None of this will work. We need a policy where if a crime is commited, then the land/house of the guilty would be bulldozed. There will be a lot of empty lots popping up and after a few years, we could start rebuilding and selling to decent people when the rats are gone. Lots of pain to come, but it was let out of hand too much.

Two things regarding the undercover cars.
1) While more undercover cars would be nice - more marked vehicles would provide more of a presence.
2) The Middlesex Sheriff's Office use to have "UC" cars available for loan as part of a partnership. Are they still available?

And as a response to Don: The majority of crimes are committed by people not living in this city. Lets talk about realistic solutions.

We could put up a big fence and ask people to show their papers that they live in Malden. Oh wait, that's Arizona!

Open the "Gary Christenson Center for Kids to Read Really Good and Stuff"

That's one Zoolanderesque picture right there.

Citywide resident permit parking stickers. None of this neighborhood specific curfew type stuff. I see far too many NH plates in my neighborhood.

What about "shot spotter" ????

I wish there was something we could do to prevent "thugs" from sitting in cars on our street staring down houses and doing drugs in their cars, while intimidating those of us who LIVE on the street.

I hate that my kids and I are afraid to go sit on our own front porch because there are "sketchy" people sitting in their cars right in front of our house!

I was at that meeting and I heard alot of angry people. I have lived in Malden for 28yrs and I think the Mayor is doing a great job after the mess the other mayor left. We have to remember that this Mayor needs time to clean up. We all need to pitch in and do our part. That includes voluntering were need be and not just complaining. I am in favor of the parking permits.

I have family and friends from out of state who visit frequently. They have out of state plates. How exactly is the City supposed to tell the difference? Prohibiting visitors is a good way to make the quality of life in our fair city decline. This needs to be thought through very carefully. In cases where people hold family gatherings, like a summer pool party, or a birthday party, we don't want to have to purchase a half dozen permits for our family to drop by, or worry about their cars being ticketed. Part of being a homeowner is being able to have guests over. Do we need the added stress of worrying about our guests' cars?

Which brings up another point - in order for something like this to work, additional traffic enforcement officers need to be hired. As it is, they aren't patrolling around the schools to make sure the streets are unobstructed. Maybe we should start by enforcing the laws that are currently being broken?

Everything I see here is public tax money invested in more government jobs and permitting to raise more revenue. That is already not working as displayed by the current crime. Putting more money into that is quite frankly, stupid.

Invest the tax money into invigorating the areas ridden with crime making them more appealing to both businesses and residents alike. Doing this will make good people want to live and work in Malden, driving the bad out. Having more private jobs in the area will also keep people busy making them less likely to commit crime in the first place because they will not only be busy, they will have money they have earned. Clean the streets, build & maintain public parks, fix the roads, light the dark areas, relax small business permitting laws and support their growth. This is not rocket science.

I remember last time they talked about the resident parking. Went to one of the meetings it wasn't perfect but it would help in my neighborhood. Then they specifically said you didn't need any sticker on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays during the day. So having pool parties is no problem. They did say parking would be restricted at night to residents and those with passes that residents could get can't remember how many.

Using the excise tax from people not paying the city for the cars that are not registered here is what they talked about last time. Heck why should I pay if the guy down the street doesn't have to pay?

Community policing efforts worked once before and can work again. When officers are out of their cars and interacting in positive ways with the community crime goes down. I'm happy to see more officers on bicycles and the beat cop in Malden Square.

While the ideas proposed are good ones, I think we need to focus on preventing crimes rather than only catching criminals after they commit them. The idea of permit parking is a great one. Those of us that live in Malden need to take back our city. I'm sure visitor passes would solve the problem for those who have guests. Another thing I was thinking about was curb appeal. The streets are dirty and have no life. If people here were proud to live here, it may discourage people from committing crimes. Growing up in Malden, we used to have trees on the sidewalk and neighborhoods were pretty to drive though. Now, everything is run down and there is pavement where the trees once were. I think we need to invest in Malden and encourage its residents to be proud of where we are from, rather than being scared and not being able to sit on our front stairs. Putting money back into the community for beatification and local businesses would help deter criminals by showing them we care about where we live and not to mess with us.

People having to be responsible for cleaning and sweeping the sidewalk and curb in front of their own home should be mandatory. We cannot always think the government should do for us. For those absentee landlords they should get fined if they aren't doing it.

I think most of the mayor's ideas are good ones. Me? I'm all for permit parking - and this is coming from someone who bought a home in Malden that had no driveway - took me 10 years to put one in - had to - when it snowed I don't know where all the cars came from all of a sudden & took all the spaces - hell, one night I shoveled out a space for my husband as he had to work late and some idiot -FROM SOMERVILLE tried to move my barrels - I was out there in boots and my bathrobe and my neighbors wife sent her husband out to make sure I was OK! It would be nice too if the Winter parking rules were also enforced - and having had an attempted breakin at my home (4 different ways were tried to get in) I don't feel comfortable with strange cars hanging around either.

