy. I mean there are cities that take forever. They take it one section at a time. And I think that's why you saw so many independent candidates. Because people were very upset about it. And then it all seemed to sort of trickle to an end, and then the mayor said, we're not doing this, because she was probably getting complaints, and nobody knew what was going on. And people weren't getting information. We're not getting information. We've asked millions of questions. We've been turned down. We've asked for sit-downs. We've asked for meetings. We've asked for all kinds of things. And I can't just imagine what that's like for the regular citizen who wants to ask a question and doesn't get it answered. So I think, personally, the mayor was waiting to see where the election went, what shook out.
[Chris Stevens]: Definitely. But it hasn't changed. No. Nothing's changed.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: They will come to some sort of agreement. I do think there are enough people that are saying, let's just take this a little bit slower. Let's back the truck up and just take it a little slower.
[Chris Stevens]: Even Zach said that. Even Zach?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: There's a seven.
[John Petrella]: Now, here's what I, and this is only my opinion, I think that now that the election's over, I mean, I'm just talking zoning. The election's over. Before the election, I think they realized that, wow, the pushback they got on the zoning. So I think they realized that, the pushback they were getting, so they slowed down the zoning and everything. But now that they're elected and they're back in office, I hate to see it. I think they're going to go full steam.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: But she has to give them money.
[John Petrella]: No, no, I understand all that. That's what I'm getting at. you know, boom, boom, boom, and it's going to happen. Or the mayor may end up, I don't know what the word is, going to battle with them.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I don't know. They have the plan. They have their planning board, right? And that board, by the way, November 18. Right? They're having yes, yeah, they open house and open house. Yeah, which you know, if you're concerned about zoning, my thing is go go go to that. It's from 47. Sorry, Chris just told me this today. She made me say I'm going. Told us she had to go.
[Chris Stevens]: But we're going, right?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And we encourage people to go and to ask those questions and to say to the mayor, I want you to take this slow. We've asked that board for a sit down and we got a lot of like nothing, silent. But they're going to have to answer these questions. They're going to have to answer the questions.
[John Petrella]: And I know you guys get silence. Most of the city gets silence. You know, I have to ask this. Why? What's the problem?
[Chris Stevens]: Like, why can't they just come out? I mean, either way. They're not used to having a newspaper. And they're not used to having to answer to anything. They don't think they have to answer to anybody. But we're here now. And so we didn't come in early enough in this election to probably have any kind of an impact. But the next time that there is an election, we are here. And they might want to take that into account. It's going to be interesting. I do have to say. It's going to be interesting because we can report on the fact that nobody's getting any information about anything.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: They did actually, they were very good about returning candidate questionnaires that we did send out. So we were able to put that together.
[Chris Stevens]: The council is pretty good about getting back to us. Not always timely, but they do get back to us. The mayor's office does not really answer much of anything. They like to issue press releases, but they don't. They issue a lot of press releases. They do.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And I think that the answer going forward for us is on our stories that we'll be saying we reached out to so and so at this office and they did not return calls.
[Chris Stevens]: This is my favorite thing to write.
[John Petrella]: No, I hear you. We asked everybody. As you know, we did a lot of political shows. You did, yeah. Yes. And I'm sort of, you know, we're going to... Step away from that.
[Unidentified]: Get away from the politics now.
[John Petrella]: I'm looking forward to some of the shows we're going to be doing, believe me. But, you know, we invited everybody, and, you know, the ones that came on came on, but same thing. It's like a lot of people just...
[Chris Stevens]: Well, we had people that didn't participate in our profiles. And I thought, you know, why not? It doesn't take that much time. It's free publicity. Why not?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: It's not like we asked really hard questions.
[Chris Stevens]: No, I know. And we're not out to get you. We're giving you the chance to have your say. And since we're not in print, we're not even limiting it. You can go on as long as you want. And Chris always asks that fun question, like, what book is on your nightstand? I do. I usually ask that to the school committee.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I don't know why, but yeah. And it's fun. I like to ask them. You can make that up.
