[John Petrella]: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Method Happenings, a show far and about the city of Medford. And I'm John Petrella. And the purpose of this program is to give Method citizens facts and information to help you make informed choices and to discover city services or businesses you may not have been aware of. And our guest today is Rob Carney, a concerned Method resident. Rob, it's a pleasure for us to have you on the show. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for giving us the time. Thanks.
[Robert Carney]: John, great to be here. Big fan of the show as well. I've seen a lot of your episodes.
[John Petrella]: We appreciate that. That's good to hear. I know you watch the show once in a while, so we're just going to get right into it, Rob. You know, I'm going to say I met you, which is the truth, at a city council meeting. And many people have seen you at city council meetings. But, you know, can you share with our listeners a little bit more about Rob Carney? And the question is, who is Rob Carney?
[Robert Carney]: Sure. Yeah. So, you know, in my mid-30s, been married about two and a half years. So prior to living in Bedford as a kid, I grew up in a more rural area, Central Mass actually, with three acres of land, 400 feet off the road. I'm the oldest of three. We're in a classic New England town, Pepperell Mass. Fun fact, the only town east of the Connecticut River in Massachusetts that has a covered bridge.
[John Petrella]: Nice, nice. I like that.
[Robert Carney]: Now, now, now I'm a city guy. And then outside of time in graduate school for my MBA, I've been in the state my whole life. When I graduated undergrad in 2013, I was in the Boston area most of my career prior to graduate school. And then I came back to Boston again. And I really lived all over greater Boston before settling in South Medford in 24. Cambridge, West Medford, Somerville, Everett, Brighton, And now, now I feel like, you know, we've, uh, my wife and I have put some roots somewhere and, uh, hopefully I won't be, uh, you know, moving again every two years, like I have in the past. Um, and then other than that, you know, um, a few other things I would say is, um, I've always been interested, you know, in current events. I've always liked to watch the news, uh, know what's going on in politics. So, um, you know, that's why I'll, we'll talk more about it later, but that's, What's led me to start going to some of the meetings, um, and then maybe on some of the more practical sides, you know, um, I'm a homeowner, but also too, I also have the experience of, uh, being a landlord with moving around a lot. I bought. bought my first place in Everett in 22, and turned that into a rental when my wife and I got married. And now we're going through the experience of managing a fixer-upper. So we've got that going on too.
[John Petrella]: That's a great experience.
[Robert Carney]: Yeah. When we bought our townhouse in South Medford, the plumbing wasn't working properly in either of the bathrooms, and we were brushing our teeth in the bathtub. So we were roughing it at first, but the place is getting a lot better now.
[John Petrella]: Great story. Yeah, that's, you know, it's nice. You've got to taste a pretty good sample of the Boston area. That's awesome, you know, that you were able to do that, you know? And I don't even want to get into some of the stories I have about my first house and what we did and, you know, similar stuff. It's always something, but that's great. You know, appreciate the answer. All right, so you're a Method homeowner. You're a taxpayer. Can you tell us, you know, was there something in particular, you know, that caused you to get involved with city issues?
