GBH News reports on efforts by councilors in the three cities, including Boston's Enrique Pepén (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) to lift Massachusetts's current standing as the only state where tenants have to pay fees to apartment brokers who work for landlords.
Enrique Pepen
Both Secretary of State William Galvin and the Boston City Council decided today to investigate how precincts across the city ran out of ballots and numerous other ways voters had obstacles placed in the way of casting their ballots, from one polling place not having any working lights to voters with disabilities being refused access to handicap parking spaces at another. Read more.
The City Council agreed today to look into the environmental and safety issues related to plans for at least two industrial-sized electricity-storage plants, one on the aptly named Electric Avenue in Brighton, the other on a wooded hill behind the Stop & Shop mall on American Legion Highway on the Roslindale/Hyde Park meet that was most recently in the news for being the summer home of Moodini the Steer. Read more.
The Boston City Council today agreed to look at using rodent birth-control pellets to try to control the city's burgeoning supply of rats, by building on a pilot started in Jamaica Plain last year that one councilor said had meant an 80% reduction in the gnawing, long-tailed vermin. Read more.
After dealing with the issue of Gaza today, Boston city councilors agreed to tackle a more traditional council issue: Potholes, more specifically, the rough shape of the surprising number of private ways the city still has. Read more.
The four people running for City Council in District 5 (Hyde Park, Roslindale and Mattapan) met in an online forum last night and agreed on basic issues more than they disagreed: All are in favor of trees, making streets safer and supporting some form of rent stabilization. Read more.