AI-generated transcript of Medford Happenings Episode 35 Zac Bears

[John Petrella]: Hello everyone and welcome to Method Happenings, a show for and about the City of Medford. I am John Petrella and the purpose of this program is to give Medford citizens facts and information to help you make informed choices and to discover city services or businesses you may not have been aware of. We have a special guest today. I think you know him. He is the president of the city council, Isaac Zach Beers. And welcome to the show, Zach. And can't thank you enough for coming on. Thanks for coming on.

[Zac Bears]: Thanks, John. I'm happy to be here. Thank you to your team as well.

[John Petrella]: Okay, we're gonna get right into the show. We're just gonna hit you with some questions and the first question We asked us of everyone's act Most people do know you method City Council But can you share, you know, just a little bit more about yourself with our viewers, you know, who is that beers? I

[Zac Bears]: Sure. I think people, at least I would describe it, people know me as a passionate, principled advocate. I think also maybe a bit of a nerd. I really just care about the issues in front of me, about our city, about my community. my actions are based on my values, like that's how I bring, it's what I bring to situations, it's how I come to City Hall. And I also just want to know as much as I can about anything and everything. And that's certainly what I try to bring to to the city, to city council, but also I'm a big fan of music, history, art, sports, and all the different ways that that comes out. I grew up here. I'm from Medford. I love Medford. I think it's, in my opinion, the best place in the world. I know a lot of people. really love our city. Some who live here, some who don't yet. Hopefully they can come here. Some who want to come back. And for me, I know there's so much possibility in this city. And we've done a lot, but I think we all know what kind of future is possible for our city, and I really care about seeing that through.

[John Petrella]: And we all want to get there, that's for sure. All right, so as a council member, you play a major role in many changes in the city. you know, what's, is there one accomplishment or maybe there's more than one, um, you know, that makes you really feel proud or good about the impact you're having on the city?

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. I mean, it's hard to boil it all down and things are interconnected, but, um, I've been really happy with the work that we've done on, on the budget process. You know, we as a city council certainly have a major role and, and we are the legislative branch. Right. Um, and, Our job is to try to set the direction of the city, put out policies that we believe in, and also bring as much transparency and accountability as we can. The mayor is the CEO, the mayor executes, and then the council guides, advises, requests. Sometimes that's a hard role, because sometimes, you know, You know, we don't have the decision-making that we might want to have.

[John Petrella]: We don't see eye-to-eye sometimes.

[Zac Bears]: Sure, that too. And, you know, really the first few years, especially unexpectedly, you know, when I started two months later, was COVID, right? That was my first year. And between that and the inflation after that, and what's happening to cities and towns and has been for years really getting, uh, opening up and understanding more about the budget process, um, has been really important. And we really have put a lot of work into as a council working with the mayor and also in some ways getting the mayor to agree to a process that starts earlier that people can be more involved in, um, seeing the budgets for the departments early than putting in, you know, putting in some requests, seeing the budgets, getting that back and, You know, we've been there with that June 15th, everything comes out on June 15th, and you have a week to figure it out. And it's a big deal. It's a $200 million budget. And so trying to open that up has been really important. And a part of that was the campaign in 2024, the questions six, seven, and eight, right? The tax overrides and the proposed debt exclusion for the fire station, and I think With all the facts that we have, that was something we needed to do as a city. And I think we saw the benefits of that with our teacher contract. Huge win for our schools. We signed a teacher contract that really advanced a lot of priorities, and not just supporting and compensating our teachers, but getting the schedules aligned so that if you're at Medford High, you can be on the vote You can take voc programs, you can take the other classes, take arts and music. And that took a big lift. And so that was really important. And I think something that I really I think we can always communicate better. I was sad that the way that that went ended up being yes, no, the division element of that. That's something that I've been trying to learn from and understand, because that's not how you want to do it, and I think we got a lot of good out of it. We have a big decision as a community around our high school coming up. And for me, I definitely have learned some lessons about getting people to the table and communicating. And also, you know, we've been really pushing as a council now for years about the residential tax exemption, homeowner-occupied tax exemption. And I think that's something we really need to look into. more than look into it. I think we need to do it. I think we need to do it at the same time that we do the debt exclusion. And it's not going to help everyone, but it certainly helps the people.

[John Petrella]: That need it most, I think.

