Perkins (Dorchester), Mildred Ave (Mattapan), Madison Park (Roxbury), Mattahunt (Mattapan), Marshall (Dorchester), Draper (West Roxbury), Clougherty (Charlestown).

Many of the City services we rely on every day as residents - trash collection, snow removal, school bus services, meals for students in our public schools - are delivered by contractors, through publicly bid procurements. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made to ensure that those contractors themselves represent the incredible diversity of Boston. This is one step towards a more economically equitable city.

– Kharlita Chambers-Walker, Outreach and Engagement Manager, Department of Supplier and Workforce Diversity

Bryant Williams, the owner of BWilliams Painting Company, expressed gratitude, saying, "I have a couple of painting jobs coming up, and I had to use all of my savings to secure the contract. Essentially, I am still in business because of the Boston Contracting Opportunity Fund Grant. I will be able to pay for some insurance, part of my business mortgage, and equipment. There is no way I would have recovered from my deficit if not for this grant, which kept me afloat and allowed me to fulfill my contract with Northern Contracting, a partner I've been contracting with for years. This is truly a blessing."

Following Mayor Wu’s directive to go fossil free, the Boston Housing Authority redirected millions of dollars in planned gas heat investments to shift towards clean electric heat pumps. The geothermal network to be designed by National Grid means that energy for heating and cooling can be stored in and sourced from bore holes in the ground. Networked geothermal is a renewable heating technology and source of energy that uses the Earth’s constant ground temperature to provide heating and cooling to buildings through an underground piping network. The project seeks to connect seven federal public housing buildings at Franklin Field to this network, providing residents with clean heat and with in-unit cooling for the first time. This energy pilot represents a new approach for multifamily public housing in Massachusetts.

– Taylor Cain, Chief of Staff, Boston Housing Authority

The City has been targeting this goal from every angle. One of the many ways to both be a green city and counter the effects of climate change is to nurture and grow the tree canopy. The Parks Department's Urban Forestry Division planted 1,300 trees this year, pruned 2,600 more street trees, and treated 1,165 mature ash trees for emerald ash borer disease!

The City's goal is to create 1,000 new jobs for Bostonians by 2025. Read more here.

The Boston Fire Department graduated 32 cadets from 10 neighborhoods and communities!

The program graduated 26 cadets in 2023.

With over 60% graduates of color. And 59 of the 133 graduates speak a language other than English, representing 16 other languages.

In addition to securing the achievements in the contract itself, the Mayor also ensured that the process of negotiating the police contract was for the first time opened up to community, religious, and policy advocates for their input and advice.

– Lou Mandarini, Senior Advisor for Labor

Read more here.

Following a loss after having won their third straight New England title, Coach Beefy told his team as they boarded the bus back to the hotel, "You made it down here. You have nothing to be ashamed of. We're still champions." (Boston Globe, 2003)

300+ residents received mental health treatment and care provided through EMS’s new Alternative Response Unit, "a voluntary program providing a non-ambulance response to low-acuity 911 calls involving behavioral health needs." Read more here.

The City expanded the work of the Neighborhood Trauma Team Network, ensuring that no matter the time of day or night that an incident occurs, the NTTN will be ready to respond. The NTTN plays a unique role in Boston’s violence prevention infrastructure, providing comprehensive trauma support to impacted residents when an incident of community violence occurs. We also engaged in a multi-neighborhood community engagement process to support a strategic approach to not just respond when violence occurs but to create safer communities that prevent violence and support residents from the start.

Low-threshold transitional programs established early during the Wu administration proved crucial to the success of this intervention. Boston has the lowest rate of unsheltered homelessness in the country, given the close coordination with community organizations who work collectively with the City, and we won’t rest until we have the infrastructure to house every family.

Eleven City departments had a role in the Atkinson St. closure plan, as well as twelve other non-profit organizations including non profit partners and state agencies.

– Tania Del Rio, Senior Advisor to the Mayor & Director of the Coordinated Response Team

Thanks to the City Cable channel who took the State of the City home to all the Bostonians who couldn’t be at MGM. (Station Manager Dave Burt recently entered the Emmy’s Silver Circle!) Thanks also to local cable and news affiliates for streaming the speech.

– Santi Garces, Chief Information Officer

Terry currently serves as special assistant for the Inspectional Services Department. He works to support the Investigations and Enforcement team with their day-to-day ground operations. Terry has also been instrumental in numerous operations to support the Mass and Cass initiative with SHARPS/needles and assisting with the transition process.

See photographs of Mark Kennedy and the Mayor in his new home here.

Several of this year's interpreters were with us for last year's address! When the doors opened, multilingual staff joined the interpreters to greet and orient attendees.

– Jeniffer Vivar Wong, Executive Director, Mayor's Office of Language and Communications Access

This partnership was framed after the Los Angeles Unified School District-UCLA partnership (Chancellor Suárez-Orozco was there when they formed that partnership). Superintendent Skipper and Rebecca Grainger (Senior Advisor for Youth and Schools at the City) traveled out to LA together a while back to learn from that model, and then brought their learnings back to BPS to develop the BCLA/McCormack-UMB partnership. Read more here.

Read more here.

Read about Superintendent Skipper's past experience here.

Read about the opening of the Curley Community Center here.

Read more here.

Read about the reopening of the Paris Street pool here.

Read the Mayor's Substack newsletter about potholes here.

Read about the Article 80 steering committee here.

Read about the City's Deputy Chief of Urban Design, Diana Fernandez, here.

Read more about the changes here.

Read about the Franklin Park Action Plan here.

Read about the City finally receiving the seat here.

Read the Mayor's 2023 Chamber of Commerce speech here.

Read the Mayor's op-ed calling for the seat here.

Have you seen these advertisements on your commute this morning? The Office of Early Childhood is funding tuition and certifications for current and aspiring early educators committed to staying and teaching in Boston!

