Boston City Council Looks At Gas Leaks, Street Trees, Unfair Rail Fares & More

Councillor-At-Large Michelle Wu provides notes from Boston City Council meetings. The Boston City Council considered the items below at their September 30, 2015 meeting

Emergency Impact of Closing Long Island: Councilors Pressley as Chair of the Committee on Healthy Women, Families & Communities presented a report summarizing the findings from working sessions that Councilor Yancey called for on the impacts of closing Long Island. The report focuses on the impacts on substance abuse programs and men & women experiencing homelessness. The matter remains in committee for further discussion and action.

Reentry Resources: Councilor Jackson reported back on yesterday's City Council hearing at the Suffolk County House of Corrections - the first City Council hearing in the country that has taken place in a jail. The Council heard from formerly incarcerated men and women, community advocates, and family members. Councilor Jackson emphasized the need for a one-stop shop to support reentry, including getting driver's licenses back, finding housing, etc. Councilor Murphy recommended engaging our large institutions to support formerly incarcerated people through PILOT, such as having hospitals offer treatment for substance use and universities partner around access to education. Councilor Pressley noted the importance of recognizing the sexual abuse-to-prison pipeline for women, that many incarcerated women are survivors of physical or sexual abuse, and the child of an incarcerated parent is four times more likely to drop out of school. The matter remains in the Committee on Black and Latino Men & Boys.

Gas Leaks: We voted to suspend and pass two resolutions filed by Councilors O'Malley & Zakim following up on the gas leaks hearing last week. The first resolution voices support for state legislation that would shift the financial burden of paying for gas leaks from consumers to the utility companies, following a model already in place in Texas and Pennsylvania. The second resolution supports state legislation that would compel utility companies to fix leaks when a street is opened up for other construction. As noted at the hearing, currently the utility companies are notified but not required to act when a street is opened up.

Street Trees: Councilor Wu called for a hearing on the care of street trees, an issue that has come up again and again knocking on doors and speaking with residents across the city. Public shade trees, or street trees, help make our neighborhoods feel welcoming and also improve air quality. However, they need help dealing with the stresses of living in an urban environment, particularly when young trees are planted to replace mature trees. Several Councilors suggested including Public Works in the conversation, because many constituent requests describe buckling sidewalks or overgrown branches that need to be pruned. Some Councilors also noted that the response time to tree-related requests can be quite long. Boston currently has 29% tree canopy coverage across neighborhoods, and Greenovate Boston and the Grow Boston Greener campaign has a goal of getting to 35% coverage by 2030. We need help and partnerships between the City and residents to get there, and this hearing will analyze the resources we have in place to care for street trees. The matter was sent to the Environment & Parks Committee for a hearing.

Unfair Commuter Rail Fares: Councilors McCarthy, Murphy & Wu called for a hearing on inconsistencies in Commuter Rail fares across Boston. The MBTA draws a line between Zone 1A and Zone 1 stops, with a significant fare increase from $2.10 to $5.75 across that arbitrary border. Roslindale is just outside Zone 1A, so residents pay significantly more than residents in some towns outside Boston that fall in Zone 1A. Councilor McCarthy noted the impacts on parking, with residents driving across these zone lines, parking their cars in overcrowded MBTA lots and spilling over into the surrounding neighborhood. Several colleagues noted that this is an issue of fairness, and all of Boston should have access to the lower commuter rail fare.

Reprecincting: Councilors Pressley & O'Malley pulled the resolution filed last week out of committee, and we voted to suspend and pass it in support of Rep. Aaron Michlewitz's state legislation to remove Boston's exemption from the statewide requirements of redrawing precinct lines every 10 years for equal numbers of people in each precinct. Having equal numbers of voters per precinct would be more efficient use of election administration resources and also reduce the wait time to vote in certain very large precincts.

For prior Boston City Council meetings, visit www.michelleforboston.com/notes or sign up to receive these notes automatically each week by email at www.michelleforboston.com/sendmenotes.

Boston City Council Looks At Mayoral Appointments, Street Closure Permitting & More

Councillor-At-Large Michelle Wu provides notes from Boston City Council meetings. The Boston City Council considered the items below and more at their July 14, 2015 meeting.