[Zac Bears]: I think so. The hard part is the state doesn't give us many options. I understand. No, I understand.

[John Petrella]: I understand. I'm not going to get into me personally, but there's certain things that, you know, I know, I always say they keep you up at night. Yeah. OK, so there's got to be, you know, challenges and things that you face. And, you know, if you could pick something or something that, like, you know, means a lot to you, keeps you up at night, what might it be? Can you think of anything?

[Zac Bears]: Oh, absolutely.

[John Petrella]: Well, we don't want we don't want you up that much.

[Zac Bears]: No, no. Well, you know, there are things. And and it's not like that tomorrow. It's all going to be a mess. Right. It's not that kind of I'm worried about what's going to happen the next day. But, you know, some of the things are. There needs to be a lot of progress on them. Right. And I think something we've seen for a long time in this city is not having the execution on our plans. Um, so really the failure to execute on our plans. We do a lot of planning and then we get to implementation. We get to the rubber meeting the road and either it doesn't happen or it hits bumps right away, hits potholes. Um, and literally and figuratively. And you know, we have a major backlog for roads and sidewalks. We have one of the oldest water sewer systems. Um, our team at DPW has been working on that, but you know, as much work as you put in. It's really hard to get back from where we were 45 years ago. DPW is half the size, half the number of people. And with the growth issue as well, I think that's a huge part of it. We need to deliver for residents. And growth is the way that we do that. And I think we've been a little stuck for a little too long on that question. And it really hits everything, right? Commercial mixed-use growth, is super meaningful, not just because it brings revenue in so that we can fully fund things like Medford Community Media, or our roads and sidewalks, our schools, public safety, but it also is the only way to lower the residential tax bill at the end of the day. And I think when we talk about what does that look like, We have been trying to keep the increase as low as we can, or not necessarily as low as we can, but our costs are going up faster than our revenue. Our revenue's capped. Our costs are not. And there is pressure, right? We are sitting in a building that needs to be rebuilt. The cheapest time to do it is right now. Well, cheapest time to do it was 10 years ago.

[John Petrella]: I was gonna add to that, yeah, but no, I hear ya.

[Zac Bears]: So growth is the answer there. And you look at some of our neighbors, I mean, especially, and I don't know if we can do these exact things, but we can try. You know, you look at a Cambridge or a Waltham, and they have this commercial base that really supports all the other things that they need to do as a city. Doesn't mean everything's that there is perfect, but it means that they have a different set of choices than we do.

[John Petrella]: I worked in Waltham for about 15 years, and I saw that process. It was incredible what they did down there. It really was. All right, so. One of the questions, to me, this is an important question, okay? There seems to be a gap between how the council engages with the public and how residents feel about being heard. It's been brought up a lot. I mean, it has been. It's one of those things. So my question, what do you think is causing the gap? you know, I don't know what, what could the council do differently, um, you know, to help people feel, uh, their rent, you know, their input is being heard. Um, you know, when it matters in your decision-making, I mean, you guys ultimately, you're the president of the council, the count, you guys ultimately, like you said earlier, you make the decisions, but you know, how do you make people feel like they're involved? Like they're like the inputs there from, I know it's difficult.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. Well, I mean, I think I sit before you here a little bit humbled.

[John Petrella]: Okay.

[Zac Bears]: Okay. And I'm working and thinking about this a little differently. We're never all going to agree. No. There's a great quote attributed to many people. If you agree with me on 80%, let's work together. If you agree with me on 100%, you're nuts. You know and and even if you agree with me on 20% or 40% or 50% right like we agree on something right and those are things we can work on and I think the other piece of it is just not getting ourselves put into this pitched battle where I believe that if you're on the other side of the table from me, you are my enemy.

