Katjana Ballantyne says she will bring her business experience to the fore.

By Andrew Firestone

Ward 7 candidate for Alderperson Katjana Ballantyne moved to Somerville almost 20 years ago. With two daughters in the Somerville School system, and a host of non-profit and private sector businesses, Ballantyne has devoted her time to working into the community to create affordable housing as a past President of the Somerville Community Corporation, as well as founding two start-ups, Nilsson Associates, a design firm, and a company that specializes in Green economy.

Now running for Alderperson, Ballantyne said that she hopes “to give back and I have the business and community development skills that can make a difference in this ward.”

Having worked extensively in affordable housing, helping to bring the Saint Polycarp development to fruition, Ballantyne said to The Somerville News that she hopes to work to make Somerville affordable for all people.

“What we’re talking about in terms of affordability, we’re talking about trying to diversify the city’s revenue,” she said. “Right now we’re heavily dependent on residential real estate taxes and permits and fees and state aid to fund the services that the city provides.”

“If you can bring jobs in by having more commercial office space then the people who would be working here in Somerville would be spending more money here during the day,” she said.

Ballantyne’s plans for economic development are shaped by her experience working with the SomerVision program earlier this year, where she witnessed and commended the residents of Somerville for the engagement.

“The City of Somerville and the residents of Somerville have talked about how much they enjoy the diversity of Somerville, and the diversity… was defined by not only the cultural diversity but also in terms of the economic diversity here,” she said. “I think that since that has been [part of] a fabric of Somerville, I think it would be nice to keep on promoting that in terms of being able to put people who are firemen or teachers or people who work in administrative jobs to have the opportunity to live in Somerville, stay in Somerville.”

“Somerville should be a place where long-time residents can stay, families, and there are many young professionals, in a diverse community. Trying to build an affordable component in there to let people stay here I think is something that the community has expressed and that I have worked towards at least in my volunteer work.”

Ballantyne also expressed her solidarity with those who complain about the noise and trash problems that come out of Somerville’s district most near to Tufts University, and said she would do what she had to do to make up for the nuisance and enhance the “livability” of Ward 7.

“There are some absentee landlords around here who do a really good job maintaining their property,” she said, but she agreed that the problem houses do a lot of harm to the quality of life of people living in Ward 7.

“I can attest to the street-by-street issues and also think the big picture in terms of economic development and affordability and connecting jobs to that,” she said.

She said that she believed in the workforce of Somerville, saying that it was a capable and enterprising group who only need the opportunity to work in the city limits.

Ballantyne has won the approval of two non-profit organizations, the Progressive Democrats of Somerville and the Sierra Club of Massachusetts. Both of have praised her on her convictions and leadership.