Original subtitles

Is it an emergency situation that you would need

an oncall animal control officer to go there?

Do you by any chance know if your parents were married at the time of your birth?

She wants to speak about food tax.

Is the control box or open or missing?

So we just got a call from Boston Fire reporting a one alarm fire at 33

Browning Ave. in Dorchester,

and there�s no displacements at this time.

Just wait one moment while I do some research for you.

I�m going to open up a case for the Parks Department. They deal with trees.

I got a call from Boston Police. The intersection of the VFW Parkway and LaGrange Street in West Roxbury.

The traffic signal is out. I just want to confirm that you had it.

I have a constituent that�s asking about road maintenance. Is it OK if I put him through?

Is it a stray dog?

She said she couldn�t see a visible cause. Like there was no down wires or anything.

But the whole block appears to be out.

Is it blocking both the roadway and the sidewalk?

Constituent�s saying her landlord turned off her electricity to her apartment.

She said that she�s going back and forth with him. They�re in court

with something and she thinks she turned it off on him.

I had a meeting with some community activists.

One of the biggest pushbacks I got was

not on the police. It�s after the police do their thing,

after an incident happens, what�s the follow up on trauma?

We have the counselors obviously and police have their counselors too I explained

in the police walks, works with the family through I think the burial.

And then what happens after that.

And what happens to the greater community. Like what happens to the group of friends and...

And I know we�re taking, I�m taking criticism for Carlos Henriquez.

Part of the role for Carlos Henriquez was going to be

to coordinate services to make sure that there�s follow up. So, for example...

Kind of like Operation and Support.

When there�s something going on in the community, whether it�s a development or street cleaning,

or whatever, Jerome�s shop O&S goes in and does their thing

and they�re working with Planning and Development and they�re working with the Housing.

With all the different departments and they�re kind of the constant in the neighborhood.

And I thought - and it hasn�t fully vetted yet - but

I thought of doing something like that around the streets.

When the police, when your work is done, what happens then?

And we�re not going in and and we have public safety doing their thing for a while

working to keep areas calm and combat violence and the street workers are out there doing their thing.

But there�s not coordination necessarily of services.

So when a person gets killed and there�s a lot of indirect concern and, wreckage of that,

we don�t have a coordinated effort per se to coordinate that.

I thought of Carlos�s work in returning citizens and working different areas

could slowly build up capacity and bring on individuals, like O&S,

that will be actually the intake coordinators in the community

and work with everyone that needs to work with.

Because I think what happens now is when we have, like we did few months ago

we had 8 people killed in 10 days,

everyone�s looking for a blame.

Police get blamed because the violence is up. Street workers get blamed because they�re not there.

Trauma councilors get blamed because they�re not there.

City gets blamed because it�s happened in the city. Everyone�s blaming.

Our thing is: can we coordinate services so there�s a better coordination of services

to follow these families through

and maybe get into a family and see that: Wow,

there�s really some difficult situations here and can we help them

individually to connect them to services as things move on.

That�s the intention behind Carlos�s role.

And that�s... whether it's Carlos, whoever it is...

He was the person that I thought of because he understands the streets

and he understands the community, and he�s done the work

both as prior to being elected and after elected.

He�s done a lot of difference at work,

that�s kind of why I think the missing link here.

I think we have a lot of great things going on,

the police department does some great programing.

It does some great programming.

I think that there�s an opportunity now through, not necessarily through Nora�s office,

but what Nora�s doing and how do we tie it in?

Because you can�t do it, and Nora needs to have a contact. "Who should I call?"

Instead of me calling Marty

and Will and Chris and Mark and

Danny and Conan and Jerome and Laurie and me,

is there one person she can contact that can actually help pull all this stuff together

and that will be a liaison in the neighborhood.

- I like that. - That�s what I�d look at.

That came out of a conversation with...

Danny put a meeting together and the room was a very honest meeting.

It was a very honest... people in the community were very... it wasn�t a bad meeting.

It was one of those direct meetings and people didn�t understand all the work that we�re doing.

And I don�t think we do

a good enough job of telling that story, what we actually do in the city

We also don�t do a good job of tying it all in together.

That�s where I think we want to go with that.

So, I�m just letting you know that I�ve got a list of people.

So, you guys, if anyone wants to come in you may just want to let me know so I can

give the Mayor the list of people

that need to see him before the weekend.

What is the budget? The budget is a set of financial documents. It�s how we spend money,

how we raise money, how we decide how to pay everyone�s salary.

But it�s also a statement of priorities.

It's one annual time a year that the city can take a pause and take stock of what�s going on,

what are the decisions we�ve made, the decisions we need to make,

how is the city changing and how do we make investments to do that.

The budget refers to both the day to day operational side of things,

so that�s everyone�s salaries, that�s what you pay for utilities, that�s what you pay for heat.

It also means the capital plan which is what we do for five years,

big projects, like roads and bridges and schools and all the big stuff that you see.

Boston�s budget parameters. By that we mean,

we can�t do everything that everybody wants all at the same time.

The reason that is, is because we live in a really

kind of constrained fiscally

tight structure. What I mean by that is we can�t run a deficit like the Federal government.

The State law requires us to have a balanced budget every year

and we are capped in what we can raise in our own revenues.

We�re capped by our property tax at 2,5 %,

we also don�t have the ability to say raise an income tax

like other cities across the country or the State.

So we�re living within a pretty tight fiscally constrained world.

Which means we have to make strategic investments. We have to make priorities,

to make tradeoffs �between what those things are.

The reason that that is a good thing at the end of the day

is because when there is an economic downturn like there was in 2010,

we do a lot better than the State, a lot better than other cities and towns across the country.

A lot of other seasoned towns had massive layoffs in 2010 when the economy tanked.

The State obviously ran a billion dollar budget deficit.

This city, because of the way it�s run

and because of the way the history of financial management has gone,

actually came out on the other side pretty unscathed.

And frankly we avoided a lot of the pitfalls and a lot of the

negative consequences that came with the economic recession in 2010.

What do we have for revenue at the end of the day?

We collect money in different buckets as you can see here.

The FY19 budget is about 3.3 billion.

70 % of that comes from property taxes. State aide makes up of about

13 % and then we have other revenue, excises, local permits, all these other types of things

that are out there in the world.

Property tax is vital. Property tax is not only 2,5 % we grow every year on our existing property,

but also what we call new growth which is the new buildings, new residential

all the new construction that comes into the city every year,

which is a little bit harder to predict, but at the end of the day

is a lot of what we build our bread and butter on. That�s how we�ve been able to make

strategic investments over the last few years and continue to kind of push the city forward.

State aid is on there at 13 %.

Ten years ago, that used to be about 20 %.

And 20 years ago, it used to be 30 %.

So that means that the State used to represent a much bigger

portion of our budget: that�s both a decrease in what we call State aid at the end of the day,

and property taxes has been so strong in the last few years.

That actually helped increase our reliance as well.

So overall we�re in a growing environment.

We grow about 4 or 5 % every year.

Both from the property tax and other strategic revenue initiatives

that we push forward in the last year.

Moving onto how we spend the $3.3 billion dollars.

It�s in basically 5 big buckets right now.

There�s obviously a lot of complexity that goes into each of those.

The first one should be familiar for everyone.

Education represents about 40 % of the budget. That�s both BPS and Charter Schools.

Obviously both of those have been increasing since the Mayor�s been in office.

$200 million more per year for public schools as a part of the last budget

and our charter assessment is up another $100 million dollars in that time.

So since the Mayor�s been in office,

education spending has increased by about $300 million which is something to be proud of.

Public safety, that�s Police and Fire. They make up about 20 % of the budget.

City departments. That�s things like streets, Public Health, Parks and everyone in this room.

We make up the smallest portion of this budget, but it�s an important part of it.

And it�s something that we tried to grow a lot more, but there are a lot of demands

on many different parts of the City budget.

Fixed costs like pensions and debt service

and then finally Healthcare that support all the other city departments

are basically how we spend the majority of that 3.3 billion on the operating budget side.

The other big piece of the budget that we have is the capital plan.

Right here is a map of what we have from a top down view ofl the different types

of projects that we have out there.

It�s a 2.4 billion dollar plan over 5 years to invest in roads and bridges

and schools and libraries and all the great things that you have.

A lot of folks, especially in the rating agency world

and people who buy our debt want to see that we�re making

investments in places that we planned for.

That�s why the Mayor committed 10 % of all new capital funding

towards climate resiliency. We have the billion dollar Public School plan

and a whole host of other things that we�re investing in. The annual capital plan

is over a 5 year period because these projects are typically bigger in scope.

We borrow money for them and we pay for it on the operating budget side for debt service.

So they�re companion piece to the operating budget,

but something that goes through the very similar process to

what we do on the operating side.

We have come to join Becka and Molly in marriage,

a wedding is a joyful celebration of the promises you make today.

Learning to love each other and live together in harmony

is one of the greatest challenges of a marriage.

But know that love, trust and loyalty are the foundation of a happy enduring marriage.

Remember to listen, respect, encourage and inspire one another.

Support each other dreams as you build your lives together.

Comfort one another during times of struggle. Laugh together during times of joy.

Now if you want to face each other we�ll do vows.

I Becka.

Take thee Molly.

To be my wedded wife.

And I promise to be.

A loving and faithful wife.

Through joy and sorrow.

Sickness and health

To love and to cherish.

From this day forward.

Now do you Becka take thee Molly here present to be your wife?

Excellent. All right Molly�s turn. I, Molly.

Now, do you Molly take thee Becka here present to be your wife?

Excellent. Now we�re going to go on to the rings.

These rings are a symbol of eternity and made by your friend.

The unbroken circle, it represents the unbroken circle of love.

Today you�ve chosen to exchange rings

as a sign of your love for one another and the seal of the promises you make today.

You�re going to repeat these vows after me

and then the last line

you�re going to put the ring on Molly�s finger when you say "with this ring".

This is my favorite part.

Just as this ring.

Encircles your finger.

So does my love.

Encircle your heart.

Now you can place it on her finger and say/: "With this ring

I thee wed.

Molly�s turn. "Just as this ring.

Now, with this ring.

I thee wed.

Perfect.