[John Petrella]: And I think

[Zac Bears]: We've been caught a little bit in a scarcity mindset here in Medford. We are trying to do important things, things that haven't been done in a long time. But where are the resources there? And we end up in this situation where we're, and I think you just have to do this sometimes. You have to do what you can with what you have. But I think that also looks a lot like asking people to do more with less. I think the zoning conversation was an example. We said, well, this is what the mayor's given us. And so this is what we get. And we need to implement this plan. It goes back to that. I think there's a really good faith intent. Let's execute. Let's implement our city's comprehensive plan, first comprehensive plan in decades. But do we have the resources to do it? Do we have the resources to communicate and engage? And then do I, especially I, standing at that podium, feel like I'm under attack? or that we're agreeing to disagree. And I think that, for me, that's a lot up here. Of course it is. I think acknowledging a mistake is the first step, right? And I feel like on the zoning, we tried to get there pretty early on. Once we had heard from residents, hey, what is going on here? This is a lot. This is too much. I wrote something down. I made a speech. I said, let's reset this. And, and honoring that like our intents were good, our intentions were good, but maybe the communication wasn't good or we started I started to feel like folks at the podium were coming after me personally when we were having a disagreement. And I think you can react to that in a way that turns it up.

[John Petrella]: Or turns it down. We've seen it happen both ways.

[Zac Bears]: And you know, it's a two-way street, but I can only control my end. And if I am sitting there and I say, turn it down. Let's try to get back to that place where we can say, thank you. We heard what you said. We're going to be talking about this again. I think that's really important. And then taking that in and saying, OK, we need to adjust. We need to make sure that maybe the outcome's not what everybody wants. And there was going to be people who disagree with things. But at least they didn't feel like they were disrespected in some way. And I think that that's important. It's incredibly important. It's the first, you know, seeing your neighbor as a human being.

[John Petrella]: You know, I'm just going to throw this in, and then we'll get to the next question. I feel, and I mean this, that everybody in the city basically, basically wants the same things. And I think what separates or what seems to be the division part of it is it's how we get there. That's all. And that's where I think everyone's got to. just how do we get there? We all want the new school, we all want, you know, but how do we get there?

[Zac Bears]: Well, how we get there is together. Correct. All right. And, and, and, and, but more than that, you know, like, you know, I've been, I've been really trying to hold this in the way that I'm showing up. Okay. Tried to bring it to the campaign last year, which was very much, I think the most it's been in a while since the, the great McGlynn-Penta days and those debates, it was very much one side or the other. These seven mean one thing, these seven mean the other. The other example, plan A, plan E. I know, I know. There's a lot. I've been trying to work with Councilor Scarpelli. I've heard from people, hey, people who said, I've never agreed with you on anything, but how you're thinking about the ambulance contractor or the trash. How do we get a better plan on the trash? And just in general, how is the council working together? That it feels different. And I think we're going to be working together on neighborhood meetings and trying to get out into the wards. We're working on implementing our new charter. And more than anything, finding the answers and improving communication.

[John Petrella]: You got a lot going on.

[Zac Bears]: Hey, it's busy.

[John Petrella]: Yeah, we can go on and on. All right, so we're going to go to the next question now. We could have stayed on that for probably another hour. Yeah, I'll come back. Yeah, we're going to have to have you back to finish. Really, I mean, there's so much. All right, so. You know, there's an ongoing conversation. You hit on it just now a little bit. You know, bringing in more commercial development, help reduce residential taxes, you know, help with job creation. You know, when you look at Method location, you look at its character, You know, how realistic is bringing in that commercial development? And what, you know, what are you as the council, you know, what plans do you have, you know, the entire council, you know, to bring in, to attract, to bring it in to get more commercial development here?

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. I mean, I think, A, we touched on it earlier. We touched on earlier, right? Yes. Growth, growth, especially on the commercial industrial side is the only way we're going to have that residential tax bill get lower. The exemption helps some people, doesn't help everyone. Right. There's a break even. And if you're, you know, if we do the exemption, some people over that pay more. Right. But, um, That's, I think, really key, and we need that commercial and mixed-use growth. I think, what's the environment for it right now? I think there's kind of two paths, and one is lab office, which is not doing good.

[John Petrella]: Right now it's not, no.

[Zac Bears]: But it could be, I think, are we at the bottom of the cycle? Are the rates going to change? Yeah. What's big news on tariffs today? What does that mean? Right.

[John Petrella]: No one can predict the future.

[Zac Bears]: No.

[John Petrella]: But there's trends, there's trends.

