“Today we mark a long-overdue new chapter in Boston’s growth — grounded in affordability, resiliency, and equity,” said Wu. “This ordinance is the biggest step Boston has taken in 70 years to finally begin untangling a system of development rooted in an outdated ideology that left scars in our communities.”

The ordinance, which was filed by the mayor in January and passed by the City Council last Wednesday, would create a Planning Department, operational as of July 1.

Under the ordinance, the department will “will house planning, zoning, development review, urban design, and real estate staff” and is included in the city budget, the city said in a release. It also includes the transfer of support staff from the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA).

The purpose of the department, the city said, is codified as planning for development, use of public land, predictable zoning codes, development processes and urban design standards.

The measure was contentious during debate in the City Council, which will have budgetary oversight of the department. Critics have noted it falls short of the Wu’s initial plans to abolish the BPDA. Department staff will support the BPDA, which will remain the city’s Planning Board, on development and public land projects and planning and zoning initiatives, according to the city.

The city release cited other ongoing proposals to transform Boston’s planning and development, including a home rule petition to end urban renewal and citywide zoning reform.

The new department will be led by Chief of Planning Arthur Jemison, who said the move is a step to “truly transform planning and development in Boston and ensure we are speaking to residents with one voice as the City of Boston.”

A plan to free up about 43 acres of land along the river to build an arena and park has prompted pushback from officials in Boston, including Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration, who say they have been left out of conversations around a stadium that could draw thousands to games or large events.

The proposal has been cast as potential boon for Everett, with Mayor Carlo DeMaria arguing the city could see millions returned to its coffers if a private development group revamps an outdated powerplant that sits on the site now.

As state lawmakers take another shot at reviewing a bill from Sen. Sal DiDomenico that would open up a pathway to developing the soccer stadium, Boston Chief of Planning Arthur Jemison said the plan does not include “significant parking” at the stadium.

Jemison said there is not enough information for the City of Boston to take a stance on the proposal but suggested Charlestown and surrounding neighborhoods “will bear the brunt” of the transportation impacts as the MBTA’s Sullivan Square stop is the nearest public transit option.

“The project would also rely on the Alford Street Bridge as a pedestrian connection to Sullivan Square, which is currently not safe as a major pedestrian thoroughfare. Last December, a pedestrian was killed at the intersection of Dexter and Alford (Streets),” Jemison said at a hearing before the Legislature’s Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee.

DeDomenico’s bill would remove the land at 173 Alford Street from a designation that restricts its use to commercial fishing, shipping, or other vessel-related activities and allow a developer to convert it into a “professional soccer stadium and a waterfront park.”

The measure has the backing of the Kraft Group and the New England Revolution, a professional soccer team owned by Kraft that could move to the future stadium from its spot at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

The location the Kraft Group is eyeing currently features a rundown power plant that DeMaria said can only be cleaned up with the financial and political power of a private development firm.

“They can get it done. They (can) get it cleaned up and build something that’s going to be beautiful,” he said. “There’s no parking spaces. I told them, if we go forward, there’ll be no parking there. We’re going to rely on public transit. We’re going to build out the transportation system.”

Everett is expected to lose out on $55 million in tax revenue between fiscal year 2021 and 2026 “due to the loss of value from this parcel,” DeMaria said. The city has already lost $28 million since fiscal year 2020, he said.

“We need this legislation to help pull Everett back from the harm this loss of revenue is causing our community,” he said.

Traffic concerns and the ability for elected officials and the public from Boston to participate in public meetings on the matter were top of mind for some.

Boston City Councilor Sharon Durkan, who represents the West End Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway, and Mission Hill, said it would “be a nightmare for traffic” if TD Garden and the proposed stadium had events at the same time.

“Because I represent Fenway Park and because I represent TD Garden. I know that people are often willing to take the ticket and take resident parking if … the ticket is less than parking cost,” Durkan said.

New England Revolution President Brian Bilello said he expects the majority of fans would use public transportation “as they do with most urban stadiums, including new options for getting to a destination via water transit.”

“We’re trying to get the stadium and our club to public transportation, and what we hear from most of our fans is they want to have public access to the stadium. They want to have public transportation. So for us, public transportation is the entire reason why we want to be up in Everett and Greater Boston,” he said.

DiDomenico, a Democrat from Everett, successfully added language to a multi-billion spending bill in the fall that would have cleared the land for development. But it was ultimately cut from the final version after House Democrats said they had many unanswered questions.

Rep. Jerry Perisella, who co-chairs the Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee, said he believes the proposal has a chance to move forward this time around.

“I do think that there is some compelling arguments about what would happen to this site otherwise if we don’t allow a stadium to be built,” he said. “There are a lot of environmental issues related to that site.”

Tania Fernandes Anderson has logged seven absences at regular weekly City Council meetings since taking office in January 2022, putting her at the bottom of the pack according to publicly-posted meeting minutes that track attendance — one of the metrics she describes as being “imperative” to assessing the performance of councilors in a hearing order she’s pushing this week.

“The roles and responsibilities of Boston city councilors are fundamental to the effective governance of our city, impacting the lives of residents and shaping the future of our communities,” Fernandes Anderson states in a hearing order filed for consideration at the Wednesday Council meeting.

“It is imperative to establish clear metrics to assess the performance of Boston city councilors in fulfilling their duties to their constituents, necessitating the implementation of measurable criteria such as responsiveness to constituent inquiries, attendance at meetings and hearings, and effectiveness in advancing key policy objectives,” she goes on to state.

Analyzing metrics and accountability as they relate to accountability and transparency, Fernandes Anderson writes, “could provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of governance mechanisms, highlight areas for improvement, and foster a culture of openness and responsiveness within institutions.”

Three of four absences logged in 2023 by Fernandes Anderson — who oversaw a budget process last fiscal year that sought to cut millions from the Boston Police Department — occurred on days when the Council took big votes on public safety.

She was absent on Sept. 13, when councilors voted to reject three $850,000 grants for the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, and again on Oct. 4, when four grants totaling $3.4 million were approved for the police department’s intelligence arm, over concerns the other councilors of color raised about the BRIC’s gang database.

Fernandes Anderson was also absent on Dec. 13, when the council voted, 12-0, to approve a new five-year contract for the city’s largest police union, and 6-6 to block a $13 million counter-terrorism grant for the metro Boston region.

She was present, however, and voted in favor of the federal counter-terrorism grant when, after a firestorm of criticism, it came before, and was passed by the body, 11-0-2, this term, on Jan. 31, 2024.

The hearing order she filed also calls for reviewing metrics and accountability as they relate to voting records, which she states “could offer a comprehensive understanding of elected officials’ performance, enhance public trust in the democratic process and facilitate informed decision-making by constituents.”

In the latest big vote taken by the Council, Fernandes Anderson joined at-Large Councilor Julia Mejia in voting ‘present,’ or abstaining from taking an on-the-record stance on a mayoral planning ordinance approved last week — which gave Mayor Michelle Wu the authority to create a new city planning department.

Of the 13 current councilors, Mejia was tied with Council Vice President Brian Worrell with having the second-most absences, six, since last term. Mejia was one of two councilors who voted ‘present’ on the anti-terror grant in January.

Fernandes Anderson and Mejia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former Councilor Frank Baker, who chose not to seek reelection last year, was tied with Fernandes Anderson with seven absences in the 2022-23 council term, and Kendra Lara, who lost her bid for reelection, was not far behind with five absences.

Of a City Council that now makes $115,000 apiece annually, after voting themselves a raise that kicked in this past January, only Erin Murphy had perfect attendance over that 27-month time period.

He bought a condo on Sleeper Street in 1985, drives by the area five or six times a day, and said he constantly sees young kids and families running down the sidewalk to a crossing where a 4-year-old girl was killed after being hit by a vehicle last weekend.

“They’ve been at the museum. They’re all pumped up. They start running down the sidewalk,” he told the Herald Saturday morning. “I see parent after parent, hoping somebody who can move faster with a big arm, kind of grabbing them and herding them in. So it’s totally understandable how the little girl ended up in the street.”

Joseph was one of more than a dozen residents who joined city officials at a gathering to remember Gracie Gancheva, a 4-year-old from Denver, Colorado, who was hit by a truck shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday and was later declared dead at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Locals who showed up Saturday said the intersection at Sleeper and Congress streets can be dangerous for pedestrians and drivers who are not paying attention, with one resident describing driving on Congress Street as the “wild, wild west.”

A city official said Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration is in the process of putting in place temporary safety upgrades, including removing a parking spot on the southeast corner of the intersection to increase the visibility of a crosswalk.

Boston Chief of Streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge said “multiple city staff engineers, planners” were looking at the area to see what improvements could be made quickly like adding additional markings and barriers and restriping all of the pavement markings and crosswalks in the neighborhood.

“We’re looking at additional changes that we can make at this intersection and in the surrounding area to ensure that the basic safety infrastructure that we rely on, that the signs are there, that we have the warnings for drivers, that pedestrians can see where they’re going, and they can see cars that may be turning,” he said.

The city has long been planning upgrades to Congress Street, a major arterial road that connects South Boston to downtown, like “significantly” wider concrete sidewalks on both sides of the street, new crosswalks, bike lanes, and places for cars to briefly pull over.

The project includes reconstructing Sleeper Street between Congress Street and Seaport Boulevard with accessible sidewalks and a raised crosswalk for Martin’s Park, according to the city’s website.

Raised crosswalks for Sleeper and Farnsworth Streets along Congress Street will “slow turning vehicles and make pedestrians more visible,” according to a presentation from the city.

Franklin-Hodge said the project is in the final stages of planning and design.

“We expect to have it bid out for construction later this year and into construction by early next year. We’re looking at whatever we can do to accelerate that timeline but … we anticipate it will be fully funded in the budget,” Hodges said.

Tom Ready of the Fort Point Neighborhood Association said that after public meetings on the project over the past few years, most people “felt comfortable” with the redesign because it would slow cars down and “provide a safe environment for pedestrians and support bikes in the neighborhood.”

But as the neighborhood continued to work with the city on “some of the deficiencies” in the neighborhood, the scope of the project increased, Ready said.

“That’s what’s, frankly … slowed things down and I guess maybe we were trying to be too perfect and trying to get too much done. But in the end, what we’re after is for exactly what they said they want to do,” he said. “We recognize that construction time frames can be difficult, but that shouldn’t prevent (the city) from doing temporary things out here immediately.”

Ready said the neighborhood association asked the city to assign a police detail to patrol the area and the intersection ahead of April School Vacation Week to protect kids who come and go from the Boston Children’s Museum and Martin’s Park.

The one block area that includes the museum and the park saw over 1 million visitors before the pandemic in 2019, said Charlayne Murrell-Smith, the vice president of external relations and corporate development for Boston Children’s Museum, who is also a trustee for the park.

Murrell-Smith said those numbers are quickly returning.

“We do believe that the museum and the park need to be thought of differently and considered in the same context as a school zone and with some particular additional kinds of warnings and notifications that exist around schools,” she said. “We know that there are policy changes that need to take place for that to happen.”

Franklin-Hodge said implementing a school zone around the museum and park is technically against state law but the city is looking at creating a reduced speed zone around the area.

“There’s a couple of different, other types of speed controlled zones that are allowed in different circumstances. And so we’re looking at all those options to see what we could do potentially around here,” he said. “We do have some legal authority to do what’s called a safety zone and we’re trying to figure out if that can be applied here.”

Councilor Ed Flynn said Gancheva’s death was a “horrific accident.”

“Let’s recommit and work together to ensure that this type of horrific accident never happens again,” he said.

“To be transparent, it is the smell of human waste so our school smells like poop,” said Steven Benjamin, a middle school reading specialist and special education teacher.

Benjamin and a pair of colleagues brought the odor, which one of them described as smelling like a “deceased animal,” to light during a School Committee meeting this week as they called on district leadership to step forward to make the miserable experience go away.

The teachers shared their stories the same night that the committee advanced the district’s $1.5 billion budget proposal for next fiscal year. The budget includes a controversial swath of staffing and programming cuts called out by parents and educators.

