After announcing she would leave office early and not seek reelection, City Council president and Ward 7 councilor Judy Pineda Neufeld endorsed University of Massachusetts at Boston lecturer Emily Hardt for her seat. It makes for a three-way race of challengers for the ward.
Neufeld, in an email newsletter, said she met Hardt through work in political organizing: Neufeld with Emerge Massachusetts, where she was executive director, and Hardt with the Women’s Institute of Leadership Development. Hardt worked as director of the organization between 2005 and 2012.
“We worked together to recruit and support more women – especially from the labor movement – to run for office and lead. Even then, Emily stood out as someone with deep values, strategic thinking and a commitment to building power in partnership with others,” Neufeld wrote May 20. (In her announcement a week earlier, Neufeld said she would leave office June 30.)
Hardt is a lecturer in UMass’ gender, leadership and public policy program, a role held since 2014. She has also worked for the New Economy Coalition and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
“In this current political moment, I really felt like it was time to do something in an even bigger way to have a bigger impact,” Hardt told Cambridge Day.
“I grew up in Texas in a pretty conservative political climate, but my parents were very civically engaged and active and they were leaders in the antinuclear movement at the time,” Hardt said. “I grew up with that model of ordinary people working together … that’s something that I want to pass on to my daughter. And especially with the challenges that we’re facing right now, I wanted to, like I said, have a bigger impact for my daughter’s life and future generations.”
Housing is her top priority as a candidate, Hardt said, and as a councilor she would support the city’s work through the Somerville Community Land Trust and Somerville Community Corp. She would also increase support to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the city agency that disburses money for home construction and preservation.
Somerville needs to prioritize “preserving the naturally occurring affordable housing that we’re losing to developers,” Hardt said.
Additionally, Ward 7 needs to create spaces for residents to gather – like the community spaces available in Teele Square’s multiuse Cala building – and increase awareness around them.
Ward 7 could encourage resident voices in development decisions through the organization of a Teele Square Neighborhood Council, she said. It could be leveraged to resolve development issues such as the Teele Square Pit, the fenced-in parcel of dirt left from a fire 13 years ago.
Rat infestation and street safety, particularly around Alewife Brook Parkway, are more concerns for Hardt – along with the federal actions increasing immigration arrests and limiting funding to Massachusetts universities and K-12 schools. “We need to do what we can as a city to protect people and fight for the federal funding, fight for civil liberties, stand up for immigrants’ rights,” Hardt said. “I really applaud the city for pushing back on the cuts to public education. That’s our taxpayer money, you know, that we put in for education and infrastructure and health care.”
“As a climate justice advocate, I’m committed to continuing the city’s climate forward plan to mitigate our carbon emissions and reduce our carbon emissions,” she said. “Since we do know that certain climate impacts are unavoidable at this point, I think we also need to be preparing for flooding and heat and, you know, extreme weather events. That takes long-range planning, and it needs to be integrated into all of our planning to so that our communities can adapt to the changes in the most equitable way possible.”
The Ward 7 seat will also be sought by Michael Murray and Wilbert Pineda. Pineda is an undergraduate student at UMass Boston whose campaign priorities include food and education access, rat infestation and opioid use. (Hardt says that she did not teach Pineda at UMass, but that the two have met as fellow candidates.) Murray’s campaign focuses on developing the Teele Square Pit.
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