Meet Justin Tseng

https://www.justin4medford.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/justin-family.jpg

│ Justin’s parents instilled in him a sense of gratitude and service, teaching him to give his all into his community.

Growing Up in Medford

Justin Tseng is a first-generation Taiwanese American and a proud product of the Medford Public Schools. When Justin was two years old, his parents moved to Medford to pursue their American Dream: building a family and pursuing careers in science.

It wasn’t always easy. For two recent graduates, moving to Boston with a kid was tough and expensive. The Great Recession meant what should’ve been everyday things became luxury. Fresh fruit became scarce, car trips became rare, and jobs were hard to come by.

Medford’s community stepped up to uplift the Tsengs, helping them through the tough times and giving Justin happy memories: playing in Harris Park, reading at the Medford Public Library, and popping into Colleen’s for a sweet treat. In return, Justin’s parents instilled in him a sense of gratitude and service, teaching him to give his all into his community. Justin is proud to call the city he loves home and is excited to serve Medford by building a city that works better for us all.

Standing up for our community

As a Vice President of his class at Medford High, member of Site Council and a Student Representative to the School Committee, Justin stood up for his classmates by working to bring equity, justice, and opportunity to the classroom. He collaborated with administrators, teachers, and other community stakeholders to pass two school improvement plans. He contributed to action plans for addressing the vaping epidemic, needed infrastructure repairs, and a review of school policies that laid the groundwork for more transparency in classrooms. He also successfully negotiated for more affordable class activities and is proud to say he helped select Medford’s first School Superintendent of color.

After graduating as the Valedictorian of the Class of 2018, Justin continued his studies at Harvard College where he graduated in 2022 with an honors degree in Social Studies (politics, economics, and history) and East Asian Studies. At Harvard’s Institute of Politics, Justin worked on several policy commissions, addressing national security concerns, gun violence and trauma in education, and rising tuition costs. Justin also served as the Chair of the Harvard Public Opinion Project, America’s premier youth public opinion research group, where he advocated for young Americans on the national stage.

│ Justin stood up for his classmates by working to bring equity, justice, and opportunity to the classroom.

Recent Work

After being elected as the first Asian-American City Councilor in 2021, Justin got right to work, increasing outreach to underserved communities and negotiating more money for our new Library and our public schools.

In his first term, Justin and his colleagues on the Council passed Medford’s first zoning reform in 60 years, which has brought more life science jobs and development to Medford and cut red tape for new affordable housing. He plans to continue to fight to increase housing, lower rents, and make Medford more vibrant and walkable. Justin has also led efforts on the City Council to successfully bring back bus routes that were originally cut in the MBTA Bus Network Redesign, take action on the new Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, explore ways to revitalize the city’s squares, and move forward on social justice and equity.

Justin is now running for re-election to continue building on the bold, progressive foundation he and his progressive partners have laid in place and to commit to a better, more just future for us all.

Now living on College Ave., Justin makes sure to visit his parents in Wellington often. In his free time, Justin enjoys hiking in the Fells, playing cello, and grabbing a torta from Tenoch. He’s excited to bring his friends to Medford’s new local businesses!

Elections are expensive – Would you like to help Justin out?

$25 Donation

Other

Vote Yes on Questions 6, 7, & 8!

This Election Day, Medford finds itself at a turning point.

From pounding the pavement to serving in office, I’ve seen that behind each door, we are a city united in our aspirations: better schools for our kids, safer streets and sidewalks, and a more vibrant, inclusive, and affordable city where we aren’t just getting by but getting ahead.

That’s why, as your City Councilor, the toughest days are when I have to tell our neighbors that Medford can’t act because decades of underfunding is holding our city back and weighing all of us down.

Tomorrow, we have the chance to change this. Voting Yes on Questions 6, 7, and 8 will invest in Medford by investing in our schools, streets, and our fire headquarters.

As a Medford Public Schools grad, I’ve experienced the realities of classroom underfunding: teachers feel overstretched and underappreciated, students hold their breath each year anticipating cuts to arts and extracurriculars, and parents spend their hard earned money for outside tutors and private schools.

Voting Yes allows us to prevent devastating cuts to our schools, ensuring our kids have the teachers, literacy coaches, behavior specialists, administrative assistants, and nurses they need. It is an investment in our future, our public safety, and the returns from the investments folks have made by choosing to settle in Medford.

As a Medford resident, I know our infrastructure needs work. Driving on our roads should not feel like riding a rollercoaster – much less make our residents spend as much as they do on fixing their cars. Our sidewalks should not make our seniors worried about being injured on a walk or make new parents struggle with pushing their strollers. Our public buildings should not be falling apart. Full stop.

Voting Yes will allow us to hire an in-house street and sidewalk maintenance crew, allowing us to finally start to reverse our decades-worth backlog of repairs. It will free up our capacity to make much-needed repairs to our public facilities.

These are the reasons why I ran for office in the first place. Medford has fallen behind the rest of the state, spending less per person than our peers. The scarcity of our budget simply does not match the generosity of our ambition and our spirit. While we are implementing plans to increase our tax base that have already generated the highest growth Medford’s seen in decades, we need this funding now, before those projects are built.

Medford simply cannot afford what those who oppose this ballot measure promise: concepts of plans to kick the can down the road, revert to decades of disinvestment, and holding our needs hostage. The only plan is to dilly dally, dither, and delay. Medford cannot afford this.

It’s time to finally say Yes to invest in Medford. Let’s forge a new path forward and turn our vision for a brighter Medford into reality.

– Justin Tseng, Medford City Councilor

This will close in 20 seconds