MEET BEN

A PROVEN progressive leader,

PROUDLY SERVING SOMERVILLE

Ben was elected to the Somerville City Council in 2017. He was inspired to get involved in local politics by the crisis of housing affordability, and since winning a seat on the Council, he has helped lead the Council’s efforts to pass the most progressive affordable housing agenda of any city in Massachusetts. Ben is also a founding board member of the Somerville Community Land Trust, and as the Chair of the Land Use committee, led the passage of Somerville’s Affordable Housing Overlay District. He also launched the process, in 2023, to re-establish rent stabilization in Somerville, to protect residents from rent-gouging and displacement.

Ben has fought tirelessly for development without displacement. He stood with grassroots organizations in their fight to win Somerville’s first-ever Community Benefits Agreement with real estate developers in Union Square. Since then, two other such agreements have been reached, securing important benefits for workers, for affordable housing, and for local businesses.

Ben led Somerville to become the first City in Massachusetts to ban facial recognition technology. He also led the work to create robust public oversight of all surveillance technology, and to ban the use of tear gas and other chemical weapons. He has been an effective and bold leader for street safety, for climate and environmental justice, for workers rights and for immigrant rights. To learn more about what Ben has accomplished in office, click here.

Ben is also a molecular biologist at the Harvard Medical School, and lives with his wife, Alex, and their son Simon, just outside Union Square. Sign up for Ben’s Email Newsletter here.