Appointments: The City Council received notice from the Mayor of the following appointments:

David Leonard – Interim President of the Boston Public Library

Vivian Li – Chairperson of the Boston Conservation Commission

Christine Pulgini – Interim Director of the Mayor’s Office of Consumer Affairs & Licensing

Maria Fitzpatrick – Associate Commissioner of Parks & Recreation Commission

Sanjay Saini – Associate Commissioner of Parks & Recreation Commission

Kimyata Cambell – Commissioner to Mayor’s Commission for Persons with Disabilities Advisory Board

 

Streamlining Street Closure Permitting: The Council voted to approve the home rule petition introduced by Mayor Walsh in December 2014 to remove the Parks Department from street closure permitting for special events.  Boston Transportation Department and Boston Police Department will remain involved in special events permitting, but this will streamline the process.  The matter will be sent up to the State Legislature for action.

Emergency Impact of Closing Long Island: Councilors Pressley and Yancey reported back on the recent working session to understand impacts of closing Long Island on substance abuse programs and men & women experiencing homelessness. They highlighted four major issues: 1) insurance denied coverage for substance abuse programs during interruption of service, 2) the need for Bill of Rights for shelter guests, 3) the need for staff training around compassion and cultural competency, and 4) inequality for women within the system.

For complete minutes of July 14th meeting and prior Boston City Council meetings, visit www.michelleforboston.com/notes or sign up to receive these notes automatically each week by email at www.michelleforboston.com/sendmenotes.

Boston City Council Looks At Late Night MBTA Service, BYOB & Fire Hydrant Flags

Councillor-At-Large Michelle Wu provides notes from Boston City Council meetings. The Boston City Council considered the items below and more at their February 11, 2015 meeting:

Long Island Bridge: Mayor Walsh submitted an order that would authorize a capital grant contribution of $4.3M from MassDOT for the Public Works Dept to design plans for rebuilding Long Island Bridge. The matter was assigned to the Ways & Means Committee.

Late Night MBTA Service: Councilor Zakim and I called for a hearing on continuing Late Night MBTA Service in Boston, as the one-year pilot extending MBTA service on Friday and Saturday nights to 2:30AM is due to end this June. The MBTA Board will hear a final recommendation on whether to continue late-night hours on April 15, 2015, after a one-month public comment period from February – March 11th. Councilor Zakim and I hope to use the hearing as an additional way to encourage public participation and comment from Boston’s residents, workers, small business owners, and visitors. Several Councilors rose to commend transportation workers for their efforts in such challenging weather conditions and expressed support for MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott. All Councilors signed on to co-sponsor the hearing order. The order was referred to the Committee on Transportation, Public Infrastructure, Planning & Investment for a hearing.

BYOB: Councilor Murphy & I proposed an ordinance that would allow Bring-Your-Own-Beverage (BYOB) in Boston and give the Boston Licensing Board the authority to set rules and regulations about obtaining a BYOB license. State law controls the number of liquor licenses available for Boston restaurants and prohibits BYOB in restaurants with liquor licenses, but leaves the decision on whether or not to allow BYOB in restaurants without liquor licenses up to municipalities. Boston currently bans the practice, unlike Brookline and some other towns across the state. Allowing BYOB would help small restaurants who can’t afford a liquor license or don’t want to commit to the upfront costs of offering an alcohol menu and committing to purchase minimum numbers of cases. This would lower barriers to entry and encourage more neighborhood restaurants, supporting neighborhood business districts and economic opportunities throughout the city. Councilor Pressley noted concerns that liquor license reform needs to continue, and that in our conversation about BYOB, we should keep a focus on gratuity for hospitality workers and equity, such that certain neighborhoods aren't relegated to BYOB with no opportunities for liquor licenses. Councilor Zakim expressed support that this would help innovative concepts and experimentation with dining concepts that expand from lunch to dinner to potentially full service liquor licenses. Councilor Linehan said that his district has many restaurants with liquor licenses already, so he hoped that BYOB could focus on small restaurants with fewer seats. The matter was referred to the Government Operations Committee for a hearing.

Fire Hydrant Flags: Councilor McCarthy & I called for a hearing on installing identifying markers on fire hydrants in Boston, which would help firefighters and others locate fire hydrants under snow. Several other municipalities have begun installing the steel markers at the beginning of each winter and then removing them in spring. Councilor O'Malley noted that there are over 13,000 hydrants citywide and hoped that we could incorporate technology in this initiative as well, such as adoptahydrant.org. The matter was referred to the Committee on City & Neighborhood Services and Veterans Affairs for a hearing.

For complete notes from the February 11th meeting, visit www.michelleforboston.com/notes or sign up to receive these notes automatically each week by email at www.michelleforboston.com/sendmenotes.