Original subtitles

a city of immigrants. And so 28 % of Bostonians are foreign born

and come from about 150 countries of origin.

Immigrants own 33 % of incorporated businesses

And in 2014, according to Brookings Institute,

Boston was ranked number one in terms of income inequality.

By 2017, they ranked us number seven and that was due primarily

to the increase of income in the lower income brackets.

And the Federal Reserve Banks' Boston�s Color of Wealth Report,

it listed different things. First it was the first report to

break out net worth by ethnic groups.

It�s a fascinating report if you have a chance to look at it,

but for Black Americans, U.S. Blacks as it listed it,

the net worth, median net worth for U.S. Black families was $8.00.

And the medium net worth for White families in the same period of time $247,000.

This is not something we�re proud of.

Many Bostonians are

under employed, over credentialed,

so meeting with companies and doing a comparison on their job postings,

in Boston versus job postings around the country,

we�ve got some folks,

I won�t name them, but

we looked at one company and like 100 % of their jobs you need a Bachelor's.

And it�s like really?

And then when you look at like jobs around the country it�s just not true.

And so having conversations with employers that allow us to access those jobs is important.

Jobs are a big part of the work that we do.

So the Boston Resident�s Job Policy which was a policy that was developed in 1983,

was recently updated by Mayor Walsh. And this policy essentially

mandates that in the construction space

where there is any private development, or public development that is looking for a private

variances or any kind of public approval,

we are mandating

51 % of those on a construction site be Boston residents,

40 % people of color, and 12 % women.

And this is something that

is really important because the construction jobs end up being pretty good jobs.

And so part of that is creating a pipeline

in working with the Unions and others to make sure that we have a diverse workforce

so that we can hit those numbers.

The other one frankly though is the new

good jobs policy that the City just announced on RFPs.

So any City land that is being disposed of,

the Mayor announced that we will be looking for a good jobs analysis, or a good jobs program

for the permanent jobs that will be built or attracted to

the developments built on City land.

We don�t have the necessary legal levers to demand certain wages,

so we set criteria definition for what good jobs are and certain wages and benefits and conditions.

And we want the developer to respond to that.

Once the developer responds to that program and says

here�s what we�re going to do in front of the community and of the City,

we will then codify them in the City agreement to what�s going to happen on that land.

We are leasing the land so we will have

serious legal levers on any lease, on what they should be doing with permanent jobs.

On the small business side, the other piece is following the

Federal Reserve Bank's Color of Wealth Report, we do believe that there is

an ethnic strategy to wealth creation.

So the ethnic groups are very different in how they approach wealth and wealth creation.

So, how do you have the conversation with the immigrant communities?

And the different immigrant communities look very different.

Some immigrant communities are

high unemployment so their employment rate for some of the immigrant communities.

Cape Verdean�s, which is an immigrant group here, from West Africa,

their employment numbers are really high,

but their entrepreneur numbers are really low.

It does something for income, but does nothing for wealth.

How do you have that conversation with that community;

When you look at the Black community which is very diverse in Boston,

when you look at the U.S. Blacks,

it�s one picture. When you look at Caribbeans,

the Blacks from the Caribbean, it�s a different picture.

How do you help to think about

what�s happening there and how we have different strategies.

So we�re rolling out and we haven�t announced this publicly,

but we�re rolling out conversations that are ethnic based. The BDPA has

set up some research around it. We�ve got some numbers.

We did an internal presentation recently

and we�re going to roll out ethnic based conversations to have a conversation about the difference

in approach in our ethnic communities, not bad or good.

But we�re going to put out the number,

we�re going to set up panels of people from the community to have the conversation

about what this might mean and what might be new strategies

and how we can approach this to make sure we�re having

a very responsive conversation about the economy that people live in.

We�re now mandating that people tell us how their team

is diverse and inclusive in all areas. And then we will score them on that

diversity inclusion in a way obviously

that those who are more diverse

and inclusive of women and people of color on their construction team,

on their design team, on the development team,

on finance, on operation, on ownership.

And so we�re driving to use public assets for...

and align it to the Mayor�s agenda.

We�re also asking that people work with us

in terms of what the community has said it wants to see in the neighborhood.

The recent RFP that we put out is actually in response to what's called Plan Dudley Square.

And we�re making sure that there is clarity between alignment on what the community has asked for

and what these developments are bringing. The second innovation is we picked

a neighborhood, following

the first comprehensive citywide plan that Boston�s done in 65 years,

or 50 depending on how you look at it, alled Imagine Boston 2030,

to pilot an effort of trying to develop a neighborhood

without displacing the neighborhood.

One of the strategies called for the City being more aggressive in acquiring property.

It�s something we�re doing now on the housing side as well.

We are out there acquiring existing property

and not trying to just create affordability on new developments that are coming.

How do we go after the high risk property, buy them and then make them permanently affordable,

hopefully making the tenants the owners of those properties.

So now we�re doing that on a neighborhood wide scale in Upham�s Corner,

acquiring as much property as possible before we launch any kind of public conversation

around the development of those properties. The third one would be

working with corporations that are coming to Boston

who are looking for tax incentives or any kind of incentive to relocate to our city.

Or bring a headquarter to our city. We have an agreement with Amazon

who is building about a million square feet in the Seaport

which equates about 4,000 jobs in two waves.

2,000 for the first wave, another 2,000 for the second wave.

There�s an agreement with Amazon that we will use a linkage fees

that that construction is producing

to create a workforce,

development and placement program specifically for those 2,000.

We�re meeting with HR this December. We�re going to look at the criteria�s, skills, what�s needed.

We�re then going to work with Tren and her team

on an RFP that looks at the workforce development in being specific

in designing that pipeline, or that journey to those jobs.

This is something we�re doing more and more of

is linking the employers or employment opportunity to the development

and programs that are happening all the way down to high schools.

Which is something we didn�t talk about here, but Boston�s effort to map

the job development ecosystem and then link it in a way that it�s more effective and evaluated.

The concept of resilience is a powerful one.

It resonates with every aspect of city life and planning

in our city and what we do in our city every day.

And our decision to focus

on our racial equity work was important to our city to move on.

And to move forward really. Not move on, move forward.

It�s something that�s important.

I grew up in Boston in Dorchester during the bussing, when bussing came in.

I was at grammar school

and I used to walk to...

my mother and father are immigrants from Ireland.

And when they came here they sent me to parochial school, Catholic school.

I used to walk by the William E. Russell every day in the early 70s

and the kids would come up in the school buses, but they were led

by motorcycle police officers.

And there was a motorcycle police officers behind them, and one on each side.

And they were moving kids in and out of schools and I thought that was

a little hard when you think I�m walking down to St. Margaret�s down the street.

We�re walking down to school and these kids are being escorted by the police. Not understanding at that time

what was going on because I was six and seven and eight years old.

I wasn�t really sure what was happening and going on.

Since that time Boston has made some progress.

And we�ve worked on that progress with other elected officials

and talking about addressing the disparities,

addressing racism and addressing the past that we�ve experienced in the City of Boston.

But the disparities remain deep

and there�s a real, the distrust we have is real in a lot of areas of our society.

People wanted more open and honest conversations

and I saw the duty as a Mayor who�s a White Mayor,

Irish Catholic White Mayor of Boston,

to start by listening and learning.

And that�s something important you have to do because

if you get somebody making conversation and trying to make up answers,

like I did when I was a candidate, it�s not the way to go. And I did that as a candidate.

Trying to see what I could do.

A city can�t thrive if we�re disconnected from each other.

And that�s something also important as far as the work that we do moving forward.

Racial disparities are our deepest form of disconnection that we have in this country.

And I realize in Boston we can�t solve the problems of the United States of America in here.

What we can do is work on the issues that we�re dealing with here in Boston

and hopefully other cities will see what we�re doing

and mistakes we might make, they won�t have to make those mistakes.

And what is successful in our city,

they can say OK this is something we can do and use in our cities.

We were just in Columbia, South Carolina

with Mayor Stephen Benjamin a couple weeks ago, about 40 mayors I think there,

and inevitably this conversation comes up about equity and race. And we tie it into

what happens on a national level, but we also come to saying that the impact can be made locally.

All it takes is one city.

One city to do something about it. To be able to share best practices and ideas.

That�s what we do as Mayors, as cities, as city councils.

That�s what legislatures do: they take ideas from each other and use best practices.

I just continue to have these dialogues, continue to have these conversations

and hopefully we can continue to move forward as a City of Boston, but also as a country.

The Food Bank is a great partner to the City of Boston.

They work closely with our Office of Health and Human Services and Office of Food Access as they do with the State.

They�re member of our Boston Food Access Council

and we all know how important this partnership is.

One out of every 6 Bostonians struggle with food insecurity.

One out of every 6 Bostonians struggle with food insecurity.

We�ve added 20,000 new jobs every year for the last five years.

We have $9 billion dollars of new development going on in the City of Boston.

We�ve built almost 28,000

new homes in the City of Boston in the last five years.

We have great prosperity in the City of Boston right now

and one out of every six Bostonians are struggling with food insecurity.

That�s the message today.

That�s something that we need to work together to tackle this issue

to get that number to zero. No one should have

to worry about where their next meal�s coming from.

Everyone deserves access to food and that�s everyone�s basic human right.

In Boston, we need to know that that work of fighting hunger is important

and the impact that we�re doing in fighting has to go much further.

I don�t know what it�s going to take the United States Congress and Senate

to recognize the need for gun legislation.

And also, we can look at Boston and see when we have a homicide in Boston,

you can generally tie it back to poverty,

maybe dropping out of school, lack of education, desperation, whatever it might be.

I don�t think anyone�s ever done a real study on what�s going on with these mass shootings.

