[Rick Caraviello]: Hello, my name is Rick Caraviello. As many of you know, I served 12 years as a city councilor and three of those as council president. Today, I am here before you not only as a candidate, but as someone who holds a strong belief in the strength of community. I am running again because we are in danger of losing the Medford we know and love. Medford is a community. that has always been distinguished by its rich history and vibrant neighborhoods. The most contentious issue in this election is the proposed citywide rezoning and development plan. At its core, the city council's duty is to protect the integrity and stability of our neighborhoods. Yet, that duty has been cast aside. The current council is pushing a sweeping rezoning proposal that would allow two to six units per residential lot, regardless of neighborhood context, infrastructure capacity, or community input. This approach isn't thoughtful growth. It's a density policy, one size fits all, that threatens to fundamentally alter the character of Medford. Instead, I will vote no to destroying our neighborhoods and vote yes to protecting them. Medford's business districts hold tremendous potential, not for unchecked expansion, but for smart, sustainable growth that respects our community's character. I support enhancing these areas with thoughtful planning that boasts tax revenue, creates good jobs, strengthens our local economy without compromising what makes Medford unique. As our city grows, so must our commitment to education for the next generations. Medford students deserve learning environments that are safe, modern, and built for the challenges of tomorrow, not the limitations of the past. A new high school isn't a luxury, it's a necessity. Let's invest in our kids, our community, and our future. Police and DPW departments should be fully staffed and deserve the backing of public officials, including the long overdue negotiation of their contracts. Fixing our streets and sidewalks is one of the most basic and most powerful things we can do to improve daylight in Medford. It's about safety. It's about accessibility. It's about showing every resident that they matter. It's time to address this important issues. My campaign is about you, the taxpayers, not the politicians. I will listen to your concerns, as I always have, and will represent your voice and restore the trust of the people to City Hall. Together, let's build a fairer, more united Medford than ever before. I respectfully ask for one of your seven votes on Tuesday, November 4th for Rick Caraviello for Medford City Council. Thank you.
[Rick Caraviello]: Thank you, John. Thank you for having me on this afternoon.
[Rick Caraviello]: Thank you. So, I'm a lifelong Medford resident. I'm 71 years old. I'm married to my wife, Carol, for 49 years. I know that's a long time. I have three children, Richard, Lauren, and Nicole, and I have eight grandchildren. So about myself, John, you know, I've spent most of my adult life as a community volunteer, whether it be at the Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis, Medford Youth Hockey, the Food Bank, and multiple other things. I've pretty much given most of my time to the city of Medford and I'm something I'm quite proud of You've done a Tremendous amount for the city.
[Rick Caraviello]: Well, the first reason is, you know, my love for the community. As you know, I've been off the council for a year. I ran unsuccessfully for mayor last semester. I don't like the way that some of the community is going. One of the big things that hurts me is the divide in the community. I feel that we should be more of a unified community. I don't like this us versus them mentality that's going around and all the things that get written on social media. We're one city, we're one community. Let's find common avenues and common bonds to move forward. That's and that's part. That's the big reason.
[Rick Caraviello]: It's become a national issue. Yeah, I uh you know with with you know just a division of division in politics and it's it's not right uh the way it is you know um this is america and everyone is entitled to their opinion we don't have to agree with but this is what makes our country great is we can agree to disagree and still be friends at the end of the day yes i loved it when we had that yeah we would have some pretty good
[Rick Caraviello]: Thank you.
[Rick Caraviello]: Well, obviously, the library. Yes. I worked on that for four years just to get them to come to the city. And I can't take all the credit for that. You know, the administration takes credit because of the funding. With the library came, with that work came $12 million in upfront funding. And I was also part of a foundation that helped raise over $6 million to sustain the library. So I think the city got a pretty good deal. We own a brand new library for not a lot of money. So I'm proud of that. I was also upfront with Michael Marks in bringing the art center.
[Rick Caraviello]: It's about getting the thing done. I was up front with that. I was also both an executive director and president of the Chamber of Commerce. Many people don't remember, when Cheryl White passed away during my term, I stepped into that office for a year and a half so we wouldn't lose our Chamber of Commerce. I've been heavily involved with the Kiwanis. And some of the things I did with the Kiwanis, I chaired the literacy program where we gave reading books to all first and third grade children in the city of Medford. I was on both the director and president of the Youth Hockey Association when we had almost thousands of kids there. I volunteer at the food bank. You know, I'm where anybody asks me to be. I fought with St. Raphael's Food Bank. So I continue to stay involved. Another thing I'm really proud of is my work with the veterans in the community. We had a... We had a request from a World War II veteran that hadn't been out of his house for a couple of years. And when we went over there, the wife says, well, why are you here? I said, well, I thought you wanted a ramp. She says, no, we needed an elevator. I said, well, it's not an elevator. It's kind of a little bit out of my league, but I says, well, let me see. So I left. And I called my go-to veteran, Don Marcelino.
