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COVID Recovery
A Roadmap for COVID-19 Recovery
2020 changed us. We have all been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic: many have lost loved ones, lost their jobs, and worried like never before about how they will make ends meet. The toll on our healthcare workers has been unimaginable. Teachers, parents, and students alike have struggled with remote learning. Hotels, restaurants, and stores have closed, and small businesses and large employers alike have furloughed and fired employees. The pandemic has laid bare long-standing health inequities as we have all experienced unprecedented illness and death, prolonged shutdown, and a decimated economy.
To fully recover and rebuild a healthier, more resilient Boston, we must control COVID-19 across all 23 neighborhoods, from East Boston to Hyde Park. Andrea envisions a roadmap for recovery that addresses the immediate health impacts of the pandemic, the widespread economic decline in its wake, and the deep racial inequities it exposed.
Recovery begins with equitable, widespread vaccination to ensure Bostonians can get back to work and school. To make this a reality, we must track progress and use data, communicate and build trust between communities, and make smart, intentional investments to support working families.
We must also reflect and learn from this experience and invest in our public health infrastructure to lay the foundation for a future of health equity and resilience. Building on her experiences, driven by her vision for Boston, and grounded in her belief in healing communities, Andrea is uniquely positioned to lead this work.
To recover in 2021, the City of Boston should:
Ensure Vaccine Equity
All Bostonians must be able to access and trust in the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. Andrea deeply and personally understands the complicated history of medical mistreatment within communities of color in our city and our country. Our City’s leaders must recognize this complexity, build trust and confidence in communities across Boston, and deploy evidence-based policy grounded in science and best practice to ensure we all recover and maintain our health.
- Engage in Community Outreach to Build Trust. Widespread adoption of any vaccination program will depend on successful communication about the vaccine, building on trusted voices as lead communicators, particularly in our immigrant communities and communities of color. A culturally competent, multilingual communications program is critical to achieve near universal vaccine uptake. Andrea issued a City Council hearing order regarding vaccine distribution and implementation in December 2020 and will continue to build and support effective outreach efforts in every neighborhood, in partnership with local healthcare experts, including from the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) and the Health and Human Services Department, neighborhood health centers, public health advocates including the Black Boston COVID-19 Coalition, and faith-based, cultural, and community leaders.
- Oversee Equitable and Efficient Distribution of the Vaccine. The City of Boston has a responsibility to equitably distribute the vaccine and develop strategies to engage the community so that all Bostonians are safely and efficiently vaccinated as soon as possible. The City must partner with State and Federal leaders to prioritize residents who are at highest risk of COVID-19, including health care workers, the elderly, those who have received an essential worker designation as well as teachers, families with low incomes, and people who are in long-term care facilities, incarcerated, or experiencing homelessness.
- Ensure Ongoing Access. Vaccine distribution will be both an immediate priority and an ongoing activity. Now and in the future, City Hall needs to utilize high quality, timely data on vaccine distribution and rates of uptake in all neighborhoods, to ensure widespread availability, access, and adoption — all while maintaining confidentiality for residents. This will require close coordination with federal and state authorities to streamline resources and funding, particularly for families who utilize Medicare/Medicaid and MassHealth. Community health centers and smaller providers operating in neighborhoods across Boston must not be left behind. These neighborhood centers of health are critical and need funding and resources including for potentially retrofitting their facilities for cold storage to maintain vaccine stores onsite if needed.
Improve Transparency, Testing, and Surveillance
City Hall must consistently communicate data and a clear strategy around COVID-19. To recover and rebuild, we must use data within the Boston Public Health Commission and partner with our City’s unique healthcare community, including community health centers, to deploy a robust testing and surveillance program.
- Implement Transparent Surveillance. BPHC needs ongoing surveillance programs for COVID-19 just as it maintains for other infectious diseases like tuberculosis, meningitis, and HIV. High-quality surveillance demands robust data: BPHC should publish a weekly dashboard modeled off of the Commonwealth’s state-level report to provide real-time transparency about availability and utilization of testing, vaccinations, and rates of COVID-19 with neighborhood, race/ethnicity, occupation and age integrated throughout.
- Deploy Diagnostic and Screening Testing. Diagnostic testing must be the backbone of how we safely operate schools, workplaces, community health centers, and hospitals. The City must partner with community health centers and the largest local health care providers to ensure testing will continue to be available free of charge to residents, including those who are vulnerable, unhoused, and in high-risk settings such as nursing homes and correctional facilities. This work would be done in collaboration with state and regional leaders to ensure the necessary resources and training are deployed for a scalable and sustainable program.
Get Kids Back To School Safely
Andrea would prioritize safely re-opening schools through vaccinating and testing — which are essential tools to control community transmission. We now know more about how to keep students and staff safe once they arrive in school, and can deploy these approaches to ensure less disruption to learning going forward. Prioritizing teachers in vaccination efforts is paramount to creating a safe environment for a swift return to in-person learning.
- Deploy Pooled Testing. Boston biotech firms have developed best-in-class protocols for conducting pooled testing, and should be engaged to provide screening and surveillance testing across the whole of BPS. In December, Andrea called on the City to develop a weekly COVID-19 testing program for all students and staff, in partnership with BPS families, local research institutions, philanthropic partners, and Boston’s leading biotech firms.
- Keep Our Classrooms Safe. We know what we need to do to keep students, staff, and teachers safe: air filtration and ventilation, universal masking, hand washing, contact tracing, and social distancing. Now we must make sure it gets done – every day in every classroom – through transparent communication and strong execution in partnership with families and staff. This should include, for example, an online tracker that displays classroom level readiness including air quality measures. Many of our older school buildings do not feel safe, so the City should invest in short term solutions, like portable air filters, window repairs or alternative spaces for our students to learn, while accelerating longer term school building plans.
- Make Up for Lost Time. Regardless of how soon we bring students back, we know our students are suffering tremendous learning loss. We need to make tutoring, either one-on-one or in very small groups, available to BPS students so that they can catch up on critical learning. Andrea believes college students and recent graduates who need employment opportunities are ideal candidates to support the highest need students through a district-wide paid tutoring program.
Get Boston Back To Work
As long as our residents are sick or fear getting sick, our economy will struggle. The first step in the path to economic recovery is health recovery. With that foundation, Andrea believes the City can drive strong, inclusive and innovative economic growth across Boston. That will require us to:
- Create the conditions for businesses to bounce back. Boston’s businesses create the majority of Boston’s jobs, so helping businesses recover helps residents get back to work. The City can actively support small businesses, particularly those led by historically under-represented groups, through direct relief programs, funding partners, and easing licensing and permitting.
- Innovate childcare solutions. Job losses during the pandemic have fallen disproportionately on working women, front line service workers, and communities of color. To get residents back to work, we must recognize that childcare is foundational to the economy. Andrea would partner with both child care providers and Boston’s largest employers to increase access to a larger range of childcare options, build greater capacity at providers including through rental assistance, PPE, and support for testing and vaccination, and develop funding models to facilitate a more robust child care sector. In partnership with local employers and community leaders, Andrea would work to build Boston into a model for affordable childcare.
- Prioritize Housing, Transportation, and Food Security. Families cannot maintain their health, job performance, and wellbeing without a roof over their heads, a way to get to work, and the food they need to survive. To support working families, Andrea will continue to fight to protect renters from evictions, building on her resolution early in the pandemic to extend the eviction moratorium. Andrea has and will continue to lead voices in opposition to reductions in service on the MBTA, and the City must fight for investments in our public transit infrastructure and partner with local employers so Bostonians can get back to work and sustain their jobs. The City must harness Boston’s unique cadre of food policy leaders to build a resilient food system so that families are able to regularly source healthy meals. To connect families with sustainable support systems and reduce the burden on the charitable food system, one of the most effective tools we have as public servants in this urgent moment is to ensure that families are maximizing their participation in federally funded nutrition programs, such as SNAP, WIC, and School Meals.
As Mayor, Andrea will:
Invest in Resilient Public Health Infrastructure
Andrea will prioritize disease surveillance efforts to mitigate future pandemic risk and preventive services to build more resilient public health. We must invest in our network of service provision to ensure that the entire city has a robust infrastructure, and tackle the fundamental social, environmental, and economic drivers of health in every “02” zip code.
- Modernize BPHC. Public health leaders have gone above and beyond before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and they deserve the tools and resources they need to best serve all Bostonians. The pandemic has demonstrated how vital a modern, 21st Century health commission is to Boston’s future. Andrea will elevate and focus the mission and leadership of BPHC to be able to do the work we all know matters so much to the health of our City — and build a commission that will be available to every neighborhood as the critical engine of health it can be, and will work to partner with our City’s incredibly strong healthcare community to ensure everyone in Boston can access the City’s unique, world-class medical resources.
- Prioritize Preventive Care. COVID-19 disrupted the delivery of routine primary care. Andrea will work to help not just restore but also strengthen preventive services, including integrating mental health services into primary care. Mental health needs are great across Boston, even more so in the wake of the pandemic. COVID-19 also increased utilization of telehealth, but this approach can be scaled further to ensure access for all Bostonians as we work to achieve equitable healthcare more broadly. Andrea will partner with the State to close the digital divide, including advocating for the Commonwealth to require insurers to provide coverage and ensure equitable access for individuals with disabilities and limited English proficiency through standardized procedures and accommodation services.
- Fight for healthier neighborhoods. Andrea knows that a thriving city that works for everyone is built on the foundation of safe, affordable housing, good schools, access to healthy food, quality health care, and jobs that pay a living wage. As Mayor, she will deploy a comprehensive strategy to drive health in every zip code by investing in the social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health outcomes and help to build a more resilient Boston.
Learn From This Crisis
COVID-19 has forced our country to reckon with deep racial inequities, including those in health, which have existed for generations. While it is not the first or the last pandemic we will face, it has served as a call to action to address the systemic racism it laid bare. As we move forward, we can learn specific lessons about our public health infrastructure, collect meaningful data on disparities, and prepare for a more equitable future based on a stronger foundation of communication and trust.
- Execute an After-Event Review. At the conclusion of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health held an after-action conference and developed a formal After Action Report/Improvement Plan (AAR/IP) which detailed potential areas for improvement. While that plan included some effort to attend to the use of data for identifying the experience of different population groups, it did not adequately address questions of equity. As Mayor, Andrea will conduct a formal After-Event Review to rigorously measure disparities and their underlying causes, and develop comprehensive plans to address them.
- Build Trust beyond COVID-19. Our shared experience of COVID-19’s devastation provides an opportunity to build new partnerships between the healthcare community and communities of color. Under Andrea’s leadership, a robust public communication strategy around the vaccine would be operated beyond January 2022, and as the need to support vaccine distribution declines, could be pivoted to reinforce other forms of public education in support of broader community health. Ongoing community engagement is central to building trust and stronger relationships going forward, and Andrea will drive this as she has throughout her service.
As we move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, we must learn from both our collective failures and successes so that Boston can build a strong and equitable foundation of public health resilience for all its residents in the future.
Addressing the Public Health Crisis at Mass Ave & Melnea Cass
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic upended life across the City, many Bostonians were already dealing with a public health tragedy: the convergence of mental and behavioral health, homelessness, and substance use disorder crises at the intersection of Mass Ave and Melnea Cass Blvd (Mass & Cass). Tackling this head-on is one of Boston’s greatest challenges — it is untenable for the people who spend time there, the residents living and working there, and the businesses in the area.
Andrea knows this area well, growing up just blocks away in Roxbury and the South End. She understands that the challenges at Mass & Cass are complex and have developed over many years — which means solutions must be multifaceted and results can not be achieved overnight. Andrea deeply respects the Mass & Cass Task Force and Boston’s leaders from the community, non-profit, public and private sectors who continue to work on this tirelessly. Many have advocated for decentralization of services throughout the City, increased investment from the Greater Boston region, and improved health and safety protocols.
However, violence and tragedy continue. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reports over 8,150 opioid-related EMS incidents in Boston from 2018 through the first half of 2020 and over 900 people dying of opioid-related overdoses from 2015 through 2019. Andrea has partnered with the community and public health and public safety experts to develop a comprehensive response: she met with civic resident leaders in September 2020 and subsequently offered recommendations to Mayor Walsh and Governor Charlie Baker, participated in a dedicated City Council hearing in November 2020, and has continued to engage community leaders since.
Building on this ground-up process, Andrea will nimbly deploy the City’s assets toward both short and long term solutions, decentralize services, help struggling Bostonians get on a sustainable path to shelter and recovery, and restore health and safety to residents living in the area.
How did we get here?
Boston has faced chronic homelessness and behavioral and mental health challenges for years, the national opioid crisis that intensified beginning in 2013, and the loss of a critical local center of social services in 2014 when the Long Island Bridge was destroyed. Long Island is Boston’s largest harbor island and a site for social service delivery for decades; hundreds of residents accessed it daily via bus from Boston through Quincy and over the Long Island Bridge. Originally built in 1951, the bridge was deemed unfit in 2014, transportation to the Island was abruptly terminated, and residents were displaced. Boston announced plans to rebuild the bridge in 2018 and was quickly ensnared in legal battles with Quincy, where many fervently oppose the reconstruction. These legal battles continue — ensuring the bridge will not be rebuilt for years.
Meanwhile, the needs in Boston were growing and displaced residents sought services they had previously received on the Island, which became concentrated at Mass & Cass. Many individuals seeking treatment come to the area from surrounding municipalities, adding yet another layer of complication as Boston is a regional hub and bears a disproportionate burden of the state’s opioid crisis. Mass & Cass has devolved into an encampment, open-air drug market, and center of violence, right in the middle of asset-rich Boston. These dynamics do not serve residents engaged in substance use or seeking treatment with dignity, and also understandably frustrate residents from surrounding Roxbury, South End, South Boston, Dorchester, and Newmarket Square neighborhoods. In the last several years, they have experienced everything from human waste and needles on sidewalks to overdoses to violence, and can no longer use the community’s parks and playgrounds, or feel safe walking children to school. Small businesses in the area have also been impacted, and there are numerous vacant storefronts along Mass. Ave. All of this was only exacerbated by COVID-19.
Yet at the same time, Long Island sits vacant — it has gone unutilized since 2014, while conditions in Boston have continued to worsen. The lack of regional coordination and sustainable, cohesive funding for programming, lack of supportive housing, and additional complexities brought on by the pandemic combined to create an unacceptable situation at Mass & Cass — one that demands courageous and inclusive leadership, urgency, and ingenuity in response.
As Mayor, Andrea Will:
Appoint A Mass & Cass Chief
This is a public health crisis that demands singular focus. Andrea will appoint a Mass & Cass Chief to drive a coordinated team and decentralize services by providing access to shelter, treatment, and permanent supportive housing. With the mandate to purposefully develop and drive an urgent, innovative, and sustainable decentralizing process, the Chief will report directly to the Mayor and coordinate with all relevant city and state secretariats, including Public Health, Public Safety, Housing and Economic Development, and others, to ensure the necessary data utilization, information sharing, and cohesive oversight. The Chief will also partner with civic resident leaders, clinicians and community health workers, and private sector leaders to increase capacity and implement a fulsome response that is well-integrated throughout the community and service provision network. Importantly, a “one size fits all” approach will not be successful in serving impacted residents — an empowered leader can instead work to coordinate resources and provide a range of targeted solutions to the various specific problems underlying this public health emergency, with a focus on both immediate actions and longer-term systemic change.
- Create more safe spaces. Boston has been able to quickly activate several underutilized spaces to care for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and some have been extended to our homeless population, including Boston HOPE. Under Andrea’s leadership, similar low barrier spaces, including city-owned locations, will be provided to individuals impacted by homelessness, behavioral health, and substance use disorder with as much urgency and expediency. Throughout the City, Andrea will work to create additional shelter and supportive housing through hotels or other vacant spaces, in partnership with the state, local healthcare community, social services providers, and others; this will require creativity, commitment, and partnership. Andrea will also consider non-traditional approaches and best practices from other cities that have had success and advocate for sustainable funding sources to make this possible. She will partner with anchor institutions to activate adjacent vacant commercial spaces on Mass. Ave to bring greater safety resources, triage, and service expansion to the area. These spaces must be activated in a coordinated response from the City, utilizing incentives to re-establish the foundation of a local small business community.
- Increase treatment locations. Decentralizing services is not only about equity, it is also necessary for effective recovery: individuals at various points in the recovery process find it unspeakably hard to get sober when widespread use areas are right next to recovery services. Those in early recovery and in local programs are vulnerable and negatively impacted because they have to go through the crowds of people at Mass & Cass to access care at Boston Medical Center (BMC) or Boston Health Care For the Homeless. Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a complex problem and providers need more capacity to stabilize and effectively serve suffering Bostonians. Andrea will partner with the healthcare community to further scale syringe exchange and overdose prevention sites around the city, including mobile teams that can rotate across sites as BMC does. Boston benefits from a robust network of Community Health Centers that are well-positioned to provide treatment in various locations throughout the City, and Andrea will ensure they have the resources they need to be part of decentralization as well. Healthcare institutions can also provide PPE, infection control, and critical triage services at greater scale. For those with acute SUD, a treatment facility in Boston is necessary to engage patients who are experiencing both homelessness and SUD and are not able to access standard pathways into the treatment continuum.
- Develop permanent supportive housing. In addition to short term solutions, Andrea will prioritize increasing access and connectivity to long term treatment and housing supports. One of the key long term solutions is supportive housing, which provides wrap-around services and supports our residents need to be able to live full lives. To make this a reality, Andrea will partner with existing housing facilities and healthcare providers who can enhance onsite services, and she will identify and fund new spaces for development of dedicated permanent supportive housing. She will also work with the courts, including directly coordinating with the Boston Municipal Court and Trial Court’s Probation Department and special services sessions to ensure that the Commonwealth’s efforts to find housing, wrap-around services and other placements for Boston-based defendants is more seamless and consistent.
- Measure progress. City Hall currently collects and publishes relevant data; Andrea would enhance this and hold leadership accountable to specific objectives. First, she will conduct a sufficiency review to determine if there are gaps in data or relevant context that could provide critical linkages in implementing solutions. The review would create a more transparent, reliable, and current baseline from which progress can be measured. Measures would include clear evidence of decentralization of services throughout the City, including units of supportive housing, dispersion of methadone clinics and needle exchanges; decreased homelessness, overdoses, and incidents of crime at Mass & Cass; and improved public health and public safety for all impacted residents. Andrea will use this data to establish initial and year-over-year goals and inform evidence-based policy and practice, and review it annually with input from independent experts. Longer term, Andrea will leverage this process as a scalable model for other targeted areas across the city facing complex problems.
Establish A Dedicated Mass & Cass First Responder Unit
Mass & Cass is located at the intersection of numerous legal jurisdictions/police districts, further complicating the environment and how public safety matters are handled. Andrea will align all the relevant stakeholders and execute a plan to reduce violence, deploy first responders equipped to address specific resident needs, and improve public safety.
- Streamline first responder services to close jurisdictional gaps. Mass & Cass lies at the intersection of three Boston Police districts and in the direct vicinity of numerous public, quasi-public, institutional, and private first responder districts, including Boston Public Health Commission, Boston Police Department, Massachusetts State Police, MBTA, Boston University, BMC, Boston Housing Authority, City of Boston Municipal Security, and the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. This creates significant challenges for emergency response, service parity, information sharing, and general coordination of efforts. A dedicated first responder sub-district will streamline response efforts and better protect people living and working in the neighborhood, service providers working in the area, and vulnerable residents spending time at the intersection.
