Scott Saia Announces Candidacy for Councillor-at-Large in Malden

It is with great honor and humility that I officially announce my candidacy for councillor-at-large for the City of Malden in this fall’s election.

Over the past 37 years I have lived among you, worked among you and shared the triumphs and tragedies that all citizens of a community share together. I have seen the vibrant and active Malden of my youth become the struggling and unsure community it is today. The reasons are varied yet not nearly as simple to explain as many think.

The strain of crime on our community is suffocating progress and diminishing community engagement, our children aren’t able to enjoy the freedoms so many of us took for granted when we were young, neighbors don’t communicate with each other because of fear, distrust, or prejudice.

Malden’s youth sports programs are seeing large reductions in registrations. As a youth I played in Malden Youth Soccer, Malden Youth Hockey, Malden Little League and Malden Babe Ruth. I was active in the Sacred Hearts Parish and Cheverus CYO. These were opportunities that only 25 years ago were plentiful, utilized and became the means in which I made most of the friends I still have today. Sadly, as the father of a 6 year old son, I see first-hand at his games and practices that the number of kids participating is a fraction of what it was when I was a young athlete. 

There are hundreds of events a year in Malden which provide the opportunity to unite the community. Unfortunately they are sparsely attended in many cases and those that are well attended are done so by the same people over and over again. We must start to change the internal culture and atmosphere of Malden before we can ever move forward.

I was very proud to see the success of Malden’s Home for the Holiday’s Street Hockey Tournament. As founder and co-organizer of the event that saw 150 players from neighborhoods across Malden come back and reunite, engage in the legendary past time of our youth and raise thousands of dollars for the Malden Teen Enrichment Center was inspiring. To see the turnout of kids cheering us on, seeing their fathers playing alongside Boston Bruins Legends and giving it their all is a great message for kids to see.

We need to have more opportunities to inspire Malden’s youth. It will however take all of us to do so. I see the challenges that face the children of our community every day. With a child in the Malden Public School System I know the hardships families face day-to-day. I talk to parents who are struggling; I understand the financial limitations that may prohibit their children’s activities. Could there be a way that these kids can be active and learn the skills and lessons that sports and social interaction provide at lower or no cost? It’s an idea and one that needs to be looked at and discussed.

Malden faces a crisis of identity. We see, we read, we post, we comment. That is the essence of civic involvement in this city. We are great at pointing out the problems but we fail to provide concrete ideas to repair them. We have become a culture of short term fixes as opposed to long term solutions. I have seen far too much discussion or lack thereof and not enough action. The communication gap within the city among residents and the abyss that seems to have expanded between the city council and the citizens of Malden must be closed. There are many items that I could go into specifics on here but will leave that to future writings that will be available to all citizens online as the campaign moves forward throughout the year.

The one great and complex issue we face is the level of violent crime facing Malden. The past year has left us all in a state of shock and despair. I have spent the past 20 years in private security and public safety at some of the highest levels within the industry. The systems and methods I have created were not well received at first because it was change that people are inherently afraid of.

Once the opportunity to prove such out of the box and progressive modern
thinking was effective, the problems of the past within my industry began to be
eliminated. Malden needs that now. We need to embrace the possibility that new
ideas, new ways of approaching problems can and will work.  We need to be at the forefront of a community revival. We want to be the example of a city that overcame crime, violence, the inability to communicate, the political gamesmanship and the underestimating of the intelligence of the community.  The blame game must end and accountability must begin.

There is one lesson I learned while attending Malden Catholic High School and participating in numerous community service and outreach opportunities. There is a vast resource of ideas and guidance that is routinely ignored when a community faces a crisis and this resource is better equipped than we are to examine and provide the linear plane that we need to design out future on. Malden’s senior citizen community has been through much harder times, seen greater devastation and lived through more fear than we will ever see. They have come through more rain and weathered more storms in their lifetimes than we would see in 10. We must be communicating with them, asking them for their ideas. As is said, Malden needs a change in its culture first and foremost. That is the easiest problem to fix I believe. If we utilize those who still smile, laugh and find the simple joys in their lives, those who have seen it all and they are here to teach us all the secrets their lives knowledge has to provide. Why are we so afraid to ask?

I could go on and on and I will as the weeks and months progress. We will have opportunity to discuss every issue facing Malden. I will be actively writing and speaking to express my vision of what Malden can be and how we will get there. I will do so in explicit detail. I’ve been proud to contribute to the city of Malden in many ways in my life and I look forward to joining all of you in seeing Malden not just become what we all know it once was, but to work towards seeing Malden become what we all know it can be.