A-B election will tackle housing issues

Nov. 5 may have marked the end of the campaign season for most candidates, but for two Allston-Brighton contenders for Boston City Council, the work was just getting started. But after tomorrow’s special election, Jerry McDermott and Mark Ciommo, two nearly life-long residents of the Allston-Brighton area, will find out which of them District 9 residents want to send to City Hall.

The two are vying for the seat vacated after former councilman Brian Honan’s sudden July death. McDermott, the owner of an area real estate company, and Ciommo, the director of an area senior center, beat out a field of nine candidates during the race’s Nov. 12 primary, with McDermott taking 1,661 votes and Ciommo 1,315.

McDermott lost to Honan in the 1995 City Council elections, but said his experience in public service, including stints as office staff for former Congressman Joe Kennedy and former Councilor Bruce Bolling, will carry the day tomorrow. Ciommo said he too is running on his record of commitment to the community, including his experience for the last nine years at the Veronica Smith Senior Center and past work at the Jackson Mann Community Center.

Affordable housing has been the biggest issue of the campaign, after the last 10 years saw huge jumps in area rents for Allston-Brighton residents. Both have taken on Boston College, Harvard University and Boston University during the campaign as partial causes of the housing crunch, saying they will pressure all three to build more on-campus housing. Public education and public safety have also been major campaign issues.

Ciommo, who grew up near Brighton Center, said he has lived in Allston-Brighton for 41 of his 46 years. He was raised by his mom and said he grew up during an especially socially conscious period, during the 1960s and 1970s. He met his wife during a five-year stint in California and says she is his ‘partner in everything.’

McDermott, who was also born in Brighton, went to the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and has spent almost all of his professional life working in the city, mostly working for several elected officials. His relatively close personal relationship with Honan has been brought up several times during the campaign, and he said he would like to ‘pick up Brian’s mantle and fight for the things he was fighting for.’

‘I’ve been born and raised here and there have been a lot of good things that have happened,’ he said.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Student housing has played a major role in the campaign, as both candidates contend the number of students in the area drives up prices and lowers the quality of life for the area’s more permanent residents.

Both have said area colleges should take a more active role in building new housing on-campus and look into on-campus room and board prices, though Ciommo has made it more central to his housing plan. Both said they support BU’s Student Village plans, which would eventually build three new dormitory towers with units similar to those currently in the 10 Buick St. portion of the project.

The problem comes down to creating attractive on-campus housing with reasonable prices that will draw students from the neighborhoods back onto campus, according to McDermott. The city cannot force students to move back onto campus, but universities can lessen the problems by giving students a reason to move back. Though the community has historically mobilized to stop university development, he said he would encourage almost the reverse universities should look at their campuses and build taller buildings with appealing facades, he said.

‘I think it’s a win-win,’ he said. ‘If universities make it appealing if it’s easier socially and academically on campus they’re going to want to live there.’

Ciommo agreed that off-campus housing gives students more freedom and, in many cases, better accommodations at lower prices, making students want to move off. He said he would require colleges to build more housing for students, which he says could free up as many as 4,000 housing units. He also said he would call for more effective enforcement of area housing codes and increased fines for violations.

‘I’m not trying to bash students, but the quality of life in the Allston-Brighton area has become dorms essentially,’ he said. ‘I like to party like the next person, but when you live next door to that stuff it creates havoc on your family’s life.’

Both candidates also said they would work with Harvard to create more affordable housing in northern Allston, where Harvard owns more than 200 acres of land.

McDermott and Ciommo differ fundamentally on how to bring area rents down most effectively.

Ciommo has expressed support for Mayor Thomas Menino’s recent rent stabilization proposal, which would establish base rent prices and restrict yearly rent increases, while McDermott has attacked the plan and said the problem comes down to simple supply and demand if more area housing is built, prices will come down. City councilors rejected Menino’s proposal, 6-4, last month.

‘My opponent seems to think we can’t build our way out of the problem,’ McDermott said. ‘We can, and we have been.’

Menino’s proposal would give residents a ‘fair hearing’ in appealing rent increases and would ‘mitigate the stress and displacement’ of quickly raising rents, Ciommo said. Most importantly, he said, it would help prevent rent gouging.