- Deploy Boston’s leaders. We have a cadre of professionals across public safety, mental health, and recovery working hard to address substance use disorder and homelessness and whom we can call upon to serve in an integrated and dedicated way — and this public health crisis demands it. These selfless, dedicated, and well-trained public servants — including mental health counselors, recovery specialists, and police officers — would work collaboratively, with Mayoral oversight and leadership, to de-escalate violence and provide residents streamlined access to available resources. Andrea will also deploy Community Health Workers as part of this solution, who are equipped to partner with residents and ensure they are connected to shelter, treatment, recovery, and healthcare services they need to get on a path to security, stability, and recovery. This response must draw on Boston’s robust network of first responders and service providers including culturally relevant, linguistically diverse, and trauma-informed services, which are critical to successful implementation.
Reactivate Long Island
Long Island offers a unique place for recovery and healing, but it has been unavailable to residents for seven years since the bridge was demolished. While the Walsh Administration committed over $100 million to a Recovery Campus there, entrenched legal battles and construction timelines mean a new bridge will not be operational for several years. Yet, ferries could run to Long Island much more quickly. While it would require investment, a ferry service could connect those in recovery to treatment, reactivate the unutilized buildings on the island, and alleviate pressure from Mass & Cass. Opponents dismiss ferries due to concerns about weather and emergencies, but comparable New England cities run ferries year-round, operate on-site infirmaries and use helicopters for medical emergencies in remote locations — Boston can deploy similar best practices. Andrea believes we must be both realistic and thoughtful and courageous and creative in putting new solutions to work. She will develop a plan, leverage our resources, and execute with urgency.
- Activate ferry infrastructure in the short term. The MBTA contracts with operators to provide a range of ferry services to islands throughout the Boston Harbor. Working in partnership with Boston’s transportation and logistics experts, Andrea will conduct a thorough economic and feasibility analysis of establishing connectivity between the City and Long Island via this existing infrastructure. She would then build a plan to implement it for the subset of residents who are seeking recovery services, have lower risk of needing acute medical care, and able to utilize this method of transit. This approach would accelerate access to services that residents desperately need now, while the long-term plan to rebuild the bridge continues. Andrea would secure funding for ferry boats, ensure access to adequate docks in both locations, identify ferry service operators and safety and medical staffing, acquire necessary licensing and insurance, and facilitate the workforce, vehicles, and funding necessary for transport to and from docks. Executed well, ferries could potentially be viable longer term and open up more productive dialogue with municipalities throughout the region, including Quincy.
- Prioritize retrofitting Long Island. The City has already determined that Long Island is an ideal site for recovery, and has been planning to utilize it for this long term purpose. However, while strategic planning is underway, we can accelerate reactivating at least some of the spaces — as Mayor, Andrea will fast track construction necessary to retrofit the Island and ensure adequate medical services are available there. Treatment providers for those seeking recovery services would need to be able to operate on the island and utilize ferry service for their needs, and these leaders will be engaged in the process. The infrastructure, including docks, roads, waste removal, and transportation capabilities would need to be readied — projects which could be initiated swiftly and provide high quality jobs for Boston residents.
In developing new, innovative solutions to one of our City’s greatest challenges, we must be clear-eyed about costs, feasibility, and implementation. We must also center our response in courage, compassion, and community and decisively move forward. Andrea will deploy the tremendous assets Boston has at its disposal to responsibly and effectively serve all Bostonians with dignity and respect.
Public health
Driving health and wellness in every neighborhood
The health of every Bostonian is shaped by where we live: the daily conditions in our zip code deeply influence our social, behavioral, and physical health. Our neighborhood environment shapes how we feel and whether we have access to fresh, healthy food. Affordable and accessible public transportation, a clean climate, and available safe and affordable housing directly influence our health.
Boston is made up of 23 neighborhoods, and the health of residents living in them can differ dramatically — life expectancy for a Bostonian in the Back Bay has been estimated at 92 years, over 30 years higher than in Roxbury at 59 years. The Boston Public Health Commission reported that in 2015, the rate of premature death (before age 65) for Black residents was 31% higher than for white residents of Boston. Between 2015 and 2019, over 900 Bostonians died of opioid-related overdose. The daily tragedy at the intersection of Mass. Ave and Melnea Cass Blvd — which has become Boston’s epicenter of the converging homelessness, substance use disorder, and behavioral health crises — is unfathomable right in the middle of such a wealthy, asset-rich city.
Boston’s deep inequities in wealth and health are rooted in systemic racism. Racist policies and systems have and continue to determine where we live, reinforcing racial health disparities. In turn, these inequities hold us all back from reaching our collective potential across this city. Yet Boston is a world-class medical center as the home to leading hospitals, research institutions, and community health centers. Having lived these inequities in her own life and worked to address them for her district as a Councilor, Andrea has the vision required to dismantle this long-standing disconnect across the entire City. Andrea will drive health in every zip code, prioritize racial equity across all public health domains, and create innovative partnerships, programs, and initiatives that harness our unique assets. She will ensure that in Boston, health includes complete physical, mental, and social well-being.
As Mayor, Andrea Will:
Drive Health and Wellness In Every Zip Code
COVID-19 exposed deep racial inequities and painfully demonstrated how central our health is to every aspect of our lives — both as individuals, and as a community. Andrea will build a culture at City Hall centered on delivering cohesive health solutions in its core capacity as a local service provider. This approach will be more in sync with how residents live our lives — not in silos of individual service areas, but comprehensively throughout each neighborhood.
- Connect residents to health solutions. There are many programs, services, and systems available to Bostonians, but it can be difficult and demoralizing to navigate them. This dynamic reinforces stigma, exacerbates inequities between our neighborhoods, and wastes precious resources. Andrea will work to redesign service access so her administration can seamlessly connect residents to health solutions. Andrea will pilot dedicated staff positions to streamline, communicate, and connect the dots of the available programs and services across Boston’s communities. Their core mandate will be to ease the burden on residents by developing a single point of access to social and health services, using technology and innovative design.
- Leverage community health centers and schools. The infrastructure to take this neighborhood approach already exists in our robust network of Community Health Centers (CHCs) and Boston Public Schools (BPS). By necessity and by design, CHCs already work tirelessly to serve neighborhoods as centers of physical and behavioral health services and as social service agencies. As Boston recovers from COVID-19, kids will be in BPS every day to learn, eat breakfast and lunch, and access services. Andrea will ensure greater collaboration between CHCs, BPS, and City Hall to streamline services, deliver information, and efficiently utilize existing resources.
- Ensure every Bostonian has a primary health care provider. Evidence shows that having a primary care provider improves health, prevents visits to the Emergency Room, and helps mitigate and manage chronic disease. Working to connect every Bostonian to primary care services — that integrate behavioral health — is critical to eradicating health inequities and improving our City’s public health. To make this a reality, Andrea will prioritize and implement outreach campaigns for annual physicals and supporting residents in enrolling in MassHealth and other coverage options, in partnership with community health workers. Andrea will also prioritize dental health and equitable access to care.
Expand Our Definition of Health
Because health is undeniably shaped by where we live and how we identify, eradicating health inequities in Boston demands that we prioritize critical social, economic, and environmental factors beyond the health care system itself. Andrea will lead a cross-agency team to implement strategy that includes health in all policies and invests in structural aspects of communities to drive lasting improvements in health across neighborhoods.
- Provide pathways to economic mobility. Financial stability underpins health. To improve long-term health for Bostonians, Andrea will systemically invest in economic opportunity by increasing access to financial coaching, banking and savings, and high quality jobs, including in the healthcare sector itself, which is core to Boston’s economy.
- Address the housing crisis. We must ensure adequate affordable housing to set families up for healthier eating, better sleep, and more stability and security. Evidence shows that this is one of the most important and impactful ways to improve urban health. Boston’s hospital systems have demonstrated leadership in investing in housing as a core social determinant of health, and Andrea will expand these efforts to provide greater access to stable housing while leveraging innovative approaches to spur affordable housing growth across the City. Expanded efforts to address the housing crisis will also ensure residents who often struggle to find safe, affordable housing, including LGBTQ+ elders and veterans, have access to safe housing.
- Build a resilient food system. Access to fresh, healthy and culturally appropriate food is critical to achieving good health. In a City as service-rich as Boston, no one should be going hungry. Andrea will strengthen the City’s Office of Food Access and tap into Boston’s unparalleled expertise in food policy and entrepreneurship to tackle the complex challenge of food insecurity as a health, economic, and environmental priority. Under Andrea’s leadership, City leaders will drive coordinated efforts to ensure all Bostonians can access the nutrition they need to be at their best. These leaders will partner with health care providers who are investing in food as medicine, increase Bostonian’s utilization of proven, economically responsive federal nutrition programs like SNAP, WIC, and School Meals, and make healthier food less expensive and easier to access through incentive programs, innovative mobile and delivery programs, and encouraging greater urban agriculture.
- Treat the climate crisis as a health justice priority. We know that access to walkable pedestrian areas, safe crosswalks, traffic calming measures, clean air and water, and parks enables Bostonians to get outside, exercise, and maintain well-being. Andrea will expand bike lane networks, pedestrian paths, and active alternatives to driving, invest in resilient infrastructure to mitigate the risks posed by the climate crisis especially for our low-income communities and communities of color, and grow the city’s tree canopy to reverse the long-term decline in tree cover in our low-income neighborhoods in particular. With city-led investments and intentional zoning, Andrea believes Boston can adopt the globally renowned gold standard of sustainability of a 15-minute city, where residents have the amenities they need within 15 minutes of their doorsteps, that cuts commutes, reduces reliance on fossil fuels, and improves the health of residents and the environment alike. She will charge BPHC with rigorously tracking the disproportionate levels of exposure to lead, airborne particulates, and pollution in low-income communities in Boston, report the data regularly, and respond with programs that invest in both environmental treatment and prevention.
Activate City Health Leaders To Reduce Health Inequities
In a city with the best healthcare in the country, communities of color in Boston are disproportionately dying — not only from COVID-19, but also from preventable chronic illnesses, tragic gun violence, and treatable behavioral health conditions. Because we lack quality data, not enough residents — or even healthcare professionals — can understand these stark inequities. And we can only solve problems that we measure, discuss clearly, and prioritize.
- Build the #1 city health department in the United States. The pandemic demonstrated how vital a modern, 21st Century health commission is to Boston’s future. As we recover from COVID-19, Andrea will lead in transforming our local public health department to be at the forefront of public health innovation, build community and academic partnerships, and leverage best practices from local experts to inform action for citywide health with targeted strategies that address racial and economic inequities. She will elevate and refocus the mission and leadership of the BPHC, ensure Mayoral oversight, modernize the tools and resources at the Commission’s disposal, and build stronger partnerships with the healthcare community, nonprofits, and the private sector.
- Use data to inform the work. Without a clear plan, the data to make decisions, and capacity to execute bold plans, progress toward ending inequity will continue to stall. Holding BPHC accountable to specific measurable results will allow us to change the narrative on inequities, ensure everyone in our City understands the challenges of their neighbors, and take action to eradicate them. A public-facing dashboard will include key health system metrics such as disparities in poverty, employment, housing and other social determinants of health by neighborhood; gaps in access to care, including utilization of a primary care provider; mortality rates; sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data; and key health behaviors.
- Invest in Boston’s healthcare workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted those on the frontlines of healthcare, particularly in Boston as a medical center. As the backbone of our City’s health, Andrea will support healthcare workers and create innovative pathways to join the sector. 1 in 5 jobs in Boston are in healthcare — yet LGBTQ+ people and people of color are underrepresented in well-paid jobs and over-represented in lower-paid jobs — reinforcing both health and economic inequities. Andrea will establish an innovative healthcare workforce program that intentionally connects underrepresented groups to a range of healthcare careers. The program will increase access to quality jobs and build a pipeline of professionals who can provide patients with culturally competent care from someone who looks and identifies like them, which research shows improves health outcomes. To build this pipeline, Andrea will enhance public school curriculum to encourage students toward careers in health, particularly for LGBTQ+ students and students of color. To improve access to both jobs and ladders for professional growth in a healthcare career, she will strengthen, streamline and coordinate partnerships between institutions of higher education and major employers — including community colleges and community health centers –and fill employment and health care delivery gaps in social work, behavioral health, nursing, biotech, research, and beyond.
- Ensure equitable access to care and coverage. Quality medical services remain critical to prevention and intervention, and they must be available and affordable to all, regardless of one’s zip code, language, economic or immigration status, or sexual or gender identity. LGBTQ+ residents, particularly LGBTQ+ people of color, lack equitable access to culturally competent care at affordable prices. Andrea will work to ensure that Bostonians who often fall through the cracks in our health insurance system because they earn just too much to receive MassHealth but not enough to afford quality health care for their families have access to care and coverage. We must also use the lessons from COVID-19 to scale creative delivery models like telehealth and mobile solutions, which will require closing the digital divide, coverage for telehealth by all insurers, and use of standardized procedures and accommodation services for individuals with disabilities and limited English proficiency.
Support Youth, Working Parents, and Families
There is abundant evidence that we can disrupt cycles of poverty and inequity by supporting our children — in school, at home, and in our communities. Andrea will focus on our youth, including expanded healthcare screening and services for mental health and wellbeing, physical health, and contraceptive and sexual health for adolescents, especially our LGBTQ+ youth, which are too often overlooked. She knows that to support our kids, their parents and caregivers must be set up for success too.
- Fight for reproductive justice. Andrea will fight for reproductive justice and access to reproductive health care for Bostonians. She will advocate for the state to protect and enforce the provisions of the ROE Act to make abortion care and family planning services accessible and make reproductive healthcare, including contraceptive care, affordable and equitable for all Boston residents. Andrea will work to expose fake anti-choice health centers, known as “Crisis Pregnancy Centers,” that intentionally provide medically inaccurate and dangerous information to those experiencing pregnancy.
- Champion state efforts to expand MassHealth maternity coverage. Andrea believes we must work with leaders at the state level to ensure all eligible women and people who menstruate have continuous MassHealth coverage to include the entire 21-month period from the beginning of pregnancy to a year after delivery, or are seamlessly enrolled in Health Connector plans. Coverage should include doula services for prenatal care, labor and delivery, and postpartum care; in-home postpartum visits with newborn care services; postpartum depression screening and treatment, and infant feeding support. She will advocate for screening and support for preventable high-risk pregnancies and payment for increased postpartum care visits to manage gestational diabetes, hypertension, postpartum cardiovascular and other conditions that disproportionately affect women of color.
- Eradicate maternal and infant mortality. While there have been improvements, the United States continues to meaningfully underperform our high-income country counterparts with regard to maternal and infant health. These devastating outcomes are markedly worse for communities of color, with mothers experiencing severe maternal morbidity during labor and delivery, resulting in acute medical conditions with lasting consequences. In 2015, BPHC reported that the rate of infant mortality was 8.1 per 1,000 live births for Black infants and 9.8 for Latino infants as compared to 1.7 for white infants. Andrea is committed to measuring inequities in maternal and infant outcomes, understanding the strategies that have worked to improve them, and addressing systemic racism and racial bias underlying them and leading to differences in access to and quality of care. She supports the new law mandating a commission study on maternal health and the underlying drivers of racial disparities of maternal mortality. As Mayor, Andrea will push the legislature to adopt the recommendations of the commission to address systemic racism and racial bias in maternity care.
- Invest in early education and childcare infrastructure. Andrea will continue to champion efforts to build a robust childcare system throughout the City in partnership with state leadership, local employers, and providers working together to close gaps in funding and capacity. With the right infrastructure, childcare centers and family childcare providers can offer more families high quality care, serve as access points to other services, and recruit and retain talented staff. High quality and affordable childcare means parents and guardians are not prevented from being employed nor must they spend a disproportionate percentage of earnings on childcare.
Address Violence and Trauma
The impacts of trauma – from poverty, violence, homophobia and transphobia, and racism – influence both our behavior and our health. Transgender people of color face violence at alarming rates, with over 40 individuals murdered nationwide in 2020. We must address racism and gun violence as the public health crises that they are, particularly for economically disadvantaged communities of color, and respond with programs and services that are built to eradicate the racial and systemic inequities that perpetuate cycles of violence, trauma, and poverty.
- Treat racism and gun violence as public health crises. According to the BPHC, the homicide rate for young Black males in Boston is 32 times that of young white males. Under Andrea’s leadership, the City will lead on a coordinated approach to violence prevention and violence response with greater communication between City departments, service providers, and the communities that are facing violence and trauma, deploying best practices such as the HUB model. To address gun violence, we need to rigorously collect and utilize data and take a coordinated, case management approach. Andrea will convene Boston’s public safety, criminal justice, faith-based, community leaders and researchers to understand best practices, build evidence-based approaches to addressing urban violence and trauma in Boston communities, and then implement what works. Our communities deserve a strategy that is targeted to where violence is, and is grounded in data and transparency.
- Scale trauma-informed programs. Andrea will work in partnership with the leading nonprofits, community organizers, and Boston’s public health and safety agencies to implement and scale best in class trauma-informed programs. This is critical to better support residents who are re-entering from prison and too often face significant gaps in healthcare services upon leaving the system, as well as people who are suffering the impacts of domestic violence and gun violence.
- Stand with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Domestic violence and sexual assault are public health issues. Survivors frequently do not feel heard nor do they receive adequate services, protections, or justice. She will convene a city commission including advocates, survivors, law enforcement, and the DA’s office in a robust, consistent conversation about system improvements, loosely based on high risk team models, that will provide an opportunity to present cases, challenges and suggestions for reform. Andrea has and remains committed to elevating the voices of survivors and investing in prevention to reduce incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault in our communities. All sexual violence efforts will be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community.
Invest In Mental and Behavioral Health
In addition to trauma-informed care, mental and behavioral health care and recovery services are foundational to Boston’s overall health. In response to the public health crises facing our city, including COVID-19, mental and behavioral health, substance use disorder, and chronic homelessness, Andrea will establish dedicated leadership over a coordinated public health response, fund innovative initiatives, and decentralize recovery services from the area around Mass & Cass so that they are accessible Citywide. Under her leadership, Bostonians will shift the mental health narrative away from stigma and toward understanding, acceptance and compassion.
- Redirect funds from police to mental health crisis responders. Andrea will reduce police overtime costs and reallocate funding from the police department to licensed mental health, substance use, and domestic violence counselors who can better serve residents in need, especially in non-violent situations. This approach reduces the trauma experienced by both police officers and residents alike and enables our first responders to bring the right resources to Bostonians in need.
- Integrate behavioral health into primary care. Bostonians need greater access to mental and behavioral health services, whether it is for short term, long term, or intensive care. Access to mental and behavioral health professionals should be as simple as a connection made during a primary care visit. Andrea’s health care workforce development program will help address this pervasive yet not openly discussed health challenge, and enable more accessible, diverse, and well-trained professionals to reach more patients. She will also invest in training and capacity development for community health workers to be able to address mental health needs, and refer to other providers as necessary — an evidence-based strategy that can reduce stigma around mental health, increase access to services, and provide culturally appropriate care.
- Tackle the public health crisis at Mass & Cass. To address the opioid crisis, and the underlying chronic conditions driving this epidemic, Boston must be creative, courageous, and community-driven in implementing solutions. Andrea has a plan to increase access to shelters, decentralize recovery services throughout our city, and dedicate the necessary resources and leadership.
Andrea’s public health agenda is grounded in her personal experience, fundamental to her vision for Boston, and driven by her belief in healing communities through thoughtful action. By being transparent about the deep inequities that drive health outcomes, connecting residents with comprehensive health solutions, and taking a holistic, neighborhood approach, Andrea will close these gaps and build a healthier, more equitable and resilient city for all Bostonians.
Economy
Drive economic recovery, growth, and innovation while closing Boston’s staggering disparities
Boston is a world leader across many innovative fields — medicine, education, technology, professional services, to name a few. And yet the swift and shocking financial impact of COVID-19 has devastated many sectors of Boston’s economy and laid bare the economic inequities in our city. Too many of our families have lost jobs and are now being forced to put their health at risk to pay their bills, particularly in communities of color and among the lower-wage workers who have been hardest hit.