[Rick Caraviello]: I said, Don, I explained him what this problem was. He said, well, let me see. He calls me back within an hour. He says, there's a lady that just bought a house that has an elevator. They'd like to get rid of it. And I said, oh, wow, great. We went by there. I called the family back. He says, Merry Christmas. We're going to install an elevator. And I want to thank the Murphy brothers, for all their time and effort that they put into that. And another one, we had a gentleman, a Vietnam veteran on Spring Street, had a paralyzed daughter, and daughter didn't have a bedroom or anything, and the people from Mill Creek stepped in and took her. gave us probably over $200,000 in time and effort, and we redid a whole house for this man and his daughter, between bedrooms, showers, we got a hospital bed donated for her, a lift. And I still, up to this day, I still do the food drive at Christmas and Thanksgiving for the veterans. So those are some of the things that, you know, even though I'm not involved, I still am involved with stuff.
[Rick Caraviello]: building relationships in the community. And that's what it's about. I've lived here my whole life, I have friends here, and I've developed relationships both within the city, at the state house, and at the federal level. I have people that I can call there. So when anyone needs help, I'm able to assist them in really any way that's needed. Even though I can't do anything, I can at least get them into the right direction.
[Rick Caraviello]: Thanks and unnecessary. This is something that we just do. We do it because we know it's the right thing to do.
[Rick Caraviello]: Well, my position is, it's been the same position that's always been from the day I was elected councilor back in 2011, is your job was to protect the neighborhoods. And right now we're not doing that. And the reason for the uproar in the community is because we have touched the third rail of politics in the city is the residential housing areas. There is really nothing wrong with our residential areas. Maybe you can tweak it a little bit here and there, but the radical changes that have been proposed, I do not support them at all. I know there's no there's no other answer of about you know That's the character of our community people moved here because they wanted a single-family house. They wanted that backyard They didn't want a two-family or a three-family or four-family next door to them yeah, and listen if that's what you wanted there's areas of the city that have two and three families and That's where you move to but Again, this is why we call it the third rail because you're proposing radical changes to small neighborhoods. And again, I've heard from people say, we moved here from Somerville because we liked what we saw here. We liked the communities. We like our small house on our side street. So that's really it. I mean, and as far as, I don't think that we worked enough on developing our commercial base. When I first got elected to the council in 2011, our commercial base was at 22%. John, I don't even think we're at 10% right now of commercial taxes. And the commercial base helps offset the residential. So we have these areas of the state. Mystic Avenue has been talked about forever. That should be the gateway to Medford, and it's not. It's just, it's not what we want there. It's a mess. It's a mess, and it's been talked about forever. Goes back before you and I, when we were little kids, there was talk about Tufts University taking it over, all kinds of stuff, but nothing has ever materialized on Mystic Avenue. You have that whole industrial district over by the the metal glen mall and all those side streets there where there is no more industry anymore that everything is like commercial and we're not taking advantage of that we've missed the boat i mean we you know we should have jumped on this in 2000 2001 two and three when interest rates were two and three percent right and at the And I think that's where we missed the boat. You know, we have all these small squares, and we're a unique community. Do they need growth? Yes, they do. They need help. But smart growth. Not 10-story buildings. I go to other communities. I see what other communities are like. Two, three and four stories is adequate for these West Medford Square, Ebby Salem Street, South Medford. These are untapped. Tufts Park, that whole street, right across the street there, that is a perfect development where there's a beauty salon and a cedar appliance. You've got frontage, you've got everything. And it's all a bunch of garages and untapped. What's Method Square? It's untapped. Again, small, smart growth, not overgrowth. And we talk about Method, even Method Square. It's still the same. People keep saying, I drive through and there's nothing happening. So I'll give you a funny story. My wife and I went out to dinner at Turner's and Melrose. And as we're crossing the street, I asked my wife, I said, stop. I says, tell me what you see. She didn't understand what I was saying. I says, look on both sides and tell me what you see. I said, I see a friendly looking street. It has trees on both sides. It has lighting. We have sign ordinance in the city that just ignore it. I mean, the stores all look clean. And that's really what it's about. Again, we're not reinventing the wheel here. Let's just say, people just got to stop and think. We're giving this the rush that we don't need to be doing. Let's think. Other cities have done it. It takes some time. And when you want to rush it through, Then you're going to get what you get.