[Robert Carney]: Yeah, sure. So it actually started with my involvement in our homeowners association. So about a year ago at the time I was serving as a condo board trustee and my co-trustee and I at the time we received a letter about trash from the Department of Public Works. And we had been getting free trash pickup for as long as I can remember. We've opened to the townhouse. We're expecting that to continue. We pay the same property taxes as anyone else who owns property in the city. But we get a letter from the city saying that they'll be terminating our free trash pickup in 60 days. And so, you know, admittedly, at first, you know, I just thought it's one of those things. I don't like it, but, you know, we got a lot going on, rules are rules. We'll just have to follow it and find someone to pick up our trash. But, you know, a few people in the community started getting really fired up about it and suggested we write, you know, write a letter to the mayor and the city councilors. And that got me fired up, too. And so me and a few other people started working on a letter, and then I put two and two together. This is probably around August of 25. And, you know, as you remember, John, we had a very active city council election campaign last year. We had 17 people running. And so what I said is, you know, I don't know a lot about these city councilors. The only one who I had talked to so far was George Scarpelli, and I had a great experience with him. I talked to him about an issue with snow and ice removal. But I said, you know, here's an opportunity to make these city councilors, if they want to get elected, earn the vote. I want them. I asked all of them. I said, you know, here's what's going on in the trash. We have concerns about it. What's your position on this? And then I said, I'm going to I'm putting together, I'm gonna let everyone in the community know and then, you know, kind of try to motivate them to get them to talk to me. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of them responded. And so I got a lot of interest and that actually, that helped me get to know a bunch of the candidates and get informed not only on issues of trash, but zoning, city fiscal policy, as well as a group in Medford that sponsors many of our elected officials, Our Revolution, to understand a little bit more about how they work. And building off of that, John, so on the practical side, continuing with this trash topic, We were really able to come together, you know, as a community on this letter. And, you know, that can be hard to do when folks have different viewpoints on a lot of issues. But, and I can speak from experience living in an HOA and then owning a property in an HOA where I used to live. It can be hard to get folks in an HOA to kind of participate in events for various reasons. but we got 75 plus percent of unit owners to sign this letter to the city, you know, asking for an exception on the trash policy. And so that actually, this led to one of the city Councilors sponsoring a resolution on the topic, you know, for townhouses to basically suggest that we look into treating them the same way that we would single family homes. I have, if you looked at our townhouse, with the exception of shared walls on the left and the right, it looks like a basic colonial house. And we see folks, I have two family houses right behind us. So you see houses that are essentially investment properties, right? That they're getting their trash picked up for free and we're getting ours taken away. Like asking questions, where's the fairness here?
[John Petrella]: They're paying the same taxes as us.
[Robert Carney]: And so through that experience, and me and several other residents going to city council, articulating our position, it just really got me hooked. I said, you know, hey, this is fun. I enjoy this. I like talking to people, articulating my viewpoint, trying to influence others. So I decided to start coming to the meetings more. And just, you know, a couple other things I want to say on the trash too, as we're talking and just My experience is some of these resolutions from the City Council. Yes. One thing what we learned too is, you know, it's wonderful that this resolution was passed seven to nothing unanimously. But after the resolution and after even Tim McGibbon came to the meeting and. You know, he was very patient, answering questions from the council, and they were pushing him on this, you know, about, you know, why are we doing this?
[John Petrella]: And Tim McGiven, just so people know, is with the DPW. Yeah. Yeah.
[Robert Carney]: Head of DPW. So he was the one who was delivering this news to us. And so we didn't get a whole lot of movement there. But what we actually, where we started getting movement, and this is, you know, A good spouse, right, you know, can always help a lot. There's a lot of benefits to, you know, a spouse and the spouse being on the same team, because my wife was really fired up, too. And so that's a plus. She kept following up with the mayor. And I was actually able to get a phone call with the mayor about this. And what I was finding is in the interim, And this is just like a dynamic I see in a lot of city events in general, city disagreements. There's a lot of he said, she said between the mayor and the city council, right? And so I hear that a lot from people in town. I noticed the same thing. The mayor said, these folks in the council were aware of it. Those same folks in the council, some of them said, oh, we didn't know about this. It's the same thing, right, with the biweekly trash, right? Yes, the whole other thing, right? Yeah. So that experience, we didn't get everything we wanted in the end, but the city said, OK, we're not going to keep picking up your trash for now. But Mayor Brianna said, you know, we thought you made some really good points. And she's indicated that. Um, she's going to bring this up, you know, a budget time. So we're in budget time right now. I know funding is difficult, but she's bringing it up and she actually. The other thing that was great is we originally weren't going to get the city's negotiated rate with waste management. And then they said, you can have a negotiated rate. So now the cost is going to be less than it was if we hadn't come together and said something as a community.
[John Petrella]: So you save some bucks. And the other thing, you save some dollars. So it ended up being a good experience. And that's nice. But the other thing I want to remind you of in all these cities, towns, whatever, nothing's free. Your taxes, I mean, that's what I don't get. Our taxes, you know, everyone pays for our pickup, for our trash pick. You know, they get it out of our taxes. So I just wanted to point that out, that's all. But I'm glad, so that's how you bought and sold, and it ended up, Um, you know, I guess it took you quite a bit of time, but you ended up having a good experience with it.
