BOSTON - Friday,
July 2, 2021 - Mayor Kim Janey today hosted an event, marking her first
100 days as Mayor. She shared progress on her City agenda of reopening,
recovery and renewal, as well as released the Kim Janey Mayoral Transition Committee Report. Prepared by policy and thought leaders
across the city, the Janey transition report outlines recommendations in
the areas of education; housing planning and development; public health;
safety, health and justice; and small business and economic
development.
Below are Mayor
Janey’s remarks as prepared:
Thank you Officer
Kim Tavares for that lovely performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
You have an incredible voice. Thank you for your service to our
city.
I also want to
acknowledge the remarkable spoken word performance by two magnificent
artists, Ashley Rose and Danielle the Buddafly. You both are so amazing.
Let’s give them another round of applause!
I want to give a
shout out to the City’s digital media team for putting that 100 Days
video together. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such an incredible
team. Thank you.
I thank all of the
elected officials here today: Sheriff Steve Tompkins, State
Representative Nika Elugardo, State Representative Liz Miranda. I
also want to thank Boston City Councilor Kenzie Bok, Chair of the Ways
& Means Committee, and Councilor Ricardo Arroyo and Councilor Ed
Flynn, each of whom were invaluable partners in passing a budget that I
know we are all proud of. This budget will be Boston’s biggest
investment in its schools, in its infrastructure and the services our
constituents rely on every day.
I also want to
recognize and thank the Honorable Sumbul Siddiqui, Mayor of Cambridge who
is here with us; and the Honorable Yvonne Spicer, Mayor of Framingham.
Mayor Siddiqui and Mayor Spicer served as honorary co-chairs of my
mayoral transition committee. As the only other women of color serving as
mayors in our Commonwealth, I am so grateful for your partnership.
The meeting house
I especially want
to thank the Museum of African American History for protecting and
preserving this historic Meeting House where we are today. I thank Leon
Wilson, President and CEO, and his incredible team for hosting us. I also
want to acknowledge my Chief Resilience Officer Lori Nelson for
maintaining this partnership between the City of Boston and the museum.
Take a look
around. The Meeting House is beautiful. It exemplifies the
remarkable craftsmanship and civic engagement of the early African
American residents of Beacon Hill.
They were
educators and shopkeepers, teachers and preachers. Some were born free
and some had achieved freedom. They came together with shared values and
a shared vision for Boston.
They built this
Meeting House in 1806. William Lloyd Garrison, a journalist, founded the
New England Anti-Slavery Society here. And, it hosted many great
speakers, among them, the great Abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
This Meeting House
also has a direct connection to my church home. And I want to acknowledge
we are joined today by my pastor, Reverend Willie Bodrick. The Twelfth
Baptist Church was founded when members of this church community split to
create a church with a more proactive stance against slavery. Like
Boston’s early Black community, Twelfth Baptist left Beacon Hill for
Roxbury, carrying that spiritual legacy of freedom and resilience with
it. Years later, Martin Luther King Jr. would serve as its assistant
minister, further punctuating its legacy forward to the rest of the
world.
100 Days
Reflection
It has been just
over a 100 days since I took office. (The actual 100th day came
during the height of this week’s heat wave. I thought, however, it
wouldn’t be the best time for a speech indoors.)
I must say that
each and every day it has been a privilege to serve you and to lead this
City. It is the honor of my lifetime.
As a child growing
up in this City, my oasis on a hot summer day was the Frog Pond in the
Boston Common. Last month, together with Chief White Hammond,
Commissioner Woods, and our Parks Department, I got a chance to reopen
that Frog Pond for all to use. (I was even able to get my feet wet
for a bit.) It had been closed for over a year due to COVID, and its reopening
marked a milestone in our collective efforts to combat this
pandemic.
As a teenager in
this City, it was my youth summer jobs through ABCD that gave me a degree
of autonomy and valuable career skills. Two days ago, the Boston City
Council passed a budget that expands those summer job opportunities for
more youth in Boston and creates 1,000 additional year-round youth jobs.
As an adult in
this City, I benefited from a first time home buyers program, which
helped me purchase the house that I still live in today. And,
together with Chief Dillon and the Department of Neighborhood
Development, we announced last month a significant increase in the
support we give to first-time homebuyers citywide. This will make
the dream of owning a home -- and access to this wealth building asset --
a reality for far more of our residents. We are offering up to $40,000
thousand dollars in downpayment assistance. This more than triples the
amount we previously provided, which was up to $10,000 thousand
dollars.
As Mayor, I have
an even deeper appreciation of our City, her people, and, above all, the
work that goes into making Boston stronger every day.
