Quote:
Originally Posted by ckhthankgod
Do you think the fact that Janey is a Boston native is to her advantage? Perhaps that could make her just as, if not more qualified in the sense that she has a long term and intimate relationship with the city.
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As you can sort of see in the ad, that's what shes banking on. Yes, she was doing good and maybe leading until she compared vaccine passports to freedom papers and birtherism. The. The white support dried up, unfair.
Unfortunately Janey has released virtually
no detailed policy, skilled many questionnaires, interviews, and panels. She's been very opaque yet friendly, but she really needs to set a policy agenda. She's made no actual mistakes; it's just her communication that's lacking. She's given out a lot of money in various projects, free bus routes/passes, small business reward apps. She's been ultra visible and pretty aggressive in outing her name on everything in the city. She was really on a roll: coalition building and getting endorsements until that comment on August 6. She apologized, but still stressed racial equity, and it bothered some of the progressive “allies.”
She also had an apartment not registered for 10years. She lives in a home that was converted into 3 apartments, she hasn't rented the other two apartments in 5 years but failed to register them the last 10. It's a minor offense compared to a few other candidates-but she used the power of the mayor's office to deliberately hide that from the Boston Globe while one other candidate got burned. The cover-up was a red flag to some.
Some people in the Black community say Janey wasn't a very responsive councilor, and Campbell is better qualified, although Janey definitely has more broad support than Campbell. Replace Andrea Campbell with Kim Janey as acting mayor, and she jogs into winning the election if I'm sincere. Kim is a nice woman who I'm friends with on Facebook, but she could do better. I trust her deeply with the city, and I think a lot of people do too. She
super nice, and it is hard to dislike her if you meet her-which is basically what she goes out and does every day. Andrea Campbell has been just
tearing her to shreds over lack of substance, literally
mocking her with Twitter memes for launching a Merch Store before an Issue's page on her website, and a bunch of other petty stuff.
Michelle Wu is almost perfect. Extremely detailed well-researched plans with context, rubrics, and much more. We're talking
72 pages dedicated to her vision. Including rewriting the city zoning code and abolishing the BPDA and replacing it with a Boston Planning Board down to how it will be staffed and over what the period.
89 pages dedicated to her Green New Deal. In 2017 she was the city's top vote-getter in the city after the Mayor. In 2019 she was the top vote-getter, period. She's campaigned city-wide 4 times since 2013. It's awesome; you can see her Harvard education shining through. She is a 4 term at-large councilor. Janey was a 2-term district councilor.
Look at what Michelle Wu produces just for Arts and Culture alone sheesh compare to
Janeys issue tab which is lacking. It talks about advocacy and voting record on City Council and what she's done as mayor thus far. Nothing about the future.
Both Janey and Wu don't own cars and take the T every day and have for their entire Boston life. Janey definitely has a more intimate understanding of the system from a practical viewpoint of course. Both have been advocating for either free MBTA or free busses.
Boston hasn't had a mayor that doesn't win the majority of the black vote since 1983...Ray Flynn vs. Mel King.. so if Michelle Wu wins, it'll be interesting. Unless neither Janey nor Campbell make the final- in which case, shed definitely wins the black vote.
I want a black mayor and I'm happy with all our choices but if Wu wins I'd have to acquiesce and be happy. She wants to bring back rent control to Boston, free MBTA, and institute Summer of Play for kids like they have in Philly.
Kim Janey will have to rely on the idea that black people and townies are enough of Boston to still win you the city. In 2013 it was a very close call on that front but ultimately the union guy from Dorchester with the black and Irish vote own 51% to 49%, Marty Walsh. In 2021 that's less likely. There's not a ton of people still living in Boston who remember bussing firsthand or can relate to Kim's story. A lot of Boston if not most is immigrants, transplants, students, and young people in general. It scores her points though absolutely.
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