[Zac Bears]: Right, and I think, you know, if that comes back around, if the government is, you know, coming back to this, we want that lab, green energy, you know, that's a path. The other path is more walkable destination type places, right? Yeah, well, and I think, you know, that fits really well with mixed use. You don't need to just have some big plot on Mystic Ave to do it. You can bring that to the squares. And I think being bold and ambitious about that, but also smart about it is really how we need to approach it. And executing, like the city has a comprehensive plan. We have visions that we want to see, but we need to execute on those plans. And we need our leadership to get the right people at the table to do big things. Because if we can do big things, then benefits come. And not just, it's benefits to our everyday life. Having a more vibrant square where you feel safe to walk around, where you're not worried about cut through traffic and waiting in the middle island. And there's some things that are coming along with the Main Street improvement there. But we really need that kind of growth. And then we need to be ambitious and do big things.

[John Petrella]: Good answer. I hate to say this, but I get jealous when I go to Melrose. Because I do go there sometimes. And Melrose Square at night, incredible.

[Zac Bears]: yeah the trees alone yeah no it's just the lighting yeah it is incredible the amount of business and it's not just restaurants it's everything so yeah yeah it really is and one other key that I know we got a got to keep the train rolling yes when you have residents who live right there nice it helps more customers yep It's more customers, and if they're walking to the thing five minutes down the road versus driving to another part of the region, that's good for us too.

[John Petrella]: All right, we've hit on quite a few things. You hit on this a little earlier, too. So you're jumping the gun on me, Zach. I'm trying not to.

[Zac Bears]: I'm trying not to.

[John Petrella]: No, no, no. Another major conversation. This goes on everywhere. I don't have to tell you. Go for a cup of coffee. It comes up almost sooner or later it comes up. But the zoning and housing. You know, some people want, you know, affordability, opportunity. You know, I've talked to others, you know, that are concerned about how new development is going to affect existing neighborhoods. You know, what's going on in their neighborhoods now? How is it going to affect them? You know, when I say the neighborhoods, they're talking about their property values and everything else. You know, I don't have to. You know, what do you think about that as far as the zoning and the housing? I know there's two, well there's many different ways to get there.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. I think start with what we agree on, which is I think that the corridors, the squares, the areas of the city that are the prime areas for the commercial and mixed use growth. There seems to be more agreement there. Not universal, but I think there's more agreement there. And I think that the residential question is the big question. And that was what happened last year. We started talking about residential, we started talking about the neighborhoods. And zoning is a starting point, it's a foundation.

[John Petrella]: It's not,

[Zac Bears]: If we zone this, it will be this. And we know that because we have zoning now, that's wild. 16 story hotels in parts of the city you'd never imagine. And nobody built them. You know, it's an out-of-date zoning code. But I think coming back to what does it mean for people in their daily lives, right? We do have a housing crisis. People want to live here. They love Medford. A lot of people I know, young and old, have had to leave, maybe want to come back. Yeah, I know a few. Our housing doesn't fit what we're looking for. You know, there's not enough senior housing. There's not enough, you know, certainly affordable housing. I mean, leave that out. That's the housing crisis, right? That's a whole other thing, yeah. You can't afford anything.

[John Petrella]: That will do one show, Juan.

[Zac Bears]: We will. If that's big A affordable housing, small A affordable housing, right? I hear you. Just like what it means to have someone have something that feels affordable, and also subsidized housing inventory, capital A affordable. But I think it's kind of a three-pronged thing, and I talked about this a lot, and to me it really applies to everything that I think about. Number one is how do we become a city of yes? How do we say yes to more, let private homeowners do more, let them adapt their houses, adapt their lots in ways that fit what we need as a city. And say yes to big, bold projects. I think even this Medford Square project on the city hall lots, I really wanted to see that a little different. Include the condemned Hamilton Company's building. People are moving out of the building there, the medical building. next to the lots, right, there was an opportunity to maybe rethink the street grid. And we're not there, and some of that is that some of those folks didn't want to come to the table. Atrius Health is a great example. They have a big parking lot. And we're talking about in this project building a big parking lot right on the other side. of City Hall and maybe the atrius lot maybe needs some work, maybe the partnership just can't get there, but how do we try to get there? How do we get to yes? Second thing is that getting to yes doesn't mean we're putting up a for sale sign, right? We need to be at the table, not on the menu. And really just follow this principle, Medford's not for sale. We're trying to do big things, we're trying to grow, but that doesn't mean we're just going to the highest bidder, lowest bidder, whoever. And I think that's important. Last piece, how do we build a city for all of us? Help people stay. help people who want to come here, come here, and do that while preserving our history, preserving the things we love. And it's not easy. I tend to think that those were the values. And also, I don't want to get back into the back and forth, right? But the plan that got people mad. wasn't from the City Council. That was supercharged by the Community Development Board. Now we have a different Community Development Board. We worked through an agreement with the mayor. We're having joint meetings. We have one next Wednesday. I think frustratingly at the same time as a good meeting on the high school. You know, all of those things are important.

