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City Council

By adamg - 8/19/14 - 8:08 am

City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) wants to take a look at the role large landlords are playing in forcing longtime residents out of the city.

On Wednesday, Jackson will ask fellow councilors for a hearing to consider "displacement, community stability and neighborhood preservation."

In his hearing request, Jackson writes:

The foreclosure crisis and the surge of residential housing conversion by corporate landlords backed by investors are causing displacement and community instability.

By adamg - 8/18/14 - 7:11 pm

The City Council on Wednesday considers a request to begin looking at possible regulations over online services that let people rent apartments, such as Airbnb - and even Craigslist.

Councilor Sal LaMattina (North End, East Boston, Charlestown) says Boston needs to look at the burgeoning services before Boston's residential neighborhoods are harmed. In his request for a hearing, LaMattina writes:

By adamg - 8/14/14 - 11:07 am

BostInno reports on Anwar Faisal's appearance before a City Council committee yesterday, notes Faisal and his lawyer know how to look up Councilor Josh Zakim's campaign contributions.

By adamg - 8/6/14 - 5:46 pm

May take a moment or two to appear (it's for the fight against ALS):

By adamg - 7/30/14 - 9:49 pm

The City Council voted today to form a commission to figure out how to honor former Mayor Ray Flynn and agreed to back efforts to rename the Ferdinand complex in Dudley Square the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building.

By adamg - 7/30/14 - 1:59 pm

The City Council agreed today to hold a hearing on how to regulate Uber, Lyft and other ride-sharing services.

Councilors Bill Linehan - who proposed the hearing - and Steve Murphy said it was time for regulation to protect public safety and out of fairness to existing medallion owners, who are subject to scrutiny by the police hackney division.

By adamg - 7/30/14 - 1:33 pm

The City Council voted unanimously today to issue a formal summons to landlord Anwar Faisal to appear at a hearing on Aug. 13, or risk possible arrest.

Faisal has declined past requests to appear voluntarily at council hearings on his rental practices. City Councilor Josh Zakim, who is particularly concerned about Faisal's dealings with Northeastern University, submitted the request for a summons.

At-large Councilor Steve Murphy said he will brook no dissing of the council. "If that means we should bring in Mr. Anwar Faisal in irons, then we should do that," he said.

By adamg - 7/28/14 - 7:49 pm

At-large Councilor Michael Flaherty will ask his fellow councilors to back a change in state law that would let Boston offer detail work on road projects and at concerts and arenas to retired BPD officers, easing a shortage of detail officers and filling city coffers with extra money.

By adamg - 7/28/14 - 7:30 pm

City Council President Bill Linehan says it's time to bring companies such as Uber and Lyft under the same sort of regulations already that taxi and pedicab operators already have to follow.

On Wednesday, the city council considers a request from Linehan for a hearing on how to give city regulators say in the operation of the new services:

By adamg - 7/17/14 - 10:26 pm

Officials from the Boston Globe and the company it hired to distribute its advertising circulars told angry city councilors at a hearing today they're willing to try to keep Boston from being papered over with the circulars.

By adamg - 7/10/14 - 11:44 am

A City Council committee next week attempts to bring Globe Direct to task for its unceasing efforts to plaster Boston's porches, sidewalks and shrubs with its advertising circulars.

The hearing, by the council's Committee on City, Neighborhood Services and Veterans Affairs, starts at 4 p.m. on Thursday in the council's fifth-floor chambers in City Hall.

City Councilor Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan) called for the hearing. In a statement, he says:

By adamg - 7/9/14 - 12:57 pm

City councilors today backed a call to ask Boston Police to stop cooperating with federal immigration officials who want people held on suspicion of being in the country illegally when they are not facing criminal charges.

City Councilor Josh Zakim (Fenway, Mission Hill, Back Bay, Beacon Hill) said people should not be afraid of talking to police when they've been the victims of crimes themselves out of fear they might be picked up and deported.

By adamg - 7/8/14 - 4:51 pm

At-large Councilor Michael Flaherty says Boston Police should start posting the information on Boston's 630 Level 2 and 3 sex offenders on the city cable station for residents who might not know they can look people up on a state Web site.

Flaherty will ask the council tomorrow to approve calling a hearing to ask police why they shouldn't be required to resume the sex-offender broadcasts they stopped in 2008. His request also says police should broadcast the names and photos not just of resident sex offenders but of sex offenders who work in Boston.

By adamg - 6/26/14 - 8:37 am

MassLive reports the council voted 7-6 yesterday for a school budget that will force all BPS students in seventh and eighth grades to ride the T to school this fall, or find another way there.

WBUR reports BPS hopes to save $8 million a year by switching from school buses to CharlieCards.

By adamg - 6/18/14 - 3:04 pm

City councilors from across the city said today their constituents are complaining about the seemingly unstoppable onslaught of plastic-sheathed Globe Direct ads.

"These bags are everywhere," City Councilor Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan) said at a council meeting today. "Lawns, hedges, porches, steps."

By adamg - 6/18/14 - 7:13 am
Wu

Before a storefront business can open in Boston, it has to get a permit for its fire-alarm system. No, make that two permits: One from Inspectional Services and one from the Fire Department.

In a report submitted to the city council and the mayor today, at-large Councilor Michelle Wu says this sort of thing makes it hard for Boston to truly be the sort of entrepreneurial city it claims it wants to be.

By adamg - 6/12/14 - 11:19 am

The city council next week considers a request from Councilor Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan) for a hearing on what to do about Globe Direct's unceasing efforts to coat the entire city in advertising circulars.

In his hearing request, McCarthy reports "numerous" complaints from constituents about the sheathed ads turning into litter.

By adamg - 6/9/14 - 2:05 pm

In a message to the City Council today, Mayor Walsh says an outpouring of objections has convinced him to retain a city ordinance that requires city department heads and other top appointees to live in Boston.

But, Walsh continues, the current tough Boston housing market can make it difficult for new appointees to find a place to live here in the six months they currently have, so he wants to up the time requirement to a year.

The council will consider the proposal at its Wednesday meeting, which begins at noon in its fifth-floor chambers in City Hall.

By adamg - 6/3/14 - 8:25 am

Hidden Gems: Dearborn 6-12 STEM/Early College Academy

The City Council could vote tomorrow to authorize borrowing money to tear down the old Dearborn Middle School building on Greenville Street and transform it into a modern Dearborn 6-12 STEM/Early College Academy.

City officials hope to win a state grant to fund at least part of the project for the academy, which has used the old building for several years.

By adamg - 5/22/14 - 6:02 pm

At-large Councilor Michelle Wu, who lives in the South End, tweeted this morning:

Completely my fault for forgetting street cleaning today on Tremont, but towing from South End to Hyde Park seems excessive!!

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