This year’s City Council At-Large race finds 15 candidates running for four seats. The preliminary election on Sept. 22 will narrow the field to eight. To better flesh out those in the running, the Allston-Brighton TAB is giving candidates a chance to speak directly to our readers.
Candidates were asked to answer these questions:
1: What do you consider the greatest challenge facing the city of Boston? As Councilor-At-Large, how do you plan to address this problem?
2: What past experiences or positions do you feel have prepared you for a position as Councilor-At-Large? What skills do you bring to the Council?
Responses from the candidates will be spread out over the next three weeks.
John Connolly
· 1. The most serious and immediate challenge facing Boston today is youth violence. We must end this nightly tragedy, and work to keep our children on paths of opportunity and away from paths that lead to crime and violence.
Of course, youth violence is but a symptom of our greatest long-term challenge — improving Boston’s schools. Only when every neighborhood can boast a good, safe public schools will our children start winning the uphill battle against gang violence and poverty.
There is something fundamentally wrong when there are close to 60 underperforming schools in the Boston Public School system, and a child has far less than a one-third chance of graduating from college if he or she attends public school from kindergarten through high school.
To compound matters, our failure to close the achievement gap cheats too many of our children out of a bright future, particularly our Latino, African-American, English Language Learning and Special Needs students.
· 2. First and foremost, as a former middle school teacher in urban schools, I understand the importance of securing a quality education for children in every neighborhood. When I go to work as your City Councilor, I take that part of me that will always be a teacher in a sixth-grade classroom working with at-risk youth.
I have taught children from each neighborhood in Boston, and during my first term, I have used this experience to focus on improving Boston’s public schools … I am a consensus builder working for One Boston every day. My long history of working across Boston’s many communities strongly shapes and influences my work as one of your at-large city councilors.
As a teacher, I worked with students and parents from every neighborhood in Boston. During college, I was one of the first volunteers to be part of a groundbreaking after-school program in Mission Hill.
In law school, I volunteered as an English as a Second Language tutor in Roxbury. And, as an attorney, I provided pro bono legal services to a number of community based organizations across the Boston including the South End based Pridelights Foundation and Action for Boston Community Development. I believe that these experiences, and many others, help me to build consensus and to be an effective and informed City Councilor.
