For council hopefuls, pointed questions on issues key to ethnics
As eight candidates try to squeeze into four at-large seats on the City Council in the Nov. 8 election, the campaign continues to move from the realm of political lawn-sign language to the stumpers' oratory skills in public forums.
In that vein, the Center on Media and Society at UMass-Boston is sponsoring a debate among the contenders scheduled for Wednesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the school's Campus Center. The event is expected to focus on issues of particular importance to the city's ethnic populace and communities of color.
As a run-up to the face-off, City Weekly solicited questions from representatives of Boston's diverse groups and posed them to the office seekers, in hopes of gaining specifics -- not just generalities -- about what's on the minds of both the body politic and the politicos.
The aspirants e-mailed their responses. You be the judge.
In their own words: Tackling concrete ethnic concerns
1. What would you do to bring a library to Chinatown?
2. What would you do to address discrimination against Haitian nurses' assistants in the nursing home industry?
3. How would you help create different jobs for the Vietnamese population so that people have more options than working in nail salons and the hardwood-floor business?
4. How would you develop strong black leadership to combat the issues that plague our neighborhoods, such as gang violence, drugs, poverty and lack of jobs?
5. What kind of support would you give to undocumented immigrants to help give them access to housing, college resources and driver's licenses?
6. What steps would you take to make sure all Cape Verdean children are properly tested before being placed in school so they don't automatically end up in special-ed classes?
Felix Arroyo
1. I'll continue to work with the Friends of the Chinatown Library and Chinatown's youth to ensure city capital funding for this community-based initiative. Chinatown has many development concerns as the BRA expands its reach into the neighborhood, so the long-term solution is an independent and accountable City Planning Department.
2. Last summer, I chaired a Workers Rights Board hearing concerning serious discrimination charges filed by Haitian nurses at Harborside Healthcare. As chair of the New Bostonians Committee, I will continue to play a leadership role on immigrant and discrimination issues, and to promote the collective bargaining process.
3. I have worked hard to defend the city's efforts to attract and retain businesses owned by people of color, women, and Boston residents. When reelected, I'll provide leadership of an aggressive public education campaign in conjunction with the city's labor and nonprofit community in support of improving workforce development programs.
4. It's as important to be ''smart on crime" as it is to be ''tough on crime." We must expand prisoner reintegration services, improve drug treatment and prevention programs, and reform the CORI system. As chair of the Committee on Youth Affairs, I'll continue to promote these priorities and expanded youth employment programs.
5. Last year, I helped to organize a roundtable meeting with labor and immigrant-rights organizations to explore the best way to approach these issues. As chair of the Committee on New Bostonians, I'll continue to provide strong leadership in support of the in-state tuition bill, drivers licenses for all immigrants, and affordable housing opportunities.
6. Boston's special education must be radically reformed to ensure that all children, including those speaking English as a second language, are both properly diagnosed and served by the system. As a former School Committee member and father to five public school children, I remain deeply committed to our public schools.
John Connolly
1. Every neighborhood in Boston should have a police station, a library, and at least one elementary school with grades K-8. The residents of Chinatown deserve access to city services, especially a library which fosters community building, education, and literacy.
If elected to the City Council, I commit to represent every neighborhood and lobby for the necessary funding so that each neighborhood has access to these basic services.
2. We must exercise all efforts on behalf of our working individuals to end any discrimination in the workplace. In particular, the Haitian-American community must have the proper resources in order to organize and receive proper treatment, wages, and benefits in every industry. We must encourage the rights of our city's working people to unionize, and we must ensure that management does not disallow nurses' assistants to unionize. We must ensure that racial stereotyping is wholly unpermitted in any work environment. Support programs, particularly bilingual education courses, should be a key part of the professional development opportunities offered to our working people. Proper health care and competitive wages, as well as a safe work environment, should be guaranteed to all working people. If elected to the City Council, I will be a friend to all working people and their families. I will be a strong voice to advocate for proper treatment in the workplace.
3. Educational opportunity is the cornerstone of job creation in this city. We must offer bilingual adult education courses to our Vietnamese population, and every minority community, so that our working people have access to the job training necessary to be successful in the workplace. Using the resources at our local colleges and universities, we need to develop partnerships for continuing education for adults. In addition to adult education, we must invest in our youth by offering more extensive after-school programming, scholarship money, and summer job opportunities in order to provide our students with professional experience so that they will succeed in the future.
4. In order to combat the issues of gang violence, drugs, poverty, and lack of jobs in our city, we must invest in our youth. Every child deserves access to a world-class public education and access to after-school programs that offer the leadership and life skills that will give each child a chance to be successful in life. If I am elected to the Boston City Council, I will work every day to improve our schools. In order to provide additional services to our youth, I will work to create partnerships with our local colleges and universities, so that we can fund programs to address these specific issues that plague our communities and more specifically our youth.
