It's time to cast off the decades-old "Prohibition frenzy" and anti-Irish bigotry that's turning Boston into the staid preserve of large national and regional restaurant chains clustered in just one small part of the city, City Councilor Ayanna Pressley says.
The City Council tomorrow considers a request from the at-large councilor for a hearing on ways to convince the legislature to increase the number of liquor licenses that can be doled out in Boston.
WBUR reports BPS could face a federal probe into the racial makeup of its teaching staff because it's failing to meet diversity standards set in the court order that desegregated schools in the 1970s.
The City Council takes up the issue tomorrow, when Councilor Ayanna Pressley (at large) makes a formal request for a hearing into diversity in a system where 85% of students are black, Hispanic and Asian, but 62% of teachers are white - and the vast majority are women.
Boston Daily talks to Pressley, an at-large councilor, on her home turf of Dorchester:
Yes, Ms. Pressley, we're talking to you, now that the Herald has named you a force to be reckoned with (well, or they would have if they hadn't spelled it "rekoned"): Remember what happened to the last at-large councilor who did surprisingly well and started having his name bandied about as the next mayor and don't fall in love.
Pressley victory speech by Mike Deehan/Dorchester Reporter.
Ayanna Pressley, the first-term incumbent whom many thought was most vulnerable to defeat this year, topped the field of candidates for one of four at-large City Council seats.
At-large councilors Ayanna Pressley and John Connolly say a ban might have prevented the death of Gabriel Josh-Cazir Pierre, who died locked in an unattended van for several hours last month.
"It's very possible that someone might have seen Gabriel in that van and intervened," Pressley said at a council meeting today at which she held up a T-shirt emblazoned with Gabriel's photo. The ban is part of "Gabriel's Law," a series of proposals by his mother, Virginie Cazir, who lives in the same building as Pressley.
The Globe reports ticket topper John Connolly and cash-poor Ayanna Pressley have merged their campaign finances and begun campaigning together as they run for re-election for at-large City Council seats. For Pressley, the move means immediate resources; for Connolly, it means access to new constituencies should he ever run for another office.
City Councilor Ayanna Pressley and state Attorney General Martha Coakley say a $28,500 fine imposed on the Cure Lounge will be split among four groups that provide scholarships and help to black high school students who want to go to college.
At-large Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who attended Boston University in the early 1990s, released a statement today, in advance of a hearing on sexual violence she is holding with follow first-term Councilor Felix Arroyo:
The Phoenix reports City Council President Steve Murphy will back Ayanna Pressley for re-election to her at-large seat even if Michael Flaherty tries to get back on the council this fall.
At-large City Councilor Ayanna Pressley today called for a comprehensive sex-education program and for easier availability of condoms in Boston schools.
"Not taking action, now that would be controversial. It would also be cowardly and counter to what I believe the role of government is - to solve problems and make people's lives better," she said at a hearing.
Pressley said she was not advocating teaching young people how to have sex. "Our young people already know how to have sex," she said. She said she would want any program to include discussions of abstinence. "I wish our young people would wait as long as possible to become sexually active, wait until they're older, more emotionally mature, better prepared to deal with the consequences and in a healthy, safe and exclusive relationship with a loving partner. But a solution based on wishing our young people would wait to have sex and doing nothing else is no solution at all." [Pressley's complete opening statement]
Councilor Ayanna Pressley thinks the city should be getting creative with the vacant lots on which it now dumps tons of snow after each storm: Why not turn them into neighborhood sledding and play areas?
Pressley's real intent is to identify additional locations onto which the DPW can dump even more snow than it is now - all the piles residents have had to build in recent weeks. But she will ask fellow councilors today to schedule a hearing on both better ways to clear city streets and put the snow to good use:
As promised by city councilors Mike Ross and Ayanna Pressley, a city Web site now lets you see how construction projects in the city match up with the city's construction job policy, which asks developers to ensure at least half their workers are Boston residents, 25% are people of color and 10% are women.
City Councilor Ayanna Pressley tells Adrian Walker about the guy who offered her some work at Back Bay station a few weeks ago - and that she worries about the women who don't turn him down:
"You look good and I like your walk," he told her. "You should consider working for me."
Last night, Brandon Abbs, head of People of Boston, sent supporters an e-mail update on efforts to keep four Boston Public Library branchesopen and forestall other cuts in the BPL system and accused at-large City Councilor Ayanna Pressley of "all but abandoning" her support. Today, Pressley responded to the "insulting" message.
What man doesn't have a bunch of ties in his closet he will never wear again?
Put them to good use: Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley is collecting ties for students in the Boston Public Schools' Young Men's Middle School Conference on Saturday:
Photo of councilors Mike Ross and Ayanna Pressley helping Brookline Selectman Jesse Mermell at the polls in Brookline today - Mermell is up for re-election. Another photo (Precinct 6 for those of you who know from your Brookline precincts).
Boston today gave Tom Menino a record fifth term today, re-electing him by a 57-43 margin over challenger Michael Flaherty.
"Let's be clear: We haven't made history with this election, but we will in what we create of it," Menino told supporters. History will not record the win until we make "a new Boston Miracle for our kids," he said. "Complacency is the highest hurdle we face. Let's fend off the temptation to rest on past accomplishments."
The Man Who Would Be Deputy Mayor today endorsed Felix Arroyo, John Connolly, Tito Jackson and Ayanna Pressley. His reasoning, in e-mail to supporters:
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