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[Music] [Music] [Music] For the record, my name is Brian Warell,
District 4 city counselor, and I'm the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means. Today is May 1st, 2025. It is 2:14 PM. This hearing is being recorded, is also being livereamed at boston.gov back
city-counts-v and broadcast on Xfinity channel 8, RCN channel 82, and Fios channel 964. The council's budget review process will encompass a series of public hearings beginning in April and running through June. We strongly encourage residents to take a moment to engage in
this process by giving testimony for the record. You can do this in several ways. One, attend one of our hearings and get public testimony. You'll take public testimony at the end of each departmental hearing and also at two hearings dedicated to public testimony. The full hearing schedule is on our
website at boston.gov/countsil-budget. You give testimony in person here in the chamber or virtually via Zoom. For in-person testimony, please come to the chamber and sign up on the sheet near the entrance. It will be taken at the beginning of this hearing following the panelist presentation. Individuals will
be called on in on on in the order which they signed up and will have two minutes to testify u to testify. For virtual testimony, you can sign up using our online form on our council budget review website or by emailing the committee at
ccc.wmson.gov or by emailing charisma shanboston.gov. That is k a r i sh m a ch h o u hj an boston.gov. You will receive the Zoom link and your name will be added to the list. When you are
called to testify, please state your name and affiliation and or residents and limit your comments to a few minutes to ensure that all comments and concerns can be heard. The second way you could testify is email your written testimony to the committee at ccccc.wm boston.gov. And the third way
is to submit a two-minute video of your testimony through the form on our website. For more information on the count on the city council budget process and how to testify, please visit the city council budget website at boston.gov/countsil-budget. Today's hearing is on dockets number 0822
through 0830 and docket number 0835 through 0836. FY26 budget for the environment department office of food justice conservation commission revolving fund and the distributed energy revolving fund. These measures were sponsored by
Mayor Michelle Woo and referred to the committee on April 9, 2025. Today I'm joined by my council colleagues in order arrival, council Liz Braden, council Aaron Murphy, council president Louis Russie Lou Jen, council um Gabrielle Kleta Zapata and councelor John
Fitzgerald and we have abs letter of absence from council Henry Santana. We will now go to today's panelists to introduce themselves and to dive into their presentation. The floor is now yours. Uh thank you chair warl. Um in terms of the slides I think this is a different
docket that you have showing. This is not EOS. Oh y that is not. Um so Brian Sweat, chief climate officer for the city of Boston uh in the EOS cabinet uh is uh that we're talking about today is the environment department, the office of climate resilience and the office of food justice. and I'll let my colleagues
uh introduce themselves. Excited to be here and then we'll uh I'll have some brief introductory remarks. Hi, I'm I think I'm waiting. Okay, there we go. Uh Oliver Sers Garcia, environment commissioner and Green New Deal director. Chris Good, Office of Climate
Residience. Alisa Wasserman, Office of Food Justice. uh Tisha Rogers, director of admin and finance for the EU US cabinet. So excited to be here, Chair Warl uh to present uh on those budget items related to those uh three offices and
departments. I think you'll see uh first and foremost uh our submission and the mayor's submission consistent with our overall direction uh on being more precautionary uh in these uncertain times. Uh we are uh investing in critical programs. Uh we have uh one new major program that was announced at the
state of the city, the Boston Energy Saver program. Um but you know most of this budget is about continuing to do the work that we've been doing uh over the last couple of years. You will also see presented uh some reorganization to be fit for purpose. Uh and so we'll talk a bit about that but as you know you may
recall last year there was not an office of climate resilience uh that was established uh in this fiscal year and um we are uh continuing to embed that uh given the priority uh of climate action and being climate resilience. uh we've repositioned a few other roles to be fit for purpose um you know in the context
of not creating uh new FTEES uh but making sure that you know we are future fit uh in terms of our governance and our structure. Um so excited to talk with you all about that and I'll turn over first and foremost to uh our environment commissioner Oliver Sers Garcia. That's right. And Brian said foremost so
I won't let it get to my head but um thank you. I'm Oliver Sers Garcia again um environment director and um environment commissioner and director of the office of of uh green new deal director. So um I am going to walk
through some slides very quickly. Um the um just to remind you that the mission of the um environment department is to um enhance quality of life by protecting air, water and natural resources and by addressing the causes and impacts of
climate change. As um Chief Sweat mentioned, um we really have a um a budget that um continues with the theme of the overall city budget to be um level funded um in all cases except the addition of the Boston Energy Saver
Program, which is a um a new exciting program that will be rolling out over the course of the remainder of this calendar year to um reduce um energy burden, energy costs, and climate emissions for um residents and small businesses in Austin. So the personnel
increase you see is due to um cost of living increases. Um the operating u budget non-personal is um the program that I mentioned and the um capital changes noted here in this slide are the completion um indicate the completion of
um some important capital projects from uh Renew Boston Trust. Um the major operational changes of course um my colleague Chris Osgood will talk about the launching of the office of climate resilience that um was formerly um with staff um in the environment department
proper. Um there is an important change in our recycling program um to uh focus on circular economy and also what began at the end of um the last fiscal year um and we completed this year was the full integration of the green new deal staff
uh into the environment department. So um quick highlight on some uh accomplishments for the year. If I could move to the next slide. There we go. Um, we uh in in
preparation for the launch of the Boston Energy Saver, we signed a um really groundbreaking with our um utility energy utilities to set targets for heat pump insulation and weatherization um with um a joint commitment to
collaborate and bring more inind resources. We've made our first awards from the equitable emissions investment fund for uh affordable housing, renewable energy and deep decarbonization projects that supports Berto compliance in the affordable
housing sector. Um as well as uh partnering with the planning department to launch the country's first net zerocarbon zoning. We have launched our uh currently open program for community clean air grants um for uh local nonprofits up to a million dollars for
the total um awards 200 for each award. Um and as I mentioned we've launched the new circular economy program. We've begun in partnership with um Boston public schools and uh operations the city's first geothermal project. and
we're also doing uh a our own Berto compliance work and moving forward there. Finally, I'd like to mention that we um are in the midst of a climate action plan update that we launched earlier this year that's very important for setting the direction over the next 5 years. From an operational standpoint,
we've filled all director positions and have reduced our vacancies um from this point last year that was 12 down to three. And um some new initiatives that we have also launched uh recently are the first climate leader awards which um
took place only a few weeks ago and um the creation of a inter agency climate council which chief sweat will talk about at the end of our presentation. And then quickly just to talk about some goals for next year you'll see a lot of continuity um as well as u meeting the
moment of our new challenges. So, we'll be launching the Boston Energy Saver program and really continuing to expanse expand our engagement for Berto compliance and reporting among many different types of um building owners.
We will be uh completing the Boston wetlands ordinance revisions which will take into account climate change and environmental justice and also partnering with other agencies including parks on an urban wilds management and strategic plan. We'll be working to
complete um energy procurement contracts to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions as well as decarbonization projects in our building stock. And finally, we really are taking the next uh challenge in completing our climate action plan and starting to think about
how we play a greater role in partnering on the cleaning and expansion of our electric grid as well. Finally, operationally, we seek to fill those last few positions and retain um the excellent talent of my department. So, with that, I will pass it to Chris
Osgood, and I will say that um in the course of the um question and answer, I we really look forward to the discussion and answering as many questions as we can. And um anything we can't answer in real time, we would be very happy to get back to you um later in writing or in
another form. Thank you. Thank you so much, Oliver. I'm Chris Osgood. I have the great pleasure of leading the city's new office of climate resilience, an office that was created by the mayor and by Chief Sweat. Great support from uh the council here uh to ensure that we are leading on our all of government approach to address the climate risks in
front of us. Extreme heat, uh storm water flooding from intense precipitation and coastal flooding. Um there is, as Oliver mentioned, um great historical connection, but also a really important synergy between the Office of Climate Resilience and the Environment Department, which is why the OCR budget
is actually a component of the overall environment department's budget. As you see on this slide, there's been a tremendous amount of work both over the course of the last fiscal year and equivalent ambition for the year ahead to make sure that we are doing those projects that protect our constituents, protect their property, protect our
communities so we can make sure that Boston remains a place that every family can call home for generations to come. Um some of that work uh includes uh efforts to make sure that we are uh helping our residents uh most notably youth, our seniors, um those who are most impacted by extreme heat. Um during
the heat emergencies that uh we have seen over our last several summers uh with great credit to our office emergency management. Uh and our public health commission, we've been able to support an expansion of tools to um pro provide places for shade, access to water during those extreme heat days.