5. We must end exploitation of undocumented workers by providing access to the basic services for all city residents. Aid for housing, educational opportunities, and identification for every individual is a vital step in assisting our immigrant communities. Bilingual social service programs and equal access to health care and wages must be provided so that we can address disparities across the diverse communities in the city of Boston.
6. We must encourage and expand parental involvement, after-school tutoring programs, and the existing partnerships with local nonprofit organizations that provide educational support to bilingual students. Improved teacher/parent communication, with proper bilingual support, will benefit students from all ethnicities, particularly Cape Verdean students. Often times language barriers impede our students and their parents from accessing necessary resources for academic success, so we must offer additional tutoring and summer programming so that all of our students are on par with their peers. Partnerships with our colleges and universities can provide the funding and volunteer manpower to make these programs a reality.
Michael Flaherty
1. I strongly support a library for Chinatown. Every neighborhood should have a branch of the Boston Public Library. We should include funding in the city's capital plan and dedicate linkage payments from area developers so that children and all residents of Chinatown have access to this important resource.
2. I will not tolerate discrimination in any form. Boston's health-care workers deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect that they provide to the people in their care. I have stood alongside the Greater Boston Interfaith Coalition and SEIU in their fight for better wages and working conditions.
3. Boston's Vietnamese-American community boasts some of the hardest-working and entrepreneurial-minded people in our city. I will continue to support more worker training programs and encourage Vietnamese-Americans to organize with the Carpenters' Union and other building trades. We also need to support incentives for small businesses within the Vietnamese-American community.
4. City officials and business leaders have an obligation to provide opportunities for African-American men and women. My staff includes young members of the African-American community who are able to gain invaluable experience. City Hall, our city's leading businesses, and our colleges and universities must lead by example by reaching out to our city's youth.
5. Boston is a city founded by immigrants. My own family was greeted by signs reading ''no Irish need apply" when my forebears came to this country. Denying education or housing or licenses to anyone raising a family in our city ignores the lessons of our past.
6. Cape Verdean children and all children seeking admittance to our public schools should be properly tested and placed. Special needs classes are not the place for someone just because they don't speak English as their primary language.
Ed Flynn
1. With all the commercial development in the Chinatown community, a ''linkage" proposal should be established requiring developers to build a neighborhood branch library. The mayor and City Council, working with community leaders, developers, and institutions, should be committed to this project.
2. Haitian nurse assistants perform a very important and difficult function in the workforce today. They deserve job protection and to be treated with dignity and respect. I would support an effort, if they so choose, to organize and become part of a union. Justice and equity must be guaranteed to these hard-working Haitian-Americans.
3. Vietnamese-Americans have proven to be hard working, productive members of our shared community. They are industrious and determined and can perform many jobs and functions if given the opportunity in the workplace. With appropriate training and education, they can succeed in jobs in the technical, medical, educational, and construction fields, among others.
4. When my father was mayor of Boston, his administration had many competent black professionals. They were dedicated and committed to making Boston a better and more livable city for everyone. We need more of these types of dedicated officials to serve as role models in our city government.
5. The City of Boston must have a policy where undocumented immigrants can come forward and receive confidential legal and medical help with support from their city government. Boston had this kind of policy in the 1980s. We must treat everyone with dignity and respect and help these immigrants and their children become educated and productive citizens.
6. At the outset, we clearly need more Cape Verdean-American teachers in our schools. Teachers who understand the language and culture of Cape Verdean-American children are the best potential resource for their learning. I am the only Boston public school teacher seeking election to the City Council and will be committed to assuring that none of our children are wrongfully classified.
Stephen Murphy
1. As a Boston city councilor I would like to see a library in Chinatown. I think all neighborhoods should have a local branch. I will work with fellow councilors and the mayor to begin the capital budget process of siting and building a library for Chinatown.
2. I hate to see discrimination on any level, and I especially hate to see it directed toward men and women who work hard day in and day out assisting others. I would author a resolution on the City Council expressing these views and see that it is distributed to all nursing homes located in our city.
3. The Boston City Council is not a public office that creates jobs. Yet, I believe there are jobs and opportunities for everyone in our city. If it is a matter of educating individuals of the opportunities out there, I support increased education and outreach of those options in all languages for all residents of Boston.
4. I believe we have strong leadership in the city, especially in the black community. I look to leaders like Rev. William Dickerson and Rev. Bruce Wall and others who spearhead positive efforts in their community. I wholeheartedly support their efforts because I believe these men are helping demonstrate leadership to their followers.
5. I believe that it is the responsibility of the individual who comes to this country to become a documented citizen. I am more than happy to assist with housing, college resources, and driver license acquisitions, but I would also help them through the process of becoming a documented citizen.
6. I think all children should be tested before going into school so that we make sure the children are receiving a proper education. Children should not be automatically placed in special-ed classes when enrolling in school. This puts some children at a disadvantage, especially if they don't require special needs education.
