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Friday, June 22, 2007

City councilor Felix Arroyo answers questions about North Allston & North Brighton


Here are Councilor Arroyo's responses...
1) Do you support the creation of a Boston Planning Department?
Yes__X__ No_____
Comments: Since first introducing the concept in 2004, I continue to be the Council’s leading advocate for this much-needed reform. As directed by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the City’s “planning” process is deeply flawed. A focus on institutional and commercial development has led to an affordable housing crisis while too little is being done to preserve the city's remaining open space. A proliferation of tax-exempt properties and a lack of any real economic planning has hurt our City’s finances. For these reasons, I am the lead sponsor and author of a Home Rule Petition which would create of a City Planning Department to promote community-planning and housing development. With a new Planning Department, Boston would have comprehensive, long-term, need-driven (rather than project-driven) and community-based planning, and housing production would regain prominence. For a copy of the Home Rule Petition or for more information please contact my Chief of Staff Jamie Willmuth at (617) 635-3115.

2) Should height limits in the North Allston Strategic Framework be strictly applied to Harvard’s proposed buildings?
Yes__X__ No_____
Comments: I remain extremely frustrated and disappointed that the BRA and the City too often treat community Master Plans as mere guidelines and commentary rather than granting them the respect these comprehensive planning documents deserve. The process of creating this Framework began in 2001. After many meetings and much hard work, the Community Planning Group of dozens of local residents created a vision for the area that maximizes opportunities for North Allston and all of Boston. The planning group, appointed by the Mayor, was representative of residents, businesses, institutions, and non-profits with interests in the area. Their work deserves more respect.

3) Should City Council approval be required before a university can purchase property in Boston?
Yes__X__ No_____
Comments: I am the lead sponsor and author of the University Expansion Moratorium. This legislation would empower the City’s Institutional Expansion board to enforce a conditional moratorium on any College or University expanding to property not currently owned by a tax-exempt institution. The City of Boston proudly hosts a student population of well over 200,000. Our colleges and universities own just a small percentage of land in the City, have a major positive impact on our economy, and must sometimes expand to meet the needs of growing student populations. Nevertheless, in the past decade, Boston has experienced rapid and almost uncontrolled expansion by almost every major College and University. This growth significant concerns about local tax revenues because colleges and universities are tax-exempt.
The City also suffers increased density and higher housing costs as the increasing numbers of students impact demand. My Ordinance asks Boston’s Institutional Expansion Board to ensure that no College or University will gain control over taxed property without prior passage of a City Council Resolution approving the transaction. It also says that the City Council will not consider passage of such a Resolution unless the College or University agrees to make a new annual PILOT payment equal to or greater than the estimated amount which the City would have collected in property taxes. A public hearing on this Ordinance will be held this Fall

4) What are your thoughts about a possible Charlesview relocation?
I remain very concerned about the proposal to move the Charlesview Apartments and it’s nearly 600 residents to another location. Though the current site is in need of repair, I sympathize with the tenants who to not wish to relocate to the Brighton Mills or any other another location. I continue to hope that a sustainable solution can be established which will satisfy the current tenants, the Chalesview board, and Harvard University. All sides should continue to carefully explore the merits of proposed alternative sites, such as the Kmart site, in an effort to reach a mutual agreement.

5) What should be the future of the Speedway property on Western Ave?
It’s my understanding that this is largely a state issue that Representative Moran is addressing. I would not necessarily oppose Harvard or another entity purchasing this property. Whoever purchases the property should ensure that it is re-developed in accordance with the community needs and vision. No bid should be accepted from anyone who does not agree to an appropriate re-development.

6) How do you feel about the vacant Harvard-owned properties in North Allston and North Brighton?
I share the community's concerns about these properties. Certainly, I believe that Harvard has an obligation to tell the community about its intended use of these properties particular as they ask for approval of a new 50-year Master Plan. I am committed to working with community leaders to explore whether the City should consider taking and developing these parcels should Harvard indicate it has no plans for the properties. As with all vacant lots, the Department of Neighborhood Development has a responsibility to ensure that these properties are properly maintained and developed.

Posted by Harry Mattison at 8:53 PM    

 

Press Room 2006-2007

Below are some press highlights from Councillor Arroyo in 2006/2007. For more articles, to view his columns in the Bulletin Newspapers, or if you are a member of the press who would like to speak with the Councillor, please contact Danielle Jones at 617-635-3115. Thank you!

To view older press articles, click here.

