Take Action for Boston's Kids Tomorrow

An Important Message From City Councilor Sam Yoon

This Wednesday, June 28, I will be casting the most important vote during my tenure so far on the Boston City Council. I will be voting NO on the city's operating budget.

The reason is that it does not provide nearly enough funds to reverse the epidemic of violence and hopelessness that is plaguing certain neighborhoods in our city, and especially its young people.

Since my election late last year, beginning with a quadruple murder in my own neighborhood in Dorchester, until just last week, when a prominent minister-activist and friend of mine decided to move out of Roxbury to protect his children, I have heard and seen everything I need to hear and see.

I have followed the media reports, walked in marches, participated in rallies; I have done the research, read the studies, talked with the police, worked with youth workers, and met with the families of murder victims. I have appraised the problem from the macro to the micro level, and I am convinced that we need to take real action, and we need to do it now.

We need a bold response that focuses like a laser beam on young people. This is both sound public policy and common sense, because so much of the violence in our city begins and ends with troubled youth.

Furthermore, we need to buffer their friends, families, and social networks from what the Boston Globe has called “toxic stress.” From their June 19 editorial: “In metaphorical terms, entire neighborhoods are starting to suffer from toxic stress. And if the authorities can't check the violence and restore peace to the neighborhoods, then the likely response to the stress will be harmful to Boston. Fight or flight.”

I have outlined a fiscally responsible plan for increasing the city's funding for summer jobs and for youth violence prevention. It is eminently affordable, and yet it will greatly multiply our current under funded efforts in these areas.

If the City Council has any power at all, it has the power to steer the budget toward the city's most pressing priorities. If the City Council chooses not to exercise this power during this time of unprecedented risk to young people and to hard-hit communities, then shame on us.

Please join me in calling upon the Boston City Council to block approval of the Mayor's budget until it reflects a response that is commensurate with the problem at hand.

Specifically, I invite you to attend the City Council meeting on Wednesday (June 28, 11:30, 5th floor of City Hall). Your presence in the gallery will provide a measure of accountability that will help to sway some of my colleagues.

If you are so moved, I would also invite you to call all of our city councilors beforehand and express your views to their staff. This is not just a Roxbury-Dorchester-Mattapan problem. It is a City of Boston problem.

Since taking office, I made a promise that every public action I take would be fully transparent. Nothing of any importance that I do on your behalf should be done privately or behind closed doors. I am a public servant, and I serve you, so I felt it was my responsibility to communicate my thoughts on this matter, and to explain my actions fully.

Don't ever hesitate to tell me how I'm doing, whether you agree or disagree. It makes me better at what I do. But as always, I thank you for your continued support and for listening.

1. What does a NO vote mean?
It simply means that the City Council is requesting additional time to negotiate with the Mayor’s administration around funding for youth. The City Council will meet again on July 12. As of July 1, the city’s operating budget will temporarily use FY06 funding levels until the FY07 budget is approved by the council.

2. How much additional funding is being requested?
An additional $1.2 million for youth summer jobs (which will restore recent drastic cuts to this program), and an additional $3.9 million for violence prevention, in the form of increased city personnel (both Streetworkers and youth workers), as well as contract employees or the creation of grant programs to fulfill short-term needs for youth services and violence prevention. This funding program would be designed with community-based organizations.

This $4.1 million represents a 0.19% increase over the Mayor’s proposed operating budget.

