[Miranda Briseno]: Hi, I live on Taylor Street, the hillside area.

[Miranda Briseno]: 1st, I just want to plug that mascot actually has a lot of vehicle ownership data.

[Miranda Briseno]: Available to municipalities that breaks it down by vehicle type.

[Miranda Briseno]: Personal commercial also has a lot of data on through the cities and the average daily mileage.

[Miranda Briseno]: You know, all of the cars that I think would be really helpful.

[Miranda Briseno]: I just want to echo a lot of what's been said that.

[Miranda Briseno]: Induced demand exists and the reality is that the 38,000 cars that exist in Medford.

[Miranda Briseno]: If we eliminated parking minimums tonight would still be here tomorrow.

[Miranda Briseno]: Mine included.

[Miranda Briseno]: So I think removing those parking minimums.

[Miranda Briseno]: will still will support and encourage developers or smaller owners to not consider having parking, but it's still not going to change people who do need and want to build parking anyway, because again, there are almost 40,000 cars in this city.

[Miranda Briseno]: I mean, I would have loved to not buy a car a year ago.

[Miranda Briseno]: my insurance, my car payment monthly, you know, gas, everything.

[Miranda Briseno]: I mean, I bought a hybrid, I was excited about that.

[Miranda Briseno]: But, you know, like, I would have loved to not have that experience.

[Miranda Briseno]: But it just, I sat on it for about two months before I finally made the decision.

[Miranda Briseno]: I would have loved not to do it.

[Miranda Briseno]: But here I am anyway.

[Miranda Briseno]: So even as a car owner, as someone who has spent a lot of time with people with mobility limitations, the parking that people need will be there.

[Miranda Briseno]: And we can find ways to support those that don't need a car, don't want a car, can't afford a car, and are reliant on public transit.

[Miranda Briseno]: Thank you.

[Miranda Briseno]: Hi, Miranda Briseño, Taylor Street.

[Miranda Briseno]: I will pretend to...

[Miranda Briseno]: know anything that is in this new proposed version.

[Miranda Briseno]: I just wanted one support that moving this to a special meeting for next week.

[Miranda Briseno]: I think given the importance that the charter serves to the city, and the fact that changing it requires a lot of reflection and to one of the councillors points that it is quite literally the legal obligation of the council to scrutinize what's put forth in front of them.

[Miranda Briseno]: It makes sense that you all

[Miranda Briseno]: need more than a week to review such an important document.

[Miranda Briseno]: And then I also just wanted to point out that, you know, there are, while I can, I certainly appreciate the survey that the committee did, I certainly filled it out myself.

[Miranda Briseno]: It was only 663 people out of a roughly, you know, 58,000 city, 58,000 person city.

[Miranda Briseno]: I think there's a lot of underrepresentation and that's not necessarily anyone's fault here.

[Miranda Briseno]: But if we

[Miranda Briseno]: are, you know, taking, uh, research and, um, academics that have done this work, um, to understand that, you know, the history of red lining based on racism and that has segregated the city, you know, including that of, you know, 93 separating the east and west, uh, parts of the city.

[Miranda Briseno]: Um, those.

[Miranda Briseno]: long-term effects will be reflected in ward district representation.

[Miranda Briseno]: Again, I don't know all the specifics of it, but that's just to say that we can't decide that something is going to be representative because we're moving towards this without understanding the historical context of who lives where and why.

[Miranda Briseno]: All to say, I think that moving this for another week for you all to review it, for the public to review it and come back, make more comment.

[Miranda Briseno]: is certainly worth it.

[Miranda Briseno]: And, you know, moving things forward under a sense of urgency without a quality check.

[Miranda Briseno]: And, you know, everyone doing the whole point of this was to put more checks and balances into place for the city, where the mayor has a lot of executive power and

[Miranda Briseno]: to say that, you know, the whole point of the council is to check that power.

[Miranda Briseno]: I think it makes sense.

[Miranda Briseno]: Anyway, that was rambling, but thanks so much.

[Miranda Briseno]: Good night.

[Miranda Briseno]: Hi, Miranda Briseno.

[Miranda Briseno]: I live at 2 Taylor Street in Medford.

[Miranda Briseno]: Thank you, Mr. President.

[Miranda Briseno]: I've been a renter in Medford for six and a half years.

[Miranda Briseno]: I've loved living in Medford and I love calling it home.