and with uh great credit to the uh the OCR team and a number of other partners uh been able to launch what we believe is the largest installation of green roofs on bus shelters uh anywhere in the nation over this course this last year. Uh we are complenting those efforts around uh providing shade and water uh
with increasing work and collaboration uh focused on tree planting making sure that we are lowering the temperature particularly in those parts of our city uh that experience higher temperatures uh during over during the course of the summer. Part of that is work on our on our streets uh led by our parks department. Um part of that is work
which is on private property with support of uh some outside funding that you'll notice in this budget uh to move forward in something called the Boston Tree Alliance. Similarly, there's been a lot of work a lot of work in collaboration with many of you on uh dealing with coastal flood risk. Again, you see some of that highlighted uh here
on this slide. Last September, we joined with many of you for what was the cities and similarly we believe the nation's first uh deployables day. This was a one-day training exercise uh for those folks who have deployable flood walls for them to be able to set them up uh in our city. In part to make sure that uh
those property owners, those folks who had deployable flood walls um were um doing annual training. Um in part though to really be able to expose the broader Boston community to interim solutions as we think about the longer transformation of our coastline. And one of the those sites that you see featured here is the
deploy deployable flood wall which was installed with our parks department at the Maryland Walsh Greenway as well as one which is managed by the MBTA at the aquarium station. As that interim work uh goes forward, there's obviously a lot of collaboration uh with many of you in your districts on projects that help
close some of the longer term and near-term flood paths uh that exist, things which will uh most importantly protect our neighborhoods from coastal flood risk. And you see border street one of those projects funded in the capital budget uh or the design funded in the capital budget uh highlighted on this slide. There's also a significant
amount of work which happens uh not just within the office of climate resilience or in the environment department but in our streets cabinet in our planning department uh and uh in our parks department um driving forward a number of these resilience projects. So the budget that you see in the upper leftand corner of the slide is really a portion
of the city's overall investment in climate resilience. Um, similar uh to uh to Oliver's point on the operating budget, the actual personnel budget um for the Office of Climate Resilience remains stable, although we're going to be able to expand our staff by one over the course of this year thanks to
outside funding. And a significant portion of that capital budget, which is the largest investment uh in the city's history around resilience uh projects around risk reducing uh climate projects uh is sustained in this budget and we appreciate the council's um steadfast support of that. That is the budget
which is going to allow us to most notably again help protect our residents uh for for generations to come. So appreciate uh this conversation, this opportunity, and your ongoing support of this work. And I'll pass it over to Alisa Wasserman who leads our office of food justice. Thanks. Um good afternoon. Thanks so
much to the chair and council. My name is Alisa Wasserman. I'm the director of the Office of Food Justice and I I really appreciate this opportunity to uh share with you about our work and um hear uh hear from you any questions and concerns that you have. Um our mission
at the Office of Food Justice is to build a food system that is equitable, resilient, sustainable, and just. And over the past three years, um, we have significantly expanded and deepened our offic's work in particular neighborhoods
and at a city-wide scale. Um, much of that work has been due to the fact that we have been able to expand and fill all the positions on our team. And I do really want to thank our the OFJ team of seven permanent staff and fellows who have um really been dedicated to serving
residents, learning from them even amidst significant changes. Um, I will note that uh similarly to to to what Chris mentioned, we work very closely with Grow Boston, the Boston Public Schools Food and Nutrition Services, Boston Public Health Commission, and
other city departments and state agencies and community partners to make sure that we can carry out our mission as effectively as possible. And we do appreciate the council's recent cotification of the Office of Food Justice to support us to continue to address resident needs into the future.
Um I will just highlight a few key accomplishments um and share our overall FY26 budget request. Um in order to build equitable access and distribution systems for fresh, culturally relevant, nutritious,
and regionally grown food citywide. Um we in this past fiscal year, we provided $420,000 of uh for farmers market food um through farmers market coupon. So fresh food at no cost to Boston residents via 20 farmers markets um and
the 33 communitybased organizations that actually distribute those coupons. We have developed an internal dashboard for the program that will help us um understand exactly who is using those those coupons on what type of food um
where and where they're getting them. um which we are using uh along with other data to in partnership with the public health commission's chronic disease prevention and control division um with a planning committee of farmers markets to really determine how we will continue
to support affordability at farmers markets into the future while we continue to support the program this summer um as that had previously been an ARPA funded program that we um are looking to continue um addressing the goals of the program into the future.
Um, also towards that aim, this fiscal year we were able to expand our double up food bucks program to a total now of eight stores in Roxbury, Dorchester, and East Boston. Um, and that program has provided over $800,000 in fresh fruits
and vegetables to SNAP shoppers um, at those participating stores since 2018. Um and um we are actually going to be doing some more communications to make sure that um as many folks uh in the community who are SNAP recipients can
participate in that program as possible. Um relatedly, we um launched a community outreach leaders program this past fiscal year, which allowed us to fund five community- based organizations to train community residents in eight neighborhoods to do peer-to-peer
outreach for uh their community members to really understand what programs, federal, state, and um local and community nutrition assistance programs they could be um partaking in as well as how to navigate those programs. Um and
uh you you might recall thanks to support from the council to allocate ARPA funds this past year we were able to seed an investment of $2.5 million of ARPA funds to create um the Greater Boston Collaborative Food Access Hub um
in partnership with the YMCA of Greater Boston and about at least a dozen other nonprofits uh that work to recover, store, and distribute food across the city. Uh that project um well the YMCA
is currently using the space um and there are agreements they have in process with five other organizations who will be moving into the space. Um as well as about a dozen other partners who will be involved in in moving food in and out into different
communities in Boston. Um through that same resource we were able to support grants to 12 food access and food recovery organizations working to serve residents in East Boston, Dorchester, Roxberry, Madapan, Roslandale, and West Roxberry. Um and serving the whole city
specifically for cold storage um to help them um maintain fresh food and especially recovered food um through refrigeration and freezer space and and refrigerated um vehicles as well. Um so th that effort was one of the strategies
recommended by the food recovery assessment that we released this fall which um included a number of additional recommendations for how the city can really increase the scale of food recovery and strengthen pathways for food insecure residents to access fresh
healthy recovered food. And we will be um implementing additional recommendations from that report in in the new fiscal year. Um, and finally, we have supported Boston Public Schools Food and Nutrition Services, which provides over 49,000 meals a day, um, to
roll out their new 5-year strategic plan, which will really, um, expand equitable access to scratch-cooked fresh meals with local ingredients for all students. Um and so we are continuing to support them around um identifying ways for the sourcing of the food ingredients
to be as values-based as possible. Um with a goal of achieving 30% of food um purchased to be produced in the northeast and 5% of that food to be purchased from black, indigenous and people of color owned vendors. Um and
related to expanding the impact of that work, we are beginning to work with uh some of the hospitals and universities in Boston to really understand what the collective impact can be of working towards shared goals for values-based food purchasing and food recovery. Um so
we are developing some a collective commitment to that work with them. Um which we'll building we'll be building a structure for in the new fiscal year. Um so our sort of overall budget that you'll see is um a level funded budget
with um cost of living adjustments and the personnel line which are sort of a 2% increase uh for for that. Um and most of this budget for us is our contracted services um line which is how we partner with community organizations who
actually run most of these food access programs. Um and so just to mention in in the new fiscal year, we're hoping to uh planning to evaluate the impact of our double up food bucks program as we um aim to continue that program into the
new fiscal year. Um developing a a sustainable approach to addressing affordability at farmers markets that that doesn't ideally shift from year to year. Um as well as how we will attract more produce farmers to Boston farmers
markets. Um, we will be launching a new round of the community outreach leaders program to hopefully um, help folks navigate access to the various nutrition assistance programs that they are eligible for. Um, prioritizing
implementation of recommendations from that food recovery assessment that I mentioned. um and continuing to expand assessment of food spending for values-based food purchasing and conducting some outreach to support vendors, small food vendors and and
bipac owned food vendors to be able to better work through um those food contracts that the city has um through our procurement channels. Um so you know as there are changes happening at various levels of government we are continuing to work with community based
organizations and partners to ensure that um our programming is as stable as possible and ensuring that residents are aware of the programs that are available to them as well as any changes to those programs. Thank you.