Dearborn opened to great fanfare in 2018, with the grade 6-12 early college academy marking the first new school construction project in 15 years at the time in the district. Officials hailed the 128,000-square-foot facility in Roxbury’s Nubian Square as a model for future projects.

But for Benjamin’s third-floor classroom to be usable, the door needs to be fully open at all times, an air purifier running with the ionizer on, and windows open which he said resembles the “COVID days.”

Recently, Benjamin said he left for lunch and closed the door, leaving the air purifier running – a step that was not enough to prevent the smell from getting out of hand.

“A half hour later,” he said, “I got back with my students and the smell had built back up and was so foul that they refused to stay in the room, and I couldn’t blame them because it just wasn’t habitable.”

Benjamin taught his students in the hallway before they relocated elsewhere as the smell traveled outside the classroom. It took about 45 minutes for the smell to dissipate, he said.

“To be clear, I am not complaining about my school-based custodial and leadership teams,” Benjamin said. “They’ve both been very supportive and responsive. They’ve tried onsite fixes, they’ve communicated to facilities through the proper channels.

“I totally understand that plumbing issues are probably really complicated, cannot be fixed right away,” he added, “but this issue has been present the whole year, and we don’t have a permanent fix yet.”

Officials highlighted the school, before its opening, as being outfitted with flexible indoor and outdoor learning classrooms, two fabrication labs, a dance studio, a gymnasium, 3D printers, a media center, and laser die cutters as tools.

The facility — with about $37 million of the cost reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority — was the culmination of six years of planning, design and construction, officials praised.

With open, spacious classrooms, the building resembles a college facility and was designed to support the learning that happens inside with its focus on computer science, engineering, health and life sciences and college readiness.

Dearborn features a STEM Tech Career Academy that enables high schoolers to earn associate’s degrees and credentials in a six-year program focusing on science, technology, engineering, and math fields.

As a tenth-grade science teacher, Julia Kiely said her experience with the stench is even more profound.

Kiely’s second-floor room has seven sinks and two floor drains underneath a safety shower. She said colleagues discovered the stench emanating from the drains and “recommended the flushing of the drains with water somewhat regularly since the great volume of drains and pipes in my room increase the likelihood of my room experiencing the smell.

“Unfortunately, this is a bigger task than anticipated,” Kiely added. “The smell is so bad that students say they cannot learn in my classroom, they refuse to enter, and they spray perfumes and Febreze constantly which can further irritate sensitive noses, and they’ll cough and wince throughout class.”

The odor smells the worst on Mondays and Tuesdays after the drains dry up over the weekend, Kiely said. For it to dissipate, she said she runs all seven sinks between 10 and 20 minutes while filling 1,000 milliliters of water and pouring them over the drains constantly.

“The smell is unacceptable for student learning and my teaching,” Kiely said. “It is so intense that students say they can taste it.”

School Committee Vice Chairman Michael O’Neill is calling for action to be taken as soon as possible, and the timeline in solving the issue to be expedited.

“I hope we’re going to get some very professional plumbers out to a (new) building – a matter of fact, let’s get the contractors who built the building out there – and find out what the heck is going on there,” he told Superintendent Mary Skipper, in her second year of running the nearly 46,000-student district.

Officials have created a project group that has begun looking into the issue, Skipper said, adding Dearborn staff were slated to be updated on the plan by the end of the week.

“We are working, and we have to do testing and when we do the testing it has to be when no one is in the building,” she said. “There is a full group that is on this issue and are aware of this issue.”

A district spokesperson did not provide the Herald further information on Friday, with schools closed in observance of Good Friday.

Low concentrations of “sewer gas,” or hydrogen sulfide, can cause irritated eyes, nose, throat, and respiratory system, while moderate concentrations may lead to headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, according to Omega, an environmental management and hazardous materials consulting firm.

High concentrations may cause shock, convulsions, inability to breathe, rapid unconsciousness, coma, and even death, the firm states.

Carolyn Sesser, a Dearborn high school health teacher, also deals with the smell, and in some cases, students refuse to walk down the hallway to get to her first-floor classroom. She said the scent is not constant but one that pops up multiple times a day a week, and the exact timing is unpredictable.

“We know that our administration and custodian teams have already looked into this problem and have done all they can,” Sesser said. “At this point, there needs to be something done at the district level to address it.”

Hundreds of community members – restaurant owners, employees and residents – from the neighborhood packed Saint Joseph’s Hall, hoping Mayor Michelle Wu and other elected officials would turn out, but they did not.

“We haven’t heard anything from the city,” said Carla Gomez, owner of Terramia and Antico Forno. “We just want a dialogue, communication, to talk about the issues. That’s all we want.”

The owners of the 21 neighborhood restaurants who filed a complaint in federal court in January against the city closed their businesses down for two hours Thursday afternoon as they continued to protest the restrictions.

Officials are banning on-street dining for the second straight year, limiting the al fresco option to “compliant sidewalk patios.” Out of Boston’s 23 neighborhoods, the North End is the only one to encounter restrictions against their will.

A mayor’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Herald request for comment Thursday, and City Councilor Gabriela Coletta, whose district includes the North End, declined to comment, citing hesitancy.

Resident Ann Bushnell said she’s supporting the restaurateurs because she believes they are pivotal community pillars as they assist the neighborhood library and schools. There has to be a point in time when the mayor or city officials will meet with the restaurateurs behind the lawsuit, she argued.

“I don’t think the mayor likes confrontation so this isn’t something she’s comfortable with,” Bushnell told the Herald, “but this is life and this is politics. You’re going to have people with different opinions, and you’ve got to learn to grow with the flow and shake their hands at the end of the day.”

In 2022, officials forced restaurateurs to pay a $7,500 fee for outdoor dining operations, funds that restaurateurs allege the city used to purchase an electric street sweeper that’s been seen in other neighborhoods.

Wu and other officials have said the restrictions were aimed at reducing quality of life burdens to residents, such as the increased noise, trash, traffic and loss of parking that came with outdoor dining there.

But restaurateurs have fought back against those claims, with data they’ve gathered through Freedom of Information requests showing that other neighborhoods are more congested and have fielded more 311 complaints regarding cleanliness.

“It is beyond my comprehension why we were able to successfully operate in ’21 and ’22 without any major issues by all accounts,” Tresca co-owner Bill Galatis told the Herald, “and all of a sudden we’re told we’re banned in 2023 and 2024. There’s a disconnect there.”

A task force of officials, North End restaurateurs, and residents examined “potential pathways forward” to providing on-street dining in the future raised concerns heard in the past, factoring into this year’s ban.

Possibilities include allowing the option only on weekends but the season would be shortened with limited hours; an annual lottery system for limited participation; and a program allowing smaller patios.

Some community members have wondered why Jorge Mendoza-Iturralde, co-owner of Vinoteca di Monica, a lead plaintiff, is accusing Wu of discriminatory treatment towards Italians since he immigrated here with his family from Argentina in 1984.

Mendoza-Iturralde told the Herald Thursday that his grandmother on his mother’s side is from Italy and that he and his family instantly “fell in love with the neighborhood.”

“I am in this battle for my people in the North End because of the other people who made my success possible,” he said. “We were adopted by the community. I have a great deal of gratitude towards the North End, and I’m going to continue to fight for what I think is right for the North End.”

The mayor’s home rule petition, if approved by the City Council and state lawmakers, would provide a statewide option allowing municipalities to shift more of the tax burden from residents to businesses, exceeding the state cap of 175% up to 200% in the next fiscal year that begins July 1.

The new tax rates would be based on property valuations from Jan. 1, 2024, assessments of which are not expected to be completed by the city until the fall with the impact first felt in tax bills that would go out in January 2025.

In making her pitch, Wu cited the city budget’s heavy reliance on property taxes, which contribute three-quarters of annual revenue, most of which comes from commercial property. The breakdown is particularly cumbersome today, given the empty office buildings and declining values that are steadily eroding Boston’s commercial tax base, she said.

“What we are trying to avoid here is a sudden dramatic and concentrated shock to residential property owners, which could hurt residents and businesses alike,” Wu said during a Thursday press briefing on her new proposal.

Wu’s home rule petition mirrors what was proposed by former Mayor Thomas Menino in late 2003 and signed into law in January 2004 by Gov. Mitt Romney, in that it would provide a tiered shift of the commercial rate — from up to 200% of the residential rate in fiscal year 2025, 197% in FY26, 190% in FY27, and 183% in FY28 before returning to the standard state limit of 175% in FY29.

The differences lie in the timing of the petition, which seeks to avoid the confusion of property tax bills that went out in 2004 without reflecting the new rates approved by the state, and a three-year opt-in period that allows Boston and other municipalities the ability to wait to implement tax classification changes.

The mayor said the city would only begin implementing higher tax rates on businesses next year if “an anticipated loss” in commercial values occurs. She noted that the scenario is likely, citing the “signs” that point to that continued trend, which, per a recent report, could lead to a more than $1 billion budget shortfall in five years — a flip from her administration downplaying those findings from the Boston Policy Institute last month.

Without legislative intervention, Wu said those declining commercial values could lead to “significantly” higher taxes for homeowners, but her administration said the lack of completed assessments made it impossible to determine what that exact increase could be.

The mayor’s spokesperson, Ricardo Patròn, said the administration was using the reported scenario from 2004 as an example of how the higher tax classification shift could impact property taxes.

Without the change that year, residents were facing a roughly 35% increase in taxes, while commercial property owners would have seen a decrease between 15-20%. Shifting more of the burden onto businesses resulted in a 15-18% residential tax increase, while commercial taxes decreased by 5-8%, Patròn said.

Today’s figures would be dependent, in part, on data showing what’s going on with the commercial market, in terms of sales, vacancies, and business income, Nicholas Ariniello, the city’s assessing commissioner, told the Herald.

The city is not considering budget cuts to offset any residential property tax increases, should the mayor’s proposal fail to receive local and state approval, Ariniello said, saying the impact to municipal services would be too great.

While the mayor’s team loaded up the day’s press call with supportive voices from the business community, the proposal has already prompted criticism around plans to hit property owners with higher taxes while the commercial sector is struggling.

When tax rates are raised on commercial properties, “that further depresses the value of those properties which are already in distress,” Evan Horowitz, executive director of The Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, said Tuesday.

“So over the long term, with approximate values going down, we actually collect less in future property taxes as well,” Horowitz said. “There are much more efficient ways to raise taxes and in general you want to raise taxes from healthy factors and healthy industries that can withstand the additional costs.”

CEO Greg Vasil said Thursday that the Greater Boston Real Estate Board is “deeply concerned that increasing commercial tax rates to recoup lost revenue will only take us closer to the urban doom loop being seen in many other cities.”

“This is a time unlike any other in the last 30 years, and piling more financial burdens on a struggling industry is no solution at all,” Vasil said in a statement that called the proposal “fiscally irresponsible.”

The Boston Municipal Research Bureau raised concerns as well, stating that with the “City of Boston’s heavy reliance on commercial tax revenue to fund its operating budget, there is a risk of creating too great a burden on these taxpayers.”

Wu and others on the call insisted the plan is not intended to “harm” businesses and is a “non-revenue”-generating measure, but the mayor did note that the larger effort has to be around tackling the city budget’s structural problem of being overly reliant on property taxes, to reduce the burden on taxpayers.

The city would have to petition the state before introducing an additional tax, the mayor said, noting that while there are a number of revenue-generating local options being kicked around at the state level, Boston has been focused on lobbying for a real estate transfer fee — in the form of a 2% tax on big-ticket sales over $2 million that has faced resistance from industry groups.

The Boston City Council voted, 8-3-2, to approve an amended version of an ordinance put forward by Mayor Michelle Wu in late January, that will move Boston Planning and Development Agency staff and functions, along with some land and money, to the jurisdiction of a new city department.

The vote on the measure, which also gives the council budgetary oversight of the new planning department, an authority it lacks with the current BPDA, came after more than two hours of tense debate. One councilor moved to block the body from taking action Wednesday, saying more time and work was needed on what has proven to be a contentious proposal for both the community and developers.

Critics have stated that the measure as written falls far short of the mayor’s initial plans to abolish the BPDA and move the planning board, which will remain independent and free of council oversight, under the purview of the city.

