u/martinformaplewood

Hey all! I’m Martin. I’m running for Township Committee in Maplewood. The primary election is on June 2nd where 3 candidates are running for 2 seats. I’m excited by the enthusiasm for my campaign on this subreddit. (Shoutout to my “All-star poster” - To dispel the rumors, no they don’t volunteer with my campaign, but maybe they should, as they’re doing such a great job)

The issue I’m most passionate about and the main reason I’m running is to fight for safer streets in Maplewood. Earlier this year my close friend, a fellow dad and organizer, was nearly killed a block from his home on our street, Parker Avenue. The urgency of making our streets safer has never been clearer to me. Our community raised $100K for him and his family, and this is the community I see in Maplewood. Not anonymously tearing people down, but helping out our neighbors in need. My candidacy was recently endorsed by the Safe Streets PAC NJ and Climate Revolution Action Network, the largest Gen Z organizing force in the state.

I’m a dad, a community organizer, and a safe streets advocate. I use media to communicate and organize. To learn more about me I’d encourage you to check out my media on instagram

• maplewoodbikelanes - transportation advocacy
• somabikebus - SOMa Bike Bus which I co-founded with other local parents
• martinformaplewood - our campaign

I’ll be answering questions with my campaign manager Jessica tonight, answering questions from 8-9PM. I’ll prioritize upvoted questions so please ask questions and upvote the ones you want answered.

I value face-to-face discussions and conversations, see my campaign page to find me at events so we can connect in person. I’m bad with names but good with faces so come say hello! I'm really excited that we're bringing our public transit to life for one day this Saturday as a "Swamp Trolley" to Baker Street Flea. Ride the Swamp Trolley, it'll be a fun party bus, shop Baker Street Flea and say hi, and stop by the after party from 5-7PM at Perla! Details on our instagram.

To learn more about our campaign and how to get involved visit our website martinformaplewood.com and read my campaign kick-off speech in the Village Green.

Miscellaneous things about me

• I was born in Oakland, CA and grew up in Champaign-Urbana, IL. My dad is a physicist at the University of Illinois. My late mother was a school social worker in rural Illinois. I’ve always been a nerd, I first sold web software I wrote in high school during the dawn of the web in the 90’s, while the first graphical web browser, Mosaic, was born across the street from my high school at NCSA.
• I'm 42. My wife and I moved to Maplewood in 2011 from Manhattan. My 3 kids are born and raised in Maplewood; they are currently 8, 11, and 13. They’ve attend Our Lady of Sorrows Nursery and Pre-School, Seth Boyden Elementary, and Maplewood Middle School. I've been a dad at Seth Boyden for 8 years and absolutely love the community. I’m terribly saddened by the recent news that OLS Nursery may be closing; the staff there was so incredibly nurturing for our young family.
• My wife Kelly is a co-founder of SOMa Action, former chair of the Community Coalition on Race, and professionally she has worked in homeless services and affordable housing for the past 20 years. Her condition for me running was that I would push for more affordable housing in Maplewood.
• As I grew up in Illinois I pronounce milk “melk” and my NJ-native wife finds it horrifying.
• I have a BFA in Photojournalism from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MPS in Interactive Telecommunications from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. I’ve worked as a photojournalist at The Jersey Journal in Hudson County (RIP) and a photo editor at Redux Pictures. I co-founded the startup Project Noah, a wildlife repository. I’ve worked at countless startups that you’ve never heard of, building iOS and web applications. I was part of the 5-person team that built and scaled the viral live trivia game show app HQ Trivia (RIP) a decade ago. The internal drama was recently featured on a podcast Boom/Bust: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia. For the last five years, I worked in big tech at Snap and Meta. I left Meta earlier this year and don’t plan to return to big tech.
• I’m passionate about sustainability and electrification. My introduction to town government was volunteering on the Green Team a decade ago, helping with the installation of the first EV chargers in Maplewood. I’ve driven an EV for a decade, I have solar panels on my home and have converted our house exclusively to heat pumps for all of our heating & cooling. I believe the town should be doing more to educate, inform, and support residents about electrification, energy efficiency, and sustainability.
• I just returned from a refreshing trip to Europe where I was in Lisbon and Barcelona meeting Bike Bus community organizers from around the world. With such darkness in our country and world right now, meeting fellow organizers, parents, activists and young people who are inspiring kids to get outside, and bringing joy and community to their towns is a guiding light for me. Not everything is doom-and-gloom. It was also a reminder that what we do here in SOMa can have an impact far beyond our borders.

UPDATE: I'm here with Jess and we're starting things a little late but going through the questions and aiming to provide thoughtful responses. Thanks to everyone who submitted one! Us: https://imgur.com/i8L9nNl

UPDATE: It's approaching midnight and I'm going to call it. Thanks for the thoughtful questions!