As 2015 dawned, protesters took to the streets in spirited Black Lives Matter demonstrations against police abuse, newly-elected Governor Charlie Baker promised a leaner state government and the Boston 2024 group forged ahead with its ill-fated bid to bring the Olympics to the Bay State.
But when February came, it was snow that dominated headlines and more than once brought the city to a standstill, with a series of crippling storms that didn’t abate until March. Nature’s fury rendered driving difficult, parking impossible and MBTA service frustratingly unreliable.
Pedestrians take to the streets during a January snowstorm that dumped two feet of snow on Boston’s sidewalks.
Drivers struggled to keep their parking spaces clear, home owners struggled to keep their sidewalks clear and the city conceded vast swaths of the streetscape to the rising mounds of snow and the lack of space to store it.
In the end, it was the MBTA — plagued by frozen switches, ice-covered third rails and buses bogged down in traffic — that garnered the most negative attention during snowmageaddon. When it appeared she would be made a scapegoat for the city’s transportation frustration, General Manager Beverly Scott defiantly resigned, passing the buck back to the Baker administration.
But news outlets were quick to report that the problems plaguing the MBTA were in place long before Scott took the helm, with an estimated $7 billion in delayed maintenance hanging over the agency. By the time the snow melted and warm weather appeared, tempers subsided and talk of T reform became more subdued. But as the year comes to a close, the Baker administration’s proposal to raise fares next year by between 5 and 10 percent has put it at odds with the Democrat-controlled Legislature, which opposes a fare hike.
Elected officials and activists called on the government of the Dominican Republic to reverse a policy many said was aimed at expelling people of Haitian ancestry from the country.
Surrounded by family and friends, Banner Editor and Publisher Melvin B. Miller celebrated the newspaper’s 50th anniversary with a gala at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
Planning for the future
Throughout 2015, Boston’s civic and political leaders were focused on the city’s future, with the Olympic Committee’s January designation of Boston as the proposed host city for the 2024 Olympics. The business boosters and real estate developers backing the bid saw their fortunes flounder over the next several months as anti-Olympics activists raised probing questions about traffic, parking and the displacement of low-income renters — issues that often dog cities hosting the games. Long a backer of the bid, Mayor Martin Walsh put the final nail in the coffin when he told reporters in July he would not sign a financial guarantee required by the U.S. Olympic Committee. By mutual agreement, the city and the Olympic Committee terminated Boston’s bid.
While the games won’t be heading to Boston, the planning exercise helped spur City Hall to launch a non-Olympics planning effort, Imagine Boston 2030. The Boston Redevelopment Authority-led process is the first such citywide effort undertaken in 50 years. Boston 2030 comes as the city is in midst of its greatest building boom in modern history, with luxury condo buildings springing up in the city’s downtown neighborhoods. The acute lack of affordability in new development projects has continued apace, raising fears that the displacement of working class and middle income families seen in South Boston, Chinatown, Jamaica Plain and other desirable neighborhoods will spread.
Chinatown activists responded to the BRA’s Imagine Chinatown 2030 by adding a question mark to the slogan, underscoring the precarious plight of the Chinese community that has called the neighborhood home for more than 100 years.
In December, affordable housing activists scored a modest victory as the Walsh administration upped the portion of affordable housing units required in new developments to 18 percent and nearly doubled the amount developers are must pay into the city’s affordable housing fund if they choose not to build affordable units onsite.
City Councilor Charles Yancey continued late into the year with his push for disclosure of racial breakdowns of the city’s hiring and contracting.
Body cameras
While many U.S. cities struggled with police shootings of unarmed blacks, Boston police went another year without a major incident. But the department was forced to wrestle with a proposal to require officers to be outfitted with body-worn cameras. During an August hearing, Police Commissioner William Evans claimed that police were not ready to implement the cameras, and stressed that his department has a good working relationship with the communities it polices. By September, Evans changed his tune, agreeing to implement a pilot project with a limited number of officers.
Political newcomer Andrea Joy Campbell celebrates her victory in the Nov. 3 election over 32-year incumbent Charles Yancey.
School funding battle
Charter schools remained in the news, thanks to a well-funded campaign to lift the state’s cap on the number of such schools allowed in each district. Charter school supporters, working under the Great Schools Massachusetts coalition, held several large rallies, attended by hundreds of charter school students and parents wearing the campaign’s signature blue tee shirts.
Political support for lifting the cap is split. Gov. Charlie Baker appeared at Great Schools Massachusetts rallies while the Massachusetts House voted in favor of lifting the cap last year. The Massachusetts Senate voted against the charter cap lift, however. Mayor Walsh supported a gradual cap lift, tied to reimbursements for state funds that are diverted from districts to charters. While Massachusetts voters are leaning against the ballot measure, pro charter groups and teachers’ unions are expected to pump millions of dollars into what may prove to be one of the state’s hottest campaigns in 2016.
Demonstrators with the Right to the City Coalition protest against evictions and displacement, soliciting support for a proposed Just Cause Eviction renter protection ordinance.
What’s next?
With a presidential race gaining steam, 2016 promises dramatic contrast to the sleepy 2015 municipal race, where citywide turnout was a dismal 13.6 percent. While low voter turnout has traditionally meant low support for candidates of color, at-large councilor Ayanna Pressley maintained an impressive winning streak, securing the top vote-getter spot for the third consecutive election cycle. In another departure from historic trends, low voter turnout did not protect the incumbency of the council’s longest-serving at-large councilor, Stephen Murphy, who lost to challenger Anissa Essaibi George. In another upset, 32-year incumbent Charles Yancey lost his seat to challenger Andrea Joy Campbell, an attorney making her first run for elected office.
In 2016, the battle over charter school expansion will heat up, as will the race for the next president of the United States. A new City Council with four women and four people of color will be seated. The BRA’s citywide planning process will attempt to hammer out a common vision for Boston’s future and the city’s ever-expanding stock of luxury condos will continue to grow.
And with 50 years of reporting under its belt, the Banner will be here to record its 51st.
