Candidate – John Tracy

johnjtracy@gmail.com

704/936-8263

My name is John Tracy and I’m not a politician – I’m a volunteer & community leader focused on service. I serve as a Director on the Board of Waltham Fields Community Farm, I am a Waltham Lion and I’m a rider/fundraiser for the Pan Mass Challenge. I’m also a former ‘puppy-raiser’ for Leader Dogs for the Blind, and our career-changed pup, Clover, can still be found working as a Therapy Dog in and around the city.

I came to Waltham over 20 years ago to attend Bentley University and have watched the city develop since I arrived. I grew up in a small town, the son of public school educators and a product of public education.

I’m running for the Ward 4 City Council seat to help bring Transparency, Inclusion and Accountability to our local government. Students need us to prioritize our schools by giving teachers the tools that they need. Our neighbors need real progress in solving our Housing and Transit issues. We all need a plan that can address our city\’s challenges, embrace its opportunities and make Waltham a place that everyone can call home.

We need to have conversations as Waltham Citizens, understand each other’s priorities and find paths forward – years of inaction need to end. I want to have those conversations with you.

What do you love most about Waltham?

What I love about Waltham is its incredible diversity – our community, our businesses and our resources. We have families that have called it home for generations living alongside neighbors from around the globe. We are a tech hub and a small business haven; we have businesses focused on healthcare, education, retail, hospitality and everything in between. We have farms that neighbor commercial centers. Where else but Waltham can you spend a day picking vegetables in your own garden, snack on tacos at a nationally recognized ‘hole in the wall’, take a stroll along the Charles River, visit a brewery or take your family to a festival on the common? Waltham has everything, and because it has everything, it has something for everyone, and we need to make sure it continues to be a place that everyone can call home.

What would you change if you could?

Local transit – it should be easy and inexpensive to get around our city by bus, bike, car or foot. Traffic snarls the main streets causing cars to cut through residential areas. This often puts residents at risk when on foot given the state of our sidewalks. Designated-use lanes, signage, and traffic lights do too little to manage the flow of cars. Our bus routes are inadequate, or non-existent, and travel by bike is also often dangerous. Our infrastructure was built when our city had a significantly smaller population and as we grew, Waltham has never addressed the pressure put on these resources. Transit needs to be as accessible and convenient as driving a car.

What is one burning issue you plan to address if elected?

City Planning. We need open and honest dialogue about the future of our city. Waltham needs a long-term vision that will address housing for all its citizens, transit & traffic management, economic development, environmental sustainability and land use. We need input from all residents, from all parts of the city, to make a plan that can work for everyone. We’ve spent years without a real plan for what to do with the resources our City has, it’s time to move forward.