Tuesday Thomas wants to bring “punk rock” energy to her campaign for Somerville city councilor at large. “Punk taught me that if a system doesn’t work for you, you don’t wait around – you show up, you organize and fix it yourself,” she said.
Those fixes, however, aren’t about holding basement shows, but more about making sure people have basements in which they might hold them.
When she and her partner moved from Cambridge to Ivaloo Street in Somerville’s Ward 2 in 2016, her building was dismantled due to disrepair and rebuilt as a single-family home. The couple moved in some six years later.
Thomas described a lengthy and sometimes opaque development process. As councilor at large, she would want to hire a liaison within City Hall to guide residents through processes such as site inspections and permitting. Business owners would benefit too.
On housing, Thomas also called for construction with a “thoughtful mix of options,” including affordable units, single-family homes and multifamily buildings.
“I’d like to do whatever I can to help people move here,” Thomas said.
She would also like to offer support to residents facing eviction and prioritize addiction solutions. On education, she said she’d like to fund Somerville’s schools to enable smaller class sizes and updated technology.
Housing and education will be affected by the downstream impacts of federal policy, she said. “We’re looking at a tide of national policy changes that will have lasting repercussions here at home,” she said of the federal budget reconciliation bill passed last month. “They’re going to ripple through cities like Somerville in ways we haven’t yet fully prepared for.”
Thomas is one of 12 who will appear on September’s ballot as an at-large council candidate. The race for the council’s four at-large seats also includes Marianne Walles, Ben Wheeler, Ari Iaccarino, Justin Klekota, Jack Perenick, Holly Simione, Scott Istvan, Jon Link and Christopher Ryan Spicer in addition to incumbents Kristen Strezo and Will Mbah.
Thomas grew up in Boston, where she attended Boston Latin Academy before pursuing a journalism degree at Suffolk.
Until 2019, Thomas worked at Century Bank as vice president for corporate sales and marketing. When Marshall Sloane, who founded the bank in Magoun Square in 1969, passed away that year, she began consulting independently.
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Nothing says punk rock like a bank executive talking private property. Up the punks!
Working at Century Bank as vice president for Corporate Sales and Marketing…. very “punk rock”…