Essaibi George, Wu face off in Mattapan
Mayoral candidate Michelle Wu says her administration would dedicate $200 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to affordable housing production and homeownership opportunities to help keep Black people in Boston..

Legislators carve out new districts
For Boston’s communities of color, the redistricting process for the Massachusetts House and Senate offers a chance to advocate for better representation.

Council puts curb on police surveillance
Ordinance 16-63 “on surveillance oversight and information sharing” mandates that surveillance technology, including facial recognition software, security cameras, license plate readers and more, cannot be acquired or used without the Council’s permission, and limits information-sharing between all information-gathering agencies.

Activists seek protections for renters, landlords
Gathering just over a year after the state’s eviction moratorium expired, advocates from the statewide Homes For All Massachusetts coalition met in front of the Statehouse Thursday to call on legislators to pass a bill designed to protect Massachusetts residents from evictions and foreclosures.

HSTF taps developer for Blessed Sacrament
After standing empty for more than a decade, the Blessed Sacrament Church in Jamaica Plain will finally open its doors once again –– this time to residents rather than parishioners. On Sept.

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Senate Republicans’ sudden concern for misdemeanors
One of the most serious crimes in recent years was the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The House of Representatives has established a select committee to investigate that organized assault in order to prevent further attacks.

Bostonians got it done
Black Bostonians have endured considerable anguish over losses in political elections for mayor. In the race for mayor in 2013, after Tom Menino left office, six candidates who were Black, Hispanic and Cape Verdean vied for the corner office, but the...

IN THE NEWS
Smith is currently special sheriff and superintendent of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, where she serves as the public safety agency’s chief of staff.

A false sense of housing security
“We cannot pay the rent if we don’t have jobs,” Maria said through an interpreter at an Oct. 21 rally to pass the COVID-19 Housing Equity Bill. “This is so scary, and this bill … is the only solution to protect us from being evicted, from going to the streets.

Enough is enough
To a certain segment of white America emerging from the confusing eight years of a Black presidency, Trump was the medicine they needed to relieve them of their perceived assault on whiteness. They believed in their hearts that if all else failed them, at least they were white — and that gave them worth.

Colin Powell, groundbreaking general, diplomat, dies at 84
Powell grew up in a working-class family in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx, his father a shipping-room foreman in the garment district and his mother a seamstress.

Janey orders Mass & Cass tents removed
The action, which Janey implemented under an executive order signed last week, aims to address the ongoing struggle with mental health challenges, drug use and homelessness centered at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, commonly referred to as Mass and Cass, in the South End.

Candidates and referenda on the November ballot
After months of knocking on doors, holding rallies and attempting to get their messages out, it’s now time for those efforts to be put to the test for candidates on Boston’s 2021 ballot. Here’s a summary of everything voters can expect to see as they head to the polls on Nov.

Voters will weigh in on school committee
Question 3, a nonbinding referendum, asks voters “Should the current appointed school committee structure be changed to a school committee elected by the residents of Boston?” Response to the question will inform an accompanying home-rule petition ushering in an eventual return to committee elections.

Young, female and Black
This week, Speakeasy Stage Company presents the New England premiere of “BLKS,” a raw, raunchy and real comedy by playwright Aziza Barnes about Black womanhood. Running Oct. 29-Nov. 20, the production follows three Black women trying to navigate life and relationships in a city that doesn’t prioritize or even embrace them.

Taking on Titian
One such character is the only woman of color in the Titian show, a faint figure sketched into the edge of a painting. Rankine, an author of five poetry books, including “Citizen: An American Lyric,” has written a piece addressing that woman. Davis herself will read the poem during City of Women II.