Copyright MassLive
SPRINGFIELD — This is the second time Gerry Martin has run for City Council, and this time he is challenging long-term Councilor Timothy Allen for the Ward 7 seat, which covers the 16 Acres and East Forest Park neighborhoods. Martin was unsuccessful in his first bid for an at-large City Council seat two years ago. Martin has been involved in community issues, most recently demanding the cleanup of a Family Dollar that has been an eyesore to the neighborhood. He served as vice president of the East Forest Park Civic Association. Ahead of Tuesday, The Republican reached out to all candidates for the opposed City Council seats to answer a short questionnaire. Find more candidates and responses in the past week’s print editions or online at masslive.com/topic/election. Name: Gerry J. Martin Age: 25 Address: 34 Oregon St. Profession: Courthouse employee Position running for: Springfield City Council Ward 7 Introductory statement: I am running for City Council because I believe it’s important for our local government to have new energy and new ideas. I love my neighborhood and community, because it instilled in me great values. I want to ensure we maintain our quality of life in Ward 7, and that other young people like myself start their lives and families here. I was a former vice president of the East Forest Park Civic Association, a staff member in Congressman Neal’s office and currently work in the courthouse downtown. In all of those roles, I work closely with the community and constituents to address hard problems and create solutions. If I am lucky enough to be elected, I look forward to bringing those experiences to tackle the challenges of the City Council. What is the biggest problem in the city and how would you address it? The biggest problem that I see throughout the city is crime. I would address this issue by supporting our public safety, because if we do not feel safe in our communities, nothing else matters. I would sponsor more community policing efforts to encompass walking patrols, and I would fight for police substations in neighbors that do not already have them and throughout Ward 7. The City Council always struggles to keep taxes low, while providing needed services and making advancements. How specifically will you balance the three? One of the biggest responsibilities of the City Council is to set the tax rates for commercial and residential properties. When setting these rates, we must be mindful of both our business owners and homeowners. The best way to address this issue is to aggressively attract new businesses to our city by marketing Springfield’s strengths. By attracting new businesses, we will be able to expand our tax base and provide relief to our residents. The housing crisis continues to take a toll on residents and those who want to move to the city. How should Springfield attack the problem? Being able to own a home is the goal of many residents in our city. “The City of Homes” is fortunate to have a diverse housing market. We must continue to be proactive in looking for housing options at all different levels. Having a robust housing market of quality homes is the goal of any city. What types of development would you like to attract to the city, and how would you do it? I would love to see the development of more small businesses. I would encourage and help our small businesses by creating a small business working group committee in the City Council. This group would bring in people from economic development, civic association leaders, city councilors and people from the business community to create successful business start-ups throughout the city. This would create successful businesses and give people more economic opportunity.