[John Petrella]: Same with us. We weren't trying to trick anyone. We weren't trying to ask tough questions. I mean, if you watch the shows we did, they all got pretty similar questions. I don't think there was anything.
[Chris Stevens]: I actually liked the candidates' nights this year. I know some people didn't, but I love the way they did it, where they pulled them out of the fishbowl, and everybody got a different question, and you didn't have to listen to 14 people give the very same answer. Yeah, I thought it was great. It gets difficult.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And they had regular citizens send them questions.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah, that was nice, too.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Usually you have a moderator, like somebody who asks all the questions, and nobody wants that.
[John Petrella]: Okay. Well, I think we covered that pretty much. We did a good job with that. Um, so we're going to be moving on, uh, to the school committee, but before we do, uh, let's talk about the city council candidates and we have to, who did not get in. And you, you basically answered this already, Chris, maybe you'll answer it the same way again. Why? didn't they get in? Why?
[Chris Stevens]: I don't, I don't know, except that they were not a part of the machine. I mean, it was very clear that the, you know, everybody but George was our revolution. So I don't know if that was some And like you said, I think the majority of the voters came out because our revolution brought them out. They just didn't have the poll that the others did, because they were really good candidates. And there were some candidates that I was surprised that didn't do as well as I thought that they would. Not that I will have to say I am the worst at calling an election, so don't follow anything I will say.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: If you look at the numbers, they're close.
[Chris Stevens]: The numbers are all pretty close. They're all very close. They all did well.
[John Petrella]: Yes, I thought they all did well, right. And I'm going to tell you, it's not just the The thing was, it's not just the city council, it's the school community.
[Chris Stevens]: It's the school community, too. Absolutely. It's 100%. Yep. Yep. And... Yeah, I mean, you look at the difference between George and, uh, George Scarpelli and Liz Mullane, I mean, he... 87 votes. Right. I mean, he beat her. I'm sorry, that... There are only 14. 14 votes. Yeah. And there's only 87 between Liz and, uh... Miranda, I think. It's crazy.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, yeah.
[Chris Stevens]: It's a change, right?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: It's a change. Go back with me, okay, about 20 years, okay?
[John Petrella]: I'd love to go back to me.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Okay, and so Medford at one point was, let's call it old Medford, okay? So you had a city council that had been there forever. Old names, old families, okay, just really old. And people would say, we need new voices, we need younger voices, we need people with different viewpoints who haven't been in Medford all their lives in 100 years worth of, families and relatives, and now you have that. So people are the same way, right? So now we're all the way to the other side. Now people are like, we need old Medford, we need older voices. So you didn't get it this time, but you saw a lot of people come out and say, I live here and I want my voice because I'm not happy with what's happening. So not only do you have like more people running, but you had a lot more voices. So you had like the average citizen up in arms about this is not happening in my neighborhood. And you saw those people show up at meetings about zoning or whatever they were concerned about. They came out. If they had come out to vote, that would have probably been better.
[John Petrella]: Next time come out to vote.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Because then you can't complain.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, that's what we need. We need them to come out and vote.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Right. So it's just sort of, it's like a pendulum swing. Eventually, eventually, it'll get back to the middle. Because I remember when Zack Bares was first elected, he was like the youngest person on that council that had seen that council in years. And now, you know, maybe the pendulum will swing back, maybe there'll be a middle and then they're like, who knows?
[John Petrella]: Yeah. See, I always think back when you say go back 20 years. You go back 20 years and I look at the council, you know, the Bob Mayako, Bob Penta, Paul Donato, Stephanie Burke, Michael Marks, those guys. But you, the battles that went on. But you enjoyed watching them. Oh, yeah, and they got pretty intense.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: It was the best show in town People would watch the cable and they were like a popcorn just pop But see and I was you know, I obviously I was a lot younger than but when you watch that
[John Petrella]: The thing that I always took hold in me was, wow, look at these guys. And these three think Medford's got to go this way. And these three and this one, they all had different opinions. And there was a lot of big issues back then. You guys know that. So to me, but it was always about Medford. And there was always, it was just good to see the, back and forth with these guys. And you know, like I say, they'd be done, maybe they'd go out, have a drink, whatever, I don't know, but you know, they stayed, you know, they remained basically friendly. The city stayed together. I don't see that anymore. I feel like.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: That's national politics.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, right, and I feel like it's not, You watch a city council. I don't like the way they treat people anymore. I mean, we always treated people with respect, dignity. There was never any of that. The councilors went back and forth. They didn't go back and forth with the people too much.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: The council usually just let them have their say. Right.
