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Boston City Councilor Mayor of Boston
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The municipal "Green New Deal" of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States is a Green New Deal policy agenda promoted by Michelle Wu (the current mayor of Boston). She first proposed it in August 2020 when she was a member of the Boston City Council. During Wu's mayoralty, which began in November 2021, she has implemented a number of environmental policies and projects in-line with the goals of her Green New Deal plan.
In August 2020, Wu released a document outlining plans for a "Boston Green New Deal & Just Recovery". [1] [2] [3] The proposal aimed to achieve carbon neutrality (net-zero carbon footprint) for the municipal government buildings by 2024, running the city on 100% renewable energy by 2030, and achieving citywide carbon neutrality by 2040. [3]
The document also outlined a need for the city to facilitate an equitable recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Boston. [3] Included in this priority was "equitable small business recovery". [2]
The document called for the city to divest from fossil fuel industries as well as "harmful industries", such as gun manufacturers and private prisons. It called for the city to instead invest in the clean energy industries and community-based financial institutions. [2] The document also called for food justice. [2] Wu had already worked on the issue of food justice as a City Council member: in March 2019, the City Council unanimously passed the Good Food Purchasing Program ordinance authored by Wu, an ordinance which set new requirements for public food purchasers, such as Boston Public Schools. [4] [5]
The document included plans related to housing. These called for "decommodifying housing" through the expansion of cooperative housing, community land trusts, and community ownerships. [2] It also called for the establishment of a renters' right to counsel, giving legal representation to tenants in order to protect them against unwanted or potentially illegal evictions. [2] The document also called for creating "just and resilient development" through the establishment of affordable green overlay districts and standard community benefits agreements. [2] The document included a plan to use priority planning zones informed by urban heat island maps, in order to expand the urban tree canopy. [2] [6] The stated benefits of planting more trees would be carbon sequestration, cleaner air, temperature regulation, and community benefit. [2]
The document called for "transportation justice" by having the city improve, "the accessibility and reliability of multimodal infrastructure by prioritizing and allocating street space for active transportation modes." [2] It also called for the city to pursue fare-free transit. [2] Fare-free public transit was a cause that Wu had already been promoting. Wu had first brought up the idea of fare-free public transit in Boston in a January 2019 op-ed she published in The Boston Globe . [7] Later in 2019, she and fellow councilor Kim Janey proposed making the MBTA Route 28 bus fare-free. [8] Wu was a local leader in promoting the idea of fare-free public transit. Crediting Wu as a leader on fare-free public transit, in January 2021, the editorial board of The Boston Globe endorsed the idea of making the city's buses fare-free. [9] Wu's promotion of fare-free public transit also inspired Lawrence, Massachusetts mayor Daniel Rivera to implement it in his city. [10] [11]
The Green New Deal document also called for a "local blue new deal" which would address coastal and ocean-related climate concerns. This would include using coastal and ocean resources for clean energy generation, sustainable food systems, carbon capture, and jobs. [2] [6] Another proposal it contained was for Boston to utilize Green Municipal Bonds and the city's Property Assessed Clean Energy program to remove barriers to installing solar energy and efficiency measures in order to accelerate their adoption by the municipal government, private residents, and private businesses. [2] It also proposed having a comprehensive justice audit to identify institutional harms, and using the findings of such an audit to shape a citywide justice framework to reshape decision-making. [2] It also called for "green workforce development" and the creation of an urban climate corps. [2]
In March 2021, Wu, along with Councilors Lydia Edwards and Matt O'Malley, introduced an ordinance that would have divested city funds from the private prison industry, as well as from the fossil fuel and tobacco industries. [12] This aligned with such a proposal contained in the original Green New Deal document.
In 2021, Acting Mayor Kim Janey funded a pilot program to make the MBTA Route 28 bus fare-free for three months. [13] This is something she and Wu had previously proposed together. [8] This aligned with Wu's Green New Deal's proposal for fare-free bus transit.
