Tito Jackson

The Dorchester Reporter alerts us that the Roxbury district councilor isn't looking to change offices at City Hall this year, which is too bad, because we could really use a candidate with his own music video - or even one who can play a mean keyboard:

City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) spent eight hours on snow patrol on a DPW dump truck today. And he apparently took requests:

At 3:39, a constituent tweeted:

standing outside my house no plow in sight- nice thick 6 inch ice ridge in the middle of the street.

About 10 minutes later, she tweeted a truck had just come by.

Jackson replied:

That was me. Top of street hit, you section needed. Smaller truck. Any luck since I left?

City councilors from both cities are planning a joint hearing, with the World Class Cities Partnership (yes, that's a thing), to talk about ways of encouraging our smart people to stay here.

Councilors Tito Jackson (Roxbury) and Leland Cheung (Cambridge) are spearheading the effort. In 2010, Cheung and Boston City Councilor Mike Ross organized a similar session (held at the Museum of Science, which straddles the border), but then relations chilled, in part because of that whole Vertex thing. Also, some Cambridge councilors fretted Tom Menino would steal their secrets.

In a statement, Jackson says it's time to put such pettiness in the past:

Groups representing blacks, Hispanics and Asian-Americans are calling on Mayor Menino to veto - again - a City Council redistricting plan they say unfairly packs too many minority residents into a single council district - the one currently represented by Charles Yancy (Dorchester, Mattapan):

The City Council was supposed to vote on a proposal by Council President Steve Murphy today to allocate money to study how to redraw district council lines after Mayor Menino vetoed their earlier effort as shoehorning too many minority voters into too few districts.

Instead, the council voted 7-6 to pass a proposal by councilors Matt O'Malley (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain) and Tito Jackson (Roxbury) that critics said was pretty much the same thing.

JohnsonThe Globe reports on a rally in Jamaica Plain this morning for School Superintendent Carol Johnson. Among those in attendance: City Councilors Ayanna Pressley, Tito Jackson and Felix Arroyo, whom the Globe reported said nobody's perfect and she should have a chance to reform Boston schools. That puts him at odds with Councilor John Connolly, who says Johnson has made too many mistakes in her time in Boston and needs to go.

Earlier:
Petition calls for school superintendent's ouster, over her handling of the Rodney Peterson matter.

Jackson: Not happyA skeptical group of city councilors urged school officials today to reconsider a school-moving plan that would send a Mission Hill elementary school to Jamaica Plain. The full council could vote on the issue at its regular meeting next week.

At a hearing on the proposal today, City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) said the $19 million school BPS wants the city council to approve for loans - down from an earlier $21-million estimate - could be used to leverage additional state school construction money to simply build a brand-new school, reducing the number of students in 19th and early 20th-century buildings. State officials are currently sitting on payments for the renovation of Hyde Park High School, because BPS shut the school not long after renovating it.

"It really makes me angry that we've been given miserable choices amongst horrible options," Jackson said of the plan, in which Fenway High School would move to the Mission Hill K-8 building, the Boston Arts Academy would take over the Ipswich Street space it now shares with Fenway, the New Mission High School and Boston Community Leadership Academy would move to Hyde Park and a new Margarita Muniz Academy would move into the Agassiz School in JP along with Mission Hill.

City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) says it's time for the city to look at installing parking meters that let motorists pay via their smart phones.

At its regular weekly meeting tomorrow,the council will vote on a request from Jackson for a hearing into technology to enable phone-loving meters, similar to the phone payment system now in place at MBTA commuter-rail parking lots. He notes Boston already has meters that accept credit cards and CharlieCard-like smart cards.

Meter maids might not like Jackson's proposal, however - he says the meters could be set up to send text alerts to parkers when their time is almost up.

On the heels of a proposal to make black history a required part of the Boston high-school curriculum, two city councilors say student should also be given an education in Latino history.

The City Council tomorrow considers a request from councilors Felix Arroyo (at large) and Tito Jackson (Roxbury) for a hearing to consider the proposal in depth. Jackson was the co-sponsor of the black-history proposal.

At a brief hearing on the issue last month, Arroyo supported that idea, but said Latino history is equally important. In their requests for hearings on the Latino and Asian/Pacific Islander issue, the two write that Latinos make up 43% of the BPS student body and that it's important for students to know learn about the contributions Latinos and Asians and Pacific Islanders have made.

The City Council voted today to consider measures that would regulate so-called sober homes for recovering drug addicts and require pawn shops and other businesses that sell second-hand goods to tie into a Boston Police database of stolen property.

The City Council tomorrow considers a request from Councilors Tito Jackson (Roxbury) and John Connolly (at large) for a hearing on making black history a mandatory part of education for students in Boston public high schools.

In their request to hold a hearing, the two say that with so many black students in local public schools, "it is critically important for young people to know where and whence they have come and the full story of the accomplishments of their ancestors."

The weekly city-council meeting begins at noon in the council's fifth-floor chambers at City Hall. They're also aired live on Comcast channel 12, RCN channel 82 and on the Web.

