When the eight surviving candidates for Boston city councilor at-large gathered at WBUR’s CitySpace on the Boston University campus for a debate, they were asked to grade current Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s performance in office. Ranging from A to C-, the diversity of their responses reflected the wide range in ethnicities, ages and experiences represented on the debate stage.
The debate featured incumbent candidates Annissa Essaibi George, Michael Flaherty, Althea Garrison and Michelle Wu, who shared the stage with challengers David Halbert, Julia Mejia, Erin Murphy and Alejandra St. Guillen. Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker and “Radio Boston” host Tiziana Dearing moderated the debate, which aired live on 90.9 WBUR and WBUR’s YouTube channel.
The moderators divided questions into four categories: transportation, housing and development, addiction and policing and education.
The debate opened with a discussion on transportation and included questions equity in public transportation and other issues such as highway traffic and parking permits. All eight candidates agreed Boston’s transportation systems need improvement, but they differed on how best to make these changes.
Wu, who is running for her fourth term as a city councilor, said improving the city’s transportation systems — and doing so equitably — can help the city achieve other policy goals.
“We have to recognize that public transit is a public good, that the funding for the system should not come on the backs of riders,” Wu said. “We need to invest because this will be the big picture infrastructure that connects us to equity, climate resiliency, affordability, et cetera.”
As for addiction and policing, candidates commented how national conversations on topics such as addiction recovery and drug abuse can affect local experiences.
Flaherty spoke about the importance of building coalitions across cities and towns to curb the opioid crisis and expressed concern about the lack of participation of surrounding municipal governments.
“It pains me to hear a suburban legislator come out and start to cheerlead for safe injection sites, but when you ask if they’re willing to lead the effort in their own community, [there is no response],” Flaherty said.
The primary elections for the city council races were held on Sept. 24 and narrowed the field of at-large candidates from 15 down to eight. Councilor Althea Garrison is the incumbent most at risk of losing her seat — she garnered the least votes out of all four incumbents, finished the primary in sixth place behind political newcomers St. Guillen and Mejia, who finished in fourth and fifth place respectively.
St. Guillen spoke with The Daily Free Press about her campaign’s strategy for the primary and said she plans to increase momentum for the general election by focusing on grassroots support.
“We had a really strong field team… and we knocked 28,000 doors,” St. Guillen said. “And so we continue to look at the places where we can grow and double down on the areas that we did really well.”
Brady Baca, a student at Emerson College and a volunteer on Mejia’s campaign, said the team was eager for him to join them when he emailed last February. He was put straight to work, he said, despite having little experience in the field.
“I help plan and launch canvasses and phone banking, which is where I think half of my time on the campaign is spent,” Baca said. “I also co-run some of our social media and I’ve done some work with her on environmental policy and LGBTQ policy as well.”
Meghan Volcy, a 22-year-old resident of Malden, graduated from BU and moved out of the city in May, but said she still considers Boston her home and wants to stay as involved as she can. She said she believes events such as this debate help residents engage with their city government.
“Increased media participation is huge because I think a lot more people are in tune with social media and other mediums of communication,” Volcy said. “Being virtually connected is half the battle.”
Rosemary Toomey, 56, of West Roxbury, is a research professor at BU and said she came to watch the debate live in order to see the candidates in person.
“The main reason [I came] is just to be able to hear the candidates themselves and get a feel for their nonverbal communication and who they are,” Toomey said, “in a different way than just hearing them on the radio.”
Eunice Lamothe, a sophomore in CAS, attended the event with other members of Alpha Phi Omega, BU’s co-ed community service fraternity. She said she wanted to learn more about the policy side of the issues she has worked on with the organization.
“Someone told me this past summer that the goal of community service is to get rid of community service and these are the people who have the power to [do that],” Lamothe said. “So it’s important as a part of that organization to come out here and get educated on solutions that the nonprofits we work with are lobbying for.”
The city council general elections will take place on Nov. 5. The registration deadline has passed, but registered voters can check their polling location on Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin’s website.
