The Herald reports Jean-Claude Sanon is gearing up for his third try for the District 5 City Council seat (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) held by Tim McCarthy.
Sanon, who lost to McCarthy in 2013 and 2015, says he has gained inspiration from the example of Donald Trump, whom few experts expected to win last fall.
The Boston City Council today approved looking into how to regulate rental services like Airbnb from laying waste to neighborhoods and harming local hotels and workers while also protecting poor homeowners who increasingly rely on the services to make ends meet and stay in the city. Read more.
The Boston City Council agreed today to hold a hearing on the vetting process for how people become constables following last week's shootout in East Boston, involving a man who the council named a constable earlier this year. Read more.
The City Council today approved a hearing on what the city should do about the exploding menace of hoverboards. Read more.
Check out the view of the Great Blue Hill from site of possible residential complex.
A developer is floating the idea of buying three parcels near the Sprague Street bridge in Readville for an eight-acre, 600-unit residential complex, just down the street from the 2.7-acre parcel another developer recently bought with plans for 240 apartments.
News of the possible market-rate complex with a pool had Readville residents in an uproar at a neighborhood meeting Thursday night, even though the developer does not yet own the land, let alone have formal plans to submit to the city. Read more.
The Bulletin reports on efforts by Hyde Park officials to clean up the neighborhood. At a meeting earlier this week, officials said that no matter what they do, the neighborhood is at a disadvantage because it's surrounded by suburbanites who use the city as their dumping ground - including a Milton pre-school that was dumping all its trash in the neighborhood.
This is not a new complaint.
Hyde Park Main Streets and City Councilor Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) hold a community meeting on littering tomorrow, starting at 6 p.m. at the new Salamanders Cafe, 1231 River St.
City councilors said today they will work to craft a proposal that would let Boston drop the speed limit on most roads to 20 m.p.h. - just 15 m.p.h. in school zones. Read more.
Councilor Tim McCarthy (Roslindale, Mattapan, Hyde Park) says he has nothing against the time honored tradition of yard sales. But he says something has to be done about people who are turning them into full-scale commercial enterprises, disrupting blocks with traffic, noise and trash. Read more.
City Councilors Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan) and Michelle Wu (at large) want the T to publicly explain why people who use the Fairmount Line or who board the train at Forest Hills pay so much less than people who take commuter rail in from Roslindale and other parts of Hyde Park in particular. Read more.
City Councilors Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale and Mattapan) and Michelle Wu (at large) hope to hold a hearing at which MBTA officials can explain the differing fares for commuter-rail stations within Boston city limits - in particular at stations south of Forest Hills. Read more.
City Councilor Matt O'Malley (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury) says Comcast just isn't cutting it for Boston and wants to look into ways to get Verizon to bring its fiber-optic connections into town - or other companies or utilities that might do so.
RCN isn't really competition enough for Comcast and with FiOS stopping at the city line, Boston is in danger of falling on the wrong side of the digital divide for a lack of competition, O'Malley said at a City Council meeting today. Read more.
City Councilor Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) thinks local schools need to educate students on what to do if they find syringes, needles and similar implements in public spaces.
McCarthy's district includes Readville, where a 7-year-old girl was pricked by a discarded needle at Iacono Playground last month. Read more.
The City Council today approved a hearing on conditions for housekeepers at the Wyndham Hotel on Blossom Street, whom they said are routinely exposed to blood, feces, vomit, syringes and other possibly unhealthy materials left in rooms by Mass. General patients staying at the hotel. Read more.
City officials joined with residents, new store owners and Historic Boston on Fairmount Avenue today to re-dedicate the Vertullo Building.
The building, which dates to 1868 - the year Hyde Park became a town - has space for five stores on the first floor and four apartments above. Historic Boston bought the building in 2011 and spent $1.3 million renovating it. Read more.
Massport's Flavio Leo discusses runways and planes.
A City Council hearing today on resident complaints about low-flying jets from Roxbury to Hyde Park and Milton was sort of moot, because the Massport officials who did attend stressed they have nothing to do with deciding which planes fly where or how.
At-large City Councilor Steve Murphy, who lives on Fairmount Hill in Hyde Park had a simple answer: "From this point forward think of us as plaintiffs," he told the Massport officials.
The Zoning Board of Appeals this morning unanimously approved a proposed 27-unit apartment building next to the Fairmount commuter-rail station.
The Southwest Boston Community Development Corp and the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corp. plan to spend $7 million to build 24 units for people making up to 60% of the area's median income and 3 apartments for people making between 60% and 80% of that amount. It will be built on a derelict piece of former industrial land.
City Councilors Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan) and Michelle Wu (at large) - who recently had a son - want to let city employees who have kids take time off with pay.
Under their proposal:
During the leave period, the employee shall be paid 100 percent of her or his base wages for the first two weeks, 75 percent of his or her base wages for the following two weeks, and 50 percent of base wages for the remaining two weeks.
Employees would be able to take off longer periods of time without pay.
City officials said today they are pouring extra manpower into cleaning up city streets and sidewalks as the snow melts, but say making Boston shine again is going to take help from residents.
City Councilor Sal LaMattina (North End, East Boston, Charlestown) said he hopes residents put as much effort into cleaning the curbs and sidewalks in front of their homes as they put into helping neighbors shovel out their cars.
"We're all in this together," he said at a hearing called by Councilor Matt O'Malley (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain) to look at city plans for post-snowpocalypse cleanup.
All quiet today at the South Boston snow farm. Photo by Conventures.
City Councilors Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan) and Mark Ciommo (Allston/Brighton) say the past month suggests the city needs better equipment for clearing city streets in the winter.
The two say that despite valiant efforts of city DPW workers, all the snow led to "gridlock and dangerous conditions" across the city and that residents continue to struggle just to get up and down their own streets.
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