As I reflect on
the first 100 days, I am reminded that, like this meeting house, Boston
is built by the hard work and skilled hands of many.
At our best, we
are organizing, we are advocating, and we are taking on the challenges
that lead to a more just, more prosperous, more joyous
community.
All of you in this
room, and many, many more across our City are doing that work each and
every day. And, I thank you for it.
Transition
Committee / Report
With us here
today, we have city residents, City staff, and members of my transition
committee.
160 members of the
public served on that transition committee. Each brought their love
of Boston and their perspectives on its future. Together, they
drafted a set of recommendations for how we recover from this pandemic
and lay the groundwork for a stronger city going forward. Those
recommendations are being posted on the City’s website today. They
cover areas ranging from public health to public education, from economic
development to housing, from transportation & climate justice to
safety & healing.
My transition
committee was co-chaired by Linda Dorcena Forry, Betty Francisco, Steve
Grossman, Quincy Miller, and Kate Walsh. And the work was
facilitated by the Rappaport Institute at Harvard University and by my
Transition Director, Gustavo Quiroga. I am eternally grateful for your
purpose-driven passion for creating a better Boston for all.
Importantly, many
of the transition recommendations have already been implemented. We have
made great strides in expanding equitable vaccine access, supporting
businesses in reopening, and getting our children back to school safely.
We have stood up for climate and racial justice in proposed projects and
we have worked to change how our community responds to mental health
crises.
Education --
Children’s & Youth Cabinet
Another of those
recommendations we are moving forward on today: To increase equity and
reduce disparities for children and youth of Boston and provide for more
coordinated services for families, I’m proud to announce that we will be
forming a Children’s and Youth Cabinet.
I have spent most
of my career advocating for equity and excellence in youth opportunities
in this City. I know the wealth of opportunities we provide. But the
total is less than the sum of its parts. We can do more, if we work
better together to serve our youth.
That is the purpose
of the Children’s & Youth Cabinet. It will be a convening of
City cabinet chiefs and department heads who serve youth in the City of
Boston aged 0-24. It will work to coordinate the services that the City
provides and optimize our partnerships with nonprofit organizations,
faith-based partners, the Boston Public Schools, higher education
institutions, and employers.
Two of my cabinet
members leading this effort will be Dr. Brenda Cassellius, our School
Superintendent, and Dr. Mary Churchill, my Chief of Policy &
Planning. Dr. Cassellius served in a similar role in Minnesota, as
Commissioner of Education for the State, and Chief Churchill has deep
relationships with academic institutions across the city.
In many respects,
Boston is the best city in the world. But too many of our children and
families are not getting their needs met. To get there, we need to wrap
the services of the whole city around each of our youth. And, this
new Children’s & Youth Cabinet will help us to do that.
We’ll also do that
by improving our school buildings. Last month I broke ground on the
building of a new Josiah Quincy Upper School. I want to recognize the
coordination between the Boston Public Schools and Chief Dion Irish in
this work to create great places for our children to learn in our city.
COVID → Health
Disparities
This type of
cross-administration and cross-city coordination is not new. In
fact, it is the hallmark of how we have been fighting the COVID-19
pandemic. And, the results prove the model.
As of today, new
cases of COVID are at record low levels. 65 percent of our residents have
received at least one dose of the vaccine. And, for some of our hardest
hit by this pandemic -- our seniors -- over 75% are fully
vaccinated.
I want to thank
Chief Martinez, who has been spearheading much of this coordination
across the City over the last 16 months. His effort and the effort
of his entire team has saved lives and made our City more resilient.
I want to
celebrate and thank one of those team members today. Following a
career of public health leadership and a focus on recovery services, Rita
Nieves stepped in as the City’s interim executive director of the Public
Health Commission in December 2019. This was just a few months
before the first documented case of COVID in our city. She offered
to serve in this role in advance of an expected retirement. She has
done an exceptional job leading her team through this crisis and, for the
benefit of the City, putting off retirement. Today, with the
progress we have made, retirement will come at the end of the
Summer. On behalf of the entire city, Rita, I want to thank you for
your service.
As we continue
our recovery from COVID, I know how important the work of our Boston
Public Health Commission will continue to be. Because of that I am proud
to announce that the Board of Health last night appointed Dr. Bisola
Ojikutu as the next Executive Director of the Boston Public Health
Commission. Dr. Ojikutu is an infectious disease doctor at Mass General
Brigham. She has dedicated her career to addressing health
disparities and the systems that cause them. I am so excited that Dr.
Ojikutu will begin her leadership of the Health Commission starting Sept
1st. Please join me in welcoming her.