“Today’s Council vote is a monumental step forward for Boston, creating a city planning department focused on affordability, equity and resilience,” Wu said in a statement after the vote, while thanking councilors “for their partnership.”

Wu’s office said the mayor will be reviewing the final language of the ordinance as passed before signing it into law “in the days ahead.” Staff changes will take effect in the next fiscal year that begins on July 1.

Councilors who voted in support of the ordinance described it as a necessary “first step” of the mayor’s plans to legally restructure the BPDA, a move that is pending on Beacon Hill in the form of a home rule petition Wu got through the Council last spring, which has faced similar pushback to the ordinance that was just passed.

Those councilors also spoke favorably of what the mayor has insisted the ordinance would do, which is to create the “same accountability and oversight as all other city departments.”

“It is the first phase in a multi-phase process to democratize the BPDA and dismantle the status quo,” Councilor Gabriela Coletta, who chaired the government operations committee that oversaw work to amend the ordinance, said. “It is not to stifle development or limit economic growth that is vital to the success of the city.”

Coletta added, “It ensures that those who work in this department as well as the mayor and this council will ultimately be held accountable to the communities that we serve.”

The BPDA, in its current form, caters more to the interests of luxury developers, Councilor Liz Breadon said, echoing the thoughts of some of her other colleagues who stated that the planning process in place since the 1960s shuts out community input, which has largely led to the inequities seen in the city’s housing market.

“We are about to put the era of urban development behind us and hopefully we will move into an era of collaboration and engagement with the public to co-create and envision a city of the future for Boston,” Breadon said.

She mentioned, however, the “weak link” that remains from the ordinance, which is the need to “strengthen and have a more robust community process” — referencing what was the biggest point of contention among the councilors who opposed the measure, or at the very least, taking a vote on it Wednesday.

John FitzGerald, who worked for the BPDA before joining the Council in January, had different concerns, saying that the focus should be on fixing the existing agency. The mayor’s “drastic” proposal, he said, would stifle development.

Councilor Ed Flynn raised doubts that the body had the ability to provide effective oversight to hold a restructured BPDA accountable, saying that they lack the “stomach” or the “guts” to ask difficult questions.

At-Large Councilor Julia Mejia was the largest detractor of a planning reform process initiated by the Wu administration that she said has shut out the community.

“I can’t in good conscience pass a piece of legislation that I feel is being steamrolled over community,” Mejia said. “I’m asking my colleagues to consider giving people a voice.”

To that end, Mejia pushed for passage of an amendment that would have created a “commission on accountability and transparency in city planning,” independent of the planning department “to investigate complaints regarding plans approved by the mayor and planning department to ensure that plans further the city’s goals of achieving environmental resilience, equity and affordability.”

The purpose, she said, was to create a commission independent of “political favors” and the “political negotiations” that take place between councilors and the mayoral administration, pointing to what she felt took place prior to the day’s vote on the ordinance in terms of securing the necessary votes for approval.

Coletta opposed the amendment to the final ordinance she drafted, stating that she felt the language she put forward was “stronger,” in designating the Human Rights Commission as an independent oversight authority of the planning department.

Mejia’s amendment was defeated, 9-2-2, as was her push for the council to reconsider Coletta’s motion to approve the amended ordinance, 8-5, which would have sent it back to committee for further debate and required a special meeting to be held by Friday with the mayor’s 60-day ordinance set to take effect Saturday if the council chose to take no action.

“We can’t say that we believe in democracy and continue to kill it,” Mejia said.

Voting in favor of the mayor’s ordinance were Breadon, Coletta, Sharon Durkan, Ruthzee Louijeune, Enrique Pepén, Henry Santana, Benjamin Weber and Brian Worrell. FitzGerald, Flynn and Erin Murphy voted in opposition, while Tania Fernandes Anderson and Julia Mejia voted ‘present.’

“No mother should have to witness her child killed at the hands of police and fight, the way that I have had to fight now for so many years, to gain accountability,” said Hope Coleman, Terrence Coleman’s mother and an advocate for victims of police violence. “Nothing can bring Terrence back, but today at least some measure of justice has been done.”

Terrence Coleman, who was a 31-year-old with paranoid schizophrenia, was shot on Oct. 30, 2016 in the South End, after Hope Coleman called for an ambulance to take her son to the hospital while he was having an episode outside her apartment. Police said the young man attacked officers with a knife, but his mother disputes the allegations and has stated repeatedly there was “no reason for the Boston police to kill my son.”

Hope Coleman filed the federal lawsuit in 2018, claiming police and emergency medical technicians were inadequately trained to deal with people with mental health disabilities and her son’s rights were violated. Coleman was represented by the Lawyers for Civil Rights and Fick & Marx LLP.

Under the settlement, the city will pay approximately $3.4 million to Hope Coleman and Terrence Coleman’s estate and $1.2 million to cover the legal expenses. The settlement does not include an admission of liability.

“This settlement brings valuable resolution to this case after many years and is not the result of the BPD officers’ actions during the incident or legal process,” a city spokesperson said Tuesday. “The City continues to support the officers, who were called into an incredibly difficult situation, and responded to protect the lives of medical personnel on the scene.”

LCR Litigation Director Sophia Hall said it was “shameful that the City of Boston fought a grieving mother tooth-and-nail for so long” and said the settlement will help bring the family closure.

The spokesperson said the city continues “to hold Ms. Coleman and all of Terrence’s family and loved ones in our hearts” and has and will continue to invest in alternative response programs for people experiencing mental health episodes.

LCR said the case has “amplified concerns” regarding police violence toward Black residents and “uncovered grave deficiencies” in how BPD and EMS serve people with mental health conditions.

“More than a decade after a BPD rule designed to de-escalate encounters with emotionally disturbed persons was first proposed, and more than seven years after Terrence was killed, BPD and BEMS remain woefully unprepared to handle such situations safely,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney William Fick.

The LCR release pointed to “long-needed” efforts to reform police procedures — calling out a failed City Council proposal to develop a crisis response system that would divert nonviolent 911 calls away from police. The release also cited a 2023 Boston Globe report concluding the rate of police shootings of people with mental illness has risen since 2016.

“Police departments throughout the country must reform the way they handle 911 calls and divert medical calls away from police,” said Hall. “Otherwise, we will continue to see more tragedies like the death of Terrence Coleman. Hopefully, today’s settlement will lead to more much-needed reforms, in Boston and beyond.”

Wu hinted at what the potential legislation would look like at a town hall last week hosted by WBUR, saying that there’s “precedent” for how to address that scenario, which came in the form of a bill approved by Gov. Mitt Romney two decades ago.

She was referring to the home rule petition former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino lobbied before the City Council and Legislature in 2003. It was signed into law the following year as a statewide option that allowed municipalities to shift more of the tax burden from residents to businesses, exceeding the state law cap of 175%.

“Two decades ago, at this point, there was a similar shift, but it happened because the city’s residential values were all of a sudden going up much faster than commercial values were,” Wu said, “And the way the formula worked out, residents were going to have a double-digit increase in taxes.”

“In order to avoid that,” she said, “the city sought special legislation from the state, from the City Council, and the state ultimately to be able to cushion residential taxpayers more and avoid that shock.”

Wu said her administration was “looking at” what a change in the shift currently allowed by state law would mean, but her office wouldn’t confirm whether she was moving forward with legislation or whether it would be similar to what was implemented two decades ago, when contacted by the Herald on Tuesday.

The 2004 legislation allowed cities the option to shift the commercial rate up to 200% of the residential rate, up from the 175% allowed by state law. It included a tiered system where the rate was reduced 7.5% every year for the next four years, returning to the 175% standard by 2009, a prior GlobeST report states.

“I think that would be important to have those tools available for us to deal with that in this moment,” Wu said last week, when speaking on the potential legislation in a segment when she was asked how the city plans to address an eroding commercial tax base that could lead to a $1 billion-plus budget deficit in five years.

That scenario, laid out in a report issued last month by the Boston Policy Institute, is driven by empty office space and declining commercial values, and could lead to higher taxes for residents.

Exacerbating matters, Wu said, is the city’s heavy reliance on property taxes, which contribute roughly three-quarters of annual budget revenue, most of which comes from commercial property.

While the mayor has not formally filed legislation, the potential for higher taxes on businesses is already drawing criticism.

“It’s an extremely inefficient way to raise revenue,” said Evan Horowitz, executive director of The Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University. “There would be a significant loss to offset the gain.”

When tax rates are raised on commercial properties, Horowitz said, that “further depresses the value of those properties, which are already in distress.”

“So over the long term, with approximate values going down, we actually collect less in future property taxes as well,” he said. “There are much more efficient ways to raise taxes and in general you want to raise taxes from healthy factors and healthy industries that can withstand the additional costs.”

He disputed the assertion that such a change would provide necessary relief to homeowners, saying that residential property is a thriving sector of the real estate market today while the commercial side is struggling.

If the city is looking to petition the legislature for a major change, Horowitz said the best solution would be for Boston to follow other cities across the country and try to introduce a local sales tax, which would help to reduce its budgetary reliance on property taxes.

City Councilors Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn filed the communication to press the chair of the Council’s Education committee, Henry Santana, to hold a hearing on a resolution they put forward on the matter “as soon as possible,” in the wake of the hearing his office “abruptly canceled” earlier this month.

“On March 18, Councilors Murphy and Flynn reached out to Chair Santana requesting that he reschedule the hearing as soon as possible, but the chair refused to reschedule, stating that he wants to wait until the pilot program is over,” Flynn and Murphy wrote in the communication filed for the Wednesday Council meeting.

“Councilor Murphy and Flynn are requesting that the Education Committee hold a hearing as soon as possible so we can all learn more about this pilot from the administration and be able to use that knowledge to help advocate for its expansion,” the two councilors wrote.

The communication outlines the sequence of events in what has been the councilors’ contentious push for an expansion of the BPS Sundays initiative Mayor Michelle Wu announced in her state of the city address in late January.

The program waives admissions fees at six city cultural institutions for Boston Public School students and up to three family members on the first two Sundays of each month through at least August.

The communication cites Santana’s decision to abruptly cancel the hearing without speaking with them on March 8 and Councilor Sharon Durkan’s objection to their call for an immediate favorable vote on the resolution they put forward on Feb. 28.

Durkan, in making her objection that automatically sent the matter to committee for a hearing, said she wanted more information. It was placed in the Education committee, chaired by Santana, who said he canceled the hearing because he wanted more data beyond the first few Sundays of the program.

Durkan and Santana are former employees of the mayor, who has stated that she will not be reopening negotiations for a possible expansion of the $1 million free museum initiative until after the pilot period is over in August.

Murphy and Flynn have been critical of the mayor’s exclusion of non-BPS schoolchildren, “over 70%” of whom they said “come from low-income households,” since the mayor’s pilot initiative was announced.

“We applaud the mayor for rolling out this program, but we are concerned that tens of thousands of deserving students and families are being left out of this free program if it is not expanded to include all Boston families, regardless of what school their children attend,” their new communication states.

MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale has described the mayor’s decision to exclude charter school students as “politically motivated,” a claim Wu has denied, saying that the funding isn’t there to expand the program during the 7-month pilot period.

A March 18 email Santana sent to Murphy and Flynn, obtained by the Herald, keeps to the mayor’s stated timeline, in terms of when he plans to hold a hearing on his colleagues’ push for a possible expansion of the program.

“In terms of next steps, the pilot program is only 14 Sundays, only the first four of which have happened,” Santana wrote, citing his desire for more data around how many students and families are visiting the participating institutions and how funding is working for the pilot program.

“I appreciate your request for scheduling a new hearing date, and as chair of Education,” Santana said, “I believe the soonest we can productively hold that hearing is once the current pilot program is complete, and we have a full picture of how the program is utilized, and what it would take to make an expanded version of the program going forward.”

He also said that Murphy and Flynn’s 17F request for information for data from the first three Sundays of the program, which the Wu administration provided answers to in a filing for this week’s meeting, accomplished what he had “hoped to get out of” the hearing he scheduled for March 18, which led to his decision to cancel it.

“I apologize if that seemed abrupt,” Santana wrote. “My office had reached out to you and your offices earlier on Friday before even reaching out to central staff, but I know we all get a ton of email, so it might have been overlooked.”