 

Democracy Needs Alien Voice
Boston Herald (MA)
May 7, 2007
Author: ALAN LUPO

After Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo proposed letting legal immigrants vote in city elections, it did not take long for somebody to come up with the inevitable "politics is personal" take.

"It's the Felix Arroyo job-protection act," went the line.

Well, many of the estimated 95,000 non-citizens are indeed Latinos, and that certainly could help Arroyo's political aspirations. Others are Asian, which theoretically could help Councilor Sam Yoon, who, with Councilors Chuck Turner, Charles Yancey and Mike Ross, signed onto the home-rule petition.
There's nothing new about pols seeking the support of immigrant voters. Before and after the turn of the last century, Martin Lomasney, West End ward boss, made sure his people showed up at the East Boston Immigration Station to greet newcomers with signs in Yiddish and Italian, welcoming them generally to America and specifically to Lomasney's ward organization.

Both Arroyo and Yoon deny in interviews that personal political gain is their motive. They insist there is a matter of principle here, indeed a matter of justice, that needs to be addressed. They're right on that score.

In Lomasney's day, ward bosses managed to get citizenship fairly quickly for newcomers, and one's illiteracy or ignorance was not always an impediment to voting. For example, Lomasney gave voters special combs, their teeth laid out in such a way as to cover on the ballot the names of all candidates but Lomasney's.

Today, in this new age of immigration, it can take as long as a decade for a legal immigrant to become a citizen. There are terribly long waiting lists for English language and citizenship courses.

Meanwhile, these folks are paying taxes, running businesses, working at jobs and sending their kids to public schools. They are invested in a community that does not give them the vote. Didn't those old Yankee Bostonians cry, "Taxation without representation!" as a revolutionary rallying cry?

So, Arroyo and his allies want the council to pass and the mayor to sign a home-rule petition giving those folks the right to vote in city elections. Newton, Amherst, Cambridge and Wayland have passed similar motions, but the Legislature has refused to act on the home-rule legislation.

Other communities across the nation are considering such measures. Chicago allows non-citizens to vote for school board, and a half-dozen Maryland communities let legal immigrants vote.

Perhaps the most potent argument for this is history. Non-citizen immigrants were allowed to vote for 150 years.

"From 1776 to 1926, as many as 40 states and federal territories permitted non-citizens to vote in local, state and even federal elections," according to Ron Hayduk, an associate professor of political science at the City University of New York and author of a book on the subject.

Ironically, white male legal immigrants were voting before white males without property, black citizens and women were allowed the franchise.

In 1848, Wisconsin allowed legal immigrants who declared their intent to become citizens the right to vote. Arroyo's petition includes the same caveat, that if you wish to vote in Boston, you must sign your intent to pursue citizenship. The right would not extend to state or federal elections.

Non-citizen voting gradually came to an end in the 1920s.

"The anti-immigrant backlash at the turn of the 20th century and wartime hysteria during World War I led to the elimination of this long-standing practice," Hayduk testified two years ago at a New York City Council hearing.

In other words, distrust of and discomfort with Italian, Jewish, Greek, Polish, Slavic and other white immigrants put an end to non-citizen voting. Will their descendants put it right again?

Legal immigrants should get to vote, councilor says
The Boston Globe, April 6, 2007
Author: Matt Viser
Globe Staff

A Boston city councilor wants the city to allow legal immigrants to vote in municipal elections, a move that could increase the number of eligible voters in the city by as much as a third and dramatically alter the city's political landscape.

A measure by Councilor at Large Felix D. Arroyo, supported by four other council members, would extend voting rights to about 95,000 immigrant residents who live in the country legally but are not citizens.

If approved by the council, the measure would require passage by the Legislature, which has turned away several similar petitions, from communities including Amherst and Cambridge.

But if Boston were to put its political weight behind it, immigrant rights groups say, it would give them impetus to mobilize around the issue, and some legislative observers said it could force lawmakers to take up a hot-button issue that has previously stalled.

"I think it's a good idea, and I think it's something we should be thinking about," said Representative Byron Rushing, Democrat of Boston and the second assistant majority leader. "We need to have some hard conversations and get back in Massachusetts to the welcoming position that we had for so many years in regard to immigrants."

Under Arroyo's proposal, immigrants could be added to the voting list as long as they sign a form indicating they are legal residents of Boston and "in good faith intend to become" US citizens.

They would remain on the Election Commission's list of eligible voters as long as they are legal residents in Boston; they would not be allowed to vote in state or federal elections, according to a draft of Arroyo's proposal.