I think I think that's hand back to chief sweat. So, uh, just to pull back up to 30,000 ft, uh, for a moment, a couple of the other changes in this issue set. Um, and obviously there's a lot going on between the three offices and departments. Uh,
one thing that we did over the last year, uh, to really truly embed an all of government approach around climate action was create, uh, an interc cabinet climate council. Uh, and so we have a baker's dozen of cabinet chiefs um, from Mayor Woo's cabinet uh, actively meeting uh, once a month. their teams are
meeting, their leadership teams are meeting more often than that uh to help steer and guide the city's approach to climate action. Uh the primary, as Oliver mentioned, uh we're well underway on updating our climate action plan. Uh but this body created by executive order from the mayor um will continue to serve
uh to make sure that we are holding ourselves accountable, supporting each other, and understanding that really our approach to climate action is not embedded just in the departments and offices in this cabinet, but needs to be, you know, fully embedded uh city government city governmentwide. uh and you know honestly you know truly embedded in all of our private sector
organizations, our NOS's, our community groups uh if we're going to be successful. So our 2030 climate action plan uh is one of partnership and one of you know collective responsibility. Um so that was one change over the last year. Uh secondly, as I mentioned uh we did create an office of climate resilience. So just
wanted to you know provide you all with sort of the current org chart. Um and again the point uh of creating this office and you know with support of the council uh was to have a centralized point uh of responsibility and accountability for achieving climate resilience across our three uh primary
climate threats. Uh recognizing that there's an all of government approach but there needs to be a hub of accountability as we move from really a decade plus of planning uh into a decade plus of action. Uh and so this is the new org chart moving forward. Uh and then lastly uh one of the things we're
very excited to have piloted uh and put out there in terms of the uh furthering transparency is this Green New Deal dashboard. Uh so for yourselves as well as in particular your constituencies and folks um watching the hearing for more regular information on progress against performance uh against our KPIs against
uh funding requests uh you know we invite folks to u visit as often as they like and provide feedback into the the information uh which we are measuring our progress against going forward. So with that, uh, chair, we're open to questions. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for for your presentation and all your hard work. Uh,
we will now have a round of public testimony. You can testify either in person or via Zoom. If you like to testify virtually, please sign up in advance using the link below. After you have signed up, you'll be provided with the hearing Zoom link. Please make sure you are signed up signed into Zoom with
the full name you signed up with to help us call on you appropriately. If you like to testify in person, please sign up on the sheet near the chamber entrance. And when your name is called to testify, please step forward and introduce yourself into the microphone. Participants will be called on in the order which they signed up. And you have
two minutes to testify. We will start um with a video that was sent in from Sarah Pier Primu. Hi, my name is Rick Henry. Hi, my name is Rebecca Riley Green. And we're from
the community of High Park. We're also members of the neighborhood food action collaborative and we're here to on behalf of the Office of Food Justice. Uh the office of food justice is uh one of our partners um with the uh neighborhood food action collaborative and they play
a vital role in uh food insecurity in the Boston area and beyond. Um things like uh SNAP and uh double food bucks and these are very important services to help communities to to to to eat and um
to eat healthy. um you know they people are you know don't have jobs you know with the you know with the current climate and the atmosphere today uh people are struggling uh we run a food distribution site called the hyp park food pop-up we distribute to 150 to 200
people every week and uh there some of our members call us on a regular basis and ask us about food and they not being able to eat and feed their children and so we just we pack bags and deliver to their homes uh but we don't have enough support to carry this on uh without the
help of the Office of Food Justice. So, we're asking you to help u make sure and sustain the Office of Food Justice's efforts to uh maintain the work that they're doing critical work that they're doing to make sure that um communities
can uh eat and uh be healthy and thrive as well. So, we urge you to prioritize funding for Office of Food Justice in this area. And one of the areas that our community desperately needs help is with the farmers market coupon program. And
the support of the program, the support of the program that we've been able to assist the community with is our SNAP peer-to-peer advocacy. And we wouldn't have been able to do that without the help of the Office of Food Justice. Thank you very much. An investment in the office of food justice is an
investment in food uh equity in our community. in our community, community resil resilience and the wellbeing of loss of families. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hi, my um now we'll go to um in person
testimony. Gregory Maynard, the floor is now yours. Hello, my name is Gregory Maynard. I'm the executive director of the Boston Policy Institute, a nonprofit corporation focused on providing nonpartisan information and in-depth analysis about the most important issues facing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
and the city of Boston. For each issue, BPI does original research, engages subject matter experts for analysis, and monitors and reports on progress and activity. My testimony today focuses on an issue that has been missing from budget hearings and Boston City Council agendas for some time, the Landmarks
Commission and the Office of Historic Preservation. Neither was included in last year's budget hearings and that seems to be the case again this year. That is a major oversight because both have gone through major leadership changes over the last year and the Landmarks Commission was the subject of a still unresolved scandal. As a
reminder, last April, a letter from the Boston Landmarks Commission's 16 members became public. That letter was sent to Mayor Woo and expressed concerns about her administration's disregard for their oversight role and claimed Marw staff interfered with their procedures, citing specific instances of agenda
manipulation and denying full project scopes for review using six specific examples, including White Stadium renovations, the Hotel Buckminster, and Boston City Hall. The Hotel Buckminster was also uh written about in the Boston Globe in an August 2023 article.
Following the letter, it was reported by the Georgia Reporter that the Landmarks Commission's executive director, Roseanne Foley, was fired by Mayor Woo. Since Foley was fired, there have been three more major leadership changes at the Office of Historic Preservation where Landmarks Commission sits. First,
sometime after May 2024, Murray Miller, the first person to lead the Office of Historic Preservation, left his position. Second, in September 2024, the city of Boston announced that Kathy Cautus had been hired as the new director for OP. Third, in March 2025,
OP hired Elizabeth Shervra as OP's new deputy director. And according to the city's website, she is also serving as the executive director of the landmarks commission. The council's budget process is a chance for counselors to ask what is happening in each department and how the city is dealing with various public
issues. for example, how the allegations in last year's letter from the Landmarks Commission have been addressed. The absence of OP in the Landmarks Commission from this year's budget hearing schedule, combined with the lack of a public hearing about the issues revealed in the commissioner's letter last year, means the council is unable
to perform that role in this case. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go back to virtual testimony. Um Michael Zas and then followed by Sarah. Um, Mccameid. Good afternoon, chair and members of the
committee. My name is Michael Zas, and I'm here today on behalf of Easty Farm and the Boston Food Access Council, or BFAC for short. Uh, the Boston Food Access Council works in partnership with community- based organizations, advocates, and residents to ensure that
every Bostononian, regardless of income or zip code, has access to fresh, healthy, and culturally appropriate food through advocacy and awareness building. Um, and we are here today to voice our strong support uh for full funding of
the double up buck uh double up food bucks program and the farmers market coupon program uh for the 26 budget. Uh these programs are not just effective, they're essential. They directly increase the purchasing power of lowincome residents using SNAP while
also supporting local farms and small food businesses across the city. Uh it's a win-win that boosts public health, strengthens our local economy, and fosters food sovereignty. Uh in 2023 alone, these programs help thousands of
Bostononians bring fresh produce home from neighborhood farmers markets and local grocerers like the Daily Table and the Dorchester uh food co-op, places where food is accessible and community is built. Uh the continued and expanded
funding of these initiatives reflects the city's commitment to equity, sustainability, and food justice. Uh moreover, it is protecting and fully funding these programs. Uh that is more critical now than ever before with food
insecurity rates and grocery prices at all-time high levels. uh while at the same time critical safety net programs including SNAP and WICK are under a significant threat at the federal level. Uh so we urge the committee to prioritize this funding as a core part
of the environment and food justice budget and to recognize that food access is not a luxury, it's a right. Uh thank you all for your time and continued leadership in building a healthier, more just Boston. Thank
you, Sarah. The floor is now yours. Uh, good afternoon. U, thank you for this opportunity to testify. I just have a couple brief remarks to draw attention to a critical area of concern. Um, and
that is our coast and coastal resilience act. um the current environment um where we've seen the cancellation of federal programs that were to support Mowley and other places and in particular I'm going
to draw attention just to talk about timing urgency um looking at the Ford Point channel infrastructure project which was identified in climate ready in 2018. In 2019, the city submitted um for a FEMA
grant and it has been seven years. Um the encouraging news is there is still on conversation that is occurring for this grant, but the downside is that we don't have seven years to wait for
funding. and the money that was put into the um capital budget back then of the $10 million. We know that some of that money has necessarily been spent down in order to do the necessary um engineering
and planning um and detailed work for um the plan. But it just draws the attention that there's going to be some hard decisions to make. we are going to need to move forward one way or another
with or without um funding from FEMA and um protect not only the the the for the neighborhoods along the Fort Point channel but also um going further um to protect Boston and I highlight that
particular one just as an example um because we see this all around and I think that it's time that we really need to work. So, I'm, you know, looking forward. I think there's many positive happening um the council that um Chief
Sweat talked about, but you know, we have an opportunity for a new waterfront development at the Gillette property and we really just need to be thinking about how much development should we be put in flood zones and what we're going to have
to protect those and we can't just rely on private developers to just protect their properties. Um, so I'm just speaking the word for urgency and um for support of capital dollars in our budget and um shovels in the ground. Thank you
very much. Oh, and I would just like to add really quickly if I have the time that I am live in a historic district and fully support the um other um speaker about um not having an opportunity to speak and look specifically at the budget for historic
p the office of historication. Thank you. Thank you. Want to thank everyone who came to give public testimony. Now I'll go on to um council questions. Um we'll go on go by the order arrival starting with councelor
Liz Braden. The floor is now yours. Um Mr. Chair, could I allow uh Council President Lendico? She's after me. She's the next one after me. She came in second. All right. The chair recognizes councelor President Louis Jen. The floor is now yours. Thank you. And thank you councelor Braden for your uh kindness