Mayor Christianson has done a remarkable job so far. Please realize he's hamstrung by the failed policies of Beacon Hill over the past 50yrs!
Mr Mayor, if you read this, I'd like you to strongly consider scrapping that proposed ball field @ Centre/Commercial. I'd like you to look into a development similar to Station Landing with high-end condos sold in the 200k-300k's That would be a substantial boost to the cities coffers! That development has been a homerun for the City of Medford!

Parking permits do work if the rules are enforced, I live in Oak Grove and we have parking stickers plus we can get two cards for visitors, they do work.

Much of Ward 2 Pct 1 is Resident Parking Only.

Anyone see the present police chief or the council president last night? I saw the future police and fire chief but not the present ones. Maybe i missed them.

I believe generalissimo Coates has our answer. Put a no fly zone over the city of Malden and ask the free Syrian army to patrol every corner in our beloved city.

would love permit parking in ward 4 all rooming houses here with college kids no where for anyone to park and they all have out of state plates....also would love trash and recycle barrels with lids and wheels like everett has it would help clean up malden.

parking permits would be nice to many rooming houses in malden tons of out of state plates overnight

Good point on those rooming type houses. There are so many houses being rented now that were singles and have four or five tennants living together. At least they woudl have to register and pay their excise tax and then city could find out and crack down. Right now pretty difficult because they deny living there when people show up and how does anyone prove it? If they deny if there was permit parkign they don't get a sticker and then they get ticketed and city still finds out. Time has come

I really dont like the permits, they limit family and friend interaction. That said, parking permits might work if they were actually enforced! I live on a street that already has permit parking and nary a ticket is given out. Our street is a mess, people speeding, blocking driveways and fire hydrants, children all around and constantly in danger of being kiled by cars. I have called the parking and traffic folks who while friendly, are ineffective. The parking enforcement guy does not come down our street and only works until 4...the permit is in effect until 7! As for some of the other suggestions...unmarked cars, I say not so much. Marked cars, working their beats and ENFORCING the law would be a great start. Hiring clean-up crews to get rid of the garbage that is dropped or blown around the city, planting trees, better street signage....all of these thing will make this city better. I am happy that the Mayor is doing something, anything and he really seems to care about the city!

JohnQ, here is info on "Shot Spotter"
http://science.howstuffworks.com/shotspotter.htm

Again, people....how in heck is parking permits going to deter crime?

Feeling down? Drink 5 hour energy to pick you up !!

To broadway Jay....I have a twitter account, but never do anything with it. I tried to find you there, but was not successful.

Flagged Diana & Annie O as inappropriate :)

Diana and Annie O are not
inappropriate. They are regular posters with a stake in the game. I would feel uncomfortable without a competing view!.

Are the cameras monitored in real time or are they more of an after the crime tool?

If they are not monitored in real time, I would rather see the money spent toward more on the street police presence.

Also, why do Police Cars in Malden only have one officer per car? Often when there is a situation they have to call another car to assist putting them and the community at greater risk if they cannot handle the suspect alone.

Resident parking stickers is not going to help because a lot of the suspicious characters in my neighborhood are on foot and just hop onto the nearest bus or go back to their assisted living paid hotel room.

If life was perfect it would be boring. Soon Chris will get his wish and they'll exist no competing views on Patch and the comment section will turn into the NPR on a Sunday morning. You lost a really good commenter Mr Mokel on that dog discussion this weekend.. I'm one of the transient residents now.. I'm out!

Mentoring and keeping young people busy would be a start. Too many teens hanging around without constructive things to do. If someone has minor offenses, why not have that person clean up around the city, clean graffitti, etc. May encourage them to stay in school. Is there still a curfew in place for minors?
Malden takes on too many problem people from Other cities and towns!!
Years ago, truant officers were present and a minor had to explain why he/she was not in school. Uniform police have more of an impact as long as they are walking the beat and not standing around talking to eachother. The only time I have seen a police officer, other than in a patrol car, has been in Stop and Shop or other details though I realize from the police logs they are quite busy. More live cameras and police would know were to go.
I agree that people need to be responsible for keeping their property clean and this includes businesses; whether they own the building or not. No more apartments or condos until Malden can take care of the people it has and the littering. Many, many vacancies now and with the frequency Malden makes the news, I do not believe anyone with 300,000 will be buying a condo in Malden. Maybe time to look to other cities and towns to see how they made positive changes.

