When it comes to civic engagement, a funny thing happened on the way to the pandemic shutdown.
While all sorts of aspects of daily life ground to a halt as we hunkered down, as much as possible, at home, the in-person isolation seems to have produced a blossoming of civic connectedness.
With hearings and other government proceedings suddenly all streamed online, City Hall itself may have been shut down, but following the workings of municipal government — and even offering public testimony on an issue — was suddenly open to anyone with an internet connection and an urge to be heard.
Boston city councilors Lydia Edwards and Liz Breadon say we need to seize this civic silver lining of the pandemic by making permanent the ability of residents to take part remotely in hearings. They’re introducing an ordinance at today’s City Council meeting that would require just that.
“The inaccessibility of most government meetings is a pre-pandemic inequity that we can’t go back to,” said Edwards. “As we come out of the pandemic, I’m focused on ensuring our city’s government is as transparent and accessible as possible. Permanently allowing residents to participate virtually would make it easier for a wider range of voices to be heard and bring our city’s government one step closer to the standards residents expect from us.”
Meaghann Lucy, a Boston University graduate student in sociology, worked last year as a summer fellow in the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and was part of a team charged with examining Boston’s switch to remote civic engagement.
Writing on the website of BU’s Initiative of Cities, a program launched under former Boston mayor Tom Menino, Lucy said there were fears that the transition would exacerbate the “digital divide” and prove frustrating for residents.
“Instead,” she wrote, “as departments transitioned previously in-person public conversations, rallies, and meetings online, they saw more attendees—sometimes 3 times or 4 times as many as before COVID-19—and what appeared to be a more diverse group participating.”
The aim is not to replace in-person participation in a post-pandemic world, but to allow for what Lucy describes as a “blended” civic future that incorporates remote and in-person participation.
Notwithstanding the observation of more robust and diverse participation in Boston civic life during this early experience with the shift, more widespread use of livestreaming technology in public proceedings will undoubtedly put a spotlight on the digital divide.
The pandemic could reshape democracy for the better, writes Hollie Russon Gilman for the Washington-based think tank New America, but she points out that there are still more than 160 million Americans who don’t use the internet at broadband speeds, a population that is tilted toward racial minorities, the elderly, those in rural areas, low-income residents, and those with lower income and educational attainment levels.
MICHAEL JONAS
FROM COMMONWEALTH
Education Commissioner Jeff Riley, brushing aside criticism from teacher unions and others, says the federal government won’t allow the state to skip the MCAS test this spring. Riley, testifying at a budget hearing, also defends his plan to force schools statewide to return to in-person learning.
Legislators seem poised to kick the can down the road on unemployment insurance, avoiding a rapid runup in employer assessments while failing to deal with the broader problem of an underfunded system.
Investigators hired by Needham find four white police officers did not engage in racial profiling when they handcuffed a black man for shoplifting, but their report documents a reluctance to believe the claims of the black man.
A new Orange Line train derails where maintenance work was being done. No one was injured.
Opinion: When it comes to the safety of in-person learning, it’s not only about the science, says Arlington teacher Joshua Roth. … Tom Birmingham of the Pioneer Institute says charter schools are leading the way on in-person learning.
FROM AROUND THE WEB
BEACON HILL
Gov. Charlie Baker signs a bill extending voting by mail for municipal elections through June. (State House News Service)
Baker’s handling of the COVID vaccine rollout has been marked by lots of zigzags and some outright reversals, moves some think are a sign of weak leadership while others say it’s the nature of managing an unprecedented crisis. (Boston Globe)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Protesters outside Chelsea City Hall say the community that has been hit hardest in the state by COVID is getting badly shortchanged in the federal relief aid coming to cities and towns. (Boston Globe)
A Globe editorial says Boston police overtime spending is out of control — and Mayor Marty Walsh’s vow to cut it has turned out to be “a shell game.”
Some residents in Methuen are complaining about problems stemming from a homeless shelter that the state opened in a local hotel during COVID-19. (Eagle-Tribune)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
Gov. Charlie Baker announces in a tweet that he will release the full schedule of when Massachusetts residents will become eligible for a COVID vaccine on Wednesday morning. Massachusetts is joining with several other states that seem to be rushing out schedules for all residents to be eligible after President Biden urged all states to do so by May 1. (New York Times)
Regional equity becomes an issue in the debate over whether to spend $400 million to rebuild the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. (MassLive)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
A 21-year-old is arrested in a shooting spree at three spas in Atlanta that left eight people dead, six of them Asian women. (NPR)
Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell warns of a scorched earth Senate if Democrats follow through with reforms to the filibuster, which President Biden indicates he supports. (NPR)
ELECTIONS
Holyoke is having problems selecting a fill-in replacement for Mayor Alex Morse. (Western Mass Politics & Insight) Morse said his last day on the job, before he leaves to become town manager in Provincetown, will be March 26. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
It looks like it could be a crowded field in the race to replace Lynn Mayor Tom McGee. (Daily Item)
If Gov. Charlie Baker’s falling approval ratings continue to sink, it could also spell trouble for any gubernatorial ambitions Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito might have. (Boston Herald)
IMMIGRATION
Attorney General Maura Healey sues a Lynn landlord for threatening to call immigration authorities on tenants who complain about apartment conditions. (WBUR)
EDUCATION
Worcester has removed all school resource officers from its schools for the rest of this year, as students return to in-person learning and questions have been raised about whether police officers belong patrolling schools. (Telegram & Gazette)
A new survey from the MassINC Polling Group shows strong parental support for summer school programs to make up for pandemic learning loss, with black and Latino parents particularly supportive of the idea. (Boston Globe)
Pooled testing in in-person school districts has shown a very low prevalence of COVID-19 in schools. (MassLive)
The testy conflict between Fall River’s city council and school superintendent Matt Malone continues. (Herald News)
ARTS/CULTURE
Syracuse University is hosting a symposium with officials from the Berkshire Museum to discuss the sale of art work to support operations, but critics of that sale are not being included on the panel. (Berkshire Eagle)
TRANSPORTATION
A slow moving Orange Line train derails with 100 people on board. There were no injuries. (State House News Service)
Two states, Oregon and Utah, have begun taxing motorists based on miles driven, a change away from the gas tax that some have advocated for Massachusetts. (Washington Post)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The US Environmental Protection Agency fines a Quincy-based company for violating environmental laws when it dredged sediment from the New Bedford Harbor. (Standard-Times)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
More than 60 percent of correctional staff in Hampden and Worcester counties have gotten vaccinated, compared to about 50 percent of all correctional staff statewide. (MassLive)
MEDIA
The Cleveland Plain Dealer says it plans to stop covering inaccurate statements issued by a Republican candidate for the US Senate. (Washington Post)