and allowing me to go. And thank you for to all of you for all of your incredible work. Um it's so important that we uh do the work of trying to address the climate the urgency of the climate crisis that's on our doorstep. Um I have a question about open space
acquisitions. What is the budget for that this year? what what are we prioritizing when we decide to uh use that that funding for open space to actually do acquisition especially in EJ neighborhoods like Chinatown like East
Boston. Um so wanted to hear more about our open space work. Sure. Um councelor Luen the that is a great question. It is a parks and wreck budget question um which is in a separate hearing so I don't have that number in front of me. It's it's to
the tune of millions of dollars that we set aside for open space acquisition. Okay. But we'll be prepared to answer that here. Okay. So, I'll hold off on that question then. Um I did like I did really appreciate here that there's a complete overhaul of the wetlands
ordinance planned. to something that my office has been looking into because we hear about it a lot from constituents who think, you know, the ordinance is well well-intentioned, but there are ways that that uh it could be improved and and that makes implementation difficult. So, you I look forward to
working alongside uh you all and the great community voices and leaders who have been really urging us to update the wetlands ordinance. So, just wanted to thank you for your leadership on that. Um and uh my questions are to directors. I I have a question just generally about
the theory of like what is your theory of food justice for your office and your vision for what it should be for this city. There are so many great different organizations and we've had conversations about this but a better understanding of like how you envision getting to the point in the city where
there's no food insecurity. Yes, that's a great question. um happy to give you some some answer now and as well talk about it more another point if that's helpful. Um we have uh four strategic goals that we developed for our office in concert with
Grow Boston. Um the first is to really increase equitable access to dis uh distribution systems for fresh culturally relevant um nutritious food. And that those are some of the core programs that our
office is has been working on um prior to becoming the office of food justice and continuing to um and where possible to identify opportunities to really within th those food access programs that are citywide to also shift the food
system where possible to support a more resilient and equitable regional food system. Um so I think that the theory of change I think relies because there are so many different um efforts across the city to address
food access. It relies on a number of different approaches at the same time where we are addressing acute um acute food insecurity, nutrition, trying to move towards nutrition security and as well as identifying ways to really
leverage state and federal programs that are helping residents um as much as possible. Um so those are some of the ways that we are are leveraging those programs as well as pointing uh residents in the direction of um
programs they may be eligible for that the city doesn't run ourselves. Um and then the um second goal is around increasing the scale of food recovery as a way to address those immediate needs that have really been um sustained at
very high levels since the pandemic and have not gone down. and we know are inequitable across different neighborhoods in the city, different populations based on race, language, ethnicity. Um and then the third goal being to really shift more towards that that um part of the mission that is
really trying to leverage those food access programs we have where the city is spending um our resources on food to really ensure that as much as possible we are assessing where that food is produced, how it's produced um and moving towards values based food purchasing where possible with the
city's food dollars. So I think um and the fourth goal that we have developed with Grow Boston um is primarily they're leading that work programmatically to increase food production in the city um which is part of that broader food justice vision of shifting towards a
more equitable resilient, sustainable and just food system. Um so I would say it's not one thing. It's sort of a um all of the above and really lifting up the the work of many um community organizations that are able to understand the needs in their
communities around food insecurity, around food production um and providing um you know impactful effective resources to create a as much of a citywide approach as as possible that is targeted towards the communities where
we know there's the most need. Thank you. Do you feel like you have a good measurement tool? Um, I would say that's a great question. It's something we have been starting to work on in more depth this fiscal year in really understanding um, if you look at access across the
city, how much of that is strictly access versus affordability. So I would say the measurement is it's difficult to um I would say food systems is a is a newer field and so there are a number of cities across the country that have been
developing dashboards um and we're sort of in conversation with them about what are the best ways to balance measuring um access nutrition. It's sort of multifaceted. So that's I that is in process and I I I part of the reason why I ask these questions that we have these
entities that like um the Daily Table for example or you have the Doorchester Food Co-op and part of them the mission is to reduce food insecurity to make healthy food available. Um but I also know that they often face their own
struggles just in terms of surviving just as an organization. Um, and so I'm wondering sort of like where they fit into the ecosystem and how we're able to support them. Um, because there's a lot of alignment. Um, and you know, director
Rosman, we've talked about this before, sort of like what is the best most effective way. Uh, we have a number of organizations that have really great food pantries. Um, and uh, we have, you know, nonprofit supermarkets. um are how
do they work together? Should we be supporting one form of of of attacking the food of food insecurity over another? Uh uh and and to me low lowcost supermarkets are one of those ways, but we're not seeing sort of, you know, the
return sometimes that we want to see. So curious as to your take on that. Yes. Yes, I mean for an example, Daily Table and Madapanage, it had to close and we know that there are other, you know, lowc cost supermarkets that are struggling across across the city that could be good ways of dealing with this
issue. Yeah, I would say our primary tool in working with those kinds of partners um ha over since the pandemic has been through the double up food bucks program which helps to increase the actual
purchase purchasing power but also increases sales um with those partners in terms of their their their foot traffic foot traffic of um residents who are able to use SNAP and sometimes then use other forms of tender as well. Um
we that the way our approach to double food bucks in Boston has um started by the prior director and team um has really been focusing on supporting small businesses, grocery stores that are small businesses and nonprofits um primarily also BIPAC owned um corner
stores and bodeas and we have continued that as a priority um for the program as a way to also support those stores. I will say that um there are other ways that we could um support those stores to continue to be really strong food access
anchors in their communities um as businesses um that are in in addition to that kind of nutrition incentive program which has been the primary tool that we've been using. I'd also just add, council president, that um we're trying to focus more and
more on structural improvements to the food ecosystem program. So, addition, you know, supporting programs um and you know, and ongoing operations and nonprofits, how do we structurally as government engage in a way that actually provides permanent better access to, you
know, food and nutrition and ideally locally produced and obviously affordable and culturally appropriate food. So whether or not it's the you know the cold storage food hub that we announced which addresses a problem of it's not a supply of food in that case it's the distribution and making sure that we have a place to recovery that
was a phenomenal investment that you know as a as a seed project will enable 3 million meals a year um from recovered food going out to Boston residents. Um how do we you know better support our farmers markets and locations? how do we support um you know uh lowcost uh grocery stores in ways of you know
helping them around the real estate decisions that they can make. Uh so I think part of this is making sure we're focused on the here and now in terms of programmatic support but addressing as much as possible the structural inequities in the food system so that there are more permanent solutions. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you Council President Lu Jen. Uh the
chair now recognizes Councelor Murphy. Council, you have the floor. Thank you. Um thank you chair. Thank you for being here. Um uh I'll start with the environment department office of climate resiliency. It looks like you have a 7.3% increase
which is attributed to a transfer of a position maybe from the office of streets and then also support for the energy saver program. Um can you just elaborate on how these changes will enhance the department and implement and support the climate action plan but also
you know Berto 2.0. Sure. Thanks so much counselor and happy to talk about uh the transfer of the role. Um Ty, please feel free to add and on the Berto pieces. Um Oliver, please feel free to jump in there. The transfer of the role is actually the transfer of my role from uh which was at the streets
cabinet to the uh to the environment department budget to lead the office of climate resilience. Um so that's the principal change that you see there in terms of staffing. Um it is uh we are very fortunate to have um our our personnel budget as well as our non-personnel budget that'll be part of the larger environment department budget
and so Oliver can speak to the Berto pieces. Thank you counselor. Um I will um answer succinctly. Um the Boston Energy Saver is the only um new investment in the budget and that is um all uh contract
services to stand up a program at the end of the year that is going to be think of it among among many pieces the most visible will be sort of a a front door virtual um and staffed with people to answer all sorts of questions for um residents and small businesses about how
to lower their energy costs. um think about things for example like um energy efficiency in your home um how to buy um energy that is lower cost things that um are out there but it's very hard for people to have one number to call to get
all that advice and and get answers on everything. So that's a program that will be um funded to really get all of those answers to have the consulting staffing to support um city employees to answer all those questions. Bertoa 2.0 know um we um continue to fund all of
that work through the the level budget that includes of course um several staff but also um contract services to provide technical support, financial suggestions um for all of the covered buildings. Thank you.
Um a recent the peticatory budget initiative, it seemed like it directed $400,000 to fund grants to nonprofits that will address food insecurity. um how do we plan on monitoring and evaluating this you know it's a positive
impact but I think goes on the former question too like how do we cal you know really get an idea are we making a dent in the food insecurity across the city and then if you also could speak on because I did hear um and I know when we've had hearings before like your
partnership seems to be really strong with BPS and how do they help support fund some of your initiatives seeing as though their budget I mean obviously They do work directly with our children and it's ob, you know, needed, but how do they then help kick in some of the
funding to make sure that your ideas and um to make sure our children are eating healthy, culturally appropriate food? Yes. So, we are in the process of identifying what will happen with those participatory budgeting funds and
specifically identifying um to your exact point, how do we um really create a program that serves what the residents voted for um in that process and also um look at what the impact is. So it
it's not just sort of a one-time investment, but really helps um in a strategic way where possible move towards um some of those systems changes that Chief Sweat mentioned. Um so we will be developing that um as part of the program um in the coming year. Um,
in terms of food and nutrition services at Boston public schools, I mean, all of the investments in those um, values-based food purchasing and really shifting towards um, even equipment investments um, throughout the district