As Mayor, Andrea will harness the leadership and innovation that is unique to Boston to drive economic recovery, while tackling our City’s divides and capitalizing on our city’s vibrant diversity. She knows that a thriving, inclusive economy that works for everyone is built on the foundation of good schools, affordable housing, and jobs that pay a living wage with opportunities for growth.
As Mayor, Andrea will champion industry leaders, non-profit organizations, and policies that place racial equity at the center of economic development and recovery, starting with how the City does business. She will create stronger mechanisms for families to access affordable rents, generate savings, and have paths to home ownership and economic security, particularly for households headed by women and people of color. And Andrea will bring together the best of the public and private sectors to make sure Boston remains an international leader, home to innovation and progress, while ensuring that as our economy grows, all Bostonians reap the benefits of our city’s success.
As Mayor, Andrea will:
Create The Conditions For Businesses To Bounce Back, Better Than Before
Boston’s businesses create the majority of Boston’s jobs, so in order to get Boston back to work, Andrea will engage and support businesses to rebuild and rehire in each and every neighborhood.
- Make it easy to do business in Boston. Boston’s economic recovery will be built on innovation and entrepreneurial energy. To help make that possible, Andrea will streamline licensing and permitting processes, making it easier to start or expand a business in Boston, particularly in the restaurant industry and for businesses in under-licensed neighborhoods that have been especially devastated by the pandemic. Doing business at City Hall shouldn’t look like it did a generation ago. Andrea will ensure that our city government operates as efficiently as the private sector, for instance taking advantage of technology wherever possible and allowing residents to submit paperwork online.
- Bring more efficiency and equity to development. It is expensive and time-consuming to build in Boston, and yet the recent construction boom has still left communities without critical assets such as affordable housing and accessibility to public transportation. By improving transparency, inclusion and predictability in our planning and development process, while also exploring zoning reform, Andrea believes Boston can accelerate the creation of much needed additional housing and reimagine development in the city in a way that prioritizes equitable economic growth.
- Support small businesses. Many small businesses have been devastated by the pandemic, with available relief programs heavily oversubscribed. And yet the importance of small businesses — in both job creation and wealth creation across Boston’s neighborhoods — has never been clearer. That’s why in the next budget, Andrea will be calling for expanded investment in small businesses. Boston is rich with programs dedicated to building the tools and resources small businesses need, but accessing these resources can be challenging, especially for neighborhood-based businesses. As Mayor, Andrea will expand the Small Business Development Office to become a one-stop shop — both delivering direct services as well as helping small businesses connect with programs that can address their specific needs such as coaching, licensing, location assistance, accessing debt and equity capital and other technical assistance. To make sure that the needs of minority and neighborhood-based small businesses do not fall through the cracks, instead of a single downtown Small Business Development Office, Andrea will ensure services are available in multiple locations. And just as we protect renters to stay in their homes, the City must protect small businesses from displacement.
- Lift up businesses run by historically under-represented groups. Businesses owned and led by women and people of color were under-represented in the Boston economy even before the pandemic. Andrea believes that with a combination of transparency, tools, and accountability, the City can help level the playing field, and as Mayor, she will begin by convening best-in-class practitioners and experts to develop a plan for Boston. That is likely to include using market data to encourage businesses to build in high-growth fields, helping our growth-orientated small businesses mature into mid-stage businesses and create more good jobs, and mobilizing the banking community to provide access to capital. We also need better data and information — as Mayor, Andrea will insist the City immediately follows through with its long-awaited Disparity Study while also ensuring easy to access directories of businesses owned and led by under-represented groups. In addition, Andrea will bring together Boston businesses and anchor institutions that can be partners in an equitable recovery, building a coalition of organizations committed to diversifying their own supplier relationships and their own leadership.
- Protect our creative economy. From artists and musicians to museums and concert halls, Boston is rich with talent and creativity. These individuals and institutions are an indispensable piece of the City’s lifeblood and have helped establish Boston as a regional and national hub of creative energy. As one of the industries hardest hit, they deserve extra resources and support through the pandemic. But this is about more than protecting current artists and resources — it is about expanding Boston’s arts and culture community throughout our neighborhoods and across creative mediums. In 2019, Andrea organized the launch of the first Mattapan Jazz & Unity Festival, bringing Boston’s rich cultural resources to a neighborhood often overlooked. As Mayor, Andrea will support dedicated arts and cultural sub-districts in target neighborhoods to preserve and enhance our cultural community. She will prioritize and protect artist and performance spaces being threatened by displacement, promote the expansion of public art, and connect our arts and cultural institutions to our public schools, seniors, and business community.
Maximize The Impact Of The City’s Own Budget
Boston is a wealthy and resource-rich city, with the most recent City budget at $3.6 billion. Our wealth is an opportunity across many dimensions: to build a stable foundation on which innovation can flourish, to invest in the infrastructure Boston will need in the future, and to be more strategic about what we buy and from whom.
- Accelerate capital investments to strengthen City infrastructure. The City currently has a $3 billion five-year capital plan. With interest rates at all-time lows and the City able to responsibly borrow to invest in its future, now is the moment to accelerate that investment. In next year’s budget, Andrea is calling for the City to phase in a significant increase in capital spending, focused on two critical areas: schools and climate change. Investing today in school infrastructure as well as the sustainability and resiliency of our city (including both sustainable housing and transportation) will not only build the Boston we need in the future, but also put Bostonians back to work in good jobs, particularly in the neighborhoods most affected by the pandemic.
- Manage the City budget efficiently and effectively. Successfully managing the City’s budget is an essential foundation to Boston’s recovery, allowing the City to avoid layoffs of personnel, sustain services to residents, and maintain the City’s credit rating. As a City Councilor, Andrea has been a consistent voice for efficient and effective management of taxpayer dollars. For the 2019 budget, for example, she was the lone vote against a BPS budget that had bloated without delivering improved student outcomes or needed operational efficiencies in areas such as transportation. As Mayor, Andrea will strengthen the City’s finances with steady, consistent focus on operational excellence, prudent long-term planning, and attracting exceptional managers to her Cabinet to lead the City’s departments.
- Make city procurement equitable and inclusive. Today, Boston’s procurement process is profoundly inequitable – less than five percent of the City’s discretionary contracts have gone to women and minority-owned businesses. Andrea has joined advocates to push for clear goals and accountability, with targets of 7%, 14% and 20% WMBE contracts over the next three years. As Mayor, Andrea will make this a reality, by streamlining and simplifying procurement to make it easier for a wider array of suppliers to submit bids, increasing the capacity of the City personnel to help small businesses navigate the process, and including procurement personnel in overall efforts to diversify the City’s workforce.
Close The Racial Wealth Gap
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston reported that the median net worth of a Black family in greater Boston was just $8, and as low as $0 for families in some of our Latino and Latinx communities, compared with a median net worth of $247,500 for white families — gaps that have likely widened due to the pandemic. This stunning inequity is the result of multi-generational cycles of poverty created by systemic structural imbalances. Because of racist policies and practices, entire communities in Boston have been denied critical opportunities to earn income, build financial stability and wealth, and access capital to pursue their educational and economic goals. This is a profound waste of Boston’s human capital, limits our economic growth potential, and — as 2020 has so painfully exposed — reinforces inequities that destabilize both our economy and the social fabric of our city.
- Build the long-term opportunities every Bostonian needs and deserves. Andrea has long been a champion of equity across the range of fundamental needs for our residents – particularly education, housing, transportation, and health. Far too often these needs go unmet in Boston, disproportionately in communities of color, leading directly to deep economic disparity. The long-term path to an equitable economy requires a coordinated set of policies promoting access to opportunity across city services
- Create more affordable, sustainable housing. Boston needs more housing. High rents eat up paychecks and make it difficult for families to save or build wealth. Boston’s high housing costs also make it harder for businesses to attract talent, exacerbate segregation, and strain our transportation systems with long commutes in heavy traffic. To meet our housing needs, Andrea believes we must streamline the process to make it faster and less expensive to build in Boston, including an overhaul of our systems to create a more transparent and inclusive decision-making process that determines who gets to build where. As Councilor, Andrea’s first piece of legislation was the Community Preservation Act, which now generates roughly $20 million annually for affordable housing, historic preservation, and parks and open space in Boston. As Mayor, Andrea will continue to fight for affordable housing, connecting the public and private sectors to address issues such as financing for non-profit developers, the creation of mixed-use development, and filling empty storefronts and vacant lots.
- Increase access to banking and saving. Roxbury, Dorchester, and East Boston have 57% of the city’s check-cashing locations but only 12% of the city’s commercial bank branches. These figures illuminate a history of structural disadvantage, but today our banking landscape is shifting as more and more is done remotely. This transition represents an opportunity, and Andrea believes Boston must help ensure residents take advantage of these shifts to overcome historic inequities while protecting residents from predatory lending practices. Andrea also believes city government must do more to help families generate savings and supports city-run savings programs for families who need it most. That could include expanding the Boston Saves program to help more students pay for higher education and job training or creating “opportunity accounts” that seed savings for every child at birth, an experiment showing promise in other cities and that deserves to be tested in Boston.
- Support ownership of businesses, properties, and homes, particularly in communities of color. Ownership can be a critical tool in helping build wealth. As a Councilor, Andrea led the implementation of asset building and financial coaching opportunities to support families living in subsidized housing through the Boston Housing Authority and will continue to build on this work as Mayor. Increasing ownership of a home, business or property requires living wages, equal access to financial services, financial training and coaching, and dedicated supports to help residents build assets and navigate the often complex path to ownership — all elements that Andrea will fight for as Mayor.
Lift Up Our Workers
By many measures, Boston has one of the most educated and skilled workforces in the country, and until the pandemic, enjoyed low unemployment. And yet, deep inequity persists. Employment and wages are lower for Black and Hispanic workers, even at similar levels of education. And far too many families are not able to afford basic necessities for themselves and their children despite their hard work and best efforts. The pandemic has only widened these disparities.
- Fight for the basic rights of all workers. Every worker from every community, whether part of a union or not, deserves a good job with fair compensation so they can support their family, with time off to care for family or to recover from illness or childbirth, reasonable working hours, and protections from predatory employment practices. As Councilor, Andrea sponsored legislation to protect residents from employment discrimination based on their credit history. And as Mayor, she will continue to fight for pay equity, paid family leave and parental leave, a fair work week, paid sick time, and livable wages.
- Support organized labor. Organized labor endured four years of assault by the Trump administration. Andrea believes city government should be a bulwark against these and other anti-labor attacks, protecting the rights to collectively bargain, and standing with our workers as they organize for a more just and equitable economy. Andrea also believes the benefits of voice and organization should reach more workers and, in particular, more workers of color.
- Invest in training and other supports to get people back to work and on pathways of career growth. Despite having some of the world’s best educational institutions in our backyard, for decades our education system has failed to prepare too many of our residents, particularly those of color, for work and careers. Now more than ever, Andrea believes in the urgent need for creative and collaborative workforce development, including partnerships with our high schools, institutions of higher education and private sector employers that prepare residents for post-COVID opportunities. As City Councilor, she has fought for opportunities for young people linked to jobs in high-demand industries, and economic growth that breaks down silos and brings business leaders and communities together. As Mayor, she will invest further in training in growth industries and technologies, programs that help unemployed or underemployed lower wage workers attain recognized certifications (not just degrees), the redesign of BPS high schools to provide multiple pathways to career success for our students, and employer-sponsored on-site English classes.
Build Today For The Economy Of The Future
Boston has long been hailed as an international leader across many fields of research and innovation. Andrea believes in investing today to support our continued leadership and economic growth in the future. As COVID raises questions about the long-term appeal of cities across the world, the pandemic intensifies the need for intentional investment to grow and expand existing businesses, attract new businesses, and support institutions, thought leaders and innovators who create Boston’s dynamism and foster experimentation.
- Support and nurture innovation. From the green economy and healthcare to technology and bio-tech, Boston must invest to remain a global hub for science, technology and research, which is key to our foundation for future innovation. Andrea believes we must ensure that Boston is where we commercialize that research, where we encourage and support new businesses to launch and grow, and where we create spaces, both physical and virtual, to connect communities of like-minded entrepreneurs. These networks should draw on the best of both native Bostonians and those who are new to our city — and we should work to hold on to both, so that the great minds that are trained in Boston stay in Boston.
- Ensure all Bostonians reap the benefits of growth. Unfortunately, the benefits of past innovation have not been felt by all workers, particularly in communities of color, exacerbating historic economic inequities. Future investment in growth should start with addressing those inequities so that we unlock the talents of all Boston residents, including partnerships with private employers, workforce development, deliberate neighborhood planning and exposing our Boston students to entrepreneurship even during their high school experiences.
Since her first run for office, Andrea has been a vocal leader for equity, fighting to transform our systems to better serve all residents of Boston. That voice comes from her personal lived experience of multi-generational cycles of poverty and incarceration, and from seeing first-hand the tragic outcomes when families and children are denied the opportunities and supports needed to reach their potential. As Mayor, Andrea will fight to ensure not only that the economy of Boston recovers and thrives, but that we also make meaningful progress in breaking down the systemic inequities that have plagued our city for far too long. This will unleash the full potential of Boston’s economy, making the most of the talents and brainpower of all of our residents. Under Andrea’s leadership, Boston’s economy will be more dynamic, vibrant, and inclusive than ever before.
Education
Build a world class public education system that prepares every child for a productive and dynamic future
Growing up in Boston, Andrea saw how our education system sets some children up for a lifetime of success and leaves far too many behind. Our Boston Public Schools are filled with dedicated teachers and staff and passionate families. Despite their efforts, access to quality schools and a quality education is still too inconsistent and often limited based on race, class, and geography.
Even before the pandemic, we saw these inequities play out on a massive, heartbreaking scale. Children who live in downtown Boston have an 80% chance of getting into a high-quality BPS school, while children who live in Mattapan have only a 5% chance. Outside of our exam schools, 1 out of 3 children don’t graduate from high school and 4 out of 5 don’t get a college degree. For English Learners and special education students, these gaps are even more stark. The effects of COVID, as we near a full year of remote learning for most of our students, have turned this into a full-fledged crisis for our children and our city. Our students, teachers, and schools need our support and conviction today to fight back against these tremendous challenges.
Education is the gatekeeper to our city’s prosperity and the path to opportunity for all our children. In order for Boston to continue to be a world leading city, all of our residents deserve access to an excellent education. On the City Council, Andrea has been a tireless champion for change in Boston’s schools. In 2019, working closely with students, families, teachers, students and community activists, she developed her Action for Boston Children plan, a comprehensive strategy to bring equity to our public schools. As Mayor, Andrea will build upon this plan and work closely with the School Committee and Superintendent to effectuate change in our education system all while holding herself and these stakeholders accountable to the residents of Boston.
As Mayor, Andrea will:
Make BPS More Transparent And Accountable To Families – Especially Through The Pandemic
Despite its rich history and many pockets of success, unfortunately our school system has become a source of frustration for too many of our residents. The district lacks transparency into how and why decisions are made, and too often, families, teachers and school leaders aren’t included in decision-making and don’t know what’s happening. These problems have come to a head during the pandemic. For months, Andrea pushed the Boston Public Schools to report simple data on Chromebook distribution and other crucial metrics around remote learning, only to be stonewalled. When it was finally released, the data showed that many students of color still lacked access to the devices for remote learning they were promised. This can’t be allowed to happen going forward.
- Build a culture of honesty and transparency. Andrea believes we need to have ongoing, honest conversations about our schools: what’s working, and where do we need to do better? As City Councilor, Andrea has consistently called for data and focused the conversation on results for children. She has worked closely with school leaders, parents, teachers and students so that she understands their perspectives and the issues that affect our schools. As Mayor, she will insist on a culture of honesty and transparency, rebuilding communications with families and staff as well as ensuring the School Committee has strong, authentic public debate in a format that is accessible to all members of our community.
- Partner with parents and teachers to make sure school feels safe. We have made great strides in our ability to safely return to school buildings as we recover from COVID-19, but we are not entirely beyond this pandemic and the trauma felt in many of our communities is still raw. Through this summer and the coming fall, now more than ever, we need transparent communication and clear execution on the necessary protocols and facilities upgrades to ensure that families, teachers and staff feel safe in school.
- Make up for lost time. We know our students suffered tremendous isolation and learning disruption during remote learning over the last year and a half. Andrea believes in using transparent data to highlight where our biggest needs are and making key investments to provide academic and mental health supports that address those needs. That should include tutoring and summer programs, planning now for a seamless reopening in the fall, and using one-time federal dollars to invest in curriculum, technology, and school buildings.
Empower And Trust Educators And Families
Andrea believes schools are accountable for supporting students and families, and the central office must be accountable to schools – not the other way around. A great school is built by caring adults who are close to our children, paired with the resources and flexibilities they need to get things done. We need to reimagine the role of the central office and district leadership to make that possible.
- Focus and improve central office’s role. The role of the central office should be to set and maintain high expectations for all schools — such as common graduation requirements, high quality curriculum, and adherence to compliance requirements — and allow our highly skilled educators to implement creative and culturally relevant ways of engaging students and families. In addition to empowering school teams, Andrea believes in holding the central office accountable through robust annual reviews and surveys designed to measure their service to schools. Building a culture of excellence, transparency and results starts at the top.
- Allow schools to control more decision-making and resources. Recent years have witnessed ever-changing plans and increasing directives from the central office to school leaders and staff often without their input or involvement. Andrea believes in giving the right tools — including more resources and decision-making — to school leaders, teachers, and school communities to make decisions that are right for their students.
Nurture High Quality Learning And Enriching Environments Across Every School, For All Learners
BPS families deserve to know that regardless of what school their child attends, and regardless of how they learn, their child will receive a high quality education with clear and high expectations, in a healthy and enriching environment.
- Ensure high quality academics. The research is clear and unsurprising — high quality curriculum matters, and yet is unevenly implemented across schools. Graduation expectations are also inconsistent among Boston high schools. In partnership with teachers and school leaders, Andrea will ensure that the right investments are made to guarantee that each and every student has access to excellent, high quality academics — from early literacy curriculum to the right high school courses — coupled with the resources to meet those expectations.
- Meet the needs of every learner. Andrea knows how important it is to see the spark and potential in each and every child, regardless of how that student learns or what language they happen to speak first. In a district where more than half of our students live in a home where a language other than English is spoken, Andrea believes in embracing the linguistic diversity of our families and investing to ensure the district not only achieves compliance in all schools but also implements programs with demonstrated effectiveness. Andrea also believes we must rethink our approach to special education including providing stronger early supports in our general education program (for instance giving students extra help in learning to read), spreading strong inclusive practices, investing in the level and quality of programs for our highest need students, and attacking the inequity reflected in the disproportionate share of boys of color who are placed in substantially separate environments.
- Provide our students the relevant, engaging high schools they need and deserve to succeed after BPS. The data are crystal clear — Boston has an inequitable high school system, with too many of our highest need students (including students with special needs and English Learners) concentrated in too few schools that lack the resources to successfully prepare them for college, career and life. Andrea believes in the urgent need for change, to build a diverse set of pathways that can connect each individual student with the knowledge, experiences, and skills they need to succeed in the life of their choosing. That includes common high standards for earning a diploma, a new process for our high schools to develop innovative new school models, and finally making good on the promise of Madison Park’s vocational offerings.
- Close the continued gap in early childhood and PreK quality access. While Boston has made progress in expanding seats for 4 year olds, Andrea believes early childhood education needs to start even earlier. Andrea is committed to building Boston into an innovative national leader in supporting children from birth to 5 year olds, including kindergarten readiness standards, professional wages for early childhood educators, clear connections and pathways to elementary schools, and the support that lower-wage working families need to participate in the workforce. As Mayor, Andrea will bring together the range of organizations that support families with young children to create a roadmap for meaningful collaboration and investment, including a long term plan for Boston to develop free universal childcare and education from birth to age 5.