3. How do I contact my city councilor?

Councilor Sal Lamattina
617-635-3200
salvatore.lamattina@cityofboston.gov

Councilor Jimmy Kelly
617-635-3203
james.kelly@cityofboston.gov

Councilor Maureen Feeney
617-635-3455
maureen.feeney@cityofboston.gov

Councilor Charles Yancey
617-635-3131
charles.yancey@cityofboston.gov

Councilor Rob Consalvo
617-635-4210
rob.consalvo@cityofboston.gov

Councilor John Tobin
617-635-4220
john.tobin@cityofboston.gov

Councilor Chuck Turner
617-635-3510
chuck.turner@cityofboston.gov

Councilor Michael Ross
617-635-4225
michael.ross@cityofboston.gov

Councilor Jerry McDermott
617-635-3113
jerry.mcdermott@cityofboston.gov

Councilor Felix Arroyo
617-635-3115
felix.arroyo@cityofboston.gov

Councilor Michael Flaherty
617-635-4205
michael.f.flaherty@cityofboston.gov

Councilor Stephen Murphy
617-635-4376
stephen.murphy@cityofboston.gov

Sam Yoon Needs Your Help

Next Wednesday, at 11:30 am, The Boston City Council will be in session to vote on the budget. Councilor Sam Yoon, as well as, Councilors Arroyo, Turner, Yancey are prepared to vote against the budget unless it includes significant increases in appropriations for violence prevention and youth job opportunities.

They would really like to fill the chamber with activists to hold the Council accountable. The 4 councilors hope to be able to force a 6-6 vote, which would bring the issue to the Mayor, who is not necessarily in favor of this happening. Councilor Yoon and the others, feel the increased funding is fiscally responsible but provides much needed support to the city's youth, who are suffering from the increased violence.

At our January Meeting, Andrew McLeod on behalf of the DFA Boston Group, asked Sam to let us know when he needed our support. Well Sam remembered and is asking for our help. Here is a good opportunity to get involved and make a difference in city affairs.

Sam will be sending out some talking points on the issue soon, we will post them as soon as we receive them.

One Candidate Standing

From the State House News Service:

"Breakfast with the Candidates" for governor became breakfast with a single candidate as Deval Patrick, the Democratic nominee, turned out to be the only one who showed up. Venture capitalist Chris Gabrieli, a Democrat, and independent candidate Christy Mihos cancelled, said Mark Mason, president-elect of the Massachusetts Bar Association, which sponsored the morning debate with Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly at Suffolk University Law School. Attorney General Thomas Reilly, also a Democratic candidate, and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, the Republican nominee, chose not to attend, he said.

"One candidate standing is exactly, if we play our cards right, what we want this to look like after the election," Patrick, a former Clinton Justice Department official, quipped.

Again, Patrick is the only person to show up. And he'll keep doing that.

Blogoliterary Riches!

At 6 PM, Glenn Greenwald of Unclaimed Territory will be discussing his amazing new book, "How Would a Patriot Act?"
at the Middlesex, 315 Massachusetts Ave., sponsored by Cambridge Drinking Liberally. RSVP now.

Greenwald's book is a fascinating description of the way George Bush and his conservative cronies are abusing the Constitution, and what we can do about it. With 50,000 sales on the first day, "How Would a Patriot Act?" became a bestseller instantly. It's a welcome antidote to the steady diet of right-wing propaganda that conservative media has been peddling for years.


At 7 PM, Move On is hosting David Sirota, "Hostile Takeover: How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government - And How We Take It Back" and a featured commentator on the Al Franken show, at Porter Square Books.

RSVP: now.

Sirota's book is the first and only book in the aftermath of recent major scandals that aggressively tackles corruption -- and both parties' complicity in it. As former Vice President Al Gore said of "Hostile Takeover": "Every politically engaged citizen should read this book."

Both of these guys are great people and amazingly knowledgable and inspiring. I heartily recommend coming on out to see either of them.

Where I'm Going to be Tomorrow

Jimmy Tingle's, for the Laughing Liberally tour.



These are some funny, funny people.

Funny looking? You decide:

Katie Halper


Baratunde

A week in politics II: The Yearly Kos Convention

Last Wednesday I went down to Logan to go to Yearly Kos, a convention organized for the first time by participants at Daily Kos, the 800-pound gorilla of the progressive blogosphere (the "progosphere")? I could give you my thoughts, but instead, here are my pictures and a few recommended thoughts of others:

Overall thoughts:
Kid Oakland
Mary (Left Coaster)
Steve Soto
sobermom
Gina Cooper
Shasta Dad
Stephen DarkSyde
Ari Melber
Jeffrey Feldman (Frameshop)

Panels:
The Plame panel
Energize America
Michael Schiavo

Traditional Journalism:
Media roundup at Pacific Views

A week in politics I: The Democratic State Convention

The first weekend of June featured the Democratic State Convention, in which our man Deval Patrick gave not one but two remarkable and inspiring speeches to rousing support and firmly sealed the party's nomination on the first ballot. Through Sal DiMasi's careful backroom work, Chris Gabrieli got his name on the ballot by 17 votes, and Tom Reilly kept running his stealth campaign.