Santana did not respond to a request for comment.

The data show that 10,949 BPS students and family members attended the participating museums in February and March. Paying for the program has been $300,000 apiece in ARPA funds and donations from Amazon and other for-profit businesses, with the rest coming from philanthropic individuals and organizations.

Murphy said she will try to persuade Santana to reconsider his decision at the Wednesday Council meeting, saying that she would push for the resolution to be moved to a different committee if it weren’t against council rules — which only allow for committee consideration at the time a docket is put forward.

“Unfortunately the charter doesn’t allow for us to reconsider after the fact,” Murphy said. “Maybe the intent is more to hopefully persuade the chair that this is an important issue that I hope he’ll reconsider and schedule it sooner rather than waiting until the program’s over.”

Boston Police are still investigating the incident, which occurred shortly after 5 p.m. at the intersection of Congress and Sleeper Streets, near the Boston Children’s Museum in the Seaport, Sgt. Det. John Boyle said Monday.

The child was with family at the time, but it’s unclear why she was in the street. The driver of the Ford F-150 pickup truck that struck her remained on scene, and no charges or citations have been filed, nor have there been any arrests made, according to Boyle and the police report.

Neither the victim nor driver have been identified. Officers found the child lying on Sleeper Street. The girl was taken by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the police report states.

Mayor Michelle Wu described the situation as “heartbreaking” and “unimaginable,” and one that underscores the importance of having “streets that are safe,” while speaking with reporters after an unrelated Monday event.

A spokesperson for the Boston Transportation Department said the city has been working with the Fort Point community in South Boston to advance a major redesign of Congress Street, Sleeper Street and A Street, which it plans to put out to bid in the fall.

Construction would begin next year, but the Transportation Department is assessing the area to determine what additional safety improvements can be made in the short term, the spokesperson said.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragedy that occurred yesterday,” the BTD spokesperson said. “Improving safety for pedestrians is our top priority. Across the city, we invest in safety interventions to create safer crossings, safer turns, and safer speeds such as crosswalk striping, daylighting intersections, and signage.

“We believe that one fatality is too many and are committed to building roadways that are safer for everyone, especially our most vulnerable,” the spokesperson said.

Carole Charnow, president and CEO of the Boston Children’s Museum, said she was aware of the planned city project, but called for immediate action to address safety concerns at the intersection of Congress and Sleeper Street, where she said there continue to be issues that are “related to speed and sight lines.”

“Boston Children’s Museum is devastated by this tragedy and our hearts go out to the family of the little girl,” Charnow said in a statement. “While we know that there are plans to permanently address this issue, we hope that something can be done right away to ensure pedestrian safety.”

Charnow and other museum representatives are planning to attend a previously scheduled Fort Point Neighborhood Association meeting Tuesday “to learn more about the plans to immediately address our safety concerns,” she said.

City Councilor Ed Flynn, who represents the area, said the entire community was mourning the “loss of the young girl.”

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim, her family, and all impacted by this tragic loss,” Flynn said in a statement. “Pedestrian safety continues to be one of the top issues we face in the City of Boston.”

He said he plans to continue to advocate for traffic calming infrastructure, such as speed humps, raised crosswalks and pedestrian islands with rapid flash beacons, as well as placement on high traffic roads, main streets, and bus routes.

A report issued by walkBoston, now known as walkMassachusetts, last March showed at least 101 pedestrians died in traffic crashes in Massachusetts in 2022. Figures for last year have not been released.

The Boston City Council will hold a policy briefing Thursday on the city’s PILOT program, where discussion may be built around numbers released in October that show private institutions with tax-exempt status collectively contributed just 76% of their requested payment in fiscal year 2023.

Of the $128.58 million that was requested, the city collected $97.85 million, only $35.72 million of which was cash — presenting a difficult financial scenario from a program intended to make what one councilor described as a “significant contribution” to the city’s annual budget.

Under the program, private institutions, which mainly consist of colleges, hospitals and cultural centers with tax-exempt property in excess of $15 million, make voluntary payments amounting to roughly 25% of what they would have paid in real estate taxes.

“It’s voluntary and we’re just trying to develop a model that would be workable and that we would have compliance with and that is agreeable to the nonprofits in the city,” Councilor Liz Breadon, who is chairing the policy briefing, told the Herald. “It is a significant contribution to the operating budget.”

The goal, she said, is to create predictability for both the nonprofits and the city in terms of their respective financial planning. For the city, that would be centered around having a better sense of how much revenue is coming in, which under today’s PILOT formula, is not known until the end of the year.

Under the program, payments are split between cash and so-called community benefits credits and are meant to “help to offset the burden placed on Boston taxpayers to fund city services for all property owners,” the city website states.

Property taxes make up roughly 75% of city budget revenue, but more than 50% of real estate in Boston is tax-exempt, Breadon said prior to a Council hearing held last year that focused on updating the program, which has operated under the same guidelines since and bases payment requests on property values from 2012.

The program was negotiated between former Mayor Thomas Menino and leaders in the nonprofit sector as a first-of-its-kind “gentleman’s agreement,” Breadon said, and has not seen any significant changes since that administration.

“We’ve had three mayors in two years, and all of the institutions have changed leadership as well,” Breadon said. “So it’s sort of like an opportune moment to just hit the reset button and reevaluate the program and tweak it to see if it will be more workable and targeted to the needs of the city.”

She said discussions are ongoing but declined to provide specifics on what changes may entail. Mayor Michelle Wu has advocated for an update to the program in the past, but her office declined to comment Friday, saying, “We will be in touch when we have more to share.”

This week’s policy briefing will involve a discussion between city councilors and advocates from the PILOT Action Group, which, according to the group’s Co-Chair Enid Eckstein, will focus on ways to attain a more strategic investment and accountability around community benefits credits — or services institutions provide to residents that they can apply toward their overall contribution.

The discussion comes amid a potentially fiscally challenging time for the city, highlighted by a report released by the Boston Policy Institute last month that showed the city’s eroding commercial tax base could leave Boston with a more than $1 billion budget shortfall in five years. That scenario, the report states, could lead to higher taxes for residents.

Further, Mayor Wu said this month that the migrant crisis could impact the city budget in the next fiscal year that begins July 1, pointing to additional services to support new arrivals straining the city’s adult shelter system and migrant children entering the Boston Public Schools.

At the same time, many of the city’s private institutions are falling “far” from what their requested PILOT payment is, Eckstein said.

Data released by the city shows that medical institutions met 91% of the requested amount. Educational institutions — prep schools, colleges, and universities such as Harvard, Northeastern and Emerson — were at 68% compliance.

Cultural institutions — museums, GBH, the Boston Symphony Orchestra — contributed far less, meeting just 35% of the requested amount, $489,562 of which was in cash. Wu has advocated for their removal from the requirement in the past.

“I’d like to believe that they see this as an opportunity for reforming the program and creating more of an investment on the part of the institutions,” Eckstein said of the Wu administration.

Rob McCarron, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, defended the economic impact provided by the state’s colleges and universities as “significant,” at more than $71 billion a year.

They support more than 300,000 jobs across the state and generate $2.5 billion in tax revenue, he said.

McCarron said that while the 50% of tax-exempt land in Boston figure often touted by critics is true, the percentage of land owned by colleges and universities, which take the most flak for non-payment, is less than 5%. Much of that land is city-, state- or federally owned, he said.

He pointed to the city’s strong bond rating, described in reports that he said “inevitably refer to the strength of the economy being so inextricably linked to the colleges and universities that are here.”

The benefits that flow from those institutions to residents and beyond through community benefits are significant,” McCarron said, and “far exceed whatever dollar amount is being discussed.”

Edwards made it clear in two separate posts on X this month that she prefers Cartwright, an attorney with 30 years of legal experience, over Murphy, an at-large councilor and former Boston school teacher, for the Suffolk County seat that opened up when longtime SJC Clerk Maura Doyle opted not to run for re-election.

Quoting a post shared by Cartwright, Edwards wrote on X, “Exciting to see such a qualified and professional candidate running for this position,” a statement that perhaps could be seen as a dig at Murphy’s lack of legal experience.

The outgoing clerk, Doyle, has been a member of the bar since 1981. She was a civil litigator in the state and federal courts for 11 years and an adjunct professor at Suffolk University Law School before joining the SJC clerk’s office as an assistant clerk in 1992. She became the court’s first female clerk four years later. Doyle earned $189,324 in 2023, Herald payroll records show.

Edwards, who sat alongside Murphy for a time on the City Council, later posted that she was out campaigning for Cartwright, who, according to her campaign announcement, is “currently serving as managing director of the public defender office for Suffolk and Norfolk Counties.”

Murphy is likely not deterred, however, particularly after picking up a big-name endorsement this week from U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, who cited her “record of providing constituent services across all neighborhoods, her successful efforts to uphold the voting rights of all Boston residents, and her commitment to helping those less fortunate,” her newsletter states. – Gayla Cawley

Ron DeSantis floats migrants on the Vineyard … again

Ears pricked up — and some eyes definitely rolled — this week when failed presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis floated sending more migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.

Lest we forget, DeSantis last year shipped dozens of Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, with a quick pitstop in Florida. It was a move that was derided as a political stunt and spurred a federal lawsuit by a pair of legal advocacy groups.

So where is the legal challenge?

It has been mostly dormant since August 2023, when the groups representing some of the migrants who landed on the wealthy enclave petitioned a judge not to dismiss the case or move it out of Massachusetts and to Florida.

“Defendants induced 49 destitute immigrants to fly across the country through fraud and misrepresentation and, after using them as unwitting props in a stunt devised for the personal political gain of defendant DeSantis, abandoned them on an island,” Attorneys with Alianza Americas and Lawyers for Civil Rights wrote in the latest court filing.

The lawsuit accused DeSantis and others of violating the migrants’ Constitutional rights and federal rights by luring them onto a plane in Texas and crossing state lines. But DeSantis and his officials have pushed back, arguing the legal groups “obviously disagree with Florida’s policies and political leaders.”– Chris Van Buskirk

Another ‘nationwide search’ for a Massachusetts judge

There’s been yet another “nationwide search” for a Massachusetts judge, in addition to Gov. Maura Healey handing her ex-romantic partner a $226,187-a-year spot on the Supreme Judicial Court.

On the same day the Governor’s Council confirmed that pick earlier this month, they also okayed for the District Court Marjorie Tynes.

In an amazing coincidence, the new Judge Tynes is the wife of Dorchester District Court Judge Jonathan Tynes, who is an appointee of ex-Gov. Deval Patrick and a proud graduate of the now-defunct Mount Ida College.

Mrs. Tynes returned to the public service after a 10-year hiatus as soon as the Democrats regained control of state government last year. Healey made her a $156,000-a-year “deputy executive director” of the Executive Office of Public Safety.

But that was obviously only a holding pen until the ultimate hack appointment opened up – a judgeship.

Mr. and Mrs. Tynes will now each be making $207,855 a year. Total hack family annual take: $415,710. – Howie Carr

MassGOP election loser update

The month of March just keeps getting worse for the faction of the state GOP led by perennial election losers Jim Lyons and Geoff Diehl.

After losing a slew of seats in the state committee races March 5, two days later another of their stalwarts was sentenced to a month in federal prison for income-tax evasion.

This time it was Christianne Mylott-Coleman, a former chief of staff for ex-Sen. Dean Tran of Fitchburg, another of the Lyons-Diehl cult’s serial election losers.

Mylott-Coleman made $52,489 on the state payroll working for Tran at the State House in 2019 before he was ousted from office in 2020, two years after Lyons and Diehl got the boot. He was then crushed for Congress in 2022, but still got a higher percentage of votes than Diehl did in his sad bid for governor.

In Springfield federal court, Tran’s aide Mylott-Coleman was found guilty of evading $269,209 in income taxes while she was running a home-services business.

Meanwhile, her old boss, Tran, is still awaiting his own day(s) in court. He’s been indicted on both state and federal charges, including COVID welfare fraud and theft of a firearm.

