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Boston's Morning Newsletter
Here are the winners of Boston's first-ever participatory budgeting cycle
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
It’s Thursday. Happy hours remain banned in Massachusetts, but that isn’t stopping local restaurants from offering food discounts. Check out Eater’s new list of the best after-work dining deals around Boston.
But first, the news:
The results are in: After submitting over 1,200 ideas, Boston residents have selected five winning projects (plus a bonus) in the city’s first-ever participatory budgeting cycle. The new process allowed any Bostonian over the age of 11 to vote on ways to spend $2 million in taxpayer dollars. It’s a tiny fraction of the city’s more than $4 billion budget. But supporters say it successfully engaged more residents — 4,462 of whom cast ballots — and provided an opportunity to experiment with crowd-sourcing. “The idea is that this is not only about the projects themselves, but about checking in with residents about what their priorities are and what they want the city to do,” said Eliza Parad, a coordinator for the Better Budget Alliance. Here’s a look at the winning projects:
- Fruits and vegetables: $400,000 to offer grants to nonprofits that help food-insecure residents access fresh foods, such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, eggs, meat and seafood.
- Rat-proofing: $500,000 to take on the city’s rat problem by investing in better trash cans in “high-density residential areas.”
- Reentry programs for incarcerated youths: $250,000 in one-time grants to nonprofits that support residents between the ages of 14-21 who are formerly or currently incarcerated. It will specifically focus on providing access to mentorship, skills training, education, and health and wellness programs.
- Rent help: $200,000 to fund a pilot program offering renters between the ages of 16 and 24 up to $5,000 to cover rental costs.
- Community gardens: $500,000 in grants to nonprofits that build community gardens, with a focus on food deserts.
- Bonus: In order to spend all of the $2 million, the city also plans to partially fund the sixth-place project: $150,000 to install benches at high-ridership bus stops in Boston. (The original proposal called for $450,000 to install about 150 benches; a spokesperson for the city said $150,000 will likely pay for around 50 benches, though it depends on the final contract.)
- What’s next: Boston’s Office of Participatory Budgeting says it will work with various departments to implement the initiatives over the next few months. Meanwhile, denizens of Cambridge and Somerville have their own participatory budgets to vote on soon.
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In other news: Mayor Michelle Wu’s still-not-quite-official reelection campaign is set to get a big endorsement today from a somewhat unexpected group: the Boston Police Patrolman’s Association. As the Boston Herald first reported, the city’s largest police union is expected to back Wu for a second term over challenger Josh Kraft this morning.
- The endorsement comes after Wu’s administration hammered out a new contract with the union in 2023, after 18 months of at-times contentious negotiations. The deal includes annual base salary raises as well as some reforms. BPPA President Larry Calderone credited Wu at the time for “stepping in and closing the deal.”
Meanwhile on Beacon Hill: The bill to replenish funding for — and tighten access to — Massachusetts’ cash-strapped emergency shelter system is now on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk. Despite unanimous Republican opposition, the bill sailed through the Senate yesterday on a 32-7 vote, a day after the House passed it 127-23.
- As WBUR’s Walter Wuthmann reports, the compromise makes a lot of people unhappy. Republicans say the new restrictions don’t go far enough. Advocates for the homeless fear the rules will leave some families on the streets. However, Senate President Karen Spilka argued it balances “meeting our financial obligations with treating people with respect and dignity.” (It’s likely Healey will agree, given she proposed many of the changes.)
They’re back: All five JFK Library employees who were laid off last week have now been rehired. As WBUR’s Emily Piper-Vallillo reports, the rehired staff all work in ticketing and visitor support, so their pay is covered by admission fees, rather than the federal funds the Trump administration has hastily been trying to slash. However, the library isn’t saying much else on the sudden firings or about-face.
P.S.— Migraines, night sweats, brain fog, weight gain. This coming Tuesday, WBUR’s Cognoscenti is hosting a CitySpace event to explore — you guessed it — menopause, with women’s health expert Dr. Sherrie-Ann Burnett–Bowie, activist Shannon Watts, psychiatrist Pooja Lakshmin and author Lisa Borders. Click here to get tickets.