[Robert Carney]: Yeah. You know, overall, you know, what I, what I saw is, all right, we're in a city of what do we have about 60,000 people, give or take? Yeah. So city of 60,000 people, I have to say, you know, I don't agree with everything that's going on in the city right now, but it did give me, um, you know, some encouragement of how quickly I was able to meet folks because Um, that, you know, that led to a bunch of other areas where I've gotten involved, uh, you know, as you know, I, um, I helped campaign for the, uh, independent candidates. Beacon at those meetings and talking to those in all these city council candidates helped me also just identify like, who do I like in the election? Who do I want to support? And it just opened up this network of, you know, folks like you, um, uh, Bruce, I know who's also on Medford happenings, et cetera. And now I feel like I've got a lot of people in the city who I can go to when I have issues on my mind that are affecting me as a homeowner or a resident of Medford. And we can have a conversation about it together. Maybe we don't get what we want in the end, but at least we're working together to try to get something done.
[John Petrella]: It's nice when you can, I always say, get together with a group of people and reach a solution. Maybe the answer is everyone doesn't get what they want, but everyone gets a little bit of what they want. And that's the way you run things, you know? All right, so based on that, I gotta ask you this, okay? Because similar with me, I met a lot of people, through certain issues that I went through, but do you think there are other Method residents You know, they're concerned, I believe they are, with current city school issues and want to get involved. So, I mean, I'm glad you were able to give us your story. What would you suggest, you know, for people that, you know, they need to get involved or they wanna get involved? Why is it important, Rob? What would you give them for advice?
[Robert Carney]: Sure, I mean, so, First on why it's important, and then I'll hit on the advice. I think a big reason is why it's important is our city councilors, our school committee members, right? Our mayor, right? They keep their job because they get reelected, right? They get hired by the people, that's, you know, through elections. And if they want to keep getting hired by the people, you know, to keep their job in the next term, they have to find their voter base. They have to find the people who are going to go out, who are going to vote for them, and also find some people who are going to be advocates for them, try to help them get in office. When elected officials hear from folks in town about an issue of interest, I think I've heard the saying that when one person speaks up, means 10 people are feeling the same way, that you get more data points about what folks in town are thinking. And you may find that it brings to light certain issues that aren't getting talked about before. And I think that would be a practical thing about why to get involved with city issues in general. I think the thing is, you know, we have a diverse population in Medford, right? Everybody brings something different to the table, John. You know, like someone, I think of, you know, someone who might be a finance guy, right? They're going to be able to bring certain perspectives, maybe at budgeting season in a public meeting, or someone who has experience in the trades may have, you know, good thoughts on facilities, et cetera. And even though some of these topics might be more mundane, people who call their elected officials right on those topics can also be a value add for the city. They can bring things together that can help, you know, city officials do their jobs better. And then, you know, I also think the other good reason to get involved is, you know, frankly, I don't know about you, but it's so easy for me to kind of complain about, you know, the way things are. You know, I think with a lot of things in Medford, we might talk about it with our neighbors, right? You know, we're having a barbecue. We're out for coffee. Yes. But that's good. But then I say, OK, what if we take some of that energy and use it to make a public comment at a meeting to call an official? Because I also think you know, the things that we're not happy about, you know, it puts, it puts pressure on our elected officials to think about what they're doing, even if they don't always change their mind.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, no, that's, that's a great point. Yeah.
[Robert Carney]: And, you know, I think for getting involved, I think the thing that I try to remember is you can get involved in a variety of different ways. You know, you could be on, you could get really involved in serving like a city committee, or you can just Like for me, I see myself as like a pinch hitter, right, with being an involved citizen. My wife and I both work full time. We're managing house renovations and we, you know, we have a bunch of other things going on too. So over in the winter, I was going to a lot of meetings, city council meetings and making public comments. But right now I haven't had time and that, you know, that's okay. But the thing is, that's the other thing. You don't have to have a lot of time to get involved. even if you're just taking five or 10 minutes to send an email to your city councilor, or maybe finding out about a committee in town, that is needed. The more people that would do that, in my view, I think the better off our city would be. And I just think the other thing too is that I think when you have that experience of contacting someone in the city, it forces you to also be really, mindful of what's going on the issues. Like, if you're going to send an email, you're going to speak at a public meeting, you're going to take a little time to maybe practice your points, right? Refine them, think about it. And then it's just, I think it's a virtuous cycle where it encourages you to pay attention more too.