Prior to being lugged by both state and federal cops, Tran was ticketed to run on the Lyons-Diehl slate for GOP state committee. According to the federal indictment, at the time of his alleged welfare fraud, Tran was employed by another GOP election loser, Rick Green, who owns 1A Auto Parts in Pepperell. – Howie Carr

City Council avoiding a New Year’s Day hangover

The Boston City Council, in seeking to avoid a repeat of their New Year’s Day hangovers this past inauguration, voted in favor of a home rule petition that, if passed at the state level, would change the date of future inaugural ceremonies.

The petition, put forward by Councilor Brian Worrell and approved via an 11-2 vote last Wednesday, seeks to amend the city charter in a way that would prevent mayoral and city council inaugurations from falling on a federal holiday like what occurred with this year’s New Year’s Day ceremony.

If signed by Mayor Michelle Wu, the petition would be sent to Beacon Hill, where state lawmakers would have to approve two city charter changes — by moving the inauguration and end-of-term dates for the mayor and city council from the first Monday of January to the first weekday after Jan. 2.

Worrell pointed to the strain he felt the requirement placed on first responders, who “had to staff our inauguration 10 hours after First Night and New Year’s Eve.”

Not everyone was on board. City Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy both voted against the “unnecessary” change, speaking to the honor that they and their colleagues should feel in serving on the City Council, and the lack of frequency in which an inauguration falls on a federal holiday. – Gayla Cawley

The joint effort between the city and a group trying to bring a professional women’s soccer team to the stadium scored points in court Friday, with Justice Sarah Ellis declining a request from a group of residents and advocates for the project to be halted.

Ellis tossed out motions from The Emerald Necklace Conservancy, a nonprofit park advocacy group, and 21 city residents for a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and lis pendens, measures they desired to prevent additional steps from being taken in the massive $100-million undertaking.

Boston Unity Soccer Partners, an all-female ownership group, won an expansion bid last September to become the 15th team in the National Women’s Soccer League. The team is slated to take the pitch at the long-neglected venue at Franklin Park in 2026.

Gary Ronan, an attorney representing the city, highlighted during a hearing on the case earlier this month how a preliminary injunction had the potential to derail the project entirely. He called the dispute an “attack” on the effort, one that inaccurately painted what the public-private partnership with BUSP intends to accomplish.

“Plaintiffs assert irreparable harm will ensue absent a preliminary injunction because the demolition and renovation of White Stadium,” Ellis wrote in her decision, “and any lease and/or license agreements contracted between the City and BUSP, will negatively change the nature of White Stadium, limit the public’s enjoyment, and have an immediate detrimental impact on the neighborhoods abutting Franklin Park.”

“I am not persuaded,” the justice added.

Louis Elisa, one of the plaintiffs and a member of the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association, compared Ellis’ decision to the 1857 Dred Scott case which upheld slavery in United States territories and denied the legality of black citizenship in America.

“I view the failure of the court to take the concerns of possible harm and displacement which would occur as being similar to the Dred Scott decision wherein our rights as black citizens are not worthy of serious consideration or respect,” Elisa said in a statement. “Nothing has changed in Boston.”

Renovations at the dilapidated park and stadium — where half of the grandstands were burned out from a fire decades ago— would triple the number of hours the stadium could be used, 90% of which would be dedicated to Boston Public School student-athletes and the community, project proponents have said.

Boston Unity is slated to contribute $50 million, with the city matching that investment.

“I’m thrilled to see the court’s clear ruling that this frivolous lawsuit from the Emerald Necklace Conservancy must not block our ongoing community engagement to deliver a generational investment in White Stadium and Franklin Park,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement Friday evening.

“For decades, Boston student-athletes and community members have watched plans for revitalizing this historic facility come and go without tangible progress,” she added. “Now, for the first time since the stadium’s opening, the City has a committed partnership to invest in and sustain the improvements that our students, park lovers, and neighbors deserve.”

In their lawsuit, hearing and supplemental responses, the plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of the stadium’s proposed redevelopment because they believe the effort “privatizes public land.”

They also emphasized how the stadium would be reserved exclusively for the new professional women’s soccer team for 20 weekend days from April to November, roughly 77% of Saturdays during the warmer months. That could displace BPS football games from being played at the venue, they argued.

In filing the lawsuit, the plaintiffs were “asking the city to slow down and respect the public process,”  Emerald Necklace Conservancy president Karen Mauney-Brodek said on a press call last month.

“We support the renovation of White Stadium and Franklin Park, but we do not support the required involvement of a professional sports team that would displace the local community for the next 30 years while privatizing and profiting from this public resource,” Mauney-Brodek said. “This major redevelopment is being fast-tracked without adequate community input or proper environmental review.”

Ronan fought back during the March 6 hearing, saying Boston Unity will be limited to no more than 20 games a year and 20 practices and the team’s practice schedule will be worked around BPS students and athletics which he called “first priority.”

An assessment of the facility conducted last year found that the stadium needed to be improved and expanded, with suggestions including a bigger staff office, modernized press box, improved locker rooms and an eight-lane track.

BUSP expects its endeavor will have a wide range of economic benefits on the greater community. Construction would generate more than 500 jobs, and the workers would be employed onsite for two years. About 300 permanent jobs would then be created once the stadium is renovated, according to the proposal.

In her decision Friday, Ellis called the overall effort “a clear benefit to BPS and the residents of Boston.”

A survey released earlier this month by the Franklin Park Coalition, a community-based, park advocacy organization, showed that 56% of the more than 700 respondents supported the project. About 20% of park users said they’re “against it.”

The project has been under review by various public agencies and community stakeholders including the Boston Planning & Development Agency, Landmarks Commission, Parks Commission, among other entities.

Early site work is projected to begin in April and construction next January.

“We invite the Emerald Necklace Conservancy to participate with us and welcome the opportunity to collaborate,” BUSP said in a statement Friday evening. “We are proud to be a part of the project that honors the legacy of White Stadium so that it will continue to serve as a point of pride for generations to come.”

Pointing to the massive crowds seen this year, Flynn said the city needs to take a “zero-tolerance” approach to debauchery at the popular parade, where drunken fights with police and other criminal activity resulted in 10 arrests that included gun, assault and battery, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct charges.

“We must make major changes and implement a zero-tolerance for public drinking, any form of violence, fighting and destruction of property and other quality of life issues,” Flynn said in a statement. “If we are not able to meet basic standards of decency and respect the South Boston neighborhood, the parade should move out of South Boston indefinitely.”

Flynn, a former chief marshal of the parade who represents South Boston on the City Council, said Southie residents, many seniors and young families were “disgusted with the public intoxication and fights throughout the parade route.”

“With almost a million visitors to South Boston for the parade, we can’t sustain an ‘anything goes’ attitude any longer,” he added. “This neighborhood deserves to be treated with respect.”

While Flynn broached the possibility of a move, where the parade is held is ultimately up to its longtime organizer, the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, which sends in an annual application to the city for the event, Mayor Michelle Wu told reporters Wednesday.

“It really is up to the organizers of the parade as to what route they want to propose and where they want to do it and if the consensus is that the organizers in the neighborhood don’t want to do it anymore or want to do it somewhere else, then the city’s always happy to respond to those applications as they come in,” Wu said.

The mayor said the city strives to make sure everyone who participates in the annual parade, which honors the city’s Irish community, is safe, and praised police officers for the job they did to keep the situation from getting worse.

“They were out in full force making sure that the route was secured and that incidents that came up were responded to very quickly so I want to thank them especially for doing a great job,” Wu said.

While the potential of moving the parade out of Southie prompted headlines this week, a South Boston community leader said the talks that will take place between Flynn, police, parade organizers and residents will be more centered around making major changes with public safety of the neighborhood as a top priority.

Talks would be focused on having a police presence in parks and on the MBTA, with alcohol prohibited in public and confiscated if observed, the community leader said.

A move out of South Boston would occur “only if we’re not able to make significant changes to the parade,” the source said, noting that it’s too early to speculate whether parade organizers would be receptive to such a major change.

“I think everyone wants to work together and work out the challenges that we have so that the parade can stay in South Boston,” the community leader said.

While Flynn is open to the idea, another South Boston lawmaker, state Sen. Nick Collins, is adamantly opposed to a move, saying that he does not support moving the parade downtown, an area that has been speculated as a possible destination.

The parade is an SJC-protected right of the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, Collins said, although he denounced the “violence and chaos” that took place at this year’s event as “disturbing and unacceptable.”

Collins is calling for an enhanced city-state level security plan going forward for the St. Patrick’s Day event, which he said draws a spectator crowd twice the size of the Boston Marathon.

“We need to prioritize the experience of law-abiding citizens coming to celebrate what is annually the largest public event in Boston and not allow disorderly and criminal behavior of visiting spectators to disgrace a tradition that’s been around for 124 years,” Collins said. “Those who break the law must be held accountable.”

Ten people arrested at the celebrations Sunday were arraigned in South Boston Municipal Court the next day. Boston Police are also still reviewing “a lot of videos” of various assaults that took place at Medal of Honor Park, the source said.

Ford Cavallari, chair of the Alliance of Downtown Civic Organizations, sent a letter to city councilors on Tuesday, calling for a ‘no’ vote on what he described as the mayor’s “poorly written ordinance” that veers “far from” the roadmap she established for abolishing the Boston Planning and Development Agency in 2019.

“This ‘no’ vote would not indicate opposition to creating a city planning department,” Cavallari wrote. “Rather, a ‘no’ vote will allow the mayor to refile, and start another 60-day clock with the Council.”

While Cavallari praised the Council’s efforts to improve the text of the ordinance through a series of government operations committee hearings and working sessions chaired by Councilor Gabriela Coletta, he said the text still falls “far short of the serious reform required” for the BDPA.

More time, Cavallari wrote, would allow for a “more robust series of edits” that “could cure” all of the problems highlighted in his letter, which states three keys flaws with the ordinance filed by Mayor Michelle Wu in late January — a measure aimed at creating the city’s first planning department in nearly seven decades.

Per the ordinance, BPDA staff and functions would move to the new planning department within City Hall. The Council would have budgetary oversight over the new department, and the mayor states that, among other changes, would ensure the same “accountability and oversight as all other city departments.”

Cavallari said, however, that there is “still inadequate, regular and publicly accessible financial transparency built into the planning and development process” through the drafted ordinance, even as amended in Council working sessions.

An annual report will not be sufficient to illuminate and control Boston’s dynamic development environment, he wrote.

“The City Council still ends up with even less oversight over planning and development, because the dangerous urban renewal powers, despite their ‘rebranding’ under the ‘equity, affordability and resiliency’ (EAR) moniker, are actually more autonomous, ambiguous and thus more dangerous,” Cavallari said.

He also criticized how the ordinance keeps an existing part of the agency, the BPDA board, independent from the accountability facing the new department.

Critics have jumped on that part of the plan, pointing to a white paper written by Mayor Wu when she was a city councilor that called for abolishing the BPDA. Her current plan has been pared down to a restructuring of the agency.

“The major change that was being proposed in that 2019 report was to take the planning board power out of the BPDA and put it back in the city of Boston,” Greg Maynard, executive director of the Boston Policy Institute, previously told the Herald. “The Wu administration’s current set of proposals does not do that.”

In the letter, Cavallari contends that what the mayor is seeking to create “isn’t a proper planning department because it lacks a city-controlled adjudicatory planning board, required for all Massachusetts cities including Boston,” although he points out that a 1960 change in law sent that function to the BRA for the Hub.

While the Wednesday City Council agenda lists the mayor’s ordinance as a matter recently heard for “possible action,” a Tuesday email from the Boston Policy Institute states that the body is not planning to take a vote until March 27, pointing to a timetable laid out by Coletta at a Monday working session.

The mayor also has legislation pending on Beacon Hill, approved by the Council last spring, that would legally restructure the BPDA.

Councilor Gabriela Coletta, chair of the government operations committee, is recommending that the body vote favorably Wednesday on a home rule petition that would amend the city charter by moving the inauguration date from the first Monday of January to the first weekday after Jan. 2.

If approved, Mayor Michelle Wu would need to sign off on the petition before it could be pitched to state lawmakers on Beacon Hill, who would also have to approve a charter change moving the end of mayoral and council terms in the same way.

