The seven at-large candidates for Boston City Council spoke about education reform, job equality and crime with community members at The At-Large Candidates Forum on Tuesday in Roxbury.
About 150 Boston voters attended the RoxVote Coalition hosted panel at Hibernian Hall in anticipation of the Nov. 8 municipal elections.
Voters sat at tables as candidates Felix Arroyo, John Connolly, Will Dorcena, Michael Flaherty, Stephen Murphy, Ayanna Pressley and Sean Ryan rotated around the conference room to interact with voters in 11-minute intervals, according to forum organizer Angela Kelly.
Education reform was brought up multiple times at the discussion.
“We are failing our kids at every single level,” said Flaherty, a candidate and former Councilor, at one of the tables. “That’s an outrage.”
He said that although many out-of-state residents speak highly of Boston’s higher education system and come to Boston for that reason, local residents cannot even get into universities due to the poor conditions in Boston Public Schools.
Flaherty also said that he noticed on a recent visit to a local school that only three out of the expected eight buses arrived on time, and the rest were at least an hour late.
Ryan said his main focus was education reform because not much progress has been made in this area in the past 20 years.
Voters also said that the lack of equality in the job market was a concern.
Pressley said that the Boston Residents Jobs policy, which addresses the minority issue, might not be as effective without proper implementation.
“Law is only as good as its enforcement,” Pressley said.
She said that she has already made efforts to increase the community’s knowledge of the jobs that are already available, because many residents do not know about them.
The candidates were also concerned with the increase in crime rates and drug usage among youth.
Flaherty noted that kids are going to school armed with guns and are constantly facing problems with classmates.
“At some point, you can only get your a– kicked so many times,” Flaherty said.
He said that substance abuse and repeat offenders are part of the core reform that needs to be addressed.
Roxbury Community College professor Jacquolyn Payne-Thompson said that the intimate format of this forum helped her personally connect face-to-face with the candidates to see the truth in what they were saying.
“I hope that they do it next year, especially when we have the presidential [elections],” Payne-Thompson said. “I think this may be the best thing to do next year.”
Payne-Thompson said that as a community activist and president of The Historic Boston Equal Rights League, Inc., she attends forums often and enjoyed having the opportunity to not only ask questions, but listen to other voters’ questions.
However, Payne-Thompson added that she sometimes had to hold back on her questions and let other voters speak because of the time limit.
“We’ve taken a rather unique and innovative approach to the format of this event,” Kelly said. “We’ve decided to bring the candidates directly to the community members.”
Bay State College senior Ricardo Fernandez said that along with the six other table moderators, he had to ensure that everyone at his assigned table had a chance to speak.
Pressley said in an interview that the night was spirited and informative.
“I really love this style because it allows for a more personal, intimate exchange,” Pressley said. “You can be more unfiltered. And I always learn something.”
After the rotations ended, each of the candidates stayed at an assigned table to answer questions that voters did not have a chance to ask.
“Some people give you a hard time,” Pressley said. “But that’s what democracy is all about.”
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