The Herald reports the Together music festival will take place in Central Square this year, but City Councilor Tito Jackson vows to get it back across the river. Until then, the festival might want to change its URL and official name.

What if the schools in one neighborhood are all part of what BPS once euphemistically called "the circle of promise?" The last couple of BPS efforts to reform busing all foundered on the issue that one of its new zones would have contained pretty much nothing but underperforming schools. WBUR reports, talks to Roxbury City Councilor Tito Jackson.

The Daily Free Press reports on a forum for District 7 (Roxbury, Fenway) City Councilor Tito Jackson and challenger Sheneal Parker.

Both are running for a full term following Chuck Turner's federally sponsored exit from Massachusetts. Jackson was elected in a special election earlier this year.

Report from BNN:

Ethan Long snapped City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) at Occupy Boston's tent city in Dewey Square yesterday. Jackson tweeted today:

It is power and momentum in the making! Inspired! Get up stand up!

Posted under this Creative Commons license.

The Boston City Council voted unanimously yesterday to seek approval from the state legislature to raise the dropout age from 16 to 18.

At-large Councilor John Connolly, who co-sponsored the request with District 7 Councilor Tito Jackson, said 16 no longer makes sense in a society that has outgrown its agrarian roots, in which even a high-school diploma is barely enough to succeed. He added:

"We don't allow 16 year olds to smoke, drink or vote, but we will allow them to make a decision that will put the lowest of ceilings on their future. 16 year olds are not equipped to make that decision."

Jackson said, if nothing else, there's an economic reason for raising the age: Dropouts are far more likely to wind up in prison, and the annual cost of educating a student in Boston is $11,000, compared to the $47,000 cost of keeping a person in prison for one year.

Both councilors said raising the age will also take increased efforts by schools to work with the at-risk kids to keep them engaged and prepare them for college or the modern workforce. Connolly praised current efforts by Boston Public Schools to do that.

JacksonBoston City Councilors John Connolly (at large) and Tito Jackson (Roxbury, South End) today proposed raising the minimum age at which public-school students could leave school to 18.

The two say similar action in other states has led to dramatic decreases in dropout rates; they will hold a hearing later on dropout-prevention efforts by Boston Public Schools. If the council as a whole agrees with them, it would have to seek approval from the state legislature to change the current minimum Boston dropout age of 16.

CONTACT: Future Boston Alliance - Lumina Gershfield / 617.388.4992 /
Greg Selkoe/Karmaloop -
Sarah Cirkiel / 212.475.4919 /

***URGENT***MEDIA ALERT***URGENT***

Future Boston Alliance Announces Creative Economy and Free Boston Panels at Together Festival
- Featuring City Councilor Tito Jackson, Local Entrepreneur Greg Selkoe, and Kofi Jones Executive Director for the Commonwealth Marketing Office

WHAT:Future Boston Alliance (FBA) is excited to announce a lively community discussion between citizens, entrepreneurs, media representatives, and our state and city government with two moderated discussion panels titled, “Creative Economy” and “Free Boston” to take place as part of the Together Festival.

I just got an invitation to Tito Jackson's birthday party at the House of Blues. Something about Michael Jackson vs. Prince. Sounds like fun. The trouble is, you've got to give a little birthday present. It reminds me of Kevin White's "suggested contribution" to his wife's birthday party. Tito must be serious about running for Mayor! http://tinyurl.com/3dplmkq

Chuck Turner leaves (his complete farewell address); Tito Jackson enters.

Unofficial city results show Tito Jackson cruising to victory for the District 7 council seat formerly held by Chuck Turner, who is leaving town in a couple of weeks.

Jackson is easily defeating Cornell Mills and will serve until at least the regular council elections this fall.

One of the first to congratulate him: Matt O'Malley, until tonight the city's newest councilor, himself elected in a special election in November, who tweeted at 8:47:

Congratulations to my new colleague, Tito Jackson! I can't wait to start working together.

Unofficial returns show Jackson with 67% and Mills with 9.4%. The two will face off in a special final election on March 15 to replace Chuck Turner.

Slightly under 7% of voters turned out today.

The Tito Jackson campaign says it submitted more than 1,300 signatures to the city to get on the ballot for the District 7 city-council seat formerly held by Chuck Turner. Only 191 valid signatures are required.

A special preliminary is scheduled for Feb. 15, followed by a final election March 15.

Whoever wins will fill out the remaining 9 1/2 months of Turner's current term - unless he or she also wins in the regular fall elections.

To nobody's surprise, Jackson announced today he's running for the District 7 seat from which Chuck Turner was ejected. He might have opposition from Dianne Wilkerson's son.

Jobs, education, public safety and affordable housing top Jackson's agenda. Jackson ran for an at-large council seat in 2009, during which he put out this music video:

Turner has both threatened to sue to stop the Feb. 15 preliminary and March 15 final election and said that if he couldn't serve, Jackson would be his choice to follow him.