In as much as Becka and Molly have exchanged rings,

have consented to matrimony and vows,

by the authority vested in me by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,

I now pronounce you hus...

married.

Here we go. Stand together.

Smile.

Let me show you what we got.

I want to congratulate

Alex Cora and the Boston Red Sox

and the entire organization for an incredible run. 119 wins from start to finish

I didn�t realize until last night that they had won the Spring Training Leagues

and the regular leagues and then obviously the World Series last night,

it�s exciting here in the City of Boston.

I want to congratulate Red Sox Nation for our 9th World Championship in Boston.

This is an all-time great team that we had. I think a lot of people enjoyed watching this team.

Everybody contributed.

I was talking to people on the way to work this morning

and thinking about everybody in this whole team. Everyone had a special play in this World Series.

Congratulations to the entire team for your resilience

and your positivity, and the way you carried yourself on the field and off the field.

And even last night during the interview session.

Thank you to all the players for the great work they did.

These players are role models and we want to celebrate them in Boston style.

A championship duck boat parade will take place on Wednesday,

starting at 11:00 on Boylston Street by Fenway Park.

We hope to see a big crowd out there,

but we do have a few messages out there.

Do not try to drive to the parade. Take public transportation.

They�ll be traffic and parking restrictions surrounding the route.

We�re working on a web page.

It will be up in a little bit. It will be Boston.gov/Redsoxparade.

As far as safety goes, be respectful of the City.

Be respectful of the property, of the people, of the businesses, be respectful

of the Red Sox. We are a City of champions so let�s celebrate like champions.

I�m going to turn the microphone over to Commissioner Gross.

And then we�re going to turn it over to Chief Green

and then I�ll open it up for questions that people might have.

Thank you Your Honor.

Good morning everyone.

Well, I'll say congratulations not only to the Red Sox,

but the City of Boston. We would ask everyone to act

responsibly and be respectful

of the other revelers in the parade.

Also we will have full coverage in our neighborhoods.

But for those attending the parade, no public drinking.

Alcohol will not be tolerated.

And you should know this. This should be common sense, but no weapons at all either.

So we fully expect

to have a great parade. It�s time to celebrate.

Well now I�ll turn it over to Chief Green.

Thank you Commissioner.

You know this doesn�t get old. I think this is my 11th Championship in the last 16 years?

It just doesn�t get old.

That being said, the transit police are well experienced

and prepared for special events such as Wednesday�s parade.

We encourage everyone as the Mayor says, to

come in the City of Boston, utilizing the MBTA transit system.

We will have increased coverage, both uniformed and in plain clothes

throughout the system to ensure a safe and travel by all.

We ask our riders to be respectful to one another

and especially mindful of those with young children,

the elderly and people with disabilities as you utilize the MBTA transit system.

And as the Commissioner stated, alcohol

consumption and or unruly behavior will not be tolerated at all on the MBTA.

Currently we got updates from the brick.

There are no known credible threats to this event.

With that being said, we also ask our riders to

please if you see something, say something.

Nothing�s too small. We need you to be our extra eyes out there.

Contact us immediately and we will send an officer out to investigate.

With your help

we can have a safe and enjoyable celebration.

So, the goal of the taskforce is really to focus

on eviction prevention.

We would like to meet 4 times. This is the second meeting.

And ultimately to put together a list of

recommendations for public comment by Spring of 2019.

And then to present those recommendations to the Mayor

and to the City Council.

With some sort of legislation to come out of it.

What�s the total amount for the awards, roughly?

2.5 million dollars. So put two and a half million dollars out

for tenancy stability and eviction prevention, it�s a sizable commitment.

Our office has also been working in conjunction

with the Neighborhood Housing Department here in DND.

And to put together an eviction prevention policy that is required for all landlords,

or all property

prospectors who are looking to purchase property or bid on property here in Boston.

That policy was implemented and it went out in the Request for proposals for

September of this year.

The proposals that we�ve received are now under review

and we�ll try to figure out exactly

how effective that was during the first implementation of it.

The same policy was out under our Dudley Square RFP,

and that I believe is wrapping up today.

Those proposals, the Dudley proposals are due today.

Which is very exciting and like Dominique said,

there was a very clear requirement that anyone submitting for land,

submitting proposals for the four sites in Dudley,

had to provide a proposal on how they were going to...

how their development was going to not contribute to displacement

and including, if they were going to develop housing, an eviction prevention plan.

So it was very, very, specific language

and before you leave, I�ll make sure you have a copy.

The Neighbourghood Housing proposals: if you want money from us,

you�re going to tell us how you�re going... what�s your eviction prevention plan,

and Dominique�s shop is reviewing them right now with NHD.

And if they�re not adequate

we�re going to have to make it a deficiency if we really love the proposal,

or not fund the proposal altogether.

Really asking new developers of new developments

to tell us how they�re really going to reduce evictions.

We cannot just scratch things on the surface

because they usually come back a few years later, stronger, deeper, uglier.

In the meantime those folks who are facing eviction,

they keep facing eviction all of their lives. I know someone

from the age of 12, she faced eviction.

And now she�s 39 and she�s facing eviction again. So it�s a cycle.

If we really want to fix it we should think about

community land trust also, have a site for it.

What we need is more, in my opinion, we need more housing.

More and more housing. You can�t have enough.

And everything you do short of that

and that�s just one way of thinking about it, but everything you do short of that,

is gap filling kind of thing.

Not that it�s not necessary, but I guess what I�m wondering

based on what I�ve heard so far is, it sounds like we�re...

It�s so easy to move broader than simply what are we doing about evictions.

I�m asking the question: are we focused on the eviction question or are we

morphing into, or is it part of the mandate here?

How are we going to fix the big problem?

Until we have enough of affordable housing for everyone,

we need the office of housing stability and to work on evictions

because not everybody�s safe.

But we do have a housing plan. It�s pretty robust in the City,

I can share it with you about increasing housing overall. Increasing affordable housing,

preservation, getting people to buy homes.

So, we�ve done a lot of work on more of the systemic issues.

But we still get 100 calls a week from people that are

in market rate housing that are getting their rents increased.

Or, are in subsidized housing,

but have fallen behind in their rents, et cetera.

There�s a special sort of work that we�re all doing that is not

fixing our larger housing issues. Does that make some sense?

Say there�s 30,000 notices to quit served in Boston every year.

It�s what we are estimating.

I think the challenge with early intervention

is that it�s super valuable, super necessary, probably more effective and opens up

the target population that you could serve to be large enough

that it�s impossible to even conceive of how to serve them.

1,100 households who were in subsidized housing

actually went to court, somehow didn�t get raft,

didn�t get anything else, did get evicted. In a year.

The thing that we also know is that subsidized household who were evicted

are not eligible for Emergency Assistance.

Which to me just makes them the red alarm population.

And so to some extent there is a benefit to...

I think that there is a benefit to focusing on that population

above all else if only for that reason.

If you get evicted from subsidized housing,

or you have a housing voucher and you get evicted,

you can�t access family shelter at the State. You have no safeguard.

You make the lowest income

and you�ve been evicted probably for rent arrearage, small amounts.

And you have absolutely nowhere to go because you can�t access the shelter system.

For three years.

What could we do to intervene sooner?

And what I thought was...

I guess it�s reinventing the wheel, except we haven�t invented it yet.

I think we do a particularly bad job of informing and persuading.

Maybe the small landlords in particular are informed that there are resources,

but persuading them to actually use them?

The small landlord groups seem to feel like they�re battled

and they approach everything from that point of view.

And it�s just economics.

It would make so much more sense to be able to say,

We�re not going to hit you over the head. You don�t have to do this.

But if you know somebody�s chronically late, or somebody�s not budgeting,

or somebody is falling behind, catching up every 4 to 6 months,

clearly that�s not a good business model.

Bring them to us, we�ll help them budget. You bring them to us early.

We�ll do this and it�s so much more cost efficient.

But we don�t do anything.

Because I was talking to the Citylife Group, I said,

could Citylife see its way to holding itself out to that. I�m not sure because...

But somebody should be able to say,

on a more intimate basis than simply "we�ve got a website":

Here�s what we can use.

Here�s how to do it and I think that�s the only way you�re going to get to them.

If we're really concerned about what we�re doing,

we need to also think about community land trust.

For those folks who really can�t do anything, they could go there and it will be a safe zone.

And it could go from generation to generation. Why can�t we do that? Other places have done it.

That�s good.

Everybody gets the first round. But you can only get one.

What do you want? You want pie now?

Apple, cherry... What kind do you want, sir?

Not right now. You have to come back the second time. Let everybody go through.

Let some more people get to have some. That�s all I got. Thank you.

M'am, no problem.

I don�t mean for nobody to get mad but I gotta get enough for everybody.

Please don�t take the ice. No, go on with that, go.

If you take it, the rest won�t be cold.

Any questions?

I�m a victim of PC scam.

I thought it was Microsoft and it wasn�t,

it turned out to be some scammers.

I actually gave them my name, my card. I need help.

Don�t give any information out over the phone.

If somebody says it�s your doctor: "send me a letter".

If somebody says, you�re going to shut your cable off tomorrow: send me a letter.

Don�t give them your email. Tell them to send you a letter.

Serve it. If they say you owe money, send a constable.

"Send somebody down, petition me". Don�t even bother.

You�re going to get letters in your house. If you own your home.

My mother gets them. Because I go to her house and do her bills and I get the mail

There�s always: oh, you can earn a lot of money on your home.

Or we can give you a mortgage a low interest mortgage.

Just don�t believe any of this stuff.

Unless it comes from the City, from the Counselor�s office or our office,

or something that your civic association might have talked about.

Do not give anybody any information.

The Counsel was talking about scams. Somebody might call and say to you:

we have your grandson.

We�re not going to give him back until you give us money.

Your instant reaction is: "Is it Billy or Bob?"

I got Billy.

That�s all they need

and they will frighten you into you will think that they�re kidnapped.

There are literally people that do this from other parts of the world.

They scam people and people will give them money, they�ll run around,

get money and they�ll give it to somebody. So do not, do not do that.

If Eversource calls you for a deal:

"Can I have your name and number?".