On the matter of an equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Wu chaired City Council hearings on the subject. [14] In February 2021, Wu proposed legislation that would seek to create an equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in Boston by requiring that at least one vaccination site be established in each residential neighborhood. [15] In the late summer of 2021, Wu's office compiled data that suggested that half of the city's COVID-19 pandemic Restaurant Revitalization Fund money that had been allocated to restaurants was given to establishments in only three of the city's 23 neighborhoods (Back Bay, Downtown Boston, and the Seaport District). It was noted that these were largely white and wealthy neighborhoods in comparison to the rest of the city. [16]
On the matter of food justice, October 2020 Wu published a report on a "food justice" agenda in Boston. [17] The agenda laid out included increasing the minimum wage for food-sector workers and providing guaranteed paid sick leave to them. [18] The plan also called for the city government to support state legislation that would gradually phase out the tipped wage for restaurant and bar workers. [17]
Wu's platform in her 2023 mayoral campaign included a "climate justice" plan that featured her municipal Green New Deal. [19] Wu touted her proposed municipal Green New Deal as helping to combat the racial wealth gap. [20] Wu's campaign also tied her proposed municipal Green New Deal into its plan for economic justice and workers rights. [21] During her mayoral campaign, her platform's plan for education further outlined what she dubbed a "Green New Deal" for Boston Public Schools. Her plan described this as addressing a need for a, "wholesale shift in how we manage our school facilities to lift up our school communities, build healthy and nurturing physical environments, and align with our broader civic goals of equity, opportunity, engagement." It envisioned schools as becoming, "full-service community hubs that can adapt to meet the evolving needs of our students and our city." [22]
As mayor, Wu extended the pilot for fare-free public transit on the route 28 bus, adding two additional routes to serve other lower-income areas of the city free of charge for all riders beginning March 1, 2022, and extending for two years. [23] The charges were picked up by the city using funds from $8 million in federal pandemic relief funds. [24] Wu's advocacy is seen as popularizing the idea of fare-free public transportation in Boston. [25]
In 2021, Boston's government created a green jobs program called Power Corps. [26] [27]
On November 22, 2021, Wu signed an ordinance to divest city investments from companies that derive more than 15 percent of their revenue from fossil fuels, tobacco products, or prison facilities. This is seen as being part of her pursuit of a municipal Green New Deal for Boston. The process will entail the divestment of $65 million in city assets. The new rules do not apply to Boston's employee pension fund, which is governed by state law. [28] While a member of the city council, she had fought for the adoption of such a policy, [29] which is included in her original Green New Deal document. [2]
In August 2022, Wu unveiled a proposed home rule petition that would see the city request entrance to the state's pilot program for municipalities to ban fossil fuels from most new buildings, with the exception of labs and hospitals. The following month, the Boston City Council approved the home rule petition 9–3. The next step is for the state legislature to rule on whether to grant the petition. [30]
On May 16, 2022, Wu pledged that the city would implement a "Green New Deal" for Boston Public Schools (BPS) school buildings, which will see renovation of existing facilities and the construction new ones. This plan expands the funding the city is to invest in school construction from the $1 billion outlined in Marty Walsh's 2015 BuildBPS plan to $2 billion. [31] In September 2022, Wu announced the creation of the Cabinet for Worker Empowerment. One of the tasks this new department was given is to oversee the implementation of her Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools. [32]
In April 2022, on Earth Day, as part of the city's Climate Ready Boston efforts, Wu unveiled the Heat Resilience for Boston plan. This plan centers on combatting the impacts of rising heat extremes, focusing on the "environmental justice communities" of Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston, Mattapan, and Roxbury. Wu also announced the creation of the Boston Extreme Temperatures Response Task Force to coordinate efforts across the city related to handling heat extremes. [33]
In August 2022, Wu announced that, in the following month, Oliver Sellers-Garcia would begin serving in the newly created senior advisory position of "green new deal director". This position advises the mayor's office on steps towards climate resiliency. [34]
As part of a $20 million housing program funded through COVID recovery funds, Wu's mayoral administration is planning to launch the "Large Building Green Energy Retrofits Program" providing building owners of buildings with fifteen or more units up to $10,000 to support efforts to reduce their buildings' energy use through "deep energy retrofits". The program is targeted at retrofitting the city's existing housing stock. [35]