“The purpose of this docket is to ensure that City of Boston employees will not be required to work on the federally observed holiday for Jan. 1 New Year’s Day solely to participate in and facilitate city council and mayoral inaugurations (and) the commencement of the municipal year,” Coletta wrote in a committee report.

The docket for the petition, filed by Council Vice President Brian Worrell, drew laughter when it was read into the record by City Clerk Alex Geourntas at a Jan. 24 City Council meeting.

“Lots of snickering, I wonder why,” Council President Ruthzee Louijeune said at the time, perhaps alluding to the late-night celebrations that occurred on New Year’s Eve followed by the quick turnaround of a 10 a.m. inauguration, where the 13 councilors elected in November were required to take the oath of office.

A brief City Council meeting was also held at noon on New Year’s Day, where a vote was taken to select Louijeune as the body’s new president.

Worrell, in a Monday statement to the Herald, spoke to the strain that quick turnaround placed on the city’s public safety employees.

“This year, our first responders had to staff our inauguration 10 hours after First Night and New Year’s Eve,” Worrell said. “That’s too great a strain to put on our public safety officers. Other years, we wait till Jan. 7 to have an inauguration.

“I’d rather get to work earlier,” he added. “This solution solves for both problems, updating a centuries-old document with an easy fix that will ensure inauguration is Jan. 3-5, which is more in line with federal standards and should increase civic engagement.”

In January, he said the home rule petition “follows Congress’ rule for the most part, which has its inauguration Jan. 3 so it would never fall on either New Year’s Day or its observed holiday.”

Louijeune also spoke favorably of the measure in January, saying that many council staff members had to work on the holiday this year as well, and were given the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend off to make up for it.

The tradition of swearing in on New Year’s Day is nothing unique to Boston. Media reports indicate that a number of mayors and city councilors were sworn into office in other Massachusetts municipalities this year on Jan. 1.

Under the city charter, the inauguration date, municipal years, and elected terms can fall from Jan. 1-7 as the “first Monday in January.” The petition seeks to change those dates to between Jan. 3-5, as the first weekday after Jan. 2.

The act, if passed locally and by the state, would take effect starting with the elected terms and the municipal year that begins Jan. 5, 2026.

While 10 councilors signed onto Worrell’s petition after it was introduced in late January, two others didn’t: Ed Flynn, who was absent, and Erin Murphy. Both say they plan to vote ‘no’ if it is brought to a vote on Wednesday.

“As elected officials, I believe we have the obligation to serve the public at all times, even during a holiday,” Flynn said on Monday. “I’m honored to serve as a city councilor, and I will continue to work hard for my constituents day and night.”

Murphy said “winning an election and representing the City Council is an honor,” and that she doesn’t think working on a federal holiday for the inauguration is a “sacrifice.”

In terms of civic engagement, she said, having the ceremony on a federal holiday is “actually more convenient that family and others don’t have to take the day off work to join.”

Murphy said there isn’t a need, in her opinion, to change the city charter, established in 1822, pointing to the lack of frequency with which the inauguration falls on a federal holiday.

It wouldn’t occur again until 2034, when the first Monday of the month is Jan. 2, the observed date. The inauguration would next fall on New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, in 2046.

If the proposed charter change is because an inauguration “falls after people going out on New Year’s Eve,” Murphy said, “then I’m 100% against it.”

While Wu and most of the rest of the Massachusetts political class were inside the Ironworkers Local 7 Union Hall in South Boston for the annual holiday breakfast, North End restaurateurs were outside protesting decisions the mayor has made that they say are hurting their businesses and the neighborhood.

“They are being blighted like everyone else in the North End,” Robert Regnetta, owner of Ristorante Euno, told the Herald.

Regnetta was joined by perhaps a dozen other restaurant owners and workers who said they feel unfairly targeted by Wu’s decision to prohibit street dining in Boston’s crowded North End neighborhood, a practice made popular during the pandemic when indoor dining space was restricted.

This spring, when other restaurants start seating diners in front of their sidewalks and next to passing traffic, just those operating in the North End will be excluded and allowed only “compliant sidewalk patios.”

Even when the pandemic was still impacting restaurants and they were allowed street dining permits, Regnetta said North End owners alone among the city’s eateries had to pay upwards of $7,500 for a privilege now sold to other businesses for no more than $399.

“It’s fair for everybody else, but not for us,” he said. “We’re disgusted with it. We’re the most recognizable community in America, the North End, and she’s taking away our outdoor dining.”

When the mayor’s office announced in early February they would begin accepting outdoor dining permit applications for this season, a clear focus was placed on accessibility. The particularly narrow streets of the North End are not featured elsewhere in the city, Wu has said in the past, and thus the neighborhood has to face different restrictions that take into account the people living there, not just the business owners.

Wu gave remarks to the breakfast attendees while the protesters stood outside the union hall. In her short speech, she recalled how two years ago her decision to offer a joke about the North End’s fed up business owners, some of whom were protesting outside her home at the time, had landed her in hot water.

“A few years ago at this event I made a joke comparing protestors outside my house to snowflakes. The protestors were so offended at being compared to snowflakes that they sued me after the breakfast,” she said.

The lawsuit, which accused the mayor of bias against “white, Italian men,” has since been dropped, though the protests continue.

“She takes away the right we have to operate equally to other businesses in Boston, while we’re being charged the same taxes and the same licensing fees. It devalues our property, it devalues our contracts,” Monica’s owner George Mendoza said. “Why are my taxes the same as someone with more opportunity?”

Mayor Michelle Wu, who may propose her budget to the City Council next month, did not get into specifics about how the crisis would impact spending in fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1. She did note, however, the extensive impact it is having on city services, and said staffing levels may need to increase to meet the unyielding need.

“There are a couple of places,” Wu said. “On schools, we are registering and making sure that young people who are even in a temporary overflow shelter have access to education right away. So, we are providing our city services that way.”

“The city-run shelters are also more and more experiencing the increase in the number of people who are newly arrived migrant individuals needing support and services.”

The city’s shelter system has been strained by the arrival of migrant individuals not captured by the state’s family emergency shelter requirements, Wu said last month when announcing plans to convert a former Mass and Cass addiction outreach center into a temporary overnight shelter for homeless and migrant adults.

Since the former Atkinson Street Engagement Center began operating as a 30-bed overnight shelter on Feb. 12, the number of city-shelter beds occupied by migrants has increased from roughly 25% to about a third, Wu told the Herald Thursday.

The mayor has stated that there are between 800 to 900 beds in the city shelter system, including those run by the Boston Public Health Commission and others run by nonprofit partners like the Pine Street Inn.

“We definitely have seen the need for more services on our shelter system there that’s not necessarily captured or talked about when we’re only talking about the state’s shelter system, which is for families,” Wu said. “But there are individual adults who are not connected to a family unit who are also arriving in need of services and shelter.”

She also spoke to the broader budgetary impact, saying that every time there are large congregate spaces where people are living in a shelter system, “the city is making sure that we’re keeping the streets clean and working with neighbors,” in terms of providing the area with support around public safety, health and works.

Additional supportive services around the social-emotional and language needs of newly arrived migrants will impact the budget, both for education in the Boston Public Schools and the city’s shelter system, the mayor said.

She said more staffing may be needed for both, given that the pace of new arrivals has not slowed, but rather, continues to increase as more migrants are fleeing dangerous situations in their home countries, and finding refuge in Massachusetts.

The mayor pointed to the overnight shelter on Atkinson Street, where staff members are overseeing that building, which was designed to capture the overflow from the men’s shelter at 112 Southampton St., along with 112 Southampton itself.

While she still describes that shelter as a “temporary” one aimed at getting homeless individuals through the colder months, the city was targeting March 15 for a potential closing date, which passed on Friday.

A weather-dependent extension through mid-April was cited as a possibility when the new use was announced by Wu last month, and the mayor didn’t rule out the potential for operations continuing past the colder months when asked this week, saying that she doesn’t “have an exact date yet.”

“At this point, I’m not sure,” Wu said. “We’re going to continue to watch what the need is. We’re hoping that we can collaborate with our federal partners and continue working with the state around supporting individuals getting their work authorizations quickly because at that point, people no longer need shelter.”

City Councilor Ed Flynn was part of a broader conversation around the “impact and challenges of immigration and migration on local programs, services and municipal budgets” last weekend, when he joined elected officials from across the country at the National League of Cities Congressional Cities Conference in Washington, D.C., per a statement from his office.

He told the Herald that many other cities are grappling with similar budgetary impacts.

Flynn said he expects the City Council, which has the authority to amend, approve or reject the mayor’s budget, will be discussing the impact that the “many” migrants living in Boston will have on the city and its residents.

He described Boston and Massachusetts as a “compassionate city and state,” but said the migrant crisis has put both at “a financial breaking point, and I don’t believe we are able to sustain that any longer.”

Flynn warned the City Council to avoid the decision it made last year, when the body voted to modify the mayor’s budget by making deep cuts to city services, including $31 million from the police department and nearly $1 million from veterans services — both of which were widely criticized and vetoed by Wu.

“I understand it will be a challenging time,” Flynn said. “I don’t want us to balance the budget on the backs of veterans, first responders and critical basic city services that residents need.”

The city’s new contract with AFSCME Council 93 and SEIU Local 888, which together represent more than 1,700 employees across 28 departments, includes wage increases ranging from 10-15% over four years. The percentage is dependent on individual income.

While it dishes out the annual 2% cost-of-living-increase, each employee, regardless of their income, receives a yearly base wage increase of $500. That computes to a higher bump for lower-paid employees, such as those making under $60,000, which represents roughly half of each union’s workforce, the mayor said.

“Settling two big contracts is in and of itself cause to celebrate,” Wu said at a City Hall press conference, where she signed the new collective bargaining agreements. “But today is also special because these contracts set a new first for our city.”

“We set out to lift the floor for our workforce, especially the workers who make $60,000 or less, about 50% of each union membership,” Wu said, adding that was done “to meet the goal of giving each worker a fair, dignified and living wage.”

The contract, for the first time, allows for sick and bereavement leave for employees during their six-month probationary period, a condition that drew applause when it was announced by the mayor.

It also provides the option for a four-day work week provided that employees work the same hours they would over five days, a term that was described as being geared toward their “mental-health” and “work-life-balance” priorities.

The two unions represent city workers in departments that include public works, parks and recreation, inspectional services, centers for youth and families, the registry and elections, among others.

“We negotiated a contract that was fair and equitable across the board,” said Ed Nastari, director of field service and organizing for AFSCME Council 93.

Thomas McKeever, president of SEIU Local 888, described the deal as a “historic” one that brought the lowest-paid city employees “closer to a living wage.”

Chris “Tiger” Stockbridge, AFSCME president, said that while the union didn’t get everything it wanted and had to make some concessions, the contract and the administration’s decision to bring back joint-labor management meetings shows that Wu, who he called the “best labor mayor in 30 years,” is “listening to us.”

He spoke to how quickly the agreement was reached after the last contract expired last October.

“Dignity and respect — that’s what these jobs are about,” Stockbridge said. “The money’s great, too, don’t get me wrong, but you want a job that you want to come to every day, and I appreciate you getting us back to where we need to be. We’ve still got a ways to go, but we’re getting there every day.”

The hearing order, introduced Wednesday by City Councilor Ed Flynn, is also intended to foster a future discussion around how to provide more resources to the crime laboratory, which Flynn says is a “critical part” of the police department.

The lab, he states in the order, performs work around processing, examining and analyzing evidence, including sexual assault kits, that is “indispensable” to the department’s ability to investigate and solve crimes.”

A staffing shortage at the crime lab, however, is hindering its ability to meet state-mandated guidelines of testing sexual assault kits within 30 days.

“It’s critical we address this situation and provide justice for anyone who’s a victim of sexual assault,” Flynn said at the day’s City Council meeting.

His order cites an annual report from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security that found half, or 93 of 186 kits, were not tested within that 30-day window in fiscal year 2023 — from June 2022 to June 2023.

While the staffing shortage is mentioned as a persistent issue at the Boston Police Crime Lab since EOPSS began issuing an annual report in 2020, the numbers are more stark when compared to prior years at the city police lab, and comparable work done at the State Police Crime Laboratory, per the order.

