At-Large City Councilor, John Connolly was the guest speaker at the Oct. 14 West Roxbury Civic and Improvement Association Meeting.

Connolly gave the supportive crowd of an update on his first term as a city councilor and gave residents an idea what the city council has on its agenda for the coming year.

He started by way of explaining his position as one of four citywide city councilors, but he made it clear that although he represents the whole city, as a West Roxbury homeowner as resident, he was firmly on the side of West Roxbury and its residents.

“I take great pride in begin born and raised in the Parkway area. I grew up in Roslindale,” he said. “This is where I’m from. This is where I grew up. And this is where my family built its roots.”

Connolly thanked residents for making him the first at-large City Councilor from West Roxbury in 30 years. He said he wouldn’t be on the city council if West Roxbury hadn’t turned out to vote ahead of the rest of the city.

Connolly said, in many ways, West Roxbury is the tax base and backbone of the city and added that it wasn’t right that it took 30 years to get an At-Large councilor from West Roxbury.

“Because of that, I take this position very seriously and I take coming from here very seriously,” he said.
Connolly spoke of his chairmanship of the city’s committee on Environment and Health
“We work on promoting environmentally responsible city that promotes good health and provides open space and green space,” he said.

Connolly said these issues are directly linked to overdevelopment in the city. He said Boston needs to be environmentally friendly because of global climate changes, but also because preserving green space helps increase quality of life issues as well.

“When we over develop our neighborhoods we cut into our quality of life,” he said. “That’s something I’m always on guard for and I realize that West Roxbury may be the front line of constantly facing development issues that will negatively impact the quality of life here.”

Connolly also spoke of his latest proposal to curb rampant truancy issues in Boston Public Schools.
The Bulletin wrote about Connolly’s proposal in the Oct. 2 edition. Check online for the full story.

Residents had a few questions for Connolly. One resident said he was concerned that the Boston Redevelopment Authority seems very eager to approve hosing for one and two bedroom developments but not larger family friendly housing options.

Connolly agreed saying the City of Boston has been very good at proving affordable housing and luxury housing but has been lacking in the middle market. He said he would continue to look into these issues.
Another resident wanted to know if the city council was prepared to deal with upcoming budget cuts.

Connolly said city council currently has three hearing orders slated dealing with budget cut issues, but warned residents they won’t have a good sense about how they will ok until April when the budget comes through.

Connolly also warned residents about the statewide ballot question asking for the repeal of state personal income tax.

“I don’t like government wasting our tax dollars… but it will be devastating [if this passes],” he said. “It will definitely lead to catastrophic cuts in infrastructure – police and fire departments.”

Chuck Donaldson also attended the meeting and gained further support for his proposal to do a 12 month wind feasibility study at Millennium Park which would explore what types of renewable energy are available at the site.

Donaldson now has the full support of the both the West Roxbury Civic and Improvement Association and the West Roxbury Neighborhood Council. The next step for Donaldson is to gain approval from the Boston Parks department so he can begin the study.