[Miranda Briseno]: The reality for me is that as a renter,

[Miranda Briseno]: I'm currently trying to find a new apartment that meets my changing needs, and I'm finding it extremely difficult to find a suitable place that will allow me to stay here in this place that's welcoming.

[Miranda Briseno]: I'd love to call home for six and a half years.

[Miranda Briseno]: To that end, I am disappointed to see the multi-use residential drop down from three to six units to one to three.

[Miranda Briseno]: If we want Medford to be affordable and for people to stay in Medford, we need to allow more housing to be built and implement other measures to ensure that rental and home prices stay affordable.

[Miranda Briseno]: This includes whether through zoning or another mechanism, removing parking requirements and minimums, supporting transit, pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure.

[Miranda Briseno]: Additionally, I think there's some short-sightedness with limiting only specific business uses.

[Miranda Briseno]: I think it'll limit the city's ability to generate more tax revenue, in particular with relation to dispensaries and hotels.

[Miranda Briseno]: I recognize for the siting of a dispensary, it's limited to what is around.

[Miranda Briseno]: So maybe a dispensary isn't appropriate in Salem Street, but thinking about the city-wide zoning update, dispensaries have unequivocally across the Commonwealth generated immense revenue for the state and for communities that have worked with companies to allow for their existence.

[Miranda Briseno]: And similarly for hotels.

[Miranda Briseno]: I think if we're truly committed to climate resiliency, one of those is creating truly mixed use areas where people can go to the grocery store, eat a meal with friends,

[Miranda Briseno]: go to a park, exist in third person places where they are free to exist as people, or go to their doctor or receive substance abuse disorder treatment.

[Miranda Briseno]: And when we force these uses to be so far away from each other, we are forcing our neighbors to rely on cars, or if they have no access to a car to simply go without access to necessary destinations, which will be detrimental and fatal.

[Miranda Briseno]: I hope to see more opportunities for housing to be built with less parking required.

[Miranda Briseno]: more medical offices and more business to come to Medford in the future.

[Miranda Briseno]: Doning proposals, I'm looking forward to the one for my area.

[Miranda Briseno]: And I hope that, you know, we're also taking into account the Commonwealth's 3A updates that require MBTA communities to update their housing stock.

[Miranda Briseno]: And also just wanna thank all that have worked hard, both, you know, city staff, the council and as associates.

[Miranda Briseno]: This work is not easy, and I thank you for all that you do to balance all the resident input.

[Miranda Briseno]: Thank you.

[Miranda Briseno]: Miranda Briseño to Taylor Street.

[Miranda Briseno]: Also, thank you for saying my last name correctly.

[Miranda Briseno]: I've been a renter here for six and a half years.

[Miranda Briseno]: I love living in Medford and I love calling it home.

[Miranda Briseno]: The reality, however, is that as a renter who's currently trying to find an apartment that meets my changing needs, I'm finding it extremely difficult to find a suitable place that will allow me to stay in this place that I love.

[Miranda Briseno]: To that end, I'm disappointed to see the multi-use residential drop down from three to six units to one to three.

[Miranda Briseno]: If we want Medford to be affordable and people to stay in Medford, we need to allow more housing to be built and implement other measures to ensure that rental and home prices stay affordable.

[Miranda Briseno]: This also includes whether through zoning or another mechanism, removing parking requirements and minimums and supporting transit, pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure.

[Miranda Briseno]: Additionally, limiting only specific businesses uses limits the city's ability to generate more tax revenue, particularly with relation to dispensaries and hotels.

[Miranda Briseno]: I recognize that the siting of a dispensary is limited by the location of schools and other things, but dispensaries have unequivocally generated immense revenue for the Commonwealth and for the communities that have worked with cannabis companies to allow for their existence.

[Miranda Briseno]: While they may not be appropriate on Salem Street, I implore this board and residents in the future to consider this as an important benefit of allowing more businesses to be allowed.

[Miranda Briseno]: If we are truly committed to climate resiliency on all fronts, one of those is creating truly mixed-use areas where people can go to the grocery store, eat a meal with their friends, go to the doctor, or receive substance abuse disorder treatment.

[Miranda Briseno]: When we force these uses to be so far away from each other, we are forcing our neighbors to rely on cars,

[Miranda Briseno]: or if they have no access to a car to simply go without access to necessary destination, which will be detrimental.

[Miranda Briseno]: I hope to see more opportunities for housing to be built with less parking allowed, more medical offices and more businesses to come to Medford and future zoning proposals for areas across Medford.

[Miranda Briseno]: Lastly, thank you to the board and to Inez Associates.

