Page 8 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2020 Highlights from State Rep. candidate Joe Gravellese’s “Virtual Town Hall” W ith traditional campaign activities shelved due to social distancing, candidate for State Representative Joe Gravellese turned to Facebook last week to host a “Virtual Town Hall,” answering questions from viewers online about his candidacy. By the end of the week, the video had over 1,400 views. Some of the questions and answers from the Town Hall event are below (answers edited for length and clarity). The full video can be viewed on Gravellese’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ joegrav. What specifi c steps do we need to take to improve transportation in our community? We have a transportation crisis in Massachusetts, no matter what mode of transportation you take. If you get on the T, you deal with breakdowns and overcrowding. If you get on the commuter rail, the situation is even worse – the trains only run every couple of hours and are often delayed or canceled. And if you get in your car, you deal with the worst traffi c congestion in the country. How did we get here? For years, we underfunded the T. We built up a multi-billion dollar backlog in repairs to the system, making it unsafe and unreliable, and failed to expand the system as the economy grew and evolved. Meanwhile, as the T has gotten less reliable, it’s gotten more expensive. Since 1991, bus fares are up 300%. Subway fares are up 220%. Commuter rail passes cost 246% more. We’re charging more money for worse service. The end result? In 2017, the average Massachusetts resident drove over 9,000 miles per person. In 1981, that number was about 6,250. So people are driving more and further distances – possibly due to longer commutes due to our housing issues, possibly due to Uber and Lyft, and possibly because the T has become unreliable and more exGinny Lecaroz, Owner Saugus, MA 339-206-1970 missgspetsittingservice@gmail.com Fully insured Fully certied pensive. So, we need to fi x the T – because that impacts everyone, including people who drive, because every person on a bus or a train is a car off the road. We need to fi x the backlog of repairs to the current system, but we also need to do a lot more than that. We need to connect the Blue and Red lines on the T. We also need to extend the Blue line to Lynn or Salem. It’s long overdue and would give residents here access to jobs in Cambridge, the Seaport and up the North Shore. We also need to transform the commuter rail into a reliable regional rail system that runs every 30 minutes. Right now, people from all over the North Shore drive to Wonderland every day to get on the T, adding to the traffi c problem in Revere and Saugus. We need to give people options to get on the commuter rail farther up the North Shore closer to where they live. When you lay out investments like this, a lot of people say “we can’t aff ord it.” But really, we can’t aff ord the status quo. The transportation crisis threatens the future of our economy. The average resident of Greater Boston lost over $3,000 last year in lost productivity from sitting in traffi c – not to mention the impact of wear and tear on vehicles from aging bridges and roads. AUTOTECH 1989 SINCE Is your vehicle ready for the Spring Season?!! AC SPECIAL Recharge your vehicle's AC for the warm weather! Includes up to 1 LB. of Refrigerant* (*Most Vehicles/Some Restrictions May Apply) Only $69.95 DRIVE IT - PUSH IT - TOW IT! 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If you live in the Berlin area and are about 40 mins. out of the city – think of a place like Natick, Beverly or Foxboro – you have access to a train that runs every 10 minutes, seven days a week, to get to downtown Berlin. If we had something like that in Boston, there would be so many more communities with access to jobs, and it would relieve the pressure on communities like ours. As for zoning – a lot of the housing that families like mine grew up in are basically illegal to build now in most cittunity to get an associate’s degree or some job training, or then transfer into a four-year college. Joe Gravellese ies. I grew up in a two-family house, in an in-law apartment with my grandparents. Lots of Italian immigrants around here grew up in twoor three-family homes, living with family, or in small, modest apartment buildings. You don’t see these built anymore – because you’re not allowed to build them in our zoning laws. In much of Revere, inlaw apartments are either illegal or require an expensive, bureaucratic process to make them legal. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We need to find ways to work together and make progress. Governor Baker has proposed a good bill that would help make it a little bit easier for cities and towns to make these modest zoning changes. I support it. When you talk about preparing students for the jobs of the future, what do you mean by that? The economy in Greater Boston is transforming, and a new generation of good working-class jobs that don’t require a college degree are available, including advanced manufacturing, robotics and jobs in the wind and solar energy industries. But we’re not doing enough to prepare our kids to be able to compete for these jobs. Right now if you’re a student in this area who wants to go to the vocational school, you face a waiting list. This is crazy. We need to eliminate the waiting list to go to vocational schools by either building new ones or adding some capacity for vocational education at the new Revere High School. The Voke is a great pathway to good jobs that will always be there, no matter what happens in the economy. I also believe we need free community college for all in Massachusetts. This either gives our students an opporWhat are your core values, and how do they impact the way you lead? I believe in generational responsibility. Previous generations built the society we live in today, and it’s our responsibility to make it a better place for future generations. I also believe in progress, and the things we can accomplish by working together. I don’t believe in ideological purity – I think it’s important to work with people whenever you can to make progress and deliver results for people. That’s your job as an elected offi cial. I also believe in transparency. It’s our job as public fi gures to be completely honest and transparent with people about how we vote and what we believe. People don’t have to agree with us on everything, but they should always know where we stand and why. How do you feel about designating internet as a public utility and creating restrictions on price gouging? In many areas, Comcast has basically a monopoly. Yes, we should defi nitely be looking into municipal broadband. Several towns in Massachusetts and around the country have done this, where the city sets up the internet network and people pay a fee to the city or town for internet service instead of a corporation like Comcast or RCN. Internet is a public good. It’s as essential today as water coming out of the tap. I believe in competition, but that competition isn’t real for a market like cable or internet where there are impossible barriers to entry – so a company like Comcast gets basically a legal monopoly and pushes others out. I appreciated that Mayor Arrigo made getting RCN into Revere a priority, but we need to do more to increase aff ordable access to the internet. What are your thoughts on community solar? I’m committed to 100% clean, renewable energy – that means ramping up our investment in wind and solar. So yes, we should support more community solar initiatives and remove the cap on solar net metering in the state. HIGHLIGHTS | SEE PAGE 15
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