The Second Suffolk, my district, was graced by our senator, Dianne Wilkerson, and her Democratic opponent, Sonia Chang-Diaz, who stepped in when Wilkerson failed to get on the ballot. The scene was well-described by the Boston Globe:

If delegates from the Second Suffolk Senate district felt a little squeezed last weekend at the Democratic State Convention, it wasn't just because the chairs were packed so tightly on the floor of the DCU Center in Worcester. It was also because the delegation included both the district's reigning state senator and a hard-charging young challenger looking to unseat her.

Dianne Wilkerson arrived in office 14 years ago pegged as a rising star with limitless potential. But the Roxbury lawmaker has made headlines just as often for her legal lapses and self-inflicted wounds that have foreclosed bids for higher office.

....

Talk to others across the district, and it's clear there is a degree of Wilkerson fatigue in the land that may only be growing. Brad Johnson , a South End convention delegate and organizer of the local chapter of Democracy for America, a grass-roots group formed out of the Howard Dean presidential campaign, expressed amazement at the string of miscues that have dogged the 53-year-old lawmaker. ``Any one thing isn't that much," said Johnson. ``But at some point all the little things add up, and Senator Wilkerson fits that mold."

That tally includes a 1997 sentence of six months' house arrest and a $2,000 fine that Wilkerson paid after pleading guilty to federal income tax charges. In 1998, Wilkerson paid $11,500 in civil penalties to settle a case involving allegations of irregularities in her campaign finance account. In 2000, she faced foreclosure proceedings for failing to pay her mortgage, but was able to halt the move without losing her condo.

And she is currently facing a civil lawsuit filed last fall by Attorney General Thomas Reilly involving new allegations of improprieties in her handling of campaign contributions and expenses.

Tim Murray and Andrea Silbert impressed in the lieutenant governors' race, while John Bonifaz made a very strong showing of 30% despite running a bare-bones campaign.

Of course, now the real work of campaign begins as we head toward the September primary.

Obamarama leads to Patrick Party!

Last night I went to the Barack Obama rally for Deval Patrick. It was great seeing so many active political folk I knew from the Kerry campaign, the Democratic National Convention, Mass for Dean, CPPAX, my ward committee, DFA Boston, PDA-MA, the city council campaigns, and more--as well as being with thousands of people I'd never met before, inspired by the shared political vision and message of hope and change that Obama and Patrick share.

Sen. Obama compellingly told the story of how Deval helped provide crucial backing when he himself was just beginning his Senate campaign -- support that came both in the form of the three things every campaign is built upon: confidence in the candidate, time, and money. And now Obama, with his truly dazzling rhetorical prowess, was here to do the same.

Patrick delivered a compelling speech that stridently challenged Massachusetts insider politics and set the goal of reclaiming the mantle for Massachusetts as the leader in education, health care, and biotechnology. He decried the poor funding of our public educational system from elementary through higher education, noting that it is the students of the public universities who stay in Massachusetts. He touched upon CORI reform, enforcement of labor and wage laws, property tax reform, and a host of other policy issues that are related by his insistence on long-term responsibility as opposed to political expediency. He concluded with the message that it is our hope that his campaign needs and his governorship will need -- trust that we can defend our ideals and solve our problems. We have created the problems that we face, and we can create the solutions.

On my way out I saw Steve Grossman and Cam Kerry coming in for the Victory 06 fundraiser. Hosting a big-dollar fundraiser for the Democratic State Committee's coordinated campaign is one of the most brilliant moves the Deval Patrick campaign made in organizing this rally; good politics for all the right reasons.


Here's the Boston Globe's take.

Watch Sen. Obama's speech here.

And now it's off to Worcester this afternoon....