"They are already paying taxes, they are already authorized to be here, and they are participants in the life of the city" socially and economically, Arroyo said, "so why not political?"

Several cities across the country have allowed all residents to vote regardless of their citizenship status. Chicago allows immigrants to vote in school elections. Several towns in Maryland allow noncitizens to vote in municipal elections, and similar initiatives are being considered in New York, San Francisco, and Denver.

Some groups have pushed for the moves arguing that noncitizen immigrants can pay property taxes and send children to public schools, giving them stakes in their communities that should also come with a right to vote. Opponents say it delegitimizes the current voting process by giving immigrants one of the major incentives of becoming a US citizen./p>

To move forward, Arroyo's measure must receive approval from a majority of councilors and be signed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who said he has not yet decided whether to support it. Menino has supported some other legislative efforts on behalf of immigrants, such as measures allowing in-state tuition and providing driver's licenses for immigrants.

Immigrant groups said that if Boston got behind an immigrant voting measure, they would rally around it.

"Politically it's a shot in the arm," said Ali Noorani, director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. "Boston is a big fish. It does change the dynamics, and it will force all of us - legislators, activists, and concerned citizens - to take the issue more seriously."

The proposal - which is cosponsored by councilors Michael P. Ross, Chuck Turner, Charles C. Yancey, and Sam Yoon - is expected to spark a vigorous debate when it comes before the council next week.

Boston's political power structure, which has long been based in the city's Irish and Italian enclaves, has been rapidly changing as voting demographics have shifted. Some see Arroyo's proposal as part of that transformation.

"This is the reality of Boston," said Giovanna Negretti, executive director of the voting advocacy group ?Oiste?, which recently helped launch a program to recruit and train nonwhite political candidates to run for office.

"By adding these folks to the voting pool, it would reinforce the reality, which is that Boston is changing, and the political face has to change with it," she said. "We have to address things in a different way."

Arroyo became the first Latino on the City Council in 2003, and Andrea J. Cabral became Suffolk County's first black sheriff in 2005. Last year, Yoon became the first Asian-American on the City Council.

If legal immigrants were allowed to vote, it would have a large impact in areas that have surged in foreign-born population, such as Charlestown, East Boston, and Hyde Park. Even though those areas have grown in immigrant population, they have had only small increases in voting.

There are 151,836 foreign-born residents in Boston, according to a 2005 report by the city's Office of New Bostonians. Nearly two-thirds of those residents are not naturalized and currently are not eligible to vote. There are about 280,000 registered voters in Boston, according to Election Department figures.

"This would be the biggest impact to the universe of potential voters [in Boston] since women's suffrage," said Lawrence S. DiCara, a former city councilor and longtime political observer. "It would turn the electoral system on its head."

Not too shabby

Some councilors spend freely for swanky office furniture

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff  |  January 16, 2007

The manufacturer calls it a filing cabinet of "streamlined modern design." Its glossy, amber finish, "distinctive" bar pulls, and reed edge would not fail to please. At nearly $700, it was a little pricey. But then, Boston City Council President Michael Flaherty didn't mind.

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"We really wanted it to match," said one Flaherty aide last week, fingering the beveled mahogany edge that goes with the rest of the furniture in the office.  He's not alone. Councilors have purchased more than $25,000 in swanky office furniture in recent years -- at taxpayer expense. There's the $1,200 credenza in Councilor Michael Ross's office, the nearly $1,000 round table that Councilor John Tobin got, and the $11,000 suite of furniture ordered by Council President Maureen E. Feeney.

But, perhaps like all tokens of power, furniture purchases -- controlled by the council president -- have not been awarded equally; Flaherty doled out top-of-the-line office furniture to his closest colleagues during his five-year presidency, but those in less favor say they have been left out of the furniture bonanza. And as Feeney takes over, appeals for new furniture and grumbling by those who say they've been neglected are starting anew.

"This is not safe," said Councilor-at-Large Felix Arroyo, jiggling a wobbly conference table in his office. "I'm not worried about old equipment. I just simply want to make sure we don't have unsafe equipment."

Of the City Council's $4.2 million annual budget, $7,500 is allocated for office furniture. That's an average of $577 for each of the 13 councilors. But with tastes running toward $720 leather desk chairs -- one each for Flaherty and Feeney in recent years -- and $1,300 wall units -- one in mahogany-satin finish on walnut veneer for Feeney -- the relative scarcity has triggered a certain furniture envy among an already-divided council.

