The Bay State Banner reports on a contentious City Council hearing on the idea of letting civilians get part of the construction detail game, in which the police union president went over his allotted five-minute talk time and so city councilors Kenzie Bok, Kendra Lara and Ruthzee Louijeune walked out until he was done.
City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson (Roxbury) today proposed a halt on any further sales of city-owned vacant land in Roxbury for development until neighborhood residents get more of a say on what gets built on it before any RFPs to developers are published. Read more.
Fernandes Anderson plays racist voice mail she got.
City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson (Roxbury) had enough this afternoon.
Slamming her desk in frustration at what she says is the treatment of Black and Hispanic councilors, Fernandes Anderson turned a discussion about a proposed effort to redistrict Boston into a cry of disgust that started with the way Councilor Ricardo Arroyo is being treated to an exposition on fears in her district that redistricting led by a white councilor will mean minorities will remain at a disadvantage in Boston. Read more.
In a contentious meeting in which Council President Ed Flynn had to keep banging his gavel, telling both councilors and residents to keep quiet, Councilor Frank Baker withdrew his demand for a look at the BPD file on sexual-assault allegations against Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, saying his point had been made by today's Globe interview with a woman who claims Arroyo sexually attacked and threatened her in high school. Read mroe.
Somebody dropped some paperwork on the Globe about two investigations into alleged sexual attacks by City Councilor and DA candidate Ricardo Arroyo when he was a student at the O'Bryant School. Read more.
The City Council yesterday unanimously approved using eminent domain to take roughly an acre of undeveloped land on the shore of Sprague Pond for a park, after one councilor assured the others that city officials will offer a fair price to the current owners - a key concern in a city with a history of eminent domain being used to destroy whole neighborhoods for apartment towers and highways. Read more.
Three city councilors say they city should use some of the money the city's getting from the feds to help out the owners of taxi medallions, whom they say have been decimated by unfair competition from Uber and Lyft. Read more.
Mejia argues against state takeover.
The City Council voted overwhelmingly today to fight to keep local control of BPS in the face of possible state receivership, saying a new mayor and a new superintendent deserve a chance to finally bring the sort of change BPS needs and that the last thing Boston - where voters strongly supported an elected school committee in the fall election - needs is an outside commissar screwing things up even more. Read more.
City Councilor Kendra Lara (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, Mission Hill) today proposed creation of a city office to hire hundreds of Boston residents to provide traffic flagging at the growing number of construction projects she says Boston Police simply can't cover. Read more.
It's mostly over but the waiting now: The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has completed intensive audits and one-on-one interviews in Boston on the state of Boston Public Schools and is now compiling a report that could determine whether its board votes to take over Boston schools, a BPS official told city councilors today. Read more.
The Boston City Council today passed an ordinance that would ban people from regularly swarming a particular person's house to scream and make noise between the hours of 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. by a 9-4 vote. Read more.
Fernandes Anderson makes a point during hearing.
Three city councilors of color today expressed hesitancy over a proposed ordinance that would prohibit targeted protests outside the mayor's house early in the morning, saying that while they understand what it's like to be hit with racist bile, they're not sure they have enough faith in Boston Police to not then turn the rule against Black Lives Matter and other protesters. Read more.
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