Boston Mayor Wu attracts help from Metropolis Council critic amid sanctuary battle with feds

When Boston Mayor Michelle Wu defends town’s sanctuary standing earlier than a Republican-controlled Congressional committee subsequent month, she’ll achieve this with the general public help of considered one of her most vocal critics on the Metropolis Council.

The workplace of Councilor Julia Mejia, a local of the Dominican Republic who was raised within the U.S. by a single, undocumented mom, despatched an e mail to her Council colleagues earlier this month to ask them to rally together with her outdoors Metropolis Corridor “to indicate our help for Mayor Michelle Wu” whereas Wu testifies in Washington, D.C.

“On behalf of Metropolis Councilor at-Giant Julia Mejia, we invite you to affix us in solidarity on Wednesday, March 5 at 11 a.m. on the Metropolis Corridor Plaza to indicate our help for Mayor Michelle Wu, who might be testifying earlier than Congress on Boston’s standing as a sanctuary metropolis on this present day,” Mejia staffer Julisa Curet Rodriguez wrote in a Feb. 14 e mail to councilors obtained by the Herald.

“Please save the date as we stand in solidarity with our mayor and the immigrant neighborhood,” Curet Rodriguez added.

Mejia joined in on the Metropolis Council vote final December to reaffirm the Boston Belief Act, a 2014 native regulation that prohibits metropolis police and different departments from cooperating with federal authorities on civil immigration detainers.

Wu was considered one of 4 mayors ordered to testify earlier than a Republican-controlled Congressional committee on sanctuary metropolis insurance policies and their affect on public security. She might be in Washington D.C. for the March 5 listening to.

The opposite mayors set to testify are from Chicago, New York Metropolis and Denver.

In Wu-related Trump-battling information

Mayor Wu, who has struck a defiant tone towards President Donald Trump’s efforts to hold out mass deportations, together with his newest transfer to finish protections for Haitian migrants, is difficult one other considered one of his administration’s choices.

Wu co-led a coalition of mayors final Wednesday in writing and submitting an amicus temporary in federal district court docket in Boston “to cease the Trump administration’s drastic and unlawful cuts to federal analysis funding and rapid job losses in cities nationwide,” as her workplace put it in a Thursday information launch.

Greater than 40 mayors, cities and counties from throughout the nation joined the temporary, Wu’s workplace stated, whereas describing the taking part cities as “houses to universities and hospitals that make use of tons of of hundreds of Individuals in cutting-edge medical and scientific analysis.”

“For many years, Congress has made a transparent alternative to make use of federally-funded analysis to spend money on cities, construct a broadly-distributed infrastructure for scientific discovery, create jobs, and drive financial progress in communities throughout the USA,” Wu stated in an announcement.

“We be a part of with cities throughout the nation — in purple states, purple states and blue states — to cease this unlawful motion that can trigger layoffs, lab closures and undermine scientific progress in American cities,” the mayor added.

The amicus temporary was filed in response to the Nationwide Institutes of Well being’s Feb. 7 announcement that medical analysis funding can be instantly minimize.

The brand new coverage briefly went into impact Feb. 10. On that very same day, 22 states and organizations representing universities, hospitals and analysis establishments filed separate lawsuits to cease the cuts.

A federal choose once more blocked the cuts this previous Friday, following a court docket listening to that was held in Boston.

Amid Mass and Cass spike, Wu’s Lengthy Island bridge push attracts skepticism

A briefing from a Wu administration official on Boston’s long-standing plan to rebuild the Lengthy Island bridge out to a future dependancy restoration campus drew skepticism from a working group devoted to combating town’s opioid disaster.

After listening to an replace on the mission — which gained MassDEP approval for a key allow final month however noticed that ruling instantly appealed by Quincy’s mayor — Steve Fox, a member of the South Finish, Roxbury, Newmarket working group on dependancy, restoration and homelessness, stated the plan was years away from actuality.

“We’re speaking a few bridge reconstruction that’s in all probability going to price $250 million,” Fox stated on the group’s assembly final week. “It’s in all probability simply wanting a billion {dollars} by way of getting the ability up and working and transferring in a course that we envision it to be — to be the sort of campus we would like.

“And no person is aware of how lengthy it’s going to take for Quincy’s choices to get exhausted,” Fox added. “However in any occasion, counting that and the reconstruction, we’re speaking someplace within the neighborhood of seven to 10 years earlier than we might ever see … Lengthy Island functioning as a restoration middle.”

Quincy’s mayor Thomas Koch has vowed that his metropolis would do “every thing in its energy to maintain town of Boston from constructing that bridge.” He has appealed each allow approval, saying the plan would exacerbate site visitors and questions of safety.

The bridge replace was offered throughout a gathering that targeted closely on residents’ issues about spiking violence and drug use at and round Mass and Cass, the longtime epicenter of town’s opioid disaster.

Residents, enterprise leaders and elected officers who make up the group made one other pitch for his or her “Get well Boston” idea, an interim restoration campus they are saying would function a stop-gap measure for the issue till town can rebuild the bridge out to a everlasting campus.

The Metropolis Council not too long ago accepted a decision in help of the idea, however there hasn’t been a lot motion on it in any other case.

Chris Osgood, town’s director of local weather resilience, indicated on the assembly that town’s focus was on the long-term bridge plan. He stated work to stabilize buildings on the island will wrap up this summer time, however the precise timeline and value of the plan stays unclear.

Osgood stated, “Definitely the promise of 1 place which is owned by town that may be a vital public well being campus to serve a essential want for this metropolis and for this area for generations is why we proceed to pursue this.”