ACLU's Crockford makes point at council hearing.
City Council President Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown), who last year joined all his other colleagues in passing an ordinance requiring Boston Police and seven other departments to detail their use of cameras, cell-phone interceptors and other surveillance technologies, today voiced concern that forcing BPD to actually comply could result in the release of information that would help bad guys. Read more.
The Boston City Council was able to vote on a proposed new map of district council seats yesterday after a Suffolk Superior Court judge rejected a bid by a South Boston man and several South Boston groups to block the effort over alleged open-meeting-law violations by councilors. Read more.
The City Council today unanimously approved pay raises for themselves - to go into effect after the next election, the mayor and other top appointed officials and said all hard-working city employees should get raises, even if the council can't give them any increases, because that's subject to bargaining between the mayor's office and municipal unions. Read more.
City Councilors Ed Flynn and Michael Flaherty will do their part to prod the city - and state and federal - public-works crews to ensure we won't see any repeats of the incident last week when a light pole held only by rusted bolts gave way and fell on a woman walking across the Moakley Bridge. 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.
The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to let the owner of Madras Dosa at 55 Boston Wharf Rd. extend its closing hours from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and to 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Read more.
With the clock ticking on the end of the Orange Line, the news that many people trying to get into or out of Chinatown will have to hoof it to the nearest alternative is not sitting well with Mayor Wu, City Councilor Ed Flynn and three state legislators, who today asked the T to extend its bus-shuttle service to at least the Chinatown or Tufts Medical Center stops, in particular for seniors, the disabled and students. Read more.
Hal Shurtleff, the former John Birch organizer who used to live in West Roxbury, is scheduled to arrive at City Hall Plaza with a "Christian" flag the city agreed to let him fly over City Hall Plaza for a couple of hours starting at 11 a.m. Read more.
Union Park's Williams: Enough with the wire-harness-chomping, backyard-destroying rats.
The rat barrage that grew worse with the pandemic hasn't eased and now residents are having to deal with cars sustaining thousands of dollars of damage from rats chewing through wiring and asphalt surfaces collapsing from all the rat burrows under them on top of all general grossness of seeing rat families having giant family reunions in people's yards and in local parks. 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.
The same ragged little group of Nazis who have tried to look scary outside a Jamaica Plain bookstore spent some time last month outside Brigham and Women's Hospital hiding behind their neck gaiters and holding a sign about the hospital killing White people. Read more.
The Boston City Council agreed today to look at creating a public alternative to private broadband providers, saying events of the past couple of years have proved broadband has become a necessity that private business may be unwilling to provide at a price that all residents can afford. Read more.
Councilor Julia Mejia speaking from her City Hall office after meeting moved from in-person to Zoom.
The City Council was going through its Wednesday routine of discussing matters to be sent to committees for hearings around 1:18 p.m. when Council President Ed Flynn asked people in the audience to put on masks, as required by city ordinance. They refused. Flynn called a 15-minutes recess and asked his fellow councilors to exit the chambers, presumably so City Hall security guards could deal with the covidbreathers.
At 1:48 p.m. or so, councilors switched to Zoom, from their offices, to continue their meeting.
BTD's Vineet Gupta discusses expansion of free bus service in Boston.
Boston city councilors say they support expanding the current free-fare pilot on the 28 bus to the 23 and 29 routes next year but say they also want to know who pays for continuing or even expanding the service once a planned $8-million, two-year pilot runs out. Read more.
The USPS tries to stamp out allegations by City Councilors Michael Flaherty and Ed Flynn.
City Councilors Michael Flaherty and Ed Flynn said a temporary letter carrier threw out an unknown number of ballots in South Boston, NECN reports. Read more.
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