Happenings This Week Starting Tonight

FY2025 CITY COUNCIL LEGISLATIVE BUDGET REVIEW HEARINGS are ongoing through May 31st. View schedule for particular areas of interest.

4/22: Reserved Channel Development Community Advisory Committee (CAC) Meeting at 6pm. The project is an 8 acres development with eight new buildings of proposed uses including a variety of commercial, research and development, civic, and residential housing. This CAC is a joint BPDA and MEPA review group. This meeting will lay out the role of the CAC and the process. 

4/23: Reserved Channel Development Kick-off Meeting at 6pm at the Condon School, 200 D St. Oxford Properties Group and Pappas Enterprises, is hosting this in-person meeting to discuss the proposed project. This event is the first in a series of four meetings to review the entirety of the proposed project. Later meetings will have more specific topics, including transportation infrastructure, resiliency, public realm and open space, and built form.  

4/24:Morrison Mahoney Boston Strong Neighborhood Blood Drive in front of 268 Summer Street. Please sign up for an appointment from 8:30am to 2pm if you are able to give blood. 

4/27: RESILIENT MOAKLEY PARK CONNECTORS SITE WALK from 10am to 12pm at 165 WILLIAM J DAY BLVD. Join the City of Boston Environment Department, City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority onsite to hear about the project and how it connects to ongoing and future work in the area. Learn about the goals of the coastal flood protection work and tell us what you think about the location, including safety (heat, traffic, etc.), accessibility (ease of crossing) and programming (either informal or formal). Rain date 5/4.

Comment Deadlines

4/26: 232 A Street Planned Development Area #69 draft amendment and PDA Master Plan draft amendment comment deadline. 

4/30: Reminder- MassDEP Climate Resilience Draft Regulations for Waterways (Chapter 91) and Wetlands comment deadline.

• Send Waterways Resilience comments to dep.waterways@mass.gov with Waterways Resilience Comments in the subject line.
• Send Wetlands Resilience comments to dep.wetlands@mass.gov with Wetlands-401 Resilience Comments in the subject 

4/30: Waterfront Civic/Cultural Space Planning Study Draft Recommendations deadline. 

Boston City Council Looks At Budget, Hotel Workers, Criminal Sanction Reform & Gun Violence

Councillor-At-Large Michelle Wu provides notes from Boston City Council meetings. The Boston City Council considered the items below and more at their June 3, 2015 meeting:

Capital Budget Vote #1: Today was the first reading for the capital expenditures portion of the City budget. Any capital appropriation requires 2 votes, at least 2 weeks apart. The individual items passed unanimously, with the exception of three dockets that Councilor Yancey objected to. He said he was conditioning his vote on the administration's cooperation in responding to his 17F information requests, and until he received the information, he would vote no. This resulted in a 12-1 vote (Councilor Yancey in the minority) on two dockets for the BRA and one involving funding for electronic access to information. You can find more detail on the capital budget here.

Hotel Workers Health & Safety Hazards: Councilors Zakim, Pressley & McCarthy called for a hearing on the health and safety of hotel workers at the Wyndham Boston Beacon Hill, which is close to MGH and hosts many patients before or after surgical procedures and outpatient treatment. The hotel workers have been exposed repeatedly to bodily fluids and medical waste but have not been provided with adequate safety equipment. The OSHA complaint and working conditions were covered by the Boston Globe a few weeks ago (https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/05/20/wyndham-housekeepers-file-osha-complaint-over-mgh-patient-waste/0CzR46Jh5lp2C5Dw82KHUP/story.html). The matter was referred to the Committee on Healthy Women, Families, and Communities for a hearing.

Resolution for Justice Reinvestment Act: Councilor Jackson filed a resolution to support the Justice Reinvestment Act (S.64/H.1429) filed by State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz and State Rep. Mary Keefe on Beacon Hill. The act includes four primary reforms in criminal sanctions: 1) repeal of mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes; 2) step down of certain non-violent felonies to misdemeanors; 3) creation of medical parole regulations for inmantes who are permanently incapacitated; 4) elimination of automatic collateral sanctions at the RMV for drug related offenses unrelated to operating a vehicle. Furthermore, the act requires the savings accrued from these sentencing and reentry reforms to be calculated and then reinvested into community education and workforce development programs. The matter was referred to the Special Committee on Black and Latino Men and Boys for a hearing.

Gun Violence: Councilor Jackson called for a hearing to review initiatives to reduce crime related to gun violence. He noted that although the number of murders in Boston is down this year, the number of shootings is up. He pointed to the example of Richmond, CA, which has used big data to target resources to preventing gun violence. Councilor Jackson further noted that Boston has 50 street workers, and we need to make sure they have sufficient resources. The matter was referred to the Public Safety Committee for a hearing.

**Budget Hearing Summaries**

In order to make the FY16 budget process more transparent, Councillor Wu posted all the pre-hearing information we receive from departments and agencies, summarizing their accomplishments from the past year and goals for the current budget request. Check out the table of contents at MichelleForBoston.com.

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.