[John Petrella]: Yeah. No, I mean, that's, that's, uh, I agree with you a thousand percent. I, like I said, I remember going back a ways, but the first time I, uh, I spoke at a city council meeting. Boy, was I nervous to first get up there and public speaking. But I learned if you prepare and you get involved and you know the subject, it's a piece of cake, it really is. And you are involved, you know the subject, you do your studying and everything else, and that's a good thing. And I think we need a lot more people like you to get involved. All right, so you've appeared often, you know, before the Medford City Council. You've presented your position on issues before the Council. I know this because I watch the meetings, I've seen you there, so on and so forth. So this is a very important question, in my opinion, and I think about this all the time because I talk to a lot of people. I get a mixture of answers on this, but do you feel that you were heard? And, you know, I'm talking about going before the council now. Did you feel that you were heard? And, you know, do you think your input was given consideration, proper consideration?
[Robert Carney]: Yeah, sure, John. So I would say, to be honest, it's really been a mixed bag. I can tell you about one city councilor who always makes me feel heard. The good experience first and then the not so good experience next. You know, the city councilor who has really always made me feel like you know, I can talk to him about anything going on in the city is actually George Scarpelli. So I'll tell you a story. The first time I had an interaction with the city councilor, I was slipping on ice in South Medford, winter of 25. Many folks were not shoveling their sidewalks. You know, you get like the black ice It was actually so bad, John, that there was one spot, my wife and I both walked it at separate points on a Friday, and we both slipped on the same spot of ice. And so, you know, as a citizen, I was calling the DPW, or I think that's the department about this and trying to get them to come out and clean up these areas just for really safety. I wasn't getting the progress that I thought should be done. So I called George Scarpelli. I literally, I called a city councilor at random. I didn't know anything about any of them. And I got George Scarpelli. I left him a voicemail. You know, admittedly, I was pretty fired up. I was one of those stereotypical fired up constituents. And I'm like, I'm mad that people are not, you know, cleaning up their sidewalks. I'm sick and tired of slipping on ice. He calls me back like 10 minutes. And he gives me some thoughts about how to resolve the situation and, and says he'll advocate for me, you know, to the city. I get a text from him the next morning and he tells me what's being done. And then, um, I've engaged him a few times in this topic. I have seen noticeable improvement. Not perfect, but I've seen noticeable improvement in the quality of the sidewalks after snow storms. even in the following winter, this past winter, which was absolutely brutal, I saw an improvement. So I think that's good. And the thing where I want to draw this contrast here is this issue I think of like slates and larger platforms. I think what I'd like to see more in the council is, you know, councillors who think more for themselves, you know, who I think George Scarpelli does. Right. The other city councilors, this is where I want to talk about, you know, our revolution. So six of our seven city councilors and all of our school committee members are sponsored by our revolution method. And, you know, I give them a lot of credit for how they've been able to organize politically. But I think their way of organizing limits open dialogue. in diverse neighborhoods, especially a place like this here where you have folks of all viewpoints, perspectives, et cetera. And if you dig into their policy platform, this ties into the city council meetings, which I'll get to in a minute. It raises questions for me about their ability to remain fully responsive to constituent input. So if you go on to Our Revolution Medford's website, they have a people's platform. You cannot get endorsed by Our Revolution Medford to run for city council or school committee, or who knows, mayor. I wouldn't be surprised if they try to run an OR candidate against Mayor Brianna if she runs again. Right. they have, you have to agree to this platform entirely. This platform, you look at it, it's not talking about just like simple issues about, oh, will you get back to your constituents in a timely manner? Or are you going to listen to people? It's not about that. It's about state and national issues. It's about, for example, it's about Proposition Two and a half. which is a referendum that it's a rule that we have in Massachusetts. I think it's really good. If you want to raise property taxes by more than two and a half percent, you've got to go pitch it to the voters, you know, and ask them about it. There's also like rent stabilization. That's a big topic right now in the state. Yes. You have to show you have to sign on to a platform that speaks, in my opinion, poorly about Proposition 2.5 and seems to imply that that's a bad thing. And if you're also like our governor, Maura Healey, you know, who's very progressive, but you don't support rent stabilization, which our revolution does, then that could be like another issue. And they even go so far as to say that you could lose your endorsement if you don't go along with these viewpoints. And so what I think is happening, because I get the sense that on many of the topics, when I'm talking to the other Councilors, right, it just feels like I'm just talking into like thin air to them at times, because I know that if my viewpoint goes against the OR platform, right, there's nothing that I can do to change the city council's mind. And I think that's been echoed, you know, and I know folks have come to meetings in droves about, you know, various topics on that. And the other concern I have is I think our revolution in Bedford is causing, you know, they get a lot of progressive people in Bedford to vote for them because, you know, folks agree with a lot of their values, maybe not all of them, but a number of them. But then when I think of some more progressive candidates for city council, like Milva McDonald, Page Buldini.
