Issues & Ideas

I care about…

Environmental Protection

What’s Next?

“Every bit of warming matters, every year matters, and every choice matters.” (United Nations, 2018)

• Reduce fossil fuel use by Acton vehicles and facilities. 
• Support Energize Acton and the new coaching program, to help each resident play their part in weatherization and energy conservation–renters and homeowners alike.
• Fix large gas leaks. Discourage new connections.
• Enhance connections between Schools’ and Town’s energy efforts. Publicize the energy-saving prowess of the Boardwalk School and educate other towns; act not as followers but as the leader town that we are.
• Build solar panels on parking lots–or perhaps on rooves over commercial or multi-unit housing over parking lots.
• Reduce idling and auto emissions. Promote coordination between school and public transport in routing, service, and purchase or lease of electric vehicles.
• Support and amplify the work of Green Advisory Board, Green Acton, Acton Conservation Trust, OARS, Sunrise Movement, Mothers Out Front, and Acton Climate Coalition. Promote Energize Acton, the new Energy Coach program, and Acton’s Climate Plan.

Public Transportation, Bicycles, and Pedestrians

Franny’s Experience

• Chaired the Acton Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) for many years and continue to serve: focus on transit, bicycles, pedestrians. The sidewalk committee was recently folded back into the TAC, where it originated around 2006.
• Began multi-town and business transportation group which became the award-winning regional CrossTown Connect. 
• Serve on regional boards, along with leaders from municipal and statewide organizations. Through these regional boards, I am able to bring best practices back to Acton and secure multi-town grants. I have also met many Select Board members and environmental activists in our area, and am inspired by their work. Read on only if you care about the details. I serve as vice-chair of MAGIC subregion of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and vice-chair of the Regional Transportation Advisory Council, the public arm of the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization, the entity that disburses federal transportation funds (including Kelley’s Corner, which was funded through the Transportation Improvement Program, or TIP). I am also active on the Lowell Regional Transit Authority Board, in the multi-town Making the Connections collaboration, on the Regional Transit Authority Advocacy Coalition, and as the Transportation Specialist on the Massachusetts League of Women Voters Legal Action Committee, advising that organization as to what legislation to advocate for.
• Chaired the Acton Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) for many years and continue to serve: focus on transit, bicycles, pedestrians. The sidewalk committee was recently folded back into the TAC, where it originated around 2006.
• Obtained state funding for new bike and pedestrian group, Nashoba Regional Greenways.

•  Expand transit along Route 2A. Coordinate transit with employers. Increase reliance on new bus routing technologies.
•  Make train station pedestrian access safer. Use the new Town property on Maple St. for better-placed platform access, cafe, bathrooms, and warm waiting area.
•  Connect rail trails. Make sure any development in the WR Grace property north of the tracks includes walking connections between Acton and West Concord.
• Accelerate sidewalk construction. Keep the Town true to its plan to fund all of the priority sidewalks at once.

Accessibility and Aging

Franny’s Experience

• Member and Past Chair of Commission on Disabilities. 
• Council on Aging Board and Senior Center Building Search Committee.
• Participated in Anti-Isolation Committee and Opioid Task Force.
• Many years on and off stage in the accessible, award-winning Open Door Theater. If you are reading this before April 2, come see the Sponge Bob Musical! http://www.opendoortheater.org

What’s Next?

Livable and accessible.

• Assure funding for accessible parks through legislative earmarks, state disability funds, and AARP Livability program. See the new dog park and senior recreation area next to McManus Manor come to fruition.
• Promote state home modification loans and use of accessory dwelling units to allow older residents to stay at home longer. 
• Create new Special Needs housing.
• Support Acton Adaptable Bicycle Coalition; advertise new set of adaptive bikes rented at NARA Park.
• Review disability employment policies, working with our new DEI Director.
• Work with new DEI Director and Police Clinical Responder to enhance trainings on anti-racism, treatment of people with substance use disorders and mental illness.

Affordable Housing

One of the most meaningful activities I have spent time on in the last two years has been as a founding member of Housing and Climate Justice for Acton, a grassroots organizing group that has mobilized renters and people who live in multi-unit housing to become more active in Town government in both climate and tenant issues. We have had success in our efforts; I believe that this new awareness, activism, and focus on the 30% of Acton residents who rent their homes will help Town leaders keep this group of stakeholders in mind and make good decisions on climate and housing issues.

I also work with the local citizen group Housing for All. After inching along too slowly toward sufficient affordable housing options in Acton, we have started to make strides–but not enough. We have a Housing Production Plan that reflects residents’ desires for walkable neighborhoods, smaller apartments, and multi-family buildings. We have many rental units at Avalon in Nagog Village, Great Rd., and upcoming openings on Mass. Ave., Main St., and South Acton. I would like to see the Town work with Minuteman Arc and other groups to support new special needs housing, in group homes and perhaps as part of a mixed-use commercial-and-housing in Kelley’s Corner and other locations convenient to stores and transportation. I would like to pursue the idea of the Town incentivizing private purchases of small condos that can be rented at reasonable prices. Housing for All successfully worked toward passage by Town Meeting of an Accessory Dwelling Unit bylaw which gives more options for small units attached or on the property of larger houses.

As for the new MBTA Communities (often referred to as “3A”) requirement that we add fifty acres newly zoned for multi-family (10 within half a mile of the train station), I would like to see Acton respond with enthusiasm–not just “getting by” and rezoning recently developed areas that won’t see development for fifty years. Through inclusionary zoning, we can ensure that some of these new multi-unit buildings provide much-needed affordable units. Acton must play its part in solving Massachusetts’ housing crisis. We will be all the richer for it, providing opportunity for less wealthy residents and allowing local workers to find homes in town.