Arroyo said he has been working with hand-me-downs from previous councilors since he was elected in 2003. His staffers can sometimes be seen combing council corridors for unwanted pieces. One lucky find, a rickety black metal shelf, now hangs above an aide's desk.

"We watch whatever every other councilor throws away," Arroyo said. Councilor-at-Large Stephen Murphy was the unwitting benefactor.

For his part, Flaherty denies any furniture favoritism. He says furniture was ordered on an "as-needed basis."

"As council president for the last five years, I acted responsibly," Flaherty said.  A Globe review of council records shows eight of 13 councilors received new office furnishings during Flaherty's tenure.

Flaherty spent $2,723 on three file cabinets and the desk chair; Feeney got a computer table, credenza, three custom-built workstations, and the wall unit and chair for $11,017; Ross ordered a small file cabinet and the credenza for $1,392; and Tobin got the 42-inch table for $997.

Flaherty said Tobin's purchase was approved before he became president, as was a $7,800 office suite ordered by Maura Hennigan, former city councilor.  Flaherty chalked up the hefty price tags to a city requirement that councilors buy furnishings made of flame-resistant materials that cost more than the average file cabinet. "It's not like you can go to any jalopy furniture store and pick out a desk," he said.

But some councilors ordered more frugal furnishings during his tenure, including Councilor Jerry McDermott, who spent $337 for an office chair and $224 for a table the same size as Tobin's. Murphy got a 42-inch table for $296. Councilor Rob Consalvo ordered a desk chair for $302.

Absent from council purchase orders for furniture are Arroyo and Councilors Chuck Turner, Sam Yoon, Charles Yancey, and Sal LaMattina. But most of them may not have needed new furnishings.

As for Yancey, records show he scored desks, cabinets, computer tables, and other items totaling more than $12,000 in 2001, when he was council president.

In Boston Hispanics Press for Recognition

By Jason Szep ,Reuters

January 21, 2007

The grocers sell chili pods and sugar cane. Salsa dance rhythms boom from cafes, and people crowd into sidewalk restaurants for batidos, empanadas and other Latin delicacies.

Boston's Spanish-speaking Jamaica Plain neighborhood, which teemed with European factory workers in the 19th-century, is now the city's unofficial "Latin Quarter" -- and its residents are flexing their political muscle.

The city, one of America's oldest and still closely identified with the country's European heritage, elected its first Hispanic councilor, Felix Arroyo, in 2003.

Arroyo, a native of Puerto Rico, wants to change a half-mile stretch of Jamaica Plain's Center Street to "Avenue las Americas," one of several proposals he is resubmitting to Boston's City Council.

Flags representing each country in the Americas -- from the Caribbean to Central America, South America and Canada -- would fly from street corners in the spirit of the Avenue of the Americas in New York, Miami and El Paso, Texas, he said.

"People will feel welcome if they see that the symbols that identify them are welcomed and accepted as part of the city," Arroyo, who circulated copies of the proposal to city councilors in August, said in an interview. "We will resubmit them no later than the last week of February."

Another group of residents want Mozart Park, where neighborhood teenagers play basketball, to be renamed "Park de las Americas". Some have proposed erecting a statue in Boston to Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has embraced the community, promoting the city's unofficial "Latin Quarter" to tourists with glossy maps and brochures that exhort visitors to "practice your Spanish, sample authentic Latin and Caribbean food, and shop for guayaberas or that special Salsa CD".

"If the community supports changing the name to 'Boston's Latin Quarter' and changing the street name to 'Avenue de las Americas' quite possibly it would happen. It really depends on the level of interest," said Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for the mayor.

FROM BRITISH PURITANS TO BATIDOS

The push for cultural recognition reflects shifting demographics in a state settled by British Puritan pilgrims, built on Yankee Protestant wealth and governed by tight-knit Irish-American Roman Catholics for most of the 20th century.

Voters elected the state's first African-American governor, Deval Patrick, in November. The civil rights lawyer who rose from the slums of Chicago's South Side has stirred hope among ethnic minorities, who often criticize Boston as unwelcoming and racially divided despite its liberal reputation.

As in other U.S. regions, Boston's Hispanic identity is growing fast. Over the last 25 years, the share of immigrants in the Massachusetts workforce has nearly doubled, according to independent research group MassInc.

Today, 17 percent of the state's workforce are immigrants -- up from roughly 9 percent in 1980. Nearly half of all new immigrants are from Latin American and the Caribbean; between 2000 and 2003, nearly one out of every five immigrants entering the state was Brazilian.