- Support both schools and partners to enable enrichment and out-of-school learning. Boston is rich in its ecosystem of institutions and partners who provide high quality afterschool and youth development opportunities. As a Councilor, Andrea fought for and secured funding for the Boston Youth Development Fund. As Mayor, she will ensure both schools and partners have a whole-child focus that includes arts, athletics, applied learning opportunities like internships, and other connections to the world outside of the school walls, so a young person’s experience in Boston reflects the world class city that we are and we can nurture the passions of our exceptional young people.
Ensure Equitable Access To Quality Schools
Andrea envisions a future where every school can provide the opportunities every child and family deserve. And yet she knows that today, results across schools are uneven, and while that is the case, it is essential that access to the most in-demand schools be equitable. Andrea believes that must include fixing issues in the student assignment system, leveling the playing field for exam school admissions, and placing special education and English Learner programs more evenly across the City.
- Implement research-backed recommendations to improve equity in the assignment system. Multiple reviews of the BPS assignment system have discovered flaws in the process, such as providing access to schools rather than seats. Because many sought-after schools in communities of color are smaller schools, that means that families in those neighborhoods are competing for a small number of seats and have less of a chance to get into a high quality school. Implementing the recommended fixes is long overdue, and the district must follow through with its commitment to annual reviews, so we continuously improve this critical lever for equity. Going forward, that should include assessing the student assignment system for racial bias, for example in studying the effects of housing segregation, the calculation of school quality, and how race affects the high school choice process.
- Make it easier to choose and enroll in a school. In our efforts to prioritize choice and equity, Boston has developed a complicated system for student assignment. Andrea believes we must make it easier for every family, regardless of income, language or neighborhood, to choose a school. Our enrollment process and welcome centers deserve a top to bottom review with the goal of increasing customer satisfaction and equity at each point of interaction with parents.
Get Operations Right, So Schools Can Focus On What Really Matters
Andrea believes deeply in the critical role of the teachers and leaders in schools, but she also knows they can only do their job when the City and district office do theirs — namely, putting in place the infrastructure and operations that enable rich teaching and learning to happen every day.
- Build the school buildings our children and educators deserve. Too many of Boston’s schools are old and poorly maintained, suffering from decades of deferred maintenance. Despite big announcements and lengthy plans, the City has failed to accelerate our pace of building or access more meaningful dollars from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. It is time to restart BuildBPS to ensure our children and educators have the functional, joyful school buildings they deserve. In the next budget, Andrea will be calling for an increase in the City’s capital budget to fund acceleration of school building.
- Bus less, bus better. Boston spends too much money on transportation, our students spend too much time on buses and buses are too often late, leading to lost learning time. Making matters worse, excess buses also unnecessarily clog our streets and pollute our air. It’s past time to bring our school buses into the 21st century. Our buses should be equipped with devices that give turn-by-turn directions, parents should be able to communicate more easily with drivers, and we should accelerate the process to electrify our fleet. Of course, we must also bus the right students — BPS has a complex student assignment system, but that is no excuse for empty buses driving around to pick up students who do not want or need transportation. BPS must have better systems to allow students to opt-out of transportation while ensuring that critical services, such as door-to-door transportation for students with disabilities, get to the right students. As Mayor, Andrea will also lead efforts to explore other creative solutions, such as partnering more closely with the MBTA or creating dedicated school bus lanes and routes, all with the goal of reducing the current $131 million BPS transportation budget.
- Close the digital divide. Unequal access to devices and the internet exacerbated the disparities of the pandemic. It’s past time to ensure every student has a device, a connection, and technical assistance, so that if schools do need to be remote, all of our children are able to continue learning. And while we are all eager to return to safe, in-person learning, the benefits of technology-enabled personalized learning and technology skills for students will continue once the pandemic is behind us.
Build A Diverse And Robust Talent Pipeline
We need teachers and principals that reflect the children we serve in Boston Public Schools. And once we identify them, we need to support them and keep them at BPS — turnover continues to be too high for teachers, principals, and central office staff.
- Increase recruitment of educators of color. Despite years of effort, Boston has struggled to make a meaningful change in the diversity of its educators. As Mayor, Andrea would make more dramatic investments in this work and hold local universities accountable for partnering to increase pipelines for educators of color, since underrepresentation in preparation programs challenges BPS’ ability to hire school-based personnel who reflect student demographics.
- Invest in our dedicated teachers. The pandemic forced our educators to rethink school. Despite the deep challenges, dedicated teachers across Boston have pushed their practice and learned new tools to connect with students. While we are all eager to return to safe, in-person learning, Andrea believes we can capitalize on what we’ve learned about digital literacy, student engagement and personalization so that when we return, what comes next can be even better than we were before. As Mayor, Andrea will prioritize a range of supports for our teachers, particularly in the areas of technology, research-backed curriculum, social and emotional learning and language supports to connect with EL students. She also believes all educators and staff can benefit from programs to foster cultural competency.
- Keep the great principals leading our schools. School leaders play critical roles in the district, but the extraordinary demands of the job and uneven support from the district has led to high turnover. Rethinking the role of central office to better support principals, along with leveraging partnerships and coaching supports, can help improve principal tenure.
There are no shortcuts or silver bullets to building excellent schools. Boston needs steady, consistent and courageous political leadership so we can ensure every student, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, income, language, or neighborhood has a world-class public school education. Andrea knows first-hand that the support and opportunities given a child can make the critical difference in allowing them to pursue their dreams and a life of their choosing. Andrea will provide that leadership for Boston.
Public Safety
Reimagining our approach to public safety, policing, and criminal justice to address the root causes of violence and crime in our communities and ensure every resident of Boston is kept safe
Andrea’s entire life has been impacted by the trauma, loss, and injustices of incarceration and the criminal legal system. When she was just eight months old, her mother was killed in a car accident while she was on her way to visit Andrea’s father, who was incarcerated at the time. As a result, she spent the first eight years of her life living with relatives and in foster care. Growing up, she watched her brothers cycle in and out of the criminal legal system. Her twin brother, Andre, died at 29-years-old in the custody of the Department of Corrections. The painful truth that twins born and raised in Boston could have such different life outcomes is what first propelled Andrea to run for office. She saw first-hand how many of the systems that supported her simultaneously failed Andre and deprived him of the same opportunities. Andrea grew up in and represents neighborhoods that see the highest rates of violence and homicide in Boston. She knows we cannot police our way out of these issues but must address their root causes, which are often poverty and trauma.
To ensure communities are safe and healthy and to rebuild public trust with our public safety agencies, we need to reimagine our approach to public safety. We must invest more in evidence-based programs and services that address the root causes of violence and crime. We must remedy long-standing racial wealth gaps, eliminate poverty, and heal generations of trauma. We must invest in the communities and the youth that have been historically under-resourced, implement systems of true accountability and transparency in policing, and use data to eliminate racial disparities in our policing and criminal legal systems. We know that a majority of police officers are dedicated public servants who put their lives on the line to protect their communities. However, we also know from the data and the lived experiences of many Black and Latinx Bostonians that systemic racism and biases in policing and the criminal legal system persist, causing disproportionate rates of police stops, arrests, and incarceration of people of color. We also know that all of our communities want to be safe and feel protected, and police can play an important role in that.
As Chair of the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice, Andrea has led efforts to increase accountability, transparency, and justice in policing and taken action to address root causes and treat gun violence as a public health pandemic that inflicts trauma on our communities – working with community leaders, public safety agencies, state and federal leaders, and organizations on collective solutions, including establishing the Youth Development Fund, the first dedicated budget line item for youth programming. She filed legislation to establish a civilian review board with real authority to hold Boston’s police accountable, led the effort to change Boston’s use of force policies, filed legislation to demilitarize our police, subpoenaed the Boston Police Department for its missing stop-and-frisk data, pushed to reimagine the role of Boston’s police and reallocate funding to social service programs, and convened residents in her district and citywide to hear their ideas for how to transform public safety in their communities. Despite pressure from the political powers that be, Andrea was one of the first elected officials to call for full implementation of body cameras in Boston.
Andrea knows that to ensure the health and safety of all our communities, we must break cycles of poverty, trauma, criminalization and generational inequity in Boston, and as mayor she will transform our approach to policing and public safety and reimagine our criminal legal system to deliver equitable access to justice.
As Mayor, Andrea will:
Reimagine Public Safety And Criminal Justice To Address Root Causes Of Violence And Crime
Andrea has been a leader in pushing the City to reimagine the role of police in Boston and reallocating funding to mental health, youth development, re-entry programs, and other community-led violence prevention and intervention efforts that will break cycles of poverty, trauma, and abuse. As Mayor, she will shift our approach to school safety to a restorative justice model instead of a law enforcement one, and establish a new crisis response system to respond to non-violent 911 calls and track 311 requests and correspondence between school personnel and police to identify opportunities for early-intervention.
- Lead an intersectional approach to end mass incarceration. We need to ensure our approach to ending mass incarceration and over-policing takes into account the real disparities and the systemic racism in the criminal legal system, especially for Black and Latino Bostonians who we know have been over-policed and over-criminalized. At the local level, we need action to create equitable access to high quality education, housing, jobs, mental health services and treatment for substance abuse disorders. To effectively reduce the criminalization of our residents, we need to expand re-entry programs and opportunities for our young people, especially in communities that have been historically targeted, and push state leaders to make diversion programs mandatory for first time offenders whose alleged conduct does not pose an immediate, serious danger to others, with youth offenders being offered alternatives like referral services whenever possible.
- Reallocate at least 10% of the Boston Police budget. Andrea has been a leader in pushing the City to reimagine the role of police in Boston. She has championed reallocating funding from a police budget bloated with overtime, detail pay, and hefty salaries, to chronically underfunded mental health treatment and services, youth development, re-entry programs, and violence prevention and intervention programs and initiatives. Just last year, the Boston Police Department’s budget was over $414 million, with over $60 million in overtime. It was the second largest departmental budget in the City of Boston just behind the Boston Public Schools, while only 3% of the city budget was allocated towards public health for fiscal year 2021. That is why under Andrea’s leadership, she is pledging to reallocate at least 10% of the Boston police budget, which would translate to roughly $50 million in funding, to invest in public health, economic justice, and youth development strategies. She knows from her own experiences growing up that these community-led initiatives will more effectively break cycles of poverty, trauma, and abuse, which will in turn prevent crime and create healthy, thriving communities. As Mayor, she will shift the city’s school safety approach from a law enforcement model to a restorative justice model and increase investment in the Youth Development Fund and youth jobs. Additionally, she will monitor police incident data showing that a large percentage of calls police respond to are for nonviolent behaviors related to substance use, mental health, and houselessness, and she will establish a new co-responder crisis response system to respond to these non-violent 911 calls and track 311 requests and correspondence between school personnel and police to identify opportunities for early-intervention. To actualize reductions in the police budget, Andrea supports exploring certain budget reforms including eliminating the four hour overtime minimum, transferring certain overtime jobs to civilians like construction details, scaling back the BRIC, and eliminating the gang unit and bike unit to add capacity to our busiest police districts.
- Require racial equity and anti-racism training for our entire city government. Andrea believes that every City employee, regardless of department, should participate in mandatory and continual racial equity training to ensure that anti-racism is centered in their work and that employees understand the implicit biases they may have. While we know that training alone does not equal operational or cultural change within these systems, we do want to ensure that every city employee learns about implicit biases, how to use a racial equity lens in their work, and is educated on the history of racism in our city.
Make The Boston Police Department The Most Transparent And Accountable In The Nation
The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others by police are examples of the most devastating reasons we need accountability in policing, but many residents in our own city, who for generations have had dangerous or uncomfortable encounters with police, did not need to see these painful and public examples to know the system needs reform. As Mayor, Andrea will fight to make sure that the Boston Police Department is a national leader on transparency, accountability and diversity so that public trust is earned which will better allow our police to keep our communities safe.
- Implement the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency. In 2020, Andrea spearheaded legislation to create an independent civilian review board to investigate and provide accountability for police misconduct, and partnered with Mayor Walsh based on recommendations from the Boston Police Reform Task Force to establish an Office of Police Accountability and Transparency. As Mayor, Andrea will implement this office, including its civilian review board and internal affairs oversight board, to ensure it is fully independent, operational, and accessible to residents.
- Demilitarize our police. Andrea and her colleagues filed and passed legislation to severely limit the use of military enforcement tactics like tear gas and rubber bullets by Boston police, tactics that have no place in peaceful protests, but the legislation was vetoed. As Mayor, Andrea will pass and implement a ban on military crowd control weapons and enforcement tactics at peaceful protests.
- Ensure national standards around use-of-force policies are implemented and enforced. We need to institutionalize a use-of-force policy that is enforced to create a standard of de-escalation for the safety of all residents, which includes training officers on proper deescalation to help restore trust in our police department. Andrea would also ban no knock warrants.
- Expand the use of body cameras. Andrea will ensure all law enforcement agencies that operate in the City of Boston have a written, consistent, and transparent body camera policy that is enforced. She will expand the Boston Police Department’s use of body cameras across all departments, including on overtime shifts, and will ensure officers and residents alike know the protocol around circumstances when an officer may or may not have a body camera in use to foster public trust.
- Launch an open data initiative. Andrea believes that our public safety agencies need to be accountable to the people and that by proactively releasing data, we can track our department’s successes in reducing crime, make sure all relevant local, regional and state stakeholders are aware of disparities or misconduct, and help residents understand the work our police department is doing while also being honest about where we can do better, including addressing the stark racial disparities in police stops. She wants to open up policing data to make it publicly accessible to all so that our institutions of higher learning, journalists, advocacy groups, and elected officials can access the data to understand the disparities and create policy that addresses the root causes. When Boston Police failed to release stop and frisk data for years, Andrea was forced to ultimately subpoena the department, and exposed data that showed Bostonians of color are far more likely to be stopped, frisked, and arrested by police. As Mayor, Andrea will create an interactive dashboard of police data including traffic stops, stop and frisk, use-of-force, Field Investigation Observation Encounters (FIOEs) including those that are deemed to be voluntary, demographics of our public safety agencies, and budgetary numbers. Boston has the talent and resources to create a data hub that integrates information across different agencies so we can pinpoint patterns or problems, especially those leading to racial disparities, and then continue to use data-based approaches to track the progress of these implemented reforms. Andrea will ensure that any data initiatives protect our immigrant communities by not releasing sensitive information on our undocumented residents.
- Diversify our public safety agencies. Andrea will diversify our public safety agencies by amending civil service in the hiring process, ending discriminatory practices in the promotional process including ending the use of the current promotional exam, revise the point system for promotions to better reward for community engagement, racial equity training, and other non-criminalizing activities, further explore ending civil service in the city of Boston and work to ensure our neighborhoods are served by officers that live in and understand our communities by extending the residency requirement beyond 10 years. She will also appoint leaders that will create departmental cultures where women and officers of color are respected and empowered to succeed and ensure our agencies better reflect the communities they serve by addressing the underlying causes that drive folks out of the city including improving our public schools and creating more affordable housing.
Focus On Prevention By Investing In Our Neighborhoods And Youth
Andrea knows that we cannot police our way out of violence and trauma. We need to invest in economic development and opportunity especially in our lower-income communities, invest in our youth, especially those with high risk factors, and strengthen the fabric and social connectivity of our communities to address the factors that rob young people of opportunities to succeed. Andrea will regularly convene the Sheriff, District Attorney, Police, Public Defenders, Trial Courts and Probation Officers, the Department of Youth Services, public health and education community partners to talk about what is working and how we can continue to reduce racial and ethnic disparities. Andrea will be a champion for neighborhoods that have been bearing the brunt of inequities for generations and will make youth investment a top priority.
- Invest in communities considered hot spots to improve public safety. We know that the communities that are the most policed often feel the most under-protected and communities that experience the most violence are often the most underserved. We need to revitalize under-resourced communities in partnership with police, community stakeholders, and the residents who live there to create opportunities for local small businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive, build more parks and community spaces especially for our youth, improve lighting, activate vacant lots with new housing, retail, and/or community space, and invest in initiatives like Slow Streets, Safe Street Teams, Street Outreach Teams, Weed and Seed, Comprehensive Community Safety Initiative, and permanent Walking Beats to ensure every neighborhood is safe and all residents feel invested in equitably.
- Remove police from schools and interrupt the school to prison-deportation pipeline. Under Andrea’s leadership, the city will remove police from our Boston Public Schools by eliminating the role of School Resource Officer and repurposing those funds to invest in more school counselors, mental health clinicians, social workers, nurses, and family engagement specialists who are trained in de-escalation and crisis management to ensure that our schools are fully serving our students. Andrea will work with school leaders to rework school discipline code to a restorative framework and convene educators, administrators, and organizations serving our youth to create a more coordinated approach and identify and serve youth who might need additional supports. Andrea is also committed to building our schools’ capacity to protect and support immigrant youth by improving training and increasing resources available to school staff.
- Invest in opportunities for our youth. Andrea has been a champion for youth jobs and programming since she was first elected, establishing the first-ever line item in the City budget dedicated to funding youth programs. As Mayor, she will ensure that we double the line item for youth jobs, with a special focus on high-risk youth, and work with youth and partner organizations in the public and private sector to expand youth employment opportunities and ensure our young people have pathways to economic opportunity as the economy recovers from the pandemic. Andrea will ensure the city delivers information to residents about summer programs and year-round youth employment opportunities in a central, accessible, and language inclusive way. Andrea will work to ensure that youth aging out of the Department of Children & Families have access to housing security and city supports to help them adjust. Andrea will also continue her fight to ensure our schools, including vocational tech schools, and school partners provide a diverse set of pathways that can connect each individual student with the knowledge, experiences, and skills they need to succeed in the life of their choosing.
- Work with state and federal leaders to address gun violence. We need to work with federal and state leaders to build upon policies to reduce gun violence including background checks on ammunition, closing the gun show loophole and stopping illegal gun trafficking, and increase funding for proven intervention models. We need an approach to ending gun violence that prioritizes partnership with police, community-based organizations and the city to prevent shootings from happening in our communities and schools.
- Build trust in immigrant communities. Our immigrant communities, particularly our undocumented residents and our mixed-status families, have long lived in fear of law enforcement and government. This distrust has been built over several presidential administrations and our local government has a responsibility to serve our immigrant communities in a way that understands this history and provides key services that reassures these residents. Andrea commits to strengthening protections for immigrants of all immigration statuses which includes not sharing information with the federal government, and proactively building trust with immigrants across ALL city departments by better delivering services with a cultural lens and effective language access for all residents. Andrea commits to expanding the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement including hiring lawyers to assist with legal representation and other legal issues.
Advance Criminal Justice Reforms At All Levels Of Government
While some of the necessary reforms of our criminal legal system must lie with the state or federal government, Andrea will use her platform as Mayor to be a national voice for systemic criminal justice reform and work in partnership with surrounding local communities, stakeholders, and our county, state, and federal leaders including the Suffolk County Sheriff, Department of Youth Services, the District Attorney, the judicial branch and other relevant departments to end systemic and racial inequities.
- Push federal leaders to pass Congresswoman Pressley’s “Peoples Justice Guarantee.” In order to truly reform these systems and end mass incarceration, we need bold, progressive criminal legal reform at the national level. Andrea will work with the federal delegation to push for the passage of this legislation, which includes incentives to dramatically reduce prison populations, cap prison sentences for all crimes, abolish the death penalty and sentences of life without parole, and restore voting rights for those who are incarcerated.
- Work with state leaders to eliminate cash bail, support efforts to raise the age that youth offenders can be tried as adults, eliminate mandatory minimums, and expand diversion programs. Andrea believes that no one should stay in a jail cell before their trial simply because of the size of their bank accounts. We know that our cash bail system is predatory and Andrea will work tirelessly with state leaders to end cash bail. We also need state leadership to invest in and expand pre-trial diversion programs and alternatives, eliminate mandatory minimums, and raise the age that youth offenders can be tried as adults.