[Rick Caraviello]: My opinion is I did not support this override. Not that the issues that were in it weren't important. They were important. Right. For such a small amount of money, $7 million, I felt we wasted an override vote. Because, and I told the present council there now, you know, coming down the line, You have a potential of looking at an override for a potential high school. You're probably going to need an override for a potential fire station, or maybe a couple other things. That's what an override was meant for, for a large project like that. For what we did an override for, I don't think it was the right decision, and I think we wasted that opportunity for the ORICAs. Now when you go back for your second crack at the apple, people can say, hey, you just hit me a few years ago for an override. So I think it was a wasted opportunity for such a small amount of money. But maybe an override is inevitable at some point.
[Rick Caraviello]: Overrides weren't meant to pay people. No. They were meant for larger projects. Right. I agree. We had money. I thought it was just a waste for $7 million.
[Rick Caraviello]: Well, as I mentioned before, you know the tech, you know, we were we had a lot higher Commercial base than we do now and it's gonna take it's gonna take a bit to get it back You know, some of it has gone from commercial to residential Yes, you get some of the money back but We have so much potential for commercial development. And again, maybe we missed the boat on some of it, but I think we need to work harder to get it back. One of my peeves with the city always has been that every time we talk about doing squares over this side, We never go to the business owner first, because these are the people that actually own the property. And we always take the public opinion, and everybody has great ideas on what to do with other people's property. And I've always seen that as an issue. Let's get the business owners and the property owners in a room, small sections at a time. What can we do to help you? Tell us what you want to do. We'll give you the city's vision, tell us your vision, and maybe we can collaborate on something. Maybe we can help you with some funding. But let's... Instead of, you know, let's say everybody wants a bakery in their community. Everybody wants a coffee shop in their community. But let's talk to the business, the property owners themselves. Let's see what we can do to help them. Target an area at a time. Like I said, we talked about that big piece in Salt River by Tuspac. Right. Great place. That's perfect. Oh, yeah. Great. And I know the gentleman there has approached the city before. It's gone nowhere. West Medford Square, you have a parking lot there. You got spaces. And we're wasting it on auto body shops and garages and things like that. Prime for small development. Right down Main Street and Redding. What do you see there? You see apartments, four stories. Not 10 stories like people. That's overgrowth, overcrowding. Those squares can't handle that. Find what fits each area and let's work on that.
[Rick Caraviello]: Okay, I got to tell you what I hear. Probably one of the biggest issues right now is traffic. Traffic in the city. I don't agree with some of the changes that we've made. I know people call them traffic calming measures, but that traffic they work total opposite, because now, I mean, where I live, High Street in the morning gets backed up past the Brooks School. You can't get through the Winthrop Circle there because of the changes made. Winthrop Street backs up to the high school. And on the other end, Winthrop Street backs up almost to Tufts in the afternoon. Main Street is, you can't, we keep making the roads smaller. People are under the guise that cars are going away. They're not. I mean, I've talked to people that drive buses and trucks, they say, we can't navigate these streets anymore. And you're causing accidents, and you're causing frustration of people that are sitting in this traffic, and now they're cutting onto all the side streets and causing havoc over there. So that's a giant issue in town. As I mentioned before, one of my biggest peeves is the curb appeal of our city. I don't like the curb appeal. Route 16, the bypass has become a truck parking lot now. And these are all people that have been kicked out of Everett and Chelsea. They're parking the truck. My city is not a parking lot for these other communities. the NSA it's it's it look it looks horrible and you know listen as always um the common thing you only get holes in the street we get miles and miles of streets and you know um the money that we get from from the state it obviously is not enough to do a street at a time we can only the budget we have um is limited. One of the things that when I was on the council before that Councilor Falco and myself came up with, we had met a company that comes in and grinds and repaves all in one throw. And they had tried to come here to do a pilot program for a couple of streets for free to show you what they do. So You can probably do two or three streets for the price of one and we never took advantage of it. And I thought we should have, I'm not saying we do the main roads, but you get all these side streets that where you scrape them, and instead of giving it back to the company that turned it back in the time, they did it right on the spot.
