Felix Arroyo

Arroyo speaks at Occupy Boston.

Local unions came out swinging in favor of Occupy Boston today. At an afternoon rally, the final speaker wasCity Councilor Felix Arroyo, himself a former organizer for the SEIU. Afterwards, Arroyo was asked about Council President Steve Murphy's comments this morning that he's worried about an estimated $2-million-a-month cost for police overtime and about the arrival of "professional agitators."

Arroyo said he has not seen any figures from the police department yet on the costs of patrolling the occupation, or Murphy's comments, so he said he could not really comment on either.

But, Arroyo said, "The question is, though, what the cost is to the city if we don't change our economic practices now, what is the cost then and that's the lense I hope we [use to] look at this, to say what is the cost to all of us if we continue on this track, if we continue on the track where 99% of the population is essentially struggling and 1% has all our wealth."

Apparently, Michael Graham thinks a Texas Starbucks franchise was within its rights to fire a woman with dwarfism. Dan Kennedy wants to know just what went down on a Graham segment on 96.9 yesterday for which City Councilor Felix Arroyo was a guest:

Councilor Arroyo, you appeared on Michael Graham's show yesterday while Graham and his fellow guest Rob Eno were making fun of people with dwarfism. What do you have to say about that? Will you be issuing a statement? Will you appear again? Will you demand that WTKK post the audio on its website so that we can judge whether your own comments were appropriate or not? Thank you.

Arroyo responds (in the same discussion):

I was the only who disagreed with the woman being fired because of her dwarfism. I believe Starbucks should have found work she could have performed.Should I be invited, I will appear on the program again. Our democracy depends on deferring opinions in debate. If liberals cede talk radio to conservatives, then only one side gets heard. We can’t allow one ideology to dominate the airwaves.

He adds he wants the station to post a copy of the segment.

At-large City Councilor Felix Arroyo also sent a letter to the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council last week about Whole Foods. He makes many of the same points as State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz about the need for local hiring and gentrification. Unlike Chang-Diaz, however, he doesn't tell Whole Foods to pay up or move out; his letter is instead full of "coulds."

At-large Councilor Felix Arroyo tells Bay Windows he deliberately scheduled an LGBT fundraiser on Sunday:

As an At-Large City Councilor, I represent all of Boston and all of Boston's residents. I take that responsibility very seriously. An entire community that I represent is excluded from marching in the parade. While the Supreme Court said it is legally permissible to exclude LGBT groups, I cannot in good conscience march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade until everyone else can.