- Address our prison health crisis. Even before COVID-19, prisons have too often denied access to healthcare to those in their custody. Andrea will work with state and local leaders to ensure that those who are incarcerated have access to the health care they deserve while behind the wall and when they return to their community to create a continuum of care.
- Increase funding for and expand re-entry programs. As Mayor, Andrea will work to increase funding and programming for re-entry programs including expanding partnerships with businesses who accept CORI applicants, community-based organizations to provide life skill training and assist in securing supportive housing with a multitude of wraparound services through better partnership with state leaders and coordination with existing housing efforts. In addition, she will work to provide additional support for youth who come in contact with the criminal legal system to ensure they receive a developmentally appropriate response focused on safe and stable housing, education, training, and counseling rather than adult prisons.
As a long-time leader on these issues, Andrea knows past reform efforts were too often met with resistance, dismissed as controversial or impractical, or completely ignored. It should not have taken the public, painful murders of Black men and women by police for our leaders to not only acknowledge the systemic racism in our policing and criminal legal systems, but also to take real action to implement evidence-based reforms to transform these systems so they serve us all equally. Drawing on a lifetime of painful proximity to these issues, Andrea has been a bold and proactive leader for police and criminal justice reform for years, and will continue that leadership as mayor. Andrea also knows that many of the people serving in our public agencies want to be a part of this reform and want to see systemic failures addressed. Andrea is ready to be a mayor that brings people together and takes real action on systems reform to ensure that all residents feel safe in their communities and that we address the disparities that have existed for far too long.
Climate Justice
Building a more livable and resilient City: How we can tackle the climate crisis and deliver environmental justice by building economic opportunity and investing in all our neighborhoods
Communities of color are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. As a resident of Mattapan and the District 4 Councilor, Andrea has seen first-hand the disproportionate impact of fossil fuel pollution and the effects the toxic agents released in our communities has on the health of children and families in the neighborhoods in her district, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. Her leadership has always centered that experience. From the flooding on Morrissey Boulevard, higher pollution rates that have contributed to higher risks of COVID-19 and higher rates of asthma in children of color to disparities in tree canopy cover and access to greenspaces and parks, it is clear that we need a response to the climate crisis that is both urgent and equitable. Andrea knows that pollution and the climate crisis is a public health crisis and that the investments we need to make in resiliency and sustainability are opportunities to improve the health and economic well-being of our residents.
Climate change presents a fundamental opportunity to reshape our City equitably. Environmental justice is also economic justice. Our investments in efforts to make our City more resilient can create union jobs with livable wages and career pathways for historically underserved communities. We must prudently prepare for the inevitability of rising seas, stronger storms, and crippling heat waves. This will require a substantial investment in infrastructure and is an opportunity to make Boston a global leader in clean energy and resiliency, while also ensuring that we dismantle the structural racial and economic inequalities of our current fossil fuel economy. We need to expand our climate movement to ensure it feels accessible to residents who are most vulnerable, especially Black and Latino and Latinx communities.
Boston can be a national and global leader in reducing emissions, investing in green technology, and modeling how cities can center resiliency. Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities and those cities are responsible for over 70% of the world’s energy-related carbon emissions. Because our national leaders have largely ignored this crisis, Boston must rise up and show how cities can indeed address the climate crisis by engaging all communities including communities of color, and in a way that makes cities and local economies more resilient, equitable, and sustainable.
As Mayor, Andrea will:
Put Environmental Justice At The Center Of The Climate Fight
Low-income residents, BIPOC, immigrants, people with disabilities, and those with pre-existing medical conditions are the most at-risk populations from the devastating health and economic impacts of climate change. Solar panels, Teslas, and Silicon Valley technology are not the only solutions to combat climate change. We must do a better job meeting people where they are, and ensuring that the tangible benefits of change are felt by those who have historically been marginalized and disenfranchised. Addressing the impact of climate change will require the commitment of all residents. Therefore, decisions about climate change and its impact will include all residents in a culturally competent and multilingual manner.
- Ensure communities are protected from environmentally unjust projects. Andrea will continue to work with communities, especially communities of color and those most vulnerable to climate-related disasters, to ensure that projects being built in their communities are resilient, supported by the community, and do not further environmental inequities. Andrea will ensure that all infrastructure projects regardless of property value align with the City’s climate and resiliency priorities, including 5G expansion. Andrea will continue to take an active role in standing against projects like the East Boston substation that create disastrous environmental effects and health risks on a community, and ensure every neighborhood is adequately engaged in the process.
- Track and address environmental health metrics. We have known for decades about the disproportionate levels of exposure to lead, airborne particulates, and pollution in low-income communities in Boston. Chinatown has the worst air quality in Massachusetts while communities of color in our city face the highest exposure to pollution statewide. The COVID-19 pandemic has further revealed a catastrophic inequity in air quality. We must empower the Boston Public Health Commission to more fully track this data, publicly and clearly report the data regularly, so that the City can respond with data-driven solutions that invest in both environmental treatment and prevention. That tracking must include adequate air quality monitoring in all neighborhoods.
- Generate green dividends for residents. In addition to savings from more efficient City buildings and operations, residents deserve to share in the revenues generated by sound environmental policies. As Mayor, Andrea will work to ensure that revenues from State and Federal programs like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the Transportation and Climate Initiative are directly reinvested in environmental justice communities. These dividends can take several forms: direct payments, direct investments, and indirect health and economic benefits. She will also advocate for State leaders to pass the Green Future Act to ensure more funding is available for the City to reach our climate action goals. Through work with Boston’s Federal delegation, Andrea will ensure that every Boston neighborhood benefits from climate and environmental funding initiatives soon to be released by the Biden-Harris Administration. As the Federal government works toward a green economic recovery, Andrea will position Boston as a national leader in this recovery and take advantage of Federal funding opportunities for infrastructure, resiliency and mitigation efforts including from stimulus funding and green infrastructure banks.
- Reinvigorate our greenspaces. Public greenspaces are fundamental to recreation, air quality, and healthy communities. Boston must maintain its treasured greenspaces and prepare them for the next century of extreme heat, storms, and changes in climate with public-private investment and clear maintenance accountability at the City level. Additionally, we must build more public greenspace in communities that have historically suffered from a lack of funding and access and intentionally create programming in our parks that is culturally competent. Every Boston resident should live within a 15 minute walk from a substantial public park or greenspace. Andrea will work with community partners to identify underutilized parcels and vacant lots that the City could transform into parks, community gardens, and sites for urban farming. She will seek to plant more trees in our neighborhoods and protect mature trees to combat the urban heat island effect, absorb more stormwater, and save residents money on electric bills.
Build Pathways To High-Quality Green Economy Jobs And Invest In Our Green Infrastructure
It is no secret that not everyone enjoys the same access to Boston’s strong medical, academic, and business sectors. Our future green economy cannot reflect those same disparities, and that will take a leader in City Hall who works every day to proactively combat those trends. The jobs generated, benefits created, and investments made in green infrastructure must be distributed with empowerment and equity in mind.
- Build equitable access to the green economy from the beginning. Resilient infrastructure will be the key to a more livable and sustainable City, but how we build it is equally important. Right now, just 1% of City contracts for construction and professional services go to women and minority-owned companies. That is unacceptable – our green investments must reach all of our communities. Under Andrea’s leadership, small businesses, including women and minority-owned businesses, and residents from every neighborhood will have access to these contracts and a budding green economy. Andrea will ensure jobs in the green economy are available to our residents through partnerships including with unions, Boston Public Schools, and vocational education providers to train our young people to be future leaders and innovators in environmental sciences, engineering, and resiliency. Andrea will expand “green-collar” training programs available in the City’s vocational schools and community colleges, expanding and scaling programs that are working like Roxbury Community College’s Center for Smart Building Technology, while working with unions to ensure City residents have access to the green jobs of the future. Andrea also supports the implementation of a Conservation Corps to ensure we have a dedicated and diverse green workforce and increased pathways to union careers.
- Transform Regional Rail. While progress has been made in recent years to increase service on the Fairmount Line, it is imperative that the City work with the State to transform our legacy “commuter” rail network into a regional rail network that serves the needs of a 21st century economy and fully electrify the corridor by 2024. Our commuter rail system is presently structured only to move suburban commuters in and out of Downtown Boston on a typical workday schedule, but a regional rail network will recognize how people work and live in the 21st century economy. This transformation will start with the Fairmount Line as it provides crucial rail service to long underserved communities. Andrea will forcefully advocate with our State and Federal delegation to dedicate funding for upgrades to the Fairmount Line, including electrification, that will increase service and improve reliability for passengers. Electrification will reduce emissions in the area while providing a shorter commute with greater flexibility and reliability. Andrea will also advocate for the State to transition the commuter rail fare system to one that sets a subway fare for all Boston stops. Sustainable transportation is key to environmental justice, and a more livable City.
- Invest in training a new transportation workforce. As technology changes, new jobs emerge. Boston can be a leader in autonomous vehicle research, development, and production, creating high quality jobs in the process. There are potentially thousands of jobs in other parts of the green economy, from the construction of bus and bike lanes and building world class bus rapid transit on our busiest corridors to expanding jobs in the micromobility sector. The green economy has the potential to be a game-changer for environmental justice communities – if we prioritize them. Andrea will connect innovative transportation companies with our Boston Public Schools, vocational education programs and community colleges to develop this workforce and ensure that the transportation revolution benefits environmental justice communities.
- Intentional inclusion. While the waterfront is the focus for sea-level rise, neighborhoods like Mattapan, East Boston, and Roxbury bear the brunt of air pollution, the urban heat-island effect, and associated health disparities. To address these disparities equitably, every neighborhood must have programs to address structural needs like greenspace resiliency, tree planting, stormwater management, traffic mitigation, home energy efficiency, and access to renewable energy sources like solar. As Mayor, Andrea will ensure that State programs like Mass Save benefit the communities who need this investment most and push the State to invest more in community solar programs. We also need to ensure that our investments in a more resilient and sustainable ity do not lead to the displacement of low-income residents, including creating more housing and homeownership opportunities that are affordable, planning development more equitably, and providing rental relief.
Make Climate Action, Sustainability, And Resiliency A Top Priority For Boston
As one of the largest property owners in Boston, the City itself has a moral obligation to utilize its unique footprint to set an example for emissions reductions. For every 1% reduction in annual municipal carbon emissions, City residents will see $600,000 in savings a year. As Mayor, Andrea will integrate climate resiliency metrics into all City departments and functions. Andrea is the kind of leader who will prioritize equitable environmental policy over ‘greenwashing,’ even when it is difficult to do so.
- Turn plans into action. Over the past several years, the City has commissioned nearly 40 different plans on the environment, yet less than 10% have been completed, and nearly half haven’t even begun implementation. The time for drafting and releasing plans is over – we must act now. That’s why we need a leader like Andrea who will prioritize environmental justice, invite thoughtful community participation, and overcome the institutional inertia that makes meaningful change so difficult.
- Lead by example. By leveraging the City of Boston’s budget, buildings, and assets, Andrea will make City government a leader in sustainability and emissions reductions. Right now residents are footing the bill for inefficient city buildings and vehicles, while the City is not taking full advantage of grants available from energy efficiency programs. There is great potential to reduce costs and environmental impacts through energy upgrades, more efficient boilers, installation of heat pumps, electric retrofits, use of passive energy standards, and modern materials in new construction and building renovations to greatly reduce those emissions and costs. These efforts can also improve building comfort and indoor air quality, making for a better and healthier working, learning, or living environment for occupants. Andrea will work with the State to meet an ambitious 100% renewable energy portfolio and full carbon neutrality for City operations by 2035, while continuing to explore how we can innovate and move up timelines and create interim goals. We cannot wait until 2050 to do our part in the global fight against climate change.
- Update Boston Public Schools. BPS emissions represent nearly half of the City’s total emissions. We must invest in our school buildings to improve learning environments, while also increasing access to greenspace, incorporating trees and permeable surfaces for stormwater management, improving building efficiency, and converting fossil fuel heating systems to renewable sources. Furthermore, the City should ban styrofoam from Boston Public Schools, and invest in compostable plastic alternatives as part of a wider effort to source sustainable materials for all operations.
- Electrify City vehicles. We can and must electrify all City vehicles as soon as possible to stop the disproportionate impact that fossil fuel emissions have on low-income communities. As Mayor, Andrea will work with the MBTA to ensure that it expands its fleet of electric buses while prioritizing electrification of key bus routes that cut through neighborhoods with poor air quality, higher rates of asthma, and other health disparities. Under Andrea’s leadership, BPS would become the first large school district in the country to fully electrify our bus fleet. Andrea will work to electrify not just small City vehicles but also large vehicles including utility trucks, waste trucks and street cleaning equipment, while working to ensure that electricity is sustainably sourced.
- Create meaningful transparency and accountability for results. As Mayor, Andrea will create a Climate Commission that meets regularly following public meeting guidelines, to receive regular updates from departments across the City working towards these goals. This will include an annual State of the Climate meeting that brings together leaders from across Boston to share progress and commit to future action. The Climate Commission will include environmental justice leaders from across the City who witness the devastating impact of climate change on their health and well-being each day.
- Implement strategies to reduce waste. Increased household waste production during the pandemic and international restrictions placed on recyclable materials have made it more important than ever to implement bold residential, commercial, and institutional strategies to reduce solid waste. Recognizing that 78% of solid waste comes from Boston’s businesses and institutions, Andrea will work closely with Boston’s business community to expand commercial and institutional recycling and composting. She will enact an event-based recycling plan for all large-scale events and festivals and incentivize the reduction of plastic use. Andrea will make residential waste reduction a priority and a reality for all Bostonians by expanding access to community composting to every neighborhood, introducing curbside composting as a City service, and increasing access to hazardous waste disposal events.
Improve Air Quality By Reducing Traffic And Transportation Emissions
We know from the 2019 Carbon Free Boston report that about 2 million metric tons of greenhouse gases are emitted on an annual basis from travel in and out of our City, with three-quarters of the City’s GHG emissions coming from passenger vehicles. In order to address the climate crisis meaningfully, we need to cut down emissions while ensuring our residents can be connected across neighborhood lines. This requires more proactive planning from the City to ensure that every neighborhood has access to quality and affordable public transit, and multi-modal transit corridors that are safe for cyclists and pedestrians.
- Incentivize alternative modes of transportation. While COVID has reduced public transportation ridership and pushed more people into cars, it has also shown us that our long-term collective respiratory health must be addressed. Driving a car in the City should not be the only reliable choice. We should take steps to provide quality public transportation alternatives to driving and make sure Bostonians wealthy enough to drive are paying the full cost of that choice. This includes charging accurate prices for parking on public space that account for environmental, societal, and opportunity costs, and congestion pricing for delivery vehicles during peak commuting hours to encourage public transportation use. Andrea supports an increase in fees for single-occupancy TNC rides and would designate similar new revenues to improve public transportation, public greenspace, and cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. For those that feel like they currently have no choice but to drive to get to work or drop kids at school – we can invest in a City where this is possible by bus, train, foot, or bike.
- Improve public transportation options. As Mayor, Andrea will be a leading voice pushing State leaders to improve public transportation in the City of Boston. As the largest City in New England, the ability for Bostonians to move around the region efficiently should be treated as an economic and environmental priority for the State government. Expanding bus routes and designating faster bus lanes should be given as much priority as increasing train service. Providing all residents with a viable public transit option will reduce traffic, improve air quality, and increase access to opportunity. Andrea supports recent State efforts to raise revenue for investments in transportation through the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). As Mayor, she will advocate for State leaders accountable for their commitment to invest 35% of TCI revenues on improving transit options in environmental justice communities while pushing them to increase this investment to 40% of revenue in line with commitments made by the Biden-Harris Administration.
- Envision a 15-minute City. With City-led investments, intentional zoning, and ambitious mixed-used development partnerships, we can build a City where residents have everything they need – grocery stores, schools, parks, restaurants and a wide-range of small businesses – within 15 minutes of their doorsteps. This concept is globally renowned as the gold standard of climate action because it cuts commutes, reduces reliance on fossil fuels, and improves the health of residents and the environment alike by investing in the fabric and interconnectedness of our communities. Together, we can achieve a greener future, and secure more sustainable, healthy lives for our children.
- Prioritize walkable neighborhoods. Every neighborhood deserves thriving walkable pedestrian areas, safe crosswalks, traffic calming measures, and wide, accessible sidewalks. Andrea will build on successful efforts to revitalize both downtown and our main streets by investing in infrastructure that reduces traffic, making more streets pedestrian only, working with small businesses to function in a way that promotes commerce while cutting emissions. She will lead the charge on expanding bike lane networks, pedestrian paths, and active alternatives to driving. Everyone benefits from fewer cars cutting through our neighborhood streets. To make all neighborhoods more walkable and reduce heat islands, Andrea will invest in the City’s tree canopy to reverse the long-term decline in tree cover in our low-income neighborhoods by not only committing to build more trees, but also protect our mature tree canopy and existing natural assets.
- Expand access to electric vehicle charging. Owning an electric vehicle should not be exclusive to those fortunate enough to have access to off-street parking. For those residents who do own a car, the City should expand access to on-street electric vehicle charging, allowing renters to access EVs and reduce their carbon footprint.
Move Quickly Towards More Sustainable Housing And Development
Buildings account for nearly two-thirds of emissions in Boston. The technology exists now to increase appliance efficiency, reduce fossil fuel reliance, and ensure that new development is helping us combat climate change, not increasing our vulnerability.
- Require environmental impact reporting. Every new development in Boston over 5,000 square feet should be required to file an environmental impact report early in the development process, including the efficiency of its envelope and energy systems, projected energy usage, and direct impacts to natural assets. Especially for large commercial developments, it is important that we are offsetting negative impacts by investing in greenspace, more electric capabilities, and passive energy standards. The City can and should use building and zoning codes to encourage usage of sustainable materials and energy sources to ensure all new construction is green, and revise the way we think about land use to not pit environmental justice against development both of which support new infrastructure and the public good including housing.
- Invest in resiliency measures to protect our neighborhoods. In Boston, sea levels have already risen over a foot and a recent report from the World Bank ranked Boston the eighth most vulnerable City to climate change related flooding in the world. Meanwhile, our summers will become unbearably hot, hurricanes will become more frequent, inland flooding has started, and storms will become stronger. We need to ensure that we are protecting vulnerable communities and building public-private partnerships and community input processes to build a resiliency plan of action for every neighborhood in the City that we can proactively implement.
- Allow for more transit-oriented development. Not just how we build, but where we build is key to a resilient City. By promoting transit-oriented development through incentives and accountability measures, we can reduce the amount of parking necessary, cutting emissions, creating multimodal corridors that reduce congestion and increase safety in car-dependent areas, and building in new riders for our public transportation systems. Encouraging this type of smart growth, while ensuring that these housing options are affordable for our communities, is what will prepare us for responsible population growth, fueling our economy in a sustainable way.
- Invest in retrofitting. Andrea plans to expand programs that give low-income residents access to affordable clean energy alternatives, address energy insecurity in low-income communities, and invest in the reliability of the grid as we continue to see more extreme weather. The city should help to make solar panels and energy efficiency upgrades, including heat pumps, more efficient boilers, better unsultation, and electronic appliances, accessible to all residents by partnering in procuring them for our most vulnerable homeowners, renters, and small independent landlords. Equitable access to the technology that will help mitigate the costs and risks associated with hotter summers and major storms is central to making Boston a place where residents of all backgrounds can thrive. Andrea will work with the State to expand access to programs offered by MassCEC and others that fund retrofitting, and will create incentives for property owners to improve efficiency in their rental properties in order to lower costs for renters and improve housing quality.
- Expand energy storage capacity. Massachusetts is a national leader in energy efficiency and energy storage. As Mayor, Andrea will ensure that these nation-leading innovations are incorporated into new buildings across the City by incentivizing new construction to include energy storage, leveraging existing State programs to benefit Boston residents, and continuing to increase good, union jobs with a living wage for residents.
