Michelle Wu’s first big leadership test is unfolding before us this week and, so far, your mayor is proving herself more than up to the task. She is right-on with her decision to mandate vaccinations for all city employees and to insist as well that patrons of indoor establishments prove their vaccination status as well.
Still, a small band of disgruntled city workers – aided and abetted by a slightly larger faction of out-of-town zealots – has been trying to menace Wu at public appearances. If any of them have a reasonable argument, it has been hard to decipher over the racket of the name-calling and race-baiting that is the hallmark of the Trumpist set. They went completely off the rails last Thursday, confronting the mayor as she left a roll call meeting at the B-3 police stationhouse on Blue Hill Avenue. A few of the crazier protestors attempted to block her vehicle while others held racially charged signs and hurled venomous slurs at her.
The mayor stood her ground. Still, it was alarming to see her so exposed to the extremists in our midst, close cousins as they are to the insurrectionist brutes who burst into the halls of Congress a year ago.
Michelle Wu is doing exactly what the vast majority of Bostonians want her to do: Protect them and their neighbors from this awful disease. Good for her for leading with courage and class.
Yes, actually, West of Washington
Two articles in last week’s Reporter about plans to redevelop long-vacant city-owned lots in the Blue Hill Avenue Corridor and the West of Washington section near Codman Square drew some interesting feedback online— both pro and con. But one critique spiraled into the realm of misinformation and must be addressed.
Donovan Birch, Jr., a member of the Democratic state committee, took to Twitter to contend that the use of the term “West of Washington” is an attempt to rebrand the neighborhood and facilitate the displacement of Black residents. The Reporter, Birch alleged, was being “racist” in using the term to describe the community where several vacant lots are located. In a flurry of messages, he appealed to Mayor Wu and other elected officials to “pass an ordinance” to ban what he deems the “renaming of neighborhoods by developers.”
What Birch fails to grasp is that the West of Washington nomenclature is not the brainchild of some evil developer or far-off marketing team. In fact, the phrase has been used since at least the mid-1990s by residents who actually live there. The West of Washington committee, formed in the 1990s under the long-time Codman Square Neighborhood Council, was intended to bring more attention and resources to neighbors who felt— and rightfully so— that the east side of Codman Square tended to get more of both.
In its current incarnation, the West of Washington (WOW) Coalition includes hundreds of residents “focused on a cluster of streets west of Washington Street in the Codman Square area of Dorchester,” including “Athewold, Millet, Norwell, Park, Spencer, Thane, and Wheatland.” Its mission, according to current president Laquisa Burke, is “sustainable change.” The coalition’s very public Facebook page reflects just how that takes shape throughout the year, with block parties and community sessions to plan out safety improvements and new parks. More people who live in that section of Dorchester are always welcome to join the group, we’re told. Find them on Facebook or send an email to wowcoalitiondorchester@gmail.com.