To Chris Caesar, why do you start these threads, invite comments, and then just delete them, because you don't agree with them? Seriously? Is there something wrong with opposing views? When friends or family members say things you don't like, do you delete them too? Maybe you're not the guy to be running this site.

Comments have to be approved now? Why is this... Anyway, I'm pretty sure that most of these ideas came from you: the Patch commenters, the meeting attenders, and the office callers. You can ennact change. All of your suggestions were heard and considered. Keep involved, everyone. :)

Parking permits will help with illegal rooming houses and people who do pay taxes in malden and cant find a spot because of 20 people living in a house...if you have a a legal rooming house u pay more taxes for it and need a big enough yard for tennents the city could use the extra $$ for more police to help w crime...i feel bad for alot of my neighbors who have to park blocks away just to park..then they get ticketed we need parking permits bad it helps with alot of things n more money for the city better for us

Right michael victor i agree with everything you said.....amen!!

Chris, why don't you enforce the Patch policy of using your real name when posting. It's kind of like a parking sticker. That would deter most of the haters. For those who say this is a public forum and they should be able to remain anonymous, remember there are laws in all public places.

For crying out loud, can some of the posters here stay on topic? If you have a problem with Patch's TOS, bring it up with the editor in a private email. The rest of us don't need and want to see your snarky comments! This applies mostly to Erik Royds, broadway jay and paul surette.

Parking permits went down in flames a couple years back, when it was brought up at city hall. Ward 6 councilor proposed it then and the council tried to make it work. Gary(as a councilor) tried to sell it then & residents were up in arms. Ward 6 councilor is being out in charge of it now. We'll have show & tell meetings and the parking permits rules will be jammed through anyway. I've seen this script already. I know how it ends.

The parking sticker went down in flames less than a year ago. Mayor Gary backed off when he listened to the citizens. At least he had the guts to show up and hear us. Kinnon was nowhere to be found at the Linden School meeting. Judy Bucci and Mayor Gary were handed an earful from the citizens and after that the matter was tabled. The parking permits would require hiring more friends and family to administer the program. Before we add any more regulations and fines and/fees how about enforcing what we already have?

We need to demand our leaders stop squeezing us for more money. They need to get serious about bringing in real business that would employ people and not strain our already stretched infrastucture. No more apartment buildings but more commercial business. Too many "For Rent or Lease signs in buildings. Food trucks are not enough.

Before any business in their right mind would move into Malden, they have to know they are safe. Revenue from people registering their cars in Malden and paying the exise tax will not be the cash waterfall the pro sticker few on the Council think it will be. Remember the trash bags? How many jobs was that supposed to save? This is the lazy way out of financing the needs of the city. Outdated and short sighted thinking on the Council's part to continue with the "tax and spend" mentality.

Hey that's not true that is the meeting I went to at Linden and Kinnon was the one w ho presented it and took the questions. Didn't go to the Beebe or the City Hall one after so not sure but he sure was there. I like a lot of things you say but when it comes to your Councillor you can't be trusted to tell the turth I think you are just to jaded at this point. As for stickers well for me I am sick and tired of the Not rooming houses dominating the area and bet any amount they are not paying there excise tax and if it means the police know who are in the neighborhood well that would certainly be good. Annie I remember the trash bags all too well and this Mayor and your Councilor fought against them and you can spin the nonsense all you want but every sane person knows thats the truth so stop with it we the people lost that one and you were just another player who was dissapointed in it. Move on to new things would you.

@bostonurbex, are you the official spokesman for the city now?

Maybe they did there own meeting but I was at the Public Safety meeting at Linden and Kinnon gave the presentation answered all kinds of questions good sized crowd and when asked the majority of people wanted the stickers very clear. Maybe they had there own meeting. I know nothing at what happened at the other meetings but she is full of nonsense when it comes to her Councilor and one doesn't have to agree with him but her insinuating the guy was hiding is just more of her nonsense and jadedness. And just sick about hearing her rant about the bags time to get over it.

Decided to go look online for an article about this. http://malden.patch.com/articles/resident-sticker-parking-program-oulined-at-public-hearing Well here is the proof that what I am saying is true about the meeting I went to. Guess Annie O was the one who was nowhere to be found. Maybe she was so angry she blocked this one out of her memory bank. Maybe if we had done this back then we would have been able to beef up our police already with whatever they needed. Money to do it has to come from somewhere and for my part lets have most of it come from those not paying their excise taxes. Click the link for the Linden meeting article on Patch. I am going to look for the others now. http://malden.patch.com/articles/resident-sticker-parking-program-oulined-at-public-hearing

Here's another one of the meetings I missed that was reported on. It seems reading it by this time the parking permits were free upfront for everyone paying excise. Wish they had done it then. Time lost. Says police chief and unioin head of police were in support. http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2011/03/resistance_skepticism_at_last.html

Funny thing also read some of the blogs then and Joe G and Annie O you both railed against it then which everyone is entitled to their opinion. But you both also rail that we need more public safety which most people seem to agree. What is your plan to get the money to do that ? Where would it come from? Not like a lot of money lying around in this city? Its easy to complain but the Mayor is bringing solutions most which cost money what's it going to come out of? DPW? Fire Dept? Schoools? If your going to not like one thing but think we need more for public safety (police) what is your alternative? Anyone can rail against something.. the serious people are the ones that provide and alternative.

