The Longfellow Area Neighborhood Association and other civic groups will host an online forum for the four candidates running to represent District 5 - Roslindale, Hyde Park and Mattapan - at 7 p.m. on July 18.
Incumbent Ricardo Arroyo faces challenges from Jean Claude Sanon, Enrique Pepén and Jose Ruiz.
At-large City Councilor Michael Flaherty of South Boston announced today this year will be his last on the council. Read more.
City Councilor Kendra Lara (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill) says she's fed up with what she considers the "homophobic and transphobic rhetoric" from Councilors Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, downtown), Michael Flaherty (at large) and Erin Murphy (at large) in the days after first responders found a dead man in a Mary Ellen McCormack apartment. Read more.
The state Ethics Commission reported yesterday that City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) has paid a $3,000 fine for not withdrawing as a lawyer, after his election, from the lawsuit his brother, former City Councilor and mayoral aide Felix Arroyo, filed against the city over his firing. Read more.
The Bay State Banner lists the City Council races that could have contested races this fall, including the four at-large seats and Districts 3 (Dorchester), 5 (Hyde Park, Mattapan and Roslindale), 6 (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, part of Mission Hill) and 7 (Roxbury).
Public-housing advocate Phyllis Corbitt can sue whomever she wants, but the Massachusetts Union of Public Housing Tenants today asked a federal judge to strike its name from her role as a plaintiff in the suit over how the Boston City Council re-set its district boundary lines, because she had no authority to hitch the group's wagon to a lawsuit over the issue. Read more.
The Boston City Council voted 10-2 today for a new redistricting map that keeps a largely White part of Dorchester in its old council district. Read more.
The Dorchester Reporter reports on groups seeking to "intervene" - become part of - the suit over how to redraw Boston city council districts based on 2020 census data. The council voted yesterday to ask the state legislature for dispensation to delay the deadline for accepting nomination papers into June to give it more breathing room as it considers several possible maps, from both councilors and Mayor Wu.
City Council President Ed Flynn today submitted a proposed ordinance barring councilors and others who work in council offices from attacking and bullying council staffers. Read more.
The Dorchester Reporter posts a copy of the proposal by Mayor Wu for new City Council district lines - it would move Cedar Grove and Adams Village back into what is now Frank Baker's district, keep the South Boston housing projects in what is now Ed Flynn's district, but move South Boston from Flynn's district into the district that had been represented by the now departed Kenzie Bok. Line changes involving Roslindale and Mattapan are also included.
The City Council today agreed to try to redraw lines for the nine district councilors by May 30, the last day city lawyers say the city can use new maps in time to hold preliminary elections on Sept. 12 and final elections on Nov. 7, in a process that, as has become typical, showed a continued fault line between the council majority and its four most conservative members. Read more.
A federal judge today ordered city officials to stop their preparations for the fall district council elections, ruling that the maps approved last fall are illegal because they relied on race to draw the boundaries between two largely Dorchester districts without proof racially based solutions were needed in Boston. Read more.
The Dorchester Reporter gets the scoop: Frank Baker will not run for re-election this fall for the mostly Dorchester District 3 city-council seat he's held since 2012. Read more.
City officials are organizing a pilot for stocking libraries, community centers, schools, shelters and other municipal buildings with menstrual products for women who might otherwise have trouble getting them, City Councilor Gabriela Coletta says. Read more.
The Boston City Council yesterday approved a proposal by the Wu administration to encourage builders and contractors to turn away from natural-gas systems and towards all-electrical ones in new buildings and buildings undergoing major renovations, in part by requiring potentially expensive higher-efficiency systems and wiring to allow for future electrification. Read more.
Update: Bok will resign on April 28.
Mayor Wu announced today she's named Councilor Kenzie Bok (Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway, Mission Hill) as the next administrator of the Boston Housing Authority, which provides housing and housing vouchers for 62,000 Bostonians.
Read more.
Flaherty with a "meth and crack pack" he pulled out of his jacket pocket.
City officials from Chelsea traveled across the Mystic today to tell Boston city councilors how a ban on 50-mil liquor bottles has meant fewer drunken incidents for police and EMTs to respond to and cleaner and even safer streets. Read more.
The Boston City Council today unanimously approved a proposed plea to the state legislature to grant Boston 250 new liquor licenses - but only for certain neighborhoods. Read more.
City Councilor Liz Breadon (Allston/Brighton) today proposed banning local pet shops - including one in her district - from selling guinea pigs, which she says are beginning to overwhelm local animal shelters, and which are now even showing up on Boston streets as strays. Read more.
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