These mass shootings don�t happen in other countries.

They happen in the United States of America. They�re targeting seniors, religious groups, kids

and nightclubs. It�s the second nightclub shooting

in the last couple of years here and Pulse was the first.

Something has to give here.

You can only protect the NRA for so long.

They have an obligation, the National Rifle Association,

if they don�t want to change the laws,

they have an obligation to the American people to come up with some solutions.

When Purdue Pharma, I�m not going to give him credit here,

had their back put up against a wall on oxycodone, they tried to offer some solutions.

The Labor Movement, when their back's up against the wall they have to come up with solutions.

The NRA needs to be held responsible and accountable for coming up with solutions.

And if we can�t pass legislation maybe that�s the route we have to take.

The NRA is allowing

mass shootings to happen by not letting any action happen in the Congress and that�s a sin.

The ultimate goal of making this stuff usable, at getting out here to West Roxbury

is one way to get to this data, but if we get it all online you don�t have to travel all the way up here.

Let�s say somebody is looking at

a governor�s mansion in Virginia and wants to compare it to the governor�s mansion in Massachusetts,

they may not even have to do anything more than open a computer

to get all of our data.

They might have to email or call us to find out

what do we mean by this or that or the other thing,

but the more accessible our data is the more usable it is.

Frankly, the more usable it is even here. So when I look for something,

I either have to know which box of the 2000 boxes we have contains the artifact

or I can look it up on our searchable database and open it up.

If a researcher comes in looking for a certain type of artifact

I can actually search our entire database to see if we have it or

how many do we have and what sites it turns up in.

And within 20 minutes Sarah or I could get out to the box and pull it for researcher.

Which is how it works. Usually when I get research requests, somebody will say,

I want to look at one particular type of ceramic.

If I don�t know where every piece of that ceramic is in our two million artifacts,

I can�t make it accessible to them even though I know we might have some of it.

It�s making them usable by people who may not even know that

we have these collections. I, myself am still learning what we have every day.

I haven�t seen most of this stuff, even while we were digging,

because I was in the home most of the time, not seeing the actual artifacts, but...

there�s some really cool stuff here.

Can I talk about the clams real fast because the clams are really cool.

I�ll take it all.

When we were digging we got down to the very bottom of the site and we hit a layer of clay

which is this deposit here, in the very bottom of our site.

It was manmade as far as

where it came from because there�s little bits of brick in it, so we know it wasn�t natural clay deposit.

But it�s a blue clay. We call it Boston blue clay.

And it�s a marine clay that was deposited by the glacier

right after the glacier left. It melted a lot of soil.

Basically the ground that Boston is was pushed down by the glacier

and when the glacier melted it was still down a little bit deep.

It�s almost like jumping off a dock. The ground bounces up after the glacier leaves.

But before that happened the ocean flooded Boston.

So we have a couple thousand years around 10,000, 15,000 years ago

where Boston was under water completely. And then it bounced back up above water.

But during that time it laid a huge deposit of clay

and that�s the Boston blue clay. And you see it in construction sites all over the place.

We found clay that was then dug up by somebody probably in the

late 1800s, early 1900s and they used it to line something,

we�re not even sure what it is. A cistern, a water collection, something like that.

And they dug up the clay and they pulled out all of these shells in the clay still.

These were stuck in the clay from where they dug it out. So these are actually clams that were living in Boston

when it was flooded that are between 11,000 and 15,000 years old.

So these are like prehistoric clams. They�re really thick. They�re huge.

And it�s just really kind of fun to see them from 11,000 years ago stuck in the clay,

scallop in two soft shell clams.

I just think they�re really cool to find. Basically they�re fossils.

We don�t get to find a lot of fossils in archeology so we don�t do dinosaurs,

but it�s nice to happen every once in a while.

In that deposit we also have artifacts from the 1700s, like this

1800s, like this glass. And 15,000 year old clams.

Not very typical, but it�s interesting.

Do minority and women owned businesses face any barriers

when it comes to city contracting?

The disparity study is designed to assess that question in a number of different ways.

So first, we�ll look at the degree to which minority and women owned businesses

participate in city contracts relative to their availability for that work.

I�ll unpack those terms in just a few minutes.

We�ll also provide a comprehensive analysis of the local marketplace to help understand

whether minorities, women and minority and women own businesses

face any barriers working in the Boston region, and whether any of those barriers lead to

less success with city contracting in particular.

We�ll also provide a comprehensive review of the contracting policies

and program measures that the city uses to help identify

any policies or practices that might be inadvertently

making it more difficult for small businesses and minority and women owned businesses

to compete successfully for city contracts.

Then we�ll also provide a great deal of insight and recommendations

around how the City can refine

the programs it uses to encourage minority and women owned businesses' participation

and what programs it can consider using in the future.

Educate me a little bit about this.

Disparity studies. I�ve been in this business in my industry for the past 30 years.

I have encountered all kind of difficulties and I�m still a small contractor after 30 years in business.

When you say disparity study, meaning a study that is a doubt.

Is there a doubt that this exists?

Because I find it in this 30 years the difficulty in contracts

for me to achieve all years in the study. I don�t think there should be a kind of a doubt.

Maybe we're looking for proof.

But I been part of it and not too long ago,

I was a minority in a contract, a State contract with housing.

I was a third tier subcontract

just so I can fill the minority quorums,

but there is a major company, let�s say White right in front of me to hire me just for that.

Is that something why wouldn�t I be directly to the GC?

Why do I have to be second and third tier?

So we know that thing happens where connections are made to just use us for the particular.

I�m sorry if I�m out of the equation

or I�m getting out of the point that we�re talking.

But for the past 30 years,

I can feel it... If the dollar is taken green,

I�m suddenly all the qualifications... I can�t meet them.

Usually like I was speaking here to Greg,

I cannot do a 20 or let�s say $10 million, let�s say $2 million project.

But I have 10, 12, sometimes 15, $200,000 projects.

I can do 20, as many as 200, but at one

then so really you'll see that

what is there that is something to keep us or keep me still on that $200-300,000,

but where the dollar is greener. So the disparity is there.

If it�s proof you�re looking, you come to me. I�ve been a victim of it for the past years.

It�s been very hard for a small company like myself to grow.

And usually I find let�s say major stream what do you call it,

not by using the color of the skin,

but the mainstream companies in five years in construction,

they do it in 20 or 30 million and they speeding up there.

And what we say if you really want to help this,

I don�t understand that in bigger companies, bigger projects.

Like I heard Honeywell has so many million dollars, negotiated contract with the city.

The casino was negotiated.

Why with a small contractor so we can�t negotiate with the city

to get that has to be different ways of doing it

that we can sit down and negotiate contracts and make sure we eliminate that gap.

Suddenly with us it�s illegal. With major companies it�s not illegal. That�s my point.

Question is there. I think essentially it was

why do the disparity studies? So there�s a belief on the ground that

these barriers exist.

So there�s a few reasons why we have to go through this process.

One is as researchers we, as strong as though, as strong as

our feeling is that these barriers might exist or not,

we�ve got to do the work and understand and look for evidence,

objective evidence that this exists. The reason why is because

in order for the city to develop its program

and for the city to develop a program that can stand up to legal scrutiny,

there has to be objective evidence in place

that they can point to that informs what programs they use and why they�re using those programs.

That�s really the reason.

I wouldn�t use the word doubt necessarily,

but it�s really an exercise in making sure that we�re gathering

the evidence that the city needs to make sure that it�s tailoring its program appropriately.

That�s really what it comes down to.

There is no doubt that there are disparities that exist in doing business.

There�s no doubt that there are disparities in our economy.

In fact, the Mayor would be very clear and has been very clear,

his number one priority right now is addressing

inequities that exist in the participation of our economy.

All over the City.

Now we think the inequities that exist in the participation in doing business with the City

is where we need to put real effort and try to lead.

And so there�s been historic

challenges doing business with women owned and minority owned businesses here in the City

way before we got in,

and there are systemic barriers and policy barriers.

And we want to address them.

We�ve been doing things

and there also have been challenges,

legal challenges to policies that the City

before we got into office, but all over the country,

whenever a City adopts a policy

that begins to work with one group or another, people will challenge it.

And say hey, is that fair? Is that not fair?

BBC, Sameer, is representing the city�s effort to make sure that we are well informed

when we introduce any of these policies.

And more importantly, that they can stand up in court.

Good boy.

So the good news is to take his temperature I don�t have to put a thermometer in him.

I have a scanning thermometer I can just put on his skin.

And it�s going to scan for his temperature.

- Perfect. He doesn�t have a fever. - He�s neutered correct?

So the plan for today because he�s already got his rabies vaccine,

we�re going to do a distemper parvo vaccine.

We're going to give him a kennel cough vaccine which is a drop that has to go into his nose.

We�re going to give him a de-wormer and we�ll do a blood test.

We�re testing him for heartworm disease. That�s transmitted by mosquitoes

and it�s a horrible disease

to have to treat that�s really easy to prevent.

Distemper. Ready?

What was that? Nothing.

Rabies. I�m sorry little girl.

So you want to giver her a bath now?

You can call 1-800-PETMEDS and ask for a prescription

of heartworm medication and they�ll call here to verify that the test was clean.

But the way to keep him healthy

is to have him on the preventive medicine once a month, all around the year.

This organization is incredible.

Morgan Memorial we all have a story growing up of Morgan Memorial

and Goodwill, providing opportunities for training,

for housing, for food,

for supplies, for clothing,

helping people. This organization has always wrapped its arms around people that are in need.

It�s one of our largest employers for people with disabilities. I want to thank you as well for the great work you do there.

I want to thank all the people that are here today that we had the honor of serving.

Thank you for letting us serve you today. Thank you for letting us be part of this day.