"Massachusetts has been dependent on immigration for all of its employment growth since the late 1980s," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. "In the absence of new immigrants, the labor force could have actually declined considerably."

In Boston's "Latin Quarter" on Center Street, between Jackson and Hyde squares, about 85 percent of the businesses are owned by Latinos. Stores advertise in Spanish and English. A tailor's shop can wire money to Puerto Rico. One cafe calls itself the "king of the Cuban sandwich".

"Over there is Spanish, next door is Spanish; it's all Spanish around here," said Alfonso Martinez, owner of a hole-in-the-wall jewelry repair shop, gesturing with his hand at beauty salons and other businesses on the street.

The neighborhood's Hispanic community say they see more room to grow. But so do young, upwardly mobile singles, artsy hipsters and budding families. Rents are climbing as stability replaces decades of decay in an area that was besieged by violent crime just 15 years ago.

Developers are opening up about 70,000 sq. feet (6,500 sq. meters) of retail space in the next five to six years with preliminary plans for 380 subsidized low-income homes, said Jaime Calitto, director of the Hyde/Jackson Square Main Street community group. Another 205 homes would go at market prices.

 

If Calitto wants the Latin Quarter to resemble Boston's historic North End and bustling Chinatown -- hubs of ethnic businesses that are often clogged with tourists.

 

But Juan Reyes, owner of Miami Restaurant in Jamaica Plain, where it helps to speak Spanish when you order, questions whether the area's Latino and Hispanic community will keep growing as gentrification spreads and pushes newer immigrants into fast-growing Hispanic communities in western Massachusetts.

"Many of the people are moving to western areas of the state where it's a lot less expensive. My business is down about 10 percent from last year," said the 59-year-old Cuban native, who has lived in Boston since 1978. "If rents keep climbing I'm not sure who is going to live around here."

Letter: Civilian review board of police is a great idea
Roslindale Transcript, June 29, 2006

To the editor:

City Councilor Felix Arroyo has the right idea in proposing a civilian review board for the Boston Police Department. A bold suggestion, yes, but few cities of our size do not have such a board. Some people like to say that these boards are "long discredited," but in this day and age they are all too necessary.

The Boston Police Department, like similar departments in any good-sized city, has had its share of scandals, and this is unfortunate for the good and honest majority of the force. A civilian board would help to give the populace a voice, and this can only serve to benefit everyone involved.                              

Some will say it is just one more thing to create a hassle for the     department; but the truth is that the department works for us (the citizens), are paid by us, and should be answerable to us. It is a great opportunity for the department to do a better job for the community, and anyone who opposes doing a better job should not be a part of that force.

Many in this city think that operations at the Boston Police Department could stand to be improved. Many think there is too much of a rift between the department and the community it serves. Many even think that the department does not do enough to hold its officers accountable for misdeeds, and that they can’t be counted upon to be their own watchdogs, so Councilor Arroyo suggested a civilian review board.

Felix Arroyo is a man of the people, and if he thinks we might benefit from a civilian review board, he’s probably right. It took guts to suggest a policy that was certain to stir up the "old-boy" network like a nest of wasps. The attacks that resulted were vicious and personal, the attackers: narrow minded and self-serving.
Councilor Arroyo is a leader of rare and inexorably good character, and even if he can’t find support amidst his peers, he didn’t deserve such stinging personal attacks. And he is right,       

                                  

Boston would benefit from a Civilian Review Board.


     Jonathan Goodhue, Roslindale
    

Building Trust in Boston's Police
By Felix D. Arroyo, The Boston Globe
June 7, 2006

With crime in Boston on the rise, it is imperative that the city seek out and embrace fresh mechanisms to improve public safety. At many meetings I've attended as chairman of the City Council's Committee on Youth Affairs, one continuing point of concern is the relationship between civilians and the Boston Police Department. Simply put, growing community mistrust of the police is hindering joint efforts to ensure that crime is both prevented and reported.

For this reason and others, it is in the best interests of all parties, including the Police Department, that there be independent, thorough, and unbiased investigations of complaints of misconduct by officers toward the public. While Boston has had a limited complaint system in the past, it is time that a new civilian review board be created with expanded capacities.

Boston needs a board that is both accessible and permanent. A new board should have investigatory and subpoena powers and receive adequate funding. People who come before it should be able to air freely their grievances and to voice recommendations. Complaints should be followed by hearings, investigations, and cross-examination of witnesses. Results should include responsive actions that help to rebuild relationships between the police and the public, with appropriate discipline as directed by the police commissioner.

