A coalition of community organizations—Reclaim Roxbury, MassVOTE, Right to the City Vote, Boston Ward 12 Democratic Committee, New England Community Project, MassVOTE, Fenway CDC, Madison Park Development Corporation, Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants, NAACP Boston Branch, RoxVote, and the Ward 4 Dems—welcomed candidates for Boston City Council At-Large and District 7 to two live forums at Hibernian Hall on May 22nd. Moderated by GBH News Political Reporter Saraya Wintersmith and Yawu Miller, editor-in-chief of The Flipside, the dual event featured a full panel of nine D7 and eight At-Large candidates.
As reported by Niki Griswold for The Boston Globe, “The crowded [D7] field meant that each candidate had a limited amount of time Thursday to introduce themselves, and answer the moderators’ questions, which included how they will advocate to make the district more affordable, and how they’ll support communities targeted by federal immigration authorities.
During the rapid-fire ‘yes or no’ portion of the forum, all the candidates said they support rent control, Boston’s relatively new policy requiring 20 percent of all new market-rate housing developments to be income-restricted, and increasing the amount of money dedicated to participatory budgeting.”
The At-Large candidates “…also answered the questions that were posed to the district candidates, along with a few additional ones, including how they would overhaul the ‘payment in lieu of taxes’ program, and whether they support bus and bike lanes.
In the rapid-fire round, at-large candidates were unanimous in their support of a $4 million increase to the city’s rent subsidy program.”
Read Emilia Wisniewski’s coverage for boston.com.
Watch videos of the forums:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71dqjl3AzBE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_je7zAX2RA
