How are we going to make sure our cities have a livable future? With Etel Haxhiaj
In our first episode of 2021, Josh speaks with Etel Haxhiaj; a Worcester resident, former refugee and Albanian immigrant, single mother, and candidate for District 5 on the Worcester City Council. Etel and Josh discuss opportunities for putting residents at the center of decision-making and how a public budget is a moral document.
We’re back with all new episodes of Public Hearing; available wherever you get your podcasts and on WICN 90.5FM, Worcester’s NPR affiliate station. And, while we celebrate women all year round, our guests for the month of March are all women who live, influence, and/or impact the City of Worcester, MA. Learn more about our show at PublicHearing.co!
Transcript for this episode
Joshua Croke
Worcester and the world! We are back with fresh new episodes of the Public Hearing podcast and radio show on Worcester local station, WICN 90.5 FM our only NPR affiliate station. And wow, what a year it has been already. If you are new to the show, Public Hearing is about smart cities, systems change, and equity-centered development, discussed through the lens of the City of Worcester, Massachusetts. We explore challenges facing the community and discuss solutions with a focus on inclusion, equity, and prosperity. I am your host, Joshua Croke. I am a facilitator, futurist and founder of Action! by Design; a design studio helping organizations amplify community power through community engagement & facilitation, coalition building, and branding & storytelling. And I am a firm believer that impactful change happens through cultivating authentic relationships and sharing stories. You can learn more about the show at publichearing.co that's dot co not.com.
So throughout the show, you'll hear me reference and ask guests to share some of their social location with us on the show, and I want to talk about what that is briefly. Social location is defined as the social position an individual holds within their society and is based upon social characteristics deemed to be important by any given society. So some of the social characteristics deemed to be important here in the U.S. include social class position, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, religion, geography, and so on. I also want to bring forward the important concept of intersectionality originally coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. One of my favorite definitions I've heard from her more recently talking about it is, “Intersectionality is really a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood within conventional ways of thinking. Intersectionality is not so much a grand theory. It's a prism for understanding certain types of problems.”
So here's a bit of my social location; I am assigned male at birth (AMAB) nonbinary, white, American, raised in a conservative Baptist, middle-class family in central Massachusetts. I'm college educated and an alum of WPI right here in Worcester, and that gives you a little bit about me in the context of how I have experienced and navigated some of the world that I have lived in.
All right, let's go. This is the Public Hearing Podcast.
Our guest this week is Etel Haxhiaj, and Etel and I actually went through the Leadership Worcester program together in 2015, which is where we met. And Etel was also recognized as 2020’s Woman of Consequence here in Worcester. And so, Etel, you are running for District Five in Worcester City Council, but before we get into all that; Public Hearing is all about relationship building and getting to know people. So before we dive into questions, Etel, welcome and tell us a bit more about you, and I invite you to share any parts of your social location you feel comfortable sharing as well as any past experiences that you want to bring into this space.
Etel Haxhiaj
Awesome. Thank you, Joshua. It's so amazing to see you do such innovative work. Thank you so much for having me on, and I appreciate you starting with the question a little bit about my social location and my own personal story, because it's important for people to know what has informed and shaped who I am and how that in itself is going to also inform and shape public policy if I'm lucky enough for voters to have me. So, I grew up in Albania until the age of 17. I'm a former refugee and an immigrant and a new American. My family and I led our home country as a result of war when I was 17; lived undocumented in Greece for two years and college educated in the United States. I am a mom. It's a huge part of my identity. I grew up in a in a Muslim neighborhood and family. Although I'm not a practicing Muslim; that's just part of my identity and I’m a single parents. And I think that all those experiences have deeply shaped who I am and informed a lot of my drive to make a difference in, in our own community.
Joshua Croke
Thank you so much for sharing. So you ran for city councilor at large and in pre-COVID times previously. So how are you approaching this new campaign differently now that we're in pandemic times and running for your district?
Etel Haxhiaj
Yeah, it's, it's definitely a different experience. I think safety is at the top of everybody's minds. My strategy is going to be the same as it was last year with added layers of safety. Obviously the biggest concern and the biggest way for us to reach the district and constituents is by actually knocking on doors, and that's what I plan on doing in a safe way that both takes my safety, the volunteers, as well as the voters' safety. I think that in principle, I still plan on running a grassroots campaign just the way that we did in 2019. And well, it's just going to be different than we're just going to be flexible and adapt as, as best we can.
