Spicer is a stay-at-home father of three kids under nine years-old. He is the family dog walker and celebrates his neighbor Joe Alibrandi’s 82 birthday. Joe, born upstairs in the bedroom comes from a family that came to Somerville in 1914 after earthquakes in Italy. “My kids classmates are disappearing, I refuse to tolerate ICE detentions and deportations of my neighbors and I want to be as loud as I can in this campaign for the City of Somerville for those who are able to train in nonviolent protection or speak up proud of our love for our neighbors.”
His top campaign priorities are supports for students facing homelessness and food insecurity and providing a City Safety Net for non-profits impacted by federal funding cuts, especially those whose missions of equity and inclusion are impacted. A human rights activist for more than 25 years, he has experience as a secondary-ed teacher and as paralegal for a immigration legal clinic. He is fluent in Spanish which he learned as a student in California and in El Salvador. For five years Spicer has served on the Human Rights Commission, including as immediate past chair. He intends to bring this perspective to the Vulnerable Persons Committee.
As City Councilor At-Large, Spicer will fight for more affordable housing for elders and families with children. “I’m lucky enough to co-own a house but even that is no guarantee of a felt-sense of home or sense of neighborhood. The acceptance of displacement as the status quo is part of market coercion. It prevents us from bothering to know our neighbors. Most tenuously making the rent or affording a lease, who we expect to leave. And the archipelago of public housing seems like a divide and conquer strategy, when really it’s just a failure of political will to maintain elders embedded with their neighbors. In the short run, the communication of abatement and other financial supports must be optimized. Social housing is going to have to wait until sewer infrastructure is complete, but we need shelf-ready plans in place. If I were serving on the land use committee for instance, I would like to see proposed housing projects framed with a vision of Batman and Robin, intergenerational solidarity. We should see our elders as the heroes they are.”
Rats are digesting poison that in turn kills predators. Trapping and other data-informed alternatives need neighborhood buy-in and coordinated sign-up. Waste bin replacement at a discount would help neighbors feel agency. “I’ll never forget the morning after I left the cozy sleep sack in the stroller out night. The next morning a rat had been nested in the stroller and as we walked to school it wriggled out from behind my baby and scurried away. I empathize with my neighbors frustrated about the vacant property as a haven, or who tell me about the stench of them poisoned dead under next door construction. I once met with the rat czar in front of DPW–and just as we were shaking hands he spotted a burrow in the sidewalk. Right in front of DPW!”
Elders deserve more. “A resident assisting her aging mother navigate City Hall was hitting dead ends with the process to get a roof repair on a historic home. I reached out to express concern just in time for the process to suddenly get worked out. City staff are sensitively trained but leave the impression it’s just too hard. As City Councilor At-Large I will make it my priority to be present and knowledgeable at how to press City Hall. My baby and I attended the Cobble Hill Apartments Father’s Day event. We should all have the support to keep living in Somerville, be respected in the community as we age, and feel our voices are heard.”
Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, he completed a Masters in Theological Studies at Boston College and has lived in Somerville since 2016. Currently he is a candidate for an MFA in nonfiction at Lesley University. For more information see http://www.ElectSpicer.com
Sincerely,
Committee to Elect Christopher Ryan Spicer