Who would benefit? People like the friends and family of Victoria Snelgrove. Two-and-a-half years after Snelgrove, a college student, was killed while celebrating the Red Sox winning the pennant, there has been little public review of the circumstances and individuals responsible for her death. The independent panel that investigated her killing recommended creating a civilian review board to handle future incidents.

In addition, there are the everyday, less-publicized incidents, such as the alleged harassment of young people or other cases where deadly force has been used, perhaps inappropriately. The Globe has reported that the city's 2,000 police officers have received 2,448 allegations of misconduct over the past five years. Clearly, a new monitoring mechanism is needed.

Also, a civilian review board could track allegations of racial profiling, discourtesy, and repeated charges against a particular officer, while studying trends in misconduct, such as increases coming from a certain geographic area from one year to the next. Along with accountability, greater trust between police and the neighborhood residents would increase much-needed witness cooperation, resulting in more efficient policing and more arrests. The review board could also benefit the police by protecting officers and their supervisors when it curtails unsubstantiated charges.

It is important that politics not become enmeshed in the Police Department's internal operations. New York City's board, signed into law by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, consists of members who cannot hold another public office. Only those members appointed by the police commissioner can have experience as law enforcement professionals.

Adequate funding does not mean that a civilian review board will create a financial burden for the city. Baltimore created its board with no budget, though Mayor Martin O'Malley found funds to hire professional investigators. Baltimore's city staff provides administrative, clerical, and legal support.

Other major cities, including Washington, Philadelphia, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, and Minneapolis, have independent civilian review processes in place. In establishing those programs, many cities successfully overcame understandable resistance from local police departments. The legality of such boards is beyond dispute. State and local courts have consistently rejected police union appeals and have supported the boards' powers.

A police department that acts with equity and justice has nothing to fear from measures that call for accountability. Rather than letting a few wayward officers give the whole department a bad reputation, it's time that the Boston Police Department embraced transparency. It is in everybody's interest that a civilian review board be put in place and that it have teeth.

The responsibilities placed on our law enforcement officials are complex, risk-producing, and sensitive. But we must continue to press for high standards when it comes to equity, justice, and respect. Together, we should invest and build trust in a Police Department that works for and with the people.

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Arroyo to Donate Raise on Activist's Behalf
The Boston Globe, May 10, 2006

Councilor at Large Felix Arroyo yesterday announced that he would give his planned salary increase to the preferred charity of local peace activist Isaura Mendes, who lost a second son last week to violence on city streets. Last week, Boston city councilors voted to increase the salaries of the mayor, top administration officials, and themselves. If the ordinance becomes law, Arroyo will donate the additional salary for six months. Mendes's son Alex, 24, was killed Saturday in a drive-by shooting in Dorchester. An informal survey of other councilors suggested that some do not plan to directly follow Arroyo's lead. Mayor Thomas M. Menino will accept the pay increase because he already gives ''a considerable amount" to charity, said spokesman Seth Gitell. Some councilors said that much of their $75,000 salary goes to local charities or sponsorships. Their new salaries would rise to $87,500.

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Suffolk Sets Up Hotline for Teen Complaints about Police
March 2006, The Asccociated Press

Suffolk University Law School, at the urging of some Boston city councilors and area lawmakers, has established a telephone hotline for teenagers to call with complaints about treatment by police.

The law school's Juvenile Justice Center, which advocates for teens on civil rights issues, created and is running the line, director Lisa Thurau-Gray said.

It is critically important to have a third party tracking how police treat teenagers, she said. "In a city that has no civilian review board and a complaint system that doesn't respond to kids' complaints and parents' complaints for kids, this is an effort to structure responses and inform the BPD of how successful their interactions with youth are," Thurau-Gray said.

The ultimate goal, she said, is to improve relations between youths and police, and make the city safer by increasing teens' involvement in the criminal justice system.

The police department supports the effort, department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said. "We welcome the participation of our community partners who have a mutual concern relating to the communities perception of how it is being policed," she said. "We take allegations of police misconduct very seriously."

City Councilor Sam Yoon said the hot line grew out of a series of meetings he and other politicians have had with residents concerned by violence, including a city council hearing in February where youths voiced their concerns on violence and treatment by police.
"We heard direct testimony about interactions with police where (youths) were doing nothing wrong, but the police were very aggressive in their approach," he said.