[John Petrella]: And listened, but they paid attention. Now I feel like only my opinion You start with one council, they go right down the line, with the exception of George, and it's all the same conversation. representing the whole city. It's like you're ruling over this city. A little bit. That's the way I feel. I mean, am I wrong?
[Chris Stevens]: No, it is a little bit that way, but that is what the people voted for.
[John Petrella]: Right. No, no, I understand that's what they voted for.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: But do they understand what they're voting for?
[John Petrella]: That's the question. That's the question.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I think most the average, I mean, we can sit here because not, you know, you follow politics pretty close. Right.
[John Petrella]: I do.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Yeah, I always do it as part of our job. And we're more like on the inside watching, right, just kind of sometimes shaking your head. But the average citizen is not watching that. They are. They're concerned with their taxes. They're concerned with their, I mean, a lot of people A lot of people said to us, I have no idea what's going on. I have no idea that we're rezoning anything. I don't know. And this had been going on for two years. It's been going on longer than that. And by the end, we probably knew more about it than they did. And we started this in February.
[Chris Stevens]: And we just started in February.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Right. No, no. I know. Yeah. I'll be completely honest. I have no idea what's going on in my city. There is an override. I don't know. I didn't pay attention. Because I'm paying more attention to what's going on in Medford. But you have to, at some point, as a resident or a citizen, take a step to participate. You need to pay attention, whether the information is there or not.
[John Petrella]: I always hear, well, I'm working, I have this, I have that. And I'm like, look, that's no excuse. Yeah, you have to make it a priority. It's like when I was younger, you used to get, it's your civic duty. Now go vote. And that was it. You went and voted. But that's the way I feel. I just feel like it's not.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: and
[John Petrella]: Yeah, hopefully, you know, I mean, I always believe, even if I disagree with people, you know, you give everybody a chance, we'll see what happens. Maybe things will change this time. You know, they'll listen, I don't, who knows, you know, maybe things will work out.
[Chris Stevens]: It's going to be interesting though, isn't it? It is. It's always interesting. Well, it's going to be interesting, and they've got, what, two years to prove it, because the charter comes, kicks in in the next election, and that's going to be a whole new ballgame.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Oh, that will be a completely new ballgame. For everybody in the city. It's kind of like going from plan E to plan A. Exactly. With a whole new ballgame then, and now it's going to be completely changed. It's going to be here before you know it.
[John Petrella]: I know. All right, so we've got to just move on to the school committee. You know, what do you think with the school committee? What areas?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: No opening. No opening on the school committee.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah. Two new people. Two new people. Yeah. Yeah. That says something.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: So maybe that's the change that we're looking at.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah. And Jessica Parks, I mean, she came in third. She was third on the ticket. Right. So she didn't just like squeak in. And Mike too. Yeah. Michael had a good showing as well. He came in fifth.
[John Petrella]: So, yeah, we do have some new people on there.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah. And I think they're going to be great. I mean, Michael is the budget director for the city of Somerville. Right. So he's got certainly going to help the school committee.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Chris Stevens]: And Jessica is she's a project manager in campus construction for MIT. So, you know, when you come into the high school project, you got two ringers.
[Unidentified]: And maintenance.
[Chris Stevens]: Right there.
[John Petrella]: And maintenance. It's going to be a lot when it comes to that, to the high school. Yeah, they're going to have their work cut out for them.
[Chris Stevens]: That will be fun. That will be fun. That will be fun. But I think they're going to be great additions to the school committee. I mean, not that Nicole and John weren't. Nicole and John were great. No, I think they did a great job.
[Unidentified]: Again.
[Chris Stevens]: They really did. I think they had really good candidates. I think anybody, you know, that they had voted would have been fine, would have been great.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Yeah, exactly.
