Organizing Notes #2

Since we last spoke I've kept messaging along lines of keeping families in Somerville, Affordable Housing. I discussed basic needs with Sonia Conde of Padres Latinos and Rev. Jordan Harris of Connexion and attended the Anti-Displacement Task Force Reportback. At the sole budget hearing open to public comment, I said continuing the particulate pilot funding is crucial for environmental justice and that I was opposed to cutting the Racial and Social Justice Department to increase funding of the police. Lately, I've door knocked on 18 streets in East Somerville.

Over $3000 raised. Your dollars are going to Human Rights, not a popularity contest. A Somerville City Councilor who served ten years said this was inefficient because the poor don't vote. Around the corner from the East Somerville T-station, a resident who bought a house there thirty years ago said no Councilor had ever knocked on his door. It's true, I might have attended the Thursday Films at the Park Series but instead the Indivisible working group on immigration was meeting and I felt compelled to attend. 

Please donate--anything helps, your funds will keep me door knocking in East Somerville, equipping the campaign with effective fliers and support for child care in the final weeks.

I confess I have a lot to learn. Doorknocking made me highly aware of discontent of Somerville fees and rates--and influenced me to strongly advocate City Council Not to increase water rates. I subsequently attended a recorded Civil Discourse training Massachusetts Municipal Association, because at the end of the day,  there will be hard votes, and I'll need to be able to shake hands.

How would you feel if you lived adjacent to major build anticipated on border of Ward 3/Ward 2?

"As a resident, I don't want a Darth Vader building because that feels to harsh" [2:34:52]

After a garden event, and putting the kids to bed, I peruse the Zoning Atlas and catch up on recorded meetings of Central Somerville Avenue Zoning.

How my mind works:

Sometimes I skip words writing, or can't recall in-person--It's not memory damage from three kids and years of sleeploss, but a verbal learning disability and ADHD diagnosis received in my late twenties. While Gen X has grown up learning how to ask for and navigate supports with this, I've always been capable of masking, and unmedicated, my focus is a superpower as a stay-at-home Dad. But I do display an unnecessary impulsiveness when I click submit. I'm at the Museum of Science when I submit my responses to a questionnaire on housing--oops, a typo, and maybe on revision I wonder if I would have smoothed a phrase. My answers pound home the message we need affordable housing for the elderly and families with children to implement the recommendations of the Anti-Displacement Task Force. See "Introvert on Campaign: What I'm Currently Reading" for my housing study.

My wife Emily and I own a home in Ward 5--equidistant to Davis Square Donuts and Bagels and Taco Loco, the latter getting less business due to fear of ICE. The Ordinance for Wage Theft was devised specifically to defend workers at the Ball Square restaurants suffering threat of report to ICE.

Yesterday afternoon, I was doorknocking Ward 5 on the campaign trail and a resident told me his wife was literally on the plane to Korea, being deported, as we spoke.

• July 17, 6:00-7:30, Good Trouble Lives On. Powder House Park, 850 Broadway, Somerville. Five years since the passing of Congressman John Lewis, communities are mobilizing to carry John Lewis’ legacy forward.

I organized a fellow Human Rights Commissioner to speak at the rally next Thursday, while I'm away on vacation.

I'm campaigning very much with residents fear of ICE on my mind. My neighbor was detained in Pilgrim Facility for 82 days, and I visited Immigration Court in April and June for accompaniment--very tough situation. 

Thanks to more than 30 donors who helped me top $3,100 fundraised. Now the order for signage is in!

Four years ago a surprise victory for the fourth slot at-large was decided on the basis of where the money came from. The candidate who attracted Somerville funds pointed out that other candidates received as75-80% of their funding from outside the City, spinning his home-grown funding as proof of the character of his base. In full disclosure, more than half of my donors currently are from out-of-state. And while a handful live on my block have contributed several hundred dollars to my campaign, in the weeks ahead I'm going to be asking neighbors to donate--anything helps.

Centenarian Ida Deguglielmo, center, turned 100 April 5, 2025. Born in Italy, has lived on Medford Street 55 years.