Read about Giselle 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.

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 By removing gender markers, we no longer force our diverse citizenry to select from an outdated and often restrictive list of gender options in order to get married.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.

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.

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

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.

Read the press release here.

Read the Equity in City Contracts report here.

Read the Executive Order here.

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

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

In addition to 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.

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

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

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 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!

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

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

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 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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

Check out this video about building speed humps!

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 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

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

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."

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 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 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.

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 continued time-tested and proven effective programs like the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative, a partnership with BPD that is a comprehensive public health program providing outreach, case management and direct services to a cohort of youth ages 17-24 identified as those most likely to be a perpetrator or victim of violence.

Following a loss after having won their third their 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)

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.

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

Boston Public Works has 170 pieces of in-house snow clearing equipment. During larger storms, it can deploy an additional 800 pieces of equipment.

Full list of languages the cabinet speaks:

• Spanish
• Chinese (Mandarin)
• Arabic
• Hindi
• Urdu
• Haitian Creole
• Vietnamese
• French
• Italian
• Portuguese

The theme of this year's State of the City revolved around civic heroes, City employees who work daily to deliver top-notch services to residents.

A selection of civic heroes were featured in a video displayed at SOTC. A full list of names can be found at the end of the video.

Mayor Wu plans to submit a Home Rule Petition to Boston City Council to end urban renewal in the city. If approved, the Home Rule petition would be sent to the Massachusetts Legislature.

In 2022, Boston 311 created 313,896 new cases.

The inaugural PowerCorps class graduated 21 students in 2022.

“I am beyond honored to have had the opportunity to support 21 incredible young people gain new skills to join the green workforce. I am so humbled to prepare Boston's young people for employment opportunities that will allow them to earn a livable wage and support their families while taking care of the environment.”

– Davo Jefferson, Executive Director for PowerCorpsBOS

Director of Green Infrastructure Kate England has been heavily involved with the program as well. With the first PowerCorps class, she did a tutorial on green infrastructure with the students (what is stormwater, what is GI, jobs and certifications in the GI field and info about the sites they are going to maintain: Washington Irving School, New England Avenue and Codman Square). In the next couple of weeks, she'll give the presentation again for the next class and do more GI maintenance with the first class.

The Boston Fire Department's first-ever Cadet Program will have 28 cadets starting in April. Applications are being accepted until February 3, 2023.

One of these low-threshold housing sites is the EnVision Hotel, a 41-bed congregate transitional housing program operated by Victory Programs. Victory Programs, founded over 45 years ago on Mass. Ave., "has a long history of providing effective intensive case management, housing search/stabilization, substance use treatment and harm reduction services in a variety of low-threshold settings. [They] provide individualized, client-centered care reinforcing empowerment and self-determination. Clients are active participants in building their individual service plan (ISP) goals, connecting to community-based services, and strengthening support networks." (Source)

Governor Healey plans to install one million heat pumps by 2030.

"Captions help people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, and people who have hearing loss due to age or who have developmental or sensory disabilities, Non-native English speakers, and more. Having captions on by default will make all of Boston more welcoming! The idea for this new ordinance came from the Disability Commission Advisory Board, a group of 13 residents with disabilities appointed by the Mayor to advise the City on matters of concern to the community. You can attend the public meetings of this Board, or any other Board or Commission, and participate in efforts like this!"

– Andrea Patton, Chief of Staff, Mayor's Commission for Persons with Disabilities

The Streets Cabinet is leading an effort to build about 5 miles of dedicated bus lanes in 2023 with another 18.6 miles under planning and design.

The Boston Fire Department responded to 4,328 fires last year, including 2312 cooking fires (confined to container), 374 building fires, 355 outside rubbish (trash or waste) fires, 160 passenger vehicle fires, 188 grass fires, 4 rail vehicle fires, and 3 water vehicle fires.

The Worker Empowerment Cabinet includes:

• Mayor's Office of Workforce Development
• Mayor's Office of Financial Empowerment

5,090, to be exact!

Article 80 is the BPDA's approval process for all proposals over 20,000 square feet, planned development areas bigger than an acre, and academic and medical areas’ institutional master plans.