– Farah Elhadidy, Operations Manager, Office of Early Childhood

The City partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, DotHouse Health, and the YMCA Greater Boston. Read about Swim Safe Boston here.

Read the press release here.

Read about Giselle here.

Read the Equity in City Contracts report here.

+1 from last year! ASL, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Mandarin, Cantonese, Cabo Verdean Creole, and Vietnamese interpreters were present.

Read the Executive Order here.

Or a block party! This year, the City supported 80 block parties and streamlined application process to make it easier for residents to host them.

That BPS students would be able to bring their families along—as an intergenerational experience—was a key concern here as the City worked with these institutions, led by the Boston Cultural Consortium, over the last several months to make this program a reality.

– Daniel Lander, Senior Advisor on Policy

Each of these institutions have worked to expand access for years through various programs and partnerships. This is the first time that a coordinated effort across all these partners with the City will make it as simple and coordinated as possible.

In 1970, a mere three Parks Department employees were stationed at the park to maintain it, compared to 50 employees in the 1940s,

In the 1970s, the City actually contracted with the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts to oversee maintenance of the park by her staffers, Matthew Goode and John Francis. This was a landmark private-public partnership. Mayor Kevin White defended the contract by arguing that “the contractor’s lack of specific experience is fully compensated for by its knowledge of and commitment to the Park. Such attributes ought, in my opinion, to be given high rank in assessing the 'qualifications' of a contractor."

White Stadium debuted in 1949 as "White Memorial Schoolboy Stadium," but some of its earliest major track meets featured female athletes—for example, 1954's NEAAU track & field relay won by the Shaw House Girls. The NWSL's arrival marks a clear shift away from the original moniker of "schoolboy" stadium, which neglected the city's female athletes, but girls made it their stadium then, too.

White Stadium is known for hosting football, track, and cross country, but it was also used for soccer by BPS from the 1970s through the 1990s!

Writing in 1886 in the first year of Franklin Park’s construction, Frederick Law Olmsted imagined the park aging gracefully in years to come, maturing into a setting even more naturalistically beautiful than when originally planted, so that “for every thousand dollars judiciously invested in a park the dividends to the second generation of the citizens possessing it will be much larger than to the first; the dividends to the third generation much larger than to the second." But the park-goers of this third generation would not see their dividends increase throughout their lifetime. In 1970, the City’s Parks Department spent less than 1% of its $6 million annual budget on Franklin Park, which at 500 acres comprised almost 25% of Boston’s parkland.

Connect, Learn, Explore is an initiative run across City departments to serve families and children. The Office of Early Childhood (OEC) developed a sticker card that helps young people track their progress in completing activities. The cards are available widely while the stickers are managed through city agencies and community partners who are responsible for providing teaching opportunities and validating achievement. Collect a sticker for each activity you complete, after you've collected the 5 activity stickers collect the grand prize sticker at your last activity!

– Farah Elhadidy, Operations Manager, Office of Early Childhood

In collaboration with the Parks Department, Boston Bikes, and with the help of the summer interns and volunteers from Boston high schools, we moved the bikes from the storage and delivered them to three of the four locations in one day!"

– Farah Elhadidy, Operations Manager, Office of Early Childhood

The City is able to serve an additional eleven early childhood sites by partnering with Highland Street Foundation’s Let’s Get Rolling Initiative. Through their generous donation, Highland Street provided each of the eleven sites with new bikes through REI Co-op, instruction with Bikes Not Bombs, and site coordination through Neighborhood Villages. Together the sites will serve several hundred young children during the summer and the school year. Read more here.

Head of School, Dr. Caren Walker Gregory, has been an educator and leader in Boston Public Schools for 32 years, 14 of those leading EMK. Dr. Walker's experience in math and science has perfectly prepared her to foster a robust college preparatory environment that prepares students to excel in health focused careers and higher education after graduation.

– Rebecca Grainger, Senior Advisor for Youth and Schools

The Office of Youth Employment and Opportunity (YEO) is partnering with Boston Public Schools to make sure that ALL young people know about the meaningful jobs and career readiness opportunities that are available to them. We've presented to Boston Public Schools guidance counselors to make connections directly in schools to make sure that BPS students know that if you want a PAID summer job opportunity, you can get one -- guaranteed!

– Allison Vernerey, Director of YEO

We've been working with YEO to streamline the application and on-boarding process ahead of the Summer Youth Employment Program's most ambitious season yet. We are updating the YEO website with some new features that are designed to make applying for a job easier, along with standardizing application questions for all employers. We interviewed stakeholders during this redesign process,—including students, non-profit grant partners, and other city collaborators—to identify what's working - and what isn't - in the current process.

– Kara Murray, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics

The Office of Early Childhood (with support from Blue Cross Blue Shield) partnered with the New England Conservatory to offer free summer music programming for 3-5th graders and school year programming for 3 and 4 year olds.

We're excited about the partnership between Roxbury Community College and the following schools: Boston International Newcomers Academy, Margarita Muniz Academy, and English High School. This early college program is specifically designed for multilingual students. The first cohort will be starting this month.

English High School is the oldest public school in the Nation, established in 1821, just 45 years after our Nation was founded. There are four technical pathways where students earn industry-recognized credentials and certifications: Business, Finance & Entrepreneurship; Design & Visual Communications; Health Assisting & Wellness; and Programming & Web Development. Caitlin Murphy is the Head of English High School, continuing the legacy of honor, achievement, and service to humanity.

Margarita Muniz Academy is Boston’s only two-way bilingual high school, with a rigorous college preparatory curriculum instructed in English and Spanish. Their mission, led by Dania Vazquez, is that every graduate will be accepted to a 4-year college.

Tony King is the Head of Schools of Boston International Newcomers Academy (BINcA). Their mission is to embrace new immigrant adolescent English language learners and their families by providing a curriculum designed to teach students English while also teaching rigorous content and ensuring students will be college and career-ready with motivation to pursue a life of learning and civic engagement.