[John Petrella]: But it'll be nice to see new blood.
[Chris Stevens]: It's always fun. New blood, yeah.
[John Petrella]: So we might have something positive to look at with the school committee. Oh, they got their work cut out for them. They do. We know that with everything that's going on.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah, they got a lot going on. Yeah, it'll be interesting. They got a new superintendent coming in. They're going to think about that in June.
[John Petrella]: Yeah.
[Chris Stevens]: Oh, yeah. The hiring a new superintendent. Yeah.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: My vote is for Suzanne. Lucy, she's doing an amazing job.
[Chris Stevens]: I want a good job. Oh, I think she's she's a Medford girl. Yeah, I know. Yeah, she is right. Her entire career has been her entire career. Yeah.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Her family's from here. Her dad was Jack Buckley.
[Chris Stevens]: I hope they do that. But nice. Yeah, I remember. School committee guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Would be great. I think she's awesome. But I imagine they will have to go out for a search just to because they have to because they have to. Yeah.
[John Petrella]: I got to finish up with the charter. Okay. I mean. Let's do it.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: We love the charter.
[John Petrella]: I got to tell you. I voted. I did. I voted yes. I like it too. I really do. I think it's great.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: You have to make a change.
[John Petrella]: But I got to be honest. Yeah, I agree with you. But I was like, wow, did they vote for the charter. Yeah.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: People have been wanting a new charter since, oh my gosh, I can't. Yeah, forever.
[Unidentified]: I mean, forever.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Berk came in and there was a committee that they wanted to do a charter. They wanted a grassroots committee. They wanted the city council to get on board. But that old council was like, we're not going to go to wards because we'll have to fight each other. They were not on board. There was a lot of attempts made. And this one finally went through. And so people can see, there was a change. We're going to go with this change. And we can always change the charter again. Yes, it's not set in stone. That's what I like about it.
[John Petrella]: It's like a living, I think Ron said it best, Melva. It is. It's a living document.
[Chris Stevens]: Well, there's a charter review built in, I think, for every five years, right? Yes, that's right. It's perfect. I mean, it did pass by almost 5,000 votes. It's huge. It's huge.
[John Petrella]: I agree with a lot of it. There's some things I don't agree with. Yeah, the school committee setup is a little weird. Yeah, I didn't understand that, but I mean, I think the mayor, four years? Perfect.
[Chris Stevens]: It should be. Really, don't you?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Other cities and towns have done it, and it's worked out.
[Chris Stevens]: Because otherwise you're constantly running for re-election. You barely get a year in. You barely get anything done and then you're running for re-election again. It's ridiculous.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Unless you're there forever. Like McGlynn was there for 30 years. So he was like whatever. Everybody who ran against him he like flattened.
[John Petrella]: Yeah.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And so there wasn't any opportunity. So he could get stuff done. But you know, the last two mayors, it's hard to get stuff done in two years.
[John Petrella]: I agree with you. Yeah.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: So that's great. That's a great change.
[John Petrella]: I think it's... You know, hopefully you get good mayors, you know, but four years, I definitely think they need at least that amount of time to make, you know, to get some things done, accomplished, however you want it.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: You're not worrying about, like Chris said, you're not worrying about that every, oh my gosh, here I go again, am I going to see this project continued, is my successor, if there ever will be one. Are they going to continue the project? The project's in the works. You're never going to get anything done, like you said. But I don't really care about the school changes, I'll be completely honest, but I love the city council changes.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah, that makes total sense. I mean, I can't believe they don't have ward Councilors now. I mean, that's... I love that. Yeah, I've never covered a community that doesn't have ward Councilors.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I live in a warded community, and I love it. And I'll tell you why I love it, because I can call, I can pick up the phone, I can call up my city, I know who it is.
[Chris Stevens]: You know who it is, you probably have their number right next to the fridge. Yeah, it's crazy.