In May 2022, Boston awarded a $17 million contract to City Fresh Foods, a local Black-owned business, to be a vendor for Boston City Schools. The contract has been credited as helping to achieve the goals of the Good Food Purchasing Program that was created by an ordinance that had been authored by Wu as a city councilwoman targeted at "food justice". [36] [37]
In July 2023, Wu signed an executive order formally barring the use of fossil fuels such as heating oil and natural gas in new city-owned buildings, and requiring or in major renovations of municipal government buildings. It also requires the elimination of combustion and fossil fuels when any municipal government buildings undergo a replacement of their HVAC, water heating, or cooking appliances. [38]
In September 2022 the Boston City Council voted 9–3 to allow the city to potentially enter the State of Massachusetts' new pilot program that would permit ten communities to prohibit most newly-constructed buildings (including private development) from relying on fossil fuels –with exceptions for the construction of labs and hospitals. [39] Wu initially applied for the city to enter the program. [40] However, in November 2023, she announced that she would no longer be pursuing inclusion of Boston in the program, claiming that its specifics were not workable in Boston due to its large populace and the constraints of the city's existing electrical system. She also claimed that there had been indications given that the state was not intending to select Boston as a participant in the pilot program. [40] [41]
In 2023, Wu's announced that the city would be offering deep energy retrofit grants to help fund the retrofitting of affordable housing units to greater energy efficiency. [42] Wu has also aimed to transition Boston Housing Authority properties away from using fossil fuels. [43]
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network includes the MBTA subway with three metro lines, two light rail lines, and a five-line bus rapid transit system ; MBTA bus local and express service; the twelve-line MBTA Commuter Rail system, and several ferry routes. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 239,981,700, or about 796,300 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024, of which the rapid transit lines averaged 265,900 and the light rail lines 95,900, making it the fourth-busiest rapid transit system and the third-busiest light rail system in the United States. As of the second quarter of 2024, average weekday ridership of the commuter rail system was 107,500, making it the fifth-busiest commuter rail system in the U.S.
Key bus routes of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) system are 15 routes that have high ridership and higher frequency standards than other bus lines, according to the 2004 MBTA Service Policy. Together, they account for roughly 40% of the MBTA's total bus ridership. These key bus routes ensure basic geographic coverage with frequent service in the densest areas of Boston, and connect to other MBTA services to give access to other areas throughout the region.
The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms and there is no limit on the number of terms an individual can serve. Boston uses a strong-mayor form of government in which the city council acts as a check against the power of the executive branch, the mayor. The council is responsible for approving the city budget; monitoring, creating, and abolishing city agencies; making land use decisions; and approving, amending, or rejecting other legislative proposals.
Matthew Joseph O'Malley is an American politician and businessman who served six terms a member of the Boston City Council. He was elected as the District 6 representative in a special election on November 16, 2010, and was re-elected in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. His district included the neighborhoods of West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain, parts of Roslindale and Roxbury, and the Back of the Hill. As the most senior member of the council, O'Malley succeeded Kim Janey as acting council president after Janey became acting mayor of Boston in March 2021. In late 2021, he became the chief sustainability officer of Vicinity Energy, a U.S. district energy subsidiary of Antin Infrastructure Partners.
Tito Jackson is an American politician who was a member of the Boston City Council. He represented council District 7, representing parts of the Roxbury neighborhood and parts of Dorchester, South End, and Fenway. In 2017, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Boston against incumbent mayor Marty Walsh. After leaving the Boston City Council, Jackson worked in the cannabis industry. In 2022, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu appointed Jackson to the city's Commission on Black Men and Boys.
Michelle Wu is an American politician serving as the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, since 2021. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, she was the first Asian American woman to serve on the Boston City Council, from 2014 to 2021, and acted as its president from 2016–2018. She is the first woman and first non-white person to have been elected mayor of Boston. At 36 years of age, she is also the youngest individual to have been elected to the position in nearly a century. Wu is a member of the Democratic Party.