Many teenagers feel stereotyped by police, councilor Felix Arroyo said, adding that he thinks it's important to have an outside body gather complaints. "We want to make clear these cases do exist," he said.

Thurau-Gray said every six months she will issue a report documenting calls to the hot line, which she said will track interaction between youths and city police, Municipal Police, MBTA police and private security guards.

Suffolk's establishment and maintaining of the hot line should not be seen as evidence that the university believes police are abusive toward teens, said John Nucci, the university's vice president of government and community affairs.

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City Council Debates How to Move Violent Youths from Streets to Classrooms
By Elizabeth Mixson, The Daily Free Press
Feburary 23, 2006

The City Council's committee on violence and crime prevention held a hearing Tuesday to discuss Boston's continuing issue with youth violence and how to move violent youths from the streets to after-school programs. Boston-area high school students were present to testify on behalf of their communities.

According to Councilor-At-Large Felix Arroyo and Councilor Chuck Turner (Dorchester, Roxbury), although the overall crime rate dipped slightly in 2005 the city's rate of violent crime rose. The murder rate in 2005 was the highest in a decade and roughly half of the murders involved young men between the ages of 15 to 24.

Criminologists have attributed this spike in violence to the growing number of teenagers and young adults, as well as significant budget cuts in state and federal funding for youth programming.

Committee members said they believe that teens should be provided with summer and after-school jobs, which would keep them off the streets, away from crime and engage them with their communities.

Neil Sullivan, who works for Boston Private Industry Council, which seeks to lower high school-dropout rates and encourage secondary education, said the main tool to combat violence is employment. Boston-area high school student Kevin Fleming said he agreed.

"Once I got a job I turned around from being a hood [thug] into being an active member of my community," he said.

This became more difficult after the Boston Youth Fund budget dropped from almost $7 million in 2002 to roughly $4.4 million in 2005, thereby decreasing the number of available jobs for teens, according to a BYF informational flyer.

Many employers do not extend opportunities to those with criminal records, Turner said.

Inner-city teens are dependent on job raffles held by organizations such as the Action for Boston Community Development, or ABCD, that can only provide jobs for 1,120 teens out of the 3,400 applicants, according to Mark Isenberg, the Vice President of Workforce Development and Technology Services for ABCD.

According to Marlena Rose, a youth coordinator with the Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project, Boston needs "more programs and less lock-up."

But with a lack of funding, many youth programs are being forced to shut down.

At these programs, teens learn what it is like to be part of a structured and safe community and about alternatives to street life as well as practical skills, such as how to write a resume and prepare for job interviews.

Another issue the special committee noted is the distrust between the police and the residents of neighborhoods, and many youths attending the event testified that they had been treated unfairly and roughly by police officers.

Kate Johnson of the United Youth workers of Boston said to the council that all youths want is to feel safe.

"At the end of the day, [the youths of Boston] want to feel secure, they want to be able to walk through a red zone without getting searched for wearing a knit cap," she said.

In order to increase trust and communication between the police and residents, many organizations have begun to get police officers involved in community activities and engaged in dialogues with residents.

Jeff Stone of the B-Smart Youth Police Dialogue has already organized meetings between teens and police forces in neighborhoods, such as Jamaica Plain, in order to "reduce stereotypes and increase trust."

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There's Precedent for Stopping Biodefense Lab
By Felix D. Arroyo
Boston Herald, February 8, 2006

Last week, Boston University received final U.S. approval for a Level 4 federal biodefense laboratory. While it may appear to be a defeat for those opposing this lab, Bostonians must remember that until the lab is up and running, it can and should be stopped.

Those of us who continue to oppose this project must remember the precedent from across the river. In the 1970s and 1980s, Cambridge faced public concern over high-security research, resulting in a citizens advisory committee that recommended that the research be prohibited. This decision was upheld by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Even so, Cambridge remains an international beacon of scientific research. Indeed, Cambridge hosts more than 50 major biotech companies and more than half of the state's top 25 biotechnology research and development firms.

Cambridge does not stand alone in its success. Outraged locals succeeded in keeping a Level 4 component of a laboratory from going into operation in a Toronto suburb, even after the building was constructed.

Where is our outrage? At what price are we selling the safety of our citizens? For the creation of fewer than 1,000 jobs, many of them temporary, that in the long run are likely to not be filled by neighborhood residents?