[John Petrella]: Excellent people.
[Robert Carney]: Right. And they were knocked out of the primary, and they had some of the lowest votes. There were only three people knocked out of the primary, and they were two of them in the 17 candidates. And I just think, OK, some people in Medford are conservative. Some people are liberal, some are moderate. But I think our city council would work a lot better if we had a mix of people among political leanings on that, and if they all cared about listening to the people instead of being focused on this rigid policy platform. And if I go a little further, if Anna Callahan has done a lot of political organizing, and she's got a lot of videos out there on YouTube that a neighbor of mine actually showed me, and she was quoted as saying, for the US Senate, for example, she wants 100 Bernie Sanders in the Senate. And let me, here's another question I have for you, right, with this? Okay, again, I recognize we live in greater Boston, right? The Democrats, whether you're Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, the Democrats usually will sweep the elections around here. But when we're thinking about who do people in Boston like for politicians, yeah, a lot of people like Bernie Sanders, but they also like Charlie Baker. It's a very popular governor. Or Deval Patrick or Barack Obama. And they all have, you know, different political leanings and different ways. We're not giving them a seat at the table if we keep voting all these our revolution candidates into office.
[John Petrella]: Yeah. Yeah. I thought the last election, really, you know, Milver and Page and I mean, all the independent candidates, you know, they were a mixture. There was some progressives in there. There was some more conservative, like you said, middle of the road. But yeah, it just didn't happen for them. And I was very surprised because I agree with you 100% that you have to, it's a diverse city and so the council should be that way too. And you're right, right now they always vote the same way. You know, a lot of times there's not even a conversation and, you know, you need diversity. You just, you have to have it. And hopefully we'll get some, you know, hopefully that's going to come. But yeah, that's a, you know, all great points, all great points. And it's nice to hear that really, you know, and put it eloquently. So that's a good thing. All right. That was a great answer. That's something I think people in method need to hear. Whether you're progressive, conservative, it doesn't matter what you are, but you need people with different opinions. So here's another good question for you. And I'm enjoying all your answers, by the way. Have you been following the process being used to determine the renovation and or a complete rebuild of the existing high school facility. I think the city, that's a big, big topic right now. You know, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this issue, Rob. I really would.
[Robert Carney]: Yeah, yeah, sure. And, you know, so first of all, as I've never been in the Medford High School building yet, hopefully I'll see it soon. I'll admit to that, but I grew up, I went to public schools growing up in Central Mass, and I went to a school that was in rough condition. So I sympathize with a lot of the concerns that people have about the facilities. But while I have been following it, I have to say, I'd be happy to share some observations about what I think about the issue if you'd like. Sure, absolutely. Yeah. Um, so. Again, the no question from what I've heard that there are facilities issues. That need to be addressed, but as anyone who knows me well, we'll tell you I'm a big process guy. And I have not been impressed. With all the aspects of the process. I think, you know, regardless of whether we do a new build or a rebuild, I'm open-minded to those. I feel like it's still too early to tell from what I'm seeing. The current process feels both rushed and I think creating an unnecessary sense of urgency. And I think there are, I have some questions about fiscal restraint too. I mean, on the fiscal restraint, You know, I follow, I follow Gotta Know Medford, City Meetings, but I also follow, you know, Nick G's Facebook page too. Very, very comprehensive.
[John Petrella]: Very informative.