[John Petrella]: You can complain about stuff. And it makes it more easy for people to be involved because it's one of your neighbors. You might see them walk by your house, the park, whatever.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And what I love about it too is in the city I live in, in Malden, my city councilor, my ward councilor holds a little thing every year. On the 4th of, they do, I love it. On the 4th of July for families in the ward on one of the parks, they bring out stuff, but you get an opportunity to meet the people in your ward. You know your neighbors. You know who this person is. And so it's, I think, you know, people want to be represented in wards. They want people to, people in North Medford don't care that other people are like, they're like, why is this person who doesn't know what my problems are?
[Chris Stevens]: Doing this person all the way across town, right?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Yeah, people in South Medford have different problems and right.
[John Petrella]: Oh, absolutely or West No, wherever we have our own little areas and I yeah, I think it's great.
[Chris Stevens]: I love that have that yeah, it's about time Chris is weirded out by the Well the school committee this so is that I mean am I reading that correctly one? They're gonna one. I don't understand. They're gonna be elected by districts. So there's four districts. Yeah, that's just weird to me. I've never seen another community that does that. Not a school community. You represent, because you don't just represent your district. You have to represent all the schools equally.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, the schools are all over the city, so I agree.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Isn't there a city council thing where they want, like every school, again, every school is different in every district of the city. But you're right, it has to be, you can't be.
[Chris Stevens]: But it has to be equal.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, I think you have to represent every school.
[Chris Stevens]: I mean, that's always been an argument in every community I've ever covered is equal funding for schools. And maybe they feel that having districts that this way they'll be able to do that because they'll have somebody fighting for a specific district. I don't know.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Or maybe you're like four districts, I've got to spread the money across the four districts instead of. figuring that maybe more money will go here. Is that the thinking?
[John Petrella]: I don't know. I don't know what it is. was tough for me to figure out. I'm not sure. I mean, there may be a good reason for it. I'm sure they had a reason.
[Chris Stevens]: But I can honestly tell you I haven't heard one yet.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: What do you think of the mayor being knocked off as the chairman?
[Chris Stevens]: That also surprised me. I was like, wow. Again, I've never covered a community. I've never covered a city where the mayor wasn't the automata.
[John Petrella]: I think that's part of some deal they might have worked out or something.
[Chris Stevens]: It had to be.
[John Petrella]: I was very surprised. I just said that was interesting. Mean that's the biggest budget. It's the biggest. Yeah She's still a voting member Yeah, yeah, but it was you know, she she was in charge put it that way and that's you know You're talking a lot of money.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: It is a huge amount of money people might say well, you know now you have a president a vice president they're able to go to the schools, but They've always been at the schools. Jenny Graham is great. She goes out there and has a vice chair. She's out everywhere. And the mayor goes to a ton of school stuff too. It's not like Medford doesn't have Representation in the schools schools are a very important and big thing. Yeah the city. Yeah, and have been for a long time So that's a that's a weird one.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah, and their numbers don't change just their configuration changes.
[John Petrella]: It's weird Yeah, so the last question I have to get this thing because you mentioned the mayor so we know the mayor ran unchallenged this election. What do you think? Do you think the mayor's reelection will have any impact, the important decision-making coming, the public?
[Chris Stevens]: You know, I mean... She has no reason to change. Right. Well, I mean... She's got the city council still the same.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Right, but you were talking earlier about- Although there's a little friction between them.
[Chris Stevens]: Yes. Yeah. That's good to see. I think so. I think it has to be.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: People say, why is that good to see?
[Chris Stevens]: Because that means- Like you said, because then there's some debate on issues. There's debate.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: It's not just a rubber stamp. You rubber stamp her ideas, or she rubber stamps their ideas.
[John Petrella]: I guess I'm trying to think. You had said it earlier, and I know other people, have said this, you know, with the mayor, with, I mean, I know they do their messaging and everything else, but do you think because she ran unelected, it's better for you? You think you'll get? No. No. You think it's going to be? No.
[Chris Stevens]: She has no reason. Like I said, she has no reason. There was no, there was no call to action for her. There was no, there was no threat. There was no, it wasn't a close race. So, you know, maybe I better change my ways. But there were 1,000 write-ins? Yeah, which is a lot. Yeah, no, I heard about that, yeah. And I heard there was quite a few rumors. Yeah, I think that was very interesting, was it?
