Page 10 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, January 3, 2020 REVIEW | FROM PAGE 1 tween Malden’s teachers, 89 percent of whom are white and the city’s students, roughly 67 percent of whom are Asian, African American and Hispanic. Superintendent John Oteri has been working to address racial inequity through recruiting and hiring more teachers, administrators and staff of color and through trainings, programs and grants designed to promote more diversity among school staff. However, Oteri and MaldenCORE members said it takes time to eradicate centuries of institutional racism. Malden Hospital reset For the past five years, Malden residents have been fighting to preserve the 18-acre Malden Hospital site, or at least part of it, for the community. For much of that time, residents found themselves at odds with Fellsmere Housing Group, which had a purchase and sales agreement with the hospital site owners – formerly Hallmark Health, now MelroseWakefield Healthcare – and a plan to build 214 condos, 18 townhouses and 18 single-family homes on the property. But last fall, the outlook for the Malden Hospital site began to shift. In September, MelroseWakefield Healthcare CEO Sue Sandberg announced that the health care organization had ended its relationship with Fellsmere Housing Group and would no longer be pursuing its proposal for the site. “We are evaluating options for future use of the site, and we will re-engage with the community and initiate dialogue as we move forward,” added Sandberg. In October, Rashmi Ramaswamy from the Gateway Initiative Program of Boston Architectural College (BAC) and the Friends of Fellsmere Heights presented a community-focused redevelopment plan for the hospital site that included different economically feasible and sustainable design options based on ideas and input from Malden and Medford residents. The BAC designs included a proposal to renovate the former nurses’ dormitory into a community health center with offices for private practitioners and health care providers next to a gym and fitness center in the old boiler building. And in December, residents who support preserving the hospital site for the community were again encouraged when representatives of Waterville Consulting, which is advising MelroseWakefield Healthcare, held a public meeting on the future of the hospital site. The consultants stressed that community engagement and input are important elements of the process that will decide the future of the land. There are plans for a Malden Hospital Community Advisory Group and more notifications and conversations with abutters to the site. The consultants also acknowledged that neighbors feel dense residential development would be the least Properties that were once home to Malden City Hall and the Malden Police Station are being transformed into a unique 100 percent market rate, mixed-use project on the site where the Malden Government Center complex once stood. Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) is redeveloping this site into “Jefferson at Malden Center”, a transit-oriented development that will reconnect Malden’s primary retail street—Pleasant Street—with the MBTA Station at Malden Center. The project is a ground up development planned for 320 residential units in two buildings, a 45,000 square foot office condominium shell (to be built out by the City for a new city hall), more than 22,500 square feet of ground floor retail and approximately 330 parking spaces. The two buildings will be connected by a sky bridge. advantageous use due to the strain additional traffic would put on city streets. “Acting as conscientious stewards of the overall land donated by the Converse family is important to the community as we consider both uses and available open space,” they added. Affordable Housing In August, city officials and housing activists joined a group of tenants from 33 Park St. to rally against steep rent increases. Andreas Tsitos of United Properties bought the building at 33 Park St. which has a mix of 36 studio and one-bedroom apartments, last April. Shortly after the sale was final, tenants received notices of rent increases as high as 50 percent. The cost of a studio apartment jumped from $1,000 to $1,500 a month, and many long-term tenants were forced to move. Members of City Life/Vida Urbana, a Boston-based tenants advocacy group, vowed to fight the rent increases. City officials, including Mayor Gary Christenson and Ward 3 Councillor John Matheson, offered to do whatever they could to support the tenants. According to recent listings for units at 33 Park St., a 400 square-foot studio is $1,400 a month, which is $100 better than $1,500 but hardly affordable. Mayor Gary Christenson and ArtLine Board member Naomi Kahn help artist Frank Stella cut the ribbon to his new mural at Malden High School. The Park Street rally focused the community’s attention on the severe need for more affordable housing, and Malden has since taken steps to begin addressing the problem. The city has established an affordable housing trust fund supported by community preservation funds, grants, donations and half of the fees collected from developers to mitigate the impact of new residential buildings. The trust fund will be used to preserve expiring affordable housing units, to convert existing housing into affordable homes and to build new affordable housing with nonprofit partners. A security deposit pilot program, supported by community preservation funds, has also been approved. The program will help families struggling to put together the money to move into a new home. The city is also supporting the Malden Redevelopment Authority’s plan for a study on inclusionary zoning that will require developers to include affordable units as part of any new residential building project. ARTline Last year, ARTline installed The Wonderful World of Ed Emberley mural in the David R. FitzGerald Park on Exchange Street and transformed a public space most residents hardly noticed into an inviting stretch of color and imagination that’s now a destination for both kids and adults. This year, ARTLine’s board of directors upped their game. In June, they unveiled the Canal Street Hub, which features Malden Joyriders, Joe Malesky’s sculpture of cyclists riding along the Northern Strand Community Trail, Colin Selig’s bright blue bench made from an old propane tank and Clay Larsen’s River of Ties mural, which celebrates the city’s railroad corridor and the Malden River. In October, ARTline cut the ribThe city celebrates Jesse Melanson’s Spirit in the Sky mural, a tribute to Malden native Norman Greenbaum and his 1969 hit song. Members of the tenants’ advocacy group City Life/Vida Urbana join residents from 33 Park St. for a rally to protest steep increases in rent. bon for Jesse Melanson’s towering four-story Spirit in the Sky mural on the corner of Exchange REVIEW | SEE PAGE 12
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