Andrea has been a proactive leader for equity her entire professional life, pushing to make Boston a more just and fair place for all residents. She has experienced firsthand the painful inequities in health, housing, and opportunity created in part by government, and understands the realities of intergenerational poverty many Boston families have experienced. As Mayor, Andrea will ensure that our City is a global leader in addressing the climate crisis and that the communities that are most impacted will be centered. Andrea knows that though the challenge is immense, this is also an opportunity to build a brighter future for all of our children, create equitable access to jobs in our neighborhoods, make transformative investments in resiliency, and create a more healthy, sustainable City for all. Through Andrea’s vision and leadership, Boston can meet this moment and ensure a better quality of life and healthier future for all our residents.
Transportation
Building a more livable Boston through equitable transportation and environmental justice
For some residents, Boston is dense and walkable, making it easy to participate in our diverse economy and green spaces. For other Bostonians, economic and social mobility is stymied by an unreliable bus network, aging transit infrastructure, and poorly designed streets and sidewalks. Growing up, Andrea lived this every day on her commute to Boston Public Schools, and she and her family continue to face a lack of reliable transit options living in Mattapan, the neighborhood with the longest commutes in the city. Andrea also sees first-hand the disproportionate impact of fossil-fuel pollution on neighborhoods like her own and knows that Boston’s transportation system drives and reinforces the deep inequities in the city.
The twin crises of COVID-19 and climate change have made painfully clear that our transportation system just doesn’t meet the needs of Bostonians, whether it’s a grueling bus commute, gridlocked roadways, poor sidewalks, or ancient trains. Transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions comprise 29% of Boston’s total emissions — an urgent priority for our future and a fundamental opportunity to reshape our city equitably.
Andrea has a comprehensive vision to reconstruct a sustainable transportation network so we can build a more equitable Boston. She envisions a city of 15-minute neighborhoods, so that all Bostonians can share in the benefits of a safe, walkable, and prosperous city. As we invest in our neighborhoods and build a green transportation economy for all Bostonians, Andrea will ensure that Bostonians living in “environmental justice” communities — neighborhoods most impacted by the impacts of climate change, bad transportation policies, and environmental racism — are able to access the jobs of tomorrow. With equitable transportation, we can address unequal access and health impacts, provide efficient, reliable, and affordable options to all Bostonians, and improve health and safety on every street in every neighborhood.
As Mayor, Andrea will:
Build A City of 15-Minute Neighborhoods
A 15-minute neighborhood is a community where residents live within a 15-minute walk from their basic, day-to-day needs, such as grocery stores, libraries, and parks. Some Bostonians live in these neighborhoods, enabling them to participate in the economy and live, work and play in safe, clean, green spaces. Others do not, and instead face limited amenities, access, and opportunity — a divide that has only been exacerbated by the travel limitations imposed due to the pandemic. Andrea will integrate inclusive design into city projects and create walkable and livable communities with safe, active, accessible streets for residents, including people of all ages and abilities.
- Envision resilient and vibrant neighborhoods. Our auto-centric past limited access, opportunity, and equity for Boston residents. As a result, Boston has a substantial barrier to building 15-minute neighborhoods: past decisions about street design and priorities emphasized moving cars through our neighborhoods as quickly as possible. Now, it is time to prioritize movement of everyday residents within our neighborhoods. With city-led investments, intentional zoning, and mixed-use, transit-oriented development, residents can have everything they need – grocery stores, schools, parks, small businesses – within 15 minutes of their doorsteps. This concept is quickly becoming a new model for cities to cut emissions and improve quality of life: reducing car trips for families, supporting small businesses, increasing walking and biking, and improving the health of residents and the environment by investing in the fabric and interconnectedness of our communities.
- Expand planning capacity and accelerate project implementation. Andrea will recenter our planning and project initiatives to focus first on ensuring that Boston streets are safe and active places for friends and neighbors to live, play, and build community. The Walsh Administration has increased Boston’s planning and project management capacities, but we need to accelerate this investment by hiring more planning staff and funding more capital projects to transform streets. Andrea will direct more resources to education and engagement, equipping residents with the tools to advocate for the best safe streets infrastructure. Andrea will embed a Safety Impact Review, akin to an environmental review for new projects, into existing review processes for new projects that impact sidewalks and streets.
- Safe streets for all of Boston. Boston’s current Neighborhood Slow Streets program, which implements incremental traffic-calming measures after an extensive planning process, pits neighborhoods against each other competing for planning staff and project dollars. Andrea will expand program capacity, streamline the review process, and immediately implement a variety of inexpensive, quick upgrades that will have a significant impact on slowing drivers and making streets safer for users of all ages and abilities, including children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. Andrea will also work with the Transportation Department and Public Works to ensure these departments are equipped to maintain our existing infrastructure and implement quick fixes, such as daylighting intersections, and more clearly painting crosswalks. Improvements to our city streets will be guided by a goal of improving quality of life and preventing traffic related fatalities and serious injuries. Andrea will evaluate and then optimize Boston’s snow removal plans and operations to ensure that sidewalks and bike lanes are cleared quickly after snowfall.
- Reimagine our neighborhood business districts. Boston’s neighborhoods are home to a diverse array of business districts, and Andrea envisions them serving as destinations — not throughways. Andrea will invest in street projects that serve to connect our neighborhoods, prioritize communal gathering, build social connectivity and cohesion, and increase economic activity. Safe streets that include people who walk and bike over parking and vehicle travel lanes are also good for business: Andrea will prioritize small businesses, outdoor dining, and community spaces over parking spaces that come at the expense of the greater good. She will expand pilot programs that open streets to people, support our local restaurants and nightlife, and create placemaking events like community block parties that have been popular in neighborhoods across the city from Newbury Street to West of Washington in Dorchester to Roslindale Square.
Make the Bus Work Better For Bostonians
Buses provide a vital transportation link for Bostonians: more than a third of all MBTA ridership, 410,000 bus riders, traveled around the Greater Boston region daily before the pandemic. Nearly half of those bus riders are people of color and 41% are low-income, as compared to 31% and 27% of subway ridership. City Hall can play an outsized role in making buses work better for Bostonians — this is achievable, and a key driver of racial and socioeconomic justice. As displacement pressures grow, bus riders are being forced to travel even farther and longer. Making the bus work better will make Boston work better — Andrea will be laser focused on making buses free for Bostonians and making them run faster, more frequently, and more reliably.
- Free the bus for passengers. Andrea will work with State House leaders, other municipalities, and the private sector to make local buses free. Eliminating fares is achievable: bus fares comprise less than $40 million, or 6%, of total MBTA fare revenue. These fares are overwhelmingly paid by low-income passengers and people of color, reinforcing racial inequities in income and asset building. Eliminating fares will translate to improved service, by decreasing time required at each bus stop, removing the need for an expensive network of vending machines (both on the buses and throughout the region), and by allowing riders to board through all doors. Freeing the bus will attract new riders to one of the most cost-effective modes of transit, enable low-income workers to save more, and drive economic and environmental benefit.
- Free the bus from traffic. Andrea will free the bus from traffic by expanding dedicated bus lanes and signal prioritization to make commutes shorter and more reliable. Under her leadership, City Hall will invest in staff capacity and capital projects to quickly implement bus-only lanes, improve and expand bus shelters, and repair and maintain sidewalks so they are safer for all users. Shorter and more reliable bus commutes will attract passengers from vehicles to the bus, decreasing traffic congestion and reducing emissions. In places like Summer Street near South Station, and Washington Street in Roslindale where bus lanes have been implemented, even car drivers benefited from reduced congestion and not having conflicts with the bus, and cyclists experienced safer commutes on these busy streets. The City of Boston must be a leader in adding world class bus rapid transit (BRT) on our busiest corridors and providing true rapid transit-like service to neighborhoods that are not on the subway network.
- Free the bus from emissions. Andrea will work with the MBTA to explore battery-powered buses and battery electric trolleybuses and end in investment in diesel and natural gas-fueled buses. Due to technological advances, trolley-battery buses can run off-wire for more than half their route and battery electric buses can extend their range by rapid charging both during and in between trips. Identifying what needs to be done to convert all bus routes to battery powered buses and electric/battery-powered trolleybuses will benefit riders with greater bus reliability, improve air quality and improve conditions for businesses with better on-time arrival of employees. It will also reduce emissions in environmental justice communities who face higher levels of asthma due to poor air quality. Capitalizing on the rapid improvements in battery operated buses, Andrea will ensure that Bostonians benefit from the electric bus pilot projects the MBTA pursues while pushing for more rapid acceleration of clean transportation options across the public transportation spectrum, including the City and the Boston Public Schools fleet.
- Free the bus from bureaucracy. Key to investing in our transportation system is continued expansion of Boston’s planning and project management capacity. The MBTA has not fully funded its Bus Transformation Office, which is tasked with redesigning the MBTA’s bus network to reflect modern-day travel and employment patterns. Our bus network is still built around a century old streetcar system and should be updated to reflect new areas of residential growth and new job centers. Boston should take the lead in this planning effort to better design our bus network and increase collaboration with other transportation networks, such as the Seaport TMA and MASCO in the Longwood Medical Area.
Embrace Technology and Innovation to Lead a Just Transition
The transportation sector is advancing new technologies such as micromobility (e-bikes and scooters) and autonomous vehicles. Boston must start planning for them now — and ensure that the transition from fossil fuels is a “just transition.” Andrea will will ensure that all Bostonians can benefit from a green technological revolution by creating pathways to jobs and prioritizing small and women and minority owned businesses, and embrace e-mobility devices that provide new affordable transportation options at a time when the average price for a new car has passed $40,000, while also ensuring that adequate regulations are in place.
- Invest in training a new transportation workforce. As technology changes, new jobs emerge. Boston can be a leader in autonomous vehicle research, development, and production — creating high quality jobs in the process. The Green Economy has the potential to be a game-changer for environmental justice communities, if we prioritize them. Andrea will expand “green-collar” training programs to ensure city residents have access to the green jobs of the future; she will connect innovative transportation companies with vocational education programs, community colleges, and unions to train our young people to be future leaders and innovators in environmental sciences, engineering, and resiliency. As our city leads in inventing transportation technologies of the future, Andrea will lead in a way that ensures entrepreneurs of color and more of the people who have historically been left out of the innovation economy have the career experiences, networks, and access to capital to be able to participate fully in these high-growth sectors and the economic benefits that will flow from commercialization of these technologies.
- Build equitable access to the green economy. Resilient infrastructure will be the key to a more livable and sustainable city, but how we build it is equally important. Right now, just 1% of city contracts for construction and professional services go to women and minority owned companies. That is unacceptable — our green investments must reach all of our communities. Under Andrea’s leadership small businesses, including women and minority owned businesses, will have access to a budding green economy and play a part in building the transportation network of the future.
- Make Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) work for Boston. TNCs such as Uber and Lyft increase vehicle miles traveled and cause congestion, but they can play a more constructive role in the transportation ecosystem. Andrea will utilize curbside management best practices, ensuring that TNCs observe road safety rules and provide more dedicated pick up and drop off locations. Andrea will lead the efforts to increase TNC fees to generate funding for transportation improvements and call for the Legislature to further regulate TNCs to ensure protections for both riders and drivers and increase transparency. Andrea will work to utilize anonymized TNC data to better analyze transportation demand patterns and build bus and transit service that is responsive to current needs.
- Expand access to electric vehicle charging. Owning an electric vehicle should not be exclusive to those that have access to off-street parking and a private charger. For those residents who do own a car, the city should expand access to on-street electric vehicle charging, allowing renters to access EVs and reduce their carbon footprint. As the market provides more opportunities for affordable EVs, the city must be prepared to provide the infrastructure needed for all Bostonians and visitors to the city to charge their EVs. More EVs on the streets will reduce air pollution and traffic noise, and access to this new technology and the benefits it provides must be felt in every neighborhood.
- Electrify City vehicles. We can and must electrify all city vehicles as soon as possible to stop the disproportionate impact that fossil fuel emissions have on low-income communities, from small city vehicles to large vehicles including utility trucks, waste trucks and street cleaning equipment. Chinatown has the worst air quality in Massachusetts while communities of color in our city face the highest exposure to pollution statewide. The COVID-19 pandemic has further revealed a catastrophic inequity in air quality. Under Andrea’s leadership, Boston will become the first large school district in the country to fully electrify our school bus fleet – saving the city money, making the air cleaner, and our streets safer.
Build Connected, Low-Stress Opportunities For Biking
Boston needs a city-wide connected bike network that is safe, includes protected lanes, and is attractive to all riders, including children, families, and older adults. LivableStreets’ 2020 report on Boston’s GoBoston 2030 plan stated that Boston is not on track to meet its Better Bike Corridors goal, a city target to build 60 miles of bike lanes and dedicated, curb-protected pathways by 2030.
- Better connect Boston’s neighborhoods with protected cycleways. Off- street connections like the Emerald Network can extend active transportation greenways beyond Franklin Park to better serve and connect neighborhoods like Dorchester and South Boston, enable cross-city access, and build the connected bike network Boston needs. Andrea will accelerate the construction of bike facilities to meet the goal, and partner with labor unions to create more jobs for neighborhood residents during construction, resulting in safer streets for bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers alike.
- Use micromobility and e-mobility to drive equity. Andrea will work with State government to legalize e-scooters, e-bikes, and other small electric mobility devices. These devices can fill gaps in our transportation system, giving residents additional affordable transport options for the first or last mile to and from transit connections or neighborhood errands. Micromobility can also provide a more realistic mode of transportation for commuters and delivery workers and help reduce the number of cars clogging our roads. The City can regulate e-mobility devices to ensure that they don’t block sidewalks, partner with companies to provide affordable options to low-income Bostonians, and push for fair labor standards.
- Lower the barriers to biking. In partnership with the community, Andrea will expand programming for anyone interested in learning how to bike, including in Boston Public Schools and beyond. She will continue expansion of BlueBikes and enhance utilization of low-cost memberships available to residents. A comprehensive approach to biking will include a bike network that connects the City and encourages biking in Black and brown neighborhoods.
Become the Commonwealth’s Leading Advocate for MBTA Improvements
Andrea will set a clear vision for the future of Boston’s transit system, fight for riders, and push the MBTA to ensure that the public transportation system serving Boston, particularly communities of color, receives the investment it needs. The state abdicated this responsibility by cutting MBTA service in 2020-2021, despite the infusion of federal funding assistance. As mayor of Boston, Andrea will be the region’s leading voice for public transportation improvements that will make the city more healthy and more equitable.
- Invest in the MBTA. Andrea will partner with Boston’s State delegation to push for greater state investment in the MBTA, to expand service and improve its capital equipment and infrastructure. Andrea will also work with our State delegation to provide Boston with a dedicated seat on the new MBTA Board as well as the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Board of Directors. As the center of the New England economy, Boston needs its own representation in directing the state’s transportation systems.
- Transform our rail network. Andrea will work with state and federal officials to transform our legacy “commuter” rail network into a regional rail network that meets the needs of a 21st century economy. Our commuter rail system is presently structured only to move suburban commuters in and out of Downtown Boston on a typical workday schedule, but it has the potential to give Boston residents more opportunities to find a job with good pay and a manageable commute, visit family members in other communities, or explore outside of Boston, hiking, biking, or spending a day at the beach. A regional rail network will recognize how people work and live now, starting with the Fairmount Line, which provides crucial rail service to long underserved communities. Andrea will advocate with Boston’s State and Federal delegations to dedicate funding for upgrades to the Fairmount Line that will increase service and improve reliability for passengers. Electrification will reduce emissions in the area while providing a shorter commute with greater flexibility and reliability. Andrea will also advocate for the state to transition the commuter rail fare system to one that sets a subway fare for all Boston stops. Fast, frequent, and more affordable regional rail service will significantly improve quality of life for the city’s residents.
- Invest in a comprehensive ferry system. To fully connect our communities and bring Bostonians together, we must consider alternate modes of transportation and fully leverage all of Boston’s unique assets, including the Inner Harbor and the Boston Harbor Islands State and National Park. Andrea will partner with the MBTA, ferry operators, waterfront and transportation advocates, and other stakeholders to implement a cohesive system of water transportation. Ferries could finally give bicyclists from East Boston a safe, direct route to the rest of Boston and give residents in Harbor Point a way to bypass congestion and the busy Red Line. Andrea envisions a fully operating, electrified fleet of ferries that can create more diversity in how we travel, fully utilize Boston’s harbor islands, and increase access to our waterfront parks and islands for all residents.
- Advocate for the state to move ambitiously on climate policies that benefit Boston. Andrea supports recent state efforts to raise revenue for investments in transportation through the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). TCI is a “cap-and-invest” program that lowers greenhouse gas emissions by pricing fossil fuels to match the environmental damage they cause and raising revenue to invest in clean transportation. As Mayor, she will advocate for State leaders accountable for their commitment to invest 35% of TCI revenues on improving transit options in environmental justice communities while pushing them to increase this investment to 40% of revenue in line with commitments made by the Biden-Harris Administration. Andrea will also explore new options to equitably raise revenue and develop innovative financing options for transportation improvements including fees on parking lot owners and a city-run green bank.
Lead Comprehensive and Equitable Regional Planning and Investment
Boston lacks a cohesive, regional environmental and transportation vision, but Andrea will build one, and leverage a stronger partnership with the State to implement it. In addition to MBTA, Andrea will partner closely with the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and Massport in crafting and executing her vision of more equitable planning and development processes. For example, a recent redesign proposal for Melnea Cass Boulevard would have decimated tree cover in Roxbury, even as communities of color have experienced a long-term decline in their tree canopy. Andrea will center communities of color in planning and development, and expand our capacity to proactively plan and implement street improvements that result in tangible benefits to quality of life for all Bostonians.
- Center I-90 Redesign on Allston and Transit. Decisions made at the state level have long-lasting impacts on all Bostonians. The I-90 MassPike project has the potential to reshape Allston to provide a better connected, more cohesive neighborhood and increase transit options through the construction of the new West Station, a new transportation hub in Beacon Park Yard in Allston. Andrea will center the needs of vulnerable road users, bicyclists, and transit riders: she will fight for a less obtrusive at-grade highway and transit investments that expand access and improve air quality. Andrea will push for new pedestrian and bike connections across I-90 and a new buffer park. The new Boston streets created as a result of this project must prioritize pedestrians, bicyclists, and neighborhood cohesion. This multimodal approach must be also taken during the redesign processes of other state controlled roads and parkways in Boston, including the Arborway and Morrissey Boulevard.
- Complete the Red-Blue Connection. The Red Line and the Blue Line do not connect, placing needless obstacles in the way of commuters accessing important job centers, such as Kendall Square or Logan Airport. The MBTA drastically overestimated the costs of making the Red-Blue connection, and the state has failed to plan ahead and coordinate with the MGH expansion project and Cambridge Street reconstruction, two opportunities to improve transportation access city-wide. Andrea will advocate for the construction of the Red-Blue Connection. This project will have benefits ranging from a safer, more pedestrian and bike friendly Cambridge Street, to less crowding at other Downtown stations
- Expand transit access. There are many parts of the city where Commuter Rail and subway trains speed past underserved neighborhoods, but this is fixable. Andrea will fight for state and federal funding to fill gaps in transportation, including working with the MBTA to add infill Commuter Rail stops in Hyde Park, River Street in Mattapan, and the Sullivan Square subway station; ensuring that accessible vehicles are added to the Mattapan Trolley; and studying extensions to the Orange Line and additional ferry service in East Boston, Dorchester, and South Boston. Andrea will also fight for residents in Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan to have more access to the Seaport District using the new Red Line test track, a right of way through South Boston that has been rebuilt after years of abandonment.