Andrea Joy Campbell is an American lawyer and politician who is serving as the attorney general of Massachusetts. Campbell is a former member of the Boston City Council. On the city council, she represented District 4, which includes parts of Boston's Dorchester, Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale neighborhoods. A member of the Democratic Party, she was first elected to the council in November 2015 and assumed office in January 2016. She served as president of the council from January 2018 until January 2020. Campbell unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Boston in 2021, placing third in the nonpartisan primary election behind Annissa Essaibi George and Michelle Wu, the latter of whom would go on to win the general election.
Lydia Marie Edwards is an American attorney and politician. She served as a member of the Boston City Council from the 1st district from 2018 to 2022 and has served as a member of the Massachusetts Senate from the 1st Suffolk and Middlesex district since 2022. She resigned from the Boston City Council at the end of April 2022.
Priscilla MacKenzie "Kenzie" Bok is the administrator of the Boston Housing Authority. She previously served as a member of the Boston City Council, representing District 8, which includes Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, and the West End. She is also a lecturer on Social Studies at Harvard University, where she teaches intellectual history and history of philosophy. Bok was elected to the City Council in the November 2019 election. In 2023, Mayor Michelle Wu appointed Bok to become the head of the Boston Housing Authority.
Annissa Essaibi George is an American politician who served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council. First elected in 2015, she served on the council from 2016 to 2022. She was a candidate in the 2021 Boston mayoral election. She placed second in the nonpartisan primary, but was defeated in the general election by fellow city councilor Michelle Wu. Since November 2022, Essaibi George has served as the president of the Board of Directors of the nonprofit organization Big Sister Boston.
Kim Michelle Janey is an American politician and community organizer who served as acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th district from 2018 to 2022. As a black woman, her tenure as acting mayor made her the first woman and the first person of color to lead the city.
The 2021 Boston mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2021, to elect the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts. Incumbent mayor Marty Walsh was eligible to seek a third term. However, he resigned as mayor on March 22, 2021, after being confirmed as secretary of labor in the Cabinet of Joe Biden. This left the Boston City Council president, at the time Kim Janey, to hold the role of acting mayor until the victor of the election would take office.
Mass. and Cass, also known as Methadone Mile or Recovery Road, is an area in Boston, Massachusetts, located at and around the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue. Due to its concentration of neighborhood services providing help, the area around Mass. and Cass has long attracted a large number of people struggling with homelessness and drug addiction, especially after the closure of facilities on Long Island in Boston Harbor. It has been characterized as "the epicenter of the region's opioid addiction crisis".
Ruthzee Louijeune is an American politician and lawyer serving as president of the Boston City Council. She has been an at-large member of the Boston City Council since January 2022, and has served as the council's president since January 2024. She is the first Haitian-American to serve on the council.
Ricardo N. Arroyo is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Massachusetts. He was previously a member of the Boston City Council.
As of November 2021, there were about 30,000 electric vehicles in Massachusetts.
Edward Michael Flynn is an American politician currently serving on the Boston City Council, representing the city's 2nd district. A member of the Democratic Party, he has held his seat since January 2017. From January 2022 until January 2024, he served as president of the Boston City Council. He is the son of former Boston mayor Raymond Flynn.
Free public transport has been implemented in parts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through various trials and programs since the 2010s. Pilot programs have been run on several transit agencies in the state, with many of these pilot programs arising following losses of ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Michelle Wu, a Democrat, served as a member of the Boston City Council from January 2014 until becoming mayor of Boston in November 2021. Wu was first elected to the City Council in November 2013, and was re-elected three times. In 2016 and 2017, Wu served as the Council’s president.
Michelle Wu has served as mayor of Boston, Massachusetts since November 2021. Wu was elected mayor in 2021, winning with 64% of the vote, becoming the first woman, first person of color, and first Asian American elected to serve as the mayor of Boston. At 36 years of age, was also the youngest individual elected to the office in nearly a century. Wu is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to being sworn in as mayor, Wu served as a member of the Boston City Council
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