– Jisca Philippe, Director of Youth and Schools

Charlestown High School is a diverse school that has been serving students since 1845. Charlestown's Head of School, Ajay Trivedi's strong belief in all students having access to challenging and inspiring curriculum has been foundational to expanding opportunities for advanced learning such as early college at Bunker Hill. Charlestown High School currently offers three career pathways - C-Town Business, Technology and Health.

– Rebecca Grainger, Senior Advisor for Youth and Schools

"The proportion of kindergartners meeting grade-level benchmarks in phonics and phonological awareness rose last spring to 73 percent and 67 percent, respectively, from 69 percent and 62 percent in spring 2022." (Boston Globe)

The Office of Early Childhood and the Universal Pre-K (UPK) team hosted 25 legislators, educators and administrators creating and implementing California's and Mississippi’s UPK system for a day and a half. The UPK team hosted conference calls with Maryland, Kentucky and next week with Guam. Our Universal Pre-K is such a success we were featured in the Huffington Post this summer!

– Farah Elhadidy, Operations Manager, Office of Early Childhood

BPS launched its pilot with 20 electric buses last March. Students have been riding daily to and from school since, including throughout summer 2023. We are really excited to be a recipient of this competitive grant funding and look forward to it accelerating our ongoing transition to a fully electric fleet.

– Jacqueline Hayes, Deputy Director, BPS Department of Transportation

There will be 89 buses in total.

This school year, BPS introduced AP African American History in ten high schools. BPS students had been campaigning for Black studies courses since the late 1960s.

Over 9,500 people, through listening sessions and a community survey, shared their experiences in Boston Public Schools and their priorities for the future. The priorities elevated by community voices helped define the High-Quality Student Experience. As we undergo major renovations and new builds in BPS, they will be designed to ensure students have access to buildings with the physical spaces needed to support a high quality experience.

– Rebecca Grainger, Senior Advisor for Youth and Schools

Watch the Busing Battleground documentary about the road to school desegregation here.

In the 1840s, William Cooper Nell led the protest of the poor conditions of the Abiel Smith School, the country's first public school for Black students. Joined by other Black activists, their efforts led to the City outlawing desegregation in 1855. And yet, midway through the twentieth century, Ruth Batson, working alongside the NAACP, chaired by Melnea Cass, had no choice but to register complaints with other mothers about the inferior education their children received in the city’s segregated public schools, desegregated in name only (though the Boston School Committee denied this fact until the courts acted).

The City is working with Boston area hospitals, businesses, and philanthropies to develop a collaborative fund to offer low-interest acquisitions loans that mission driven organizations can use to buy market rate housing and turn it into permanently affordable homes.

– Dan Lesser, Chief of Staff, MOH

Across 36 buildings as part of the Blue Line Portfolio partnerships.

Read more here.

From the 1930s to the 1980s, Boston built public housing communities – first for families, then for seniors – in almost every neighborhood of our city. Those communities continue to provide vital housing today, at a time when fewer and fewer families and elders can afford to stay in the city of Boston, and the waitlist is 42,000 households long. But for the past four decades, Boston has not built any net new public housing; in fact, we lost public housing units over time. By a federal law known as the “Faircloth Limit”, Boston has the right to 2,891 more public housing units than currently exist. That means about $112 million in potential federal housing support every year that we are leaving on the table unspent. The Mayor’s announcement means that BHA and the City will work together this year to identify specific sites to build all 2,891 additional units over the next decade, taking advantage of the available funding from HUD. These units will be on public and private land, some in mixed-income developments and some stand-alone, serving older adults, families, and people with disabilities. New developments will integrate supportive services and amenities into public housing, establish new pathways to economic mobility, and ensure residents have a place in Boston they are proud to call home.

– Taylor Cain, Chief of Staff, BHA

In some of our neighborhoods, more than 40% of all home sales have gone to private investors.

Councilors Enrique Pepén and Henry Santana both grew up in BHA housing.

We met with local builders to understand the challenges for building ADUs in Boston. Their insights and ideas will help ensure a diverse group of builders are participating in this growing market opportunity. We are also co-designing new gap filling financial products with local banks so that all homeowners have access to funding to build an ADU that meets their families needs.

– Marcy Ostberg, Mayor's Office of Housing & Adriana Lasso-Harrier, BPDA

The Boston Home Center’s Additional Dwelling Unit (ADU) Home Loan Program offers gap funding to eligible Boston homeowners of 1-3 unit properties who wish to create an ADU on their property. For more information on Boston’s ADU requirements, go to: www.boston.gov/adu-toolkit or contact adu@boston.gov.

The City's lowest-ever bond rating was BBB+, which it had from 1980-1986, dropping from A- due to Proposition 2 1/2's constraint on property tax levies. (Boston Municipal Research Bureau)

New zoning for Mattapan, implemented through the PLAN: Mattapan planning process, will allow residents to build ADUs by-right in residential areas. This year, the BPDA and the City will launch a rezoning study to allow the development of ADUs citywide.

– Marcy Ostberg, Mayor's Office of Housing & Adriana Lasso-Harrier, BPDA

Giselle and many of the 250 Boston families who became first-time homebuyers with the City were present at the address. Learn more about the Welcome Home, Boston program here.

2,400 homes total moved into construction this past year.

Muddy River (Fenway), The Embrace (Beacon Hill), Gourdin Veterans Memorial (Roxbury), Jeep Jones (Roxbury), Malcolm X Park (Roxbury), Millennium Playground Phase 1 (West Roxbury), Ryan Play Area (Dorchester), Walnut Street Play Area (Roxbury)

Marking the second new fire station Boston built in four decades.

Check out this video about building speed humps!

