boston city council

The Boston City Council election was as sleepy as expected for an off-year contest with no mayor on the ballot. Just 19% of registered voters turned out to cast ballots for an eight-way at-large race and six contested district races. But behind those low turnout numbers on Nov. 7 was a quiet battle for the soul of the city.

Today, the African American community lacks what my late dear sister friend Mukiya Baker Gomez would call a “bench,” meaning individuals who are ready to move up and into office and political leadership. We can and must do better.

The Nov. 7 election features city council races in Boston and a contested mayoral election in Brockton.

The Boston City Council earlier this month approved the creation of the Office of Cultural Affairs, which would center its work on Boston residents who are Latin American, Caribbean, and Asian and Pacific Islanders.

On the campaign trail in 2021, a majority of candidates for city offices supported shuttering the Boston Police Department’s controversial gang database and ending the department’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

The Boston Public Schools has told the City Council that the district does not maintain a list of people who shouldn’t be hired or rehired, a practice that a former employee and the teachers union indicated they suspected was in place.

With two of Boston City Council's most left-leaning members having lost their seats in preliminary balloting, some are questioning whether the Council’s progressive streak will continue into the next term with a body that could no longer have a majority of people of color.

A new city ordinance that would ban tents from the Mass and Cass area is one step further away after it was referred out to the Boston City Council Committee on Government Operations, frustrating some who want quicker action.

When voters in Roxbury and parts of the South End and Fenway go to the polls for the city’s Sept. 12 preliminary, there will be no shortage of choices in four City Council districts.

Michael Flaherty’s sudden announcement that he would not seek re-election to the City Council — little more than a week after signatures were due — has cast a spotlight on the race for the four at-large seats on the 13-member body.

Supporters recently denounced a slew of racist and sexist comments directed at Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, the only Black Muslim woman on the council.

Boston voters casting ballots in the Nov. 7 election will have eight candidates to consider for the City Council’s four at-large seats. But in two district races, the run-up to the Sept. 12 preliminary election is where the campaign action may be most intense.