Education

What’s Next?

• Enhance School-Town connection and communication. 
• Support families with pre-school children and children with special needs in getting resources they need.
• Work on anti-isolation. Seniors and students were both identified by the United Way assessment as experiencing isolation. 
• Ensure equal access to after-school enrichment, academic help, and other activities–including afternoon jobs–by assisting with transportation.
• More multi-generational activities at Senior Center and through the Community Ed and Recreation Department offerings. Relocation of the senior center once its ten year lease is up would encourage this multi-generational activity.
• Promote collaboration among Schools and Acton TV; and among the school newspaper and the nascent Acton Newspaper which may fill the hole which the loss of the Beacon and the Acton Citizen created.

Racial Justice

The Black Lives Matter movement is an important backdrop in which we can become a community that is more welcoming and supportive of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) residents than in the past. Acton has started to transform and open “its” eyes in exciting ways. We can celebrate our increasing racial diversity. We can support businesses owned by women and minorities through creative capital funding programs. We can recognize the ways racist policies including zoning have shaped our town and led to a primarily white population. As a white ally, I will speak up when I see overt racism. I would like to listen fully and really understand the experiences of Acton’s BIPOC community. I look forward to continuing this difficult and crucial work alongside Acton’s new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission (DEIC) and our new DEI Director.

Franny’s Experience

• Founding member of Acton-Boxborough Diversity Coalition, now Acton Boxborough United Way Racial Justice Coalition.
• Participate in Social Action group work on immigrant rights.
• Participate in rallies and stand-outs in solidarity with BIPOC communities.
• Support local residents who recently immigrated: provide social support, tutoring, language interpretation, and assistance navigating government bureaucracy.
• Proud that Acton is home to Acton Chinese Language School; Franny continues her Mandarin studies.

What’s Next?

• Work with Economic Development Director to support the business community, making our villages vibrant; provide support to minority and women-owned businesses and to businesses that hire people with disabilities or make their spaces welcoming and accessible.
• Explore parts of Acton becoming Arts or Cultural Districts. Work with contiguous towns and Recreation Department on this effort.
• Strengthen English-language learning and interpretation.
• I will speak up when I see or hear about overt racism or microaggressions.
• I will try to listen fully, and continue reading and discussing books, to more deeply understand the experiences of Acton’s BIPOC community (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). I would love to share this study with members of our Town staff and committees. Three books that I have found helpful in my own anti-racism journey were Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, and Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad.
• We must ensure that everyone in Acton is treated equitably, feels safe, and does not experience discrimination.
• Examine Town policies, culture, and history through a racial justice lens. Educate staff and residents about housing and other policies that shaped Acton so we move forward in a different fashion.
• Promote collaboration among Town, School, and other Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committees, ensuring a shared vision. We are one community.
• Create engaging education programs about residents’ shared and separate histories, at the cultural and personal level.  Use the celebration of Acton’s 250 years to tell our stories.
• Learn about and appreciate the Indigenous people who lived on this land before us. Promote signage, historic trails, and organizations such as Friends of Pine Hawk.
• Support the Senior Center, Recreation Department, Community Education, and Acton TV as they continue to provide exciting, inclusive programs. Make sure the new newspaper gets off the ground. It is crucial for objective journalism.
• Make Acton a place where BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) want to stay and return to.

Economic Development

We all love appealing, walkable village centers with thriving small businesses. Our policies must encourage this growth and follow the Acton 2020 Master Plan. We must pursue public-private projects such as that which transformed the eastern end of West Acton Village.

Here are a few ideas I would pursue if elected to the Select Board.

• Fill empty storefronts. Solicit resident input and contributions toward incentivizing the type of businesses we want.
• Accelerate sidewalk construction.
• Create connections among art and culture venues; apply for Massachusetts Cultural District designation (https://massculturalcouncil.org/communities/cultural-districts/application-process/).
• Leverage town funds to complement state Kelley’s Corner funding.
• Facilitate Kmart property transformation and return to the table so we settle on a town-approved zoning plan for Kelley’s Corner. I wrote a Citizen’s Petition on this topic for the May 1, 2023 Town Meeting.
• Design new funding structure for sewer construction that spreads the cost burden. I do believe sewers can play a part in a more vibrant West Acton business environment.
• Invite and support new industry as we did Insulet and Associated Environmental Systems.
• Match vocational tech training with specific manufacturer hiring needs.
• Promote collaboration among Transportation, Disability, and Economic Development Committees. We have started to do this in two ways: 1) The Commission on Disability is working with our Economic Development Director and our DEI Director to host an event in summer, 2023 where local businesses celebrate and inform each other about their accessibility features. 2) “MAGIC”, the thirteen town subregion of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) of which I am vice-chair, has asked the MAPC staff to study and educate on supports and capital funding methods for local businesses.
• Offer train commuters increased shuttle options beyond the CAT Bus (which now at least matches the hourly train schedule). Focus on off hours when domestic workers and those in the service industry commute, or to provide last-mile trips to early-arriving manufacturing staff. Pay attention to commute needs of farm workers.
• Promote weekend tourism with seasonal shuttles to apple picking, Nashoba Valley Ski Area, Acton Arboretum, and summer recreation. Include stops at our local restaurants.
• Extend CAT Bus to shuttle employees and shoppers on Route 2A.

COVID-19 Response

The Town was incredibly comforting and helpful to the residents and businesses from the beginning of the pandemic.

Some of the adaptations that Acton made during the pandemic could carry into the future to improve life for residents and businesses; we might continue to relax reinforcements of zoning to help restaurants, and offer virtual options for meetings.