MARCOS CANDIDO
For Lowell District 8
I’m running for city council to lower our costs of living, Implement Healthy Transit initiatives, and invest in our children.
Dare to struggle, dare to win
Policy Priorities
Housing Reform
Having a roof over your head is a human right and should not break the bank. What I believe Lowell needs (and can accomplish) is:
1. Reintroducing and passing the Lowell Housing Production Plan which John Descoteaux rejected. Passing this plan gives us preference for grants from the state to build affordable housing and contains a blue print for better urban design.
2. Increased tenant protections against unfair rent increases, undue lease non-renewals, and wrongful evictions.
When we lower the burden of rent, the working class who build and support this city will thrive.
A car-dominated society is holding Lowell back from being a thriving and healthier community. Together we can:
1. Push for immediate implementation of the GoLowell plan, which maps out the appropriate roads that would greatly benefit from multi-modal use integration, to be well under way by 2028 - when the new walkable/bikable Rourke bridge is estimated to be completed.
2. Promote and expand bike-to-school/work initiatives. Our city is compact and 15,000 kids and 1000s of workers on bikes is a lot healthier and safer than in cars.
3. Utilizing state funds and partnering with local townships so that we may collaboratively improve the LRTA by electrifying our buses and increasing trip frequency along more efficient routes.
Less cars on the road means saving money on street maintenance, means less parking lots and dealerships and more homes and small businesses, healthier citizens, quieter streets, cleaner air, and happier communities.
Healthy Transit Initiatives
Revamping Childcare
One of the largest burdens on working families or single parents outside of rent is childcare. I'm proposing:
1. A direct cash transfer program for new mothers. This program is tried and true in cities with populations and budgets comparable to ours, especially when utilizing state and federal aid in an efficient manner.
2. Expand our support of child-care providers applying for state-funded assistance to upgrade our children's learning spaces.
3. Ensuring that WIC-eligible families receive their due benefits. 50% of WIC eligible families have NOT signed up!
4. As a part of my housing initiative, I believe first floors of multi-floor buildings should be reserved for the needs of the city such as a small business, a local health clinic, or a child-care center!
When our children are cared for, our burdened parents will have time for themselves and for work, the strain on our healthcare system will be alleviated, and our kids will grow up to be outstanding citizens.
Additional Priorities and Explanations
Building Too Much?
33% of our homes were built before 1900 and another 33% before 1940. Only 4% of our housing has been built after the year 2000. The city has failed to keep up with housing demand and to protect our tenants enough and our residents unduly pay the price by struggling more every year, always at the brink of crisis. State-assisted, stream-lined home construction on city-owned land would be an enormous boon to Lowell. An increase in housing supply would reduce rents meaning more money in our pockets. More multi-use zoning will also allow small businesses to thrive where demand exists. For these reasons, we need to bring back a vote on the Lowell Housing Production Plan and immediately implement its suggestions to begin building beautiful affordable homes and multi-use buildings throughout our city.
The Homeless Crisis
To solve the homeless crisis, we must move as a city with compassion. We must build homes for the homeless, not sic the cops on them as our incumbent, John Descoteaux, has voted in favor of. Over 20% of our households can only afford a rent of $700, our median rent is $1600. The homeless crisis is a self-inflicted wound healed only by building homes and offering comprehensive services to those in need. Without that, we risk harming and pushing more of our residents into inhumane conditions.
Energy Bills
Our energy bills are too high and with hotter temperatures earlier in the year, they will only continue to increase. As your city councilor, I would push for initiatives which would lower the cost of our energy bills. 1. We need to future proof our energy grid and move towards publicly owned and locally produced renewable sources of energy which will make our energy bills cheaper. 2. Increase communications about opting-in to Lowell's municipal energy aggregation plan which aims to reduce your energy costs by bulk purchasing energy from a competitive supplier. 3. Pushing and assisting property owners to reinvest profits for upgrading the energy efficiency of their homes. 4. Building energy efficient homes! Although initially more expensive, homes with better materials, insulation, windows, and awnings installed will be cheaper in the long run as they rot less, better regulate temperatures by keeping the heat in or out, and fare weather in various weather conditions and worsen in quality at a much slower rate.
Funding Education
The education of our children and young adults should be the priority of any city which is serious about taking care of its residents. That is why, if elected your city councilor, I will be a voice for a well-funded childcare and public school system. I would not stand for budget cuts to any part of our system which aims to educate and enlighten our youth. This is especially important as our national government threatens budget cuts that will harm our communities.