Matt O'Malley
1. I fully support the restoration of a BPL branch in Chinatown. In order to do so, we need to create an ad hoc committee to advocate for the library, implement strategies used in successful models in LA and Oakland, research and locate a proper location, lobby the mayor to set aside capital funding, and lobby for state and federal funding after securing mayoral support.
2. Discrimination has no place in the workplace and no place in Boston. I would work to implement the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization's Resident and Care Worker Bill of Rights in all Boston nursing homes so that Haitian nurses' assistants are treated with the respect and professionalism that they deserve.
3. We have an opportunity to create better job opportunities for all Bostonians. I would work with organizations like Viet-AID and the Vietnamese-American Civic Association to create more and better job training programs in the Vietnamese community. Also focus on implementing more Vocational English as a Second Language classes, job search workshops, and job placement counseling.
4. To expand leadership in communities of color, I would work with the countless heroes that are doing work now in establishing mentoring and outreach programming. People like Donovan Walker, who has formed Showdown Youth Development; John Barros, director of DSNI; and Mukiya Baker-Gomez, among the best political operatives in New England.
5. I am running for council because I believe that government should help those that need it the most. I support extending Section 8 and federal housing options, in-state tuition rates, and driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. I would use the full authority of the council to further these initiatives at the state level.
6. I fought against the Unz amendment in 2002, because I knew that cutting the budget for multilingual education would have dire consequences on many of our kids. I support increasing the money, support, and resources for second language learners, particularly when it comes to pre-placement testing. Further, I support expanding the Office of New Bostonians to work in concert with the BPS in creating a better atmosphere for our new neighbors.
Patricia White
1. Chinatown, a dense and vibrant community in the heart of the city, deserves to have its own library. I will work with the Chinese Progressive Association, the mayor's office, and the community to move this initiative forward. Looking to Mattapan and Allston branch libraries as models, I know together we can achieve this goal.
2. I will work with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization in their efforts to establish a Resident and Care Worker Bill of Rights. We must create a zero-tolerance policy for the discrimination presently faced by Haitian nurses' assistants and promote an industry-wide code of conduct in Boston nursing facilities.
3. Workforce development is critical in creating more options in industries with increased earning potential for the Vietnamese community. We must develop skills and match them toward employers' needs. We have a labor shortage in our universities and hospitals, and these are jobs that could be filled by members of the Vietnamese population.
4. Youth employment and leadership development programs are critical for the future of our city, and I would support a permanent line item in the city budget to fund these programs. I will also work to build partnerships between public and private organizations to find additional funds so every child in Boston has the opportunity to spend time in a structured way outside the classroom.
5. The success of our city depends on our ability to fully integrate our immigrant population through home ownership, quality education, and jobs. As your city councilor, I would lobby our state Legislature for the passage of the In-State Tuition Bill to ensure these students receive the same opportunities and benefits.
6. As your city councilor, I would continue to support the Family Resource Center and the Newcomers Assessment Center in our Boston Public Schools and make sure that they are adequately staffed by test administrators who are proficient in Haitian Creole. I will fight to fully fund our ESL programs so that students and parents receive the best education possible.
Sam Yoon
1. By utilizing my existing relationships with Asian-American community leaders such as Stephanie Fan, as well as members of the South Bay Planning Task Force, among others, I would establish a working group to achieve specific goals: to seek benefactors, to create partnerships, and to envision and to design an interactive, multicultural, and educational library for Chinatown.
2. National origin discrimination in the workplace is unlawful under state and federal laws. Therefore, I fully support the Massachusetts attorney general's ''Advisory on the Civil Rights of Immigrant Workers Prohibitions on National Origin, Race, and Color Discrimination." Also, I would work with the GBIO, SEIU, MCAD, and communities of color to strengthen anti-discriminatory laws.
3. As a resident of Fields Corner, Dorchester, which contains a significant Vietnamese population, I can attest that this characterization of the Vietnamese workforce is a shallow stereotype. Vietnamese workers own restaurants, mortgage businesses, contractor services; they pay taxes, provide employment, and participate in the American dream -- despite linguistic and cultural obstacles.
4. There already is significant strong black leadership in Boston, and I am inspired and moved by their ongoing tireless work. As councilor, I will work to develop integrated solutions across the city. Drugs are ultimately neither race nor neighborhood specific. Neither are poverty or unemployment. Our job is to make sure we are working toward solutions to these problems.
5. Undocumented immigrants clearly need assistance in assimilating into our multicultural academic, business, and civic environment. I support the courageous work of MIRA and their executive director, Ali Noorani, who has both identified the issues and has offered solutions to our state and local government officials.
6. The educational professionals who are testing our children, Cape Verdean and otherwise, need proper training and direct cultural understanding of the diverse experiences of Boston's schoolchildren. Accurate and appropriate assessments are essential. As councilor, I will work with the city administration, the School Department, and community representatives to ensure proper testing for our children.