In FY22, the BPD crime lab failed to test 39 of the 144 sexual assault kits within 30 days, and 24 of the 123 kits in FY21, or roughly 27% and 19.5%, respectively. The State Police Crime Laboratory tested 96% of the 714 kits it received within 30 days in FY23, the order states.

In the order, referred to the Public Safety and Criminal Justice committee, Flynn suggests that the Council use a future hearing to examine the underlying cause of the staffing shortage at the crime lab and discuss ways to provide more resources that can help lab workers improve processing turnaround time.

This, the order states, could include potential equipment upgrades or new methods of evidence processing aimed at making the lab work easier and more efficient.

Councilor John FitzGerald, a father of three who introduced the hearing order Wednesday on a recommendation from his wife, said he was seeking a change that would make city-issued handicapped parking placards available to pregnant women in their third trimester, and up to six months after they have given birth.

FitzGerald said his wife’s first pregnancy came with “severely debilitating effects, especially in the third trimester and in the recovery phase post-birth.” Her mobility and general strength was limited, leading to safety concerns around accidental falls when having to walk farther, and she dealt with high blood pressure, he said.

“I remember the day when my wife, well into her pregnancy, said at the time in probably slightly more colorful language that she should be able to park in handicapped spots, given her condition,” FitzGerald said.

The mobility limitations become more pronounced in a woman’s second or third pregnancy, he said, when they’re juggling with their condition while trying to remove their other young children from the car to enter a store.

“Now I find myself in a position to be able to advocate for the idea,” FitzGerald, who joined the Council in January, said in a separate interview with the Herald.

He noted that certain stores in Boston, such as Target, Walmart and Buy Buy Baby, already have a few parking spaces set aside for expecting mothers and parents with small children, but is pushing for that option to become available citywide.

FitzGerald anticipates that the pros and cons of opening up handicapped parking to pregnant women, described in the order as “pregnant people,” along with how such an expansion would work will be discussed at an upcoming committee hearing.

He was unsure if such an expansion would result in a shortage of handicapped spaces for permanently disabled people, or if it would require the city to add more parking spaces.

The city’s press office did not respond to a request for comment about how many handicapped parking placards have been issued and how many are available.

His order makes the case for closer parking for pregnant women, in pointing to the mobility issues, medical conditions, safety concerns and emergency situations that can arise in their third trimester.

It also points to two other states, Illinois and Texas, that have a parking policy that explicitly includes pregnant women. Dubbed Henry’s Law in Illinois, that particular policy allows women in their third trimester to use a disability placard for 90 days.

The order further states that if a physician certifies a pregnant woman as having a walking disability, she may already qualify for a temporary disability placard under both state and federal law, regardless of whether the city adopts the change.

The hearing order, co-sponsored by two other councilors described as “young fathers,” Enrique Pepén and Brian Worrell, was referred to the Strong Women, Families and Communities committee for further discussion.

The hearing was set to consider an order filed by Councilor Erin Murphy that outlined instances of multiple BPS indoor track teams compensating for their lack of available practice time at the Reggie center by “running through hallways, up and down the stairwells and through doorways” at their respective schools.

Murphy said, however, that the lack of BPS staff representation at the Monday hearing defeated the purpose of the order, co-sponsored by Councilors Benjamin Weber and Tania Fernandes Anderson, who represents Roxbury where the Reggie is owned and operated by Roxbury Community College.

She and the other sponsors had invited BPS Director of Athletics Avery Esdaile and TechBoston Academy Athletic Director Courtney Leonard, but Murphy learned at the outset of the hearing from Councilor Henry Santana, who chaired the day’s committee hearing, that neither had been able to attend. No explanation was given.

“You may sense that I’m frustrated,” Murphy said. “I’m upset that BPS did not notify me as the lead sponsor.”

Addressing the invited panelists who did show from the RCC, Murphy said the hearing was “in no way supposed to be adversarial to Roxbury Community College or the great work you do at the Reggie Lewis Center,” but noted that the presence of BPS staff was crucial to the intended conversation.

She criticized the district for its comparable lack of investment in student athletics, where $35,000 is spent per pupil but only $76 per student is spent on athletics, pointing to that as a major reason for her voting down the BPS budget for the past two years when it came before the City Council.

“I know how important it is that our children in the city have access to these opportunities,” Murphy said. “I was hoping that the conversation would be with BPS athletics to talk about how we’re going to move forward and be more committed to our students.”

She declined to ask questions of the panelists who were present and said she would be filing a new hearing order for a discussion limited to BPS representatives. A district spokesperson declined to comment, when asked why BPS chose not to send representation to the hearing or if it had a position on the resolution.

Murphy made a pitch for rescheduling the hearing, but Santana opted to move forward with the day’s discussion — which turned into a Council briefing on the dilapidated state of a Reggie Lewis Center that needs $20 million in repairs and had its state funding request denied last year, and how indoor track is run there.

The crux of the issue, in terms of BPS students missing out on practice time according to Roxbury Community College representatives, is that many of the city’s public schools dismiss at a time too late to fit into the allocated practice time there, from 2-4 p.m.

“There must be a way we can accommodate those high school kids,” Ted Loska, a track and field coach with Boston United Track and Cross-Country Club, said, adding that they “have the right to access a track like everyone else.”

For those city athletes who are able to access the track, he noted that the 4 p.m. cutoff time is a bit disingenuous, since they are being kicked off 15 to 30 minutes early to accommodate track meets.

Two back-to-back indoor track meets are held each day, aside from Thursday when one is held, from 4 to 10 p.m., the center’s executive director, Michael Turner, said.

Turner said there have been discussions with BPS coaches and administrators around potentially moving the Thursday meet to the later time slot to provide additional practice time for city athletes.

He also pointed to availability of the center outside of the indoor track season, which stretches from November to March, and the practice opportunity that exists prior to the start of track meets, which was Dec. 6 this season.

The Reggie Lewis Center, while located at the Roxbury Community College, is a state facility that is required to host track and field for free for Massachusetts high schools, whereas other facilities may charge roughly $300 per hour, Turner said.

The Council, contends by way of the order, that when the center opened in 1995, “there was an understanding with the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the state that the Boston community would benefit first, before surrounding suburbs did.”

It further states that as the years have passed, BPS student-athlete access to optimal practice times has eroded, given that wealthy “suburban school districts have complained that their students are getting home late from practices and meets so they have been able to claim all times from 3:30 p.m. on.”

Given the restrictions, Weber asked if there had been any attempt to coordinate with other tracks to find spots for BPS athletes to practice — Harvard, Boston University and New Balance were floated as possibilities.

Roxbury Community College Interim President Jackie Jenkins-Scott said, however, that while the RCC is willing to assist, it doesn’t think it’s “our responsibility to negotiate that on behalf of Boston Public students.”

“I totally agree with you,” Weber said while referencing the absence of BPS staff. “It’d be nice to have the athletic director here.”

Carnevale, in a strongly worded Monday statement, condemned the council’s decision to abruptly cancel a hearing on the matter with no explanation last Friday, three days after it was scheduled by the body’s education committee chair Henry Santana, a councilor who previously worked for Mayor Michelle Wu.

“One can draw a correlation between City Councilor Henry Santana’s decision to cancel this hearing and his loyalty to his former boss, Mayor Wu,” Carnevale said. “It is apparent that children who do not align with Mayor Wu’s narrative are being excluded, and there seems to be no immediate inclination to extend the program to encompass all Boston children.

“A mayor should not perpetuate divisions among children based on where they go to school,” Carnevale added. “If a proposition such as free museum visits for Boston children is put forth, it should inherently encompass all children without exception.”

Carnevale was among the early critics of the makeup of the pilot program, BPS Sundays, when it was announced by the mayor in her state of the city address in late January, saying at the time that Wu’s decision to exclude charter school students was politically motivated.

The program waives admission fees for Boston Public Schools students and up to three family members attending six cultural institutions on the first and second Sunday of each month through at least August.

The two councilors sponsoring a resolution calling for expansion of the program, Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn, have also been critical of the mayor’s decision.

Their call for immediate favorable vote on the measure was blocked at a council meeting last month by former Wu staffer Councilor Sharon Durkan, whose objection automatically sent it to committee.

Council President Ruthzee Louijeune referred the non-binding resolution to the education committee, chaired by Santana, who said Saturday that he canceled the hearing because he wanted more time to consider data that would be gathered once the pilot had been running for a few more Sundays.

Wu said Sunday that her administration would not be reopening negotiations during the middle of the pilot, and previously stated that the funding was not there to expand the $1 million program during the seven-month pilot period.

The mayor indicated that city staff would be made available to present updated data toward the end of the pilot, perhaps pushing the canceled council hearing to the summer.

Citing the past objection from Durkan, which the MassGOP criticized in a prior statement, Carnevale said, “A discernible pattern is emerging of these former Wu staffers advancing the mayor’s agenda within the City Council.”

“This was a very carefully negotiated opportunity over the course of an entire year of conversations and negotiations,” Wu said, visiting the Boston Children’s Museum with her kids Sunday. “And we’re not going to reopen those negotiations just in the middle of the agreed-upon pilot.”

The “BPS Sundays” pilot program was launched in January to allow BPS students free access to cultural institutions on the first and second Sunday of each month up to August. Under the program, BPS students and up to three family members have free access to six museums and cultural institutions around Boston.

The program does not include other school-age children, including public charter school students and METCO students. The exclusion of other students has stirred controversy and led some city councilors to push for an expansion of the pilot.

The mayor’s remarks come days after the cancellation of a city council hearing on altering the initiative, with Councilor Henry Santana saying he needed more time to review early data on the program.

“We’re looking to very, very carefully at learn about this program, see exactly the impacts on the finances of these institutions, on the community members and families, so that we can have the best idea about how to turn this into something permanent at the end of the pilot period,” Wu said Sunday.

Wu previously told the Herald there is not funding to expand the program to more students during the pilot period, and the exclusion is not politically motivated.

Regarding the cancelled hearing, the mayor said “the City Council is in charge of their own scheduling. City staff intends to present more data on the subject towards the end of the pilot and analyze how the program is working and can be improved, Wu added.

The city is collecting data on the financial impacts on the institutions, numbers of students and families participating, outreach methods and numbers of first time attendees, Wu said.

“I hope that we can keep the momentum going and make sure that this will be something that’s in place for a long time to come,” Wu said.

“This is a great opportunity for kids to get to visit all these museums that are here and they’ve never been before,” said Zara Abba-Aji, who brought her kids to the Children’s Museum for the first time Sunday. “They love it.”

The office of Councilor Henry Santana, who previously worked for the mayor, sent an email to the office of Councilor Ed Flynn Friday night, saying that the March 18 committee hearing was canceled because Santana wanted more time to study data that the mayor’s office has been collecting during the pilot phase of BPS Sundays.

Flynn and Councilor Erin Murphy, who co-sponsored a resolution seeking an expansion, said they were blindsided by the cancellation, which came about a week after the mayor’s former campaign aide Councilor Sharon Durkan objected to their call for an immediate vote on the measure, automatically sending it to committee.

“It’s disappointing,” Flynn said of the cancellation. “I think parents and students alike asked for equal access to museums and these cultural institutions. It’s important that we put politics aside and provide every family the same opportunity.”

Flynn and Murphy said they had not spoken with Santana as of Saturday evening about the change in schedule. The cancellation notice was received by the city clerk shortly before 5:30 p.m. Friday, and posted publicly with no explanation.

“I was looking forward to the hearing and talking with my colleagues on how to expand this program,” Murphy said. “That’s a great opportunity, but I’ve been very open and vocal since the beginning that I don’t think we should only be offering this to students who attend BPS.”

She said the lack of communication from the chair was “concerning.”

Flynn and Murphy have been critical of the mayor’s decision to exclude non-Boston Public Schools students from the program since it was announced in her state of the city address in late January.

They have characterized their resolution as a chance to rectify the unfair exclusion of many low-income and minority families whose students attend charter, parochial or private schools or take part in the METCO program, and can’t afford the cost of a museum visit.

Flynn and Murphy filed a 17F request last week, sent to the Wu administration by the Council with a 7-day deadline, for data around how the program is being funded — between APRA and philanthropic funds — and how many students have participated so far, which the mayor said two weeks in was about 2,500 families.