[Robert Carney]: I think he needs to teach me a lesson on productivity, because I don't know how he does that while working full time and juggling everything else. He's incredible. He really is. But I understand that. the Massachusetts School Building Authority, MSBA, recently sent a letter, you know, outlining, you know, a multitude of questions about atypical items in the proposed projects. And hopefully I'll read more about that soon. But I want to support this observation that some I think have thrown out there that this project, while the facilities need to be addressed, I think many of the projects being proposed are this quote unquote Taj Mahal. you know, high school proposal. And I think this kind of Taj Mahal attitude is also playing itself out in the process. You know, recently, you know, we learned that they drew architectural drawings for a number of plants on areas that have land use restrictions. And so I'm just thinking here, right, are we going to have to redraw some of those again? I don't know. I got to dig into it more. But regardless, you know, the question is, why didn't they have a land use attorney? Look at this. Why didn't they have someone look at the property lines? And I'll actually tell you the first time I had had an experience with, go back to Tim McGivern, the head of DPW. We dealt with this issue on our own homeowner's association. Before we became a trustee, before I became a trustee and served at that time, someone on our condo board had accidentally built a fence on a private right-of-way that we thought was on our property, but wasn't. We ended up having to spend HOA money to take Part of that fence down to restore pedestrian access. Okay, I've been through it when there's like happens Yeah, yeah, there's misunderstandings with land and You know Tim McGivern Talked to our community about this Another story about that. I was I coordinated a listening session with the whole community about this topic with Tim last summer and what he had said to folks is is that this is a very common thing that happens, folks misunderstand property lines. So the question is, this is supposed to be a professional process, right? With good due diligence, we've got tons of committees, we've got consultants, and no one thought to look at the property lines or land use restrictions?
[John Petrella]: I can't believe that, yeah. When I read that, I was like, this is just incredible.
[Robert Carney]: Right. Yeah, yeah. And so that's 1 question there. And, you know, the other thing too is. And I feel like I can speak to this, the topic on construction costs in a smaller level, because we have a fixer upper and we're. We're dealing with rising construction costs, too.
[John Petrella]: Yes.
[Robert Carney]: Yeah. And so this line that, you know, is being said is I feel, you know, as a homeowner, I feel like if I say no to doing this project now, that when when some people talk about it, it feels like I don't care. They're saying I don't care about the kids or that if we don't do this now, it's it's going to be terribly expensive and we wait another year. But I just feel like this rising construction costs is this really, it's like a hyperbole in a way, because sure, the construction costs might go up more, but think about it in your own house. Like if you're planning to do a deck, right, build a new deck on your house, and you think it's going to go up 10 or 15 percent next year if you wait. Do you do the deck project now and rush through it without doing your due diligence because you're worried? We, you know, hey, we're not going to get this done. It's going to be too expensive. Or do you just step back and say, OK, we're going to try to get this done. Hopefully we can do it this year, but we're going to do it right. We're going to be diligent. We're going to be thoughtful and we're going to be fiscally responsible.
[John Petrella]: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's that important.
[Robert Carney]: Yeah. Right. And so the other thing that I'm really worried about is just with projections of student population. So I was listening to a recent meeting where someone from the school committee, Jenny Graham, she was talking about how impressed she was at the amount of due diligence that's been done on aspects of the project. But you know, maybe I missed this in the meeting, but I don't think I did. She talked about everything I could think of except the impact of rezoning on population.
[John Petrella]: Correct.
[Robert Carney]: Yeah. And so this can raise another question. And this was a big issue in the campaign last year, right? There were some candidates, Nick Key being one of them, you know, who suggested we do traffic studies, right? when we look at the rezoning. And I think we need to be doing population studies. We should be figuring out how many people do we expect to move to Medford if all the proposed rezoning goes through. Because that will help us make a more informed decision about how big the school needs to be. So I think that's missing. And you know, the other thing I would say, just some statistics I dug up here, right? So we're comparing, we hear a lot about this, I think, I think Councilor Bears has brought this up, maybe some other councilors, right? Comparing Medford to Lexington, right? Lexington's doing a new school, new rebuild. Yeah, don't go there with me. Let me tell you, I might be going there. It seems like our build might be more opulent than the Lexington rebuild. And so just some statistics here. And I just did a quick Google search, so hope I'm pretty sure I've got this right. The Medford High School has 1200 students. That sound about right to you. That's about right. Yeah, they're playing on 1300 in the OK. OK, in the vote. The voc has 300 students or so?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Robert Carney]: Okay. Lexington High. How many students do you think Lexington High has?
[John Petrella]: You know something? I don't know. I'm assuming it's going to be less.
[Robert Carney]: Let me look at this right here. Someone just shared this with me.
[John Petrella]: Yeah.
[Robert Carney]: Okay. That's a good question. Lexington High School is being built for an enrollment of about 2,400 students. Wow. OK, Lexington High Rebuild, 440,000 square feet. The Medford High School projects I'm seeing, if we have 1,500 students now, I don't know what the student population projection is. But something tells me it's not 2,400. No, it's not even close. It's like 1,300. Why is our high school project 600,000 square feet? In Lexington, it's 440,000 square feet.