[John Petrella]: Yeah, there's a lot going on. I hear you. So, you know, Let's talk about major infrastructure projects. We know they're going to happen. They're going on. You guys are looking into it now. The high school, that's a big one. A Central Fire Station. Can you explain, as best you can for our listeners, You know, why does Method need to make these investments, okay? And, you know, in the back part of that question, you know, what happens if the city doesn't move forward on them?

[Zac Bears]: Well, I mean, and this is a kind of a tale of two projects here, right? Absolutely. There's one that's probably not moving forward and one that right now looks like it is. I think the new fire station was a huge missed opportunity. I obviously supported the vote, but I also understand why people were frustrated. Our fire union, firefighters, I think it was a missed opportunity to get everyone at the table and get to yes. And I think, and I was advocating for this up until the last, I think even if we'd done that two weeks beforehand. That could have been good. Obviously, you want to do that six months beforehand. But even if we'd gotten there, I think we'd have a different conversation. That wouldn't be another thing that we have to deal with. And we had to deal with something where we built a high school, a library, a police station, and a fire station in the 60s. They reached end of life. Maintenance wasn't what it needed to be. They all needed to be replaced. And we have to think ahead, too. Like, we built three elementary schools and two middle schools all at the same time.

[John Petrella]: Right.

[Zac Bears]: You know, in 20 years, those are going to need major work. We're doing some work on them right now. Right. That roof replacement, HVAC. I've seen that. Yeah, you read about it. And I think that'll help. Necessary maintenance. But, you know, we build these things in these chunks and clusters. And that means that their end of life is often at the same time. Right. As of now, from what I've heard from the mayor, no plans for the fire station. We need it, we're gonna need it.

[John Petrella]: Oh, it's gotta come someday.

[Zac Bears]: Even if we did it right now, it's more expensive than if we voted on it in 2024. And I think the high school is a different story. It's an opportunity to get it right, to bring everyone to the table, build something for our community, not just for the kids, not just for the teachers, not just for the families, for our whole community. This is a place where you can go to the pool right now, go to the pool, get lunch, come to Medford Community Media, get a haircut in the cosmetology shop. But also, if it's 15 degrees out, the classrooms are cold and kids are bringing blankets to school.

[John Petrella]: I understand all that.

[Zac Bears]: Same conversation, right? We talked about a little earlier. Cheapest time to do this high school, 10 years ago. Second cheapest time, now. And it's fiscally responsible to get this done. There's a great example, and I'd love to talk about maybe some of the upcoming meetings. here so this is the high school building project right and um are you know right now we're at coming up to february 23rd um on monday there's a design meeting um and that is a really It's a starting point. It's trying to there right now there's like 50 options.

[John Petrella]: Right.

[Zac Bears]: And this is let's let's bring them down a little bit. Yeah. Get a few options in a few months. We'll be at a place where we have a preferred option. Most of the options on the table do have some element of renovation. And then really in March, there were a couple other items on that graphic, early March time for community input on the design options. And then in March and April and May, that's the process of narrowing down to one. This only goes up to March, but we're working, I've talked to vice chair Graham, school committee member, Councilor Scarpelli really trying to say how do we get the message out? How do I get mail out? How do people know how they can engage our goal is to try to get a mailer out to the whole city with the process and the great opportunity here is the state, you know for our feasibility study the state share was 53% of the project right and Going forward. We're hoping That the number stays around there right in the design the big list of 50 options there was an option for a code upgrade of this school, this current building. About 400 million dollars. And then there were several sets of options for a complete demo, partial demo, different scales of that. But the interesting thing there was it actually wasn't huge distance between keeping a lot of this building and keeping very little of it. In the mid $700 million to low $900 million range. Huge number.

[John Petrella]: That is an incredibly huge number.

[Zac Bears]: You know, even if you compare to other projects that have happened, certainly Somerville, that's almost 10 years ago. Yes. Inflation through the roof.