Joshua Croke
What were some of your biggest takeaways from running your campaign the first time, and that was your first race for city council. And so what was that experience like and what are some things that you learned that you hope to bring into this campaign?
Etel Haxhiaj
Yeah I think the biggest takeaway was that, you know, people had, whether we were talking to retirees at Lake Shore Apartments or folks living in three Deckers, that everyone had an experience of what growth and economic development means for them and their families and how families in different parts of Worcester will be able to fulfill their hopes and dreams for themselves and their children. Listening and taking in those stories on people's front porches and backyards was just an invaluable experience, one of the best things that I absolutely enjoyed. And so what I will take with me if I'm, if the voters will have me this time around is the ability to listen and to incorporate the stories, hopes, and dreams of our residents that have lived here and have made a life here and that deserve to have a city works for them.
Joshua Croke
Absolutely. So mentioning the different parts of Worcester, tell us a little bit, for listeners who may not be familiar with district five, with your district; tell us a little bit about that space and your own district within the city.
Etel Haxhiaj
One of the exciting parts of District Five—it's a large district. It involves different ecosystems, like different eco-neighborhoods, so to speak. So you have Lakeside where I live in Columbus Park. You'll go as far as Webster Square, Mill Street area, Tatnuck, West Tatnuck, the length of Park Avenue, the Newton Square area. So it's all these different neighborhoods that are very unique and very diverse. We have a lot of young people in the district. We have two high schools and a middle school and upwards of six elementary schools. And you know, I smile as I say that because one of the things that was so incredibly exciting for me the last time around is that we had a lot of young people working our campaign.
I’m also looking forward this year to engaging more young students from South and Doherty. As a former youth worker, there's nothing better than engaging young people in our neighborhoods. But what I'm excited about running in the District Five, a representative, is that not only it's such a diverse and it's such a big district, but it has all these different neighborhoods that I'm really excited to get to know better, better than I did the first time. And yeah, just have conversations with people about what they're hoping and dreaming of their representative.
Joshua Croke
Yeah. That's one of the things that really fuels my passion in my work is thinking about how do we better represent the ideas that are created from people within their own neighborhoods, within their own spaces? I think there are sometimes like two different vantage points of looking at community growth and community development. One is like people who are in positions of power or who make a lot of decisions saying like, “you know, we have an education in this, so we're going to make the decisions that we think are best for people.” And I very much sit in the camp of residents are the experts of their own spaces. They're the ones who know their experiences the most. And how do we bring those individuals forward and celebrate their contributions to community as well as give them the agency to help drive the decision-making in our city.
Etel Haxhiaj
Yeah. I think one of the things that struck me as I was running last, in 2019, is that, you know; folks also feel disconnected from the local government. And part of it is that the mechanisms by which right now people can participate are very limited and it can be very intimidating. You know, I can share that as a new immigrant in this country. My first experiences of participating in City Halll as an activist, didn't come with feeling confident about understanding the rules or understanding the language, the verbiage that folks use. You sit sometimes in city council meetings and, as a newcomer, or somebody who maybe has never got involved in politics and governance, it takes a while to understand the flow of things; how agendas are created, how decisions are being made. So all those things coming purely from a personal experience, but also from the stories that I heard on the doors, it makes me even more committed to the idea that absolutely our residents know what's best for them.
They are the experts on the ground. They know what's happening in their neighborhoods. They talk to each other. They know what their families and their young people need to succeed. And the disconnect that exists right now is that sometimes we just take for granted, or we think that the decisions that are coming from city hall aren’t taking into account the experiences of people from different corners of our city. And so how we do that, there's different ways, there's different models, but one is that we absolutely need to make sure that when we mean making decisions, that we don't make decisions and then come to neighborhoods and say, okay, now we'd like your input. And so making sure that we have different modes of inviting people to participatory processes like charrettes; having ways to involve young people, having ways to not assume that everyone understands the bureaucratic language of local governance.
And most importantly for me as a public advocacy advocate, what I've learned in my own work also as an organizer, is that people want to hear in the simplest form, how a public policy or how a decision is going to improve their lives or not. And so if we start with that premise of asking questions, being curious about what people need, not getting defensive, when we get feedback back, coming from a place of curiosity, rather than defensiveness, I think all of those things set the tone for a public participation process that invites people and doesn't intimidate them.
