Politics makes strange bedfellows.
Former State Senator Dianne Wilkerson and President Donald Trump are not natural political allies. But they both have issues with Mayor Michelle Wu and could find themselves connected by a common issue:
Opposing the Blue Hill Ave center lane bus project.
A coalition of residents, merchants, and community leaders has now taken the extraordinary step of asking U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to withdraw approximately $80 million in federal funding for the project. According to the coalition, more than 2,200 residents signed a petition to stop the project. Their letter argues that after years of meetings, public hearings, and attempts to engage City Hall, they have run out of options to stop or redesign the project.
The project goes back to what was called 28X in Gov. Deval Patrick’s day. When there was community opposition, state officials withdrew an application for federal funding for the project.
The plan has been discussed for years.
Mayor Wu has proposed the project again. I told Stephen Gray of Grayscale Collaborative that they needed to understand the history of the project. He said, “They wanted to start with a clean slate.” Starting with a “clean slate” sounded good but translated into an attitude and an action that resulted in years of prior feedback being discarded.
What would happen to the cars that double parked along Blue Hill Ave, for church on Sunday, the loss of parking, and the resulting business impact?
Instead of incorporating prior feedback i.e. we have heard your prior concerns, and this is how we are going to address them, they simply ignored them to the peril of the project. Grayscale was taken by surprise, but shouldn’t have been, when the first community meeting became contentious, because so many people opposed the project from the beginning. City officials were asking what residents wanted, but many residents felt they had already answered that question; “Not this project.”
I noticed that the report the consultants put together for the city explained the process and recorded many comments from the residents but none of the comments were negative or critical of the project. That was not a true reflection of the community.
When candidates were running for State Legislature seats and were asked their position on the project ,they all said no with the exception of Rep. Nika Elugardo, and when they said no, large crowds cheered. People were writing editorials against it and when you went to the city’s website on the project, you could only infer from all of the positive comments that the community was 100% behind this. They weren’t.
I knew opposition was getting serious when campaign signs opposing the project started appearing in the windows of businesses. When a petition to oppose the project gathered thousands of signatures, that should have been a warning. But none of this feedback seemed to make it to the mayor’s office, or perhaps it did. Which is why we are where we are.
That feels very similar to the White Stadium project, where a number of people felt their concerns weren’t being addressed, and wanted stop the project in its current form.
Former State Senator Dianne Wilkerson has framed the issue in even broader terms. White Stadium is the largest public investment to take place in Boston’s Black community in decades, yet many Black community leaders (residents and businesses owners) argue they were never granted a meeting with the mayor to discuss their concerns (around the loss of business, parking, economic and environmental harm.) The same issues that prompted the mayor to attend multiple meetings with the residents of Charlestown, who had concerns about the proposed Everett soccer stadium.
They argue that the same pattern occurred with the Blue Hill Avenue center lane bus project. Regardless of whether one supports or opposes either project, both would have significant impacts on predominantly Black neighborhoods. To many residents, the question is not simply the outcome but whether those most affected were given an opportunity to have their concerns heard at the highest levels of City Hall.
When thousands of residents sign petitions, community organizations mobilize, and elected representatives raise concerns without securing that direct engagement, some begin to conclude that participation is being managed rather than valued.
Whether one agrees with the opponents or not, both controversies reveal the same underlying challenge: once residents believe decisions have effectively been made before community concerns are fully considered, trust begins to erode. The recently presented parking plan for White Stadium will only further worsen the mayor’s relationship with the Black community.
The challenge for government is that trust is cumulative. Every time residents feel their concerns are dismissed, skepticism grows. Eventually people stop distinguishing between individual projects and begin judging the entire process. At that point, opposition is no longer about bus lanes, stadiums, bike lanes, housing, or development. It becomes a referendum on whether public engagement is genuine or merely procedural. Once that trust is lost, rebuilding it is far harder than winning any single policy debate.
Public engagement is not measured by the number of meetings held. It is measured by whether participants believe they were heard.
Today the debate has escalated from neighborhood meetings to the desk of the Secretary of Transportation of the United States.
That should concern everyone.
The ultimate lesson of Blue Hill Avenue is not about bus lanes.
It is about trust.
When people believe their voices are being ignored, they eventually stop talking to City Hall and start looking for someone else who will listen.
Ed Gaskin is Executive Director of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets and founder of Sunday Celebrations
BOSTON (WHDH) – A pedestrian was hit and killed in Roxbury Thursday morning.