From the Bay State Banner:

"In 1972, the City Council voted in favor of a state rent control law that strengthened protections for Boston tenants. Under the state law, a landlord could not raise rents on any unit without being granted prior approval by the Board of Rent Appeals; tenants were no longer required to appeal their rent increases. About 20 years later, a statewide referendum asked voters in Massachusetts if the state should prohibit rent control. In 1994, the referendum passed by a narrow margin, banning rent control statewide, with a 51% to 49% split of the votes cast on the measure."

Rent stabilization measures empower municipalities to set certain limits on annual rent increases for existing tenants, and may also include other tenant protections, such as “just cause” eviction protection. These approaches promote the preservation of mixed-income neighborhoods and prevent renters from being pushed out of their communities. Mayor Wu’s draft proposal would call for rent to be tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 6 percent with a maximum annual increase of no more than 10 percent. It would also exempt buildings from the policy for 15 years after they open in addition to small, owner-occupied buildings.

The Mayor has directed $60 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to be allocated to the development of income-restricted housing for eligible Boston residents and financial assistance programs to help residents in buying homes. The “Welcome Home, Boston” initiative promoting homeownership is part of the Mayor’s commitment to address housing affordability and stability through the operating budget, the Capital budget, and federal recovery funds to build and acquire new affordable units, upgrade public housing, expand housing stability services, and expand a voucher program:

The Mayor’s Office of Housing will enhance three financial assistance programs that will aid households looking to purchase a home in Boston:

1. Boston Home Center First Time Homebuyer program: Income-qualified buyers will be eligible for downpayment and closing cost assistance of up to 5 percent of the purchase price, not to exceed $50,000 through the BHC first-time homebuyer assistance program.

2. Saving Toward Affordable Sustainable Homeownership (STASH).

3. ONE+Boston program: Qualified Boston residents who earn between 81% and 100% AMI will receive a half percent (0.5%) discount rate off the reduced interest rate offered through the ONE Mortgage product (currently about 6.625%). Boston residents who earn below 80% AMI will receive up to one percent (1%) off of the current ONE Mortgage rate. The downpayment assistance combined with the discounted mortgage rates through the ONE+Boston program will greatly increase the buying options for qualified residents.

In conjunction with the land audit, "We built out a story map to be transparent about the process and walk people through our inventory and translated it into lots of languages."

– Morgan McDaniel, Deputy Chief of Operations

You can find the story map here.

In 2023, the City will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) to developers for the first 70 parcels to create homes for residents to rent or own. A portion of the American Rescue Plan Act funds will be used to subsidize the construction of the housing units, making the new homes affordable to moderate-income households.

This line is in reference to the hire of Linda Chen, Senior Deputy Superintendent of Academics, who previously served as Chief Academic Officer for New York City Department of Education.

Click here to see the Boston Police Department's Firearms Recovery Dashboard, which breaks down when and how firearms were taken off the streets.

In November, the Mayor's Office of Housing (MOH) launched Welcome Home Boston to fast track the production of new affordable homes by making 150 parcels of City-owned land available for new homeownership opportunities in Boston's neighborhoods. MOH will be issuing a request for proposals for the first 20 parcels in March.

Fenway High School is an early college high school, which educates a diverse student body from neighborhoods across Boston. As Seth Daniel from the Dorchester Reporter notes:

"The school already offers a robust early college program where students can take classes without cost at UMass Boston or Wentworth Institute of Technology and earn up to two years of college credit. However, that offer ends once they graduate. With the new “Year 13” concept, they can continue taking those classes without cost for another year after the graduate if they are working towards a degree.

There were 3,781,506 BlueBike trips taken this year, skyrocketing during the Orange Line Shutdown when the City offered free 30-day passes.

"Preparing the City's response to the Orange Line Shutdown was the epitome of an all hands on deck effort. Every single department at City Hall was active in making sure our residents and visitors could still get where they needed to go, despite the closure of a major subway line."

– Kirstie Hostetter, Boston Transportation Department

Fun fact: Kirstie live-Slacked her experience riding the very first shuttle of the shutdown in an effort to document and improve riders' commutes!

"On the first day of school, neighborhood liaisons from the Office of Neighborhood Services were stationed at multiple Orange Line stops to help direct students to the shuttles and help the first day of school go smoothly for students who participate in public transportation (both for going to school and leaving school). Liaisons directly interacted with students to make sure they not only found their way, but that they were excited for the first day."

– John Romano, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives for the Office of Neighborhood Services

This was Boston's population in 1950, which by 1980 had dropped to 574,283 residents.