[John Petrella]: But I don't know.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: For some reason, I just think that she's gonna... City Hall is locked down like Fort Knox. Open up a little now. No.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah, you don't think so? You think she's gonna relax, maybe? I mean, how long has she been doing the job now?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: 2020, she was elected in 2019. She took over in 2020. She was two months in before COVID hit. Right, and that was tough. Let's be honest. That was horrible. Yeah, it's tough. She did a great job with that. Yeah, it was tough. Because everybody followed Kurt Atone in Somerville. This guy did stuff. Everybody was like, well, that looks like a good idea. And they went with him. And that's hard. So that was her first challenge was the pandemic and getting the city back to normal. And she did a great job of that. And she's got stuff that's happening.
[Chris Stevens]: And we're not out together. We're just asking questions.
[John Petrella]: That's the part that people don't understand. It's sort of like, if anything, people want to help you and on and on and on.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: We want specifics. We want to talk to the people who know the specifics. We don't need to be monitored like we're five-year-olds asking questions.
[Chris Stevens]: I've been doing this job for 30 years. Trust that I have a little integrity.
[John Petrella]: But if she doesn't have someone, that ran against her. I mean, you know, that's to me.
[Chris Stevens]: Why? Why did nobody run against?
[John Petrella]: I don't know. But I'd be if I'm the mayor and no one's running against me, I'm going to be more relaxed. I might open up a little bit. No, you would hope I might because what am I worried about? No one ran against me. That's, you know, just because you're worried about two years.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah, that's what you're worried about. Two years. when the charter kicks in.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Don't forget, the charter kicks in, right, and we're not going for every two years, we're going for every four years.
[John Petrella]: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: So now you got a man that's sitting there for four years, and if you don't like them, you're like, well, in two years, no, no, that's a four-year position, like the president. Like it's gonna be, like the president, there every four years, and then what? Do I think she's confident? I would be. Yeah. She should be. But do I think she's going to give an inch?
[John Petrella]: No. No, you don't think so, huh?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I don't think so.
[John Petrella]: Maybe for some reason. Surprise us.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I don't know what it is.
[John Petrella]: I sometimes go with my gut feeling.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I go into City Hall sometimes just to walk around and say hello to people. It's like I've got bubonic plague. No, you can't do that anymore. Don't talk to her.
[Chris Stevens]: Here comes the news report. I seriously just want to say hi. How are the kids?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Hi, how are you? Can I have some of your candy?
[Chris Stevens]: That's usually what I'm looking for.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: But I think the mayor needs to open up and just, like you said, give a little.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah. I mean, with all due respect, City Hall is supposed to be the house of the people. It's supposed to be open. It's supposed to be open to the public.
[John Petrella]: And that's the way it should be.
[Chris Stevens]: Get information. That is the way it should be.
[John Petrella]: That's supposed to be information central.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah.
[John Petrella]: Yeah. It's a very odd.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: It's very odd.
[John Petrella]: They like to, in my opinion, they sort of, not that they sort of, they love to control information. Oh yes. And that's all of them.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: But I think the doors, the doors are really locked with Mayor Burke's election. Stephanie Burke's election. She came down and said, I'm going to hire a PR person or a person to deal with my communications. I'm going to lock it down. And you as the news, because I sat with her, and was told, from now on, you have to ask my permission to speak to people.
[Chris Stevens]: Oh, it's like the Pentagon.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And I said to her, and I remember saying to her, I'm not going to ask you permission at all. I'm going to call the person, and then they're going to call you for permission, because they're your employees and you're not. but it's gotten worse. That has gotten worse with Brianna. She just doesn't, I mean she's got people, you call them, you ask them a question, and then they never get back to you. And what is she afraid of?
[John Petrella]: I don't know. I can't answer that. I really can't. I don't get it.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Claire, what are you afraid of? Chris wants to know. I would like to know.
[John Petrella]: We'll see what happens.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I don't know.
[John Petrella]: I just have a better gut feeling this time.
