Councilor-at-large candidate Emily Tzioumis

Emily Tzioumis wants to make sure Waltham has a plan. She’s a public health professional who thinks a lot about “systems and institutions [that] shape our health and well-being” — and she thinks that perspective is one that the City Council needs.

When she moved to the city’s South Side in 2021, she started getting involved with her two kids’ activities and the local biking scene. She enjoys biking along the Charles River Bike Path with her kids, saying she likes that she can ride through nature trails and pop back into the city to visit the library or the Boys & Girls Club. 

These personal pursuits also drive her interest in city government. She started going to School Committee meetings with other parents of students in the city’s Dual Language School and watching City Council and Traffic Commission meetings to learn about “the nitty-gritty” of city workings.

Tzioumis said she believes the City Council has often acted reactively to Waltham’s problems instead of being sufficiently proactive. “When we’re making decisions, we [should be] thinking about not just the immediate outcomes — the Band-Aid solutions … but looking more long term at how decisions we make today set us up down the road,” she said.

As a public health worker, she said her expertise is in identifying problems before they pop up and doing the work — evaluating literature, talking to experts, finding themes across the city and comparing options — to take effective action. 

She said applying that approach on City Council would include connecting with ward councilors to learn more about ward-specific issues. It would also include determining how policy decisions could impact long-term social determinants of health — such as infrastructure, community, education, and access to physical activity and healthy food — that affect residents’ lives.

Tzioumis said that traffic and housing — both identified by Waltham Times readers as priorities in this election — are two of her campaign focuses. She wants to work toward improving road safety for drivers, walkers, bikers and people with mobility aids by improving sidewalks and addressing speeding. 

She also said public transit is lacking in many parts of Waltham, especially in the city’s north side. Ideally, she said, the city could work with the MBTA to improve coverage, but if that’s not successful, she takes inspiration from a program in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she went to grad school, which has a municipal bus system that receives some funding from the local university. 

She said she also thinks housing affordability is an area where the City Council can take more action: “If it’s not us, then who?” she asked.

Tzioumis described ways that Waltham can use zoning as a tool to increase its affordable housing units. She said she hopes to allow taller buildings on Waltham’s most highly developed main streets; to protect existing multifamily zones and permit building multifamily houses in such zones by right; and to allow what she termed “gentle density” by allowing two-family homes in some traditionally single-family areas. 

When it comes to city services — also identified as a priority by Waltham Times readers — she emphasized the importance of supporting city employees. She said she believes Waltham is good at supplying teachers and classrooms with necessary resources. But she also said teachers may be afraid to ask for everything they need and that, especially in light of the district’s high leadership turnover and the current lack of a contract with the teachers’ union, the city needs to build more trust with its educators. 

Similarly, she cited the plans to construct a new police station as a way to support the needs of first responders. “As an employer, you need to make sure your staff has a healthy workplace,” she said.

Communication with Waltham residents is also a priority for Tzioumis. She said that planning — and making those plans available to residents — will help make the city’s actions more transparent. She also wants to make sure the city collects feedback on its actions. 

Tzioumis said she wants the city to share information through more avenues, including by making city meeting agendas available beyond the City Hall bulletin board. She said she will continue sending out her own monthly newsletter if elected and spoke well of city councilors holding office hours for constituents. She also talked about accessibility of information, including making sure Waltham’s website is ADA-compliant and translating city notices into multiple languages.

Tzioumis emphasized that as a councilor-at-large she would represent everyone but added that she hopes to use her public health training to identify what constituents may be left out of the city’s conversations. 

Her answer reflects what she said is her favorite thing about the city: its diversity and how its people advocate and try to care for their neighbors, which she said “reaffirms [her] belief in humanity.”

CORRECTION: This story originally referred to “Emma” Tzioumis. Her correct name is Emily.