[John Petrella]: With 4,000 kids. Right. That's a huge number for Lexington. I'm shocked at that. Wow. Yeah.
[Robert Carney]: So Lexington is going to be smaller with more projected students, and it's going to cost less. I think they're talking around 600 and change.
[John Petrella]: Yes. I read that.
[Robert Carney]: So that's just one topic. You know, the other thing that I have with this topic, right, is, and I don't think it's just particular to Medford, but I feel it's probably particular to a lot of communities too, right? We've heard, again, the recent City Committee of the Whole, Councilor Lazzaro was talking about the lack of preventative maintenance on our buildings that's leading to larger expenses later on, citing Expensive HVAC repairs that are schools that are connected to a lack of maintenance and, you know, citing the importance of getting to doing more preventative maintenance. So the fact being to me as a taxpayer, right, you know, in my house. Well, we have a fixer upper, but when it's fixed up, we do preventative maintenance. You know what I mean? We have, we got new HVAC. We got the mini splits through mass phase and 24. And I, I do my best to follow the manufacturer's instructions on cleaning the air filters. Are these things happening in our schools? Are they putting in the resources to change the air filters, to paint when they need to, et cetera? Or are they kicking the can down the road because there's A, a lack of funding towards preventative maintenance or B, there's a lack of infrastructure and accountability for that. Good questions. And so the other thing that I want to know as a taxpayer is if this high school is going to need to get rebuilt extensively because maybe we've neglected preventative maintenance over the years, I just want to know if that's the case or not. And if it is the case, I want to know, like, what's going to change right before this debt exclusion comes on the table? It would substantially. I mean, the numbers that could be proposed would substantially raise property taxes in Medford. Oh, yes, yes. And the cost of living crisis is already very high and in Massachusetts. So. We need to be thinking about what we need to do to help keep our seniors and our working class families in their homes in Medford.
[John Petrella]: I agree with that, yeah. I like your Taj Mahal. That's a good way of putting it. Really, it is. And I know a lot of people that, listen, I'm going to say it, everybody would love to have a new high school up there. No question about it, but the few numbers that are getting thrown out there, it's going to have a huge effect on taxes and a lot of people are concerned about it. There's nothing is getting easier as far as the electric, the gas. You know, you're a homeowner. I was a homeowner for 30 years, whatever. Nothing is getting easier. And it's the same for renters. If they're renting, we know the rents go up and so on and so forth. You know, I don't know, I don't have any answers, but yeah, it'd be nice to know that once, whatever we decide to do here, that there's gonna be maintenance on these buildings, because that's also a big cost up the road. Yeah, so yeah, I mean, great. And while we mentioned, I just mentioned rent control. Let's get into the last question. I can go on and ask you 20 more questions, but we're going to make this the last one. I appreciate this. Let me tell you. So, you know, recently, there's been a lot in the news state level about a referendum on rent control. You know, what do you think about rent control? What's your position on the issue? And, you know, honestly, who's affected?
[Robert Carney]: Yeah, you know, the one thing I'll say, it's a big topic. I'm going to tell you, I mean, the ballot initiative that's being out there is unless you're an owner-occupied rental, four units or under, and then I think there's a few other criteria, like a new construction, 10 years or less, you will be held to annual rent increase of 5% or CPI, whichever is less. So if we have like 2022 and we have 9% inflation, landlord can only raise the rent by 5%. And so, you know, a couple of things is taking, This is advertised as a way to bring down rent, make it more affordable, but it's also gonna be squeezing the landlords. For me, I have, like I mentioned, I have a rental property now. My bachelor pad is a rental property now. And I can tell you that my expenses are going up. Faster than CPI or 5% whichever is class, right? I think I think when I moved to Everett and in my property taxes were about, you know 1950 or something like that on my garden condo and they're well over 3,000 now It's only been five. It's only been four years, right? And in part of that is, you know, I did renovations to the condo I put in a new kitchen and if this goes into place for the non-owner occupied landlord, such as myself, you're gonna have this, the costs are going up like this, but the rent is only going up like this. And so, I think, I fear the effect this is gonna have is, you know, many landlords such as myself, we can't afford to, you know, give away our property for free or at a loss. Many landlords are middle-class folks who are, you know, using it as, you know, an investment, but also want to take good care of the property and do the right thing by their tenants. And, you know, my fear is that, you know, over time, there's going to be less incentive, you know, for, for landlords to do modernizations, you know, to their apartments, because, you know, they're not going to be able to increase the rent to justify that, you know, and that's, That, I think, is going to have a negative impact on housing, too. And we're also seeing, too, I was seeing some statistics that housing construction is down in Massachusetts. We're trying to get people to build in Medford. I just I don't know how you're going to get real estate investors who to build in Massachusetts, if you're going to be doing this, to get apartments built, which is what a lot of people want in this city, to get more affordable, simple apartments. Who's going to build them if they can't keep up with the rising expenses? It won't get done. Right.