Thanksgiving is...

one of those holidays I think that

allows us the opportunity to come and serve somebody else.

And a chance to see people and it should fill our hearts with gratitude for what we have.

And on behalf of myself and all the folks from the City and the State,

I want to thank you because my heart is filled with gratitude today

because of the great work that Goodwill does

and the great work of the young people and the people that are here today.

So I�m going to stop talking and then we�re going to have, we�re going to have dancing.

Will the runners go to the kitchen and dinner will start.

We�re going to be doing the general contracting. We�re the developer and the property manager

and this is some of the additional organizations that we have.

We�re very proud of Cruz�s Care because it�s a nonprofit that does

outreach to youth. We mentor young people, we take them on trips, we do computer learning.

We do all kinds of backpack giveaways, but the most important thing is we spend time

with youth that live on our properties because we think mentorship

and interaction is vital in young people�s lives.

And next slide.

We also have heard through the community in this process,

about the wealth gap that exists.

And we all know in the Black community the wealth gap

between Blacks and Whites is 275,000

for an average White family and 750 for an average Black family.

So one of the things that we made as part of our mission in this proposal

is to give as much back economically to the community

and leave it better than we find it.

We just want to give folks a bit of sense of what we do from a payroll standpoint.

This is the last seven years. You'll see our people

of color percentages go up from 77 to 93.

Boston residents are in the 60�s. Women and Section 3 workers.

And we continue to put money back in the community.

And this is not only on an employee�s standpoint,

but on a business standpoint.

We think it�s very important that we support local businesses of color.

So these are MBE numbers.

Utilization of firms of color in the last seven years.

And you see out of 152 million of total development costs that we�ve done on average

75 to 78 % have gone to firms of color. And you look at the worker hours.

We�ve hit as much as 95 % on 35,000 hours.

So again it�s about Ngiving back to the community.

To talk about the program, it�s now 160 units. When we were selected it was 150.

But as you get more into design

and more finite layouts you find that you have a little bit more footprint.

So right now, it�s 160 units of which 105 are home ownership condominiums

and there�s 15,500 square feet of retail space.

That�s also an increase

from when we were designated because during, we�ve had about nine meetings

with DND, BPDA and part of the feedback,

most of the feedback we incorporated

and you�ll see in the design we have more of a street presence

and as that evolved it opened up for more retail space.

So you�ll see when they do the architectural

that our retail space has in fact increased.

Estimated real estate tax, people ask us, is about $700,000 annually.

As some of you know, as part of our community benefits we are going to be leasing space

to the NAACP at no cost for 10 years.

In addition to that we�ve endowed a $5,000 scholarship

annually for 10 years for them to allocate anyway that they want.

We also have agreed, YouthBuild Boston for those of you who aren�t familiar,

is an organization that trains young people in the trades.

Helps them get on a straight path.

We�ve committed $100,000 to that organization over five years.

Plus we�re going to hire at least one YouthBuild graduate

in every major trade or during the life of the development.

The life of the construction and we have estimated that to be about 20 positions.

Community benefits should be driven by the community

and not by a developer.

I�m not taking issue with that. It�s a broad statement that I�m making.

It�s not targeted at crews specifically.

What, in that sort of proposal and package can we revisit and look at

and really build more consensus around from the community�s perspective

as to what they would like to see as a community benefit.

Much of what you listed out

of course NAACP, I�m not sure they need 1,000 square feet of space.

And some of the others that are noble endeavors, but could there be others?

And that make more sense particularly for this site?

So I would just like to hear,

I think from not only the IAG group,

but also from the community

and have that community benefits process be more

inclusive of what the community wants,

as opposed to relationships that developers have with specific groups of people.

It may not be that thing, but it can look like that.

For us to go a little deeper on that.

I would like to respond.

We tried to get out ahead of...

Anytime we put in a proposal, as part of that we think about the benefits back to the community.

And I think the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee asks the question,

how come the Cruz�s proposal has benefits and none of the other�s had them?

And it�s because we always try to be proactive.

So we can always have a discussion.

You know John�s always open to having conversations and considering things.

But we made a commitment to the NAACP in writing.

That not only would we give them free space for 10 years...

Not to date myself, but when I was growing up the NAACP was on Mass Ave, the prominent side.

You drive by you see them, you had ethnic pride because you knew their mission.

Now, unfortunately

they�re in the Washington Park Mall where no one sees them.

So we thought it was an excellent idea

to have them visible, where better than in Dudley Square.

When people come down. So we made that agreement with them.

We also made an agreement to fund a scholarship

at $5,000 a year for at least 10 years that they would have the control

to determine who got it. We wouldn�t be involved in that at all,

just from the vantage point of giving them the money.

And with YouthBuild. YouthBuild does a great job.

If you�re not aware of them just Google them.

Not that a lot of organizations don�t, but they do a great job

taking our troubled youth

and turning them around when their next step is either incarceration

or they have to turn their lives around. And so we thought that that was a high priority

for us to make a commitment on

and providing jobs. We�ve worked with them before, in fact

John has hired at least 10 YouthBuild graduates

in probably the last 10 or 15 years because we think it�s so important.

It�s like ex-offenders. They need a chance. They need another chance.

So, conversation on community benefits

is not off the table, but the ones that we�ve given

we feel like we�ve given our word to those people.

To those organizations. It would be hard to go back and say,

we�ve changed our mind.

Community benefits should be driven by the community.

It should have its focus come from the community.

I understand that you as a developer and others want to, some of you,

not all developers want to get ahead of that and put on the table,

meaningful, long term community benefits.

That�s the other thing and this is also more for the City that

community benefits shouldn�t just be a shot in the arm. It should be long term.

It should be, it should you know,

build equity in the community.

That�s my concern and my concern is that the voice

that carries that piece around community benefit

resonate and comes from the community.

I�m here today to tell my story on

how I got in front of the hydrant and why I�m in front of the hydrant.

First of all I�m not denying I parked there. I was wrong in parking there.

How I ended up there?

My industry�s biggest conference of the year

is September 22, 23rd. That�s something I know.

It�s also happened to be two weeks before my wife�s due date.

It was a big debate throughout the year if I should go, if I should not go.

That conference was in Rockland, Maine.

So predictably,

Tuesday night, September 23rd, I get a phone call, my wife�s having contractions.

And I race home to, from Rockland, Maine, Bar Harbor area.

So I drive home three and a half, four hours.

It�s East Boston past midnight.

There�s no parking anywhere within two miles of my house.

I�m a first time father, new father.

I have no idea what to expect. I just have to get a parking spot.

2:30 in the morning I park in front of the hydrant.

I wake up the next day and there�s not one, but two tickets on my car.

So, I�m here, letting you know I was wrong,

but as an exhausted, stressed, tired new father

that is facing a pile of medical bills, asking for reprieve from one of those tickets.

Based on the evidence you provided,

as well as the evidence provided by the Officer who wrote the tickets,

factoring what I�m allowed to factor in, legally speaking

I should deny the appeal today.

What I�m going to do however instead I�m going to dismiss both tickets.

One with a warning the other with a final warning.

That means is a couple of things.

First, in the future you got to make sure

you check where you park because especially with issues like this,

and with no stop or stands, they can tow the car if they really wanted to.

Which would not have been helpful in this entire process for you.

Second, if you filed an appeal you do need to bring

all evidence that you have that can corroborate any testimonies,

paperwork, receipts, photos, whatever.

And third, means you don�t have to pay anything today.

Thank you very much.

For the record we�re here today for ticket 754471406

issued to us in a resident permit only on 8/9/2019

at 10:09 p.m. at 343 Congress Street.

So what can you do to prove the ticket was given incorrectly.

It�s tough for me to prove the ticket was given incorrectly, but...

When I parked the car there wasn�t any sign for

resident permit parking there.

It was just a meter I thought

and I mean I lived in this town my whole life. I didn�t even know anybody lived down there.

I haven�t been down there in a long time, so

for me to park in that part of town

and think, wait a minute, this might be resident permit,

like it was the Hill or like it was the Back Bay

or like it was the South End.

I just didn�t see a sign

and I figured 9:00 I�m fine and I come out and get a ticket at 10.

I can�t understand what happened. I don�t, I just don�t know.

So what could have happened, there are some parts of Boston

where it�s resident permit after six.

So without any evidence that there isn�t a sign posted on the block,

more likely it was given correctly, but I�ll dismiss it.

Just make sure every time you park the car even if you�re at your in meter.

I have to check a little bit harder than I did that night. Certainly.

I was even on a date the other night and I�m like:

Hold on, I made her wait, I got to check the signs

Just keep going until you find a sign there, there�s always going to be one.

I just didn�t think to look. Again, because who lives down there?

Evidently a lot of people live down there now.

Maybe it�s like a new high rise or something, I�m not sure.

Back in the day, nobody lived down there.

So that�s a copy of the decision. Do you have any further questions?

Thank you for hearing me because I missed my date and everything.

- You missed your date? - Like I said, but the guy said you can.

Except for Atlantic, nothing�s that bad.

Don�t worry. It�ll get there.

Harold Street�s not bad so far.

So far it�s not bad. It�s going to be getting bad.

Starting to build up in the Sumner tunnel.

8th Street is not bad tonight.

I made a little adjustments over there earlier.

You figured they�d start diving off the highway, cutting through the back streets.

Looks like the highway is starting to slow down.

The expressway�s starting to slow down.

Everyone is going north skiing.

Got to stay ahead of the traffic. Got to stay ahead of the problem.

I might make this change permanent.

- Which one? - Upham�s corner.

I�m always doing this. I just don�t think those left turns need that much green time.

I never see that many cars making the move.

It backs up.

Some nights it doesn�t, but...

