Exclusive Q&A with Mayor Gary Christenson

Aiden Luciano Reporter

Aiden Luciano had the privilege to sit down and discuss some major questions that have risen in the city of Malden, including his own personal opinion on Malden’s development. This has been edited for clarity and length.

What are some of the new things you added to Malden that are coming up?

Reporter

When a one-win season came to an end against the Somerville Highlanders in 2022, the state of Boys Basketball in Malden looked dim. Just one year later, they were able to turn it around. After finishing with a 12-8 record, the team qualified for the MIAA Division 1 State Tournament preliminary round, good for their first appearance in five long years.

It has been an eventful year for the Golden Tornados. It began with an incredible 38-point showing from senior Justin Bell against Medford and a 75-54 blowout victory. After a loss to one of the state’s best at Lynn English, they scored a 59-46 win against Everett at home to top last season’s win mark in just the third

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contest. After defeating Woburn to advance to 3-1, they dropped two away games at Burlington and Chelmsford.

Then, the Golden Tornadoes rattled off four wins in eight days; a 12-point win against Chelsea, a low-scoring battle against Melrose, a close victory against Lynn Classical, and a double-digit win against Revere to cap off the streak. Malden was at 7-3 and in a prime position to

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The ones that we are focused on, looking forward, are threefold. One is the former Malden district courthouse on Summer Street, which is just past the Pearl Street Station and the Bikeeny Cafe area; we have acquired that from the state. And we are now in the process of converting that building [into] an Arts and Culture Center. So we are working with the City Council architects, as well as a number of residents, and the [artistic] community to come up with a program that will essentially result in a building being available for [everyone]. So, for instance, one night we envision that you might see the sketch group doing their exhibit, then maybe a week from then you’ll see a black box theater show, then after that may be a comedy show. And maybe at night, you’ll take an adult class. We hope that this will be a place where [people] can do a lot. This is something that has been talked about for as long as I’ve been in office now, which started in 2012.

What was your overall vision for the city as you took office as Mayor of Malden?

What wasn’t the vision? The vision was to do everything I possibly could to help Malden move forward, whether it was having the best constituent services possible, or creating developments that benefit all. One of our first priorities was to demolish the former city hall which was built in the 1970s and closed off Pleasant Street. Our administration tackled this Herculean task as part