to increase the number of students who have daily access to scratch cook meals. All of those investments are coming directly from Boston public schools. we are supporting in things like helping them to connect with partners um helping them with assessment so measurement of
when they're buying the food. So they've recently been um participating in an assessment of the the previous school year's purchasing to evaluate was the food that was purchased environmentally sustainable? Um how did
it hold up in terms of valued workforce and labor, racial equity, nutrition, um etc. And so we are supporting on kind of helping them take their strategy and really make sure that the pe the partners and the um folks who can really leverage the scale because they are they
as they say the largest restaurant chain in New England. How do we identify the right kinds of partnerships that can help them achieve those strategic goals? Okay. Thank you. Um and it was great to be with you and Brian at the opening of the food distribution center over in
Roxbury um in this council. So, we should pat ourselves on the back. We did approve the $2.5 million in opera funds for that lease and renovation of that building. Um, and there's always a need for refrigeration and freezer. I know some of the smaller um nonprofit food
distribution know they're always looking for, you know, even electrical upgrades on because they, you know, maybe get a donation of a freezer and how do we, you know, make sure that we're able to keep our food fresh before it moves out there. But if you could just speak because I think it's important if anyone
listening in too that the impact that will have. I mean it was pretty amazing over there and I know there's a lot of partnerships there but how much of that you know how many people will actually benefit from that. Um I will say that we a lot of
that we actually just got some reporting from them today and I have like an hour ago. So I will be looking at the numbers around kind of impact so far. Um, but because those partnerships and sort of the the location of organizations that will actually be utilizing all of that
space, continuing to actually turn all of on all of the refrigerators, there's really a lot of potential um that we will be able to better measure once we understand kind of who are those those um untapped food donors that we could be
really directing towards more of the community partners and community distribution sites once they are aware that that space can be part of the cold chain to getting recovered food um to as many people as possible. Um so I don't want to give you a number that's based
on a sort of a partial buildout as the all those puzzle pieces are still getting put together but I'll give you a capacity number. I mean that's the program goal but we're um in addition to that grant on the food hub uh there about a dozen grants to smaller you know refrigeration. So if the food hub is the
wholesaler, obviously the end distribution to community members that need it, you know, sort of at the retail side, that food hub that we opened up has the capacity to potentially run 3 million meals a year, you know, from the food going through that. So it is a major um choke point that's now relieved. And again, this was food that
otherwise would be going to waste and landfills. So it's this win-win of getting into stomachs instead of, you know, emissions in the atmosphere. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council Murphy. Um, my apologies, council Mahia, but I just want to acknowledge that council Mahia
has been present. Um, we'll now go to Council Ketta Zapata. The floor is now yours. Oh, sorry. Sorry. You're right. Sorry, Council Braden. The floor is letting somebody else. Thank you. Thank you. Um, thank you all
for being here. Um, thank you for all the great work you're doing. Um I had a question for on the food justice just in terms of uh our local farmers market. I don't know in terms of um the partners that have been
identified. Do you know if the Brighton farmers market has been identified as a partner for this summer? Yes. That's good because we do have a you know the you know the pattern of of the population we have. with a lot of very lowincome uh elders living in the in the
immediate neighborhood that need that support. So, thank you very much. Um then the other question I had was um you know I think we all recognize that uh climate change is coming at us. It's here. It has been here for a while. Um
coastal flooding is a big issue. I know um my colleague councelor Kleta Zapata has uh she's right in the front line. Um then we out in Alston Brighton we're on the we're on the storm and not the storm the flood plane Alston is on the flood
plane of the Charles and with rising sea levels and how resilient and how how how's the harbor dam going to hold up um are are we are we working in in collaboration with other groups uh I know the Mystic River uh wershed so
folks and and then we have the Charles River wershed are we working with those groups to sort of identify how we can mitigate the impacts of storm um extreme weather and storm water flooding in those spaces. Happy to start and Brian please to add
um councelor fantastic question. We are working very closely with the Mystic River Wershed Association, the Depon River Wershed Association and the Charles River Wershed Association. And I think together they bring a regional capacity to the issue of storm water risk. To your point around the new Charles River dam as well, DCR is doing
some specific work uh with the US Army Corps as well. Happy to coordinate with you if that's helpful. Uh and DCR and the Army Corps to see if I a briefing would be would be valuable. uh in addition to the work sort of at the wershed scale between Boston water and sewer commission and the office of green
infrastructure and the streets cabinet there's a lot of specific in Boston uh work both through the new storm water program of the Boston water and sewer commission and the new design standards of the office of green infrastructure so happy to dive a little bit deeper if that's helpful but uh a lot of that regional coordination is happening and a lot of the local design work is moving
forward and I know the issue around beacon yards is sort of very much futuristic at this point given all the uncertainty in the economy and the political ical situation. Um, but it seems, you know, a lot of that land in that space has been was wetlands way
back when. Um, I I hope that, you know, we're looking at the possibility of reestablishing some capacity to store water in those spaces so that we don't have um uh flooding. You know, I I don't know where we're at with that thinking.
So, that is an active part of the conversation sort of in front of us. Um you have been obviously a very active participant in all the Beacon Parkyard uh conversations. Um there is some opportunity to think about how across the property owners Masto, the MBTA, the city of Boston and Harvard University,
we think about um larger scale green infrastructure uh in that area and water storage in that area. Um both because of the of what it was before there was some landfill as well as sort of the historic salt creek that runs through that area. So there's some more work which we are looking at about how we can make sure
that we are building something that is really works for generations. And in terms of the Salt Creek issue, it's more on um it's actually maybe more in in councelor Durkens district than mine, but um is there any thought about daylighting that or in terms of
upstream, you know, right backing up the water? It's a great question. Um this is I think something which the Charles River water association has looked at and I don't know sort of how much that is being considered in the current designs but happy to take a look at that and get back to you. Yeah, there's a lot to think about. Thank you so much. Um
and then um I the heat the heat situation um I um we actually just filed a hearing order for about looking at cooling centers and cooling centers aren't the only answer to the heat heat situation but you know Alson pretty well like we we do have a serious heat island
effect there with urban a lot of concrete and a lot of um a lack of green space. So um in terms of just cooling centers and and other cooling infrastructure I think we had the incidents last year it was Junth
federal holiday schools were closed BHS BHA kids were going they didn't have any cooling centers you know in terms of just um amenities in the neighborhood that would function have dual functions perhaps shade and and cooling places
that are not tied to a building per today, but are we looking at those sort of infrastructure improvements? So, uh two things. First on the very specific cooling center uh point and I appreciate you raising it last year raising it in the capital hearing uh this year as well. Um I think there is some
coordination is happening between our office of emergency management and our operations team uh to make sure that buildings that are under construction either Jackson man or buildings that may not be open on public holidays or on weekends that we are making sure that we're able to provide public cooling
centers. Um so looking at both specifically to Austin Brighton as well as citywide in general uh we are looking at sort of three different places around cooling centers. One is how we cool public realm. So how we think about shade structures in the public realm. How we think about where we are planting street trees. Second is public buildings
which essentially is are the cooling centers that we are making available and how we think about staffing them particularly during to your point um hours where they may not otherwise be open as well as programming them to make sure that they are uh inviting places that folks want to be. are also very focused on making sure that we're thinking about private buildings. How do
we think about the transformation of of homes in many ways in partnership with really uh fantastic retrofit work that's already happening uh to make sure that people who want to be able to stay at home are able to do that in a space that is cool. Um so those are sort of like the the sort of scales that we're
looking at cooling our streets, cooling our public buildings and then thinking about private buildings as well. The other question I had was about um electricity and and uh energy storage. I know we've talked about it. We've had a hearing about it. Um but best facilities, I know the city, the state's
working on regulations and we're looking at regulations. Um is there a way, you know, thinking about land use and sighting like we have one particular instance there's a lot of concern about in Brighton because it's very close to residential areas. It's really like what
60 ft away from houses or something crazy. Um, so I we all appreciate that it's necessary that we're going to need this with electrification, but are we had the same question this morning with the do it team. Are we looking at geospatial uh information to try and figure out
where the best places to locate these facilities are? Okay, my mic is on now. Um, uh, yes, counselor, that's a that's a great question and I will try not to repeat too much of what we've already shared with the the hearing, but I do think just to lay the um groundwork a little
bit for that. I think that um we're not quite yet at the step of figuring out the places where things should be cited, especially because that's not exactly the the way that um a lot of the um the battery storage facilities are going to
come about. they're really going to be proposed by a lot of different whether it's the utilities or private facilities um that sort of meet the market and the opportunity and the role that we are um establishing is first um really to to wait for the state guidance and
interpret what is um whether whether it covers all of our needs in Boston whether it adequately addresses um sort of the urban context um what can we really sort of adopt wholesale which is why we're also working on um two uh separate projects that are that support
this which is to develop educational materials so that when we have public engagement about any location, we can really bring everyone along with a better understanding both of what battery storage facilities are as well as how they need to fit into our energy
transformation future as well as the planning department having a much more um uh specific technical rubric for understanding what in their powers is um best um able to um control and improve
projects that are proposed. Um, what I will say is, um, I think when we put all these pieces together, what we have hopefully is a, um, a few, um, uh, very important community engagement and decision-making tools for sort of all of
the levers um, in local government to be able to interact better with what will be a very sort of long-term transition into um, adding energy storage facilities um, to the grid, to buildings, and frankly in a um evolving
and hopefully improving technological landscape as well. Thank you. And it's an ongoing conversation. I appreciate that. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Council Braden. The chair rec now recognizes council Kleta Zapata. Council, you have the floor.