It don�t do it all the time though.

No, but it�s 50/50.

Gotta give it time. It will clear up.

What�s that? Double parked?

Hi it�s Keith from the Tech Center. Hey, how�s it going?

I�ve got a vehicle stopped in the bike lane on Congress Street at Milk Street.

Great, thanks.

I am the Executive Director of the Mayor�s Office of Women�s Advancement here in Boston

and you�re now joining a community of almost 8,000 women

that have been trained to know their worth and demand fair pay.

You may know that Latinas in Boston through the data that we measure locally,

and we are the only city that measures these pay gaps locally,

Latinas are making 49 cents to the White man�s dollar in Boston.

And then the figure nationally

is slightly different, but almost the same which makes today Latina Equal Pay Day.

We have to work up until November 1st

to make the same amount of money that White men made last year.

And so if you think that�s shocking and depressing as I do,

that�s why you�re here.

And I wanted to say thank you. You are part of the solution.

We have a two or three prong solution

that we�re working on putting together at the Mayor�s Office of Women�s Advancement.

The first part of it is training ourselves, empowering ourselves

and learning how to navigate the system as it is.

So we acknowledge that the system is unfair and that

it�s not our individual fault that we are experiencing this pay gap as Latinas.

But there is something that we ourselves can do about it and that is

learning to negotiate, learning our work, our worth,

doing our research and then demanding fair pay.

At the same time at the Mayor�s Office of Women�s Advancement we do understand

that�s only going to get us so far, so on the other hand

we are working on fixing that system and leveling it off so that

we are playing in a more equal play field.

What that entails is doing a lot of work with employers.

So that you guys will learn how to negotiate and demand your worth here,

they have to be ready for that on the other end.

We work with more than 200 employers in the greater Boston area to talk about this issue,

to get them to measure their own wage gaps and then to come together,

and learn and propose strategies for what they�re going to do about it.

Part of it is, how do you figure out for this role,

how do I know that I should be getting paid more?

Or that I should even get anything outside of just a paycheck? What is that?

With the advent, thank goodness, of the Internet,

that type of information is very readily available.

So one of the things that I did learn

at an early stage thanks to the same manager, because we had a conflict at one point.

And it was a conflict about the size of my skirt.

It taught me one of these lessons, a good negotiating point and why I researched.

Somebody complained that my skirt was too short.

Now mind you compared to these days, woo. It was like having knee length skirt.

But I asked him: would you ask or say something, say the same thing to a man?

I mean obviously at that time,

men didn�t have the option they do or...

Non-binary wasn�t a thing then, so we didn�t have those types of conversations.

Then he said I�m going to teach you something.

I don�t care if you�re a woman or a man.

He said do you want people to think about these things because you�re a woman

or do you want them to think about the value that you bring into your role?

And so, he did teach me that, so part of that was

every time when I go for a new role, or I�m helping someone,

I say go look up what a man and a woman�s making for that role.

Find out what they�re making here

and what they�re making in other parts of the country.

Find out what that scale is, and then use the men�s scale.

The other thing too, when you talk about knowing your value is:

besides that number on a piece of paper,

what else should you be negotiating for? And that�s one of the great things

about doing your research between the Internet,

what the company�s offering and what other people are making.

Do you have bonus potential?

Are you moving expenses? Do you have training that�s involved, or

memberships for professional associations?

There�s so many things that you can actually negotiate,

they should all be on the table.

So how my strategy changed was I learned how to research.

I learned how to do those types of things. But the other thing I also learned how to do

and Evelyn you touched upon this. This is so very important.

Learning how to read people.

You can have all the knowledge in the world,

but if the person across from you does not want to negotiate

or you don�t think they want to negotiate, or you don�t know their negotiation style,

you may go nowhere in that conversation.

So another really important part of that negotiation is

trying to figure out a person�s negotiation style. It�s not that difficult

to be honest with you. One of the things I had to learn early on in my career

because when I started negotiating there was not that many women in my field.

So it was non�t even women of color, it was just women.

And I had to learn to hold my own

with all these men that in a lot of times I was leading, especially early in my career.

I was 23, 24 leading men that were,

had been in corporate careers for 20, 30, 40 years if not more.

So that was my first lesson because I remember,

just from a cultural type of perspective,

a gentleman from Alabama called me Sug one day.

Now I knew culturally that he wasn�t trying to be offensive

and I also knew him personally,

but I also knew that that could impact how other people looked at me.

And when you talk about value that�s not a dollar sign value at that point in time.

Although it could translate into it at a later point.

I had to go to my manager and say, I know he doesn�t mean harm by this,

but he could be creating harm

based on the fact that I�m a woman. And I�m a woman, a female negotiator.

So one of the things that I had to learn from a cultural and just the value as a woman,

was my job was a negotiator.

If I could not negotiate my salary, what was I saying to my potential employer?

So it was even more stressful to be able to put a package together.

A couple of things that I learned, I actually learned a lot from men.

I had a lot of male mentors.

Mostly because of the fact that there was no one else again in that space

that were women. And they were definitely not women of color, very seldom.

Very seldom did I ever run into a woman of color.

So I had to lean outside of that space

to actually find women and women of color who were doing something different

and that they could teach me and they could give me a voice.

So mentorship was huge for me.

Without that mentorship,

I would not have learned as a woman and as a Latina what my value was.

Then the other thing I did lean on

as far as my approach was concerned, was I watched men.

And I watched how they conducted themselves.

When you talk about learning your value,

a lot of times where I learned were at bars at happy hours.

So number one,

I was taught you should not be a woman going to a bar at happy hour with all these men.

I had to take a risk at that time in my career to say there�s something going on there.

And so I would go and have a beer or two.

And have these conversations because again, negotiation strategy.

People let their guard down at different points and it was usually at the bar for men.

The other thing that I had to learn as far as what was going on corporate America at the time?

Things were happening on the golf course.

I didn�t play golf. We played no activities. We had no money for it.

So, I went and I took golf lessons at the public golf course. I was horrible.

The first time I joined the company golf league and I would tell them, I�m horrible.

The first time that I went up to hit the ball, I missed it. And I missed it horribly.

But I told everyone. I said I told you I was not good at golf.

At least people knew I was going to play golf, but I was going to be on that golf course.

And I knew at the time that especially when I was living in Pittsburg,

there really was not that many women of color in the community,

much less in corporate America that I was doing these things, that I was representing,

so I had to be careful of my actions. I had to be careful of my words.

But when that did translate into salary,

I was at a stronger position

because people knew that I was willing to do these things

to understand what my value was.

Because at that point I wasn�t comparing myself to other women

and I definitely wasn�t comparing myself to women of color because they weren�t there.

I was learning what to do and what my value was compared to a guy,

compared to a White man.

And so that was huge for me as far as my career in negotiation was concerned.

We had a shooting today at Quincy and Ceylon Street.

It was a guy on a... a kid on a scooter.

The scooter�s been recovered,

but the suspect�s still outstanding.

Pull it up, it�s on the brick, but I printed out

like 15 copies so you guys can grab one if you need to.

Check your emails. It�s in there.

Otherwise, we�ll be on the lookout for him.

And 7 p.m., the 201... What did I say 201 was?

Hogan and Lahey. You guys do

the Gloucester versus Boston Latin game up at Madison Park.

Go up there. A couple code 19s. Or just drive around at 7 p.m., take a look

and let us know if anything needs attention up there.

I remain concerned about the precedent

establishing past practice of this committee to approve such a request as this

of allowing the increase in enrollment for a school,

when we know that the current physical capacity of their building

is not equal to what we are proposing going to.

And that we�re setting ourself up for a year or two years from now,

the school rightfully coming back to us and saying,

'we expect a bigger facility,

'you told us we were going to have a bigger facility'.

And this is something that

this committee has perpetually done time after time.

This is no reflection on the school.

But I�m concerned we�re setting up a conflict

a year or two from now

when you�re trying to expan to your approved enrollment level

particularly when there�s a lot of demand for your school because you�re doing

really good things there with some youth who are very challenged.

You�re doing outstanding work.

And yet, unless I hear otherwise,

the answer I have here was about suspension, but was not yet about facilities.

This is a long setup to then hear from the Superintendent on

where the District stands

about what we will do for facilities

because I remain deeply concerned about approving this amendment.

I recognize we�re in a challenge. We�re doing this because of the State review.

And yet we�re setting up a problem a year from now.

I believe there was testimony last time that the school is already well in excess of its

approved enrollment and so part of what is in front of us right now

is an opportunity to right size the maximum enrollment of the school

that would capture what the excess enrollment will be.

So that�s not an excuse and that�s not

a total answer for what your question is, but I think

just to give that context, we are serving through the current building,

or the current facility, students in excess of what our current allotment is.

So there is a need for an additional building

or additional space. I don�t want to presuppose a building.

And within that context I think that might be helpful for the District to further

elaborate on its own comments on the facilities from the last meeting.

But Mr. Chair, correct me if I�m wrong. We are not just approving

for the Charter, for the enrollment to go up to what the existing enrollment is right now,

we�re going beyond that which would allow the school to expand

particularly in the 2.0, right? So this is a kind of a newer program.

So this will be an expansion for the school, it�s not just...

Part of it is correcting where they are, right?

I agree with you, but just help me out with that.

Absolutely and I want to just make sure that within the context of that,

the increase is not 100 students.

The increase to the approved maximum enrollment is 100 students.

But the increase I believe in the actual enrollment is...

Can you help me out with what that number might be?

Next year is 430. And the enrollment is 405 in our Charter.

- And this is a multiyear enrollment? - Over 3 years.

The idea would be to grow 100.

- Grow 100 additional students? - To 505.

To 505.

That�s 100 additional students, but over your existing maximum enrollment.