Boston has an historic opportunity to rebuild and reimagine our city’s transportation system. Andrea will create 15-minute neighborhoods throughout Boston, while building a public transit system that expands access to economic opportunity and addresses the disproportionate impact of fossil-fuel pollution on our low-income communities. Andrea will close the gaps in our unequal transit system to help every community thrive with safe and well-connected streets. With Andrea as Mayor, Boston will become the most livable city in the country as our residents build the green transportation economy of the future.
Housing
Addressing Boston's Housing Crisis
Housing is a fundamental human right. For Bostonians to fully thrive, they need a safe and reliable place to call home. No Boston Public School student can reach their full potential, no young professional can start their career or raise a family, and no senior can age in place if they are stressed about next month’s rent, sleeping on a loved one’s couch, or living out of their car. Yet, too many of our residents lack safe, stable, and affordable housing — even while Boston has experienced an unprecedented boom in development.
Metro Boston is the 4th most expensive metro area in the country. Nearly 50% of renters in Suffolk County spend more than a third of their income on housing, classifying them as “rent-burdened.” The recent growth and prosperity in our City has not been shared equally between our neighborhoods: There is no mistaking that Boston is a segregated city.
COVID-19 is shining a bright light on the systemic inequities that drove Boston’s affordable housing crisis even before the pandemic. Andrea has seen this first-hand throughout her life in the City, from experiencing and seeing the effects of gentrification and displacement in the South End as a child to serving her constituents in Dorchester and Mattapan who cannot access or afford decent housing as costs go up and wages remain stagnant.
Andrea believes that it is past time for the City to address the inequities in housing and development, so that all Bostonians can benefit from the City’s growth. As substantial new federal assistance is available to provide rental relief and other supports for residents, we must seize this moment.
Andrea will lead an equity-driven approach to solving the housing crisis and lead in such a way that ALL stakeholders are engaged and included — she will optimize the City’s housing assistance programs to provide immediate relief, and take a holistic and innovative approach to planning and zoning reform, tackling homelessness, and creating more safe, affordable, and stable housing for all Bostonians.
As Mayor, Andrea Will:
Increase Housing Affordability
Too many Boston residents are overly burdened by housing costs — whether it is renting or owning a home. Many who would like to buy a home and build a life in Boston simply cannot afford it — and either end up endlessly renting, limiting their ability to acquire wealth, or leaving Boston, limiting our city’s competitiveness. The first ordinance Andrea co-sponsored as a City Councilor was the Community Preservation Act which continues to generate hundreds of millions of dollars to successfully fund projects for affordable housing, green space, and historic preservation. Building on this track record, as Mayor, Andrea will develop long-term policies and programs that can make Boston affordable for all.
- Leverage Our Assets. For far too long the City’s foreclosed properties have sat vacant, derelict, and inaccessible. This is public land that should be used for the greatest public good. Andrea will advance the work of the Neighborhood Housing Division (city entity that holds land and foreclosed properties) into a high functioning land bank that focuses their lending power to small non-profits and others committed to building affordable housing using employers and contractors from Boston. She will support the work of community land trusts (CLTs). These organizations put land into the hands of the community for resident-led planning and long-term, collective control of land in and around Boston. As we emerge from the pandemic, City Hall has an historic opportunity to support the CLT model to ensure that land remains protected in the community, and not lost to speculative investors. CLTs can lock in affordability for residents and businesses for decades to come, and we must meet this moment to ensure we do. Andrea will ensure that properties the City re-sells include long-term affordability restrictions.
- Redefine “Affordable.” Conversations are happening in every neighborhood about how “affordable housing” is not truly affordable when defined as 100% or below of the Area Median Income (AMI), which is based on federal guidelines. The Campbell Administration will advocate to change this federal definition, opening the door to more truly affordable housing with income eligibility guidelines that capture more low and middle income residents and their immediate neighbors. Building on the work of recent legislation that gives us power to adjust Boston’s requirements of developers to make units affordable, Andrea will ensure these income-restricted units truly support the financial needs of our low-income residents, and explore how we can expand the definition and criteria of low income housing. Relatedly, Andrea knows that changing the defined income categories for voucher qualification could play a major role in creating access to affordability.
- Use data to drive access & transparency. We need to better understand who owns and manages our housing, who and where our renters are, and identify patterns such as repeated fair housing complaints, housing discrimination practices, or “problem properties”. The City already collects this data through existing rental registration, so we can track these issues more closely, but we can expand the information through the rental registration program to better assess patterns. In addition to creating a registry, Andrea will expand the RentSmart Boston system which tracks reported housing issues to also track fair housing complaints so that renters have the full picture before signing a lease. Andrea will ensure that the Office of Housing Stability publishes all eviction data – since they receive every notice to quit – which can help uncover patterns of discrimination. We know that not all our renters operate under formal rental agreements, many due to their immigration status and language barriers. A Campbell Administration will partner with nonprofits and community-based organizations to more fully understand the needs of this population and how the City can better serve and protect these residents.
- Build pathways to home ownership. To address the racial wealth gap in our city and combat displacement as a result of the lack of affordability, we must address home ownership – a critical tool to build savings, wealth, and economic stability and mobility. Andrea will invest in City programming and create public-private partnerships to expand access to financial services, coaching, and a greater range of tools to enable first-time homebuyers to participate in this wealth-building opportunity. She will expand the capacity of the Boston Home Center, other offices serving residents of public housing, and of proven programs such as programs that increase resident buying power for renters. Under her leadership, the City will build partnerships with local financial institutions to increase opportunities for aspiring homeowners to afford property in Boston, including with black-owned banks, to offer diversified and trusted mortgage products, down payment assistance, and other supports.
- End the senior housing crisis. Andrea knows that Boston’s well-documented, persistent housing crisis puts our city’s seniors at particularly high risk of losing housing and being displaced. To ensure our seniors are able to age in place with dignity, Andrea will fund programs to prevent housing loss, support elder renters with tenant protection and access to legal aid, and assist seniors who wish to downsize. She will ensure that our senior homeowners are able to utilize programs to help them stay in their homes including home repair, the circuit breaker tax credit, and property tax deferral, and that these programs operate under the highest standards of excellence. Under Andrea’s leadership, we will ensure all of our communities operate with a village model to ensure our seniors have the support they need.
Maximize Pandemic Relief
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic cooling the market slightly, many residents still fear eviction after moratoriums run out. These moratoriums must be extended and people should not be held accountable for COVID-19 related debts caused by this public health crisis. As Mayor, Andrea will strengthen programs to provide immediate rental relief while simultaneously establishing long-term programs to mitigate gentrification and displacement.
- Fully resource the Office of Housing Stability (OHS). OHS is the City’s one-stop-shop for renters and families facing displacement, eviction or homelessness. Their work is more important now than ever, as they meet Bostonians’ most pressing housing needs daily, from rental relief, to housing search assistance, legal assistance, mediation, providing emergency housing solutions, and helping with fire displacement. Andrea will allocate necessary resources to OHS to make their short-term programs permanent and ensure adequate staff capacity to build their pandemic-response programs.
- Maximize Emergency Rental Assistance. New funding allows us to provide rental assistance to anyone with a lease, paying up to 15 months of rent. We must incentivize landlords to accept this guaranteed rental assistance income through City programs that assist with security deposits, damage protection, and vacancy loss coverage to ensure more landlords will rent to all Bostonians, including residents who have recently experienced homelessness and unemployment. We must also make this fund permanent to assist Boston Housing Authority tenants in paying off rent arrears, and make the fund accessible to residents who receive housing subsidies. We can also use federal funds like Community Development Block Grants to support residents in a range of ways including housing access, economic empowerment, and childcare grants to ensure working parents have more economic and housing stability.
- Establish a Workforce Housing Voucher. Andrea knows that housing vouchers are effective policy tools and will explore a Boston housing voucher for every resident earning between 60-80% Area Median Income, which would be unit-based and function as an expansion of the city-funded housing voucher program. A Workforce Voucher Program would reach the low and middle-income residents who are often left out of support programs yet are still rent-burdened, give residents another housing option, and cut down the massive waitlists at the Boston Housing Authority.
- Update the Fair Chance Tenant Selection Policy. Andrea knows that evictions are traumatic, and that having an eviction record can be a huge barrier to accessing future housing. As a Councilor, Andrea has fought for legislation at the local level to prevent employment and housing discrimination based on eviction history or credit score, supporting the passage of the HOMES Act at the state level, and as Mayor will take action to ensure access to housing opportunities is equitable and that tenants know their rights. She will update the Fair Chance Tenant Selection Policy to prohibit discrimination against potential tenants with histories in housing court and ensure that children in families that are evicted do not appear on eviction records so that they are set up to reach their full potential.
- Support mediation and legal representation. In a new COVID-era rule, evictions hearings have to go mediation first and continue if the tenant applied for emergency rental assistance. Mediation helps to prevent displacement, homelessness, and housing insecurity by making eviction a multi-step process that includes providing a tenant with their rights, and in some cases can assist tenants with cash assistance, making eviction a last resort. As Mayor, Andrea will make this mediation-first rule permanent, partner with landlords on best practices related to pre-court interventions to minimize eviction, and enable parties to work together. She will expand the City’s landlord-tenant mediation program and increase the capacity of OHS to perform landlord-tenant mediation. There are clear links between having representation and lowering eviction rates yet the majority of tenants are not represented: legal assistance helps residents avoid eviction findings, protect credit scores, and keep their possessions. Residents should be guaranteed free legal representation when appearing at housing court, and any costs associated with mediation should not be passed onto residents by their landlords. Andrea will initiate a renter’s rights and responsibilities campaign and increase efforts to provide pre-court mediation and legal representation. Through this program, assistance would be available for residents at or below 125% of the Federal Poverty Line, and would be bolstered through staffing at the Office of Housing Stability and by establishing a co-op internship program with local law students and recent graduates.
Drive Equitable Planning
Boston has experienced an unprecedented building boom in recent years, but only some neighborhoods have benefitted. Andrea envisions a comprehensive, collaborative planning process to inform how and where we develop and ensure adequate affordable housing throughout the City. Planning power should be strengthened within the City so that we can root out corruption and develop intelligently. It’s time we bring the powers of master planning, compliance, monitoring, design approval, and other key development powers back to the City. Andrea knows we must also be creative and intentional in partnering and involving community in the development process. In a Campbell Administration, planning and development review will actively involve both renters and homeowners, as well as communities of color.
- Reimagine the BPDA. Simply abolishing the BPDA is not realistic or productive — it would turn development into a chaotic, ad-hoc process at a time when we need consistency and transparency. Andrea will oversee a comprehensive reform process to add consistency, clarity, transparency and engage the community in the decision-making process more effectively. The BPDA in its current state and its predecessor, the BRA, have struggled to win the trust of the community and stakeholders. The agency needs a cultural shift that begins with structural changes that build towards equity and includes a more proactive approach to planning in every neighborhood, starting with the staff and leadership structure. This means appointing board members with diverse expertise including proven community leadership, experience in affordable development, community development, non-profit housing, labor, structuring public-private partnerships, capital structure and finance, and construction. For projects that the community welcomes, such as affordable housing projects, we can create greater predictability and consistency by removing affordable housing from the article 80 review process while ensuring adequate community process. For more effective engagement, efficiency, and transparency, we must invest in technology to streamline processes and establish a robust department within the BPDA focused exclusively on proactive organizing, outreach, and representative community engagement. We must center racial equity in community engagement and ensure community feedback is truly representative, targeting communities of color for proactive engagement, and increase community education efforts so that residents can more meaningfully participate in the development process as we re-evaluate the role of community voice in the development review process.
- Streamline development review & permitting. The current permitting process is duplicative, difficult, and overly burdensome — adding cost and slowing the construction of desperately needed units. Andrea will work to make permitting faster, easier, more predictable, and cheaper which in turn, means more affordable housing available sooner for the community. She will also remove affordable housing and small developments from the BPDA review process instead putting them before the ZBA, increase Inspectional Services staff capacity, invest in modernized technology to increase efficiency in the review process, and add more staff to oversee DND’s Affordable Fair Housing Marketing Plans to improve communication between review and management stakeholders: the City, developers, and property management firms.
- Diversify the development workforce. To ensure that those who are planning, designing, and building Boston better reflect the City’s diversity, Andrea will develop partnerships between educational institutions and employers to provide apprenticeships, internships, and educational opportunities to build a pipeline of talent including women and people of color in the fields of development, urban design, planning, and construction. As Mayor, Andrea will also increase contracts with MWBE developers.
Execute on Zoning Overhaul
Boston’s zoning code – the rule book that says what can be built where – has not seen a comprehensive city-wide update in 50 years. Through a transparent, community-engaged process, Andrea will create a city-wide plan that allows our City to grow in a way that also benefits and protects current and long-time Boston residents. Overhauling our zoning code will result in less variances, ease Zoning Board agendas, and enable residents to better anticipate and define what their neighborhood will look like in the years to come.
- Implement Transfer of Development Rights (TDR). TDR is a new and flexible financing tool that enables more housing creation more quickly: if a developer does not build the maximum allowable amount of units on a property, they can transfer rights to build those units to another developer. Andrea will embrace TDR as an equitable approach that enables small and mid-sized property owners, Community Development Corporations, and other affordable housing entities to participate more actively in the market. While rezoning is a multi-year process, TDR can more efficiently and quickly grow the “pie” of available housing across the city.
- Enable Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). Housing is considered transit-oriented if it is located within a quarter mile of an entrance to a public transit stop. Andrea will partner with the MBTA to qualify more properties for affordable housing development benefits by adding more entrances to Boston’s many T stops that are currently excluded and expanding the definition of TOD to include bus stops and micro-mobility such as bikes and scooters. Increasing TOD will enable Boston to optimize the prime opportunity it offers to utilize Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) from the state. Under Andrea’s leadership, City Hall will also use zoning overlays to encourage transit-oriented development and mitigate costly parking requirements, and establish an inclusionary development transfer program to enable the building of more affordable housing units near transit.
- Advance inclusionary development. We must increase the proportion of affordable units required per development. This can be graded by neighborhood. Neighborhoods seeing lots of development, economic growth, and that have close proximity to jobs and transportation (Back Bay, South End, and the Seaport) should have a higher required percentage of inclusionary development (exploring upwards of 20% affordable units per new building) than other neighborhoods so that residents have a better chance at affording to live wherever they choose. Under Andrea’s leadership, Boston will encourage developers to build on-site inclusionary development as much as possible to bridge the racial and class divisions and simultaneously strengthen the IDP transfer program for off-site development, whereby market-rate developers can transfer their mandatory inclusionary units to a non-profit affordable housing developer who will get more bang for their buck building more affordable units by tapping into government subsidies and tax credits.
Develop Boston Creatively
As District 4 City Councilor, Andrea worked diligently in the community to activate vacant lots as a public health, economic development, and public safety imperative. Recognizing the potential for arts projects, active green spaces, and housing solutions in the community, Andrea brought together community stakeholders, higher-ed partners, nonprofits and developers to create innovative action plans for these disinvested areas. For her, creative development is about driving equity, resiliency, and vibrancy across Boston. Building on this work, Andrea will:
- Activate vacant lots across Boston. Vacant lots are not just in District 4, and Andrea envisions innovative solutions across the city, from increasing affordable housing and TOD to projects that can serve as the community best sees fit — whether creating a safe outdoor gathering space in a garden or a place to showcase local artists’ work. Andrea will identify and partner with mission-aligned private investors who share the City’s objectives of implementing solutions quickly and increasing social and economic activity while maintaining neighborhood character.
- Fund affordability with a Revolving Loan Fund. A revolving loan fund takes an initial seed investment to develop affordable housing. The seed funding can be set aside in the City budget, or from a mission-aligned private sector partner. The loans made from this fund are usually directed toward smaller builders and non-profits. These organizations not only build but also manage the building once complete. Once the building is complete or sold, they pay the city back into this “soft” capital fund. The new capital will cover costs of capital, labor, and manufacturing technology that are difficult to meet on affordable housing projects. The same money can then be turned around to pay the next affordable housing developer. In this way, the revolving loan fund opens the door to equitable access to real estate development to small builders who are shut out of the market due to the high costs of development.
- Allow for permanent Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). Andrea envisions Boston creating affordable units in unexpected or underutilized places, such as carriage houses, tiny homes, finished basements, and attics. By diversifying our housing stock, Boston can fill in gaps on vacant lots, add units to already developed lots, and preserve the character of the neighborhood. She will explore updated zoning that allows for ADU projects by right, a streamlined permitting process to enable homeowners to take on these smaller projects, and ADU project eligibility for density bonuses.
- Preserve our historic architecture in new ways. Andrea believes that Boston’s beloved triple deckers can help meet our current housing needs, if we are innovative in our approach. She will incentivize triple decker retrofitting projects for current owners to increase housing supply and support design competitions to preserve existing units and pursue energy efficient construction that is climate change resilient. Given Boston’s rich history, our Landmarks Commission will continue to play a critical role in preserving the cultural and architectural history of the City. As Mayor, Andrea will work with the Landmarks Commission to preserve the historic fabric of our City by partnering on demolition prevention and delay.
Tackle Homelessness
Boston residents may experience homelessness for any number of reasons, whether due to an illness, job loss, domestic violence, substance use disorder, or other trauma. As Mayor, Andrea will make use of the City’s strong asset base to create a more robust set of options for individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
- Implement a Housing First approach. In order to take on a job search, recovery program, or educational pursuit, one must first have a place to call home. Programs that first focus on getting people safely and securely housed before meeting any other needs have greater long-term success. Women, veterans, and survivors of domestic violence are all priorities for the housing-first approach, whether via a bolstered shelter system or a more clear path to affordable housing.
- Prioritize our young people and families. Andrea will expand housing vouchers available to Boston Public Schools families to keep them together and in close proximity to the schools they attend. She will further allocate resources to addressing youth homelesness through programs like youth rapid rehousing, which provides rent payment for residents ages 18 to 24, and increase coordination with wrap-around service providers to meet the social, emotional, educational and health needs of our young residents.
- Invest in transitional housing. Whether Bostonians are leaving a shelter, a substance user recovery program or returning from incarceration, transitional housing is essential to prevent and mitigate homelessness and ensure residents have paths to economic mobility and a full life in Boston. Andrea will ensure the City continues to assist tenants in Housing Court with applications for financial assistance and wrap-around services, and increase coordination with the Boston Municipal Court and the Trial Court’s Probation Department and special services sessions to ensure that the Commonwealth’s efforts to find housing, wrap-around services and other placements for Boston-based defendants is more seamless and consistent.
- Create more permanent supportive housing. Supportive housing provides wrap-around services to people experiencing chronic homelessness, providing a stable environment that enables residents to prioritize their mental and physical health. In addition to building on current City programming, Andrea will identify and fund new spaces for creation of dedicated permanent supportive housing such as city-owned vacant lots and converted buildings. For small city-owned lots, affordability restrictions can be extended to the first homeowner or for a decade of renting – a relatively short timeline – to ensure small builders successfully fill these gaps with units. To make this a reality, she will partner with existing housing facilities, healthcare providers who can enhance onsite services, community-based organizations, and philanthropic and private sector partners.
Every Bostonian deserves a place they can call home that is also safe and affordable. Now more than ever, housing is essential for individuals to stay healthy and for Boston to be a climate-resilient city. Boston has so many resources – private, public, and non-profit – at our disposal; we must use them creatively to both protect our historic city and grow equitably. As Mayor, Andrea will activate these resources and lead collaborative, innovative, and equity-driven solutions to end our housing crisis.
Immigrant Communities
Protect and empower Boston’s immigrant communities.
As a lifelong Boston resident, Andrea knows our city, and our nation, have always been strengthened by our immigrant communities. As the Councilor for one of Boston’s most diverse districts, she’s stood up for the rights of our immigrant communities and will continue to do so as Mayor. Andrea believes the City must be led inclusively, in a manner that brings all residents to the table and that not only embraces and celebrates the diversity of Boston but also builds on it. Every resident in our City, regardless of immigration status, should feel like Boston belongs to them.
