~ EDITORIAL ~ It was 79 days of crisis, but Mayor, city officials got us through it

Republic trash strike stretched Malden to the limit for months

It has been a daily struggle since the first day it began.

Starting on July 1, when Malden first learned that close to 400 Republic Services workers in the region had walked off the job, there have been two major priorities in this community:

1) Trash

2) Everything ELSE it takes to run this city on a daily basis

Make no mistake, for the 79 days from the time the strike began until early last Friday morning, when it was announced there was a breakthrough — and a new, five-year contract — the two tasks were monumentally equal in the eyes of Malden city officials. It was easily apparent that this was the approach taken by most city officials in Malden, from Mayor Gary Christenson to elected officials and more. Less than 72 hours after the strike began, Malden was already addressing the trash strike on a daily or even hourly basis.

Witness the Mayor’s response at an otherwise cheery Fourth of July celebration when a citizen struck up a conversation with the fourth-term leader, asking the usually stock, small talk question, “So what’s going on around the city?”

Mayor Christenson’s one-word answer? “Trash.”

If you asked him a week later the answer would have been this: “Trash.”

How about last Thursday, a day before the new contract was announced? “Trash.”

It has been an all-important, all-consuming — for time and resources — and basically an all-attention demanding crisis. And we do mean Crisis with a capital “C”. It has been the worst health crisis this city and the other cities and towns affected by the trash strike have faced since COVID-19. It was not just the unsightly piling up of uncollected trash and recyclable materials. There were also increases in rodent infestations, upticks in insects, malodorous stench and even an invasion of seagulls that roosted primarily in dumpsters beside Malden’s businesses and schools.

Through it all, Malden residents are fortunate that for key Malden officials, such as Mayor Christenson, his command staff, including his inner cabinet and department heads like Dept. of Public Works Director Bob Knox, this was hardly their first rodeo dealing with crises of this nature. Mayor Christenson, his staff and DPW chief Knox have been “on it” since Day One of the strike, and they have never wavered from their posts.

Malden City Councillors also took the lead in trying to find solutions when it appeared that negotiations between Republic and Teamster Local 25 had disintegrated. Councillors-at-Large Craig Spadafora and Carey McDonald, who chairs the City Council’s Finance Committee, convened a special meeting to analyze potential moves to help address the crisis, where other Councillors and top city officials — including the Mayor — attended, all giving real-time information.

Of course, there was plenty of negativity and criticism tossed in the city officials’ direction on the handling of the crisis. For some reason, the Boston TV news crews seemed to have an affinity for coming to Malden to film overflowing trash in barrels and dumpsters, despite there being 15 other communities in the same boat. Maybe they were invited to come, who knows.

All told, let us be thankful that the strike is indeed over and citizens of Malden are also grateful that we have pros like Mayor Christenson, and seasoned folks on his staff like Maria Luise, Ron Hogan and Bob Knox, who know what to do when a crisis arises in our city. They also have the determination and resolve to stay the course and protect the Malden community and its residents when they need it most.