City of Boston

As a child, Jessie Dambreville would look out her window at an open lot next door, near the Neponset River in Mattapan. Full of weeds and walnut trees, the space sat empty for years, serving mostly as a shortcut home.

In her second State of the City address, Mayor Michelle Wu touted her administration’s efforts to build wealth, especially in communities of color.

With utility prices soaring, Boston residents will now have a chance to pay lower electricity rates, thanks to a program initiated by City Hall.

When it comes to running municipal operations, Boston relies on funding from its city budget as well as state and federal funds. But for some city initiatives, projects rely on contributions from philanthropies.

A $11.4 million grant from the U.S. Forest Service will support implementation of the city’s urban forest plan released in 2022, which focuses on how to handle planting and maintenance of city-owned trees.

Three Boston city councilors of color have proposed the city create an office of Latino and Caribbean affairs to address the public health and welfare needs of those ethnic groups.

The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, in collaboration with the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet and the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion announced that 11 arts and cultural organizations around Boston will receive grants totaling $7,350,000 in the next three-and-a-half years.

The City of Boston provides many important civic services: public parks and urban green spaces, support for senior citizens and public education to name a few. But this year the City of Boston is also supplying a soundtrack for the neighborhood block party, the “Dear Summer Vol. 1” mixtape featuring 68 tracks by local musicians, mixed by local DJs.

Boston is exploring ways to add electric vehicle chargers curbside in neighborhoods to create greater access for residents who drive electric vehicles, but can’t charge them at home. The city’s current selection of chargers is installed in municipally owned parking lots.

Mayor Michelle Wu announced her appointment of Brenda Hernandez as executive director of people and culture for the People Operations Cabinet.

José Massó, the city of Boston’s chief of health and human services, along with Mayor Michelle Wu and other city officials, announced the creation of a new Office of Youth Engagement & Advancement (OYEA) under the Health and Human Services Cabinet.

Soon after the Boston Police Department began in 1999 to use an annual hair test to determine whether officers had used drugs, members of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers began noticing a troubling trend: A disproportionate number of Black cops were testing positive for cocaine.