The Inspectional Services Department and Worker Empowerment Cabinet are working in partnership on implementation of the ordinance, which includes training 972 contractors about the new ordinance and how to comply, including one webinar with Spanish Interpretation. Between now and June, they will be offering 5 free OSHA-30 trainings for small contractors (3 in English, 1 in Spanish and 1 and Portuguese) as well as monthly 1-hour webinars on how to create a Site Safety Plan.

– Jodi Sugarman-Brozan, Deputy Chief of Worker Empowerment and the Office of Labor Compliance and Worker Protections

Read about the ordinance here.

This seemingly simple change, to remove gendered terms on our city's marriage certificates, holds profound significance in promoting inclusion within our community. By removing gender markers, we no longer force our diverse citizenry to select from an outdated and often restrictive list of gender options in order to get married. And, for those of us who change and evolve, later identifying with a different gender than when we initially married, our marriage certificates no longer confine us. They can now authentically reflect the love we share without disregarding our personal growth and new pronouns. City Registrar Paul Chong presented Kimberly Rhoten (they/them), Director of Policy at the Mayor's Office of Returning Citizens, with the first marriage certificate without gender markers; it was one of the best day's of their life (except their wedding, of course)!

– Kimberly Rhoten, Director of Policy & Strategic Initiatives, Office of Returning Citizens

Read more here.

In other library news, the BPL added the very first Age Strong librarian at the Hyde Park branch, brought its digital collections to riders at 20 bus stops, and is building 275 units of affordable housing on top of library branches at Chinatown, Uphams Corner, and the West End.

And with Blue Cross Blue Shield, we launched the lowest-cost bikeshare pass in America. Read more here.

The Mayor's Office of Arts & Culture gave out $7.35 million in Cultural Investments Grants this year! The City also made a historic commitment to the arts in securing 290 N Beacon St., an $18M building in Brighton that will be given to the City by a developer as part of their mitigation package—the largest ever for the arts. It will become a permanent space for 500 artists to rehearse.

– Kara Elliott-Ortega, Chief of the Mayor's Office of Arts & Culture

Squares + Streets is a planning and zoning initiative of the BPDA and the City of Boston that focuses on neighborhood centers that are near transit and along main streets across Boston. A major component of the initiative is updating the zoning in these neighborhood centers to guide development that encourages a mix of building uses and heights, creates housing diversity and growth opportunities, and encourages active streets.

This number went from 5% to 12%.

Other collaborations with the MBTA this year included building 5.7 miles of dedicated bus lanes. Buses also moved 6 million riders on the free 23, 28, and 29 Bus routes—the highest ridership in the system since they became fare-free.

For an example of daily collaboration between the MBTA and BTD:

The City worked with the MBTA to relocate a shuttle terminal from Copley Square to Back Bay Station, reducing the walking distance during the recent and ongoing Green Line Central Tunnel Closure.

– Matthew Petersen, Transit Planner, BTD

During the pandemic, many small businesses closed, leaving empty storefronts littered across downtown and in our main streets. But so many Bostonians have dreams of businesses they want to create or expand. The S.P.A.C.E. grant was a collaboration with the Downtown BID to help make those dreams a reality and to help catalyze wealth creation for Boston residents.

These four applications to the program will transform 107k square feet of space from eight underutilized office buildings, creating 170 new units of housing, 34 of which will be affordable, helping to revitalize the area!

– John Weil, Senior Program Manager for Downtown Conversions, BPDA

The City expanded the work of the Neighborhood Trauma Team Network, ensuring that no matter the time of day or night that an incident occurs, the NTTN will be ready to respond. The NTTN plays a unique role in Boston’s violence prevention infrastructure, providing comprehensive trauma support to impacted residents when an incident of community violence occurs. We also engaged in a multi-neighborhood community engagement process to support a strategic approach to not just respond when violence occurs but to create safer communities that prevent violence and support residents from the start.

Perkins (Dorchester), Mildred Ave (Mappatan), Madison Park (Roxbury), Mattahunt (Mattapan), Marshall (Dorchester), Draper (West Roxbury), Clougherty (Charlestown).

In addition to securing the achievements in the contract itself, the Mayor also ensured that the process of negotiating the police contract was for the first time opened up to community, religious, and policy advocates for their input and advice.

– Lou Mandarini, Senior Advisor for Labor

Read more here.

Following a loss after having won their third straight New England title, Coach Beefy told his team as they boarded the bus back to the hotel, "You made it down here. You have nothing to be ashamed of. We're still champions." (Boston Globe, 2003)

Head of School, Dr. Caren Walker Gregory, has been an educator and leader in Boston Public Schools for 32 years, 14 of those leading EMK. Dr. Walker's experience in math and science has perfectly prepared her to foster a robust college preparatory environment that prepares students to excel in health focused careers and higher education after graduation.

– Rebecca Grainger, Senior Advisor for Youth and Schools

We're excited about the partnership between Roxbury Community College and the following schools: Boston International Newcomers Academy, Margarita Muniz Academy, and English High School. This early college program is specifically designed for multilingual students. The first cohort will be starting this month.

English High School is the oldest public school in the Nation, established in 1821, just 45 years after our Nation was founded. There are four technical pathways where students earn industry-recognized credentials and certifications: Business, Finance & Entrepreneurship; Design & Visual Communications; Health Assisting & Wellness; and Programming & Web Development. Caitlin Murphy is the Head of English High School, continuing the legacy of honor, achievement, and service to humanity.

Margarita Muniz Academy is Boston’s only two-way bilingual high school, with a rigorous college preparatory curriculum instructed in English and Spanish. Their mission, led by Dania Vazquez, is that every graduate will be accepted to a 4-year college.

Tony King is the Head of Schools of Boston International Newcomers Academy (BINcA). Their mission is to embrace new immigrant adolescent English language learners and their families by providing a curriculum designed to teach students English while also teaching rigorous content and ensuring students will be college and career-ready with motivation to pursue a life of learning and civic engagement.