Supporting Local Businesses
Lowell is a historic city with a downtown that is in demand regionally. My priorities are to make sure our city is doing everything we possibly can to ensure more small businesses are able to sustain themselves and grow. I believe my bold vision to ensure rapid implementation of a more walkable, bike-friendly, and bus-friendly city would immensely support our smaller businesses. Increasing foot traffic near commercial zones by creating safer streets helps our businesses by increasing eyes, sales, and demand. Furthermore, I believe we ought to make sure the permitting process, loans, and incentives our city offers are improved so that the hurdle to beginning a small business is reduced as much as possible. I also strongly believe we must simplify our zoning laws so that we can create more multi-family multi-use buildings throughout the city in areas it makes sense to (i.e., small commercial zones, intersections with a small shop, corridors on main streets needing development) so that communities can grow without being separated and so more local businesses can flourish in parts of the city outside downtown. Lastly, I’m an avid supporter of having more festivities throughout the year in Lowell to celebrate different occasions and to connect our communities and small businesses!
Health and Reproductive Care
If we want to ensure that our city is healthy, we must properly invest in our health and reproductive care systems, not cut funds to them as our city council has voted to do. Cutting our public health nurse positions down to one, while our communities are still dealing with covid, long-covid, and the rise in other preventable illnesses, is simply immoral. We must - at minimum - return to the three public health nurses we had to both ensure we are on top of any threat of spread of illness and so that we may better engage and inform our diverse communities. Second, Massachusetts is facing a shortage of critical hospital staff. We need more practical nurses, social workers, and home health aides. If we want our hospitals to save money by reducing the need for expensive temporary nursing positions - who often do not know the community or workplace, then we need to train our residents to be able to care for each other. We need to work with local communities to encourage our state to better support our vocational schools so that we may train our residents for the jobs our cities need. For example, to have the ability to expand the Greater Lowell Technical High School’s day/night time program for becoming an LPN. Families need more support. Mothers should have access to reliable reproductive care such as abortion access and consistent prenatal care visits; Parents struggling financially deserve direct cash support; And parents should have the support they need to get their child into affordable daycare programs and preschool. I also believe my other policy priorities synergize with the need for a healthier city. When we build denser communities, do away with car-dependency, and reduce rents and childcare costs, we will have more money to go towards those things that keep us healthy.
Road Maintenance
Many roads in Lowell are in disrepair. Sidewalks are overgrown or cracked and unsafe for those with mobility issues. Car traffic destroys our roads and we waste too much of our resources in a never ending cat-and-mouse game with repairs. We can lower these costs by switching to more sustainable forms of transportation such as walking, biking, and busing. We have to begin implementing our 2021 GoLowell plan, a report laying out how our city should move forward to improve bike and bus feasibility in our city.
Bike and Bus Lanes
The Climate Crisis
The climate crisis is not coming, it's here. The data supports this and we are already beginning to see its effect in hotter and muggier summers with late hurricane season storms developing rapidly many months ahead of schedule. Our water sources and aging energy grid will be strained and the people who will face the costs are the residents as for-profit energy companies look to continue making more money. Every year we do not decarbonize and reduce energy usage is another crucial year wasted as we hurdle towards unprecedented times. For this reason, my policies holistically have the climate and environment in mind; 1. Homes built with sustainable materials guided by modern energy-efficient building codes is crucial to reducing energy consumption 2. Reducing car usage will reduce carbon emissions and make our city cleaner and quieter, reduce the need for expansive road networks and parking lots which absorb heat and warm our communities. 3. Electrifying our buses, improving bus mobility, and modernizing our traffic signal system to increase bus route efficiency are crucial steps to decarbonizing and creating a greener and healthier city. 4. Planting more trees and significantly expanding the households in Lowell which participate in Massachusetts's Grow Wild program. Planting trees and turning chemical filled pedicured green lawns into habitats of native wildflowers provides food, pollen, and protection for local wildlife as well as reduces local temperatures, water usage, and need for fertilizer. These efforts save us money in the long run in a plethora of ways and would make Lowell a blueprint for small cities looking to become greener, healthier, and happier.