Joshua Croke
Absolutely. And one of the things that I'm so committed to is building authentic relationships. And there is often this perception that the city and residents connect when there's challenges or problems, you know? And it's not so much, how do we build a nurture relationship alongside, you know, capital “C” City and the residents so that people feel that they have an authentic relationship with their representatives, with their city counselors, so that it isn't coming together to address or manage discourse, but there's already been a relationship that allows for trust building.
Etel Haxhiaj
That was one of the reasons why I ran for district five and why I was so excited about the opportunity of representing an area of the city. Of course, that being the priority, of course, you also represent the views and needs of the city as a whole, but it’s precisely because as a representative, and it's my hope that if I am elected as a district five representative, that you base a lot of your representation and a lot of what you bring forward on the input, lives, experiences, challenges, hopes, and dreams of the people in the district. And so whether that's having conversations, you know, I know for example that as a community organizer, also as a mother that we have a lot of families, a lot of young families that are trying to figure out, you know, all the challenges of raising a family today.
You know, you asked me in the beginning about where my social location is. And, and I think that one of the things that people look forward to is having somebody that shares their experience. I know I am a single parent. I am also an immigrant. I also understand the challenges in a COVID world, you know, as a parent, I've experienced the challenge of both holding a full-time job and remote learning. And so, I share all that to say that people are looking for folks that represent their experiences and people that are not going to be afraid to create those authentic relationships. And we don't do that from just going into one neighborhood or the other. We do that at least in my view, by taking the time to listen to all corners of the district; figuring out where are the pockets that people are struggling the most? How can we bring those conversations citywide? And then how do we involve our residents in an authentic way that doesn't tokenize them, that doesn't just ask for feedback or input after decisions are made, but that they have a role and they have a say from the get-go?
Joshua Croke
Absolutely. And relative to families, as well as your district. There's some I don't want to call it controversy, but there's some issues surrounding the lake, right? And so could you talk, cause I know that there's a lot of families coming forward and saying, you know, talking about that, that space for their families, for their kids and why aren't we making it safer and maintaining that space like as a public space even though it hasn't been used that way and so long? And I know that the city had moved forward in some plans to make it like a wetland Marsh or something like that. And so if you could talk a little bit about that and maybe some of your thoughts on that as it develops.
Etel Haxhiaj
Yeah. I bet that's a really good question. So the issue around Hillside Beach, which is a part of the Coes Pon Reservoir, which is literally steps from where I live in Columbus Park, it abuts Lakeside Apartments, which is an affordable housing project. And you know, what I hear from neighbors and folks in our neighborhood meetings as well as Lakeside residents, is that families in this neighborhood had access to Hillside Beach for a long time. It was actually the neighborhood itself, the Columbus Park neighborhood had asked the city in 2005 to restore this area of Coes Pond Reservoir to its former glory, which used to be a family and recreational space; children creating memories, their families created memories there. And so it got neglected. It didn't go anywhere. And the boardwalk project, which is a great project, it will connect Coes Pond Reservoir to other areas of that area.
For that project to go forward, the city needs to essentially relocate the wetlands. And the only space that that can happen is Hillside Beach. Now there are technicalities and you were talking before about public participation when you attend one of these meetings, unless you are an expert in environmental science; you have a really hard time understanding the language. If we really want citizens to participate in processes, we need to take the time to actually have conversations that are accessible. And so, I was sitting at that public meeting where we were talking about the conservation commission and just the structure of these meetings, it's almost impossible to really have a dialogue with your representatives on the other end to say, well, what are some other options?
Can we make that area? If it's true that absolutely we cannot recreate it as a beach, are there other opportunities that the families at Lakeside Beach can access? We're talking also about a neighborhood, a census track, that is one of the most diverse, environmental justice communities. And so my question always is; we've rushed into these decisions that seem easy on the city side, for example, let's demolish Hillside Beach without exploring all the views and all the alternatives that might exist there for families at Lakeside Beach. Why is that important? Because the neighborhood and the overall area of Columbus Park was leveraged to bring millions of dollars in, in order to have these improvements. However, asking the questions of who benefits and who gets left behind somehow gets left out of all of our decision-making or most of our decision-making.
Etel Haxhiaj
So for me, the issue with Hillside Beach is both an environmental justice access issue where our most vulnerable residents to climate change, to environmental pollution, deserve the right to have this natural resource for them, but also that we don't unilaterally make decisions without exploring other options, without thinking outside the box. It shouldn't take one or two conversations with residents to actually get input. We need to do it well, we need to provide childcare, we need to provide translation, we need to make multiple attempts; we need to meet people where they're at.
