Candidate Profile: Tessa Bridge, Ward 5 City Council

SOMERVILLE, MA — Tessa Bridge is one of three candidates running for Ward 5 city councilor in the Sept. 14 preliminary election, which will whittle down the field of candidates ahead of the municipal election in November. There will also be preliminary elections for mayor and City Council in Ward 7.

Somerville Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles over the coming weeks.

Bridge has been an educator, administrator and organizer for more than 10 years and co-founded Canopy Equity Coaching. She and her husband Rami have two children, Selah and Zakai.

Are you running for office in Somerville? Contact Alex Newman at alex.newman@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate profile and submitting campaign announcements to Somerville Patch.

Age (as of Election Day)

33

Position Sought

City Council, Ward 5

Party Affiliation

Democrat

Family

Rami Bridge, Selah Bridge (5), Zakai Bridge (3)

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

My husband is the elected President of the Somerville Educators Union

Education

BA, Psychology, Reed College
MA, Public Policy and Planning and Child Development, Tufts University

Occupation

Co-founder of Canopy Equity Coaching (1 year)
Educator/administrator/organizer (10+ years)

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

N/A

Campaign website

TessaForSomerville.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

I have lived in Somerville for twelve years and I love this city for its diversity, sense of community, and stated values. I am inspired to run for office by my deep commitment to a sustainable and equitable future for all of the people in our community. Somerville is at a crossroads. It is not enough to say that we support equity, diversity, and progress, it is time for us to invest in these values. We are facing multiple crises - including climate, housing, COVID, and white-supremacy - and we need transformational policies to meet the urgency of the moment.

As City Councilor, I will bring my experience in naming hard truths and finding creative solutions to entrenched problems, and I will be transparent and accountable to residents. Whether I am fighting for affordable housing, for funding to be more equitably distributed, or taking on everyday challenges such as traffic and road construction issues, you will know where I stand. I am running to challenge the status quo and will stand up to power in a clear and values-driven way.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Lack of access to affordable, accessible, and well maintained housing is the biggest issue facing our community. Housing is a fundamental human right and I am committed to ensuring that all Somerville residents have a safe place to live. To do this I will build on existing affordable housing policies, ensure that increased revenue coming into our city is directed towards affordable housing, maintains and expands housing stabilization services, fully funds tenants' right to counsel for residents so that anyone facing eviction has access to a lawyer, and invests in building mixed income social housing. My approach to addressing the urgent need around housing will be driven by the fact that housing is deeply intertwined with climate justice, both in terms of the impact and the solutions needed. Strong and immediate action is needed to address the climate crisis - one of the greatest crises facing humanity which disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. I am committed to making Somerville carbon neutral by 2030 by bringing municipal buildings up to net-zero standards, expanding programs to retrofit residential buildings, investing in sustainable and equitable transportation, and expanding access to green spaces.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am the strongest progressive candidate in my race. Whether it be housing, climate justice, safer streets, or public safety I have made concrete commitments to you, and have laid out a clear path forward to get there. I have committed to directly investing in affordable and social housing as well as supporting tenants' right to counsel so tenants have access to a lawyer if facing eviction. I will fight for a Green New Deal for Somerville and to make Somerville carbon neutral by 2030. I am honored to be supported by several labor unions, including the Greater Boston Labor Council, and local grassroots organizations including Our Revolution Somerville and Boston DSA. I will continue to support workers rights and push for development to be built with prevailing wage. Finally, I have committed to redirect funds from the police budget towards wellness and harm reduction programs.

My life’s work has been to build community engagement processes to make our government more inclusive and representative and I have experience pushing and winning policies that materially benefit residents in our community. I will bring a practical and visionary approach to my work on the council to address both the existential and everyday challenges facing our community.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

The COVID-19 crisis is an unprecedented threat to our community’s health and well-being and on top of the devastating impact upon public health, COVID has led to urgent economic, housing, mental health, education, and gender equity crises.