Awww....look everyone....the kids on Patch are fighting....maybe we should call them the 'Cabbage Patch Kids' :)

Wait, I don't get it.

M Victor: Funny, of the 3 links you provided, 2 were the same and I am actually pictured as being in attendance in one of them! Since you weren't at the last one, please don't call me a liar about Neil not being there. There were several meetings and the last one Neil didn't show. Shortly after that meeting and with the input during other meetings the matter was tabled. Case closed.

Maybe you have plenty of disposable income and don't mind the admin taking the easy way out to simply tax and spend. We have the potential in this city for tremendous opportunities for commercial business (not talking nail salons and dollar stores) yet the only avenues for raising revenue is to build more apartment buildings and tax the residents. We have $5mil (so far) in free cash and who knows how much waste Mayor G is uncovering as we speak?

From one of the articles you cited (thank you!):
"The cash, in turn, would provide a needed bump going forward each year that would help support the salaries of the new parking enforcement officers and to maintain the thousands of signs required to make the plan feasible."

I am not interested in creating more jobs for friends and family of the politicos of the city. Perhaps you are not aware your friend Neil Kinnon has loaded the charter school with his friends and family regardless of their qualifications. I have a problem with that, yes. And your telling me to leave him alone won't stop me.

So Joe G you complain about Public Safety all the time. What's your solution cut's where? Forget Annie she is more concerned about bashing her Arch enemy every chance she gets. Its simply an obsession so no use there she is so filled with hate its eating at her.

Cut the blue bag program. Cut the waste being found at city hall. Make the financial audits more transparent so residents know how the tax dollars are being spent on endless leveraged bonding of city assets to pay for boondoggles. Yeah. I have my pet peeves. No mystery there. And yes, I don't have any clear solutions. And yes, I do NOT like more taxes. You can figure out the rest. I'm being just as logical as any one else on these boards.

Surprise surprise. Name some waste please I am sure there is some but nobody is ever specific out here. YOu know why they have no idea just like me. Whats the biggest part of any city budget? Well that's where people usually start to look for waste. Joe how bout it, Call your Councilor get the budget and then go through it and make some suggestions. YOu and Annie claim there is all this waste at City Hall but the big three is where all the money is in every city. Police, Fire Schools. Who's cutting the police? Annie isn't letting you cut the Fire, Schools Joe you know you aren;t going there you don't think they have enough. Well how about DPW yea they are way overmanned. So you want more for schools, more for police and fire, more clean streets and sidewalks but cut the millions from the bags already built in. Hey I know lets go Wisconsin and break those union contracts. You up for that Joe and Annie? Betting your not. Nope get that five million out of City Hall. Oh forgot they have millions in unfunded pensions maybe raid that? either step up or stop whining would ya solutions its easy to complain I know cause I do it all the time

Such a voracious appetite Michael. I answer the question and it is not good enough. There is no amount of answering that will be good enough, when you're invested in not believing anything from an opposite point of view. You have no solutions, but you challenge me to fix things for you. What am I, your councilor? :-)
just dig up some past news articles for yourself. I believe a couple million$ or so was found in the Malden city coffers after an audit that the comptroller, the mayor and the city council had no idea that we had. Poor to non-existent bookkeeping at city hall. Yep. In the news. Too bad, I seem to be the only remembering some of the shenanigans at city hall.
I'm not the one scaring people with doomsday scenarios. I'm leaving that all to you. I'm hoping things get fixed. And I'm hoping taxes aren't raised(again) to fix problems, that were promised to be fixed several tax raises ago, by all of the intervening tax raises. You can't get a real budget of of city hall with a crow bar. I've seen anti-tax groups in town try. And what we do get is redacted with many questions unanswered.

Careful Joe....stating your opposing views might just get you deleted :)

I have come to dismiss Caesar.....not praise him :)

Oh here we go again another spellchecker. Is this a neat way of calling one stupid or uneducated? Is this part of the rules Ceaser learning to spell n type.haaaaaaaa They all want to be like me Big Fish In A Little Brook haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Hey Cris just thought of a new name "THE MALDEN BASH" I have come to the conclusion its more fun to sit here and read and watch everyone go Bonkers !

HEY CHRIS what happened to the computer thingy that was great dont see it no more.