- its� about 70? - 70.

70 students over your actual enrollment.

- And that will require new physical space. - More space.

So, we�re setting ourselves up here for a big challenge.

So we�re not proposing simply

to adjust the amendments to the actual enrollment right now,

but we�re proposing now to allow them to expand

for students that we know we do not yet have space for.

We cannot identify specific space so we can�t say a plan is part of it.

Am I correct in that?

I can tell you that we are committed

to finding space for the current students who are offsite already.

So we will be finding space for them regardless.

They�re currently in an offsite location this year.

- They�re in the Dearborn? - In the Dearborn.

And Dearborn�s going to need that space next year?

So we already know we need to find some space for them?

But now we�re talking about additional space beyond that.

This is a great problem to have.

It�s because you�re an outstanding school doing outstanding work.

There is huge demand. When we talked to folks at the Reengagement center,

they would love to have so many more students there.

It�s not about a bad problem.

But it�s a problem that we�ve done over and over again here.

And that�s what concerns me.

I wonder if we can come to a compromise

of what the enrollment actually is for the building

and come back and have this conversation.

In order to capably serve

the varied and diverse

and high needs populations within our district, we need to be able to

walk and chew gum at the same time. Be able to move these programs forward

while we also continue to think about how we are best creating the facilities

and the architecture around the district to support these programs.

I�m wondering if it may be better for us since we�re improving policy

just to make it clear that we�re approving you to 435 or whatever the number is immediately

and to 505 contingent upon finding a suitable facilities solution for the school.

So the school and their leadership and their students and their staff

know that this is a priority for the school committee

to find that solution for the school.

And that we�re also very supportive of the school

because we know the population they�re serving is critical.

But also now it�s a school committee by policy,

putting it back to the District that it�s critical we find a solution.

Not putting it solely on the back of the Superintendent to say,

we�re going to find something.

My recommendation at this point would be

rather than change the number which would require a whole new process of approval,

that we table the current request

until we have completed their satellite location identification

and we will bring this back to you

subsequently with that space solution connected to it.

What about simply adding the sentence

to the approval that

the expansion is subject to finding an appropriate facility solution?

Does that create a problem?

Thinking about

the issue that the Interim Superintendent just laid out,

I suppose an approval like that

would allow the District to move forward

simply upon notification to the committee at a later date that space has been found.

And so what that would then do would be...

It would simply be delaying the opportunity for BDA to move forward to the State

and seek the approval for the full 505 at a later date.

In other words, we would be taking care of our committee business this evening

with that provision

and in the alternative,

if we were to table this we would be voting at a later date.

Either way, it�s going to result in

an action from BDA to DESE

that follows the identification of space for these students.

So, you know, I think it�s probably six of one, half dozen of the other.

We do think that�s a wise path forward. It allows

the current Charter proposal as presented to be approved,

but the approval of moving beyond the 435

is contingent on us coming back to you with their offsite space plan.

So if you want to propose the amending language

that would give them the approval

and also make it clear that before we submit it to DESE,

we will have come back to you with the space plan.

Alison, if that buys you the right amount of time?

We�re not waiting until fall next year.

No. We�re talking about before the end of this school year.

To bring it back from the very

focused conversation we had about facilities this evening.

This really isn�t about facilities. That�s just a condition precedent to

allowing you to continue to serve the population that you serve so well.

And expand that service to

a number of students across the district who really need it.

We�re very excited.

Something that was lost is that you�re also changing your enrollment policy

as part of the Charter amendments that are going forward and so,

making it easier and more accessible for students to find

high quality education at BDA

is the sum and substance of the Charter amendments that you put before us tonight.

We�re very happy to approve those and we wish you well.

And we look forward to hearing about your new location.

So your main issue is the rodents?

I found one of them dead under that cabinet. I moved the refrigerator...

I had to throw him away. He was about that big with a big fat tail.

And oh, it stunk bad.

- It pulled out the refrigerator. - You were seeing �em over here?

I threw one away. I killed one. I had traps under there.

Trays and they were empty. And then I smelled a bad odor. Really bad.

He was like that big. That wasn�t no mouse and he got a big fat tail with rings around it.

So it could possibly be a rat.

Did you already clean out the droppings under there?

Yeah, but I did take some pictures on my phone.

I wanted to just check around here just to make sure.

They�re possibly getting in through right there.

He�s coming through the cellar I think.

We can take a look.

But those droppings right there are pretty big.

It�s not a mouse. I had three tomatoes on the top of the counter.

They we�re smashed all over the place. I�ve never seen a mouse do that.

How often have you been seeing them?

Every day for the last month, month and a half.

Since they�ve been working on the streets.

- I can�t even sleep at night because... - Because that�s been going on?

I mean I saw one of them running, he runs fast.

And then I hear him in the broiler there where I left him some peanut butter

and then the next day it�s half gone.

I�m surprised he�s still kicking. But there might be more than one.

This is probably the second one. There might be three or four.

Those kick plates underneath the cabinet can come out easy, they�re not nailed in.

If you kick it or... Yeah I can kick it with my foot.

- There�s definitely heavy activity down there. - I know I wasn�t imagining it.

- I�ve never seen rats before here. - You�re getting a lot.

Before this I had raccoons in my ceiling.

They dug two holes and I patched

that one, but with the heavy rain he dug a big circle in the wood

and the water was coming in and the rain, the sheetrock just came down.

Does the management usually get back to you when you try...

My sister�s got problems her side of the house. Water leaking in.

So it�s you on this side and your sister on the other side?

And my two brothers own a part of this

and one of my brothers is trying to evict me because I think

he wants to come down into my apartment which is better than his.

Got you.

I put all those in there. They�re pretty clean.

There�s no food on them, but I don�t know.

- What�s going on with the flooring? - It�s just cracking from the water.

It�s been that way for the last year or so.

It was with all the little leaks.

When you have a chance and possibly get to it sooner than later,

start scrubbing that, getting rid of that heavy build up, that grease.

- Because any sort of food source... - He ate half of my...

I had a sponge with some food on it and he chewed half of it away.

So what you really want to do

is not leave any kind of food source out for them.

So anything like for instance these onions right here.

If you can, get a plastic container and just put them in there

at least until...

I�ll let the management or the landlord know what�s going on as far as the issue.

But in the meantime, you�re going to have to do your part.

So, that would be the stove and putting

these onions or any kind of fruit or vegetable in a plastic container.

What I�ll do is I�ll try to talk to them,

find out what�s going on.

And where the disconnect happened so hopefully we can come to some sort of resolution

where you�re not living with a pest infestation and the leaks.

Because they spread disease too.

And I try to keep it clean as I can here. I�m a bachelor right now

and living here for 18 years since I got divorced.

I�ve made my mistakes, but you know, I don�t do drugs or anything.

- I�m clean. - That�s good.

I have a glass of of wine here and there and lately my spirit's broken.

Because they want to throw me to the street after all.

Anybody�s spirit would be broken.

I�ve been going through mental health through Veterans.

And I got some anxiety pills, I�m on blood pressure pills,

baby aspirin because I got stents in my heart.

But I�m still alive. Hopefully move onto something better soon.

We�ll try to help you out as much as possible.

And I�ll talk to them to see what exactly is going on.

Anytime, and I�ll leave my card for you.

On the back of my card

I�ll leave my cell in case you have any issues or if anything comes up.

Most of this stuff will be on a 30 day notice.

Some things that I deem is an emergency will be on an emergency notice.

And so, once they get an emergency notice that�s 24 hours.

The other stuff will be 30 days so they�ll have 30 days to fix that.

What I need from you is when they come by

or when they�re letting you know

like within the 24/48 hours like

I�m going to come by and do the repairs. Just let them in.

That�s no problem. Sure.

I want the repairs to be done. Believe me.

- I know. - I don�t want to live like this.

I hear you. So, like I said I�ll touch base with you later on today

after I talk to your siblings and then we�ll take it from there.

Currently

we need to finalize the community process which we�re doing right now

and then finalize the host community agreement with the City.

And then apply to

to the Cannabis Control Commission for the provisional licenses

and then that will allow

617 to move forward with the build out and final inspections and hopefully,

ultimately license to operate.

How close are the cannabis shops going to be to the school?

How many people are you hiring? And where are you hiring them from?

I believe the closest school is about 600 feet.

To say that we just want to offer jobs is actually a misnomer.

We actually want to help people with a career.

We also have

a cultivation facilities in Southwestern Massachusetts

that�s going through licensing processes.

Anybody can get a job. That�s very easy.

But in this industry, we want to be able to mentor somebody

and to let them have a pathway to a career.

If you�re interested in edibles, we can help you with that pathway.

If you�re interested in extractions, we have a facility going up that will be able

to mentor people to go through that particular program.

If you want to be a grower,

we do have some pretty good growers on our team that would be able to mentor people

to get to a certain point where they can become successful in this industry.

And not just so they can go get a job, right?

We�re looking for pathway to a career, a mentorship program that can

really turn some things around for this neighborhood

in certain ways that a job just probably couldn�t.

How many parking spaces do you guys have dedicated to your facility?

What's it like in the surrounding area? Have you done any traffic studies?

And then how many shoppers can you physically handle inside your store?

What�s your plan for line management and overflow?

I only saw a small mantrap on that floor plan.

So I�m curious if you could address that.

Someone would come into a vestibule.

He would be identified with the proper government I.D.

and then he would buzz into the retail area there.

So, as soon as we want,

we�ll have someone outside telling everybody, have your I.D. ready.

We�ll try to move that line as fast as we can safely, professionally and securely

that allows them into the next.

And then when they make the purchase they will exit a different door

so there won�t be that backlog right there.

Are you going to have a line down the block? Are you going to have a waiting area inside?