Call your City counselor, call the Mayor�s office and say does Eversource have a deal?

Does Comcast have a deal? Does RNC Cable have a deal?

Does whatever it is, make sure you follow up.

I�m going to follow up with you. Emily�s going to get your information.

And we�ll get on it today and we�ll find out, we�ll contact the authorities.

We also have a couple police officers, so if we need to take the next step we will.

From my area in Lower Mills,

those calls and those phone numbers and those people knock on the door.

They come into the station.

And they report it to the police department and they take it over to the detective department.

But the thing about it is nothing never get back to me or anybody else.

What has taken place since we reported this?

And the calls and the number thing, you could have them right there.

So how do we handle that to get some response to what we�re trying to stop?

One thing I would suggest, maybe what we�ll do is at one of the meetings coming up,

I�ll ask Nora Bastian to come in.

Nora is the new Superintendent.

Her role is community policing. Her role is, under community policing,

to follow the Elderly Department. As far as going out to districts.

So we�ll ask Nora to come to your next meeting and she can explain

and come up with a process. There might not have been a process.

My experience has been that the information flows back and forth.

But we�re going to make sure that it really does flow back and forth.

If you make a complaint at a civic association, you should get a call back

because it's reporting it into a black hole, if you�re not getting information back.

And then you can share the information with other people.

We�ll have Nora come to the next meeting.

If you live in a BHA Housing Development and you�re not getting a response,

my advice are two things.

Number one is call your complaint into 311. Because 311 is the City hotline.

And it�s a public information and it�s in my office.

I see it up on the wall.

I will follow up and say what�s going on with that?

Number two, reach out to the Elderly Commission.

There�s been times where I�ve gone to different events.

Some of you have grabbed me about situations

that might not be related to the Elderly Commission,

but the advocacy there, they will call over. And when they call over, I�m calling over.

It�s important to you to use those different steps. If you�re not getting somewhere,

and you live somewhere, you call 311 and make a public,

and when they ask you why�d you do that? The man told me to.

And if you see me in the street grab me and tell me what the problem is.

Because I guarantee you by the time I get in the car and to the next stop after this,

somebody at the BHA will be talking to me. All right?

Questions over here then I�ll come back this way.

Now I had medicine that I actually need

and they want me to pay

a co-pay of 65 dollars that I can�t afford.

And I need that medicine and I don�t know what to do about it.

We have to really think about here,

in Massachusetts, at the Legislative level and in Congress at the congressional level

to do something about pharmaceutical costs.

They�re out of control.

My father passed away in 2008, but before he passed away...

and I didn�t know what a "donut hole" was until then.

He was on a pill, once a day for prostate.

It was $500 a month, the prescription.

So for the first five months of the year,

it was covered a 100 % by his health insurance.

The next $2500 dollars as you know, the Donut Hole,

the next 5 months was out of pocket.

And then the last 2 months of the year were covered by insurance again.

What Obamacare did, what the Affordable Care Act did was close the Donut hole.

And that Donut hole now is there, but what they�ve done is...

I don�t know what the right answer is, but they�ve done something with prescriptions

that you end up paying more out of pocket.

I haven�t seen it in any of my prescriptions, but it happens to seniors all the time.

So we do have to think about legislatively how do we file something

that closes that gap for you. Because many of you,

all of us, as you get older you take prescriptions for high blood pressure,

for cholesterol, whatever it is you have.

It�s important that we understand there�s more health risk as you get older.

Because the body breaks down a little bit.

There�s more chance that you�re going to be on a prescription as you get older.

And we need to make sure that that�s covered.

The answer is we have to look legislatively fixing that.

One of the reasons why we have the Elderly Commission

is to advocate on your behalf. The people that work for the City work for you.

They�re there to service you. So take advantage

of that opportunity.

Take advantage of that office. Ask questions. They�ll get the answers.

And if we got to a point where, what I�d like to do,

I�ll have to double the size of the Elderly Commission because the amount of calls they get.

Believe it or not, we don�t get that many calls. We get a lot of calls,

but not as many as there are people in Boston that are over 60 years old.

We need a bigger budget.

We�ll get the budget there, but we need you to use the office

because I�d rather you talk to one of the specialists we have

and get a benefit than be taken advantage of.

That�s why they�re there. They�re there for you. They work for you.

Our primary purpose is to help people

with the situations you might have. So, please, call them.

As usual, it was busy night last night on Halloween

and just be aware of any kind of violence that might extend from it.

Townsend and Warren: there was a firearm recovered at 7 p.m. with an arrest.

There was a person shot and stabbed at 137 Center Street.

There was a large party, a couple hundred people.

Full notes on the person shot, but they�re probably going to survive.

The gang unit then had a car chase through H block of Bailey Associates, so be aware of that.

And around 3 a.m. this morning,

the K-car got a firearm arrest in Upham�s Corner.

And that was,

I don�t know if it�s related, but there was a violent assault up there.

That was the reason why people were up there and led to a firearm arrest.

Any issues?

Concerns? Check your assignments.

Let�s have a good day. Fall out.

I had a chance,

over the last 5 years to get to know almost every single person in this room.

And what�s amazing is that we have developers in this room

and housing developers in this room, that believe in resiliency.

And that are here month after month after month after month,

after meeting after meeting I should say.

We have developers developing buildings in town? that believe in resiliency.

We have folks that work in the area of whatever it is and you come back here.

We have Universities. We have Universities.

Boston University is one of our great partners, and we have construction companies.

And to me it�s special. This room�s a special room

in the sense of the commitment by the people in this room.

Since I�ve been Mayor, a lot of natural disasters have happened in different cities across America.

Houston kind of...

hit me a little different.

I was talking to Mayor Turner as it was going on and...

when he was talking about his City, he was a brand new Mayor,

literally brand new Mayor in his first term.

The people of Boston wanted to send things out to Houston,

we were going to send one tractor trailer down, we ended up sending 18 tractor trailers of stuff down.

And I thought to myself: what if that was Boston?

And it wasn�t the giving to Houston that struck me,

it was the need in Houston that struck me.

It was the 18 trucks going down there and that wasn�t enough.

When you think about 18 tractor trailers from Boston and other places around the country,

that wasn�t enough and I thought to myself:

where are we in our city? Where are we in the City? Not in the Green Ribbon Commission,

not on the global plans, not working with the State. Where are we in the City?

So we have, I don�t have it here with us today...

We have a plan that literally protects

the harbor, protects the shoreline, creates 47 miles of shoreline.

We talk a lot about bringing people back to the water.

This plan brings people back to the water.

This plan allows people access to the water where we have 67 acres of new open space on Boston Harbor.

It creates 122 acres of revitalized open space in the waterfront.

It�s about protections and connections.

So when people like you in this room look at what�s happening,

you know that we�re protecting

what we have to protect in our neighborhoods.

We�re protecting Charlestown and East Boston and South Boston.

We�re protecting downtown, North End, the Dorchester coastline.

We�re protecting Roxbury.

We�re protecting the South End. We�re protecting all of those different neighborhoods in our city

that it�s important for us to do.

What we�re doing here is I think important for the future.

I think it�s time for us to take this conversation beyond our walls.

I think it�s time to take this conversation to the editorial boards.

And let them understand fully what�s happening here.

Because the first editorial that came out...

in all due respect, a nice editorial, but it was: how to pay for it? Who�s going to pay for it?

The question�s not Who�s going to pay for it? How�s this going to happen?

It�s not about who�s going to pay for it. It needs to happen.

The editorial needs to say, and the press needs to start and other people need to start saying:

'This has to happen'. It�s not about the costs.

It�s not about whose going put up he biggest chunk of money,

its how do we get everyone together to put this plan together?

The Green Ribbon Commission is vital in this work.

As we continue to move forward in this work,

we need to help convey the urgency and bring diverse partners into our strategy.

We need to talk to all of our schools, not some of our schools.

We need to talk to all of our museums, not some of our museums.

We need to make sure all of our hospitals understand the importance of this, not some of the hospitals.

And more importantly we need to make business people know that this is really

important for them as well. It�s important for us,

for the health and safety of our residents are at stake.

Making sure that Houston,

Puerto Rico, Florida, New Orleans,

Louisiana, Florida again,.

New York, all of those different cities and areas had a storm.

If you talk to Mitch Landrieu the former Mayor of New Orleans who wasn�t the mayor when Katrina happened,

he said if they addressed this 20 years earlier

the outcome might have been different. It still would have been bad

because Katrina was a bad storm, but it would have been not as detrimental.

We have to think about that now and think about, how do we prevent that from happening?

We need to work with other leaders, with other elected officials. We need to let the legislature

know and the city council know the importance

of focusing on the work that we�re doing here today.

We know that mitigation is resilience.

It�s about the impacts here in Boston and it�s about the example we set for the nation and the world,

By showing that it can be done we can improve public health, create jobs

and also help people in our neighborhoods.

We can also show the way

and help rally the global community to do their part.

I know that what we wanted to do here is be a leader in the country

and a leader in the world here in Boston as far as resiliency.

And now that we have the plan it�s about, what�s the next steps

and what�s the actions? We know we don�t have a national government, at least

a leader down in Washington, a president that does understand the importance of resiliency.

We know that we don�t have the commitments right now in the EPA down in Washington

that understands the importance of resiliency and what we�re doing here.

Even if we had the greatest champion in Washington, it�s still incumbent upon cities and towns

across America to carry out the plan.

I do think it�s important first that we start

to take this conversation outside this room and have real conversations.

I would suggest that we go

to editorial boards of the news outlets.

I would suggest that we start talking to more business leaders.

I would suggest that we start thinking about how do we amp up this plan

so it�s not just the people on the inside crowd,

whether it�s the Chamber of Commerce or here at the Commission.

We need to take this conversation beyond this.

So what are we here for today?

- Fire blocking. - OK, so the rough inspection?

When are you guys looking to insulate?

Insulate next week.

Next week you have on schedule.

On schedule for Monday.

So you�re thinking Monday.

Monday, Tuesday. He said two, two and a half days he�d have it all wiped out.

- What are you doing, spray foam? - Spray foam, closed cell.

Closed cell on the exterior.

So you�re thinking that if all goes well today, you have them scheduled for Monday.