Not sure what belongs in the city's compost? Check out this song, released March 2022 by Dr. Wonder (aka Cliff Notez) + Deluxe Bandito (aka Will Dailey) and produced by the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics.

"A space where all City partners invested in youth violence—from our safety services at BPS, to our neighborhood trauma team and public health experts, to members of the school police unit at BPD, to community-based partners that play a crucial role in preventing and addressing community violence—come together to wrap around our young people who could potentially be in harm's way. The group works together to meet emergent needs and mobilize services to prevent violence before it can take place and help young people heal from violence that has already transpired."

– Ajay Singh, Policy Advisor

A project started in the Office of Women's Advancement that moved to the Office of Early Childhood when the office was built out this year is the Childcare Entrepreneur Fund for family childcare providers.

"It has been so successful that we have done it for 3 years now. And we continue to do it"

– Paula Gaviria Villarreal, Director of Childcare for the Office of Early Childhood

Fun fact: Paula recently interviewed and took site footage of Joyce Browne, a family childcare provider who received a grant, which was shown at the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors! Click here for a clip of Joyce being interviewed by Paula.

A glimpse at this past year's investment in artists by the Mayor's Office of Arts & Culture: 150 artists funded for free community events and career development, 11 murals created, 27 artist-led projects and activations around the city, 25 Poet Laureate events, 56 City Hall gallery shows, $3.4 million in grants to 192 arts and cultural organizations, $200,000 to support 12 local productions at the Strand Theatre, and 87 Paintboxes (painted utility boxes).

Looking ahead to 2023: MOAC has rolled out the Cultural Investment Grant, a $10M multi-year transformative investment from ARPA aimed to grow and sustain arts and cultural organizations that have a clear vision for building a more just, more creative, more equitable city. The grant will direct funds to build capacity for arts and cultural organizations working directly with and alongside communities in Boston most impacted by the pandemic, particularly communities of color. Distributed over four years, the grant will provide investments in the cultural sector that will give organizations a path to thrive in Boston, create long term opportunities for all of Boston’s communities to have access to the arts, and strengthen our local arts ecosystem.

In 1998, students from Greater Egleston Community High School and ESAC Boston created this peace garden out of a littered lot as a memorial to youth who had passed away. Since then, the community has stewarded this peace garden, technically owned by Clear Channel Outdoor, an advertising company with a billboard on the site. This year, the City has been working on an agreement to purchase the lot as a result of community members' efforts—led by the Friends of the Egleston Square Peace Garden—to draw attention to the garden's uncertain future. (Source)

"The Hub is the second most congested city in the United States and the fourth worldwide, according to INRIX, a company that analyzes traffic data around the world. Only drivers in London (156 hours), Chicago (155) and Paris (138) lost more hours in traffic in 2022.

Boston drivers spent 134 hours in congestion, INRIX found. That's more than five and a half days of the year." (Source)

Residents of Roxbury, the West End, the North End, the South End, and Allston protested vigorously against being evicted from their homes. One of the protests that resulted in a major win—though, twenty years after the original row houses were torn down—was the 1968 Tent City protests in the South End. Led by Mel King and other activists, the protest led to the Tent City affordable housing complex, built in the late 1980s. In the two decades in between, protesters had "to block the city from building market-rate housing and a 1400-car parking garage on the site." A sign at the site read, "People, not cars. This is a place where homes should be." (Source)

This line refers to the Mobile Integrated Healthcare program. Among other strategies, since October 2022, Boston EMS has been screening behavioral health emergency 911 calls to assess eligibility for telehealth with a behavioral health clinician. This new process keeps more people in their homes instead of transferring them to hospitals unnecessarily.

Since the JQUS is one block away from the intersection of the Massachusetts Turnpike and the Southeast Expressway, engineers developed innovative solutions in order to filter out harmful pollutants from the outside air as it's drawn into the building. (Source)

"Funding the Mayor made available in the spring of 2022 for 20 buses means Boston will have the largest electric bus deployment in the northeast. Two buses are already on site with more arriving in the next two weeks. Training for mechanics, operations, and drivers is already underway."

– Jackie Hayes, Fleet and Compliance Manager, BPS Transportation Department

This year, the City stood up 5 new standing sites providing Covid testing & vaccination, & flu vaccination. The City also supported 100+ community organizations in hosting their own test sites and vaccination clinics.

A baseball team.

Opened in 2022.

• MONUM

Testing restricted publishing group annotation