Just these are the things you need to think about

because these situations will come up when

you�re at capacity and people are going to be standing outside.

These are things that you got to think about.

Given the neighborhood, given the location,

we absolutely think that a lot of the traffic

and customers are going to be pedestrian based as well as public transportation.

And then certainly rideshare which is being used all over the place.

When you talk, you�re speaking to the host community groups,

I�m sorry, there�s some of those groups

that are being talking to that really don�t matter.

And some of those people that you�re talking to

are making decisions for the rest of us in this room

that don�t consider us.

Like some of the people over in Savin Hill that don�t like this side of Dorchester.

So, I think when we�re talking about...

When we�re making plans about host community and talking about to the community,

I think you need to reach out to the regular people of the community

because some of these organizations and some of these little groups and meetings

don�t really give a crap about us.

And it�s all about their agenda that they have set forth. That�s one thing.

Also often in our community

we do have Asian businesses that are run,

but there�s not people that look like me that work in those Asian businesses,

I don�t want... we�ve talked Richard so I don�t have a problem with you

and we�ve already discussed this.

I�m just concerned that are we going to make this a multicultural employment area?

Like I said, a lot of the times

the Asians that do come in our community, they don�t hire me.

We have to hire locally because that�s the easiest

community outreach we can do

and also for the operations sense is the best way to do it.

As a business owner,

once you get in here and I�m not going to say right away,

but maybe six months or a year depending how your profit goes,

are you willing to personally give something back to this community to help

educate the young African Americans, the young Cape Verdeans, the young Asians

that live in this poor community that�s riddled by gun violence

and other drugs that are not marijuana that keeps everybody calm?

If everybody was on marijuana they�d be calm someway.

Your first comment regarding the various groups that we are supposed to meet,

and I strongly use the words 'we were supposed to meet',

because a lot of those are dictated by the City.

Exactly! That�s my point.

So you know for us to jump outside of that particular parameter

is not very easy for us.

As a business man, as a lifelong resident of Boston, Massachusetts,

we would want to give back.

But because there are some things that are beyond our control as a business,

there are only so many things we can do per the host community agreement.

Now if you want to touch upon a personal stuff,

that�s a personal passion of mine to really give back

and do things for the community.

I can�t promise you anything today, but I can pledge.

Let me finish. I can pledge

that there are times we will outreach to the community.

People that think that we didn�t include them in this particular

round of talks and everything like that, because that is a personal mission for me.

That is something I hold dear and near and it's passion for me.

First things first. I need to make sure that I cross my T�s and dot my I�s with the City.

They are the ones that are in control of a lot of things in our situation here.

I just want to make sure that

whatever funds that you�re going to be giving out of your pocket

goes into a great entity in this community that really matters

and that is actually having an effect on our community.

As I said, I support you guys. I just want to make sure that you have a solid plan,

and especially around security

and the overflow thing is really, we need to address that as the young lady said

becaus we can�t have a line of people

particularly if we have people coming from like Milton or other places.

It�s kind of like Oh look at them, let�s go setup for robbery.

I want to make sure that those are addressed, OK?

I guess I want to find out from you what you�re going to do

truly to address safety concerns around the store that you�re looking to open.

We have some phenomenal officers in our neighborhood. They work extremely hard

to keep us all safe.

And it sounds like part of your public safety plan is to lean on the Polie.

And I think that�s a bit unfortunate.

There�s a lot going on in this neighborhood that isn�t good.

And we lean heavily on them to help support the community.

So that doesn�t help when we�re layering something additional onto the BPD.

Second question has to do with the process for approving this.

If someone can just sort of address

whether or not the community has an opportunity to vote up or down.

This has to go through another process.

The Board of Appeal which they have not received a date as of yet.

You can make your voice heard through that process as well.

This is not a done deal here today.

They have more meetings to do. We have more applicants to

visit and do outreach to as many people in the neighborhood as possible.

Leaning on the police for their expertise

in this neighborhood and what the police needs for resources in this neighborhood.

I don�t think we want to stand up here and say

oh, we�re going to do X, Y, Z for security.

And then the police say You don�t want to do that in this neighborhood',

or 'That�s not what we need in this neighborhood'.

I think that conversation is ongoing.

And one of the big things that I think 617 can do as an entity

is obviously that surveillance and extending that circle of surveillance

really in conjunction with BPD and what they�re looking for.

Making sure those systems talk to each other.

But also making sure that BPD and who�s ever running the store have a relationship.

My concern is I�m an abutter to this whole establishment.

So, I�m right behind Walgreens.

I maintain it. There�s dumpster diving back there with Walgreens.

They park in my driveway. I can�t get in and out of the alley.

Half the time I got to call the police. I got to call 311.

It�s a huge major...

If I wasn�t such a gentleman I would say what it is.

So what I�m saying is that having no parking,

dealing with the security issues that I�m dealing with right now,

I�m not having it. Just dealing with the restaurant

and dealing with the smoke shop and dealing with Walgreens is enough.

I can�t even get in and out my driveway as it is.

I got people dumpster diving in the middle of the night. I have security cameras.

When the police come and they look what stuff that goes on back there,

doesn�t do anything.

Those are my issues whatsoever.

The parking... People that park from Boden Str. and down Blakeville Str.,

blocking the driveway just when people are going to the restaurant.

So never mind having a dispensary there.

Where they going to park at? Where they block

my neighbors, I got one, two, three, four, four or five abutters here

that they block their driveways here and we always like

up in a rage trying to figure out whose car is blocking your driveway.

So what are your plans for that?

We�re going to have cameras out front that indicate

that someone�s there and we�ll have one of the security go out there

and ask them to move.

We�re going to work hand in hand with Boston Police on this.

There may come a time when we may have to hire some details

to help us out at the early goings on this.

We�re going to have conversations with them. They�ll approve our plan.

They�re going to have input to our plan

and those are things that we�ll discuss with them

that they can be on the lookout when they send their patrols by as well.

And I can tell you that there is no way

that we�re going to let our customers double park in front,

say I�ll be right back and run in.

They won�t be allowed entry into the store.

We have personnel who will be onsite inside and outside

as well as some sort of combination of Boston Police outside,

and our store person checking people as they get in. And we won�t let them in.

Walgreens is a staple of our community and an intersection where people go get

family supplies, go get Pampers, they go get their medical needs.

So within that going on,

they have to pass through a smoke shop, a weed shop.

Then that alley that�s running there is famous to becoming a smoke...

Destination. Before the smoke shop got there that was a smoke destination.

The smoke shop came and it became a bigger smoke destination.

A barber shop was there. It became a bigger smoke destination.

The Walgreens has been raided, I mean from...

Us doing an event for the community

and people going across the street and raid it.

There�s been shootings and other negative things going on in the community.

So just having an entity there constantly is really worrisome for

our seniors, our young people who have teen centers.

We have schools, even though there�s a radius.

At the end of the day this is a common intersection for everyone.

Those imaginary lines don�t exist because we have to go to Walgreens

to get our medications, we have to go get Pampers

and our daily stuff that we need right away.

We need Walgreens in our community.

We don�t necessarily need a smoke shop or a weed shop, but we do need Walgreens.

As I read this, you guys are talking about

'fostering a mutual beneficial healthy and safe partnership'.

Again, we had a store, never got robbed, never got anything,

but we have seen people who have been getting shot in corners, inside stores.

There is a lot of trauma in this neighborhood

and in your whole beautiful presentation I didn�t see

bullet points around

how you guys are doing all that and bringing it back to the community.

And also about,

where you say that you�re creating a positive economic impact beneficial to Boston,

and Dorchester neighborhood. Bowdoin Geneva is a high needs.

We don�t have police available in the evening hours.

So it�s my concern how you guys are saying that you�re going to reach out

and get support from, you know,

the police department which is all nice and dandy,

but they�re short staffed. They have people retiring day in and day out.

And academy�s coming in

and we�re not getting the people that we need in order to

provide the services that we need, in order to be a safe environment.

So bringing in this flow where you guys are going to have somebody at the door,

I didn�t hear anybody directing traffic or telling people

where to go and how to park. It sounds beautiful when you�re saying

we�re going to tell people to move their cars,

but that�s not how it works around here.

We are not in downtown. We are not in Back Bay.

We are in Dorchester where people say

I�ll leave my car there, what you gonna do about it?

I think that it we all agree that earing that type of feedback

is the starting point because we don�t have all the answers right now.

You�re absolutely right. There are certain things that we don�t know.

And we need the feedback from the community

to be able to work together to come up with a plan that works.

Are we going to have all the answers on day one?

I hope so, but it�s unlikely.

We�re not going to know what problems may arise.

There may be problems that are resolved by our presence just as much.

We can commit to working with you to resolve them as they come up.

I mean that�s all that we can promise right now. Hearing that,

that�s something that�s important.

It�s noted. We want as much feedback as we can get

on those types of issues that we may not be able to see at the moment.

And if we can help prevent issues like that

and there�re ideas on how to do that, we�re all ears.

It may sound like we haven�t addressed it,

it�s only because there are a lot of moving parts that we have to

make sure that we coordinate with the City.

Having community meetings like this to meet with you

to talk about stuff that concerns you guys

and incorporate that into our business plan and plans moving forward.

This isn't by far a done deal. This is something that we would like to discuss

with everybody in the community as well

and hopefully tonight�s a great start to that

and something more elaborate and a little bit more lengthy in the future.

This community meeting is part of the process for you to get your license?

And then does this community meeting have a process to vote?

So does this community, after we talk and we vent, and we cry and we laugh...

- What happens? - Nothing.

We take what happens here back to City Hall.

We have a conversation there about what happened...

To City Hall meaning the Mayor or...?