For Monday. I spoke with him earlier, he said two, two and a half days to wrap it all.

He�ll send two crews.

I�m going to be off on Thursday.

If we could get you may be, well provided he sends two crews Monday.

All right. So then you�ll just email me.

And let me know how that goes.

And if Wednesday comes around and I have time I�ll squeeze you in to keep it going.

So all the fire blocking�s done. All the penetration.

- Fire caulking. - Use the caulk and the 3M caulking?

- No foam, right? - No foam.

Now what do we do down the basement is extended living spaces as a part of this unit?

Extended living space for the first floor master suite, master bath, master shower...

- And this is fully sprinkled, right? - Fully sprinkled.

This was new underground plumbing.

We had our plumbing inspection yesterday, so we can close out.

So he got a look at it?

This is a master bedroom.

Master bedroom, master closet, master bath, laundry.

- Extended from that unit up above. - Correct.

And then you have this door here for your egress?

What are we going to do with this here? How are you going...

It�s going to be a drain here with a wet bell on the bottom.

And it�s going to be two steps up.

We�re going to get all that stuff and some flagstones or something.

Are you going to patio this?

All the way out to the back.

Fire caulking is done. All the penetrations.

And then this is all getting closed cell.

And then as I said they�ll be all batts in between.

Where�s your sprinkler head down here?

One there, there�s one over here. This is to go outside underneath the deck.

So that�s going to go out.

There�s one on each floor.

- Exterior, right? - Exterior.

Low temperature.

What are you doing for railings here?

The railings are all on the second floor.

- Iron? - It�s iron railings, the wire.

That�s not a bad view. Are these going to be sold or rentals?

These are condos.

So you�re going to put them on the market when you�re done.

- No roof deck? - There is a roof deck.

- How�s the access? - There�s going to be a spiral.

That�s on the plans?

Then this is all being spray foamed, right?

This is what you�re using, right?

Let�s get on the second floor.

And then with this over here Brendan, you�re going to box this all out.

So you�re going to come off, box out that sprinkler, right.

It will all be boxed in.

And then you have all your heads here. And then that.

You�re going to need some ledger lock on that right?

It�s not a bad view until that building gets built.

Have you seen any plans for that one yet?

It�ll probably go up just as high.

Take a picture of this, Brendan. Someone�s going to throw this out.

Take a picture and make a copy for the record.

Hold onto that.

So you�re all set Brendan. Give me a shout early next week. It�s a short week.

If 16 year old

have services at Bridge, and they�re connected to the services at Bridge,

if they�re no longer served by Bridge they don�t have a relationship with Bridge anymore.

So it�s like how do we... and I�m not sure how we do this.

This is why we need the RFP, the definition is like

it has to be not connected to the services that they�re getting.

Because once the services go away the relationship goes away,

Which is what keeps young people in the cycle because they don�t have long term relationships.

So the challenge

that the RFP�s addressing, the first one is that unfortunately,

the scope of services for youth or young adults experiencing homelessness is limited.

Not only in Boston, but across the country.

And most services around people experiencing homelessness are services for adults.

And so the adult shelter system,

unfortunately sometimes is the place where

18, 19, 20 year old find themselves if they�re homeless on the street,

dealing with behavioral health challenges, end up finding themselves in a shelter.

What we�re trying to do is to tell these shelters:

the services, the environment and the culture are created for adults

who may experience chronic homelessness, who are 40.

It's different for a 19 year old

who we know statistically - and I think this would be in the RFP -

is more likely to be LGBTQ, more likely to be people of color,

experiencing other issues.

What we want to say is the challenge here is that the gap of services

to meet the specific needs of youth and young adults experiencing homelessness is great

and multiple parts. Mayor Walsh�s plan is working on that.

However, in the meantime we know youth and young adults already find themselves in the adult shelters.

We�re trying to say is that in an ideal world we want youth and young adult shelters.

But in the meantime, the city�s plan is to not just wait until we have those shelters, or have those services.

We�re going to meet the needs of youth and young adults today.

We want these shelters to do that.

That�s the challenge or the need we�re trying to meet in that first one.

And to be fair we want the shelters to think about how they�re doing this

in a way that what do they need to do to do better? You know what I mean?

You know this better than I. Some types of shelters will say, well we have a separate space.

Like upstairs in the corner these 10 beds are meant for 18 to 24 year olds.

OK, I guess a separate space is important.

But when I have to get through all the chaos of the shelter to get to the separate space,

I still have to go downstairs to the kitchen to eat.

To go to the shared bathroom.

And at night there�s only one person upstairs, or one staff person.

How are they thinking about the fact that youth and young adults are vulnerable in these spaces?

So we want them to say we know it�s a gap.

We have to say this because we know our funders don�t agree with us. It�s not a long term solution.

But that�s where they find themselves today so we�re going to meet them where they�re at.

So this solution that you would envision...

We�re talking about physical space. We�re talking about policies and practices.

We�re talking about competencies of staff.

We�re talking about

how we do outreach and engagement and connection.

All the stuff we know about. How do you make a space youth friendly? Same thing.

How do we think about all those things that we already know? I think that�s how you would bucket it.

We�re talking about space, about policies and practices.

They're concerned about the onetime funding? I get it.

There�s a lot you can do with onetime funding in all of those buckets.

That then they have to sustain post that.

So I think that�s what that is.

And would you like for me to stay

a little bit away from programing because it�s not multiyear funding?

On the challenge that RFP�s trying to address

is that we know that young adults experiencing homelessness lack

the social capital and the personal connections with caring adults in their lives

to help them navigate the challenges that exist.

So to help them access opportunity, but avoid the challenges that are in front of them.

And that too many of the relationships and this comes from youth and young adult voices,

too many of those relationships are relationships based on the provision of service.

And what young people have told us through this process is they need more permanent connections

that are not tied to a service, not a case manager, not a clinician,

not a behavioral health specialist at the community center, whatever,

but people who just care about me and my wellbeing, separate from that.

Permanent connections,

the more relationships young adults have, the more likely they are to be successful

and overcome these challenges. And so that�s what we�re trying to address.

That youth and young adults need this especially LGBTQ

and youth of color who are more likely to experience homelessness.

Program folks, five dollars here.

Get a program for the World Series champions, folks. Five dollars here.

Program folks. Get a program for the World Series champions folks. Five dollars here.

Comes with your free bumper sticker. Best team ever.

Red Sox parade folks,

get a program, 5 dollars for the World Series champions.

119 wins, 108 during the regular season, 11 more in the post season to bring the championship home.

Thank everyone for coming herein today. I wanna thank the Red Sox, an incredible organization

starting with the ownership down to our general manager. I had the chance

to go to Puerto Rico with Alex Cora in the very beginning of the season and I saw what type of person he was.

He�s an amazing man, an amazing team, with the best fans in the world. Go Red Sox!

- Mayor Walsh, how you doing? - This is great. I�m doing good. I can�t complain.

It�s the World Series, Red Sox parade, people are happy, what else can you ask for?

This isn�t our first rodeo. As a friend of mine in LA said, didn�t you guys invent the rodeo?

I think we did. I was saying that earlier today in the car, driving to the police roll call,

Other cities are dying for one and we�ve had 11 in the last 14 years or 15 years. It�s amazing.

- Everyone�s won one too which is incredible. - So much goes into this.

What does it do for the city?

Sports is so engrained in the City of Boston.

When there�s a parade in the city, what does it do for the City,

despite all the logistics and all the issues that go into it?

When our teams are doing well, it�s good for the city,

for the restaurants, the bars, all the different venues. The excitement in the city.

The team's being part of the community, so that�s another important part of these teams.

They�re part of our neighborhoods and community.

It�s great for the city, and the parade keeps the spirit up

and I think today in the world of politics and what�s going on in the world,

the horrible incident that happened in Pittsburgh, I think something like this

makes you realize to be positive and move forward.

Thank you for being proud of who you are and where you�re from.

And as I look around the room, a lot of you are the future leaders

of the City. You might not see that, you might not understand where your pathway�s going to take you,

but it�s going to take you to amazing places.

So when you think about advancement, when you think about moving forward,

it�s about who you are as a person and the commitment you have to your own professional career

in being recognized and realized and involved and engaged and moving forward.

Whatever you do there are opportunities.

When you think about the Latino community,

when I first became the Mayor, I spent a lot of time, I still do, but I spent a lot of time

with organizations particularly Latino community organizations

that felt that they were underrepresented or not represented in a lot of different places.

And we sat down and we really started to look at

Boards and Commissions and staff and who�s around and how we�re doing, what�s going on.

And making a real concerted effort to change that reality. Not image, reality.

To make sure our people have opportunities within City government.

And as I think about you, all of you in this room,

I think about being future leaders in the business sector,

future leaders in the nonprofit sector.

This is a starting point. Some people are going to stay, come from the City, work their whole career in the City

and I commend you for that and love you for that.

Some of you will say it�s time to move to something else.

And go into the business sector.

And that's honestly what you have to start thinking about how we do things.

And how you advance yourself, number one. First and foremost.

Second piece is Latino pride.

And I think that is really important. These service projects are about education.

They�re about pride.

One of the thing that�s special about Latino community

is that you are a diverse community within your community.

Because as you we�re going around here and everyone�s introducing themselves,

every time Columbia was mentioned.

There are some Venezuelan�s here that were excited. The Mexicans seem really excited as well.

So there is a sense of pride.

And I think for us in the City, doing these service projects,

you�re doing it because you�re trying to help people,

but what you�re also doing is you�re teaching people about government.

You�re also teaching people about what can be possible.

You�re also creating opportunities to open doors.

How do you take your expertise and what you know as a person,

as your heritage and your nationality

and also what you�ve learned, whether it�s been in school, if you were born here,

if you weren�t born here, what you learned at home and take it

to the community and give people opportunities.

The day that Trump came down

with the ban, I looked up at the screen, I saw what was going on and I�m like

what�s he doing today? And Dan says: you know he�s doing a Muslin ban

and he�s banning against immigrants.

I said let�s do a press conference. When? I said in a half hour.

I said I want every single immigrant that works in the building standing behind me

and I want every first generation person

in there as well, because I didn�t think I had enough immigrant community behind me to fill the room.

