Weekly Transcript Round-up for 07/31/26
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Weekly Transcript Round-up for 07/31/26Reviews are in for Wu's street safety plan; Council is missing in action on transit; PLUS 5 stories that BPI has been following
ICYMI: Last night BPI’s Executive Director Gregory Maynard was a guest on BNN’s “Talk of the Neighborhoods” with Joe Heisler, where they discussed the latest clash over Boston property taxes between Mayor Michelle Wu and State Senator Nick Collins, what the FY27 budget says about the City’s fiscal future, and more. After a week dominated by reviews of Mayor Wu’s new street safety plan, outlined in a letter to the public released last Friday, this morning Wu announced 3 actions - read more in the Boston Globe, WBUR, and Dorchester Reporter:
The announcement this morning is now the second Friday in a row where Wu released a major street policy update, and that means next week will again be dominated by reviews and discussion of Wu’s actions. Today’s announcements are dense, so look for BPI’s analysis in the coming days. In this issues, keep reading for more on the reviews of Wu’s safety plan that appeared to drive today’s announcements from advocates and 1 Councilor and how the Council is missing in action on this issue. Before getting to those, there was also important news about 4 other issues that BPI is following: 1. A fierce op-ed war has been waged across the pages of Massachusetts newspapers in the last few weeks over whether or not Governor Healey should opt Massachusetts into Education Freedom Tax Credits. What are those? Here is how Boston mayor finalist and City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George described it in her Dorchester Reporter op-ed published this week:
Essaibi George isn’t the only local politician urging Healey to opt-in. In a June op-ed in Commonwealth Beacon Greater Worcester Chamber of Commerce CEO and former Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray and the CEO of Democrats for Education Reform and former Mayor of Providence, RI Jorge Elorza also voiced support for the action. The policy doesn’t have universal support: Somerville State Senator Pat Jehlen got an LTE in the Boston Globe published on Thursday that criticized the policy, and pushed back against a pro-Tax Credit op-ed published in the Boston Globe last week. 2. This article in the Dorchester Reporter about parents at the Mather School fighting for AC in their school touches on a larger issue: many of Boston’s schools are too old to fix. This was the district’s explanation:
While parents dismissed this as a “canned response,” the issue Forde is talking about, often called the “30% rule,” is a growing problem for BPS. What is that rule? Here is how MASSInc described it in 2024:
At least one district school that was initially accepted into the state’s Accelerated Repair Program wasn’t able to move forward and have those repairs done because it triggered the 30% rule. With dozens of BPS schools built before 1940, it is likely that there are more schools in a similar situation. 3. Councilor-at-Large Henry Santana announced he had been discharged after being hospitalized for 11 days and would attend the Council’s regular meeting on 08/05/26. Santana did not elaborate on the “persistent health challenges” that prompted his hospitalization, and the Public Safety Committee he chairs, which faces a number of urgent issues in the wake of violence this summer, still hasn’t scheduled any hearings.* *As of 10:30 AM on 07/31/26 4. Mayor Wu held a closed door meeting on Wednesday about the recent spate of violence in downtown Boston. The Herald reported the meeting had about 40 attendees, including Councilor Ed Flynn and House Ways & Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz. The Herald also reported that Councilor Sharon Durkan, who represents Beacon Hill and Back Bay, was not there. Here is how Michlewitz described the meeting:
Councilor Flynn talked about this meeting, and how he wants to see City Hall take on this challenge, on BNN’s “Talk of the Neighborhoods” last night- find Flynn’s interview in the 2nd half of the show. WU’S STREET SAFETY PLAN GET MIXED REVIEWS, COUNCIL MIA ON STREETS HEARINGS To understand what Wu’s announcement this morning means, it is important to know how the safety plan she released last week were received, and the short answer is: the reviews were decidedly mixed. There was out and out criticism, with the Boston Cyclists Union headlining their response to the letter “Mayor Wu’s Dangerously Underwhelming New Street Safety Plans,” and Nathan Eckstrom of Boston Better Streets Coalition told Boston.com:
Even those who voiced support did so with caveats. Enrique Pepen, one of the most outspoken and active Councilors on street issues, pointed to his proposal for more Council oversight of street projects as part of the solution during his interview with Matt Prichard on NBC10’s ‘At Issue.’  Some advocates expressed broad support but pointed to specific shortcomings. LivableStreets Alliance, in comments reported by the Dorchester Reporter, talked about the lack of commitment to Vision Zero and Transportation for Massachusetts, in comments to the Boston.com, pointed to the lack of details about 16 paused streets projects. Outside of Pepen’s interview on NBC10 and support for the City’s new effort on Blue Hill Ave announced today, no other Councilor has been featured in press coverage about the Mayor’s street safety plan. It is not clear when that is going to change, because more than a week after the Council’s regular meeting on 7/22/26 there are no hearings scheduled* on any of the street dockets offered there. *As of 10:30 AM on 07/31/26 The lack of scheduled hearings on street dockets is even more notable because hearings on other controversial issues have been scheduled. Earlier this week the Ways & Means Committee scheduled a hearing for September 3rd on “discrepancies between market value and tax assessed value for residential properties,” despite the topic being a major bone of contention in the on-going feud between Mayor Wu and South Boston State Senator Nick Collins - read this week’s Herald article and an earlier op-ed in the Bay State Banner. The Councilor responsible for scheduling those hearings is Sharon Durkan, the Chair of the Planning Committee, where all of the recent street safety dockets were sent, and who prior to her election in 2023 was a long-time campaign consultant for Mayor Wu. As Chair, Durkan has a poor record of holding hearings on street-related dockets. In 2025 the Planning Committee failed to hold hearings on all of these dockets, which focused on a variety of street projects, and were offered by a number of different Councilors:
The committee finally held a hearing one of these dockets in 2026: the 30 Day Review. However, a combination of uncooperative City officials, the City holding back important information, and poor questions from Councilors meant it resulted in little new information. Here is Durkan at that hearing:  The lack of Council hearings on street dockets over the last several years has created a back-up in these dockets, with new issues and questions being raised without the previous issues being discussed or answered. Today’s new set of actions only adds to the traffic jam. Boston Policy Institute, Inc is working to improve the public conversation - help us by following BPI on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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