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In 2018, I spoke before the Peabody City Council’s Legal Affairs Committee. It was my first time speaking before the committee. The Committee was considering a ban on recreational marijuana sales in Peabody. The arguments in favor of this ban were simply weird – straight out of Reefer Madness. Many of our elected officials at that time talked about their concern for the children, for the plight of alcoholics, for the worsening opioid epidemic – but really no discussion of can

According to a 2024 article in Education Week, a publication that has covered K-12 education news since 1981, there are approximately 13,000 public school districts in the United States. The vast majority – possibly has high as four out of every five – provide transportation for students at public expense. Meaning, any child who wants a ride can get one and no fee is charged to the family. [1] Amongst those districts that charge fees, there is a broad array of variability, b

A concerned Peabody resident who wants to remain anonymous reached out to our campaign and provided the below thoughts.

According to the MA Department of Education, the “Total Expenditures per Pupil” in Peabody was about $18,874 in 2023. Now, that sounds like a lot – but when you look at the other 397 school districts in Massachusetts, Peabody is pretty far down the list. There are about 280 school districts that spend more per pupil than Peabody does. There are only about 110 school districts that are spending less.

There already exist curbside composting solutions that many Peabody residents have purchased. One way to quickly and easily reduce the amount of waste we are having incinerated and buried is to encourage more individual households, condos, apartment complexes, and businesses to use these composting services. Every ton of food waste these folks compost is another ton the rest of Peabody’s taxpayers don’t have to pay to have incinerated and buried.

On July 17, 2025, our campaign helped organize a candlelight vigil under the monument in Peabody Square. This was part of a nationwide effort to host actions in honor of John Lewis and to recommit ourselves to the cause of civil liberties and human rights.

The Teamsters Local 25 at Republic Services is on strike. Our campaign stands with labor and striking workers trying to win a better life for themselves and their families. In too many ways, our legal and economic systems are rigged against workers and working families and in favor of billionaires and the investor class. Over the course of my lifetime, the productivity of the average worker has exploded, but the wages of working folks remain stagnant. Families are squeezed be

As Pride Month comes to an end and our Independence Day celebrations begin, I wanted to take a few moments to wish everyone a Happy Pride and reflect on the freedoms we enjoy. Gay rights, like trans rights, are but a subset of the human rights.

On Saturday, June 14, 2025, approximately 40 residents of Peabody and surrounding communities came out to Peabody Square to protest the cartoonishly corrupt Trump Administration. They joined 12 million Americans across the United States who took to main streets and city squares as part of the broader “No Kings” movement.

Today, May 22, 2025, Tristan R. Brown, candidate for Peabody City Councillor, at-Large, has released a public letter decrying recent proposed staff eliminations at the Peabody Public Schools.

On March 31, 2025, Safety Environmental Consultants released a report on the air quality inside the Peabody Center School – the elementary school where two of my kids were taught before we moved to South Peabody. This report shows higher levels of certain fungal spores known to be harmful to health compared to samples taken outside. The causes identified by the report included a leaky roof. To fix the problem, the consultants recommend fixing leaks as soon as they are discove

In all honesty, I never thought that as a candidate for Peabody City Councilor – at Large I would have an occasion to make a public statement regarding due process and the rule of law. The initial plan was to release a statement on reducing traffic through increased school bussing and a proposal for increasing multi-family housing in Peabody. But then Rumeysa Ozturk, a PhD psychology student at Tufts University, was unjustly detained by federal agents and denied due process b

Local activist, writer, and attorney, Tristan R. Brown has announced he is running for the office of Peabody City Councilor – at Large. In these chaotic times, Peabody needs solid principled leadership. Now is not the time for politics as usual. Growing up in a working-class family, Tristan has an intimate understanding of how rigged the system is against poor and working people. What’s more, he knows that local government can be a positive tool to help those in need