Not happy: Ed Flynn.
The Zoning Board of Appeal voted last week to let Sonder, a multinational hospitality chain, convert the 26 apartments it owns in a Batterymarch Street building into "executive suites" aimed mainly at traveling businessmen staying an average of four days. Read more.
Remember when the City Council rushed to get a measure to the State House to eliminate the possibility of four separate elections for mayor this year, and the legislature and the governor agreed and then Marty Walsh didn't wind up getting confirmed until after the date that would have triggered the extra special elections anyway? Read more.
Boston Police superintendents said today that they expect to spend roughly $63 million in overtime for the fiscal year that ends June 30 - less than the department spent last year, but $15 million more than the budget approved by the council. Read more.
City Councilor Ed Flynn will ask the council tomorrow to approve a hearing on whether more can be done to keep workers and people walking by construction sites safer, following last week's deaths of two workers pushed into a trench by a truck on High Street. Read more.
The City Council agreed today with a request from Councilor Ed Flynn to look at ways to give neighborhoods a say in the construction of life-sciences labs that might be doing research on potentially dangerous diseases right next to residential buildings. Read more.
The Boston City Council today went on record unanimously calling for the removal of the man who is on the precipice of becoming the first president to ever be impeached twice. Read more.
City Councilor Ed Flynn says he's had enough with South Boston residents ignoring state and city regulations that ban large parties - next week, he will ask the City Council to call in BPD and ISD to figure out how to enforce the Covid-19 regulations that too many people are flouting, even if that means increasing the current $300 fine for violators. Read more.
Several city councilors and an aide to Mayor Walsh put delivery companies on notice today: Do more to help out restaurants and consumers by curbing fees during the pandemic or the city will impose fee caps as is being done in other cities. Read more.
Councilor Kenzie Bok checked into meeting from normally busy intersection at Charles and Beacon.
Workers at the Boston Transportation Department have begun inventorying city-owned traffic cones and barrels as they ready for a coronavirus-related effort to claim parts of some city roads for expanded sidewalks to allow for greater social distancing among pedestrians - including patrons at restaurants that would be forced to reduce their indoor seating once the governor gives them the OK to re-open their dining areas - a BTD official told city councilors today. Read more.
The Boston City Council agreed today to see if there's anything in the city's taxi regulations they can change that would put the shrinking number of medallion owners on a more equal footing with Uber and Lyft drivers and let them continue driving the streets. Read more.
City councilors Michelle Wu (at large) and Ed Flynn (Chinatown, South Boston, South End, Downtown) have organized a dim-sum lunch at China Pearl in Chinatown on Saturday in part to show there's no more risk of coronavirus infection in the neighborhood than anywhere else in the city. Read more.
City Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown) wants to look at automatic recounts of close municipal elections, following last year's at-large race, in which Julia Mejia won the fourth at-large seat by just one vote. Read more.
The Boston City Council will take a look at ways to reduce the number of people who jump off parking garages following several well publicized garage-related suicides. Read more.
A City Council committee will consider whether it makes sense to let Boston Police officers continue working past the current retirement age of 65 if they're willing - and able to continue passing physicals. Read more.
City Councilors Michael Flaherty and Ed Flynn say that with the South Boston waterfront nearing a buildout - what with 20,000 residents forecast for 2030 - it's past time to begin thinking of public amenities, from a police station to a library and schools. Read more.
City Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown) wants to do something about construction workers he says are starting earlier or finishing later than allowed and leaving the streets they work on a mess. Read more.
City Councilors Michael Flaherty (at large) and Ed Flynn (South Boston) want the BPDA to shove developer's plans for more than 1,300 condos and apartments at the old L Street power station into a drawer until after the developer and Massport can proved the developers actually have the right to build a giant residential complex next to a truck route feeding into the nearby working port area. Read more.
The City Council agreed today to hold a hearing on the annual Freedom Rally on Boston Common and whether it can be turned into a less of a mess or whether the three-day event has to be moved somewhere else. Read more.
City Councilors Josh Zakim and Ed Flynn, whose districts meet in Boston Common, say they're tired of complaints about the marijuana-focused Freedom Rally on the Common every September and that it's time to move it somewhere else. Read more.
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