Boston voters eye affordability, education
Boston voters went to the polls with an eye on the future, telling the Herald that the city’s schools and affordability motivated them.
Angela Dunwell of Bay Village said she fears the development was crushing the “beauty of this city.”
“I don’t want Boston to become what Manhattan has with too much luxury units, absentee owners and tall buildings casting shadows,” she said.
Caroline Spicer of South Boston also ranked the cost of living as a big issue, saying the city needs to avail itself more to families by focusing on parks, playgrounds and reasonably priced stores.
“Just this year I know 10 families who left the city because they couldn’t afford it,” Spicer said.
Boston residents cast votes Tuesday to elect the next city council in an election dominated by a busy at-large race that’s seen as a test of strength for incumbent at-large City Councilor Michelle Wu, whose name is often bandied about as a possible challenger to Mayor Martin Walsh in two years.
Chris McPherson, who’d just cast his ballot at the Lower Mills library branch, said the city needs to invest more money in its schools and make sure that luxury high rises aren’t the only housing units being built.
“In a place with so many resources, we just aren’t doing it for everyone,” McPherson said. “Affordable housing is huge for me.”
Gloria Ganno of Hyde Park said the quality of the school district is important to her, and the city needs to address the reports of thousands of homeless kids.
“Something should be done about that,” Ganno said.
Back Bay resident Jai Furtado hopes Boston’s winning candidates will fight rising rents.
Furtado said he’s in favor of rent control, which he said he hopes will help stave off the rapid gentrification he’s seeing in his native Dorchester.
“A lot of my friends are having to move because buildings are being knocked down for bigger buildings and the rents are getting more expensive,” Furtado said.
The four at-large seats were hotly contested, and three council districts — Allston-Brighton, Hyde Park and the district including Back Bay and Mission Hill — all saw competitive races for open seats, with less-competitive challenges to incumbents coming in Mattapan and Roxbury. The other four district council races featured incumbents cruising to another term unopposed.
Deb DeCristoforo of Fleet Street said her North End neighborhood is almost unrecognizable compared to what it was when she moved in 50 years ago.
“This used to be a neighborhood, now it’s just all what we call outsiders: yuppies and people with a lot of money,” DeCristoforo said.
Affordability is also what brought Chris Prall to the polls Tuesday. The 24-year-old Abington native now spends more than $1,300 on rent — and that’s with roommates.
“I voted for anyone trying to do anything about affordability of housing,” he said.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/32jwfOM
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