[John Petrella]: Yeah.

[Zac Bears]: Up 30 percent just since 2020.

[John Petrella]: No, no, I understand.

[Zac Bears]: But this school does so much. You know, people say this building is huge. It was built for all those kids. We're actually undersized on our Vogue shops.

[John Petrella]: Well, yeah, because I don't want to interrupt, but everyone, we did a show on the Vogue.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah.

[John Petrella]: And I was seriously shocked that there's a waiting list to get in there. Yeah. And I got to tell you, you know, I haven't been to school in a long time, but boy, I was impressed with that Vogue.

[Zac Bears]: It's a brilliant.

[John Petrella]: It's an incredible, yeah.

[Zac Bears]: Brilliant. And now it's one school. Right. It's not this Vogue kids. No, I understand. And that's, um.

[John Petrella]: Yeah.

[Zac Bears]: But that's because people want to do all the programs. They want to do the vocational, they want to do the arts and music, they want to do the athletics.

[John Petrella]: We've got a restaurant up here.

[Zac Bears]: We've got a restaurant.

[John Petrella]: We promoted that. It's a good restaurant. It's good. They make a good lunch.

[Zac Bears]: Right here, Medford Community Media, Medford Family Network. This project's talking about making sure we have pre-K for every family, making sure that we have the Curtis Tufts back up here so you don't have that separation. You know, it's a big project. It's bigger than some of the projects that are kind of cited as, well, this is what this costs. But Lexington, you know, and it's Lexington. I get it. I hope you get it. It's Lexington, right? But their share. they're not getting 50%, they're getting 20%. Because they've got the multi-million dollar homes. But their school, they approved one, it doesn't have all the things that I just listed. And that was 650 million. And one of the good things is that a lot of these projects, you start with this 50 options and the number's big, and there's ways to bring it down and keep all of the important things we want to do. And I think if we talk about that, Engage residents, residents come to the process over the next few months to get to a design option. That's really important.

[John Petrella]: And I think that's a key to get people. And I hope, you know, we posted it on the on the show. They use the graphic for it. And that's what needs to be done. People need to get involved. And I'll say it again. I'll say it till I'm blue in the face. I believe that everyone wants, you know, the main focus is how do we get there. That's it. How do we get there so everyone, yeah.

[Zac Bears]: And how do we say these are all things that are really important?

[John Petrella]: Right.

[Zac Bears]: How do we try to include as many of them as we can? Right. It's easy to say, well, Medford Community Media, $2 million, throw it out the window. But what does that mean? for a show like this.

[John Petrella]: Right. No, it means a lot. I hear you.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. And, and to like, right, like, you know, this is very back of the napkin. I'm going to say something people don't want me to say, because it's, it's not the time in the conversation for it. Right. But in the process, right, which is state defined by the state Mass School Building Authority. Right. Yeah. But, you know, it's a huge number. $750 million, $800 million. Yes. Still under a billion. No, no, I understand. But a billion dollars, right? It's a one in 50 year project. Right. You know, maybe hopefully we can keep it for 80 if we do everything right, we do the maintenance. And that's important.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[Zac Bears]: if the state pays for half, right, let's say it's 800 million, and the state pays 50%, we're actually paying less than the code upgrade, because you know what the thing is about the code upgrade for 400 million? State won't pay any of it. So it's not really, you know, it's still 400 million either way. One way we get a new school, one way with all of these things that we need one way we keep this building running right I hear you but it's still 400 million and if you look at the napkin on that it's a lot of money but It's not $6,000 a year. It's about $1,000. We don't know the final number. No, we don't. We don't know what the tax rate's going to be. We don't know how the debt's going to be distributed. Sometimes you pay more in some years, less in others. It's kind of a curve.

[John Petrella]: And the state's only going to pay you at the end of every year. I know how it all works.

[Zac Bears]: All of those things are complicating factors. Yeah, there's a lot. But if you can have that conversation and align that with two other things, which is can we get a residential exemption in place ahead of that, there will be a lot of people who are helped with that. I've been working with Representative Donato, Garbally, Barber, Senator Jalen on some more options for getting, just more options for tax exemptions, especially for seniors, for veterans.

[John Petrella]: Yeah, that's why I worry about the seniors. I gotta be honest.