Joshua Croke
Yes. And so you are a strong advocate for environmental justice. And so, can you talk to me a little bit about your work in that space? And how climate action, and this relates to this conversation, can be tackled at a community level.
Etel Haxhiaj
Yeah. Thank you for asking that. I was a community organizer with Mothers Out Front. It was just a local chapter of moms essentially coming together and talking about how we're actually going to tackle this climate crisis for our children. How are we going to make sure that our city has a livable future? That we're not just preparing the city for becoming resilient; that we want to have a sustained, livable climate for my kids and my grandkids and generations to come. So my work with Mothers Out Front relied a lot on looking at gas leaks around Worcester public schools. And so we tackled that because our city tends to have one of the oldest infrastructure. So it's basically pipes underground that carry the gas, dirty gas or natural gas that comes into our homes to heat and fuel our homes.
We found that upwards of 800 leaks surrounding some of our Worcester public schools. This was just by pure research that was done by folks before, but we've found that we were one of the communities that has the highest, the highest number of these gas leaks. These are not explosive leaks, but they're methane, and methane is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse emissions. And so part of our work was to raise awareness around why this is important to talk about gas leaks. Also, how can we get off of gas? And instead of pouring money in infrastructure that we know is not going to sustain itself, it just seems like a waste of money. So how can we move from this dirty gas into modes of more natural or clean energy?
Coincidentally, just just a few weeks ago, I did a public request for the city to figure out how many Grade 1 Leaks we have in the city. And coincidentally too, with that, why I wanted to know is that part of my advocacy around this was to walk around and door knock in the Columbus Park Neighborhood and also inform neighbors of this campaign that we were doing. Why that's important? Well, as a parent, if I know that there's a gas leak down the road where my kids are walking to school, I want to know that the air that my kids are breathing is clean. These schools where we found, some of which happened to be in district five, so May Street was one of them, Columbus Park School was one of them, Doherty was one of them. What we found interesting is that the utility company that fixes these leaks may fix them today, but then two weeks from now, there's another leak. And so what that tells you, especially as we looked at these public records requests where 175 Grade One leaks; which are the most explosive ones, are spread out throughout the city. Some of them are in district five. What we find out consistently is that the utility workers fix these gas leaks-by the way, they're also putting themselves in danger because these leaks are explosive. As we saw in Lawrence, people actually lost their lives and their homes by explosions created by gas leaks. But what we find interesting is that, not only are these damaging to our climate, not only are they damaging to our health, they also destroy our infrastructure.
So on Main Street, down near my home off of Big Y, I see consistently these trucks fixing these leaks. So I stopped, I rolled down my window. They know by now that this is Mothers Out Front detectives going in and you know, asking questions, are they grade one leaks or, or whatever. I say all that to say that as a city, we're at a point where we can not manage to live off of gas anymore. And so the green Worcester plan that's currently being proposed and has gotten some community feedback is now one vehicle that we can address some of these issues. I want to give a shout out to the sunrise booster. They've been doing an amazing job trying to move and to push the conversations forward to have some intermediate and long-term goals in terms of where and how we want to reduce our carbon emissions, what roles transportation plays in that. How did we also use this opportunity to create green jobs? You know, we started the conversation by also talking about young people, right? A lot of young people that we have, is there an opportunity for families and young people to also get entry into this green job economy that we're hoping to create by both addressing the climate and the green economy.
Joshua Croke
And so how has the green Worcester plan been received by the current council and the city manager's office?
Etel Haxhiaj
It's interesting in the last public comment where myself and representatives from sunrise, as well as other community residents spoke. I think that there is a general sense that this is sort of a blueprint. It's a general blueprint, so we can't really have very specific goals. I do think that we have a role to play in educating some of our city counselors around what it actually means to move off of gas. Some, you know, some ask really good questions about equity, how this impacts families, where we do, we have opportunities to fix this infrastructure that is old, it's not safe, and it will be, it will be derelict in a few years. So I think that we both need to continue to communicate with our city counselors and educate around what this means at the same time. I think that there's a huge opportunity here. There's a public hearing, I believe next time from the urban and technology and, you know, committee to take on the green Worcester plan. My hope is that there's no resistance to figuring out how we can have some ambitious goals. And also how do we finance this plan because it's not going to come for free, right? We need to invest a little bit of money, making sure that we're meeting all the goals that it lays out.