As Mayor, Andrea will:
Protect the civil rights of immigrants. We saw firsthand how the Trump Administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was led by people who targeted our immigrant communities and tear families apart. Under a Mayor Campbell, Boston will strengthen the Trust Act and not assist or share data with ICE.
Empower our immigrant communities to be civically engaged and involved. Andrea believes city government should be a place of belonging, where everyone feels seen and welcomed. As Mayor, she will work to improve language access in City Hall, in our schools, and in our institutions, and make it easier for immigrants to participate and make their voices heard.
Restaurant Recovery
Supporting restaurants through the pandemic while strengthening Boston’s restaurant industry in the long-run by cutting red tape, removing barriers to access, and making this industry more equitable and inclusive.
Across the country, restaurants have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Boston is no exception. In June 2020, the Massachusetts Restaurant Association projected that up to 1 in 4 restaurants may not make it through the pandemic.
In every neighborhood of Boston, beloved local restaurants and bars have been forced to close their doors. Restaurant workers have lost their jobs en masse, forcing them to get by on unemployment checks that have been turned into a political football in Washington.
Boston’s restaurants ground us in the city’s rich cultural diversity and international identity, and are a key part of why people choose to live in the City. They are the site of our first date with our future partner, the places we gather with friends and family to celebrate milestones, and where co-workers become lifelong friends. The restaurant industry is also the nation’s second largest private employer, creating low-barrier employment opportunities and driving economic activity in our neighborhoods. Boston must do more to support restaurants through the remainder of the pandemic, and to accelerate a rapid recovery of our restaurant industry as soon as the pandemic is over.
Rebuilding our restaurant industry also provides Boston with an opportunity to break down barriers that have made it far too difficult for independent operators, people of color, women, and immigrants to open their own restaurants in the past. Andrea envisions a Boston where equity is a core value and our hospitality industry reflects the rich diversity of our communities.
To recover in 2021, Andrea will push for the City of Boston to immediately take the following actions:
- Forgive liquor license fees for 2022. Even though Boston’s restaurants and bars have operated at significantly reduced capacity for more than a year, restaurants were forced to pay their 2021 liquor licensing fees to the City – adding an additional financial burden to their bottom line at the worst possible time. As Mayor, Andrea would implement a one-year moratorium on licensing fees for all City restaurants – a measure that other cities in Massachusetts and states across the country have taken for 2021.
- Ensure restaurant workers are protected. As restrictions on dining continue to lift, restaurant workers must be able to work safely. Andrea believes restaurant workers should not only have access to the COVID-19 vaccine, but also to the adequate PPE they need to work in public day in and day out.
- Cap third party delivery fees at 15%. Delivery service apps like GrubHub and UberEats charge restaurants as much as 30% on each takeout transaction. The Massachusetts Legislature has passed a bill to cap delivery fees at 15%, and the bill is on Governor Baker’s desk. Andrea will push for this to be implemented immediately to alleviate pressure on restaurants.
- Help restaurants fight food insecurity. The pandemic has doubled the rate of food insecurity in Massachusetts. At the same time that one-in-four restaurants are closing, one-in-four Black and Latinx families are now struggling to regularly access food, an unconscionable disconnect in a city that cares about equity. As mayor, Andrea will use her platform to fight for the passage of the federal FEED Act, which allows the federal government to pay 100 percent of the cost to cities and states so that they can partner with restaurants and nonprofits to prepare nutritious meals for vulnerable populations, such as seniors and underserved children. Andrea will work to harness the power of Boston’s philanthropic community to fund programs like Commonwealth Kitchen, which helps restaurants keep their employees working while feeding families in need.
Boston can be a national model for supporting locally owned, diverse restaurant operators. During the pandemic, the City has proven that it can be nimble by establishing outdoor dining spaces, closing streets to cars and opening them to people, centralizing applications for outdoor dining permits, and supporting operators with technical assistance and expedited service. Under Andrea’s leadership, that’s how the City will do business all the time – especially since it has proven it can.
As Mayor, Andrea will:
Make City Hall Restaurant Friendly
- Establish a Hospitality Division in City Hall. Opening a new restaurant in the City can be borderline impossible for an independent operator, especially someone doing it for the first time. Currently, operators are required to get permits and inspections from a number of separate departments, all of which have different application and inspection processes. By aligning relevant positions in City departments under one centralized division, Andrea will reduce red tape, create a one-stop-shop to efficiently and effectively guide restaurant owners, and holistically support food entrepreneurship across the city.
- Convene a Hospitality Advisory Council. Andrea knows that hospitality professionals understand the needs of the restaurant industry best. As Mayor, she will create a 15-member Advisory Council to advise on hospitality industry policy recommendations. This Council will have designated representatives from each facet of the industry, not just owners and operators but also workers, and represent a diversity of businesses by business type and neighborhood.
Use City Planning To Build More Connected Communities
- Double-down on the success of street patios. One of the few bright spots of the pandemic was the City’s decision to open up street patios for outdoor dining during the warmer months. As Mayor, Andrea will make these changes permanent and create incentives and partnerships for restaurants to be able to invest more strategically in these growth opportunities.
- Expand Open Streets across the City. Boston has twenty main streets districts, and Andrea envisions them serving as destinations — not throughways. Andrea will invest in street projects that serve to connect our neighborhoods, prioritize communal gatherings, build social connectivity and cohesion, and increase economic activity in partnership with independent restaurants, small retail, and diverse operators. Andrea will build on the success of Open Newbury Street (a pilot program that closed Newbury Street to cars for three Sundays) in other neighborhoods such as Hanover Street in the North End, Harvard Ave in Allston and in communities of color. She will expand pilot programs that open streets to people, support our local restaurants and nightlife, and create placemaking events like the Mattapan Jazz Festival, Porchfest, and more.
- Partner with developers, landlords, and operators to increase small business access to ground floor retail. Andrea will partner with local developers, landlords, and operators to create more accessible and affordable commercial real estate for restaurants to occupy. Andrea believes that this intentional approach to mixed use development can increase foot traffic, support retail and restaurants, and increase jobs and economic activity.
Make Boston’s Restaurant Industry More Equitable and Inclusive
- Build a pipeline of hospitality leaders through BPS vocational education programs and leading local nonprofits. Andrea will prioritize partnerships between vocational schools and restaurants to create career pathways for young Bostonians. She will also increase connectivity with non-profits leading this work. Robust internship and externship programs and systematic programming will provide important workforce training for a pipeline of skilled industry professionals, connect Boston Public School students with the restaurant and food service industry, and create long-term career pathways for Boston’s youth.
- Use the City’s contracting to support local, diverse food vendors. City Hall and the Boston Public Schools can use the power of the purse to support a more diverse array of independent operators in Boston. Contracting with local providers for the City and the District’s food service needs with intentionality will increase volume for both restaurants and local farmers, and provide healthier food options for employees and guests, improving and increasing access to nutrition.
- Reform the liquor licensing process. Perhaps the greatest barrier to equity in the hospitality industry is Boston’s antiquated system of liquor licensing, which makes it next to impossible for an independent restaurant operator to get a liquor license without an up-front, six-figure investment. This is a significantly outdated system where just a handful of Boston’s 1,100 liquor licenses are Black-owned — and in Andrea’s home neighborhood of Mattapan, there is not a single liquor-serving restaurant. As Mayor, Andrea will convene stakeholders to explore a number of solutions to modernize Boston’s inequitable licensing system, tackle this persistent challenge head-on and partner with the State to execute a plan that encourages entrepreneurship in Boston. These leaders will include a diverse range of restaurant owners and operators, the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, and other key partners from the City and State. Andrea will lead a constructive debate on considerations ranging from best practices from other municipalities in the Commonwealth and beyond and equitable license fee structures (including by neighborhood) to market dynamics such as the overall supply of licenses available, pricing distortions caused by the pandemic, and how to create a more level playing field to achieve her vision for a more equitable restaurant industry.
City Government
Make city government transparent, accountable, accessible, and equitable
City Government at its best can promote prosperity for all, safeguard our fundamental rights, and ensure that every Bostonian has access to their elected officials and can make their voices heard. Yet all too often, the business of the government is conducted behind closed doors or in public meetings that many are not aware of, are unable to attend or do not understand. That needs to change. We need to create a government that is transparent, accessible, representative, and works for every Bostonian. Andrea has years of experience seeing government at its best, including while serving as deputy legal counsel for Governor Deval Patrick. She’s also seen what can happen when government is not transparent or accountable to the people. As a city councilor, Andrea made sure that her constituents had access to the city services they needed and knew what Boston was doing for them and empowered civic leaders to be partners in the work. As Mayor, she’ll do the same for all of Boston.
Andrea’s City government will be inclusive of all Bostonians. Continuing the important work of the Civic Leaders Summit, which she convened for the first time in more than a decade as Council President, Andrea will make sure that civic and community leaders have the opportunity to engage with senior city leaders on all major decisions. To make sure that our City is working best for everyone, Bostonians need to have access to our government.
That is why she is proposing a plan that will make government work better for everyone in our city. Boston is facing big problems and our government needs to be more efficient and innovative if we’re going to solve them. That includes ensuring transparency so that people know what is happening in their city government, promoting and supporting civic engagement so that city hall is accessible to all Bostonians, empowering our City Council to work in partnership in a more meaningful way, and offering practical solutions to everyday problems.
As Mayor, Andrea will:
Make Good on Promises of Transparency and Accountability
Bostonians deserve a city government that works for them. But all too often, our government doesn’t make it easy to hold them accountable. Andrea has spent her entire life in public service working to make sure government works for the people. That’s why she’ll make sure that all Bostonians know what is happening in their city government.
- Create an Inspector General (IG) for Boston. Cities across the country have created and empowered Inspectors General to ensure their government is functioning in the most efficient, effective and transparent manner possible. Andrea has already proposed creating this position and, as Mayor, Andrea will create an independent IG for Boston to ensure our government is absent of any corruption, efficient, transparent, and most importantly accountable to the people we serve daily.
- Implement smart & people-first budgeting. Andrea wants to make sure that people have input into Boston’s budgeting process, while maintaining certainty for the agencies that rely on it. That’s why she’ll work with the City Council to propose legislation implementing several reforms to improve the process, including allowing city councilors to participate more meaningfully in the budget process and enable more participation from residents. As a City Councilor, Andrea has been a leader in pushing for inclusive budgeting and will continue to advocate for these important changes while maintaining Boston’s strong financial reputation and bond rating.
- Increase participatory budgeting and issue-based committees. Bostonians deserve more of a say in how their money is spent. That is why Andrea will propose establishing participatory budget committees for some community-based funds so that Bostonians closest to their community’s needs can have a say in how their taxpayer funds are spent. As Mayor, Andrea will make sure this group is representative and inclusive. She will also establish issue-based committees to consider and make recommendations on critical issues facing Bostonians. This will include implementing year-round opportunities to learn about and engage with the budget to enable civic engagement.
- Make “Boston 311,” the City’s customer service line accessible to all Bostonians by improving language access and addressing other barriers to access. The City’s 311 service is a valuable tool for those who access it and receive a response. But 311 is not accessible to all Bostonians. Andrea will make sure that 311 works for every Bostonian. That includes making sure anyone can use 311 and get a response, regardless of the neighborhood they live in or the language they speak. Andrea will work with community leaders to identify and address barriers to 311 usage in communities with low rates of usage, including the languages that should be included and hire individuals to handle those calls.
- Reimagine the Boston Planning and Development Agency. Simply abolishing the BPDA is not realistic or productive — it would turn development into a chaotic, ad-hoc process at a time when we need consistency and transparency. Andrea will oversee a comprehensive reform process to add consistency, clarity, transparency and engage the community in the decision-making process more effectively. The BPDA in its current state and its predecessor, the BRA, have struggled to win the trust of the community and stakeholders. The agency needs a cultural shift that begins with structural changes that build towards equity and includes a more proactive approach to planning in every neighborhood, starting with the staff and leadership structure. That is why Andrea has a comprehensive proposal to reform the BPDA, which is included in detail in her housing plan.
Take Andrea’s Commitment To Civic Engagement City-wide
Our City is at its best when everyone can be involved and engaged in our government’s work. That is why Andrea has spent her entire career making government more accessible to Bostonians and will make this a top priority as Mayor.
- Establish the Boston Civic Leaders Summit as an annual convening of local civic leaders across the city. In 2019, Andrea convened the first civic summit in over ten years, a convenining of community leaders from across the city. This critical resident-led forum helped bring forward issues facing Bostonians and empowered them to effect change. As Mayor, Andrea will officially make this summit a recurring event to ensure that every Bostonian can have their voice heard.
- Support resident leadership and neighborhood-level organizing. Grassroots, neighborhood-level, resident organizing on important issues – from neighborhood parks, to traffic calming measures, to block parties – have led to incredible enhancements to our city’s quality of life. Andrea will establish an office specifically to support these organizing efforts in communities to help residents access city or other resources, navigate permitting or other departments, and other technical assistance. This office will provide ongoing leadership development opportunities as well as opportunities for resident leaders to connect with one another, beyond the once-a-year Civic Leaders Summit.
- Engage civic leaders, neighborhood associations, and non-profit organizations regularly and actively as part of the governing process. In addition to the annual summit, Andrea will make sure that individuals from across the city have the opportunity to participate in government and weigh in on the important issues facing our city. That is why she is committing to regular meetings and listening sessions with community leaders, including a quarterly public forum.
- Ensure that Boston’s government reflects the people it serves. As Mayor, Andrea will ensure all historically marginalized groups have designated liaisons within the Mayor’s office.
Make Sure Our City Government Reflects the Communities It Serves
Our City representatives, employees and even vendors should look like the community they serve. But all too often that is not the case, and many Bostonians – particularly those from communities of color – face barriers to access. That is why as Mayor, Andrea will implement several reforms to make sure that our government works for everyone, and that everyone can see themselves in our government.
- Reform elections to make elections more accessible and increase turnout. Boston experiences lower turnout in off-cycle elections which can prop up incumbents and cost the taxpayers millions of dollars. That is why Andrea will explore solutions to increase turnout, including aligning municipal elections with federal elections. As Mayor, she will work with state leaders to conduct a proper assessment of this potential change, along with others that may improve participation. That process will include gathering input from Bostonians and civic leaders.
- Implement vital voting reforms. Our democracy only works when everyone has access to the ballot box. For too long, people of color and working Bostonians have faced barriers exercising their fundamental right to vote. To fix this, Andrea will work with state and municipal leaders to improve our elections, including making Election Day a city-wide holiday, implementing same-day voter registration, and improving voting-by-mail options by increasing the number and accessibility of ballot dropboxes.
- Cement COVID-19 voting reforms. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about critical changes to ease ballot access. With the safety risks posed by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, we need election reform now to ensure that signatures can be collected digitally, that state leaders pass universal vote by mail ahead of this election, and that there are ample dropboxes in Boston. These changes must become permanent to ensure that every Bostonian can exercise their democratic right to vote.
- Develop a talent pipeline for city workers from all walks of city life. Our city’s employees should look like our city. That’s why Andrea will work with local community colleges, universities, and high schools to provide information on employment opportunities in government. Andrea will explore ways to attract and retain more residents to work in city government. She will also focus on high-level positions in government, including promoting diversity among city agency leaders, to make sure that Bostonians are represented at every level of government.
- Make city procurement equitable and inclusive. Today, Boston’s procurement process is profoundly inequitable – less than five percent of the City’s discretionary contracts have gone to women and minority-owned businesses. Andrea has joined advocates to push for clear goals and accountability to increase City contracts going to women and minority-owned businesses, and has set her own targets of 7%, 14% and 20% of City contracts to go to minority-owned businesses over the next three years. As Mayor, Andrea will make this a reality, by streamlining and simplifying procurement to make it easier for a wider array of suppliers to submit bids, increasing the capacity of the City personnel to help small businesses navigate the process, and including procurement personnel in overall efforts to diversify the City’s suppliers.
- Actively deploy anti-racism training and tools. As Mayor, Andrea will require yearly anti-racism training for all city departments, Commissions, and Boards. She will also deploy anti-racism tools for all city departments and Commissions to use in their day-to-day work and explore how a truth and reconciliation process for Boston could be implemented. To measure the effectiveness of these trainings and tools, Andrea will create a public dashboard and establish a regular external assessment to measure plans and progress to hold the administration accountable. She will also ensure that these valuable tools are quickly deployed for all employees.
Use Data and Technology To Enhance City Services and Engagement
Our government needs to be innovative and effective to meet the many needs that Bostonians are facing. Andrea will ensure that city leaders leverage data for decision-making and promote innovation across agencies to ensure that the city has the latest policies and technology to best achieve their mission.
- Prioritize Bostonians in delivery of city services. No matter how innovative and effective Boston’s services are, they must be accessible for all Bostonians to be successful. As Mayor, Andrea will make sure that city services are accessible to everyone by listening to all Bostonians, including our seniors and Bostonians with disabilities.
- Lead with a data-driven, people-first approach. Andrea will make decisions that not only are best for Boston’s bottom line, but also prioritize other factors for every major decision including the impact on equity, essential services, and the environment. That is why she will require all agency leaders to publish not only the financial impact of major decisions, but also the environmental and equitable impact.
- Embrace cutting-edge technology to improve delivery of city services. Boston is home to some of the best minds in tech. Andrea will work with these companies and other innovators to leverage best practices to improve city services. She will also look to peer cities and learn from their best practices. Technology can improve the lives of every Bostonian.
- Incorporate the learnings of virtual civic engagement and public participation during COVID. The pandemic changed how Bostonians interact with their government. Andrea will make sure that the city permanently changes to support more accessible and inclusive online civil participation. That includes public participation mechanisms for city departments – whether in person, remote, or hybrid – that promote the greatest levels of public participation and inclusivity.
- Build a public-first data portal. Boston needs to provide data in a format that is useful for Bostonians. That is why Andrea will improve AnalyzeBoston to make it easier to navigate. She will direct city officials to build an interface so that people can search their street and learn the essential information they need. She also will work with community and local leaders to determine what information is missing that should be provided.
Civic Engagement
Empower residents to be co-creators in the future of our city.
Andrea knows that real, generational change starts by listening, continually engaging, and empowering residents, civic groups, and organizers working to better their communities. This has the added benefit of bringing residents together across neighborhoods to work together, know each other, and build relationships that facilitate collective power and action.
As a City Councilor, Andrea has consistently included residents as collaborators in projects like Reclaiming Space – a design initiative to transform vacant lots – and hosted a Civic Empowerment Series for civic association leaders in her district to share best practices and build leadership skills to better advocate on behalf of their neighborhoods. As City Council President, she hosted the first city-wide Civic Leaders Summit in more than a decade to facilitate connections and collaboration with community organizers and civic leaders across Boston.
As Mayor, Andrea will lead inclusively. She believes that when our neighborhood leaders have the tools to effectively organize their neighbors, advocate for specific resources, and inform policies, she will be able to lead at her best. Some neighborhoods already have resident leaders or civic associations that do this well, but many do not. Our City government cannot serve only those who are well-connected, well-funded, or well-organized, but must serve all our residents. By investing in community partnership and supporting a citywide civic leaders network that taps into every neighborhood, Andrea will empower residents to be co-creators in the future of our City.
A More Inclusive Boston
A Boston that works for everyone
ANDREA'S VISION Invest in our Youth
ANDREA'S VISION Ensure Bostonians are able to Age with Dignity
ANDREA'S VISION Make Boston a more inclusive City for our LGBTQ+ Community
ANDREA'S VISION Create a Welcoming and Inclusive City for Immigrants and Refugees
ANDREA'S VISION Cultivate Racial Equity in City Hall
ANDREA'S VISION Fight Tirelessly for Gender Equity
ANDREA'S VISION Foster a Welcoming City for Veterans and Servicemembers.
ANDREA'S VISION Create a More Livable City for the Disability Community[7]
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= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
Andrea Joy Campbell Incumbent (unopposed)