We were out in the hall, out in the hallway, it was packed.

That was a proud moment

because I was standing amongst my peers

because I might be the Mayor, but I�m a public employee.

We�re no different. And I was proud of that moment.

And that has nothing to do... So I�m proud of where my heritage is.

And I think back to comparing, maybe doing a little history of the Irish.

In the end of the 19th century Irish were called dogs,

servants, slaves, pigs, monkeys, animals.

If you look at the portrayal of Irish people back then it was completely racist.

And a group of people got together and started to think about being a power broker.

And they slowly but surely started to go into cities around America and they got elected to

town councils, city councils and then a couple legislatures.

And eventually continued to build up a brief of support and understood who they were,

and next thing they�re Mayors.

And that�s really what every community that comes to this country has done over time.

And you don�t settle at politics.

Our job is to represent and support the people of Boston.

That�s our job.

Whether it�s for, through somebody or directly for somebody, that�s what our job is.

And when you�re a public employee you have responsibility for that.

And I think that everyone in this room is more motivated than the average person at City Hall

in a lot of different ways, and take that motivation,

take that desire and keep that moving forward. Because that�s who we have to be.

This car doesn�t have an active registration.

I should have brought my passport, but that wouldn�t have been any good either.

So to get married it costs $75 cash on the date of the ceremony.

So you can only park at the meter between those times. 12 to eight.

I�m looking to get an Allston Brighton parking pass.

It doesn�t have your Boston address.

There are 3 fairly significant master plans that are happening in

city departments right now that we�re going to be a part of.

The first one is the Boston Public Library.

They�re starting a master planning process in the spring to look at the McKim Building

which is the old building of the library.

Specifically for interest to our community is looking at the front entrance.

As we know,

thanks to great advocacy of the Board and an individual Boston resident

they installed a semi-permanent ramp earlier this year

so that the front entrance is now accessible.

However, they want to build a permanent ramp,

a very nice artistic structure so they don�t have a temporary metal ramp up there for long.

So that�s going to be worked into the master plan.

And also there are two meeting rooms in the library

in the old McKim Building, that the only way you can access them right now is with a lift, a vertical lift.

That is the Map Room and the Commonwealth Salon.

We�re going to be looking at those areas to see if there�s a way to improve accessibility.

Unfortunately there was a meeting scheduled

a few weeks ago to give updates on the PCA Program,

scheduled by Mass Health and there was some communication

where the Library staff told the people at Mass Health

the room was accessible and it was one of these rooms which is technically accessible

but when you have 20 and 30 people coming in wheelchairs, trying to go up

that lift, it was not very accessible, so...

I�m working on communication with the library and looking at

different strategies to try to improve accessibility.

Another master plan that�s happening is the Parks Department

is working on a master plan for Boston Common.

There is a large barrier in the Common

that we�ve been interested in working on for a long time.

And that is the set of steps at the Shaw Memorial

which go from the Common up to Beacon Street, across from the State House.

Right now if you�re in the Common and you can�t use the steps,

there�s no way to get to the State House except to go back to Tremont Street

and walk all around up Park Street to Beacon Street.

So it�s a really long path of travel and even that path is not very accessible.

So, we had worked with the Parks Department for a few years

to try to get some measurements of slopes

and come up with some design concepts to either do a ramp or an exterior elevator in the Common.

So this will be included in the Master planning.

I heard you say on the Master Plan regarding the Boston Common

with the steps going up to the State House that input would be valuable.

I get complaints all the time as the ADA Coordinator at the State House. Would it help if I

got a letter from the State House saying that we would appreciate

those steps be made be accessible?

Yes, I definitely think a collaboration between the City and the State

because it�s definitely the State House which is part of the Freedom Trail.

When they have people with disabilities on the Freedom Trail they have to detour

and they can�t go on the standard route.

It happens almost every day.

So I think we can definitely collaborate on that.

I�ll put together a letter and have it signed by the Superintendent of the State House.

Great.

To me this is personal.

When I was seven years old I was diagnosed with cancer.

For 4 years I was treated at the Children�s Hospital in Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

And the people that were in our corner every single day, the doctors were there,

but around the clock it was the nurses.

It was the nurses who we got to know. It was the nurses who comforted my parents.

It was the nurses who helped everybody. It was the nurses that held my hand.

It was the nurses that did everything in my life and I never forgot that.

And it�s something that�s really important for all of us never to forget.

Because in a time of need in the hospital it�s the nurses that show up at your bedside.

It�s the nurses that comfort your families. It�s the nurses that are there for you.

And I want to thank you for that. And I want to let you know that that�s why I�m here today.

Because when I needed to be taken care of and my family needed to be taken care of,

it was the nurses that took care of my family.

So thank you for that.

Pedro and I have talked pretty extensively about

some of the work that�s been being done on the opioid crisis in Boston.

Pedro expressed a particular interest in that work

and in exploring how we might use public art to inform or tell a story,

or whatever it is we want to do about that particular crisis.

I told him the last time we met about a couple things in particular.

The Engagement Center and also the effort to build a Recovery Campus on Long Island.

And thought it would be a good idea to put together this particular team who are working

on arts and culture and the Recovery Campus and the whole host of other things

to have a conversation and see if there�s something we might be

thinking about doing in art and recovery.

Something small or something significant, I don�t know. But it seems there�s a great opportunity if there are

patrons around who might like to help us

tell the story of the Recovery Campus or of the Engagement Center.

So I�d like to try and figure out how to,

if that�s something that you want to explore, how to get you access to

these two places.

What�s interesting is that Long Island, if you think about being the place that is the long term,

sort of recovery place for people,

kind of completing our continuum of care that we offer as a city.

The Engagement Center is really the low end. It is the thing that starts the continuum of care.

In bureaucratic speak called a low threshold space because

even people who are kicked out of shelters, people kicked out of programs,

are allowed to be there. You can be

in any state of mind as long as you�re respecting the space.

You can come and sleep, you can come and play games.

You�ll see some pictures.

What�s interesting is that we try to make the best of what we had.

It was a storage tent basically.

Like with a structure. Like it has air conditioning and it has

things you�d find in a building, but it�s still canvas.

And so, very quickly

the most random assortment of ragtag gang of people in the City from many departments

came together and figured out what to do with this space

to make it habitable, but more importantly to make it a place that people wanted to be.

Because we really wanted this to be a place

where you�re not on the recovery spectrum yet. You�re no necessarily wanting recovery.

Maybe you are, maybe you aren�t. It�s just a place for people to go

so that they�re not on the streets,

so they�re not in danger of falling into the highway, because that�s where this is located.

And just a place where people could

be their full selves. It�s important to people. It�s home for a lot of people.

To follow up on what Sabrina said,

you were talking about your art in a way that we�ve been talking about

some of the artistic approaches here and we sort of discussed around a civic art.

It�s art that is not just public. It�s not just there to see, but rather there�s some purpose,

or the artist or the community can articulate

this is doing, this is this. This is how we�re going to put it to use.

And here it�s not just because it looks nice.

It�s the little teeny things that like push people into recovery.

The little breath of fresh air. Being able to talk to somebody that gives some meaning to your day.

And that is totally what this space could always use.

We�re year 2 into this.

We put some money in the capital budget for a permanent space at some point,

but we have no idea how long it�s going to take to actually do that.

In the meantime, this space is being very well utilized.

To the point where things are wearing out faster than we would like them to.

So very cognizant of trying to make sure that the place is

welcoming and a good place for people to be.

But the administration is committed to

keeping an engagement center in some form up and running pretty much permanently.

There are a number of people who have found their way

to recovery through the Engagement Center.

It�s like Steven said, it�s a low threshold space. These are folks who

might not have even thought about that yet.

But at least having the ability to ask for help,

makes it I think probably a little bit more likely that you might actually ask for help.

A friendly space allows you to take that first step.

- Springboard. Not even a step. - Springboard.

Because there�s no expectation of recovery.

It�s not like most other services, you don�t go there because you�re ready necessarily.

You can go there just to get your snack,

but then over enough time maybe that will be the thing that springs you forward.

You got everything from 'hey I�m looking for a coed space that I can be with my partner'

to 'I�ve been barred from all the other spaces that the City provides,

but I definitely need to access

fruit cups in order to deal with my low blood sugar.'

This space offered that opportunity to provide that for them.

And then sort of ease them back into being a part of

whatever they may have not been a part of before.

It acted like an incredibly interesting mediation space for some, a social space for other,

a living room, a pit stop,

a sort of community and again being in that meeting,

hearing everyone talk about this is like a family.

So I think we�re in a really interesting point where

yes, we�re trying to think about how to refresh the space as a city,

trying to think about what does it mean to keep the Engagement Center? What does that look like?

Does that mean more of them? Does it mean a better version of what we have right now?

All that aside, also thinking about how do we tell the story about what�s happening here?

Both on the level of the humanizing folks and meeting people where they are,

but also functionally we�ve done something here that clearly is filling a gap and a need

and really what�s the story that Boston�s trying to tell around recovery?

Being such an epicenter, regionally?

So I think there�s some interesting connections to think about.

How do we talk about this? How do we talk

about Long Island?

Obviously there�s a political side to all of this too because this exists in a neighborhood.

The South End neighborhood has been very good

about accepting the amount of social services

that have to be absorbed by that community because

the shelter is in that a neighborhood. There�s a methadone clinic in that neighborhood.

So this is the corner of Melnea Cass and Mass Ave.

People call it methadone mile. We call it Recovery Road.

We need to do a better job of telling the story,

also lifting up the neighbors in the South End who�ve been good

about absorbing all of this activity that not every neighborhood would be so open to receiving.

It goes a long way that most people have substance use disorders somewhere in their family.

Most people probably have it pretty close in their families, so that helps,

but we owe it to them to tell a story about why this is needed.

This is sort of a short term, it�s big for us, but it�s also small and short term when you...

in the context of the Recovery Campus on Long Island.

Much longer term project.

It calls for the rebuilding of a bridge and obviously there�s a

a court case that�s going to go on about that,

an argument between two municipalities about how that gets done.

But Long Island was a place where a lot of programs like this existed for many years.

