Onwards

Campaign Updates!

Good afternoon everyone, 2 days ago marks one week since the preliminary election.

Over two months, I knocked doors ‘til my knuckles went red and many kind-hearted and like-minded people came together to help spread our campaign’s platform. I am very happy and proud to say that this work was worth it as we were able to win the preliminary race.

And though this race was a surprise to myself and others, I could not help but feel it was inevitable. People want someone to meet them where they are at. People are sick of campaigns  absent of any policy that actually tackles the issues they are facing. People want someone whose platform will truly reimagine a Lowell that can take care of all of us.

Our victory by less than ten votes is no margin to boast about, but for the most part, we were written off as an assured loss. So, for now, this minor win is a major victory for our campaign and I hope it will be able to sustain the hope and momentum we have built thus far. In the end, despite a late start and a small team, we managed to move on to the general election with a message, steely-eyed focused on affordable housing, improving public transit, and better funding and support of our public school and early child-care and education systems.

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to all the neighbors who took the time to go out to vote all the way to the very last second. Because of that, we have a real chance at becoming city councilor for this lovely city. These next seven weeks will be even more exciting as I will be hitting the pavement even harder, with more people, and with victory being so close - with even greater vigor. I look forward to seeing you all on the trail.

And lastly, I also want to thank the Lowell Together team for voting to endorse me for the general election. I am beyond excited to see what we can do with even more support!

Family Feuds Threaten Food for our Families

Family feuds are nothing new, but for most of us, millions and millions of dollars aren’t on the line. 

For Market Basket, it can be summed up by the age old adage to never mix family with business. In the early 1900s, current embattled CEO, Arthur (Artie) T. ‘s grandparents began a family run store selling various meats. Things developed relatively smoothly over the next 70 years as ownership of the company was eventually passed down to brothers George and Mike who oversaw the growth of the Demoulas’ chain and witnessed it become a local staple. In 1971, George tragically passed while on vacation, leaving 50% in shares for his side of the family but eventually, his sons Evan and Arthur S. (Arthur) would sue Mike as, over the years, he had seemingly grown his portion of the shares to more than 50%. This was proven true in court where it was revealed that Mike defrauded George’s sons, his nephews, over decades by diverting a billion dollars of company assets to companies which he owned - consolidating his power from 50 to 92% control of the company. The court awarded Arthur and Evan a 50.5% share of the company along with hundreds of millions of dollars in dividend backpay.

In 1993, tragedy struck the family again when Evan passed away in a car accident and left his small portion of company control to his widow, who in surprise fashion would combine powers not with Arthur - Evan’s blood brother - but with Artie, his cousin. By 2008, Artie became the CEO of Market Basket.

Under his control, the beloved grocery chain would continue to grow, but with large sums of money, comes a large possibility of corruption. From 2008 to 2013, Artie would transfer over a billion dollars to family and friends through non-transparent sweetheart deals: “Market Basket spent $700 million on related-party transactions, say two people with knowledge of the company's dealings. Half that amount was spent with Phoenix Foods, a food broker owned by Artie's brother-in-law. The company spent an additional $350 million on construction and contracting businesses owned by two of his other brothers-in-law. Market Basket also did an estimated $200 million-plus in business with companies controlled by Artie's wife, other family members and friends.”

This didn’t sit right with Arthur who thought hundreds of millions more needed to be spent on compensating shareholders like himself. Arthur believed this so much so he encouraged the company to take on debt for such payouts. This sentiment must have been, at least in part, shared by Rafaela - Evan’s widowed ex-wife - who would switch sides once again to grant Arthur the power to fire Artie.

However, the people had already been won over by Artie and his kindness. Artie was seemingly committed to his loyal customers just as much as he was committed to making sure any money leaving Market Basket still ended up in the family bank account. After his firing in 2014, community members and employees boycotted the chain for over a month, slashing revenues by 90% and forcing former governor Deval Patrick to step in and broker a deal in helping settle the purchase of Market Basket by Artie and his three sisters from Arthur for over 1.5 billion dollars.

Over ten years later, and the family feud has been reignited as Artie continues to spend money in opaque fashion, blocking out the board of directors from accessing spending reports, and by continuously not focusing on overwhelmingly increasing shareholder dividends. In the last week, the Market Basket board - controlled by Artie’s three sisters - have named a new interim CEO after having used their power to remove any pro-Artie elements from within. Now, the future of Market Basket is back up in the air.

Through all of this, one thing is clear to me, the inherent undemocratic nature of private businesses, which fill essential roles in our society such as feeding our residents, puts our people at risk. With grocery store prices rising on a year to year basis and with a potential massive (negative?) shift in Market Basket’s culture and operations, our residents may need somewhere else to get reliably cheap and healthy foods.

That's why we need to assess the feasibility of municipally owned grocery stores or food exchanges and markets. Municipal owned grocery stores or food exchanges are one way to tackle the food insecurity our residents are increasingly facing, as being city owned can help reduce the cost of foods by over 20%, providing a reliable and affordable option for residents’ grocery staples.

And for those screaming “bloody socialism!”, the United States’ military feeds its soldiers and staff through state owned grocery stores (commissaries) with a cost-plus model where items are sold at-cost plus a small surcharge.

What's more, as a service publicly funded and managed through city hall, the residents of Lowell would have democratic control over it’s operation through voting and accountability and transparency regarding operating costs and grocery price decisions. No more holding our breaths, hoping to God that the rich people in charge of grocery stores, who have our health in their hands, make a decision in our best interest.

A nearby municipally owned grocer or food hall focused on providing healthy food and common staples in bulk would be a major boon to the 50% of Lowellians who say food bills cost too much and to the 20% who say distance and convenience are barriers to accessing good food.

Not to mention the possible positive knock-on effects of reducing traffic by filling in gaps in our food source network, decreasing the long term healthcare burden on the city by providing an abundance of healthier foods, supporting local farms economically, and reaching climate goals with local supply chains and seasonal foods. This is especially important when considering how to increase the equity in our city where minority and vulnerable populations are more likely to face barriers to healthy food access.

This is all to say that access to nutritious food is a right, and the job of any government at any level is to do everything it can to make sure all of us are ensured our basic rights. This includes having access to affordable necessary goods such as food. If a grocery chain is able to command the attention of not only the working class residents of Lowell, but of a large swath of New England, who are worried at what may come of greedy family disputes or undemocratic backdoor meetings, then that business has too much sway in the health of our community and it is the job of our government to minimize that risk.

Upcoming: The People’s Social!