[John Petrella]: Exactly. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I lived through rent control. I lived through it, and it worked out for nobody. I mean, and I know they're trying to say, well, this is gonna be different, and this is gonna be this and that, but when you look at the whole thing, in my opinion, no expert, make that clear, but it caused a lot of damage. the last time they did it. It didn't help anybody. It didn't help the tenants. It didn't help the landlords. It helped absolutely nobody. It didn't help the banks. It didn't help. I mean, it just was eventually turned into a big disaster. That's what happened. I see no matter, you know, they adjusted this, that, but it's all the same. I don't think it's going to work.
[Robert Carney]: I agree. I really hope it doesn't pass. And so I'm glad you let me talk about it. Maybe we can get people to think about it a little bit more.
[John Petrella]: It needs to be talked about. I mean, it sounds great. And it really does. But every time, my opinion, the government gets too involved with things. I'd rather have a private investor running a business than having the government run it. That's all. That's my estimate.
[Robert Carney]: Oh, yeah. I think we're barking up the same tree right there, John.
[John Petrella]: Yeah. I mean, that's the way I feel. Because last time around, oof, it was a mess. I mean, a big, fat mess. And that's the way I see this happening. So yeah, I'm not happy about it. That goes without saying. I had a very pleasant conversation with you tonight. I really enjoyed it. I mean that. I'm so uh you know you're a concerned citizen and I'm just we got to do more shows with concerned citizens like yourself and we definitely you know maybe up the road have you come back because this was it was a great show and I think it was very informative and that's basically what we're trying to do just get information out to people um you know different viewpoints different ideas and this this show did it so um You know, I want to thank you again. It was great to have you on and I appreciate it. I really do. So I want to thank you.
[Robert Carney]: And with my pleasure, John and Hopefully, we'll see some more new faces speaking at the meetings.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, I would love to see that. That's always a good thing. Always a good thing. So all right, Rob. Thank you so much. Hopefully, I'll be talking to you soon. I'll see you around. But thank you so much.
[Robert Carney]: Sounds great. We'll stay in touch.
[John Petrella]: Thanks. All right. So I'm going to thank Rob again for joining us on Method Happenings. I wish continued success. You know, for Rob, and I wish continued success for him as a concerned Method resident. And I really do. I'm really happy that he joined us on the show. I also want to take a minute to thank everyone who has been watching the show. Thank you for your feedback. If you are a concerned citizen, a Medford resident, of course you have to be a Medford resident, either for or opposed to an issue, either way, either way, you want to appear on the show, you know, just contact us, let us know, and we can be reached at MedfordHappenings, 021-553-4000. at gmail.com. And like I said, the goal of the show is and always has been to get information out. And, you know, we've had all kinds of viewpoints on the show and we want to continue doing that. I feel like we're providing a service to everyone who calls Method home. So you will be able to watch replays of this program on Method Community Media. access channel. You can also check out our website, methodhappenings.com. You can also either view or listen to the podcast of this program. And I got to tell you, we're getting great numbers in the podcasts, two to one versus the show. So I guess people like to listen to us, which is great. We'll take that too. You can find all of our shows on YouTube. You can just go to youtube.com, search for Method Happenings, and every show we have will come up. So we also ask that you please like and subscribe to our channel and our videos. And you can also find us now on Facebook at Method Happenings. We also have our own subreddit, which you can find us at. It's reddit.com slash r slash Method Happenings. That's reddit.com slash r slash Method Happenings. And that's about it for tonight. For the Method Happenings team, for Paul, Marco, Bruce, James, and of course, from me, John Petrella, and I'm gonna say it like I do every time, Medford, stay informed. Thank you all.
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