– Jisca Philippe, Director of Youth and Schools

The Office of Youth Employment and Opportunity (YEO) is partnering with Boston Public Schools to make sure that ALL young people know about the meaningful jobs and career readiness opportunities that are available to them. We've presented to Boston Public Schools guidance counselors to make connections directly in schools to make sure that BPS students know that if you want a PAID summer job opportunity, you can get one -- guaranteed!

– Allison Vernerey, Director of YEO

We've been working with YEO to streamline the application and on-boarding process ahead of the Summer Youth Employment Program's most ambitious season yet. We are updating the YEO website with some new features that are designed to make applying for a job easier, along with standardizing application questions for all employers. We interviewed stakeholders during this redesign process,—including students, non-profit grant partners, and other city collaborators—to identify what's working - and what isn't - in the current process.

– Kara Murray, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics

Charlestown High School is a diverse school that has been serving students since 1845. Charlestown's Head of School, Ajay Trivedi's strong belief in all students having access to challenging and inspiring curriculum has been foundational to expanding opportunities for advanced learning such as early college at Bunker Hill. Charlestown High School currently offers three career pathways - C-Town Business, Technology and Health.

– Rebecca Grainger, Senior Advisor for Youth and Schools

"The proportion of kindergartners meeting grade-level benchmarks in phonics and phonological awareness rose last spring to 73 percent and 67 percent, respectively, from 69 percent and 62 percent in spring 2022." (Boston Globe)

BPS launched its pilot with 20 electric buses last March. Students have been riding daily to and from school since, including throughout summer 2023. We are really excited to be a recipient of this competitive grant funding and look forward to it accelerating our ongoing transition to a fully electric fleet.

– Jacqueline Hayes, Deputy Director, BPS Department of Transportation

There will be 89 buses in total.

This school year, BPS introduced AP African American History in ten high schools. BPS students had been campaigning for Black studies courses since the late 1960s.

The Office of Early Childhood and the Universal Pre-K (UPK) team hosted 25 legislators, educators and administrators creating and implementing California's and Mississippi’s UPK system for a day and a half. The UPK team hosted conference calls with Maryland, Kentucky and next week with Guam. Our Universal Pre-K is such a success we were featured in the Huffington Post this summer!

– Farah Elhadidy, Operations Manager, Office of Early Childhood

Over 9,500 people, through listening sessions and a community survey, shared their experiences in Boston Public Schools and their priorities for the future. The priorities elevated by community voices helped define the High-Quality Student Experience. As we undergo major renovations and new builds in BPS, they will be designed to ensure students have access to buildings with the physical spaces needed to support a high quality experience.

– Rebecca Grainger, Senior Advisor for Youth and Schools

Watch the Busing Battleground documentary about the road to school desegregation here.

In the 1840s, William Cooper Nell led the protest of the poor conditions of the Abiel Smith School, the country's first public school for Black students. Joined by other Black activists, their efforts led to the City outlawing desegregation in 1855. And yet, midway through the twentieth century, Ruth Batson, working alongside the NAACP, chaired by Melnea Cass, had no choice but to register complaints with other mothers about the inferior education their children received in the city’s segregated public schools, desegregated in name only (though the Boston School Committee denied this fact until the courts acted).

The City is working with Boston area hospitals, businesses, and philanthropies to develop a collaborative fund to offer low-interest acquisitions loans that mission driven organizations can use to buy market rate housing and turn it into permanently affordable homes.

– Dan Lesser, Chief of Staff, MOH

Across 36 buildings as part of the Blue Line Portfolio partnerships.

Read more here.

From the 1930s to the 1980s, Boston built public housing communities – first for families, then for seniors – in almost every neighborhood of our city. Those communities continue to provide vital housing today, at a time when fewer and fewer families and elders can afford to stay in the city of Boston, and the waitlist is 42,000 households long. But for the past four decades, Boston has not built any net new public housing; in fact, we lost public housing units over time. By a federal law known as the “Faircloth Limit”, Boston has the right to 2,891 more public housing units than currently exist. That means about $112 million in potential federal housing support every year that we are leaving on the table unspent. The Mayor’s announcement means that BHA and the City will work together this year to identify specific sites to build all 2,891 additional units over the next decade, taking advantage of the available funding from HUD. These units will be on public and private land, some in mixed-income developments and some stand-alone, serving older adults, families, and people with disabilities. New developments will integrate supportive services and amenities into public housing, establish new pathways to economic mobility, and ensure residents have a place in Boston they are proud to call home.

– Taylor Cain, Chief of Staff, BHA

In some of our neighborhoods, more than 40% of all home sales have gone to private investors.

Councilors Enrique Pepén and Henry Santana both grew up in BHA housing.

We met with local builders to understand the challenges for building ADUs in Boston. Their insights and ideas will help ensure a diverse group of builders are participating in this growing market opportunity. We are also co-designing new gap filling financial products with local banks so that all homeowners have access to funding to build an ADU that meets their families needs.

– Marcy Ostberg, Mayor's Office of Housing & Adriana Lasso-Harrier, BPDA

The Boston Home Center’s Additional Dwelling Unit (ADU) Home Loan Program offers gap funding to eligible Boston homeowners of 1-3 unit properties who wish to create an ADU on their property. For more information on Boston’s ADU requirements, go to: www.boston.gov/adu-toolkit or contact adu@boston.gov.

New zoning for Mattapan, implemented through the PLAN: Mattapan planning process, will allow residents to build ADUs by-right in residential areas. This year, the BPDA and the City will launch a rezoning study to allow the development of ADUs citywide.

– Marcy Ostberg, Mayor's Office of Housing & Adriana Lasso-Harrier, BPDA

The City's lowest-ever bond rating was BBB+, which it had from 1980-1986, dropping from A- due to Proposition 2 1/2's constraint on property tax levies. (Boston Municipal Research Bureau)

Giselle and many of the 250 Boston families who became first-time homebuyers with the City were present at the address. Learn more about the Welcome Home, Boston program here.

