By Maddie Possamai, Summer 2023 Collaborator at Power in Place
Image from: Taylor Sprague
Meet Judith García
On July 5th, 2023, I had the pleasure of interviewing Representative Judith García. García represents the 11th Suffolk District in Massachusetts, which includes Chelsea and Everett. García is the daughter of a single mother who immigrated to the United States from Honduras to Chelsea, MA. During our interview, García stated that the Bosson Playground in Chelsea is her place of special meaning. When García was younger, she was not allowed to play on the playground. She was only allowed to go “from home to school, school to home” because, back in the 90s, Chelsea was considered very dangerous. This inspired García to study urban planning at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. She became passionate about redesigning the urban landscape to ensure that children, families, and people of all kinds could enjoy the city. After García graduated, she ran and was elected to City Council at 23. García served City Council for eight years and pushed policies focused on changing Chelsea’s urban landscape such as creating a more accessible community.
The Importance of Urban Planning
During our interview, I was inspired by Representative García’s work involving Urban Design. She stated that “homes are a pillar, they are a pillar of health, they are a pillar for the lives of everyone.” As well as working for City Council, García also worked for a leading nonprofit that focused on expanding affordable housing. Representative García informed me about the city of Everett’s new senior housing, as Everett has a big senior population that has been affected by the rising prices of rent. In partnership with East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, Everett now offers 66 affordable homes. Throughout our interview, the importance of affordable housing was prominent as housing directly affects a person's stability. Representative García’s work made me reflect on the housing insecurity in our community today and provided me with insight as to what goes on behind the scenes.
Not only is housing important when it comes to designing an accessible urban landscape, but reliable and accessible public transportation is too. On the day of our interview, the Sumner Tunnel in Boston was closing therefore the city of Boston began promoting public transportation. Despite this, Boston has not made public transit free. With the closure of the Sumner Tunnel, there is going to be more traffic, therefore more pollution, which can be solved with access to free transportation. García’s office advocated for residents to have completely free transit. Representative García argued that public transit should not only be accessible but it should also be reliable and that it is one of the biggest challenges our state is facing. Transportation in Boston is consistently undergoing work and closure. García states that one of the solutions to this issue is to expand modes of transportation, that riding a bike should be more accessible and that cities such as Chelsea have access to the waterfront and the ferry. A quote that Representative García said in our interview that I thought was incredibly eye-opening and inspiring is that “it shouldn’t be our zip code that determines what we have access to or not.” This quote impacted me as it opened my eyes to the lack of resources that many people endure solely because of where they live, what they can afford, and what is available to them and it should not be like that. Transportation and housing are human rights and should be treated as such.
Representation and Why It Matters
The city of Chelsea had to wait almost 32 years to have representation as Chelsea is a predominantly immigrant community. Now that Representative García is elected, the city of Chelsea has authentic representation at a state level. García states that “finally this community elected someone that looks like them and lives like them,” as she is a Chelsea native and has the lived experience that many residents do. This has an impact on many of the policies that she fights for as she has the people's best interest in mind. García is leading the health equity act which makes sure that hospitals serve everyone and all populations. She is also fighting for the legislature that is expanding SNAP benefits to fight food insecurity in the state. Representative García expresses that “as a state, we have the responsibility to ensure that immigrants who are legally present at least get helped with a basic human need such as food.” García states that the importance of those two pieces of legislation is enhanced by the fact that she has lived experience and that is why representation matters. As a Latina woman who grew up with immigrant parents, this part of our interview was truly empowering to me as growing up, I never saw someone who looked like me in public office. Representative García is an example of the importance of representation to a community and how it affects the policies passed and I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to interview her.
Maddie Possamai is a rising junior at Wheaton College in Massachusetts majoring in Political Science with minors in Journalism and Visual Arts. At Wheaton College she is currently working on creating a Commuters Organization on campus to advocate for more benefits for commuter students. After graduating college, Maddie hopes to work in Political Journalism.