The Jamaica Pond Association (JPA) met virtually on May 3, where City Council candidates David Halbert and Kelly Ransom talked about their campaigns and answered questions from residents.
Kelly Ransom is running for District 6 City Council against candidates Kendra Hicks and Mary Tamor. Incumbent councilor Matt O’Malley is not seeking re-election.
Ransom, who grew up in District 6, spoke about her experiences as a young person in the city, saying that she has experienced homelessness, been a restaurant industry worker, a suicide hotline operator, and an LGBTQ advocate, as well as many other roles.
“I continue to fight for joy daily,” Ransom said.
Ransom has also worked at the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) doing fundraising, social media, and marketing work, as well as worked for City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George.
Ransom said her “top priority” is “ending family homelessness,” as she doesn’t “want anyone to experience what I experienced as a child and a teenager here in Boston.” She said she thinks that an affordable hosing zoning overlay would be beneficial to this work.
David Halbert is running for City Council At-Large, and said that he believes that while Boston has a lot of opportunities, they aren’t “shared equally by everyone.”
JP resident Sarah Freeman asked Halbert if he had any examples of how to deal with issues that have not come to an agreement, such as the MBTA Arborway bus yard, which has most recently been where parks advocates are pushing to locate services proposed for the Shattuck Hospital site in Franklin Park.
“I’m curious if you have any consensus building morsels you can share,” Freeman said.
Halbert said that a consensus will not always be reached, and “that’s okay.”
He said that the bus yard is a “good example,” as it involves more than one agency. He said that effective communication and “making sure we’re not overburdening any one community to bear the brunt for everyone’s benefit” are solutions.
JPA member Micah Sachs asked Halbert if he had any “concrete proposals” for affordable housing.
Halbert said that “making sure we have more options for folks to live in” and building more affordable housing near mass transit is on his agenda. Additionally., he said that other ideas are “thinking about things like co-ops” and “creating more pathways to home ownership.”
After hearing from the candidates, the JPA also discussed whether or not they should provide additional information about they city’s zoning process to applicants who come before the JPA for approval on a project.
“I think it would be really smart to share solid information,” JPA Chair Rosemary Jones said. “Spreading information, especially what the ZBA looks for as well as what we look for, to me, that could only be good.”
JPA member Peter Steiger said that such information would have been helpful to him as someone who had previously presented a proposal to the JPA, but “at the same time, it’s not our job to educate people.”
He said that a simple flyer available on the JA should be sufficient.
JPA member and Zoning Committee chair Kevin Moloney said he agreed with Steiger.
“We don’t want to be or perceived to be agents of getting zoning variants,” Moloney said. “Sometimes we have to draw the line and take a stand.”
JPA member Michael Reiskind said that he is “leaning towards a little bit of information,” as he believes it could be “helpful to applicants and new board members.”
He also suggested that a flow chart of the zoning process might be something useful to create for the website as well to help out applicants.
The JPA meets monthly on the first Monday of the month.