We go back and reiterate what happened here.

So you also have an opportunity yourself,

if you�d like to send in an email, a phone call, write a letter

- And it gets taken a look at. - It goes into a file for this applicant.

I�m new to this. I�m sorry.

So that�s how the information that...

The public puts out gets put into play.

'Mr. Mayor, this is what they said'. And then what happens?

In a nutshell we go over what happens and it�s deliberated,

it's decisions made and if they move forward they move forward.

You have good intentions. I believe you.

If you have good intentions, forget the requirements!

Communicate with us. Go above and beyond.

Make sure that everybody knows about it.

- Too much? - No, no you�re right.

You have good intentions.

Do more, make sure that everybody knows about it because you know what?

I know this kind of stuff is beneficial to Black communities if done properly

because I�ve done my research. However,

if done in this way and just an ill prepared manner...

I�m not saying you have been because I don�t know enough...

Then you have detriment at your hands.

This kind of business, if it doesn�t benefit our community

is a detriment and will disproportionally affect brown and black people.

We have been outreaching to the community members.

They work at the neighborhood associations to address us and to introduce us.

We cannot go knock on every single door in Dorchester. That�s not possible.

Those neighborhood associations are predominantely represented by Whites.

So what happens is the people that

or we�re saying that are impacted, the people that suffer from trauma or not,

we�re not generalizing this culture saying everybody suffers from trauma. We�re saying

that this is a poorer neighborhood and poverty affects us in this way.

So, the people that it impacts are not being communicated to.

And so, it makes sense then

if you have good intentions that you go above and say look,

we want everyone to be aware

and we want to be very transparent so we�re going to do more.

This process is not dictated by us, the applicant. As much as we want to be

in control as business owners, this entire process is dictated by the City.

Let me reiterate it. This entire process is dictated by the City.

Many things you brought up and concerns, I personally am bothered as well.

Some of the things that you talked about and you reiterated,

some other people have said that same thing.

We heard it. Several, many times.

But the fact of the matter is a lot of things that we�re hand tied.

To go above and beyond something that was instructed us to do by the City,

we just do what the City asks us to do.

Now to say forget about crime, just go ahead and do that.

We can�t. We listened tonight and we shall.

We need to get organized and get to the City then.

We need to change this process.

I represent the Bowdoin Geneva community.

It�s an amazing community, but that has some of the worst public health outcomes.

If you look at the geography of incarceration today in our Commonwealth,

about 60 % of the people in the Massachusetts jails

actually come from the zip codes that I partially represent.

And so I want to just ask a couple questions

that constituents brought to me. First, I�ve only been in office 7 weeks.

The State didn�t do a good job

and I�ve said this at every cannabis meeting

because applicants are educating residents

about things that should have been done by State and City government.

At least that�s my opinion.

And so I offered to bring the Office of emerging industries and the Commission

to come and talk to our community directly because we have questions

that can�t be answered

by asking an applicant and having an agitated conversation with the residents.

The first is this is one of the most diverse communities in the entire City.

It is the poorest part of Dorchester.

It�s over 90 % of color.

My question is do you have anybody on your team

that represents one of the major ethnic groups in this community?

I know the Vietnamese community is 20 % so that answered probably yes.

I don�t want to assume Asian identity.

Two, also mass incarceration has deeply impacted our community

and when this law was first passed I know a lot of people went to vote

because we wanted to right the wrongs

of also what has happened to our community because of the war on drugs.

Do you have anybody on your team

that has been impacted by that or have you thought about that?

Third, we know that the host agreement goes into a general fund,

so the other question I had is have you discussed as a team

how you will put resources together for this community

that is highly under resourced,

also by the City and State government to be quite honest,

but there�s an immediate needs on this...

In this corridor that are not represented in areas like

Neponset or in Lower Mills. That the Bowdoin Geneva specifically

been deeply impacted by bad policy and under resources. So those were

three questions and are you open to a second meeting or conversation?

This district is 42 % Cape Verdean

and a lot of the times at these meetings, I might see 4 or 5 Cape Verdean Americans,

but nothing is translated in our language

and so what I find is that they�re not even participating

in these conversations, not because they don�t want to.

They care about this community, but you�re not going to walk into a room

where they don�t speak your language or try to have things translated for you.

So I just wanted to know if you�d be open to another...

Because you�re only required to have one meeting,

so the question is are you open to another conversation?

So those are the points that I want to share that mainly came from constituents

who couldn�t be here tonight,

so part of my job is to represent their interest and share that.

Somebody brought up a comment earlier about

when they walk into these particular stores they don�t really see

a representation of themselves.

Well I do want to note that we�re not open yet.

And so we will have representation of this neighborhood.

A lot of people have asked us to drill down hard on that number.

That�s a business question. I don�t have that answer for you because

that has not been answered during our business plan discussions.

But we're willing to have more conversations and more dialogue with everybody

that should be involved. As you stated in your first comment

before saying anything else that the State didn�t do a very good job on this.

And I felt the applicant�s the guy that has to elucidate and enlighten the public.

And we�ve done that.

Through our own pockets, through our own measures and through our own grit.

We don�t want to see this industry fall.

Because yes, Dorchester has been disproportionately affected by this.

I don�t see anybody else stepping up

to really say hey, let�s bring this to Dorchester and really make this happen.

You see a lot of Colorado people,

you see a lot of Washington people, you see a lot of California people.

But the barrier is so high during the DPH era,

for you to get into this that it was nigh impossibility

for anybody thinking of bringing a medical marijuana establishment to Dorchester.

You�re talking high six figures to even be heard,

so not only have you been disproportionately affected

by having your members of your community arrested,

and now there is an economic barrier for you to go ahead and overcome

just so you can do business in this industry that has affected your life

and generations down the road.

We�re not the type of people that�s going to come in and say

I can go ahead and clean this up for you.

I�m not that type of person. But what I can pledge to you

is that we can come down here

and have discussions and frank conversations with everybody

to make sure we include as many people as we can.

We can�t do everything for everyone,

but we can do a lot of things for a lot of people.

But again, we are not open yet. Give us the opportunity to come down

and really show you our medal and show you what we�re really all about.

And let the State know that what they did

and what they have been doing is not the correct process.

And with your help we can go ahead and let them know

that we can overcome that situation and bring this neighborhood around.

This is the poorest neighborhood in Boston.

Do you guys not want economic development?

Do you guys not want to be a piece of something

that has taken your lives away from you?

I�m the catalyst for that and so be it. I can do it. I look forward to helping you

and you helping me and we can accomplish this together.

We see everyone who�s at the table here,

and as a community we need to make sure that we�re holding them accountable.

So we shouldn�t just be saying this now in the moment,

but we really need to take everybody who has a hand in this to task.

When things are not working correctly

because you all have to live here. We have people who work here.

We have people who care about this community who�s been here for many years,

putting in the hard work and effort to get ourselves together.

And so the way we do that is every time somebody says something to us,

let�s make sure we�re going back to them.

And let�s make sure that we�re holding them accountable.

And let this evening not be the only time where we�re continuing to do that.

Because if we do that, you know what? It�s just going to be another situation,

same old, same old and we get to hold the crappy end of the stick.

And we�ve been doing that for many years

and so let�s hold folks to the fire and let�s hold folks to task.

There�ll be business cards on the back table. If you have comments

you can call up or you can shoot an email.

We�ll be responsive and we�ll make sure it�s noted and it�s on file.

We talked about this you know from a year ago when we first met to talk about

utilizing the restore program. Hiring an architect through our program

to work with you and your family, to really elevate your business.

I know one of the other goals was really, I mean this is a very successful supermarket.

I think that you have a very loyal customer base,

but I do know

and this is true for any business in the city,

it�s always important to attract new customers.

So were you hoping, is one of the goals

that by doing this project it will attract some new customers in the city?

Yeah, absolutely 100 percent. You know I know during the rush hour traffic

in the morning, rush hour traffic at night there�re

thousands of cars that go along Cummins Highway that pass the

store and probably don�t even think twice about

ever coming in here to do their grocery shopping. But I think

once we remodel and redesign the front I think they might

have second thoughts about that and maybe give us a chance

and see what we have to offer for them and their family.

Yeah, I mean we do know like through this program that when people complete a project

of this scale, two things happen. Your existing

customers feel grateful and taken care of,

and it in many ways it�s a thank you to them for shopping here.

And I think people get very excited when a project

like this, a store that they�re going to constantly is transformed.

But I think also

people discover you for the first time

and as you said, people are driving up and down Cummins Highway

and not pulling into your parking lot.

Because they�re not really seeing you. And I think that�s absolutely going to

happen for you and we see this happen over and over again for many of our projects.

Is that people walk by a storefront and once we actually transform it

through the restore program with a new signage and design, you know

it�s getting people through that door. And obviously that helps you

be more successful.

Who are the customers that come to this store?

So predominately residents of Mattapan.

We also get a fair amount of people from

Dorchester, Hyde Park, a little bit of Milton as well.

And you know demographic wise come from many different countries,

all the Caribbean countries, South, America, Central America

hat�s predominately where customers come from.

And you know I live in the neighborhood too, so I know

America�s Food Basket�s been in the neighborhood for so long.

I do know that based on the constituency that

America�s Food Basket�s been serving in your four locations,

so do you carry specific foods and that really the community needs?

Yeah, yeah absolutely especially in the meat department, the produce department

and grocery department as well. Basically we want customers when

they come in they feel like they never left their home, left their country.

Whether they�re Haitian or Dominican, they want, we want them to be able

to come in here and get whatever it is, whether it�s Plantains, Yucca, Ox

Tails, you know whatever seasonings that they use in their countries

we want them to be able to use that same recipe that their grandmother and mother

used when they were growing up back home. Only now they�re in Boston.