Level 4 agents are defined as dangerous/exotic agents that pose high risk of life-threatening disease, aerosol-transmitted lab infections or related agents with unknown risk of transmission. We must not forget the BU Medical Center's track record. Since the biolab was announced, four BU lab workers contracted tularemia.

Mistakes happen. In 2004, a leaky aerosol chamber built by the University of Wisconsin was responsible for three laboratory-acquired tuberculosis infections in Seattle, at what is an even less risky Level 3 lab. We do not have enough knowledge to say that these mistakes won't happen, and that if they do, Boston is prepared to handle them.

Some proponents have said that since the city has adopted an evacuation plan - which has never even been tested - that subjecting our residents to bioterrorism is not a risk. I fail to see the logic of people suspected of contracting anthrax or ebola fleeing the city. Safety in this case is a matter of quarantine, not of displacing people and pathogens that already have caused harm.

The Bush administration announced the expansion of Biosafety Level 4 capacity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the U.S. Army Research Institute on Infectious Diseases, the latter being the only Level 4 laboratory now under military protection. Why create new centers for risk when the former ones are doing the same type of work?

Local residents, not Washington, must rule if the lab's location is OK. Federal approval merely signifies a new step in our fight to preserve Boston's health and safety. Local and state officials must stand together to protect our health and safety. We must have the strength to loudly, clearly and repeatedly refuse to let our constituents come so closely into harm's way.

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Homework for the Next School Chief
Councillor Arroyo's Op-Ed, Boston Globe
January 9, 2006

In the next few months, the newly appointed Search Committee will interview candidates to fill Boston School Superintendent Thomas Payzant's large shoes. Dr. Payzant made some essential changes that should continue to improve schools in Boston, including hiring strong administrators, streamlining teacher hiring, which has attracted more qualified candidates, increasing emphasis on professional development, and breaking up struggling large high schools into energized small schools.

However, Boston faces critical unsolved problems that threaten the very possibility of equal educational opportunities for disadvantaged, immigrant, urban, and of-color students. These problems are not just our problems. They are the local results of the dual education system in this country. This is a national reality affecting every American city. The deepening isolation of large groups of urban students threatens to marginalize them completely from the American mainstream. As US schools become more class-segregated and race-segregated than ever, students of color are falling further behind, dropping out more, ending up in prison at higher rates, earning less and completing fewer years of college than we should find morally acceptable or economically justifiable.

Boston's new superintendent must understand these challenges and must be committed to taking a role in the public dialogue, which can lead to solutions.

With the necessity of choosing a new superintendent, we also have the opportunity to craft a new agenda, an agenda that counters the effects of a dual educational system, and in so doing helps create a less segregated city and provide equal opportunity for every student in the Boston Public Schools.

We therefore urge the Search Committee to seek candidates best suited to addressing these 10 pressing needs in the Boston Public Schools:

1) Figure out the true school drop-out pattern of Boston students and address the reasons that affected groups are leaving school.

2) Develop an action plan to confront and narrow the `STEM' science, technology, engineering, and math gap. These vitally important growth fields are the most race- and gender-segregated ones in America, and Boston students need much more support in all of them.

3) Systematically examine whether the needs of second language learners are being met now that bilingual education is no longer state policy.

4) Reopen the exam schools to appropriate numbers of students of color.

5) Provide high quality vocational/technical education to more students and find ways to energize business and labor support for these programs.

6) Make a significant commitment to expand extracurricular offerings. Remind ourselves that children will develop as scholars only as they are given opportunities to develop as people. Face the crisis of the disappearance of school clubs, organizations, social and cultural activities, and athletic opportunities. The wider problem of urban schools empty at 2 o'clock while suburban schools hum with activity and boast of "something for everyone" is an undocumented gap that leaves too many of our youth alienated from their schools and unproductive for many hours of the day and some on the street.

7) Create effective incentives for retention of young teachers and strong educators of all ages.

8) Reevaluate the use and effects of standardized testing, especially MCAS, looking carefully at negative effects such as the numbing impact of multiple failures, de-emphasis on teacher creativity in favor of scripted teaching, and substitution of "test prep" for high level and elective courses.

9) Face up to the militarization of many of our high schools where JROTC has replaced academic and physical education choices and where opportunities for peaceful service are not equally promulgated or even always available.

10) Reinvigorate public participation in schools. Neither the appointed School Committee nor the neglected School Site Councils in most of our schools motivate, involve or empower parents or other citizens to roll up our sleeves and support the Boston Public Schools.

Copyright (c) 2006 Globe Newspaper Company

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