COVID-19
exacerbated the health disparities that already existed in our
city. Just as we have done to combat COVID, we will be putting
forward a health equity plan that organizes resources and policies. Race,
ethnicity, gender, or income should never dictate your health outcomes.
Economic Reopening
→ Wealth Gap
Our public health
recovery is the foundation for our City’s economic recovery. And,
our economy is recovering. The unemployment rate has dropped from
16% a year ago to roughly 6% today. And, economic activity
continues to pick up.
Part of the reason
for the strong recovery are the programs that Chief Dillon and Chief
Morikawa and their teams put in place to provide stability for renters,
homeowners, and small businesses.
For example,
nearly 3,000 renters have used the City’s Rental Relief Fund to
date. This includes residents like Tyson, a single dad from Jamaica
Plain who was facing eviction. He used the rental relief fund money to
move to a new unit in Dorchester. The fund covered his first, last,
and security deposit. With our help, Tyson is happy to be in a new
apartment with his son.
Sara, a healthcare
professional from Mission Hill, had her hours cut during the height of
the pandemic and was using her savings to pay her rent. She applied
for rental relief funds to pay future rent. We helped her out, and now
she can use her earnings to support her family.
This program will
become even more critical once the eviction moratorium expires at the end
of this month. We encourage every tenant who may be in need to
reach out. And, our economic support programs go far beyond rental
relief:
For small
businesses who may be facing similar challenges, we’ve distributed $16
million dollars to over 4,000 small businesses, and we’ve added an
additional $16 million dollars to commercial rent relief and small
business support.
For workers
looking for new career opportunities, we’ve allocated $1 million dollars
in job training in those industries that were hardest hit and $1 million
dollars in job training for artists. And last night, we hosted our first
Community Advisory Board meeting with community partners in labor, environmental
justice, and education to shape $4 million dollars of investment in green
jobs.
And, for
businesses interested in contracting with the City, we’ve staffed up our
supplier diversity team and issued 56 capacity-building grants to
businesses, under the leadership of our new Chief of Equity &
Inclusion, Celina Barrios-Millner.
All of these
efforts stabilize our economy and accelerate our recovery. In
addition, they will help us address the wealth and wage disparities that
exist in our city.
Prior to the
pandemic, the gaps in employment, wages, and, in particular, wealth were
stark, across race and ethnicity. Those gaps are markers of
years, decades, and centuries of inequitable policies.
Policies we are committed to changing, together.
Community
Now, change in our
city can be tough. We are City of engaged residents, with deeply
held and well articulated perspectives. I am a firm believer,
however, that we go farther as a City when we give space to this
dialog. When we value engagement. When we respect alternative
views.
That is why, I am
so pleased that through this budget we just passed, we will be creating
the City’s Office of Participatory Budgeting. This will allow even
more people to directly impact how their tax dollars are invested.
To build a strong
community you must provide an opportunity to involve everybody.
And, you must also provide safety for all. I want to give credit to the
Police Department and to Superintendent-in-Chief Greg Long. This
year, Part 1 crime is down 18%, firearm arrests are up 25%. The
Department is putting in place reforms to build greater trust with the
public. And, through the work of Chief Aisha Miller, we have launched the
City’s Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, under the leadership
of Stephanie Everett.
We are also taking
steps to increase the role of mental health workers and reduce the role
of BPD, where appropriate, in responding to mental health crises.
Last night, we held our first community meeting on the future of mental
health crisis response in Boston. And, next month, we will be
releasing the pilot plan.
Safety, justice
and healing in our community can also be encouraged by what I call the
Joy Agenda. This is a citywide invitation to reimagine our city in a way that
centers and celebrates joy. It encourages opportunities for collective
healing and for investing in imagination and creativity.
Whether that is a
block party, a barbeque with neighbors, a stroll in Franklin Park with
family, or taking in this weekends’ fireworks on the Boston Common with
friends, the Joy Agenda is about helping people reconnect and strengthen
community ties.
As a Black woman
who is also the granddaughter of a baptist preacher, I know it is joy
that helped my ancestors persevere. It gave them hope to carry on. Let’s
continue the faith tradition of God’s great joy - sweet, beautiful,
soul-saving joy!
And as we tap into
our inner joy, let us be inspired by the early African American residents
of Beacon Hill who came together, on this southern slope, with shared
values to set priorities for the emerging community we now call the City
of Boston. Because as we have seen from this space we are gathered in,
and as I have witnessed in the last 100 days as your Mayor, our City and
her people can achieve anything when we work together.
Thank you!
Now, without
further ado, please rise as we welcome the talented Danny Rivera who will
sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
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