So how do you develop that list of ingredients and foods over time?

I mean the founders of Americas Food Basket,

you know they�re Dominican so that aspect the Caribbean aspect

of it was fairly easy.

Then as you�re in the store, as you gain experience dealing with different types of

types of customers, they�ll ask you what they�re looking for

and we try our best to get whatever it is that they�re

asking. And you know I think to a great extent

we�ve done a good job of that, kind of serving to their needs.

Managing expectations is important so, where we can get folks

in a room who are interested because they�re calling me too

and they have all these great ideas and I said well that�s not how

National NAACP conventions work. We�re not organizing from the

ground it�s really organized from National and there�s some local activities.

So, I�ve had to educate folks locally on that,

but I think if we can have a community conversation

I think Tanesha could host.

And then I manage expectations

that it�s convention of delegates, it�s a voting convention.

So people are here to do business.

They�re here to go to luncheons,

be part of panel discussions. There�s not a lot of free time

to leave the area that they�re in,

and if they leave the area they�re not there to vote

on a particular matter that�s coming before the body.

So there�ll be some limited opportunities

to get out of the convention area and see Boston

and we just got to be intentional about when those opportunities come up.

We talked about that. There might be NAACP

members that are police chiefs and fire fighters

and nurses, and doctors

that want to like get a tour of behind the scenes at Mass General or

go to Dimock in Roxbury

and see how the recovery community that they have there,

one of the best in the country. Look at these different

places and so we can offer that up for people.

We have a criminal justice community here so if we tap Harvard, and some of our other

higher Ed institutions say hey, we need Skip Gates

to be at the convention and we as the City of Boston are reaching out

to you Harvard to say make your folks available.

I think there�s an opportunity for us to provide value in that way.

If we can do that basic part first then all the extras come along after that.

There�s a fuller picture of Boston�s history good and bad that I want

West Roxbury to know and Roxbury to know

and Dedham to know and I think we have an opportunity to share that through different

ways so that it�s an education for us

Bostonians and an education for our visitors.

I think it�s great. And I say this all the time.

I know there�s kids in Roxbury, in West Roxbury

that have no idea, they don�t even know busing

because they weren�t even here. Their families were

where their families impacted by it.

And not even understanding, I think even bussing there was a

step before that that�s not talked about if the

school committee elected at the time took action

Yes, would have staved off that whole experience.

So that was a lack of, inaction by local represented people elected by the people.

And if they�d dealt with it and addressed it history might have been a

little different. And it would have been, maybe a little different if you tackle

the issue at the time, in a different manner, but it wasn�t thought of so.

And not to debate that, but I think what�s interesting

is the values of the city wasn�t fully reflected by that

City Council as it is today right? We see the diversity

in the City Council today. The diversity, the lack of

diversity at that time didn�t take the racial imbalance

issue seriously enough that if they had had more diversity

they would have said no, let�s avoid court action and let�s

do something proactive to create the kind of diversity

Wanna back up even further, Civil Rights Movement? That same

diversity wasn�t in the City Council today that it was back

then. And they took action. And the abolition of slavery, a lot

of things, so it�s like that generation had an opportunity.

Yeah, they missed it.

And you mean obviously it�s easier to talk about it today sitting here and

not saying you should do that. But there�s a different mindset today.

So we talked about all the talent here, the Cornell West, the Skip Gates, the

Academic Institutions, the healthcare industry,

dominant industries here in this City

and in this region. We say hey, we can offer those up as resources as you have the

conversation here. So we know the folks from Partners are already interested.

We know the folks at TGS companies. I talked to Bob Rivers today at Eastern Bank and

the banking community wants to be involved. Now we just got to sort of harness all

that interest and I think they�re reaching out to me and to you and Tanesha and it�s

exciting that this is, in my years of being President of NAACP, there was never

this much focus on being involved in civil rights. And contributing to it, so we

just have to harness that. How do we get Black and Brown and White Boston to become

observers, delegates, alternates at the convention during that week?

That would be huge and I�ve not seen it done as well as I think Boston could do it.

That we have an additional 3,000 Bostonians

at the convention to listen to the Presidential nominees

or Presidential candidates at that point to partake in the conversation

around criminal justice and what�s going on in terms of today with mass incarceration.

The folks are here and the interest is here. We just got to get them over to

- I think it�s the marketing. - Right

It�s how do we market it to let people know this is open for you, so that you

live on whatever street it is you live on, Humboldt. This is your convention. You

might not be a credential voting delegate, but you are as engaged in this conversation

as everyone else. We need you to get that. And I think it�s about marketing.

We�ve done all this,

but yet we�re still not where we need to be

And why did that happen? And how do we take the past

and celebrate it, but also understand where the problems happen

and I think that you know, when people talk about you

know racist Boston, racist Boston, racist Boston, you know

like you said, a lot was done here.

So to bring equality,

but for some reason we have more work to do.

And I think there�s an opportunity for maybe one month�s a reflecting month.

History is the key thing. Right. Is if people

know history they get the good, they get the bad,

they got a context for where we are

and then they can act. But the problem is many of us don�t know our history.

So we think that the poverty rates in our communities is an accident.

People just decided to be poor or our health disparities

is an accident. People just need to eat better

and they don�t understand the context for access

and opportunity and inequities. So I think there�s

a unique opportunity with the convention coming

here and the work that you�ve been doing around

racial justice and equity and these conversations

is to have it be a citywide conversation as

you said that plays out throughout the course of

the year and it�s really grounded in history.

Oh say can you see by the

dawn�s early light, what so

proudly we hailed at the

twilight�s last gleaming.

Whose broad stripes and bright

stars through the perilous fight

O�er the ramparts we

watched were so gallantly

streaming. And the red rockets red glare

The bombs bursting in air.

Gave proof through

the night that our

flag was still there. Oh say does

that star spangled

banner yet wave

O�er the land of the free

And the home of the brave

To the people of Boston, thank you for the privilege

of serving you these past five years. I love my job

Every day I get to go out into the neighborhoods to talk

listen and work with the people of Boston.

Every day Bostonians walk through the doors of City Hall

and share their hopes and dreams with me.

They remind me of how grateful I am to live my dream

and walk through those doors as the son of immigrants.

I think of another door that opens. It was

the morning after my election in 2013.

I was in a hotel room and opened the door for the worker to deliver breakfast.

Her name was Letty. She emigrated

from Africa to follow her dreams here in Boston.

She came around the cart and gave me a big hug and she was crying.

She said we did it. We won. We are going to be Mayor.

Letty�s here somewhere. Thank you Letty.

It hit home right at that moment what this job means.

It means opening doors for more Bostonians to walk through.

People of every race, creed and class.

Changing a city. Changing a nation.

One year ago I pledged my second term to strengthening

and expanding Boston�s middle class.

Today more people are working than any other time in our city�s history.

Unemployment is 2.4 percent.

The lowestever recorded.

We are ranked number two in the nation for moving people up and into the middle class.

And we�ve been named the best city in the entire world to find a job.

We have thrown open the doors of opportunity

and Bostonians are surging through them

to live their dreams and lead us forward.

And because we are drawing on more of our people�s strength

the state of our city is stronger than ever.

But I�m concerned about the state of our Union.

What happens in Washington, we feel on the streets of Boston.

But here�s what matters more. What we do in Boston can change this country.

We�ve shown that differences don�t have to divide us.

When we come together anything is possible. That�s democracy in action.

That�s how we built this administration.

We won office in a coalition that wasn�t supposed to be possible.

Working people, Black, White, Latino, Asian, all came together.

We created the most diverse administration in Boston�s history from

the Cabinet to the frontlines.

We listened to the voices of every community. We took on Boston�s toughest

long standing challenges and we began changing our city.

We are opening doors to new schools, new libraries,

new homes, new jobs.

We�re listeningto new voices. It�s not always easy or comfortable,

but a more open conversation means better solutions for our City.

The sign of a more vibrant democracy.

We put social justice at the heart of our vision.

Because a more equal conversation means a more resilient city.

So we�ll keep leading the fight to defend immigrants.

We�ll continue our groundbreaking work to achieve gender equality.

And we�ll never stop protecting the rights and embracing the

identities of our LBGTQ community.

Five years together, we made Boston a more compassionate, a more

dynamic, a more democratic city.

We�ve listened, we�ve learned and we�re leading. I�m proud of what

we�ve achieved. We should all be proud.

And we should be ready to do more. Our city needs us, our country needs us

and we�re just getting started.

Boston 311. How may I help you?

1,367 customers affected. Estimated time to be fixed between five and 5:30.

And is this only in Brighton or does it extend beyond that?

And you said that it fell onto your property, correct?

No, so that�s furniture and furniture you can

just throw that out with the regular trash.

If you want I can connect you over with the Credit Union.

OK, but if you were in Watertown that would be a responsibility of Watertown.

It wouldn�t be anything with Boston.

OK. Is it a whole tree, a limb or a branch?

The first step is to request a birth certificate request form.

You print it out, fill it out and then with that form you would

send it in with a $14 money order or check, addressed to City Hall.

So the senior shuttle you mean?

I can connect you with their department so you

can see exactly when it�s going to get there OK?

OK, I have down that you reported that there

is something wrong with the hawk�s eyes?

And that the hawk isn�t acting normal since it is feeding on

a pigeon on the street other than flying away with its food.

There are a lot of people around the hawk and

the hawk doesn�t seem able able to fly away

But it�s only picked up on your specific trash day.

Yeah, so if it�s public housing

you want to contact the Boston Housing Authority

Work Order Center to get that replaced for you.

Sir, please don�t yell

I just have someone on the other line that�s trying to locate a gravestone.

They have a name, but they just are trying to find the burial ground