Joshua Croke
Do you think that there, and maybe I'm speaking from some of my own experience having now been a Worcester resident for 10 years do you feel that there is some, I wanna, it's like almost like a complex that like Worcester can't do certain things that other cities can do because of this, like this complex that we have of just like who we are, where we are, what we are as a city and as a community. And like, I see these things happening across the country, like talking about police reform and reimagination talking about climate action and climate justice and the city is really putting forward these very you know, progressive plans for how to address these different issues in their communities. And they're not just your New York, LA huge cities with big budgets and et cetera, et cetera. But how do you feel like Worcester plays into the context of being able to position itself as a future focus city on leading the country in some of these efforts and, and what are some of those things that we could really tackle as a community to get us there?
Etel Haxhiaj
Yeah. You know, it's always interesting to me because it's not like we have a shortage of innovative thinking in the city. It's not like we have a shortage of young people who are bright and have ideas, residents that bring lived experience and have been talking about issues for a long time. It's not like we don't have a wealth of expertise and issues that have been talked about before, you know, we just talked about the green Worcester plan. I know the city has a dream or a commitment to becoming the greenest city in New England and possibly the United States. Great. I think that we can do that. We, you know, we have bright young people from sunrise, they are saying, this is a good start. The green Worcester plan. You've got mothers who are working towards climate justice, and they're saying, this is a good start.
Etel Haxhiaj
You know, let's, let's figure out how to make it more ambitious and here's some ideas on how to do that. So I think that we can absolutely become a city that is a leader in climate and climate change injustice. You know, we have the first micro units, modular unit, in the state for chronically homeless individuals. And for residents that, that that deserve to have quality housing, like, it's not like we don't have already things happening here that are not innovative, you know, just recently I know the city manager came over the weekend with a plan for reform for police reform, including removing police officers from or resource officers from schools that those reforms and those things having talked about for years. I want to take the opportunity to just to say a shout out to Black Families Together, and WCP, Worcester Interfaith. You know, these are community leaders that have been talking about these issues for a long time. And so I don't think that we need to recreate the wheel. I think that the ideas and the vision for neighborhoods strengthen and safety and economic equity and climate justice and environmental justice have been there, it's a matter of how do we actually listen and how do we incorporate those things in a way that are not just sitting on a shelf to be done 10 years from now?
Joshua Croke
Definitely. Yeah. And I'm hopeful that the conversation around police reform and I'd like to push that further to reimagination of public safety is being addressed because, you know, having participated in a lot of those calls this past year plus for the budget, and really just thinking about how we allocate resources in our community, I think is really what the conversation is. And I know that a lot of people, and I've had this conversation in my work and like branding and storytelling around, you know, defund, the police was a horribly named campaign because of the initial associations kind of people would jump to with that kind of being the frame, as opposed to talking about how are we thinking about using our resources that are finite in the most responsible ways in our community?
Etel Haxhiaj
Yeah, that, that's the question that we need to start from. That is the premise that we need to start from. How do we use the finite amount of resources that we have in a way that they have the most lasting impact? You know, as a former youth worker and somebody who's worked in Worcester, public schools and with Worcester public school students, is it the best use of using resource officers when we need to hire more mentors or more social workers people who can form lasting relationships with young people that understand the crises that they're coming from. We have a public health department that has been stellar in reaching out communities regarding COVID-19 vaccinations. How is it that we are not funding those outreach workers that, that I know there's been more recent hirings, but I'm just saying in general, you know, when you talk about what has lasting impact, it's people that are trained to be social workers police officers shouldn't be put in a position to be both safety officers and social workers and outreach workers and homelessness workers, because they don't have the training.
Etel Haxhiaj
Neither should they be the ones to do this work. How can we make sure that we are creating more, more opportunities for young people and their families to have access to things that are actually going to stabilize them in the long-term, those things don't happen in a vacuum, right? And so, the expression that budgets are moral documents, that's very true right now. You know, we are in the middle of a public health crisis. We have people that are struggling with food. We have people that are struggling to pay rent and, and keep their homes and their mortgages, and what people need is to meet their basic necessities first and foremost. And so as a city, we have to ask ourselves are all the decisions that we are making, are they meeting the needs of people, not only that, but are they advancing economic equity black and Brown communities that have been left out for a long time, because when you look at the statistics along the way, whether it's COVID the disproportionate rate are amongst black and Brown communities in the younger ages when you look at homelessness, the most overrepresented are Black and Brown communities.
