Jacob Wilson

Nonpartisan

We should have community hours on our synthetic turf fields that don't need to close when it rains and can sustain additional use. Our Parks and Recreation Department needs to complete a representative survey of the community's recreational needs and then address those needs with expanded and enhanced programming.

We will work with the utilities on upgrades to our electric grid and increase the number of EV charging stations in the city -- including trying a pilot of on-street EV charging like other communities have done. Somerville missed our chance to be one of the communities to take part in the Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration Program, so I'll work with the City Council to make sure we don't see any further opportunities like this get squandered. We will pursue decarbonization goals for municipal buildings and work on making our city's vast inventory of rental units energy efficient. And I'll continue my work on emissions, particularly emissions from construction vehicles.

I support common-sense rent stabilization legislation and the establishment of a transfer fee for large properties to generate funding for affordable housing here in Somerville.

With a large backlog of infrastructure projects large and small, we need to have an updated Capital Investment Plan reflecting a clear strategy for sequencing all of this infrastructure work.

I'd love to see Somerville explore setting up a childcare cooperative. We need to solve out-of-school time so school-age children from pre-kindergarten are covered throughout the workday year-round.

As mayor, I'll show greater urgency in preventing municipal unions from working without a contract and work with union leaders on shared goals.

I will implement the recommendations of the Public Safety for All task force, including the establishment of civilian police oversight, the implementation of body-worn cameras with a good policy around these cameras and the resulting video, and the creation of an alternative emergency response (AER) program in our city. I'll also look to address morale issues in the Police Department impacting recruitment and retention and pursue departmental policies of increased traffic enforcement and monetary citations for moving violations.

Somerville has long been a city of immigrants. Now our immigrant population is under attack from the Trump regime. The federal government wants immigrants and welcoming communities like Somerville living in fear, so it's important to stay calm but vigilant.

I'll look to expand the municipal curbside composting pilot and continue exploring interesting ideas like the rodent hormonal birth control pilot currently underway in the area of the high school, as well as innovative approaches to dealing with existing infestations. And we need to do this without the use of the Second-Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides harming our wildlife and pet populations.

As your mayor, I will ensure we have a hiring operation aggressively bringing in talent with a buy-in on a culture of innovation and service as part of a priority of re-establishing the City of Somerville as an employer of choice in the region.

I push for signage & lighting improvements and better regulation of the Community Path. I've also advocated for establishing a hybrid Traffic Safety Officer position to perform traffic detail, crossing guard, and parking enforcement duties.

The City also can help foster community and promote immigrant-owned businesses that are enduring a tough time due to lower foot traffic.

While we are in a holding pattern with establishing an overdose prevention center here, we should be proven third-party harm reduction strategies to keep our residents alive until they're open to receiving help. We also need to make sure we're making the best use of our municipal social workers to help residents, and get serious about combatting the effects of air pollution in the neighborhoods around Interstate 93.

I've been particularly focused on reducing cut-through commuter traffic by disincentivizing people using our city -- and especially our neighborhood residential -- streets as an alternative to MBTA Commuter Rail and highways.

My administration will wage a two-part war on rats starting with an "It's On All of Us" educational campaign making sure people know how food in trash bins and trash bins left open, overgrowth, and standing water create perfect breeding growths for rodents. And then we'll embark on an enforcement campaign, including a "Rat 'Em Out" campaign aimed at getting people to report rodent-related violations to Inspectional Services.