Wednesday, May 24, 2023

24: Boston

As Boston’s New Mayor Seeks Big Changes, Old Power Brokers Push Back Mayor Michelle Wu is striving to keep her campaign promises, but powerful lobbies are throwing up roadblocks. ....... For decades, the city’s mayors were Boston natives, men of Italian or Irish descent who were tight with local business owners and powerful unions. ......... Ms. Wu, 38, is different: a daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who campaigned as a catalyst for change and became the first woman and person of color ever elected to lead the city. She made a few minor concessions to the restaurants and moved on — but not before threatening to end outdoor dining altogether if they found her compromise unacceptable. ....... her campaign agenda, focused on “racial, economic and climate justice.” ......... A coalition of property owners and brokers, the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, is prepared to spend $400,000 to squash Ms. Wu’s rent control plan, recently approved by the City Council. And the city’s primary police union, the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, has so far deflected her proposals, which include making it easier to fire officers for misconduct. ............ some longtime political observers say the deepening resistance to her plans simply indicates that she is making headway. ........... Ms. Wu, who grew up in Chicago and moved to Boston in 2009 to attend Harvard Law School, has promised innovative approaches to climate change, a greener city, real advances on affordable housing, and long-sought checks and balances for the Police Department. ......... the city of 650,000, where fewer than half the residents are white. ....... the emergence of more diverse leadership has spurred ugliness, as well as more discussion of race and racism. .......... During her first weeks in office, Ms. Wu was the target of racist and sexist vitriol from across the country after she adopted aggressive measures to fight a resurgence of Covid-19, including a vaccine mandate for city workers. ....... Local critics of the mandate descended on the mayor’s home, staging noisy, early-morning protests that went on for months in 2022. .......... “The demonstration under the white mayors was professional, it was respectful,” Mr. Flynn said at a meeting last year where a divided Council voted to prohibit residential demonstrations before 9 a.m. .......... Ms. Wu quipped at the event that she was getting used to dealing with “problems that are expensive, disruptive and white. I’m talking about snowflakes — I mean snowstorms.” ............. Ms. Wu said her decision to curtail outdoor dining in the densely populated North End had been guided by pleas from residents, who had begged the city for relief. .......... said she liked what Ms. Wu had done to improve access to public transportation, eliminating fares on three city bus lines in low-income areas for a two-year trial. ......... 65 percent of Boston voters supported rent control, as the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the city hovered around $3,000 per month. ........ Frequently typecast as a “big ideas” mayor, less interested in daily grit, Ms. Wu has recently announced a series of smaller, quicker innovations that could be seen as the millennial version of pothole repair: new bike lanes; a curbside composting program; a beer garden in Boston Common; and more dog-friendly restaurant options. ........... “We want her to know that there are other people in the city besides poor people and people of color,” he said. “You still have the base, the Italian people. You have conservatives, which she doesn’t realize.” ........ “With an institution as entrenched as this Police Department, as set in its ways, you need a dragon slayer,” said Jamarhl Crawford, a community activist who served on the city’s Police Reform Task Force in 2020. ........... The mayor “has a heart of gold,” Ms. Berninger said. “But she’s surrounded herself with people who can’t recognize that there is an established community in Boston that needs to be heard.”



What Has Trump Cost American Christianity? .

मधेस प्रदेशमा दलहरूको ध्रुवीकरण, बन्ला नयाँ समीकरण ?
पाकिस्तानको रक्षा मन्त्रालयले भन्यो, ‘इमरान खानको पार्टीमा प्रतिबन्ध लाग्न सक्छ’
विराट कोहलीले तोडे मौनता, लेखे भावुक पोस्ट

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