And when you look at poverty and if we go through a whole spectrum of social determinants black and Brown communities continue to be hit disproportionately hard. And so the budget decisions we need to make, cannot be done in vacuum. And, and that's when you started the conversation by asking, how do we make sure that the resident voices are incorporated into these decisions where you know, that those, the, if, if the folks on mill street in district five are having a hard time catching up with rent or mortgage payments, and they also end up being the folks that are one of the clusters in our city that is also struggling most with COVID-19. Then we need to sort of have a more targeted approach in how we allocate our resources so that people's needs are met.
Joshua Croke
Yeah, I, I want to highlight, and re-emphasize what you were pointing out around the disparities within our community across racial and ethnic lines especially, you know, one of the other intersection points of that is, is the schools. We see school discipline, punitive treatment of our young people suspensions. If we break those out along racial and ethnic identities, black and Brown kids are being suspended at higher than their white peers, right? And, and I'm doing work on a statewide level talking about re-imagining the juvenile justice system. And when we look at the numbers of young people placed in juvenile detention, they almost are a mirror of how we're suspending and disciplining kids in schools. Right. You see a higher population of black and Brown kids, predominantly boys you know, LGBTQ folks, again like marginalized identities being criminalized at young ages.
And we have a, we have so many stories of here in Worcester, third graders being suspended from school. And I think that there is a whole other discussion that can be had about what justifies suspending like kindergartners and first graders and second graders from school. But relative to our school ecosystem and public education, which I know is so important to so many people in communities, especially parents and families of young people with kids going through the schools, a recent lawsuit that was brought forward you know, really discussed and elevated this conversation around how the school committee is organized, you know, referencing the disparity in representation from our diverse community in Worcester, in part due to the fact that all our current school committee seats are at large and not district specific. So I'm wondering how you think we should move forward as a community to ensure our school committee reflects the diversity of our city?
Etel Haxhiaj
Yeah. So I mean, I, I totally support the NAACP and Worcester Interfaith, as well as the residents that are plaintiffs in this case. I do think that it's time that we moved to district seats you know, we have good representatives there that have progressive ideas and, you know, shout out to district five Tracy Novick. She's always talking about equity. And, as someone who was switched from at large to district I absolutely believed that we should have district representation that I think for black and Brown and poor communities that this lawsuit hopefully will bring more attention to the fact that those communities end up not having anyone representing their views. And it ends up reflected in the policies that get implemented at the school committee and into our school. So, I'm full support, obviously I'm not running for school committee. But, I do believe strongly that district representation matters and that it increases the representation from communities that I think have been left out consistently in school committee and in decision-making, I look forward to seeing where it goes
Joshua Croke
Absolutely. And actually, this is our first episode of the show coming back from season one and our last guest, our final guest for season one was Tracy Novick. And we got to have this really great and in-depth conversation about school and you know, the disparity and her acknowledgement of, and recognition of the work that's being done by students to better advocate for changes that are arguably not being heard by some of the people in positions of authority and power who need to be hearing them specifically the Racism Free Worcester Public Schools effort. We talked about in a good amount of detail, and I know that Tracy brought forward their plan and some of what they were talking about to make sure it got on the school committee agenda so that it was a discussed item, and it just blows my mind and I'm going on a slight tangent.
And then I'll refocus, ask you another question, but it just blows my mind that we, there are people who feel that young people don't have the knowledge capacity or agency to understand what would best support them and their needs in their time. You know, it's this like perception that kids are kids, you know, and however we define that in society and for listeners, I'm using air quotes pretty predominantly when I'm saying this, because, you know, kids facing housing insecurity, food insecurity, transportation access, like kids are growing up very, very fast in our society and in our community. And they do understand their needs, and we need to start bringing youth voices, not only to the table, but allowing them to make decisions about their own lives and the lives of their peers.
Etel Haxhiaj
Yeah. Agreed. And, and on that note I'm reflecting back on my experience as a as a coordinator of peer mediation programs, both in, in Dorchester and in Burncoat High School, you know, and part of the conversation around having youth agency is that, you know, when I look at those experiences, you know, young people have so much energy and so much wisdom about what they need, right? They're not isolated human beings that have no intuitive knowing of what they need. And so, you know, when I was training young people to be peer mediators, so that we didn't have to have resource officers in schools, resolving conflicts they took the initiative to do that. We had an amazing group of peer mediators that are now doing amazing things, but, you know, they would mediate conflicts between their peers.