2,400 homes total moved into construction this past year.

Marking the second new fire station Boston built in four decades.

Check out this video about building speed humps!

This seemingly simple change, to remove gendered terms on our city's marriage certificates, holds profound significance in promoting inclusion within our community. By removing gender markers, we no longer force our diverse citizenry to select from an outdated and often restrictive list of gender options in order to get married. And, for those of us who change and evolve, later identifying with a different gender than when we initially married, our marriage certificates no longer confine us. They can now authentically reflect the love we share without disregarding our personal growth and new pronouns. City Registrar Paul Chong presented Kimberly Rhoten (they/them), Director of Policy at the Mayor's Office of Returning Citizens, with the first marriage certificate without gender markers; it was one of the best day's of their life (except their wedding, of course)!

– Kimberly Rhoten, Director of Policy & Strategic Initiatives, Office of Returning Citizens

Read more here.

In other library news, the BPL added the very first Age Strong librarian at the Hyde Park branch, brought its digital collections to riders at 20 bus stops, and is building 275 units of affordable housing on top of library branches at Chinatown, Uphams Corner, and the West End.

Muddy River (Fenway), The Embrace (Beacon Hill), Gourdin Veterans Memorial (Roxbury), Jeep Jones (Roxbury), Malcolm X Park (Roxbury), Millennium Playground Phase 1 (West Roxbury), Ryan Play Area (Dorchester), Walnut Street Play Area (Roxbury)

The Inspectional Services Department and Worker Empowerment Cabinet are working in partnership on implementation of the ordinance, which includes training 972 contractors about the new ordinance and how to comply, including one webinar with Spanish Interpretation. Between now and June, they will be offering 5 free OSHA-30 trainings for small contractors (3 in English, 1 in Spanish and 1 and Portuguese) as well as monthly 1-hour webinars on how to create a Site Safety Plan.

– Jodi Sugarman-Brozan, Deputy Chief of Worker Empowerment and the Office of Labor Compliance and Worker Protections

Read about the ordinance here.

The Mayor's Office of Arts & Culture gave out $7.35 million in Cultural Investments Grants this year! The City also made a historic commitment to the arts in securing 290 N Beacon St., an $18M building in Brighton that will be given to the City by a developer as part of their mitigation package—the largest ever for the arts. It will become a permanent space for 500 artists to rehearse.

– Kara Elliott-Ortega, Chief of the Mayor's Office of Arts & Culture

And with Blue Cross Blue Shield, we launched the lowest-cost bikeshare pass in America. Read more here.

During the pandemic, many small businesses closed, leaving empty storefronts littered across downtown and in our main streets. But so many Bostonians have dreams of businesses they want to create or expand. The S.P.A.C.E. grant was a collaboration with the Downtown BID to help make those dreams a reality and to help catalyze wealth creation for Boston residents.

These four applications to the program will transform 107k square feet of space from eight underutilized office buildings, creating 170 new units of housing, 34 of which will be affordable, helping to revitalize the area!

– John Weil, Senior Program Manager for Downtown Conversions, BPDA

Other collaborations with the MBTA this year included building 5.7 miles of dedicated bus lanes. Buses also moved 6 million riders on the free 23, 28, and 29 Bus routes—the highest ridership in the system since they became fare-free.

For an example of daily collaboration between the MBTA and BTD:

The City worked with the MBTA to relocate a shuttle terminal from Copley Square to Back Bay Station, reducing the walking distance during the recent and ongoing Green Line Central Tunnel Closure.

– Matthew Petersen, Transit Planner, BTD

Squares + Streets is a planning and zoning initiative of the BPDA and the City of Boston that focuses on neighborhood centers that are near transit and along main streets across Boston. A major component of the initiative is updating the zoning in these neighborhood centers to guide development that encourages a mix of building uses and heights, creates housing diversity and growth opportunities, and encourages active streets.

This number went from 5% to 12%.

Bryant Williams, the owner of BWilliams Painting Company, expressed gratitude, saying, "I have a couple of painting jobs coming up, and I had to use all of my savings to secure the contract. Essentially, I am still in business because of the Boston Contracting Opportunity Fund Grant. I will be able to pay for some insurance, part of my business mortgage, and equipment. There is no way I would have recovered from my deficit if not for this grant, which kept me afloat and allowed me to fulfill my contract with Northern Contracting, a partner I've been contracting with for years. This is truly a blessing."

The City has been targeting this goal from every angle. One of the many ways to both be a green city and counter the effects of climate change is to nurture and grow the tree canopy. The Parks Department's Urban Forestry Division planted 1,300 trees this year, pruned 2,600 more street trees, and treated 1,165 mature ash trees for emerald ash borer disease!

Many of the City services we rely on every day as residents - trash collection, snow removal, school bus services, meals for students in our public schools - are delivered by contractors, through publicly bid procurements. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made to ensure that those contractors themselves represent the incredible diversity of Boston. This is one step towards a more economically equitable city.

– Kharlita Chambers-Walker, Outreach and Engagement Manager, Department of Supplier and Workforce Diversity

Following Mayor Wu’s directive to go fossil free, the Boston Housing Authority redirected millions of dollars in planned gas heat investments to shift towards clean electric heat pumps. The geothermal network to be designed by National Grid means that energy for heating and cooling can be stored in and sourced from bore holes in the ground. Networked geothermal is a renewable heating technology and source of energy that uses the Earth’s constant ground temperature to provide heating and cooling to buildings through an underground piping network. The project seeks to connect seven federal public housing buildings at Franklin Field to this network, providing residents with clean heat and with in-unit cooling for the first time. This energy pilot represents a new approach for multifamily public housing in Massachusetts.