And the Mayor�s made it clear that he wants to build

this Recovery Campus which will serve long term residential programs in recovery.

Where it used to be there was a homeless shelter, at least one homeless shelter, maybe two.

There was 2 shelters out there.

So where it used to be there would be a night shelter.

That�s not going to be the case anymore. It�s going to be focused on long term recovery.

It�s residential as opposed to

shuttling homeless people out at night and bringing them back into the City in the morning.

So there�s a whole, where I actually don�t know what the latest update is on

when we could even expect a bridge to be rebuilt, but it�s at least 3 or 4 years out.

In the meantime we�re thinking about programming,

assessing the viability of all the buildings that are out there

and trying to figure out how to tell the story of Long Island.

Because we definitely have a story that we need to tell because we need to build

political will to actually make the Recovery Campus happen.

So that it can serve not just Bostonians,

but people dealing with substance use disorders from around the greater Boston area.

So there�s some great opportunity there for storytelling and we�re very much in the beginning stages of that.

I think I�ve mentioned Swoon in the past.

Swoon she was actually, I mean this is public.

She was raised by... her parents were addicts.

Heroin if I remember correctly.

So it�s a topic that she�s very attuned to and I think

she�s made it clear that she wants to dedicate

maybe the rest of her career to really looking at addiction and trauma.

And how you know, trauma leads to addiction.

So the project I did with her in Philadelphia, she worked with

men at Graterford State Prison

Inmates, of the largest state prison, maximum security prison in the state of Pennsylvania.

Women in a re-entry program and...

I�m sorry.

Women in halfway house and a re-entry program.

The most important thing was the element of telling the story.

She worked with participants to teach them how to tell their story.

And we were all crying. It was so...

you know, powerful.

I think that the oral histories

are very important.

The portrayal of people who we often forget about,

disregard, are really important tools for humanization.

So much of recovery

is about story telling anyway. Who knows what tomorrow might bring

and so I think the more that we can use these stories

to put them out there, but also to really put at the center of all this work,

the idea of storytelling. Or, the idea of like owning your story

and sharing it.

I think a fan belt inside the generator

caught fire. So,

they extinguished it. I think they shut the power off. They�re on their way down now.

I just want to give a brief background of how this event came to be.

For those of you familiar with Sebastian Junger, who�s a writer, his last book was called Tribe.

In this book he explores the concept around homecoming

and belonging within the Veterans community.

And he often talks about how the best thing a community can do

for our Veterans is to listen to their stories without judgment and with full support.

And this is what this Town Hall is intended to do.

This is a community forum

aiming to establish greater understanding between local Veterans

and the friends and neighbors that they fought for.

We took care of English and American soldiers when they came back from the front.

Some of the soldier�s wounds would heal and they were able to get up,

but most of them were bed patients.

We helped the soldiers recuperate

from physical and mental injuries.

Back then we called it shell shock.

We tried to keep the soldier�s spirits up.

Many of the soldiers had lost a leg or an arm or sometimes both legs and arms.

Those men were sent to Walter Reed to receive artificial limbs and appendages.

I had a patient who wrote a letter to his wife

to tell her that he had lost his leg.

He was worried that she wouldn�t want him

when he came home.

But his wife wrote to him and told him that she was just so happy that he was alive.

He cried and I cried too.

The Street right down a few houses away from me

was named Andrew Biggio Square and as I was introduced, that�s my name.

Except that Square was not named after me. It was named after my uncle

who was killed in action in World War II.

The first Andrew Biggio.

When I was a kid I didn�t know anything about it.

I told the other kids just what my parents told me that it was named after my uncle.

It wasn�t until I was getting ready to go to my first tour in Iraq...

I was looking at that Street sign saying Andrew Biggio Square

and it was a weird feeling knowing that

I was the...

I'm the next Andrew Biggio to go to war

and the first Andrew Biggio went to war and didn�t come back, so...

I survived Iraq. I survived a tour in Afghanistan

and I came home and I was staring at that Street sign again and I said

I got to find out what happened to that first Andrew Biggio on that hill in Italy in 1944.

I went to my grandmother�s house. I asked her if she still had Andrew�s letters that he wrote home from World War II.

She said she did. I went upstairs. I pulled the shoebox out of letters and I started reading them.

I started to track down men from his company that were with him.

It went from men from his company

to different types of Veterans and I ended up covering almost the whole war on the rifle as far as

divisions, places, battles.

How did I get the rifle?

I go through Andrew�s letters and I read

on how much he enjoyed to shoot the M1 Garand.

I said I�m going to buy an M1. We should have this

in our family history, we should have it forever. He died carrying this kind of a rifle.

I purchased the M1

and I�m in my house and I�m aiming in at the wall and I�m

playing Army man again at 30 years old in my living room.

But I said, who do I bring this to?

I can�t show my family. Would they really understand? They�re not Veterans.

It�s great, but now what? I bought the rifle, now what?

How do I fit the puzzle piece together on what happened to that first Andrew Biggio?

So I thought about my neighbor. My next door neighbor, Joe.

He had fought in the Battle of Okinawa and was a grouchy prick to me my whole life.

Anytime a foul ball would land in his backyard I�d hear an earful from,

he wouldn�t crack a smile to me until I graduated Marine Corp Bootcamp.

Then I started to see him wave to me from his yard.

The relationship became different. So I said I�m going to go show this rifle to Joe.

I went to his house, opened the door and he�s sitting in the wheelchair. He was 92 at the time.

And I said hey, check what I bought.

I placed the rifle which was empty, not covered in signatures like it is now,

I put the rifle into his arms.

He was in his recliner. His legs had atrophited

to nothing after years of not being able to walk at his age and illness,

and he brightened up.

It was like a burst of energy soared through his body.

He started waving the rifle around the room, smiling like he was 18 years old again.

I said holy crap, I am holding something special.

He said go into his top drawer.

I want you to have these now.

I went into his top drawer, I pulled out a velvet Crown Royal bag.

Inside of it were Japanese gold teeth.

He said, I want you to have these now.

Now, I�m not sitting here justifying war or what happened in the 1940s, but

I figured out this is why this man was a grouch.

I finally understand what was bothering this man my whole life

and what he had seen and what he had went through.

I wanted to, this was more than just oh my God, let me hear a war story.

He began to pass on the advice,

life advice and suggestions on how to live a long successful life after combat.

I was 28

when I had this conversation with him and he was 92.

I said, I want to remember this forever. I said Joe sign the rifle.

He was the first signature on it.

I left his house and I said I�m going to go around

and get as many World War II Veteran signatures as possible.

I want to be able to pass on to the younger Veterans how to live a long successful life,

to have a career, have a job

If these men could do it, what they saw in Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Normandy, Burma,

France, Belgium, Germany, Saipan, Tarawa, Tinian,

that our generation could do it too.

And that is the story of the rifle.

We come out

of the factory, and for you Ramadi vets,

we�re out on Route Michigan

and we stop two possible VBEDs.

They�re both coming down Michigan to the point that we have

I believe two Humvees.

We stop. Everyone dismounts to get more guns down range to back off the vehicles.

While that happened about 450 to 600 meters out

I look at what would be known as the White Apartments for anybody that served in Ramadi.

There�s three military aged males or...

At that time because I�m old in comparison to these new kids, Al-Qaeda,

on a roof and they�re tactically observing us.

So I go to take the shot

and then its Ramadi, it�s the middle of the day. Everyone�s getting sniped, everyone�s getting killed.

I�m going to tell the Lieutenant I�m making the shot so guys don�t think its incoming fire.

When I go to take the shot, the whole thing was a setup.

It was a sniper from my three.

So I turned at the last second before I took the shot to tell the Lieutenant.

The round actually blew through my holographic sight

and into the side of my chest.

But I didn�t know that at the time.

So, I said I�m hit.

I get in the Humvee and then I said no, I said I�m good.

I said it�s not being top. I said your adrenalin goes through the roof. Anybody that�s been shot here,

my man over there knows to say the least. And I said no, I�m good.

They stop the Humvee, I go to get back out of it,

I open the door and my platoon sergeant reaches over and grabs me

because blood's coming out of the side of my chest.

And I know at that point

he hit me exactly where he wanted to hit me,

they were shooting through the side of the pectoral into the heart.

We believe that same sniper killed a couple of my friends the same exact way.

They rushed me into the forward operating base and on the operating table.

I think OK, maybe a piece of plate got me. I feel good. I�m feeling fine.

I get out of the Humvee and that�s always a big thing. Everybody knows

if you can walk in the hospital, even if you die on the floor,

if you walk into the hospital, that�s how it goes. So I said don�t touch me.

Take my clothes off

and one of the baddest guys I�ve ever met in my entire life

that had survived a battle over there with a handful of our guys getting killed

and you know he was...

one of two survivors out of like seven guys.

He looks at me and he�s mortified.

And I have a big gaping hole on the side of my chest.

What happened was because it shot through my holographic sight,

it created like buckshot.

So now at this point I�m like, I know I�m going to die. It is what it is.

I believe in the cause, I feel good, you know, in terms of like

hey this is what it�s going to be, I�m a true believer.

They get me on the operating table

I�m saying, no but I, you know, I feel good.

They tell me the bullet�s still inside so everyone�s just waiting for me to bleed out on the table,

bleed out internally and die.

My Commanding Officer�s holding my hand and he said,

hey you know Kurt, hang in there buddy. Do you know what the date is?

Do you know what�s going on? And I said I know what you�re doing.

I said today�s October 10th.

I said I�m a lifelong Patriot�s fan.

Adam Vinatieri just kicked the game winning field goal. Best kicker in football.

I looked around the operating room and everyone was mortified,

but they knew I was going to survive.

I make it through surgery

and they said you know son,

thank you for your service, you�re going to go from Ramadi to Bagdad, Bagdad to Germany,

Germany back to the United States.

I said with all due respect, everyone�s dying, I�m not going anywhere.

And they said, you�re stupid. They said

the bullet�s still in there, your chest isn�t going to close.

No granulation. You need skin grafts.

You�re going to get infected and you�re going to die over here.

And I said like it is what it is.

I�m staying. And I checked myself out of the hospital.