Youth, we have, I just want to say also shout out to the, the Youth Council that we have, the Youth Opportunities Office, you know, these are young, bright people that know what's best for them in their schools and they're telling us their experiences. They're also telling us what they don't need in schools. And I think that hopefully we have, through this lawsuit, if it’s successful, we have district representation and, and, and folks from neighborhoods and from communities that understand firsthand, the lived experience of students, of color in our schools.
Joshua Croke
Absolutely. And I think there's also a dialogue around how the process for running for public office in our city can become more accessible to folks who really might want to have that voice and have the, you know, take that position on and be really reflective of their own experiences. But there are so many barriers that disallow people from running, whether it's financing campaigns and figuring out fundraising, which I know is such a struggle and a challenge on a local level, and really just having the time privilege or the time capacity to be able to launch into these campaigns. And, you know, as a candidate yourself, the sacrifices that you give up to do this, to do this work, and really focusing back on that definition of public service, right. And looking at it as service to the community, and how can we respect the people who step forward in these positions and give them the support of the tribe right. Of the, the community, like of the, of the village.
Etel Haxhiaj
Yeah. I, I, you know, I think you mentioned public service and one of the things that I dream about the most, right, that, that drives me to this work is the ability to be accessible is the ability to respond to constituents and services is the ability to form relationships by having the time to talk to people. And my son asked me the other day and said, “mom, do you have to quit your job to do this other job? If you win. And I said, no, baby, I can't, you know, because you can't leave on a salary, it was a city counselor.” And I'm not saying that prevents me from doing a job. Even though some people think that it does, but I just say that to say that barriers to public service are an impediment to more people.
Whether it's younger people, whether it's single parents, whether it's mothers of young children, whether it's from families or folks that don't have the amount of financing to, to, to, to run a campaign on their own. When I want to bring it back to my passion and my commitment is always to make sure that people have a voice and they have a way that they use me as a conduit to transmit those ideas back to city hall. That is whether it's quality of life issues or whether it's potholes and snow removal, or whether it's bigger conversations about gas leaks and climate change and funding our schools. I am just so excited to have the privilege and opportunity to get to that place.
Joshua Croke
Absolutely. And, you know, you mentioned snow removal, which is very relevant for all of us right now, and that is such an accessibility issue in our community and in our city. And I frequently, you know, I got rid of my car almost four years ago now, and I have walked and biked and benefited from the car that my partner has, but the walking around the city, you know, no, I'm not mobility restricted in any way. And the fact that it's difficult for me to get around. And oftentimes I have this kind of new motto where if the sidewalk isn't shoveled, I'm walking in the street, right? Like the streets have been a priority if we prioritize cars. And, but if I were to have a stroller, or if I were a wheelchair user, I would not be able to navigate the outdoors in many parts of our community and in our city. So that's a quick little tangent and side note, but, you know, in our last few minutes, I do want to talk about housing because we didn't get to talk about housing specifically yet, and that's a big issue. So instead of asking kind of a direct question, what do you think are the important questions that should be being asked about housing and accessibility right now?
Etel Haxhiaj
I would say that COVID-19 has exacerbated a crisis that was already here. if I'm looking at district five and I go back to that, because that's my home. I, you know, I want to ask questions right now. I want to find out where are the areas that are most struggling with folks where they're paying mortgage or rent as a result of COVID, you know, the state is giving us resources to, to provide some rental and mortgage assistance. It's not enough, it's not enough because the rents, generally speaking are unaffordable and that we're not creating enough housing units for folks at all income levels. I was encouraged, on a positive note, to find out at the last city council, thank you, Councillor Christian King for asking this, that the new project development downtown is going to have more units for families that are moderate to low income bracket.
That's great that we need more of that. We need to make sure that we're asking questions around any policy making that we're doing developers, inclusionary zoning. You're going to have the brilliant Elliot Gilmore on your show the other day, and then, you know, the next time, but why, why are we being so slow in talking about some measures around increasing housing affordability, preserving housing affordability for when we have mechanisms that other communities that have been implemented? I talked about a lot in the last campaign about inclusionary zoning as being one of those mechanisms. I'm encouraged to know that the city manager is putting forward an affordable housing trust fund. I look forward to having some district five representation in there. Yeah, So I think those, whether we're talking about Mill Street or whether we're talking about other areas of the city the questions that we always need to be asking is are any economic development decisions that we're making, making life easier, or are they making life more challenging for people who live here? And that would be the questions that I would ask for any projects or any sort of decision-making that happens in terms of economic development in the city.