[Zac Bears]: And how do we put all of that in place and say, we know this is big, but we thought it through. This is every tool in our toolbox. And we need to do this. And it's still more fiscally responsible, and we're trying to mitigate the impact. Because that's the thing, right?

[John Petrella]: No, I know.

[Zac Bears]: Do it now. Do it in five years. Do it in 10 years. Spend the same amount of money to keep this building going. We don't have a lot of options other than not having a high school, which I don't think anybody wants.

[John Petrella]: That's not going to happen. We've got to have a high school, that's for sure. All right. We're going to get to the last question. Okay. All right. You know, as a council president, you have a unique perspective. Yeah. You see the issues, see the competing priorities. You know, so and this is a diff. It's not a difficult question. It's sort of you know, like a fortune teller I guess but You know if you had what's your vision? Let's say 10-15 years out for the city of method if you could give a quick synopsis Here's my vision 10-15 years out. What are we looking at? I

[Zac Bears]: I think the the missing piece has been what is our plan for revenue and growth so that our city departments have what they need so that we're seeing that growth so that When costs are going up, the impacts aren't just on residential taxes. And how do we do all of that with thriving squares and businesses, more affordable, more abundant homes, fitting what our residents' needs are, not just today, but what we might need in 15 or 20 years? Making sure our streets are safe for everyone, right? All forms of transit. Driver, biker, roller, pedestrian. And I think we get to all of that by becoming a city of yes. A city that doesn't say no, we don't have enough to do that. No, it's going to take too long. No, it's too hard. How do we make it work? How do we get to yes?

[John Petrella]: That's the big question.

[Zac Bears]: But I think some of that's a mindset, right? Some of that is you don't start from the point of we just can't do it, because then it's all figuring out how to say no. If you can say, how do we say yes? You're not going to get to yes every time. No, not every idea is going to be the best idea for what needs to happen. But I think there's like, when I hear about people banging at the door on Mystic Avenue, who want to build something on a place that you know, all of us that we did, there was one zoning thing we did that nobody really said was controversial, Mystic Avenue. First thing we did. And the plan is there. The zoning's there. But then you have people banging on the door and they say, well, is that zoning going to get changed? Is it going to get repealed? What's the vision and the plan? How long is it going to take me to get from putting my idea in? to buying the property they need to buy, to building the thing we want to see. And it's missed opportunities. And I think, you know, if we're putting out a mindset and a vision of, if you come to City Hall, we want to get to yes.

[John Petrella]: Absolutely.

[Zac Bears]: Changes things.

[John Petrella]: Yeah, I agree. I mean, Mystic Ave is, As far as, you know, getting more revenue, I mean, I got to be honest, I just don't, to me it's all lost dollars. Exactly. And that's not good.

[Zac Bears]: Well, the zoning's there. Yes, no, it is now, yeah. And that's huge, I mean, but it's been there for over a year. And then it's the second step, right? We did the plan, city council did its job, did the zoning. Now how do we bring people together, start building something?

[John Petrella]: Because that'll help everybody in the long run. Um, all right. Uh, uh, unfortunately I have to wrap it up. So, uh, you know, it's that time again, Zach, I really, I want to thank you. Um, it was nice to have you on the show. It was a pleasure. Yeah. And I'm, I'm glad you came on and, uh, you know, maybe we can, uh, get the division and get things where we need to get them. I think everybody wants the same thing. I agree. All right, so... I want to thank you, Zach Beers, for joining us on Medford Happenings, and I want to wish continued success for the Medford City Council. I also want to take a minute. I want to thank everyone who has been watching the show. I want to thank you for your feedback. The other thing is if you would like to appear on the show, you can contact us at MethodHappenings02155 at gmail.com and please do. You will be able to watch replays of this program on Method Community Media Access Channel. It's usually on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. And you can check out our website. I, you know, the guy that's doing this website is incredible, Bruce. I can't thank him enough. Anyhow, it's methodhappenings.com. Very simple. You can also either view or listen to a podcast of this program, which is really getting a lot of activity. And you can also find us on YouTube. And on Facebook, we'll be back shortly at Method Happenings. So for the Method Happenings team, for Paul, for Marco, Bruce, Margaret, James, thank you, Zach. I am John Petrella. And remember, Medford, stay informed. Thank you all.

[SPEAKER_04]: Ta-da!