[Chris Stevens]: Well, I hope you're right.
[John Petrella]: I hope you're right. And like I say, we'll find out.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I'd like to see the city council be a little bit more open.
[John Petrella]: I would love to see that.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I'd love to have you be able to call them like you, I think we used to in the old days.
[Chris Stevens]: And they answered the phone.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Answer the phone.
[Chris Stevens]: Or your email. Not have to like set a time to maybe I'll get back to you in three weeks. We're going to be watching everything in two thousand days.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: The only person, I wouldn't say the only person, the only two people have gotten back to me with Zach Bears. I text him and he gets back to me. And the one who's leaving, whose name I can't remember right now. Kit Collins. I'm sorry, Kit. I apologize. She's been fantastic. I text her, and she texts me back and tries to answer my questions the best I can.
[John Petrella]: I mean, it's nice. Even if you don't agree with them, at least if they respond.
[Chris Stevens]: Yeah. Yeah, that's all. Just respond. I don't have to agree. Just respond with a no comment. Whatever. Just respond. Something. Yeah. No, I know. I know. Don't just blow it all up. Just tell me no. I mean, no is fine. Because we're not going away. No. Well, we'll see what happens.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Chris is very pessimistic.
[Chris Stevens]: She wants to be. It's a fine line between persistence and stalking.
[John Petrella]: We'll be on the show. You guys will be coming back. We'll do a few more shows. We'll do everything. I mean, we'll keep the whole city.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I can't wait for inauguration day.
[Chris Stevens]: There you go. And there's a lot of arts things going on.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: The city is very busy right now. Yeah, there's a ton of stuff. And without everybody obsessing over politics right now, it'll be great. We've got the holidays coming up.
[John Petrella]: I think we all need a break, us and the city.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: I just want to give one more plug for people to go to the November 18th, 4 to 7. Come to City Hall. Come talk to the planning people. Tell them your ideas. There will be people directly Okay. That you can speak to.
[John Petrella]: Sounds good. I can talk to you ladies. As you know, we could go on all night, but I can't. You know?
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: We'll go for a drink after that. Yeah. To the old Tiki Island. Yeah, there you go.
[John Petrella]: It's good now. Wow, is it good. Love it in there. A whole wind. We gotta have him on the show. That's what we gotta do. We gotta have some restaurants come on.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: We got a lot of stuff. Chris actually does restaurant reviews.
[Chris Stevens]: He do. I was a food reporter. I did a column for 14 years. So we'll be in touch. Definitely.
[John Petrella]: So I gotta thank you both. Oh, it's our pleasure.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: Our pleasure. I really enjoyed it.
[John Petrella]: We always love to come to see you and Paul and the gang. As usual, whenever I have you guys, we always go over time. We always start, you know, we gotta move on.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: So much to talk about. Yeah, there is.
[John Petrella]: Well, it's fun. It's like a nice conversation.
[Nell Escobar Coakley]: And the city election has been on everybody's mind for months and months and months.
[Chris Stevens]: So now they can get down to work. We get to take a break, but they have to get to work. No they don't, they have to get to work in January.
[John Petrella]: That's the fun time of the year coming up, that's all. But thank you both of you, I appreciate it. So, you know, I've got to thank my guests again, Nell Escobar-Copley, and of course Chris Stevens. from the Gotta Know Method team, sharing their thoughts on the 2025 Method election. I hope everyone enjoyed the show. I also want to take a minute to thank everyone who has been watching the show. I want to thank you for your feedback. I always say whether it's positive, negative, it's been all positive. We're happy with that. The other thing is if you would like to share a comment, are opening a new business, have an existing business, uh, you represent an organization, you're having, I know there's a lot of upcoming events, and you would like to appear on a future show, contact us at metfordhappenings02155 at gmail.com. As usual, you'll be able to see replays of this show on Method Community Media, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. They play at usually 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and on our really great website, great website, methodhappenings.com. They did a great job with that. You can also find us on YouTube and on Facebook. And for the Method Happenings team, Paul, Marco, Bruce, James, I am John Petrella. And remember, Medford, stay informed. Thank you. Ta-da!