The collision occurred just before 8:20 a.m. on Tremont Street.
Police said Tremont Street was closed in both directions between Brigham Circle and Roxbury Crossing.
This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.
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A 96-year-old Boston woman received the surprise of a lifetime when she discovered the French men’s national soccer team had become her neighbors at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Back Bay.
Shirley, a beloved resident of the neighborhood, said she had no idea she would end up meeting the players in town for the World Cup.
“They’re my buddies,” she said with a laugh.
Her caretaker, Samia, said Shirley has become well known around Back Bay.
“Anyone outside, when we are walking, people come to her and want to talk to her,” Samia said.
The U.S. is out of the World Cup. Fellow co-hosts Mexico and Canada are too. So who should
The excitement around the hotel grew after the French team arrived to stay there during the tournament.
Shirley said the encounter happened unexpectedly while she was eating lunch.
“I was having lunch and they came over, and since then, it’s been wonderful to have them here,” she said.
Shirley said team representatives soon invited her to meet the players.
“And they said, ‘He would like to meet you.’ I said, ‘I’m glad to meet anybody,’” she recalled.
For this Massachusetts teenager, attending a World Cup match was more than a dream come true, it was a milestone in a journey that began when he was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma — something that might not have happened if he hadn’t been playing soccer.
After the visit, Shirley recorded a cellphone video sharing her excitement.
“This is absolutely — I cannot tell you how unbelievably fabulous this is,” she said.
The meeting ended with a memorable gift: A jersey from French star Kylian Mbappé.
The team also made her a promise.
“[They] told me that if they win, he will sign it, and then it will be worth a lot of money,” she said, laughing.
Samia, who is from Algeria, quickly agreed. She said she was already a devoted supporter of the French squad after spending many years living in France.
“I’m so excited. I went to Philadelphia to watch the game this past weekend. So, believe me, I’m totally 100% with them. I wanted them to go back to France with a cup,” she said.
Shirley said she never expected to become a fan, but she appreciated the sense of community the tournament brought to her neighborhood.
“It’s good to see such camaraderie happening, with people here getting along. Yeah, it’s the greatest thing,” she said.
She said she still did not know why the team wanted to meet her, but she’s grateful nonetheless. Shirley remains hopeful her new friends would keep winning, and keep returning to Boston.
Local News
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced Wednesday that the city is suing social media companies — including Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube — over their alleged deliberate targeting of minors with addictive features.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Boston Public Schools in federal court in California, will be consolidated with more than 1,500 similar complaints from school districts around the country, Wu’s office said.
The lawsuit seeks to force the companies to remove addictive features and compensate the city for the mental health support needed by students. It alleges the companies designed addictive features specifically to keep young people engaged. These features include endless scrolling, frequent notifications, and personalized algorithms, city officials said.
In a statement, Wu said that these companies have evidence of the harm they are causing to children.
“Boston is taking legal action to protect children and youth and hold these companies accountable. Today, we are making it clear that social media companies must end exploitative practices and be accountable to standards of basic protection for children,” she said.
The move comes as more Massachusetts politicians look to rein in social media companies. The state’s House of Representatives passed a bill in April that would implement a phone ban in schools and prohibit children 14 and younger from using social media. Gov. Maura Healey followed that up by introducing legislation that would require social media companies to verify users’ ages and limit the ways in which minors are exposed to potentially addictive design features.
Just last week, the state Senate unveiled legislation that would require social media companies to automatically disable these types of features for minors.
BPS officials say that they have seen a “significant increase” in social media-fueled mental health needs over the past decade. They cited data from the Boston Public Health Commission that shows the impact on high school students. In 2015, just 26.7% of Boston public high school students reported “persistent sadness.” By 2021, that figure had risen to 43.9%.
The district says it has responded by “exponentially” expanding mental health resources. In 2007, there were six social workers and 48 school psychologists employed in the BPS system. The district now has 240 social workers and 105 school psychologists, officials said.
“We work hard to set our students on the best course for success through rigorous academics and whole-student supports, and the research is clear that social media has had a negative impact on students’ well-being while benefiting companies. We all need to do what is right for our students,” Superintendent Mary Skipper said in a statement.
In March, a jury in California found that Meta and YouTube are liable for intentionally designing addictive features and that executives failed to protect young users.
In May, Meta and other social media companies settled a lawsuit brought by a Kentucky school district in a bellwether case.
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