I talked to my father via Sat phone and then always one of my biggest supporters,

I called my Aunt. She�s a former nun who then went onto be

very successful on Wall Street,

a no nonsense kind of woman who grew up here in the City of Boston.

And I said, you know, I need you to grab my back in this. I said I got shot.

And I�m staying. And she said, well I wouldn�t expect anything differently.

I continued to fight on the ground for eight more months

and you know, it was heavy. We lost guys

but I wouldn�t have done it any differently.

I�m an open book and I tell everyone:

listen, war is war and it's tough, but honestly the hardest part was coming home.

I said I actually know Tommy because I went through the home base program

and same thing, not to get too organization specific.

But it was the best thing I ever did.

Because I said I wasn�t scared.

I wasn�t scared when I hit IEDs. I wasn�t scared when I was shot

I knew I was going to die, but I said when I came home

and I�m on the side of 93C and my family

and Local 103 has Welcome Home from Iraq, Sergeant Kurt Power. I said it hit me.

What am I doing back here? I don�t belong here anymore.

I had never thought I would have to prepare for it because I never thought I was going to survive.

And there was a...

for guys and gals that were over

there�s a certain comfort level to that.

Listen we�re all going to die someday right?

You know it�s sooner than later over there, well then why sweat it?

That�s the reality of it. The best way to honor the guys

that didn�t make it home is to do what you can to make the world a better place

That�s how I live my life every day and I just want everyone to know

that our coming home and our going through things that you�re not alone.

We�re all in this together. Because

we�re losing 22 Veterans a day

because everyone thinks they�re the only one that ever went through anything.

Nightmares and cold sweats and anxiety, that�s all part of the process.

The only way we�re going to get people to get help

and to continue to live another day

is by being open and talking about it. So keep fighting.

Keep fighting for the guys that didn�t make it. Keep fighting for the gals that didn�t make it.

We�re proud of all of you. Thank you so much for your service and God bless America.

We went further north. In Ai Quoc.

You can see it in Ken Burns� documentary. He focuses on Con Thien.

But we were at Con Thien. We were at Geo Lin, at Camp Caroll

and almost every time we went to one of those places we were under siege.

And they were shooting rockets.

We could literally look right into North Vietnam. We could see the little sparks from the artillery guns.

And they�d usually fire three at a time. They�d fire them every hour.

Some of you have seen the Boston Marathon bombing.

Remember the panic when the first bomb went off and folks started running one way

and another bomb went off and folks didn�t know what to do?

That�s what was happening to us every hour.

Three artillery rounds would come in and guys were literally getting blown to bits.

It was clear

that we were being sacrificed. We were at the most northern outpost that the Marines had.

It was almost like we were a pawn in somebody�s chess game.

And I had the opportunity to call home.

I called my mother

and the first thing I said to her was Ma, I want to just

apologize to you for all the problems I caused you when I was in high school.

She said why are you talking to me like this?

I said because you�ll probably never see me again.

She said what do you mean? I said everybody in my unit�s dying.

We�re the most northern outpost that the Marines have. We�re surrounded.

They�re bombarding us every day. Sometimes they don�t even bring us water.

We have to drink mud and eat grass.

And my mother said, you�re not going to die. I said Ma, I�m trying to tell you something.

She said, I talk to God every day. And you�re special. You�re coming back.

I said Ma, everybody�s mother thinks they�re special.

I�m putting pieces of special people in bags. Listen to what I�m saying.

Don�t believe what you read in the Globe or what you see on the 6:00 news.

We�re losing the war. We�re being sacrificed.

You�re probably not going to see me again and she kept saying,

you�re coming back. She tried to tell a joke. She said besides, you got to come back.

I said what do you mean? She said,

if you don�t come back who�s going to pay

this telephone bill? And everytime I see or hear

anything about Veterans who lost their lives in Vietnam,

I pull up on the corner and I see guys with the cardboard placards

and their cups, I realize how blessed I am. Having gone through all that

everything that I do I do it for them. I do it for the guys that didn�t make it back.

I do it for the guys who lost their arms and legs and guys who

even lost their minds.

I long for the day with all this technology, like we walk around with computers in our pockets,

I long for the day when we can evolve to a point where

we can resolve conflicts without sending our sons and daughters to kill each other.

Let us not forget the total cost of war.

World War I was among the deadliest conflicts in human history up to that time at least.

The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I

was around 40 million people.

40 million people

of which 9.7 military personnel

and approximately 10 million civilians lost their lives as a direct result of this conflict.

About 23 million military personnel were also wounded.

In the United States which was isolated from the combat conflict in Europe,

321,000 military casualties was approximately 3 % of the total military casualties of the Great War.

To put things in perspective, and why this date is so important,

90 million casualties of

World War II

and later conflicts further signified having a day each year

to honor and remember

all Veterans and their sacrifice

to protect our freedoms and their way of life.

Thank you for your service to our country.

Thank you for your sacrifice to our country.

To your loved ones, thank you to your loved ones as well.

Because oftentimes we don�t realize that

families are affected by not having their loved ones here.

Any gold star families here? We pray for you

and thank you as well. I have a great uncle that fought in World War I.

My family and my father didn�t talk about him much.

His name was Patrick and he left Ireland

to America and came to South Boston and he enlisted in the Army.

He went over to France and never came home.

I was at an event right after I got elected Mayor,

and I was talking to some World War I guys about

about keeping the memory alive of World War I service members.

And they sent me his draft, his card. The day he signed up.

And they sent me the letter that they sent to his brother Jimmy when he died,

when he got killed in action.

We never talked about in the house and never really

thought about it much. And my father never talked about it.

I grew up in an Irish home,

you didn�t talk about your things and I�m not a Veteran.

But I know the importance of telling what�s on your heart sometimes.

I�m in recovery. So my connection

to getting help is in recovery.

I grew up in Dorchester,

I went to work construction and you didn�t tell your feelings back then

when you�re drinking and things like that.

My drinking got out of control

so much that I ended up in detox.

It was the last place that I wanted to be.

But when I was in there...

I didn�t go there to stop drinking. Went there to get the heat off me.

But while I was in there the first night a meeting came in,

you know, an AA meeting came in and they talked and whatever it was I was interested.

It kind of perked my interest and the rest of that week,

I listened to talk of addiction.

And I learned about what alcoholism was.

And when you get out of there you�re not cured.

The key for me is the aftercare.

And 23 years later I�m still working on it.

And you think about every now and then about situations you might have put yourself in.

And if you don�t deal with it and you don�t talk to somebody else about it,

it�s going to stay inside of you.

Because whether you�re in the battlefield and you come home

or you�re in the barroom and you�re not talking about it,

or you�re in a dark room where they�re putting a needle in your arm, and not talking about it,

there�s no way of helping.

And I equate, I connect the... not the same way because it�s very different.

The fighting for your country and coming back is different on the surface of alcoholism,

but inside it�s all the same.

It�s that feeling that hopeless, what I had,

helpless, don�t know what to do about it feeling.

And like I said, everyone had suggested that I go get help.

Many times I�m like yeah, yeah. I went to one AA meeting one time and used that as an excuse.

Yeah I got help, I went to a meeting. And I used that for about 5 years.

But it wasn�t until I hit my bottom.

And when I hit my bottom I didn�t realize it was my bottom, but I knew, it was pretty low.

And a lot of other things happened in my life that built up to that point.

Every time I drank I didn�t get in trouble, but every time I got in trouble I was drinking.

So, you think about that and I think about

sharing experiences and I love, I go to, I still go to my meetings.

Hearing people share their experience, strength and hope

about addiction, sometimes there�s somebody talking that�s in so much pain

that they don�t see the benefit.

They don�t see the hope. They don�t see the help. They don�t see the end game.

And if I get a chance to talk to them I just say, it�s a day at a time.

When I first got sober I�d hear people talk about they have a house,

a job and a car and they have this and that, and I used to be like, I want that.

But I was in no way in the situation that I could get that at that particular moment.

And seven years later I bought my house.

And I remember sitting on my back porch of my house, even

10 years after I had it. I looked up and I can�t believe it�s mine.

And it all goes back to going for help and asking for help.

And I know many of you in this room

shared your story today and I thank you for that.

And there�s probably some people in this room

that might be listening and saying I don�t know what I�m going to do.

Just reach out. Put your hand out and ask for help.

That�s all you got to do. That�s the first step. That�s the first step.

You fought for this country. We owe it to you to help you.

That�s our job. As a government that�s our job.

Our Veterans office, Veterans Affairs office,

I�m proud of the work we do because we�re there for the veterans.

I said this earlier as we went out.

In my five years as Mayor, I have never once had to suggest to the Commissioner of the Office,

you need to do this for the Veterans or do that for the Veterans. They�re already doing it.

It�s setup for you. If it weren�t for the Veterans

of the Revolutionary War, of World War I, II, Korea, Vietnam,

Iraq, Afghanistan fighting all over the world,

I wouldn�t have the opportunity to be the Mayor.

We wouldn�t have the opportunity of a democracy.

It�s because of you.

Because you fight for that democracy.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for what you�ve done for our country. For what you continue to do for our country.

For me, Veteran�s Day is a day on the calendar just like Memorial Day�s a day on the calendar.

But Veteran�s Day, Memorial Day is every day. It should be every day in our country.

Everybody go 45 degrees towards the center.

Tuesday after the election for the Congress was complete,

I reached out to Richard Neal. Congratulated Richard Neal. He�s in line to be

the next Chairman of the Ways and Means from Springfield.

I reached out to Jim McGovern. Congratulated him.

He�s in line to be the Rules Chair from Worcester County.

That�s the seat formerly held by Joe Moakley who he worked for.

So we have some really good allies in there. I mean obviously they can�t favor Boston

per se on Massachusetts, but having them there

in their office, there�s a contact for a lot of different issues. Education, climate, transportation,

fire stuff, police stuff. That�s really important to have.

We�ll have staff in those offices that we can call, reach out directly to.

On a national level that will be important.

I also just reached out to the Governor to say that I�d like to get together with him

to talk about education, transportation and climate issues

and is there an opportunity for us to go and lobby in Washington

for those funds for the Commonwealth and the City.

I think we have decided to take a different approach.

The last couple years we haven�t done much of that because

we were used to going right to the White House.