Some may see some of the bike and bus lanes being produced throughout the city not being utilized and think, rightly so, why anyone ought to continue investing in such a venture. However, spending more on improving this infrastructure and making them wider-reaching is how we encourage and increase use. Isolated and unprotected bike lanes are difficult to reach, uninviting, and at worst a real risk to the cycler. If we expanded better integrated bike and bus lanes, as detailed out within the 2021 GoLowell plan there would be a real incentive for use. Further, introducing our residents to a more healthy, sustainable, and cheaper form of transportation positively impacts the ways we move about the city in the long-term and saves us money.
Racism In Lowell
Lowell was able to develop in the way it did from money made through cotton farmed in plantations during chattel slavery. The inequities we see in our city today are the ghosts of a dark past which have never been corrected. It is disappointing to note that our council members have failed many times when given a chance to begin to correct the inequities which exist in our city. They failed us when they rejected a call to declare racism a public health crisis. They failed us when they rejected a plan to increase housing and transit options throughout all our communities. They will fail us again and again on this front as long as they continue to deny increased support to those who need it most. We must work steadfastly to correct this issue, or else the problems this city faces will become worsening crises. We must pass and implement the city housing production plan and create beautiful affordable homes in all our communities so that anyone may enjoy any part of Lowell and reduce inequality. We need to increase our partnerships with and funding for local community programs. We ought to create a participatory budgeting process to make sure the people can have a say in how our budget is utilized. My vision for Lowell is a bold one and it can only happen if we move together as intertwined communities towards a common good.
Immigration
Since its founding, Lowell has been a community of immigrants, refugees, and hopefuls. Many leave their homes and families reluctantly looking for a better life. Through taxes, they pay into a system that oftentimes does not reinvest in their quality of life. A lot of us can resonate with this truth and we should recognize this and understand that we are more similar to each other than we believe. I think all Lowellians, born and raised and newly settled, deserve to be treated with dignity and have their rights to a healthy and happy life protected. With my initiatives, we will not be competing amongst each other for resources but instead working together towards a more equitable and thriving Lowell. Furthermore, I believe it is of utmost importance we make Lowell a sanctuary city. This proposal was last discussed in 2019 and opposed because the Lowell police department already has an agreement to not cooperate with ICE. However, we have seen in recent months ICE and CBP's blatant disregard for the constitutional rights of both citizens and immigrants alike while police departments have also broken the trust of community members by standing idly-by and sometimes illegally assisting in ICE operations despite policies put forth to stop this. We must protect all our citizens, including immigrants, and hold those who create mistrust accountable.
Supporting the Arts
Lowell is at its best when we support our local artists. As your city councilor, I would be an advocate for sustaining and increasing support to those programs that develop our youth’s talent and uplift all our creatives. Supporting these programs creates a symbiotic relationship between our communities and the city. If our artists are capable of making a living off their talents or are capable of affording a space to create and showcase their art, we will not have to tell people Lowell is beautiful because it will already be known. Further, on a broader note, supporting community engagement year round, whether through summer sports programming or afterschool art initiatives, creates a more connected, safer, beautiful, and happy society.
A Peaceful and Prosperous Lowell
As a person with a background in research, I understand the importance of our partnership with UMass Lowell - a university which is growing and planning a major expansion in the form of the LINC project. Draper laboratory, a “non-profit” organization known to help develop technology deployed in America’s destructive and unjustified wars of aggression, has become one of the first major laboratories seeking to take space in our new innovation hub. This should give us pause to reconsider what our end goal with these new research labs are. This and similar research cannot continue on our soil and for that reason there should be a community betterment agreement in place preventing such ventures; the city belongs to the people, and we ought to have a say in the type of research which is done within it.
Transparency and Accountability
As your city councilor, I aim to make our government more transparent and accountable to the people. I will make sure our public meetings are not held in secret and that summaries are understandable and more openly and easily available. I will be on the ground speaking to our citizens more often to hear out concerns and to lower the barrier for civic engagement. I will push to create a more engaged youth since they too should have a say in the developments of the city they will grow up in. I will push for a participatory budget, so that we can better understand what it is that the people want to see from our city. If we want to create a more democratic society, we need to lower the barrier to civic engagement and make sure that what is discussed within city hall is not held in secret but more openly and easily available.
LGBTQIA+ Protections
As our nation begins to reverse course on protections for our LGBTQIA+ neighbors, it is important that as a city council we distinguish ourselves from broader communities which seek to stand idly by as our friends and families are targeted. As city councilor, I will make sure to push for greater protections for equal rights for everyone within our city.
