Don Desrochers Launches Campaign for City Council Seat

A Vision and A Voice for Ward 9

Few people know a city’s ward map, but if you live in Ward 9, you know it’s the soul of the city. Winding along the Charles River from the Stanley Elementary and Children’s Hospital to the historic district that started the industrial revolution, Ward 9 impacts every citizen in Waltham. At its heart is Moody Street, with its restaurants, businesses, community and cultural center, and the Waltham Family School.

Ward 9 is also the place I call home, and today I am proud to announce my candidacy to represent this vibrant and vital part of our city on the Waltham City Council.

The first night my wife, Lidia Piemonte Desrochers, and I went to sleep in our house on Taylor Street, we felt like we were kids again. We knew we were home. That’s because of our childhood roots in Lawrence, another textile mill town north of here. Lidia was born in Sicily and I was born in Lawrence where we both grew up. My mother’s parents emigrated from Ireland and my father’s family came from Canada. Both of my parents worked in the textile mills.

At the age of 15, I was offered a job as a stock boy at a downtown men’s clothing store—a smaller version of Grover Cronin’s—which I held until I graduated from college. It was an experience that will stay with me always. To this day, I am sensitive to the value of customer service, small businesses and a vibrant downtown area.

That’s one reason why I am eager to represent us on the city council, but it’s far from the only one.

When people in Ward 9 say something is important, it deserves to be taken seriously. In the years since we moved to Taylor Street, I have attended a substantial amount of council and committee meetings to see if our voices are being heard in our city council. They’re not.

Here’s one example: In August 2017, one of the worst fires in the city’s history consumed a massive new development along the river. I met with my neighbors in the public housing next door at 48 Pine Street. They’re senior citizens and folks with disabilities, and I wanted to help. I found that their needs weren’t being met. In fact, the first time the development went before the council, they hadn’t even been notified, and the council had to re-take its vote all over again. Those residents made it clear that it’s time for a change, and they were right.

Or take the massive abandoned property that greets citizens as they cross the Moody Street bridge. Proposed as a hotel, it’s been held up in city hall for over a decade, sitting vacant. There’s the old city water works shop on Felton Street, too, which people want as an indoor farmer’s market and community kitchen, but instead sits vacant for most of the year, getting its only use as a warming shelter.

After a career in which I managed the development of logistics support systems including budgets and contracts for defense systems costing millions of dollars with the U.S. government, I know what it takes to deliver what people need, and this isn’t it.

Why doesn’t more get done? Because politics gets in the way. It’s time for a fresh start.

Imagine Moody Street opened to foot traffic on weekends in the summer. Think of the Armory near the hospital restored and repurposed by the community. It can happen without having years of indifference and delay, while also addressing Ward problems in an objective and straightforward way.

Yes, better signage is needed to help people find parking off Moody Street, and it can be done. Yes, increased public transit in the city center is necessary to alleviate traffic and it can be done. Yes, basic investment in our existing public housing for seniors is needed and it must get done. Yes, we need to provide a first-class education for our children. And yes, much of it needs to be done without breaking the bank. It can and will get done.

My mother used to tell me that education and experiences are only as good as your ability to apply them. My background brings with it a disciplined approach to addressing problems with reasonable solutions that are acceptable to a diverse and inclusive group of stakeholders. I also bring to the table the ability to assess data, determine its relevancy, and decide when there is enough information to make the best decision at a minimum risk to move forward.

I will run my campaign in the same clear and transparent way that I will serve as your councilor if elected. I will not accept donations from developers, their lawyers, politicians, companies, or special interests. I will knock on your door and ask what’s affecting you the most right now. I will take what I hear and put it together into a strategic approach that values the diversity and vibrant life of our city center. And I will bring that to city hall and fight for you, and for the soul of this city.

I look forward to seeing you in the months to come, and I hope that you will consider voting for me on election day. To find out more about my campaign and to volunteer or contribute, please go to don4waltham.com.