Tomorrow is election day in Boston and although it has received little attention from the media, the two races stand to bring real change to the 13-member body.
One of the reasons the council receives so little attention is that Boston has a strong mayoral form of government and the council has little real responsibility save approving the mayor’s budget. The other reason is that they have few real accomplishments that the media can cover.
Still, city councilors have the bully pulpit and they can rally their constituents to help bring about change. And real change is sorely needed in Boston. Twenty years ago real estate taxes covered 50% of the city’s budget. Now they cover 70%. Poverty levels are higher than in recent history and so are housing prices. Homelessness is also at a peak.
The city council has two women on, the most ever. But, if Andrea Campbell, who is running for 32-year incumbent Charles Yancey’s seat, and Annissa Essaibi George, who is running at-large, win, the council will have four women, assuming that Ayanna Pressley and Michelle Wu retain their seats.
This will be good. Reasearch shows that women and minorities do more constituent service — http://www.jstor.org/stable/448769?seq=1%20-%20page_scan_tab_contents. And, I have gotten to know Annissa well over the last year.
She is a 13-year East Boston high school teacher, a small-business owner (the Stitch House in Dorchester) and mother of four (an 11-year old and nine-year old triplets). She’ll bring intimate knowledge of critical policy areas, a can-do orientation to life and an abiding good nature, which is so important to legislative bodies.
She also understands the immigrant experience. Annissa’s mom was born in a displaced persons’ camp in Germany after the war. Her father was an observant Muslim who emigrated from Tunisia. They met in Paris standing outside Notre Dame.
If you live in Boston I hope you’ll vote for Annissa for city council-at-large and Andrea Campbell for District four.
Thanks.
jconway says
Do they have two year terms? It would make more sense to me to coordinate it with Mayoral elections (which should be coordinated with gubernatorial elections but that’s besides the point)
theloquaciousliberal says
Every Boston City Councilor, including the 4 At-Large members, run every two years. It’s admittedly ridiculous. During non-Mayoral elections, turn out for the City Council elections only is anemic. It’s much improved every other election, when the Mayor is also up.
demeter11 says
It’s pitiful. Part of the problem is, except for Tito Jackson who took a bold stand demanding to see the finances for the Olympics, council members don’t rock the boat. And, even those who have been unopposed for years do hefty fundraising and use those funds, in part, to give to local causes and make lots of friends. (Some also pay car payments, family cell phone bills etc. but that’s another story.)
Council members and their staff members often move on to higher paying jobs at universities in government relations offices, so none of them push for universities to pay the relatively small Payment in Lieu of Taxes the city asks for because they don’t want to hurt their chances for those jobs. Universities that buy up taxable land and make it nontaxable contributing to the growing burden on RE tax payers, as does shrinking state aid to cities and towns.
You can see why I’m so interested in electing some new ideas, energy and perspective to the council as well as change the men/women ratio from 13/2 to 13/4. And the women who are running are very good.
jconway says
Mutual friends have assured me they are the real deal, and it’s good to see a longtime incumbent get challenged. And I’ll also ditto the praise for Tito Jackson-quickly rising to be one of my favorites.
jconway says
The last paragraph at the bottom of the Brockton State Senate post is a little ominous, anyone else aware of this?
jconway says
Sorry folks