Mayor Michelle Wu told the Herald last week that the funding isn’t there to expand the $1 million program during the seven-month pilot period that extends through August, stating her decision to keep it open to only BPS students was based on the finances of the participating institutions, rather than any political motivations.

She said her administration will be considering other factors beyond expanding participation to non-BPS students after the pilot phase, such as whether to waive fees on a different day in the realm of providing better access to families.

“It’s all going to be on the table as they really carefully listen to families and measure and see what the numbers tell us over the course of the seven months,” Wu said at the time.

Her office did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday. Flynn said he believes the funding is there and he and Murphy maintain that they are pushing for an immediate expansion during the pilot phase.

A spokesperson for Santana said the councilor supports an expansion of the program, but that he wants it to run for a few more Sundays to have a better sense of the data, in addition to the first few weeks covered by the 17F, before holding a hearing. He has picked a potential hearing date, which wasn’t disclosed.

Santana said in a statement that while he appreciates his colleagues’ “thoughtful requests” for information about the first three Sundays, “I’m a big believer in utilizing data in the council’s work.”

“And we’ll be in a better position to understand how the program is being utilized and to discuss how it could be expanded once the pilot program has been running for more than a few Sundays, and we have more data available,” he said.

Salcido has served at the popular Italian eatery for three years to help her afford higher education. She looks forward to the warmer months, but often reminisces about her first summer at the restaurant.

“It is a huge difference from two years ago when we had the outdoor patio,” Salcido told the Herald during the Friday lunch rush.

Outdoor dining is not coming back to Vinoteca Di Monica this year — a trend that started in 2023 while nearly every other neighborhood in the city provided a full-scale al fresco option to patrons.

Officials have limited outdoor dining in the Italian neighborhood to just “compliant sidewalk patios,” but due to the narrow sidewalk in front of the Vinoteca Di Monica, the option is off the table.

The restaurant Salcido works at is at the center of a lawsuit that owner Jorge Mendoza-Iturralde and 20 other restaurateurs, along with the North End Chamber of Commerce, filed in federal court earlier this year, accusing Mayor Michelle Wu of “discriminatory bias.”

“It’s something unfair. It impacts a lot,” Salcido said. “All of us think the same: We want the patios back. It’s something that we need.”

“It’s still a really good place to work,” she added. “The North End is always busy, especially in the summer, but obviously it was different in the summer when we had the patios. We got more people, we got more tables, and of course, more money. Everything was so much better.”

The plaintiffs amended the lawsuit this week, adding in the losses they anticipate they’ll encounter in 2024, the fees they paid in 2022 and the lost revenue from 2023. In total, they say they’re seeking millions in damages.

The restrictions affect restaurateurs economically as indoor seats lose value on sunny days in the spring and summer, and they’re losing out on extra revenue “to compensate for the losses of the winter,” Mendoza-Iturralde told the Herald on Thursday.

“Mayor Wu has no right to do what she’s doing to us,” the restaurateur said during a Friday protest. “We are being put at a huge disadvantage. It affects people from all communities. It affects all the people who come to work here. It affects what we can put on the table. It affects how we pay our mortgages, our rents and taxes.”

At an unrelated event Friday, Wu highlighted how outdoor dining allowed some North End restaurants to double their capacity, doubling their revenue from the additional meals. But she said the businesses have remained busy even with limited outdoor dining.

“We haven’t seen restaurants empty in the North End, for example,” the mayor said. “Sure, they may not be at the doubling of their capacity as it was during the emergency pandemic when they shut down the inside and therefore they needed some outside seats.

“I’m a firm believer of outdoor dining,” she added. “I think every way that we can get people out of their homes, into our streets and in the community, it’s good for small businesses, it’s good for the city, it’s good for our communities but it has to work with neighbors, residents and the flow of traffic.”

Though the $552,000 sweeper has traversed city streets for nearly two years, restaurant owners are using the purchase as a crucial argument that the mayor has shown “discriminatory bias” in their “war” for outdoor dining.

A group of  21 neighborhood restaurateurs and the North End Chamber of Commerce have amended a lawsuit filed earlier this year in federal court, demanding the city refund the losses their businesses have sustained and will continue to feel due to Wu’s unfavorable treatment.

In 2022, officials forced restaurateurs to pay a $7,500 fee for outdoor dining operations in a shortened season compared to other neighborhoods. In 2023, the city banned on-street dining, limiting the al fresco option to “compliant sidewalk patios,” restrictions that will continue this year.

Out of Boston’s 23 neighborhoods, the North End is the only one to encounter restrictions against their will.

A task force of officials, North End restaurateurs, and residents examining “potential pathways forward” to providing on-street dining in the future raised concerns heard in the past: narrow sidewalks and streets, trash building up leading to increased rodent activity, and impacts to traffic and congestion.

Those issues factored into this year’s restrictions, officials have said.

Jorge Mendoza-Iturralde, co-owner of Vinoteca di Monica, and Carla Gomes, owner of Terramia and Antico Forno, shed light on the electric street sweeper Friday during a protest over the 2024 ban in front of the North End’s Paul Revere statue.

The electric sweeper had already been included in the suit filed in early January, but it’s a revelation that Mendoza-Iturralde and Gomes say supports the amended filing, which seeks millions from the city.

“Mayor Wu plays political bingo. In political bingo, you have your political bingo card, and you have to fill it,” Mendoza-Iturralde said. “How do you fill it? I’ll give you an example: All of the money that was raised here in the neighborhood was supposed to come back to the neighborhood.

“Want to know what she used the money for?” he asked. “She bought herself one of the bingo pieces … an electric street sweeper.”

Going into the 2022 outdoor dining, officials highlighted how the so-called “permit fees” – $7,500 for providing the option plus roughly $450 for parking spaces –  would be redirected back to the North End, according to the suit, which cites city records.

In April 2022, the city calculated it would rake in about $450,000 in fees, and with the “new source of several hundred thousand dollars in revenue,” officials decided to use a portion to purchase the electric street sweeper, the suit states.

The hefty machine fits into Wu’s Green New Deal, a plan “tackling the climate crisis in Boston

In the summer of 2022, “the City awarded the bid and purchased a RAVO electric street sweeper for a cost of $552,000, according to City records,” the suit documents.

“The electric street sweeper, however, was not used as a dedicated piece of equipment for the North End despite its elaborate North End décor,” the suit states. “The City already had a sufficient and satisfactory fleet of street sweepers that had effectively cleaned the North End’s streets for years.”

The sweeper is decorated with pictures showcasing North End scenery, including St. Stephen’s Church on Hanover Street, Old North Church, the statue of Paul Revere, and a lamppost on the corner of Hanover and Parmenter Streets.

But the Boston Public Works Department has posted photos on its X account showing the sweeper cleaning Causeway Street in the West End, streets in the South End, and near Alcorn Street in Allston.

In total, the city took in $794,356 from the roughly 60 North End restaurants that offered outdoor dining in 2022. Public works, including sweeping, power washing and maintenance equipment, accounted for 86.5% of the cost that went back into the neighborhood, the city website shows.

“These people that sided with Mayor Wu by not having outdoor dining are going to find out that all they were promised – all that money that was supposed to come back to the North End – went to other neighborhoods, not the North End,” Gomes said, citing the street sweeper.

“They’re going to be disillusioned when they find that out,” she added. “All we’ve ever asked for was to be treated fairly.”

Last year’s ban led to four restaurateurs amending a lawsuit they filed against the city in 2022, alleging Wu made them pay thousands to provide outdoor dining last year because of her bias against “white, Italian men.”

By last June, the restaurateurs had dropped the suit.

At an unrelated event Friday morning, Wu said the city is providing as much information as possible through the court process. She highlighted how there are “important parallels” in Chinatown, a neighborhood where on-street outdoor dining is banned, but interest there is not as high as in the North End.

“We have been here before,” the mayor said, “and the city was found very solidly to have the authority and jurisdiction to make decisions to protect our neighbors and residents about how our city streets are used.”

Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, who is black, took issue with remarks made at this week’s meeting by Councilors Ed Flynn and Julia Mejia, who spoke to the lack of engagement opportunity they were afforded by Council President Ruthzee Louijeune this term, by way of being assigned to chair the least active committees.

Flynn mentioned that Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy, who was absent from that part of the meeting and announced her campaign for clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court of Suffolk County a day prior, was also assigned by Louijeune to chair just one committee, which like those assigned to him and Mejia are “limited in scope.”

“It’s not a criticism of anybody, but is a challenge to maybe engage myself, Councilor Mejia and Councilor Murphy in this discussion because we have something to offer this body,” Flynn said. “It’s hard work, it’s integrity and it’s also our ability to understand these issues.”

The dustup started when Mejia made a pitch for a hearing order seeking a review of the city’s COVID-19 recovery funds to be placed in her committee, Post Audit: Government Accountability, Transparency and Accessibility, by Louijeune, rather than Boston COVID-19 Recovery, chaired and recommended by the measure’s lead sponsor Sharon Durkan. Flynn backed up Mejia’s request.

Mejia thanked Flynn for advocating on her behalf, but stated that as an at-large councilor in her fourth year on the body, she doesn’t need “permission to lead” or a “committee to move my city forward.”

“I do believe what Councilor Flynn is trying to allude to is that there is a sentiment here that if you’re not part of the cool kids club, or whatever the case is, is that you’re not going to have the opportunity to really be in collaboration with your colleagues,” Mejia said.

“I would hope that as a body we’re going to demonstrate otherwise, and we’re going to show up in ways that are reflecting the city as a whole.”

Fernandes Anderson, who co-sponsored the hearing order with Council Vice President Brian Worrell, emphatically responded to those remarks, saying that “if there are sentiments or cool kids, there’s no such thing.”

“Look, you win some, you lose some,” she said, before directing her remarks to Flynn, the body’s president last term. “You were president. You did what you did. You gave people committees. You negotiated. We know how it works.

“The politics for people watching at home,” Fernandes Anderson said, is that a councilor will negotiate to be president, and as part of securing votes, the person vying for the presidency will ask what a fellow councilor wants in exchange for their supportive vote, such as certain committees to chair, office or parking space.

Presumably addressing the white Flynn and hispanic Mejia while bringing the council president’s race into the matter, Fernandes Anderson told colleagues to stop with the “petty back and forth” with Louijeune, and to keep conversations around their issues, sentiments and emotions outside of the council chamber.

“Cut it out,” Fernandes Anderson said. “Let’s get back to business and stop coming for her. Stop being petty. I’m a call all y’all out, and I told you before, if you want smoke, I’ll give you smoke.”

“She’s a Black woman, she’s president — all of a sudden, there’s all these issues and rules, blah, blah, blah,” she added.

Louijeune did not respond to the remarks, but took them as an opportunity to close the discussion and refer the hearing order to Durkan’s COVID-19 committee, which she said was also devoid of any hearings this term.

While Louijeune’s decisions on enforcing council rules and doling out committee assignments have been frequently challenged this term, Flynn was subject to similar pushback as well, particularly late in his term. Meetings would often start late, with many councilors not showing up on time for a quorum to be declared.

Flynn, Mejia and Murphy were not among the councilors who committed to selecting Louijeune as council president, when she announced in November that she had secured the seven votes necessary to lead the body.

When it came time for a vote on New Year’s Day, Flynn nominated Mejia, who “respectfully” declined after reportedly being asked not to step forward by former Councilor Tito Jackson. Murphy was planning to second the nomination.

Flynn, Mejia and Murphy ultimately joined the rest of their colleagues in voting for Louijeune — but many of the other councilors had already committed to Louijeune early in the process, and were assigned more important, or multiple committees, as part of the negotiation process.

There’s a sentiment among those three councilors that their lack of active committee assignments is a result of not supporting the current council president prior to the vote taken on her selection, a City Hall source said.

During this week’s meeting, for example, Flynn alluded to Henry Santana chairing both the public safety and education committees, and Durkan chairing planning, development and transportation and COVID-19 recovery.

Louijeune responded by saying that last term, she was among “a number” of councilors who chaired only one committee, but ensured that hers, civil rights, stayed active by filing many orders for it, particularly around housing.

“I do think there are ways to actively engage,” Louijeune said.