– Taylor Cain, Chief of Staff, Boston Housing Authority

The City's goal is to create 1,000 new jobs for Bostonians by 2025. Read more here.

The Boston Fire Department graduated 32 cadets from 10 neighborhoods and communities!

The program graduated 26 cadets in 2023.

With over 60% graduates of color. And 59 of the 133 graduates speak a language other than English, representing 16 other languages.

300+ residents received mental health treatment and care provided through EMS’s new Alternative Response Unit, "a voluntary program providing a non-ambulance response to low-acuity 911 calls involving behavioral health needs." Read more here.

Low-threshold transitional programs established early during the Wu administration proved crucial to the success of this intervention. Boston has the lowest rate of unsheltered homelessness in the country, given the close coordination with community organizations who work collectively with the City, and we won’t rest until we have the infrastructure to house every family.

Eleven City departments had a role in the Atkinson St. closure plan, as well as twelve other non-profit organizations including non profit partners and state agencies.

– Tania Del Rio, Senior Advisor to the Mayor & Director of the Coordinated Response Team

Terry currently serves as special assistant for the Inspectional Services Department. He works to support the Investigations and Enforcement team with their day-to-day ground operations. Terry has also been instrumental in numerous operations to support the Mass and Cass initiative with SHARPS/needles and assisting with the transition process.

Thanks to the City Cable channel who took the State of the City home to all the Bostonians who couldn’t be at MGM. (Station Manager Dave Burt recently entered the Emmy’s Silver Circle!) Thanks also to local cable and news affiliates for streaming the speech.

– Santi Garces, Chief Information Officer

Several of this year's interpreters were with us for last year's address! When the doors opened, multilingual staff joined the interpreters to greet and orient attendees.

– Jeniffer Vivar Wong, Executive Director, Mayor's Office of Language and Communications Access

See photographs of Mark Kennedy and the Mayor in his new home here.

Read more here.

This partnership was framed after the Los Angeles Unified School District-UCLA partnership (Chancellor Suárez-Orozco was there when they formed that partnership). Superintendent Skipper and Rebecca Grainger (Senior Advisor for Youth and Schools at the City) traveled out to LA together a while back to learn from that model, and then brought their learnings back to BPS to develop the BCLA/McCormack-UMB partnership. Read more here.

Read about Superintendent Skipper's past experience here.

Read more here.

Read about the opening of the Curley Community Center here.

Read about the reopening of the Paris Street pool here.

Read the Mayor's Substack newsletter about potholes here.

Read about the Article 80 steering committee here.

Read about the City's Deputy Chief of Urban Design, Diana Fernandez, here.

Read more about the changes here.

Read about the Franklin Park Action Plan here.

Read about the City finally receiving the seat here.

Read the Mayor's 2023 Chamber of Commerce speech here.

Read the Mayor's op-ed calling for the seat here.

Have you seen these advertisements on your commute this morning? The Office of Early Childhood is funding tuition and certifications for current and aspiring early educators committed to staying and teaching in Boston!

– Farah Elhadidy, Operations Manager, Office of Early Childhood

The City partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, DotHouse Health, and the YMCA Greater Boston. Read about Swim Safe Boston here.

Read about Giselle here.

Read the press release here.

Read the Equity in City Contracts report here.

Read the Executive Order here.

+1 from last year! ASL, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Mandarin, Cantonese, Cabo Verdean Creole, and Vietnamese interpreters were present.

Or a block party! This year, the City supported 80 block parties and streamlined application process to make it easier for residents to host them.

Each of these institutions have worked to expand access for years through various programs and partnerships. This is the first time that a coordinated effort across all these partners with the City will make it as simple and coordinated as possible.

That BPS students would be able to bring their families along—as an intergenerational experience—was a key concern here as the City worked with these institutions, led by the Boston Cultural Consortium, over the last several months to make this program a reality.

– Daniel Lander, Senior Advisor on Policy

In 1970, a mere three Parks Department employees were stationed at the park to maintain it, compared to 50 employees in the 1940s,

In the 1970s, the City actually contracted with the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts to oversee maintenance of the park by her staffers, Matthew Goode and John Francis. This was a landmark private-public partnership. Mayor Kevin White defended the contract by arguing that “the contractor’s lack of specific experience is fully compensated for by its knowledge of and commitment to the Park. Such attributes ought, in my opinion, to be given high rank in assessing the 'qualifications' of a contractor."

Writing in 1886 in the first year of Franklin Park’s construction, Frederick Law Olmsted imagined the park aging gracefully in years to come, maturing into a setting even more naturalistically beautiful than when originally planted, so that “for every thousand dollars judiciously invested in a park the dividends to the second generation of the citizens possessing it will be much larger than to the first; the dividends to the third generation much larger than to the second." But the park-goers of this third generation would not see their dividends increase throughout their lifetime. In 1970, the City’s Parks Department spent less than 1% of its $6 million annual budget on Franklin Park, which at 500 acres comprised almost 25% of Boston’s parkland.

White Stadium is known for hosting football, track, and cross country, but it was also used for soccer by BPS from the 1970s through the 1990s!

In collaboration with the Parks Department, Boston Bikes, and with the help of the summer interns and volunteers from Boston high schools, we moved the bikes from the storage and delivered them to three of the four locations in one day!"

– Farah Elhadidy, Operations Manager, Office of Early Childhood

The City is able to serve an additional eleven early childhood sites by partnering with Highland Street Foundation’s Let’s Get Rolling Initiative. Through their generous donation, Highland Street provided each of the eleven sites with new bikes through REI Co-op, instruction with Bikes Not Bombs, and site coordination through Neighborhood Villages. Together the sites will serve several hundred young children during the summer and the school year. Read more here.

