THIS WEEK’S VOTE by the Boston City Council to sign off on $3.4 million in state grants for the Boston Police Department’s intelligence unit was a big win for Mayor Michelle Wu. But could it set her on a collision course with a one-time colleague and mayor’s race rival?
In 2021, while serving on the city council, Wu voted against accepting the grants because of concerns that the gang database maintained by the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, or BRIC, racially profiled Black and Latino residents. (She was part of a bloc of liberal councilors who stopped the funding allocation.) Fast forward two years and Wu, now in the mayor’s seat, said reforms that have been put in place to address past profiling concerns, and urged the council to approve the grants, which they did in a series of 7-5 votes.
But another member of the 2021 council who was outspoken in opposing the grants does not appear to share Wu’s new-found confidence in the BRIC. Andrea Campbell, then chair of the council’s public safety committee, led the opposition to accepting the state funds, citing ongoing concerns in communities of color about the gang database and BRIC’s sharing of intelligence with other agencies.
Campbell, who placed third in the 2021 mayoral preliminary, went on to win election last year as attorney general (though not with the help of Wu, who endorsed one of her Democratic primary competitors). The new AG is now overseeing a probe of the Boston gang database launched by the office under Campbell’s predecessor, Maura Healey. Any finding of continued racial discrimination issues with the database would be a bad look for Wu.
Campbell’s office said the probe remains ongoing. In a statement, Wu’s office said, “We are aware of the review and will continue to cooperate with the attorney general’s office.”
Offshore wind not so cheap
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island are hoping their luck soliciting offshore wind farms will be better working together rather than apart.
The southern New England states announced their new collaboration earlier this week, betting that multi-state deals will yield greater savings. It’s worth a try. Massachusetts and Connecticut have seen all their recently negotiated deals terminated amid rising interest rates, inflation, supply chain disruptions, and the war in Ukraine. Facing similar challenges, Rhode Island’s leading utility in July pulled the plug on a proposed deal with Orsted and Eversource because the “costs were ultimately deemed too expensive for customers to bear.”
How expensive became a little more clear with the release by Rhode Island Energy of a new, slightly redacted report on the proposed 20-year deal. “The company determined that moving forward with the project would add an estimated $1.78 billion cost to customers over the life of the contract,” the report said.
Beauty is in the eye of the MBTA rider
The MBTA may have been looking to offer some good autumn feelings after a month of grim news – 3 mile per hour slow zones on the brand new Green Line extension, forthcoming Red Line closures, a mysteriously vanished podcast – by announcing on X (formerly Twitter) possible designs for new Green Line trains.
But, as expected with any T news, the post was merrily mocked right out of the gate, even as people did vote for some preferred color schemes. It had garnered more than 800 replies and comments after three days, mostly to the tune of, “I’ll take a train that works.”
“Literally any of them if they run/don’t light on fire/derail,” a top comment read. Some variant of “the one that goes faster than 3 mph,” was a popular rejoinder.
Of course, the MBTA often asks for rider input on new trains. Some parts of the look of the new Orange and Red line cars gradually hitting the tracks were rider-voted designs, and this season’s MBTA riders have three days left to vote on the best placement for some green, white, and gray train decor.