Thank you, chair. Um thank you all so much for your work. Appreciate it. And I just want to shout out um brilliant, talented people here as well and those listening in within your your cabinet. I really appreciate it. uh this team, your work and your progress is reflective of a mayor who um understands that Boston
has to continue to be a leader in in local climate action and is a city that embodies what it means to be a Green New Deal city. So, I just want to shout out our mayor for being a Green New Deal mayor and everything that she does. And there has been so much progress and I just again just thank you because
there's been a lot of work that has happened. Um, and it's great to see it all on display here and and in other meetings and events and all of that. So, just just for folks that are listening in, just the the ticks that I uh heard earlier in your presentation, um, office of climate resilience, internal
coordination hub for ensuring that residents are protected against extreme weather events. Uh, it's all it was essential to have a coordinated place to chase after federal and state funding. So, thank you for that and also work with dozens of waterfront affinity organizations. So, thank you Chris for doing that. Thank you, Chief, for your
leadership in creating that office. Uh codification of the office of food justice. Love to see it. Thank you for your collaboration with that. Uh the utilization of arbor dollars for a food distribution fund. This was essential and I know came from a lot of uh work um
on behalf of your office, Eliza. So, thank you for that. Didn't know about the grants for the food access organization. So, that's excellent. Uh food recovery assessment. I love I love the fact that that took place. um I think it was 2022 where councelor then councelor Royo and I had put forth this
idea that if food is safe to consume and being put forth by uh large grocery stores that it should go to folks that need it most as long as it was safe to consume. And so just trying to figure out what that meant uh was the next step and so the food recovery assessment was
was one of the first steps for that. I also just want to shout out and it's more tangential but the establishment of a joint BPS and BTU climate justice curriculum committee. Um this is the first step in ensuring that we are preparing the next generation to be
environmental stewards and educating them about yes a global crisis but bringing it down locally through an environmental justice lens and your office was uh really important in those early conversations. So thank you for that. Uh this is the first time that I'm hearing about a complete revision to the
Boston wetlands ordinance. It sounds like everybody has maybe talked to the same people. So would love to know what that looks like. If you can just give us a broad overview of of what you're thinking. One thing that I had heard and I just want to shout out the commissioner um Michael Parker who's a Charles Town resident. Um enforcement is
tricky. So just curious to know what that looks like and what you're thinking in terms of of a full revision. Sure. Uh counselor. Um, I'd be happy to uh answer your questions and then um follow up with with more detail, but really this is um part of a um
multi-year um phased approach to update the the local wetlands regulation. And I wouldn't say it's a a dramatic wholesale revision of all of it because there's a lot that um we have to build on. Um but this is um the the final of of three
phases to really um uh take into account um climate change, climate resilience and environmental justice into um both how I'd say at a very high level both um what is uh sort of regulated and the
outcomes that are um sort of the the the taking those factors into account into what is regulated but also the um process and procedures by which the conservation commission operates. I think that is particularly important in the environmental justice um space. And
so I I would like to applaud our um director of environmental quality, Alice Brown, who has really put together a a very thoughtful um approach to this that includes a um council of um folks from representing many different backgrounds,
geographies, approaches to interacting with natural resources to shape a lot of that. And um while we have some high level like as I I've explained to you sort of the high level goals of where we hope to end up this is very much a progress uh a work in progress that is
driven entirely by um sort of the community feedback. And so when that is um prepared um closer to the end of the year we will certainly have ample opportunity to get um feedback and also to mainstream it more outside. But um that's the process that we're going
through now. Excellent. Thank you so much. I look forward to learning more and and being a part of the process and shout out to Alice um who is there's no better person to to work on that. Um office of climate resilience, we meet all the time and so I really have no questions except for uh the $91 million
in the that was listed for the capital. Um what is how does that break down? I know potentially coastal resilience fund and then there's no change and so curious to know how we're maximizing those dollars while we can. Sure. So uh alphabetically within that's how it is listed. So, um, border streets at $ 1.5
million, which is the funding to get us through design. Um, the, um, coast resilient Boston Harbor study is essentially the name within the budget book for the US Army Corps study that is listed at $5.7 million. The, um, climate ready Boston phase three um, is
essentially half a million dollars that is helping us advance or will help us advance a set of uh, design projects. The climate resilience reserve is the next thing in the budget at $3.9 million that essentially used to augment other capital projects to make sure that they if they have an opportunity to include a
resilience component green infrastructure for example uh that we uh that it can what you listed is the next item which is the largest source that's the coast resilience reserve at $75 million uh and then the Miy Park connectors project at $2.2 million is
the is the final piece. The other two projects are uh two projects that Oliver referenced that rounds out that that 91.3 which is uh $82,000 for Matah Hunts uh which we expect to complete uh this year and cut the ribbon on this summer
uh and uh $2.5 million for climate ready streets which is being allocated into the streets budget to be able to move forward additional green infrastructure as part of a safe rout project. Um there are happy to detail this further but there are other sort of resilience
related investments both within the parks budget and within the planning budget uh that include things like investments in the flean park uh investments in uh Moley Park etc. Happy to follow up with any more detail you want. Excellent. Thank you. No you you answered my question uh for food
justice. So we had heard from uh Michael Zas from East Farm. He does great work. He was talking about fully funding the farmers market coupons and I have to co-sign everything he said. It's a win-win. It helps reduce our carbon emissions when folks can get local whole nutritious foods uh in close proximity.
Um and then also the double-ups program. What is the reality of of potentially fully funding this? We lost some money, right? Or am I getting that wrong? A completely different thing if you can clarify for me. We have not lost funds. Um we um have an ongoing federal grant
um that is matched by city funds for the double food books program. Um and we are were able to get a no cost extension that was um slated to end early fall of 2025. Um and the new round of federal
funding for that program um is currently frozen. So we we nobody's been able to apply for the next round of that federal grant program which is the gusty marker nutrition incentive program. Um so we were able to get a no cost extension which will allow us to um maintain
current program levels through February and we are hopeful that um by then there will be opportunities for federal funding um for that program and we're hoping to be able to continue um after that. um for farmers market coupon program. We are able to continue that
this year uh sort of one-year temporary continuation of the the previously ARPA funded program um through operating funds. And we are going to be looking at other um potential funding sources for the summer of 2026 for um an approach to
affordability at farmers markets. But we don't know yet what that is going to look like because we are doing this robust planning process with the farmers markets and community organizations and assessing um both from farmers and farmers markets and residents sort of
what's most important for the city to support around affordability at farmers markets. Um because a lot of these you know this is an example of a program that was developed rapidly dur as a pandemic recovery program. Um, and so we have sort of the opportunity now to stop
and pause and see like what is the best way to meet these goals and needs and not just do the same program we've been doing just because it exists. Thank you. Um, one last question. I'm sorry, vice chair. Yes. When did that happen? Um, the $420,000 that's what's coming from
operating that was listed in the deck. Sorry. The $420,000 was um last summer. That was a combination of ARPA funds um FY24 and FY25 operating funds and this year we will be funding it with a combination of FY25 and FY26 operating
funds around 400,000 for the food and then there's additional costs for um sort of the capacity for the farmers markets and the organizations that distribute the coupon. So the total for that is about um 570 across the two fiscal years.
Okay. Excellent. I'm I'm really excited to hear that the the city is stepping up in that way. So, thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Councelor Kospata, Councelor Fitzgerald. Thank you, Vice Chief Eban. Um, thank you all for being here. Um, this may
have been explained and I apologize if I missed it, but under the uh the budget summary, capital new investments, is obviously an 18.6 million uh dollar drop. And I was just is that do is that the the actual number or are we just forecasting ahead now with what
potentially could be cut? Um councelor I think you're referring to the environment department from fiscal year 2529 to fiscal year 2630. Exactly. Y that's right. Okay. So that um that really just actually represents um a completion of the
projects that had been sort of carried through in the plan. Obviously understanding everything rolls over one year at a time in five-year plans. So that actually represents the um uh it's not anything that's being cut. It's just actually that the um big some several big energy projects have rolled off the
books because they've been completed. I get you. So even that year from 29 to 30 with that being completed uh $18 million worth of work was essentially complete. That's right. Because it's it's the entire project is always held in the uh budget even if it's been spent down year by year. Y understood. Someone already
asked that question. Nope. Okay. All right. For some reason, I was like I feel like I'm being duplicative and got self-conscious for a sec. Yeah. Um the uh Office of Climate Resiliency, Mr. Ogood, obviously uh you know, I just bring up Morsy Boulevard. We've been
working closely on that together. There's still a lot going, still a lot of funding issues potentially. Um and we know it's several years away. Um, but just uh with you being on the commission, but after that process is over, what is what is uh the role of your office as we continue on to try and
implement this stuff? I think there's really two pieces. Um, one is thinking about advocating for design that works for the community. Uh, and we know we've we've received a lot of feedback from the Savin Hill Civic Association among others around what the right design is for that stretch of Morsy Boulevard between Vancoui and Freeport. So making
sure that the design is right and as we've had a lot of conversations about how we go from an actual plan to an actual project. Uh and there are a couple of paths there. Um one uh Chief Sweat submitted earlier this year a comment letter uh about the upcoming
environmental bond bill or the anticipated environmental bond bill. Um so we will be advocating for the state to invest uh or dedicate funding through the environmental bond bill to actually advance the design and ideally get it into construction. Second, we do want to continue to pursue any state or federal grant that may be uh relevant for this
project and there's some opportunities uh over the course of the year ahead uh that may be good candidates there. Related to that um we will be through our US Army Corps uh collaboration looking at that stretch and the Army Corps in a slightly longer term horizon um may be a partner for implementation.