White Stadium debuted in 1949 as "White Memorial Schoolboy Stadium," but some of its earliest major track meets featured female athletes—for example, 1954's NEAAU track & field relay won by the Shaw House Girls. The NWSL's arrival marks a clear shift away from the original moniker of "schoolboy" stadium, which neglected the city's female athletes, but girls made it their stadium then, too.

Connect, Learn, Explore is an initiative run across City departments to serve families and children. The Office of Early Childhood (OEC) developed a sticker card that helps young people track their progress in completing activities. The cards are available widely while the stickers are managed through city agencies and community partners who are responsible for providing teaching opportunities and validating achievement. Collect a sticker for each activity you complete, after you've collected the 5 activity stickers collect the grand prize sticker at your last activity!

– Farah Elhadidy, Operations Manager, Office of Early Childhood

The Office of Early Childhood (with support from Blue Cross Blue Shield) partnered with the New England Conservatory to offer free summer music programming for 3-5th graders and school year programming for 3 and 4 year olds.

See photographs of Mark Kennedy and the Mayor in his new home here.

BPS launched its pilot with 20 electric buses last March. Students have been riding daily to and from school since, including throughout summer 2023. We are really excited to be a recipient of this competitive grant funding and look forward to it accelerating our ongoing transition to a fully electric fleet.

– Jacqueline Hayes, Deputy Director, BPS Department of Transportation

There will be 89 buses in total.

Each of these institutions have worked to expand access for years through various programs and partnerships. This is the first time that a coordinated effort across all these partners with the City will make it as simple and coordinated as possible.

Read more here.

In collaboration with the Parks Department, Boston Bikes, and with the help of the summer interns and volunteers from Boston high schools, we moved the bikes from the storage and delivered them to three of the four locations in one day!"

– Farah Elhadidy, Operations Manager, Office of Early Childhood

The City is able to serve an additional eleven early childhood sites by partnering with Highland Street Foundation’s Let’s Get Rolling Initiative. Through their generous donation, Highland Street provided each of the eleven sites with new bikes through REI Co-op, instruction with Bikes Not Bombs, and site coordination through Neighborhood Villages. Together the sites will serve several hundred young children during the summer and the school year. Read more here.

The City partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, DotHouse Health, and the YMCA Greater Boston. Read about Swim Safe Boston here.

The Office of Early Childhood (with support from Blue Cross Blue Shield) partnered with the New England Conservatory to offer free summer music programming for 3-5th graders and school year programming for 3 and 4 year olds.

This partnership was framed after the Los Angeles Unified School District-UCLA partnership (Chancellor Suárez-Orozco was there when they formed that partnership). Superintendent Skipper and Rebecca Grainger (Senior Advisor for Youth and Schools at the City) traveled out to LA together a while back to learn from that model, and then brought their learnings back to BPS to develop the BCLA/McCormack-UMB partnership. Read more here.

This school year, BPS introduced AP African American History in ten high schools. BPS students had been campaigning for Black studies courses since the late 1960s.

Read more here.

Read about Superintendent Skipper's past experience here.

Watch the Busing Battleground documentary about the road to school desegregation here.

Councilors Enrique Pepén and Henry Santana both grew up in BHA housing.

Perkins (Dorchester), Mildred Ave (Mappatan), Madison Park (Roxbury), Mattahunt (Mattapan), Marshall (Dorchester), Draper (West Roxbury), Clougherty (Charlestown),

Read about the opening of the Curley Community Center here.

Read about the reopening of the Paris Street pool here.

Read the Mayor's Substack newsletter about potholes here.

Read about the Article 80 steering committee here.

Read about the City's Deputy Chief of Urban Design, Diana Fernandez, here.

Read more about the changes here.

Read about the City finally receiving the seat here.

Read the Mayor's op-ed calling for the seat here.

Read the Mayor's 2023 Chamber of Commerce speech here.

300+ residents received mental health treatment and care provided through EMS’s new Alternative Response Unit, "a voluntary program providing a non-ambulance response to low-acuity 911 calls involving behavioral health needs." Read more here.

Low-threshold transitional programs established early during the Wu administration proved crucial to the success of this intervention. Boston has the lowest rate of unsheltered homelessness in the country, given the close coordination with community organizations who work collectively with the City, and we won’t rest until we have the infrastructure to house every family.

Eleven City departments had a role in the Atkinson St. closure plan, as well as twelve other non-profit organizations including non profit partners and state agencies.

– Tania Del Rio, Senior Advisor to the Mayor & Director of the Coordinated Response Team

+1 from last year! ASL, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Mandarin, Cantonese, Cabo Verdean Creole, and Vietnamese interpreters were present.

Read about the Franklin Park Action Plan here.

Giselle and many of the 250 Boston families who became first-time homebuyers with the City were present at the address. Learn more about the Welcome Home, Boston program here.

"The proportion of kindergartners meeting grade-level benchmarks in phonics and phonological awareness rose last spring to 73 percent and 67 percent, respectively, from 69 percent and 62 percent in spring 2022." (Boston Globe)

Have you seen these advertisements on your commute this morning? The Office of Early Childhood is funding tuition and certifications for current and aspiring early educators committed to staying and teaching in Boston!

– Farah Elhadidy, Operations Manager, Office of Early Childhood

Across 36 buildings as part of the Blue Line Portfolio partnerships.

Read more here.

We met with local builders to understand the challenges for building ADUs in Boston. Their insights and ideas will help ensure a diverse group of builders are participating in this growing market opportunity. We are also co-designing new gap filling financial products with local banks so that all homeowners have access to funding to build an ADU that meets their families needs.

– Marcy Ostberg, Mayor's Office of Housing & Adriana Lasso-Harrier, BPDA

The Boston Home Center’s Additional Dwelling Unit (ADU) Home Loan Program offers gap funding to eligible Boston homeowners of 1-3 unit properties who wish to create an ADU on their property. For more information on Boston’s ADU requirements, go to: www.boston.gov/adu-toolkit or contact adu@boston.gov.