[Rick Caraviello]: And you know, let's say, you know, sidewalks, yes, we've done a lot of sidewalks over the last few years. It never stops. You could do sidewalks forever. Having a full time sidewalk crew, something that I've advocated for since day one. Those are people, but people want to see more things. Why aren't there more restaurants here? I mean, we have Shavire Auditorium. We're not capitalizing on it. They do a great job there. I mean, listen, last night, the place was packed. And those restaurants depend on that. Yes, they do. They depend on those. We need more. We need more. And we have to work with them. Let's work to pull them into the community. Right. Go out and solicit. Yeah. I mean, we have so much untapped potential there. I mean, maybe, I don't know if you, when you watch some of the commercials, like the town of Marlboro, there's a commercial touting all the property they have. Let's get out there and sell ourselves. They get things. We're five miles from Boston. We should be booming. Yes, we should be, yeah. So that's just my two cents on that.
[Rick Caraviello]: I've always been an advocate of, putting on more code enforcement people. Right. And I'm not telling you to go out there and torture people. Right. But go around, you know, a couple of days a week and pick up the obvious stuff.
[Rick Caraviello]: The obvious stuff, you know, even if it's wrong. Hey, Johnny, you know, I know you've been doing this for a while, but it's not right. I'm going to give you 60 days, you know, clean it up. And so this way. Get your act together. And get your act together. You know, like I say, we have a signed ordinance. Yes. And no one adheres to it. And it cleans up the windows.
[Rick Caraviello]: It just takes forever to go anywhere in Bedford now.
[Rick Caraviello]: All the traffic calming measures we've made, they're really not. I don't agree with some of them, and I think they need to be fixed to help let the traffic flow a little bit. Cars aren't going away.
[Rick Caraviello]: And you want people to come here and build more, which is only gonna bring... More cars, more traffic. People don't have two cars anymore, but people still own cars. They still have to drive, they still get around. One of the big things people forgot about was these ridesharing services. City of Medford gets paid for every rideshare that originates in Medford. We have over a half a million rideshares that started in Medford. That's a half a million cars that were never on these roads. And how do you think half of these people get back? So if a half a million take them out of here, If even half of them come back, and you remember, you're going to Winchester, you're going to Arlington, you're going to Malden, the ride share business is a giant, and these are people that aren't familiar with your roads. And they live and die by the ways. And ways takes you off into the neighborhoods.
[Rick Caraviello]: No. And I'm on the record on voting against the current schedule. Yeah. We have too many things going on, you know, permits and all the things. that you can't do in that shorter period of time. There was no reason why we couldn't continue the weekly meetings. People would say, well, you know, there's not enough stuff on them. Granted, there were some meetings that were short, and hey, every now and then you get that short meeting. And over the years, you got out there maybe 9.30, 10 o'clock on a late night. But when you're dragging these meetings purposely into 10.30, 11 o'clock, I think that's done by design to frustrate people so they go home. People have to go to work. Nothing good gets voted on at 11 o'clock at night because you're tired, you've been there a long time. you'll vote just to get out of there. I mean, one of the current Councilors complains about that all the time.
[Rick Caraviello]: Being there all night. There's no need of that. The current system before was working fine.
[Rick Caraviello]: All right, granted, during the summer it was a little quiet. We only used to meet once a month during the summer. That's right. And if needed, we would add another meeting. But we would have subcommittee meetings before the meetings or on a Wednesday night. That's it. And that's when you did it.
[Rick Caraviello]: Don't try to justify your job by adding on subcommittee meetings that don't need to be that long and that length. and that active.
[Rick Caraviello]: If elected, that's one of the first things I propose going forward is going back to weekly meetings.
[Rick Caraviello]: I mean, not that I haven't sat through some of them, but no, no, no, it's just, it's not fair to the people.
[Rick Caraviello]: So when this was voted on, the agreement was, if it's not working, we'll change it back.
[Rick Caraviello]: And it never happened. So trust me, that will be one of the first things I propose, is bringing it back to weekly meetings.
[Rick Caraviello]: No, listen, I'm into honesty. No, I know you are. Maybe they're not politically correct, but they're honest.
