Let’s achieve environmental justice for our community.
Somerville residents care deeply about our impact on the planet and the environment. Many of us have worked tirelessly to advocate for city, state, and federal plans to achieve carbon neutrality, protect our tree canopy, and avoid the worst effects of fossil fueled disasters. Yet our city has not achieved significant progress on its goals.
I have stood with my generation at the frontlines of this fight with the Sunrise Movement. In 2018, a month after re-electing Elizabeth Warren as a Boston Field Organizer, I was arrested during a sit-in of congressional offices with 142 other young climate activists demanding a Select Committee on the Green New Deal. I believe that we need to meet the urgency of this moment with solutions that match the scale of this crisis. We need Green New Deals at every level of government. That’s why, in 2019, I joined Senator Markey’s re-election campaign as the Boston Regional Organizing Director.
Somerville can live up to its values and goals of environmental justice, but we must elect a council that will push relentlessly for a world that is habitable for our generation and those to come.
A Somerville Green New Deal
This decade is critical for our people and planet. As part of this campaign and, if I have the honor to be elected, I will help lead community forums around how we can meet carbon neutrality by 2030. Go to the bottom of this page to learn more about how you can participate in these conversations.
Environmental Justice is Racial Justice
I know that racial justice is environmental justice, which is why I will center ending environmental racism that impacts East Somerville and those who live (as I did) near Mystic Ave.
Environmental Justice Is Economic Justice
As we push for cuts to our carbon consumption, we must make sure that we create good paying, union jobs for those refurbishing homes and installing green technology. As a former Teamster member, this will be a priority of mine.
Environmental Justice Is Housing Justice
Somerville’s largest source of carbon emissions is our buildings. We must create more green and affordable housing units through our zoning, using under-utilized and vacant buildings, and upgrading our buildings to be more energy efficient.
Decarbonize. Decommodify. Democratize.
If we only change what kind of energy our city is reliant upon and not who controls that energy, we may avert the climate crisis only to worsen an economic crisis. Somerville should move in a direction in which we recognize that basic energy usage is a human right and the people control the levers of power - not unaccountable corporations.
We need noise and pollution barriers along I-93
There has been years of research, organizing, and complaints by Somerville residents about the noise and air pollution coming from the highway along Mystic Ave. As someone who lived across from the highway, I’m all too familiar with the issues there. We know that wealthier and whiter communities were accommodated and their healthy prioritized by the state when construction of this highway was underway. We know that the state promised to build these barriers back in the ‘70s. As a city councilor, I will re-engage the state alongside community members and demand that they do not make our residents’ lives feel disposable by exposing them to air pollution that has been linked to increased asthma, heart disease, and disrupted sleep.