ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
March 10, 2005
Jamaica Plain resident mounts city council bid
Jeremy Schwab
City Council District 6 candidate Gibran Rivera says he decided
to run against incumbent John Tobin after Tobin and a majority
of the council voted down a plan last fall to limit annual rent
increases, dubbed the Community Stabilization Act.
“I would have voted for the CSA,” he said during an
interview last week. “That vote was pivotal in my making
my decision.”
But the thirty-year-old Puerto Rican immigrant and Jamaica Plain
neighborhood activist said he would not get into a war of words
with Tobin.
“At this point in the campaign, I am not ready to start
pointing fingers at Tobin,” he said. “This is about
what we can do, not about what he is doing.”
Rivera, a self-described progressive, says he will run a grassroots
campaign geared at amplifying the demands of community activists.
He rattles off some of his goals for education reform, including
giving more autonomy to individual public schools, creating smaller
classrooms and reducing the achievement gap. But he says he is
open to others’ ideas.
“These are just some of my ideas,” he said. “But
I am committed to working with activists and organizers who are
working on this every day. I will develop policy proposals in
direct consultation with activists.”
In the area of affordable housing creation, another key issue
to Rivera, he also pledges to work with housing activists to craft
solutions.
“How else should we do it?” he said. “They are
working on the issues every single day.”
Though young, Rivera has extensive experience as an activist.
He served as executive director of Iniciativa, the Massachusetts
Education Initiative for Latino Students, and has been elected
to the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council each of the past two
years. Rivera serves as chairman of the board of MassVOTE, a position
he said he will resign this week to avoid a conflict of interest
with his office-seeking.
Rivera works full-time as a consultant on organizational development,
though he plans to reduce his hours as the campaign progresses.
“We are running to win this district,” he said. “We
are running to build a movement and put new ideas on the table.
Having a race alone engages the community in discussing issues
like education and housing.”
Tobin agreed that an election would be good for the district.
“Competition is good in sports, education, business and
politics,” he said. “This district is built on a high
level of neighborhood activism.”
He cited some of his achievements in office: lobbying for more
funding for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, advocating for
more kindergarten-eighth grade schools and pushing for a study
on how the city could offer more wireless internet access.
“The biggest accomplishment is just being out there day
after day on top of the issues,” he said. “People
want to use some issues as a litmus test for being progressive,
moderate or conservative. I always tell people, ‘Do me a
favor. Try not to use one issue as a litmus test for the overall
portfolio.’”
West Roxbury, Tobin’s longtime neighborhood, is one of the
city’s most conservative, while Jamaica Plain, where Rivera
lives, is arguably Boston’s most liberal. The tension between
the two neighborhoods is a defining feature of the district.
Rivera is working on assembling a campaign team for the November
election. So far, he and Tobin are the only ones in the race,
and Tobin, who is running for a third two-year term, enjoys the
strategic advantage.
Tobin’s neighborhood, West Roxbury, has historically turned
out more voters than Jamaica Plain. Tobin also has better name
recognition. He twice ran unsuccessfully for the seat, gaining
valuable name recognition in the district before winning the open
seat after Maura Hennigan vacated it to run for at-large councilor.
This is Rivera’s first race for the council seat; the only
elected position he has held is on the neighborhood council.
Still, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council President Nelson Arroyo
thinks Rivera could attract a significant number of volunteers
in activist circles, and mount a serious challenge to Tobin for
the Jamaica Plain share of the vote.
“I would say he could [challenge Tobin] at least in JP,”
said Arroyo, who currently supports Tobin but said he might switch.
“He brings that message that activists fight for in this
community, especially affordable housing activists. I haven’t
seen what Rivera’s support base looks like in other parts
of the district.”
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