Joshua Croke
Thank you, Etel. And I want to just bring forward for our listeners again, the point that you made about budgets being a moral document, right? These are social contracts that we put forward to say, what are, and what are not the highest priorities for our community. And I hope listeners can reflect on that and take some time to really think about how all of these decisions, unfortunately, but the current reality is a lot of them revolve around the cost, right? What is it going to cost to do this? And I think we need to position our leaders and who we're voting into public office to be people who don't look at that as the first thing, that's the barrier to addressing the needs of our residents and the people who are in our communities of the example of like, Oh, we just can't afford to do that.
Even though we know it's so critical, how do we start affording to do more of those critical things and be very critical of the decision-making process and how budgets kind of come together. And if there's anyone listening who is in or outside of Worcester who has worked on participatory budgeting processes, or building those within their communities, we would love to have you on the show because it's something that I think is, is really important, but Etel, for our last few minutes here how do we make more people aware of the power that they have to influence how decisions are made in our city?
Etel Haxhiaj
Well, we have had quite an opportunity during COVID to see new people coming to the scene, whether it's more young people talking about police reform, municipal broadband, climate. I think what my commitment for district five is to make sure that it's not just about the people who have consistently have had an opportunity to participate in local decision-making. And so whether we're talking about municipal broadband, whether we're talking about parents at Columbus school struggling with air quality issues or gateway pain, whether we're talking about the new African restaurant that came up on Coast Pond or the businesses along Park Avenue, that I think that it's not the job of a city counselor, or a district representative, to empower people. People don't need empowerment. What they need is the ability to have spaces and an advocate alongside them to bring up issues that affect their daily lives and their families. That is my commitment. I don't have all the answers, neither should I have all the answers. I think that we need to co-create a vision for our city, with our residents, especially centering those that have been mostly impacted by disparities, whether it's racial, economic, or otherwise.
Joshua Croke
Absolutely. And I so resonate and value you bringing forward the notion that we don't empower others, people have their own innate power. I talk about this with my clients a lot as well, because so many mission statements and things have like to empower this group to do this thing. And, you know, I'm like, think about reading through that and recognizing how much you are taking on as like ownership and authority over other people's abilities and experiences. By saying that you can empower by giving some of your power to these other people, they have that power and they can bring that power forward. What they need, what people need is the support from the community, that relationship building, that inviting people to be and drive decisions. So I really, really value that perspective. And I also want to just, again, bring forward for our listeners, the fact that you said it's not your job to have all the answers either.
And I think that's a really important frame for people to be thinking about when they are voting and participating in elections and looking at leadership or people that they're putting in positions of service and not looking at those people as who are going to do it all. And my vote was all that I needed to do. Right. And I heard actually a good friend of mine gave a talk yesterday Dr. Marielle Nova, who is on season one of our show, and she talked about how, as soon as we allow for, or expect these rockstar personalities to come forward and do the work for us, we give away some of our power. And I think that was so resonant and really relates to the conversation that we're having today about running for local office about public service and what that means and bringing residents into the conversation. So I want to thank you so much Etel for coming on the show and giving your time, space and energy, to have this conversation and best of luck on the campaign.
Etel Haxhiaj
Thank you so much, Joshua. And if people want to become engaged with our campaign, they can go to etelforworcester.com. And the last thing I want to say is thank you for giving candidates the opportunity to express some of our views. I may have a lot of ideas, but the best ideas are going to come from the ground. And I look forward to partnering with residents in district five and others to make those ideas come true.
Joshua Croke
Fantastic. Thank you so much Etel, thank you for listening to Public Hearing our podcast and radio show that airs Wednesdays at 6:00 PM on WICN 90.5 FM Worcester's only NPR affiliate station, I love saying that. I'm your host, Joshua Croke. If you like what you hear and want to keep hearing it, subscribe to the show on your favorite platform rate and review on Apple Podcasts if that's your jam, and share it with your friends and colleagues, it really helps us out. Public Hearing is created and produced by my company, Action! by Design, you can learn more about our work in community engagement and facilitation coalition building and helping organizations build inclusive innovation ecosystems @actionbydesign.co that's .co and not .com. Our audio producer is Giuliano D'Orazio. The show's music is also by Giuliano D'Orazio. And if you're looking for custom music, visit musicbygiuliano.com, that is.com. If you'd like to learn about our 15 second features to share your work with Worcester and the world, visit our website @publichearing.co. And if you have ideas for guests or issues, you'd like to hear discussed, also send us a note which you can do through our website. Thanks for listening.
