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Vol. 20, No. 44
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Friday, November 2, 2018
Committee sets days and times for Ward 5 Halloween Party residential parking restrictions at Forestdale School By Barbara Taormina he City Council’s Parking Review Committee took another crack at developing a residential parking program this week, and members have tentatively agreed on the hours when parking restrictions should be enforced. Councillors agreed that onstreet parking throughout the city should be limited to residents from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m., Monday through Friday. In addition to the overnight restriction, on-street parking in zones surrounding the Malden Center and Oak Grove MBTA stations will be restricted to residents from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. “If we feel that we need to fix it, we will,� said Councillor-at-Large Craig Spadafora, who has repeatedly said that there will be kinks in the program that will need to be adjusted as the program moves forward. The two different time frames reflect the different parking issues that residents have in different parts of the city. “Overnight parking, that’s what I get the most complaints about,� said Ward 8 Councillor Jadeane Sica. But since committee members are following the advice of Parking Department Director Ron Hogan to keep the program simple and easy, restricting overnight parking to all residents, not just those in the east end of the city, seemed like the clearest and easiest way to go. Parking around the T stations is a different problem, and councillors want to rid streets of commuters who park and walk to the stations,
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leaving their cars sitting in neighborhoods for the entire workday. The T parking zones have not been officially defined, but councillors have a working definition of anywhere in the city within 3,000 feet of either of the T stations. Hogan advised the committee to figure out the dimensions of the T zones and then see if neighborhood residential parking restrictions already exist in those areas. There are still scores of details to be worked out, and some of those issues are thorny. Councillor-atLarge Steve Winslow raised the question of visitor parking placards for family and friends. Because the committee is considering an automated system with license plate scanners, Hogan described a possible online system that would have residents enter the license plate numbers of visitors into the system so they would not be ticketed. But the number of visiting cars that each resident could have and whether there would be a cost for visitors are still open questions. Students who live in Malden but have cars registered in their hometowns, school zones, contractors hired for residential repairs and visiting home health aides are all topics that need to be tackled. It’s not clear yet whether the city will go with actual stickers or just enter license plate numbers into a scanning system. However, either way, the idea now on the table is to make residential parking free for all residents who pay their excise tax. But since collecting unpaid excise tax is one of the goals of residential parking, that option for free entry into the program might be limited to a couple of months. If excise tax payments are late, there could be a fee for residential parking. Hogan did give the committee some good news about street signs that warn drivers about city parking restrictions. In earlier versions of residential parking programs, the estimate for street signs was upwards of $600,000. Hogan said the city has 4,500 poles, mostly located on one side of a street. He said if the committee could live with the limitation of signs on existing poles, the cost would decrease dramatically. “The signs themselves, 10 bucks a piece,� he said.
Adam Weldai, School Committee member Tara Beardsley, Ward 5 Councillor Barbara Murphy and Mayor Gary Christenson greet the many trick-or-treeters at the Ward 5 Halloween Party at the Forestdale School on Sunday, October 28. See more photos on pages 10 & 11. (Advocate photo by Al Terminiello)
Tuesday’s election offers voters clear choices By Barbara Taormina idway through this week, roughly 1,300 residents had already turned out at the Senior Center to take advantage of early voting, which ends Friday, Nov. 2 at noon. City Clerk Tom Brennan said he expected another 400 to 500 residents to take advantage of early voting, while most of the city’s 31,958 registered voters seem to be waiting for Tuesday, Nov. 6. In state elections without presidential races, voter turnout in Malden mirrors state averages. In 2010, half, or 50 percent, of eligible voters in Malden went to the polls, compared to 55 percent of all eligible voters across the state. In 2014, turnout in Malden was 47 percent while it was nearly 51 percent throughout the Commonwealth. The early voters who were lined up Tuesday afternoon at the Senior Center suggests that, in Malden, like in many parts of the country, interest in this year’s election is strong even though, unlike many parts of the country, many of this year’s big races are not especially competitive.
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In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Elizabeth Warren is facing GOP challenger Geoff Diehl and Independent Shiva Ayyadurai. Warren, a vocal critic of Donald Trump, and Diehl, a state rep from Plymouth who is in sync with much of the president’s agenda, offer Malden residents a chance to take part in what many see as a midterm referendum on the current state of national politics as well as key issues, such as immigration. Ayyadurai’s quieter campaign has focused attention on the limitations of a two-party system and what he sees as the failure of state government to address the needs of communities in central and western Massachusetts. The Fifth Congressional District race is another chance for Malden voters to taken part in the midterm referendum. Incumbent Katherine Clark is running against Woburn Republican John Hugo. Like Warren, Clark opposes Trump and the Republican agenda and has been an advocate for early education, gun control, women’s health issues and immigration reform. Hugo, a self-described nationalist, is a pro-life, pro-sec-
ond amendment fiscal conservative who supports much of the Trump agenda. In the governor’s and lieutenant governor’s races, firstterm GOP incumbents Charlie Baker and Karyn Polito have maintained a 40-point lead for much of the campaign over challengers Jay Gonzalez and Quentin Palfrey. Candidates on both tickets favor investments in transportation, education and health care, with Baker taking a moderate and gradual approach and Gonzalez taking a more aggressive stand for progressive causes, such as single-payer health care and higher taxes for upper income residents. In her bid for a second term as attorney general, Democrat Maura Healey is facing a challenge from Republican James McMahon, a member of the Cape Cod Tea Party. Healey’s record includes successful lawsuits against gun manufacturers, more aid to communities to combat the opioid epidemic, and a tough stance on Columbia Gas and its response to the recent disaster in Merrimack
VOTE | SEE PAGE 19