[Miranda Briseno]: I know this work is not easy and I thank you all for the work that you do.

[Miranda Briseno]: Miranda Briseño to Taylor Street.

[Miranda Briseno]: Yeah, so I just wanted to echo the concerns.

[Miranda Briseno]: I don't live in South Medford, but I've both walked and driven and biked through it enough to know what these problems look like.

[Miranda Briseno]: And while I,

[Miranda Briseno]: Support signs is an interim approach.

[Miranda Briseno]: The best way to slow cars down, whether or not they're cutting through streets is to simply redesign our streets to be a lot safer.

[Miranda Briseno]: We can be narrowing lanes, putting speed humps, speed tables onto these residential streets to really force drivers to go slower.

[Miranda Briseno]: And similarly relying on enforcement

[Miranda Briseno]: really can backfire and be really unsafe for a lot of communities.

[Miranda Briseno]: So the best kind of enforcement that we as a community can investment is better designed streets.

[Miranda Briseno]: Thank you.

[Miranda Briseno]: Thank you very much.

[Miranda Briseno]: Thank you.

[Miranda Briseno]: I'll just echo what Ellery stated and similar to what Councilor Tseng, Collins, and Bears have stated, the state has already existed, has been provided to us by the state.

[Miranda Briseno]: And so utilizing this data would allow us to understand why that significant difference exists in traffic stops for our Black and Latino neighbors.

[Miranda Briseno]: And to bring this back to the issue discussed on South Medford and traffic concerns, the primary way the general public interacts with law enforcement is through traffic stops.

[Miranda Briseno]: This data from the state is already showing there are disproportionate stops for our Black and Latino neighbors.

[Miranda Briseno]: Data in communities across the country has shown that our Black and Latino neighbors are at disproportionate risk of dying through their interactions with law enforcement.

[Miranda Briseno]: In addition, if you overlay old redlining maps that show high disinvestment and neglect in primarily Black and immigrant neighborhoods with where current traffic fatalities and high traffic concern areas are, these are the same neighborhoods.

[Miranda Briseno]: Similarly, more data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has shown that as pedestrians, black residents of Massachusetts are more than four times likely than white residents to visit the emergency department as a result of being hit by a vehicle.

[Miranda Briseno]: In addition, nationwide data has shown the disproportionate risk that black residents

[Miranda Briseno]: to be a traffic fatality than white residents.

[Miranda Briseno]: So at the end of the day, if we're looking to keep our community safe, both from the negative consequences of high volume car traffic, we can also be addressing the true safety concerns that Black, Brown, and other marginalized communities have when interacting with law enforcement by investing more than we are now into safer street design.

[Miranda Briseno]: Thank you.

[Miranda Briseno]: Miranda Briceño to Taylor Street.

[Miranda Briseno]: I live near the intersection as well and just wanted to reiterate the safety concerns, especially in my professional opinion as a planner.

[Miranda Briseno]: I can tell that this intersection could definitely use some traffic calming and traffic calming that could be installed and done temporarily and quickly with paint overnight in the interim to address safety concerns.

[Miranda Briseno]: Thank you.

[Miranda Briseno]: Hi, Miranda Berseno, Taylor Street.

[Miranda Briseno]: And I just wanted to express opposition that more police patrol in the park area would be in the interest of community safety.

[Miranda Briseno]: Community safety means everyone and that everyone feels safe in the community.

[Miranda Briseno]: not just those who would like to see their property values maintained and keep people who they deem unworthy out of their neighborhood.

[Miranda Briseno]: Police don't keep us safe.

[Miranda Briseno]: In fact, police departments are rooted in white supremacy and anti-Blackness.

[Miranda Briseno]: They have foundations in the history in slave patrols and modern-day police forces have directed oppression and violence at Black people to enforce Jim Crow, wage the war on drugs, crack down on protest, criminalize homelessness, and more.

[Miranda Briseno]: Police do not prevent crime from happening.

[Miranda Briseno]: they respond after something has already happened.

[Miranda Briseno]: If the council's concern is to truly invest in community safety, there is a multitude of empirical evidence that suggests funding education and other social services like drug addiction rehab and safe consumption sites are what keeps communities safe.

[Miranda Briseno]: So I urge the council to vote no on more patrols and instead look for opportunities to allocate more funding to Medford public schools, affordable housing, respond to the climate crisis, address racial injustice, drug addiction in our city, and more.

[Miranda Briseno]: Thank you.