[Rick Caraviello]: Well, this is the will of the people. Right. In the past, This has been voted on, the charter has been voted on by the people. You know, Milvern and Ron did a great job over two years getting the opinions of the people. Hey listen, this is what the people want. That's correct. Do I agree with everything? No, there's a couple things I don't agree with. Especially some of the things that relate to the city council. City council does not need a staff.
[Rick Caraviello]: We shouldn't be reimbursed expenses. Right. people don't realize the implications. But it's just I support, I'm supporting it because this is what the people want. You're right. Do I love everything in there? No, I don't. But let's say, but you know, some of the council stuff in there, I don't, you know, raises. A lot of people don't know what's in there. There's no need of us having a staff. There's no need of us getting a raise. And there's no need of us expenses. What if I put in $10,000 of expenses? Who's going to say what expenses are?
[Rick Caraviello]: Who's gonna, how much staff? Why does the city council need a staff?
[Rick Caraviello]: That's your job, you're getting paid. You do your own work. It's not my job to pass it off to other people.
[Rick Caraviello]: You know me, I'm a foodie.
[Rick Caraviello]: I agree. I enjoy going out to eat. I wish we had some more options. I try to frequent all the Medford establishments and I do my best. You know, I like being around town. You know me, I hit the coffee shop scene every day here in the weekends. I talk to people. Right. You know, I shop locally. I walk the streets and I try to do as much locally as I can. Yep. And I try to stay involved with what's happening and I'm there to help people that need help. Right. And you know why? I think I've done a good job at it, and I enjoy doing it for people. You've done a tremendous job. I enjoy helping people. That's what my dad, my parents told me. That's how they brought me up, was to help people.
[Rick Caraviello]: I don't know if I have a least favorite thing in the city. I don't know what it is, I don't know what my, like I say, I try to stay positive on everything. I don't know if I have a, least least favorite thing to talk about yeah well I think I think you you know I mean I think some of the concerns Maybe some of those are things, but the single out something. I don't think I have anything.
[Rick Caraviello]: So I'm having my one and only fundraiser. which will be September 25th at Holwin on Middlesex Avenue. Everyone is welcome to attend at six o'clock. How do you get in touch with me? My phone number is given to everybody. I have no problem giving anybody my phone number. And my former Councilors will tell you, Rick always answers the phone.
[Rick Caraviello]: And I still continue to answer the phone and I'll come to your house anytime you ask me. How do you get in touch with me? My phone number is 781-572-5410. That's my number. It's not a fake number. Right. That's my number. Call me anytime. I'll answer the phone. If I don't answer, I promise I will call you back. I know you will, yeah. So, unlike all these younger kids, I don't have all these techie things. I don't have 47 Facebook pages. I have an email address, which is rickcaraviello at gmail.com. And I do have an Instagram account. I don't know what it is. Wow!
[Rick Caraviello]: No, no, I've had the Instagram account, and I do have it. I guess you can find it if you really want to find it. But I say, you know, I'm not a techie. I don't, you know, most of my friends don't, aren't techies. So, but I say, everybody knows where to find me. You see me everywhere. And I say, when you call, I'll always answer you. I'll always answer the call, answer the phone for you.
[Rick Caraviello]: Maybe my answers aren't politically correct, but a lot of times people will ask me a question. I'll say, do you want the political answer or do you want me to give you the truth? And I try to speak the truth. Maybe I shouldn't speak the truth all the time, maybe I shouldn't give political answers, but that's just not me.
[Rick Caraviello]: Sometimes the truth is not popular. As Jack Nicholson said in the movie, some people can't handle the truth. They can't handle it, yeah.
[Rick Caraviello]: Thank you, John.
[Rick Caraviello]: I really am. Thank you for having me. And thank the residents of Medford that support this station and support what you do.
[Rick Caraviello]: I appreciate it. I want to thank you for your hard work and all your staff that you have. Thank you. I don't know if people know, but this is all, you know, everyone that works here is a volunteer. Right. And I hope, I voted for the funding. when we did this some years ago to get this studio up and to get the science labs up and our robotic labs and everything. This section of the building shows what you can do without tearing the whole building down.
[Rick Caraviello]: People want to come here to go to our Vogue now.
[Rick Caraviello]: And they say the kids do great work here. It's not the vocally, but it's technical school. But in our days, kids from this school didn't go to college. These kids are going to college. They're coming out here. The union's in here with them. They're getting degrees out of the technical school. They're going on to careers that are relevant today.
[Rick Caraviello]: Yes, a lot of opportunity. That's what it is.