ACTION NEEDED: Community first

Oct 31

The Fitch School is the historic Art Deco building on Ash St. between Crescent and Moody that has been vacant for several years. This past spring, school district employees cleaned up part of the interior so it could be used by nonprofits such as Healthy Waltham that are helping people in need during the pandemic. But so far, it has not been used for that. Now, the Mayor wants the School Committee to hand it over to the city so that it can be used for a new police station.

The October 22 City Council included a communication from the Mayor asking the Council to consider a proposal from Waltham PD. The proposal compares three sites for a new police station and concludes that the Fitch School is the best option. The Mayor also let the School Committee know that she will be asking them to “surplus” the Fitch School (release it from their inventory) at their next meeting on November 4

Letter from Mayor

This site would put Waltham PD within a short walk of the Moody St. business district and Waltham’s South Side, the area of the city with the highest concentration of non-white residents. This is a big change from their current location in North Waltham, and any decision to place a new police headquarters should be made with input from the community. The Mayor’s approach so far suggests that she is expecting a quick decision with little or no public input.

In the midst of a pandemic and severe economic hardship, a new police station should not be the top priority for Waltham. The city should consider whether the Fitch School can be used to address urgent issues such as homelessness and hunger, as the school employees who cleaned it up intended. As communities across the US reconsider the role of police, Waltham leaders should be including a diversity of stakeholders in any major decision regarding our own police department.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic crisis have resulted in record numbers of Massachusetts citizens facing food insecurity. Recently revised projections by Feeding America show that the food insecurity rate in Massachusetts has increased 59%, which is the highest increase for a state in the country. One in seven people (or nearly one million residents) in the Commonwealth are now expected not to have access to enough food for three healthy meals a day. One in five children in Massachusetts now live in food-insecure households, an even more dramatic increase of 102% over pre-COVID-19 food insecurity levels.

With no clear end in site and a wave of potential evictions our city should focus on protecting Waltham and its resident from the negative impact of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and economic hardship.

Poverty and income inequality is a strong indicator of crime (see sources) and rather than increase police presence in communities of color we can focus our resources on ensuring Waltham residents have the resources we need to navigate this crisis and come out stronger.

If given to local nonprofits were given the Fitch building it could provide just that as a resource to feed the hungry, house homeless, provide programming, and more.
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What we can do:

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