I have been pleased to see local officials in Somerville taking the pandemic and its subsequent economic crisis seriously. One area in particular that I was really impressed with was the testing system that Somerville created for most of the pandemic. I am disappointed that the access to free testing across the city that we had several months ago has decreased even as the pandemic continues. I would also have liked to see a clearer and more transparent process and decision making about when and why businesses and buildings remained open or closed. As we continue to grapple with the ever changing public health emergency I hope the city will increase transparency in these areas.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has proved beyond a doubt how fragile our social safety net is. It has also shown that possibilities once seemingly far-fetched (such as eviction moratoriums, increased state and federal funding for housing support services, and providing every child in our public schools with a laptop) are within our reach and control. This pandemic is far from over and we must take bold steps to push for a recovery that centers the people most impacted by the pandemic. The City of Somerville has taken some important steps to help residents and local businesses stay afloat, and there is so much more we need to do to provide resources to people who are the most vulnerable in this crisis. We must ensure that American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and resources from the state are used to support working people. We must also extend the eviction moratorium and increase the operating budget of the Office of Housing Stability so that no one is displaced from their home during a pandemic.

Finally, it is clear that our community was left vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic because of decades of disinvestment in public infrastructure, including our school buildings. It is clear that deep investment in upgrading our infrastructure, especially schools, is needed so that we are not at such risk in future crises.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

As Ward 5 City Councilor I will fight to make Somerville an equitable, sustainable, and healthy community for all, especially those who have been historically underserved. My values are central to the campaign I am running and the type of city councilor I will be. I believe that everyone has the right to both economic and political freedom and I will push for policies that support our neighbors, center people who are most impacted by systems of oppression, and support working people to lead dignified high quality lives. This will require creativity, tenacity, and a recognition that all issues are interconnected.

I will push to invest in affordable housing including building more affordable and social housing; reimagine public safety in our community by redirecting where we spend our money towards restorative and wellness focused approaches to care; for a Green New Deal for Somerville including upgrading our residential and municipal buildings to net-zero standards by 2030; and making our streets safer with traffic calming and increasing open green space. As we embark on all of these tasks I will advocate to pay prevailing wage, hire locally, and support labor unions.

We deserve a city that works for us, and that prioritizes residents and our needs. I know that these things are possible and I am ready to fight for the city we deserve.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

In my work as a racial justice organizer in Public Schools, organizing with Our Revolution Somerville, fighting for a living wage for paraprofessionals with the Somerville Educators Union, and organizing with the Massachusetts Teachers Association I have fought for justice, stood up to power, and organized to build grassroots power. We need that kind of strength, clarity of values and vision, and experience building people power on our city council.

I am a facilitator with a background and skill in bringing people together to process, learn from one another, and collectively design solutions to entrenched problems. In this way, I have held community spaces that have inspired people to become more involved and dream bigger about what's possible. I also have extensive operations and management experience in public and private sector institutions.

Finally, I am the co-founder of Canopy Equity Coaching, where we support companies and organizations to become more inclusive and anti-racist. I will bring this lens and concrete strategies to reduce barriers to equity if elected to City Council.

We need to win transformative policies for our city and community. Residents deserve representatives who will bring the urgency, creativity, and tenacity needed to make this a reality. I will be a hardworking, thoughtful, and courageous city councilor. I will not act in fear or turn away from a challenge, and will advocate from a place of integrity and commitment to the values of equity and justice.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

As a child, my grandmother always told me “slower is faster”. That message has stuck with me and resonated in different ways throughout my life. It means taking the time to build collectively and invest in understanding the root causes of challenges we face so that we can act decisively and with conviction. This wisdom guides me in my professional work, community organizing, and I know it will serve me well on the City Council.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I am running for City Council as an extension of the work I have already been doing in our community. I feel deeply accountable to the residents of Somerville and to movements in our city that have continued to push for equity and justice. I welcome accountability from my neighbors and am excited to continue to work alongside you all to make Somerville equitable, sustainable, and healthy for all.