‘In my work in the social service arena, I’ve seen first-hand people coming to me, especially seniors at the Veronica Smith Center, facing rent increases,’ he said. ‘They have 30 days to move, and it creates a lot of stress.’

But McDermott said Menino’s plan would not have added one new unit of housing, could have deterred new development and would have stabilized rents at their highest levels. While he does support the idea of a more effective housing review board, simply building more affordable and attractive housing would be the best way to lessen the community’s problems. He called Menino’s ‘Leading the Way’ program, which set the goal of creating 7,500 new affordable units, an example of a solid approach to the problem.

McDermott has also supported the Community Preservation act, which he said would build new units and save historic ones, and would like to reintroduce that on the ballot during his term.

‘We have to have responsible development,’ McDermott said. ‘But we can build new units.’

PUBLIC SAFETY AND PUBLIC EDUCATION

The BU community came face to face with crime in Allston-Brighton last month, when two BU students were violently attacked in the area allegedly by gang members. Both candidates have made crime another main issue of the campaign, saying area police presence should be increased to lessen the problem.

Allston-Brighton was also the only city area to see an increase in reported crime over the past year, according to Ciommo. He said the city should shift police forces to the area during peak crime hours from other city neighborhoods to help solve the problem. Allston-Brighton needs at least 12 more police officers, according to McDermott.

Students have often been victims of area crime, both candidates said, though they offer different approaches to dealing with the problem. McDermott, who said his nephew recently graduated from BU, suggested students should participate more actively in community block watch groups, while Ciommo said he would encourage colleges to focus more on area crime issues during orientations and other such sessions.

With the city’s predicted fiscal problems, both suggested that resources be shifted around to diminish crime in the area. Though new forces may not be able to be added, Allston-Brighton should become more of a priority in the allocation of officers, they said.

‘Every time a new class gets put on, Allston-Brighton is the last neighborhood to get new bodies,’ McDermott said. Though he said that indicates Allston-Brighton has been a safer neighborhood than others, the city must deal with a recent area crime spike.

Both candidates said they would work with area colleges to help improve Allston-Brighton schools. They said they want to expand student tutoring programs, for which McDermott said colleges should give credit or financial compensation. Ciommo said he would work to focus colleges’ education efforts.

Ciommo said he would especially focus on improving first through third grade education, increasing reading tutorial programs for students in those grades. McDermott also said he would shift one-third of the education department’s transportation budget toward diminishing class sizes and increasing teacher training.

Several community leaders said affordable housing has been the main focus of the campaign for both candidates, though there are many other important area issues at stake as well.

Allston Civic Association head Paul Berkeley, who said he does not plan to vote because he said he will have to work with whoever gets elected, said student housing in the neighborhood is a major issue both candidates touched upon. He said city councilors can play a large role in helping mediate between community groups and universities, which he said Honan did a great job of doing.

Bill Marchione, head of the Brighton Allston Historical Society, said he plans to vote for Ciommo because ‘he has the pulse of the neighborhood better than Jerry McDermott.’ He also said McDermott’s work as a real estate agent was also a ‘turnoff.’ He said the biggest issue for him is the area’s population density, though affordable housing did register highly in importance.

Both Berkeley and Marchione said the election will be very close. Berkeley predicted it would come down to who could swing the area’s ‘die-hard’ residents.

Both candidates say they are the person for the job because of their experience in the community, McDermott because of his experience with City Hall and in area politics and Ciommo because of his record of service to the community.

While McDermott said he could ‘hit the ground running from day one’ in office because he knows the system and has experience delivering constituent services, Ciommo said he has a strong record of serving the community’s youth and elderly.

‘I care about my neighborhood, and before I decided to run, I demonstrated that through actions, not just words,’ he said. ‘Deeds speak louder than words some can talk a good game, but don’t walk the walk.’

But McDermott said he is the natural choice for the job because of his similarities with Honan and experience in the public sector.

‘I have the experience and the position to do a good job,’ he said.

Many of BU’s West Campus and Allston-Brighton residents can vote in tomorrow’s election at the Jackson Mann School in Brighton. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.