When not busy citying, Councilor Annissa Essaibi George runs a sewing-supply store in Dorchester. Tomorrow, Stitch House Dorchester will run a virtual sewing circle between noon and 3 p.m. to make masks for all the doctors, nurses and technicians running out of them. Don't worry, they'll provide a pattern, as well as a chat window.
When done, you'll be able to drop the masks off at Stitch House or Gather Here Stitch Lounge in Cambridge.
The Boston City Council agreed today to hold a hearing to look into what can be done about a school-transportation budget that continues to increase. Read more.
Mayor Marty Walsh this week endorsed Annissa Essaibi-George for re-election to one of the four at-large City Council seats up this fall.
In District 5 (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan), at-large Councilor Michelle Wu, who lives in Roslindale, endorsed Ricardo Arroyo for the seat being vacated by district Councilor Tim McCarthy. Read more.
City Councilors Matt O'Malley (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury) and Annissa Essaibi-George (at large) will lead an effort to curb what they said was a growing epidemic of teens using nicotine inhalers known as e-cigarettes. Read more.
City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George said today that, like school districts across the country, BPS has been conducting drills with teachers on what to do should a shooter enter a local school. But, she said at a City Council meeting today, local teachers aren't getting shot with pellet guns. Read more.
With two women kidnapped after leaving Boston clubs in a month's time - and with one dead and the other one allegedly raped several times - city councilors today said they plan to look at how the city can make public spaces safer for women by helping to dismantle a pervasive rape culture. Read more.
City councilors will be looking towards regulations that would stamp out alleged sober homes whose operators prey on residents, rather than help them recover. Read more.
The City Council today approved an effort by at-large Councilor Ayanna Pressley to begin looking at how to increase the number of trees in Boston - especially with developers increasingly tearing down mature trees as they plant their towers and complexes. Read more.
Councilor Annissa Essaibi George will be asking other councilors to hop on a proposal to let the city's burgeoning crop of breweries expand their offerings to include products from their ostensible rivals. Read more.
The Boston City Council today agreed to hold at least one hearing to try to figure out how to make Madison Park the sort of vocational school that educators from other cities would want to visit to learn how it does things. Read more.
The City Council today approved a request by at-large Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George for a hearing to look at whether voters should once again be giving a direct say on who serves on the School Committee. Read more.
Essaibi-George, DaRosa, Flaherty, Garrison, King, Payaso, Pressley, Wu.
All eight of the candidates running for at-large seats on the Boston City Council expressed reservations about the idea of Amazon building its second headquarters in Boston - with or without tax subsidies - at a forum in Roslindale tonight. Read more.
City Councilors Annissa Essaibi-George (at large) and Frank Baker (Dorchester) say that with opioid deaths continuing to rise, it's time to look at possibly setting up a place where addicts could inject themselves while under the supervision of healthcare workers who could administer emergency aid. Read more.
The Boston City Council agreed today to hold a hearing on the recent decision of the Boston Public Health Commission to shutter two programs, with a total of 40 beds at the Southampton Street shelter, aimed at helping homeless people - in particular those who are HIV positive - gradually reenter society. Read more.
West Roxbury Judge Kathleen Coffey urges councilors to back more mental-health workers on the street.
Boston city councilors have started looking at expanding a program that uses mental-health workers to try to de-escalate confrontations between "emotionally disturbed" people and the police.
A proposal by Councilor Ayanna Pressley (at large) to add more workers to the existing Boston Emergency Services Team (BEST) won the backing of Police Commissioner William Evans and West Roxbury Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Coffey, who runs a special court session for people with mental illnesses facing criminal charges. Read more.
At-large Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George says she's had enough with suburban parents who try to sneak their kids into Boston public schools - and no longer just the exam schools, but even pre-school, inclusion and special-ed programs.
At-large Councilor Michael Flaherty, meanwhile, is venting similar ire against suburbanites - and even people from New Hampshire - who use "mattress addresses" to get on the civil-service lists for jobs as Boston police officers and firefighters. Read more.
Winged menace gives you the eye.
Boston city councilors will take a gander at a gaggle of ideas to deal with geese and the crap they leave behind.
At a hearing today, councilors heard suggestions that included fining people who feed them, having parks workers and volunteers coat goose eggs with oil, which kills the chicks but fools the mother goose so she doesn't lay more eggs - and buying more umbrellas for city parks workers with which to find off angry geese when they try to grab the eggs to coat them in oil. Read more.
Blame Canada geese: The honey badgers of the avian world.
Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George refuses to duck the issue any longer: Boston has become infested by Canada geese that befoul our parks, sidewalks and waterways and chase after other animals, little children and even small adults. Read more.
Essaibi-George explains vote against charter-school expansion after glowering at shuffling charter supporters.
The City Council voted 11-2 today to oppose what two called the pending "catastrophe" of expanding charter schools in Massachusetts. Read more.
City Councilors want Boston to join the ranks of communities pushing back high-school start times to give sleep-deprived students a better jump on the day.
The council unanimously approved holding a hearing on the idea of starting high school as late as 8:30 a.m. Nearly half the city's high schools currently start at 7:20 or 7:30 a.m., councilors said. Read more.
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