We could go right to the Secretary�s when Obama was there.

We haven�t done that with this President. But I think there�s an opportunity for us to go

to Washington and lobby for a whole lot different pieces that we�re looking at here

through the Congressional folks right now. That�s usually how it worked in the past.

It changed under Obama the last couple years, they really made

a concerted effort to build a relationship directly with mayors.

Usually you go through the Legislative leaders like you at the State House.

So, I think that�s a really good thing for us.

Hopefully, I�m hoping good things can happen out of Washington.

There�s an openness that John has. If he opens it up we get a really

bad storm to 30 or 40 women.

It doesn�t go back down. Right.

He was willing... it worked well last winter,

to fill some beds between six and 8 p.m., but then leave a little room

for overflow from other places.

There needs to be some space because if he�s going to step up

he needs to be able to know that there is space that he's going to take these people to.

That we�re not going to be in a situation where he�s showing up at Pine Street or somewhere

and say you can�t.

A group of women who are sort of chronic...

they seem to be severely mentally ill who don�t leave shelter at all.

I mean they�re in it because we�re open 24/7 and they don�t leave.

I think we have a number of people also,

with sort of a combination of behavioral

and substance use disorders that are a combination there.

There�s a host of women who just desperately want to get housed,

who just don�t have the income you know.

Like we have a woman, an evacuee

from Puerto Rico

who just wants to get housing,

but has like a $535 Security Income check and that about 50 %

of the women also had some sort of domestic violence

or violence issue prior to coming, so we�re trying to get more service providers in.

There does seem to be a group of women who are like hiding.

Just trying to stay under the radar for whatever reason.

In the cold weather transit stations are places where people who are

sometimes less well-known or sometimes kind of hanging out have aggregated

and we know last year how the unintended consequence

of the compassion of the T at South Station

that really attracted people who were not so vulnerable, but....

- Predatory.- Taking advantage.

There was some of that for sure.

So we just want to think about this year,

what the approach is working with the team because I think

Superintendent, you want to talk a little about what you pivoted to last year,

when it was clear the South Station wasn�t working in January, February.

Unfortunately we had to just keep muddling through it.

Unless we come up with something better,

I think we�re going to have it worse this year. So at its peak we had 170 people in there.

There�s no vetting.

The place is not secure. There�s no metal detectors.

There was all kinds of activity going on, inappropriate, criminal.

A lot of people were telling me just throw more cops in there.

That�s not the answer, that�s treating the symptom and not the cause.

We�ve intelligence that suggests this year,

and everyone�s aware of what�s going on at Mass and Melnea.

We�re right in the middle. That�s where our headquarters are. There�s anywhere

as low as 50 to, as high as 200 people that are gathering there,

using drugs, engaged in violence, prostitution, you name it.

We�ve intelligence that�s already telling us that core group which is in the dozens

are going to South Station when it gets cold to do whatever they want to do.

So, it�s great. One or two nights, we hit some extreme weather,

they come in there, but last year as you know, it started November 10th.

Right away was the first day we had to do shelter in place.

Two weeks after that we went on a stretch that went 17 straight nights.

We just can�t do it.

I think we�re doing them more disservice,

we got killed in the media. We got killed amongst homeless advocates

because when you think of a homeless shelter, right away you think of showering facilities,

food, mental health, medical. We have none of that.

And I can tell you that the folks that are paying

a lot of rent inside South Station were beside themselves.

Commuters coming in, in the morning were beside themselves.

This isn�t me getting it thirdhand, and I personally would respond.

I would say a vast majority of, probably weren�t even homeless.

And it�s impossible for us,

I wouldn�t ask my officers to subject themselves to all kinds of accusations just to go around

and pick and choose who should stay in there and who shouldn�t.

I think we need to come up with a better solution.

I�m willing to hire people

and transport people all over the city, all night long.

We want to be good and responsible neighbors and we want to do our part.

But just from seeing that firsthand, I think we were almost causing more harm than good.

None of the folks who left South Station when the overnights ended,

very few of them ended up out in the street in places we saw.

They migrated to other places.

We have to work together to make sure that the transportation is offered,

that the shelter capacity we�ve added is available.

The most humane thing that we can do for people

who find themselves in the middle of a very bad weather situation

is to get them to the place where they can get the support and the resources they need.

Get a meal, there�s a bathroom, there�s a shower and there�s support there.

Leaving them at South Station especially some of the more vulnerable folks...

I feel like the public position,

we�re in a strong position to say that the T is stepping up doing what it does best.

Transportation.

The weekly outreach meetings on Tuesdays

we�re making sure that we have represent... because the other first responders,

the Boston Police Department, District I,

the Boston EMS, the Squad 80 Group,

and the State Police are all at that meeting.

Making sure we have conversations in those meetings about how the outreach networks can help.

Anything in your pockets?

Do you have anything in your pockets, ma�am?

- Any metal in your pockets? Phone, keys? - Belt?

No, belt's fine. Just your pockets

Have a good one, sir.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 pretty much eliminates

or it makes it illegal for anyone to discriminate

when it comes to housing, especially for certain classes of people

based on race, gender, color, sexual orientation and a bunch of other things.

Currently, House and Urban Development has proposed a new rule.

It�s proposing a new rule under the Trump Administration.

And as you know,

the Fair Housing Act of 1968 has for the last 50 years governed or guided

the laws of fair housing.

What�s happening is that with this new rule,

under the Fair Housing Act, let me start by saying that there�s a portion they call Disparate Impact.

Under Disparate Impact what it does is it allows a complainant,

meaning anybody that has a complaint of discrimination happening in housing

against a policy or practices that are happening to bring a complaint, formerly bring a complaint

against a bank, landlord, lender, or any kind of housing provider.

So, currently what�s happening is

the HUD wants to propose a rule

that is going to make it basically next to impossible for people

or anyone who is

experiencing any kind of discrimination under the Disparate Impact Rule,

to be able to bring a complaint. How this will work is:

currently there�s a very neutral task for it. All that needs to be shown

is that there is a...

whatever the policy or practice is has a wide reaching discriminatory effect.

But under this new rule what�s going to happen is that

anyone that brings these complaints

will now have to show not only that it�s doing this, but also intent.

That whomever the housing provider is,

has these policies or practices that are happening

and not only do they have them, but they intend to discriminate against

a person of color, race, gender, sexual orientation, what have you.

The problem with this is that

it makes it next to impossible because people who normally bring these complaints don�t have the time,

the money, the resources under the current rule as it is to do this.

That�s why we�re able to investigate if such a thing happens.

Under the current Disparate Impact Rule we�re able to look into it.

Or HUD is able to look into it and investigate and figure out if this is happening.

With this new rule it makes it next to impossible.

And it shifts the burden onto the complainant. The complainant will now have to show this

that it�s happening. So we have written a letter along with the Mayor to challenge

the Federal government on it. Challenge HUD on this new proposed rule.

Our department has linked up with other city agencies

and we have been part of the comment period that is currently open

and the Mayor has also written a letter to HUD

opposing this new rule because if it does in fact pass,

then this thing not only is it going to affect how we currently

do fair housing under the Disparate Impact Rule,

but it has far more wide reaching effects which is an attack against civil rights.

Because the Fair Housing Act was enacted under civil rights.

And if you can erode this rule then you can erode civil rights,

when it comes to discrimination, segregation, voting rights,

equal opportunity in employment because these things we all follow the same thinking process.

And it�s under the civil rights umbrella. So if HUD is able to do this

that means later they�re going to be able to attack all these other civil rights

that the country has fought for over the last 51 years to make sure

that people have or are being treated fairly.

So, this is a really huge thing at the moment.

We don�t know what�s going to happen with it.

We�ve submitted a comment letter. We encouraged all of the other FHIPs and FAPs,

fair housing providers and the agencies that are involved in this work,

to submit comment letters as well too.

The mayor wrote a really good comment letter

that hopefully we�re praying we get some traction with HUD.

But in the event that it doesn�t pass, a

and the HUDs new proposal rule does pass, then we are now in a situation where

basically we are watching the erosion of civil rights in the country.

What do we have here in Boston

that highlights the strength of diversity and of our immigrant population?

How can we celebrate what unites us here in the City?

And having Boston be a city of immigrants

with a majority, minority population?

What do we have to say here

and what can we do to really communicate

and celebrate that our diversity makes us stronger

and it actually leads us back to one another and to a sense of unity

and solidarity with one another? And that is that our diversity

and our strength really comes from the immigrant population.

So that�s really where it came from.

Just really thinking about how can we highlight these intersecting types

of issues around health which have to do with food,

with the activity that we started with

at the Armenian Heritage Park starting with walking and physical activity and meditation.

And then coming over here and being,

and having a cooking class to sort of celebrate all of us being together,

healthy food and again, all the ethnic cultures of Boston.

That was really the goal of this series,

to break down some of the barriers that have historically existed here in Boston

and sort of, by being next to one another, by being together sort of

create the sense of community

that really exists and breakdown some of the separations that have historically

existed here in the City.

So the meal that we�re going to demonstrate today

is Shrimp Lo Mien.

So Mien in Chinese means noodles.

And Lo in Cantonese means stirred. So it�s a stir fried noodle.

And noodles in the Chinese cuisine symbolizes longevity and prosperous life.

Traditionally, it�s served at celebrations such as Chinese New Year or birthdays.

So, for the sauces we are going to use today

is oyster sauce, low sodium soy sauce, cooking wine and a little bit of sugar.

Some spices, either chili powder or the pepper, black pepper.

And it will also give it a flavor without adding too much salt.

That�s what we call rice noodle.

So it has different flavor and goes with different kind of sauces

and a lot of people from China, they go back to their home town just to have that dish of

the noodles that were in their childhood memory.

And we also put a tablespoon of our cooking wine

and just to give it a little flavor\and also to reduce

the fishy smell in the shrimp as well.

Now we put into the shrimp.

So the shrimp is already cooked

for our demonstration, but we do recommend

to prepare the protein separately from our noodles

just to make sure that it�s cooked all the way through

and then reach the internal temperature that�s recommended.

55 % of Bostonians

are non-White, so in addition to be a majority city of color, we are also