So both on the design and the implementation are places where I know we'll have lots of continuing conversations. Great. Well, I'm glad that you and your office is there to advocate for that. So, I appreciate that. Um, I was looking at the uh spotsman uh as the food security, the
community engagement piece, right? Is there a way because I'm thinking about how that can be paired with other services. When I think about dedicated funds just for community engagement around food security when there's so many other things that we could also be like we need community engagement around
every topic that comes through this city, right? So, is there a way in trying to be fiscally responsible, is there a way to maybe package that the community engagement piece differently where there could be the f food security and but I don't know in partnering with
other departments as well and I mean because typically if you're having an issue in one area it's affecting a lot of other things and and sort of all-encompassing and I know we've got office and neighborhood services uh but they can't be going door to door every day um and and knocking doors and we've
got other things but it just seems think we could consolidate there. Um, and I just don't know if your thoughts on what would be other possible consolidations and how you find the community engagement doing yourself from as opposed to maybe some other departments that do community engagement and what's
what's what's working, what's not. Yeah. So, I think you're if you're I think you may be referring to the community outreach leaders. Sorry, I say community engagement, but it is the community outreach. Um, and that is a is a community engagement sort of approach. Um we actually the five organizations
that we worked with for that they we specifically were looking for organizations that do a variety of community outreach as well as other types of work around safety net support and community engagement on many issues. They weren't necessarily food organizations in their communities um
because there's there's evidence around peer-to-peer um education across right. So if you're talking to somebody about housing, then you already are in that entry point. Are you're talking about that about a workforce opportunity or utility needs then it's like to make
sure those folks that are already having those conversations in the community are equipped with the information about like if somebody asks them about SNAP or HIP, then they sort of have that information at their fingertips. Um, and to your point, I we those are some of the conversations we've been thinking about
um with the participatory participatory budgeting funds um that councelor Murphy mentioned a little bit ago if we are able if we're going to be primarily supporting food direct food access. Is there a way that some of that community outreach can be paired with that? Um you
know, there different um pathways to achieve that, but I I really appreciate that question. it's aligned with sort of how we the different kinds of approaches we're thinking about um moving forward. No, that's it's great to know that that's sort of already happening, right? That's one of the beauty of these things
where you get to ask questions like council, we're already doing it. You're like, oh, beautiful. Look at me. I I can go back and say I got something done, right? Um but thank you for all the work you do on that. Could somebody explain to me what a circular economy is? I'm sorry. I do not know. I will be full admission there. Sure, counselor. Um,
thank you for calling us on our jargon, but that is what it's called, but we probably need to think of ways to have it be better understood. So, I if I can paint sort of a general picture, it's um it's the idea of um really thinking about how we um reuse materials um from
the very beginning to the end of their life cycle and build a whole um sort of economic and if I could say social structure that supports that. So um it's has much more to do with um reuse and
economically viable ways of um uh e you know creating and reusing materials. Um that goes way beyond what we've been um sort of become much more familiar with which is recycling which actually isn't that sustainable long term. It's still
extraction use and almost always sort of a lower quality use. So, think of um instead of uh um focusing just on uh recycling, it's more about what do you do with uh the materials that come from a building that could actually be reused in a different building or thinking
about how you're not just looking for a um recyclable cup at Fenway, but you're looking at Fenway has all reusable um dishes, for example. I'm giving you sort of our dreams um but we have to start somewhere. And this is something that's much more common in um in Europe for
example and we're hoping to be one of the first cities in the United States to really start making that shift. So the reduce, reuse, recycle, right? It was the folks who still wanted the linear approach of extract, manufacture, throw out is extract, manufacture, recycle. The reality is um you know one-third as
Oliver mentioned like onethird of our landfill capacity in the US is construction and demo debris. That stuff that's coming out of buildings is not being repurposed. We we just gave a climate leadership award to Boston Building Resources. a phenomenal group that you know reuses um furniture and equipment and building materials so that
folks can have access to things that have plenty of useful life you know before we think about rep you know throwing them out or even recycling them for the raw materials. So I think it's an evolution of that idea of saying for you know 30 years we're focusing on recycling that sort of worked for some materials but the reality is there's a
lot of useful life you know um left in the stuff in a circular does that and last last question right you uh on that does that come down to like the the homeowner when it comes down to that that re reduce reuse and that that circular economy where things are pulled
out because I mean I just think about this and wanting to do projects on my own home and being like well That's a that's a hefty price tag. So, we're not getting we're not doing that, you know, for the next 5 10 years. But if you were able to somehow at a cheaper level reuse something from a building coming down
and saying, "Well, the wood from that, you know, that we just tore down, now you can build your back porch with that wood and it's cheaper than buying wholesale or something like that. I mean, is that does it get down to that granular level?" Yeah. Like I said, I mean, if you redo your kitchen and you think there's useful life left in your cabinets, but you want a different set of cabinets, then you can donate the
entire set of cabinets to be reused in somebody else's kitchen. Or you can, you know, hardcape, you know, um, uh, countertops. Um, you know, if you're replacing your water heater because you want to, you know, I just replaced my water heater to go all electric. There was still use for life left in the water heater. Somebody else gets to use it. Gotcha. Got you. No, that's awesome. I
mean, I'm just thinking about our aging infrastructure and I know my house is falling apart and I'm like, h how do we stay in Boston and stay in the house that you have, right? Uh without without breaking the bank, but thank you very much, guys. Really appreciate everything that you do and uh we're here to help. So, please reach out if if you need
anything as well. Thank you, Vice Chair. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Mia, you have the floor. Vice Chair, um thank you. Y'all are the least controversial political
um you know cuz this is the good stuff. We're not planning and development here. You know, those are the ones that get the rough questions in the police department. Y'all are doing God's work right now. So, y'all are lucky. But I still got some rough questions. So, don't get too comfortable. Okay. Y'all
ready? All right. Um I should just say I'm joking because most people get freaked out by me. So, I was just teasing the whole entire time. Y'all just relax. Um, okay. So, I I'm I am curious and I'm really excited because I I see the intersection of food justice
and climate justice kind of like those two things go hand in hand, especially when we've seen things um in uh in like Central America and in Guatemala and in in Chile, having visited those countries, learning about kind of like
the migration of how they've come to this country to live in America, a lot of it has been because of displacement and It's been because of climate and it's been because of access to food, right? So all of these things are interconnected. So I think it's makes
sense for us to have a um you know a collaborative conversation around these two intersections. So happy to be here. I have a question. I have several questions. So let's just start with um climate. Um there are and these are
folks that um aren't really engaged in the climate conversation, particularly black and brown people. I always talk about that. That's always my lens when I speak around climate issues because that's what I understand most. Um there have been a lot of small businesses down Columbia Road in particular that
whenever it rains um there's flooding those businesses get impacted and I've been advocating and working uh with the administration this was when um previous Chief uh White Hammond was in office to
really think about what opportunities exist to engage lowincome black and brown even if it's through small businesses in the conver conversation around climate justice because they seem to now understand how climate is impacting their business. And so, how
are you looking at from a creative standpoint engaging low-income communities around the climate justice conversation? And I'm pointing to the small businesses because that is a place a point of entry for
small businesses. the bodega owners, the barber shops, the hair salons, the nail salons that are down in, you know, up and down our strips. Those folks are hot beds, I believe, for good community engagement, but it's only when there's a crisis that they see themselves impacted
by climate justice. So, how are you taking advantage of those moments to help engage them in the broader conversation? Yeah, I I have two initial responses. I'd invite um Oliver and Chris certainly to weigh in. Um, one is I think we don't begin the conversation
about climate, right? I think there's a certain audience that we start with that conversation because that's what resonates, but what we really talk about is energy affordability and about, you know, the the risk to uh the business in the case of small businesses and the buildings that they're located in from
natural hazard events, right? And the actions that we're asking people to take are oftenimes good for the climate from both a mitigation and resilience perspective to begin with. So when we talk about um BCCE, the Boston Community Choice Energy Program, it's about buying cheaper power. It also happens to be
greener power. And so you're contributing to the climate, but it's about the energy affordability of the business to say, am I can I take advantage of the collective buying power of of all the small businesses in Boston and sign up for those types of programs? Go ahead. I'm gonna peel it a little bit
further because that still for some of the small businesses that's a a little bit higher here. I'm going to go something more um recent. Boston Water and Sewer. Whenever there it rains, Columbia Road gets flooded. Those
businesses get impacted. They lose their um you know their products and services because of flooding. How or what if any opportunities exist to educate, engage or mitigate that for those businesses?
Yeah. So, so on natural hazard prevents, we are identifying neighborhoods that are disproportionately impacted by localized flooding and then reaching out either through their community associations, the business associations um and you know enabling our folks to go doortodoor to say what are the solutions
that we can bring you know that make sense to reduce that flooding impact. But the point I was making is like we don't start that conversation about saying do you want to take action on climate it's about how do we reduce that risk right and that's what we've been we've been trying to help people understand how all of these things are interconnected so that they can understand why climate is a it is
impacting them but I would I would recommend especially with some of these businesses they're not tied into civic associations or they're not part of um the business associations these are small immigrant non-English-speaking folks who are just trying to keep their doors open but they don't have a pathway
towards the city and I think that that could be a really good point of entry because now we're dealing with a crisis. Council Maria, if if I may, I I will punt to Chris to answer specific questions about like flooding risk on Columbia Road, but I just if you'll
um indulge me. I just I I really appreciate the framing of your question. It just so happens that my family is from Guatemala and I um I mean even a family like mine that is fairly well off in that country, my mom was telling me a few months ago, you know, the rains are
really hard and so milk doesn't get delivered and I happen to be there and I couldn't find milk in any of the grocery stores. And I I think that this is a context that uh especially our newer immigrant communities fundamentally understand. Um, I hate to say that it's
that they that that's an advantage because it comes from severe disadvantage, but it is something that we can um we must recognize as leaders who are working on climate change, but also frankly take advantage of to um
really build um programs that um uh fit what is an sort of instinctive understanding that environmental issues are what provides economic and social success and stability. And so I will put a a finer point on um something we Brian
and I have both mentioned a lot um the Boston energy saver program that we'll be launching and that specifically is because we know that all these resources are out there but businesses for example like the ones that you mentioned haven't found a way to connect the dots to their
economic interest and that's not happening at the design level that happens and so we are coming into the city to fill that gap. So I I just really want to reflect back to you how your framing is so important to the work that we're doing. Wow. For those folks who are tuning in, especially the
climate people, see I know how to talk here. Um no, you can I joke a lot and and that's okay. But I I think that when it comes to climate issues, I always feel like people who are most impacted
have the least understanding of that impact. And I think that I try to be the official translator and help people understand it from a different perspective so that they can understand that climate justice is social justice,
is racial justice, is economic justice. And so I think the more that we could do that here in this body and also in the work that we're doing in community, I think you I think the easier it's going to be able to help people understand how
it all interconnect. And I really appreciate you um speaking on the fact that for us it it is instinctual like for people I've I'm an immigrant to this country, right? and the things that like we eat organic food back home and then
when we come here someone tried to give me organic syrup and I was like I don't want that fake stuff. I want the the the the you know the the the Sterling brand, right? Like and that's the fake stuff, right? And so like I think that there is
this there is an opportunity to really engage the immigrant community around this conversation that both looks at food um and and the intersection of all of these things because we live it. We we understand it and composting we do.
