State Senate candidates share visions on safe, effective transit, transportation in 5th Middlesex District communities

‘Malden Safe Streets’ hosts candidates forum on pressing topics in this and other communities

By Steve Freker

It comes up every time he meets with constituents, becoming a central topic of discussion. “They just do not feel they can safely cross our streets,” Carey McDonald said.

“We have to act, we must work to have safety sensibility,” McDonald, one of three candidates for Fifth Middlesex District state senator added, at a recent Candidates Forum hosted by Malden Safe Streets.

The Candidates Forum, focusing on the topic of transportation, was hosted outdoors in front of Bay State Cohousing, 368 Pleasant St., Malden. Noah Tuke, a Malden Safe Streets board member and Ward 1 resident, served as moderator. McDonald, who is a third-term Malden Councillor at-Large, was joined by fellow candidates, third-term state Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-32nd Middlesex) and Ryan O’Malley, a six-term Malden City Councillor (Ward 4).

This is Rep. Lipper-Garabedian’s first campaign for state Senate as well as Councillor McDonald’s and Councillor O’Malley’s first campaigns for state office. The three candidates are vying for the open seat created when longtime state Senator Jason Lewis (D-5th Middlesex) announced he would not seek a third term earlier this year. The Fifth Middlesex District comprises the cities of Malden and Melrose, the towns of Reading, Stoneham and Wakefield and precincts 1, 2, 3 and 8 in Winchester. The three candidates, all Democrats — Lipper-Garabedian, McDonald and O’Malley — will square off on Tuesday, September 1, in the Democratic Primary Election, a rare pre-Labor Day voting day.

Malden Safe Streets is a local grassroots advocacy group focused on improving walking, biking, and transit safety, working alongside the City of Malden Complete Streets Program. The Malden Complete Streets Program, first adopted in 2016, was instituted “to make local roads safer and easier to use for everyone walking, biking, taking public transit, or driving.”

McDonald’s recollection of one of the most pressing issues in this and other communities — pedestrian and other forms of transit safety — came as part of his response to a question posed by Tuke on whether candidates believe Massachusetts could ever adopt the tenets of the Vision Zero Network. Vision Zero has in the past been embraced in Helsinki, Finland, a city of 500,000-plus, which reported zero traffic/transit-related fatalities from January 2024-2025. Cambridge, Somerville and Boston city officials have been pushing to initiate Vision Zero in their communities.

“We’re in a very difficult time for the transit community,” O’Malley said, acknowledging a moment of silence observed before the forum for some transit accident victims, and recalling a pedestrian fatality in his own ward, the late Mary McTaggert in 2023.

“We can get to Vision Zero, but not from over-policing and more cameras, creating a surveillance state. We have to plan, develop and build our infrastructure to match our expected behavior [for safe transit],” O’Malley added.

O’Malley described an active role he said he has played on behalf of the city of Malden to pursue and help secure grants from state agencies, such as MassTrails and Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), for projects such as the Spot Pond Brook Greenway, which he initiated and is now underway in Malden. “We have to properly plan ways for our residents who are biking, walking and driving to maintain safety and not maim and kill people.”

Lipper-Garabedian described a typical day where her two young sons are out biking in her community of Melrose. “We have to protect all of our residents. We have to provide safe streets for our kids and for those of all mobilities.”

“As state Senator I would engage with grassroots groups, such as [Malden Safe Streets] and work closely with elected officials from all of the [5th Middlesex] district communities to obtain grants and pass laws to ensure accountability and safety for our most vulnerable residents,” she added.

“We need to believe it’s possible for Vision Zero to be achieved, but we have to think bigger than that,” McDonald said. “I have been a constant supporter and promoter of measures such as traffic calming and speed bumps in our residential areas. But it’s always going to be how we develop and build our transportation infrastructure.”

“We also need far more transit usage, as is seen in Helsinki and other places where the initiative has shown it works. There needs to be more transit safety education on helmets and other parts of it. They could start in our physical education classes in our schools, where kids could hear it from voices other than ours,” McDonald added.

The forum opened with a brief self-introduction by the three candidates. “I’m running for state Senator because I know I have the right values and the experience of delivering results at the local and state levels,” Lipper-Garabedian said. “I am proud of the record I have achieved as a former Melrose City Councillor and a state representative for Malden, Melrose and Wakefield over the last six years.”

She called Massachusetts “a beacon of hope for both this Commonwealth and across the country” for what she called “the cruelty and chaos caused by the Trump administration.”

“I didn’t always plan on being a state senator. When I saw the open seat I was motivated to pursue a campaign to fight for our communities at the state level,” McDonald said. “We have to fund our local schools. We need much more help from the state and I have not heard or seen the urgency at the state level.”

“We need to make everything more affordable, tackling costs of housing, child care and health care for working families,” McDonald added. “Our citizens are being targeted on our streets every day by the Trump administration and we have to protect them and take that fight all the way to Washington, D.C.”

“I am running for state [senator] for three primary reasons, beginning with public education, having already dealt closely with this issue as a city official,” O’Malley said. “With dwindling funds and also the quality of our schools, we are not getting what we need from the state. With education as the cornerstone of my campaign, I proud to have the endorsement of the Mass. Teachers Union, the largest teachers union in the state.”

“Government accountability, following the law to the best of our ability, is another primary reason for my campaign,” O’Malley added. “When I was first elected to the Malden City Council in 2016, we didn’t follow the Open Meeting Law and the Public Records Laws. We now do.”

“I also support the state audit to make sure our communities have all the funds we are supposed to receive,” he said. “Protecting public assets is a third primary reason I am running. I have been protecting public assets for decades … parks, schools, libraries, and I intend on continuing to do so at the local and state level.”

The candidates also responded to other transportation-related and transit-related questions from both the moderator and the audience on topics such as bike and bus lanes, state Chapter 90 transportation funding, and specific projects in the district communities.

The full Malden Safe Streets Candidates Forum is accessible free of charge on the Malden Access TV YouTube Channel and at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b05I7OkC-JE