Candidates make case at New
Majority forum
Toussaint Losier
“I gotta admit, I’m more nervous talking now to all
of you than I’ve been at any of the previous forums. And sitting
here reflecting why, it’s because this is just so exciting,”
commented at-large city council candidate Sam Yoon in response to
the rousing applause of more than one hundred residents and community
activists who greeted his introductory remarks to the New Majority
Coalition’s candidate’s forum on Thursday night.
For two and half hours, Yoon and seven other candidates staked out
their stances on a range of issues, vying for votes in the four
weeks before the November 8 general election.
Held at the Viet-American Community Center in Fields Corner, the
candidate forum was the first such event sponsored by the coalition,
an organization formally established a year ago to increase civic
participation from Boston’s traditionally marginalized communities
of color.
Recently, this new-found political power has brought these communities
greater attention from the city’s political establishment.
In contrast to a similar forum co-sponsored by Roxbury VOTE several
weeks ago, all the candidates stayed through the end of Thursday’s
event. This is partly an indication of how important the votes of
these communities have become.
It is also a sign of how contested the race for the four at-large
councilor seats remains. Only fifteen percent of eligible voters
participated in the September 27 preliminary election and just 6,700
votes separated frontrunner Michael Flaherty from last place finisher
Ed Flynn.
Throughout the night, housing and environmental justice activists
pushed each candidate to take a clear stance on pressing issues.
All voiced their support for incumbent councilor Felix Arroyo’s
plan to redefine affordable housing standards, which are currently
$40,000 higher than the Boston median household income of $42,600.
Flynn called Boston a city of only the very rich and the very poor
and decried the lack of housing for “working class families
in this city, for those on fixed income, for elderly and for veterans.”
Senior at-large councilor and fourth place finisher Stephen Murphy
called for college and universities to increase their contribution
to the city to build more affordable housing and Seventh-place finisher
Matt O’Malley proposed using the Boston Redevelopment Authority
control of vacant land to build rent-to-own housing.
Several audience members responded with enthusiasm when Arroyo suggested
changing not only the guidelines but also the BRA’s power
of imminent domain to give communities more control over their own
future.
All the candidates voiced their support for reforming the CORI laws,
the rights of tenants to organize and increased funding for youth
employment.
Yoon, who finished fifth in the preliminary, highlighted the hypocrisy
of the policy of underfunding youth programs throughout the year
and then complaining about rising youth violence during the summer.
Candidates also supported having multilingual poll workers on Election
Day, though both Flaherty and Murphy remained undecided on the question
of same day voter registration.
O’Malley’s suggestion that legal residents without citizenship
should be able to vote in local elections drew cheers from some
in attendance.
Commenting on the need for diversity, Sam Yoon urged the audience
to “elect people to city council and elected positions who
look like you, who understand your culture and your background.”
In response to a question on reversing cuts to funding public education,
Patricia White, who finished sixth, spoke to her experience fundraising
for private sector support of the public school system.
In addition to more funding, Yoon offered that good leadership is
needed from the next school superintendent. Likewise, Arroyo and
Flaherty both called for a return to an elected school committee.
White, on the other hand, later mentioned that she opposes a return
to an elected committee, though she does support an aggressive search
for a person of color to serve as the next school superintendent.
Flynn noted that the system is not working and the council needs
to take a look at pilot programs, vouchers and other options.
On other issues, however, opinions differed even further. Flaherty,
Murph, and O’Malley reiterated their opposition to the Community
Stabilization Act, which would have allowed tenants in buildings
larger than three families to contest unreasonable rent increases
in court. The council voted down the measure 8-5 last December.
In contrast, White termed the CSA “a measured response to
a real crisis.” Similarly, Yoon shot back at those who cast
the CSA as rent control, calling it “consumer protection that
is absolutely in order.”
“People are hurting out there,” said John Connolly,
who finished fourth in the preliminary. “This helps the people
out there who are hurting.”
Arroyo reminded the CSA’s opponents that the bill exempted
small landlords, helping “simply and exclusively the people
who have been paying your mortgage for many years. If you cannot
be humane to those people then we don’t need you, really,
being a landlord in this city.”
When asked about views on BU’s plans to build a level 4 biological
laboratory studying incurable and highly contagious diseases in
the South End/Lower Roxbury, the candidates took different positions.
While calling for more hearings on the issue, Connolly, Flynn, White
and Murphy all indicated their support for BU’s plans.
Flaherty, who recently shifted his position, explained there should
not be construction until there is a “comprehensive and coordinated
evacuation plan” to respond to the dangers of this lab or
any of the other hazardous facilities around the city.
Yoon, O’Malley and Arroyo reiterated their opposition to BU’s
plans. O’Malley pointed out that there are more biotechnology
jobs in Cambridge, which has a ban on level 4 labs, than in Boston,
so opposition to this lab should not effect attracting future labs
to the city.
Yoon derided the “erosion of trust” caused by BU’s
delay in notifying the public about the tularemia infections at
a lower level facility last year.
Arroyo echoed these safety concerns, offering that if there is an
outbreak like the tularemia incident, “It’s not evacuation.
Think again. It’s quarantine. Nobody is going to leave if
there is a mistake.”
Throughout the evening, former mayoral candidate Mel King, current
District 3 councilor Maureen Feeney, and mayoral candidate Maura
Hennigan mingled in with those in the back of the audience.
“It was good to see the candidates, to look them in the eye
and hear how they will be representing us,” said Rui Santos
after the event. “Their job is to be our voice.”
Lydia Lowe, executive director of the New Majority Coalition, described
the forum as an indication that “Boston politics is changing
and its new majority communities are a priority.”
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