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September 9, 2004

Victory brings new respect for Arroyo

Yawu Miller

When Felix Arroyo was first seated on the Boston City Council in 2003, his critics considered him a one-term wonder.

He had come in fifth place in the 2001 at-large city council race and moved to the council only after Francis “Mickey” Roache left the body to become Suffolk County Register of Deeds.

He had led efforts seeking to reign in the excesses of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, backed measures to increase school funding and fought the state’s English immersion policy. Yet his own colleagues on the council, appearing as unnamed sources, frequently attacked him in the daily newspapers.

After his stunning second-place finish in last-november’s hotly-contested City Council race, Arroyo stepped into 2004 with a new-found respect from his colleagues.

“After January, 2004, I haven’t seen a single member of the council being quoted anonymously,” he said.

In the first eight months of 2004, Arroyo has been prolific, authoring 18 measures.

When Arroyo prepares to file a measure at the Council’s weekly meetings, he first circulates the measure among his colleagues, seeking support and criticism before it reaches the floor of the council chamber.

“I ask them to add their input or sign on,” Arroyo says. “We have, on some occasions, changed the legislation after receiving comments.”

Last week, it was Bank of America’s slashing of jobs and programs formerly maintained by Fleet Bank in Boston. Arroyo’s call for the city to consider pulling its deposits from the bank drew support from four other councilors who signed on to the resolution.

Arroyo’s collaborative approach runs counter to the prevailing culture in City Hall, where ownership of legislation is often seen as political territory to be jelously guarded. Arroyo says he holds close the values of openness, inclusion, equity and respect.

“My view is that each one of us has been elected by the people,” Arroyo says. “We have a responsibility to the people that we must meet together. It’s not a matter of friendship or enmity. I’ve supported legislation from each of my colleagues in the last six months that I feel deal with my six issues.

Arroyo’s six issues — education, housing, economic development, public safety, health care and the environment — are the issues he pledged to work on during his campaigns for office.

While the Boston Redevelopment Authority sits in Arroyo’s crosshairs, he says abolishing the agency, as some activists have demanded, is not on his agenda.

“I want to make the BRA more effective,” he says, explaining his call to create a separate agency for city plannning. “They have a dichotomy of duties that does not allow them to do their job effectively. The plannning of a city should not be in the hands of a development agency.”

Arroyo has continued his call from last year for pulling planning out of the BRA’s functions. While his call has won him fans in neighborhood organizations throughout the city, it has not won the required support from his colleagues on the council since it was filed in April.

Arroyo’s measure remains stuck in South Boston Councilor James Kelly’s economic development committee. But the councilor isn’t waiting for Kelly’s decision on the matter. His office has planned a series of community meetings throughout Boston to discuss the future of the BRA.

Arroyo says the participation of city residents is key to the success of a discussion on the city’s future.

“It’s not just that the voters gave me a mandate and I have to run with it,” he comments. “They have to participate in it as well. You voted for me. You know what I stand for. We’ll work to accomplish it together.”

 

 

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