It just becomes a a political thing here and and then it becomes a problem when it's something that we used to do all the time, you know. Um, so I just think that it's a lot easier than it is complicated. And I think that we just have to start learning how to talk about it in a way that people can understand
it. So, and I know my time I cannot believe my time is over. You're the You're the I'm the I'm the last one standing. That's right. I'm going to keep asking questions. No, don't worry. We're not going to be here forever. But, um, you just mentioned the Boston Energy
Savers um the service. I'm just curious what would be the projected cost of savings for participating like for small businesses what what would what would the savings be? Yeah. So for um I think it's going to vary very much by individual business, but what I will say
for example um that we've we've estimated that um if we're just looking at what we are going to be able to bring in from Massave funding, which is there incentives and um resources that are already available, um but everyone just has such a hard time accessing them. um
between 2025 and um 2027 that'll be um around $150 million of direct incentives. This is for residents and small businesses in sort of smaller buildings, but that actually sort of increases to over $300 million in terms of benefits when we take into account um
all of the sort of additional um energy savings and the other things that come. Um, so that this is these are resources that are basically available to us and we have an enormous opportunity to be able to to bring them in because we're the ones paying for it. We pay for it on our um utility bills and that's how
we're going to be able to bring it in. So, for those who don't know what the Boston Energy Savers Program is, is that like you're putting what what is it? It is um it's uh a lot of different initiatives that we'll be sort of
rolling out um over the summer into the fall to help um folks who uh live and work in small buildings um reduce their energy costs in the ways that work for them in their building. So, for someone, for example, who owns a family uh a
multif family house, it might mean some help um picking a contractor or evaluating bids to um put some solar on your roof and do some insulation. Um for a business, it might be something different. For a renter, it might be learning how to talk to your landlord
about this sort of thing. It's really a big range of things. Yeah. So, I would say that when it comes to this particular conversation, there's some folks who are afraid about this. They think that they're going to get swindled. They think that there's there's like I don't know what why, but people are afraid of this. Absolutely.
situation here. So, I I'm trying to think about how can we um go going back again to the framing like how can we use this as a teachable moment? How can we really help people understand what's going to be the return on that investment both for the climate and also for your pockets, right? Like that's the
bottom line, right? That's how we would position it. Correct. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, okay. And then I'm just curious, what's the total of uh the cost for rolling out the 30 green roofs on the bus shelters? And can we justify that investment in
terms of cooling effect? Sure. So, we actually will have a report at the end of this month that looks back at the process for implementation and it's the first year of what will be a three-year evaluation of that project overall. And so happy to share that report with you and track the the impact over the next
three years. Chris, you know, I'm having a moment, but I hope it was was it probably you that I asked the question in my early years and here in the city council about um well, you probably were the chief of streets then. I don't know where you were, but I asked about um
asphalt went viral. Do you guys remember that? Everybody, it was a traumatizing moment. I asked about asphalt because there's heat heating islands there, you know, the things that we cool and I think I asked the question
around the correlation between the heat and the violence and everybody thought I was stupid because I felt like I was on to something because there was some studies actually where some folks actually validated my question to you and my my
curiosity still um consist of trying to figure out whether it's the way we color the streets. Can can we talk about what we're doing to help cool things down? So, let me talk
for a moment on the bus shelters and then we'll we'll get to that because I think you're touching on there are three benefits to measure or at least three benefits from those bus shelters. So, the costs are the easy part to figure out how much we um so there's storm water retention. So, these are actually done in trays on top of the roof. So that's water that is no longer flooding
out small businesses on roads. It's no longer, you know, it's not entering in the system. Um there is urban heat island, so it's a cooler bus shelter, you know, to stand in and wait for the bus to come. And that's critically important in terms of bus utilization because it's not just about how frequent and comfortable the bus is, but what's the entire process from where you're
coming from to where you want to go and how do we make that as comfortable as possible. And then the third one, which is probably the hardest to measure, uh it's a pollinator highway. So, we intentionally chose plants in those green roofs to actually allow bees to get between parks because we know that
the health of our of our natural ecosystem requires pollinators and pollinators are under assault from climate change and other um humaninduced toxins all the time. So, those three winds are like, you know, that's why we're really excited to pilot this all on a route because it's not just a bus route, it's a pollinator route. So,
we're trying to figure out how do we adequately measure those benefits, but we're excited about, you know, the triple win there. um your your question on urban heat island is is um very germanine to the entire conversation because we oftentimes talk about uh tree canopy coverage is sort of you know this
catchall. It is a critically important solution to this and there are many benefits to trees including shade and canopy coverage but that's not the only approach to reducing urban heat island. So the the color and the type of materials we are using in our hardscape is really important. Um, Los Angeles and Southern California have piloted
painting asphalt a different color because you can reduce that to and anybody who knows, right? If you're playing, you know, basketball on a court that's black asphalt or if it's like painted a light color in the middle of the summertime, it's 90° out, totally different experience in terms of the heat coming off that. So, how do we look at the the types of materials we're
specifying, not only in our public realm, but in our private realm? I would love to see all of Boston the next time uh people are redoing the roofs for it not to be a black EPDM roof as a default but a white one and we know from studies of the last 20 years you can have a 20°ree temperature differential in the
middle of the summer just based on the color of your roof. Can we write an ordinance on that? Can we just make that happen into law? Go ahead councelor Pepang. We can make that happen. Okay, we'll make it happen. So there are a lot of options to sort of to address that question. But you're absolutely right. Like I mean even a kid knows, right? That the color of the material on a on a
hot summer day determines how hot that material is. Thank you. You just gave me a restorative justice moment. I proved all of those naysayers wrong right now just with that answer. I appreciate it. See, I knew I was on to something. And if I can add something actually, you're you're absolutely right because when I
had my private ways hearing, I had pre I had presentations from the UN I think it was the University of Iowa and they were presenting on like soybeans um or some sort of asphalt that has soybeans in it. So it it's a more natural material. It's
more expensive obviously, but it actually leads to less less heat production on the street. So you were on to something. Whoever whoever left at you, shame on them. I know, I just didn't know how to combat them then. But and then in Guatemala, I'm going to keep going back to your country. Um, they
were also building with bamboo instead of other products. They were like really looking I so I went on expedition trips to learn a little bit about I had to leave this country to learn about climate, but that was the best way for me to figure things out. But um they they took me on a tour and they were
really demonstrating kind of their innovative ways of how they were trying to address the climate crisis that you know Guatemala was uh facing. Um so anyways I did go over my time and I do appreciate um the vice chair allowing me
but I do have one last question but it is for food justice. So y'all are off the hook for now. I'll come back at second round of questions. though, but for for the food justice folks, um and and I think given everything that's happening on the federal level, um food insecurity is going to be one of the
things that we're going to see in terms of one of the greatest needs. I think that it's going to be the next pandemic um that we're going to see in terms of like response mental health was during co I feel like food insecurity and access to food, we're going to feel the
crunch given the economic times that we're going to be uh dealing with. So I during co and I think we've talked about the the bodega project that we we developed um in partnership that we partnered up with nonprofit organizations as you continue to think
about um culturally competent and you know food that is easily accessible to people particularly folks who are undocumented who are now afraid to even go to the supermarket. What are we doing or what can we be doing to strengthen our relationships
with the local convenience stores um and maybe partner up with some of our um farmers markets to build some relationships so that it's a win for everybody and people can have access to
many farmers markets with I don't know. So yeah, those are some of the conversations we've been having um to in in recognition of the conditions we're hearing about, right? Some of the stores that we're currently
working with, we're hearing about reduced foot traffic. It's not a surprise. This is like documented across Boston particular neighborhoods as well as other cities where people are afraid to go to the grocery store or to food pantries. Um so we are thinking about
are there ways we could build in aspects um with our current initiatives or participatory budgeting resources that could include um sort of more innovative projects where people there's like delivery or it's tricky to sort of
resource that in a way that is sustainable and most impactful because it's very resource intensive. So, I don't want to it not sure exactly where we're going to land, but we're looking at are there ways with the community groups that are already doing this work in particular neighborhoods to resource
sort of innovative strategies that they are developing where they are sort of have the best pulse of what the needs are in the community um around those type of fears um and they're I'm kind of studying a lot of what um the different initiatives that
both our office and other community-led initiatives during the pandemic because I think there are a lot that a lot of things that were tried that we could be um scaling up or using in very targeted ways to address when we see pockets of
um like shifting patterns of what people's needs are. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. I see uh we hosted a roundt discussion, a private one with um in February regarding, you know, folks who were living in fear now because of the Trump administration and many are
undocumented. And so what we've learned um in in our work with some of these organizations is that they are developing um infrastructure. They're looking at the mutual aid and folks are, you know, doing food deliveries. they're taking people to go to the supermarket so they don't have to get on public
transportation. So, there are ways for the city to continue to strengthen um through some of those grants. That that could be a way. Um, one of the things that I've been fighting for, um, and I know we sent the letter to the mayor in regards to some of the things that the initiatives that we are fighting for is
an increase, um, um, for an emergency fund that will help support folks who are housed housing insecure, food insecure um, so that you have some funding to be able to tap into to be
able to meet the moment. Um, I think that that is definitely something that I am deeply passionate about. I know what it's like to um stand in the pantry line, but back then it was the big block of yellow cheese and that big bucket of
butter. It was nasty, but it was free and we were happy that we were able to get it. And to stand in line, that's the hardest thing to do is to stand in line and get food when everybody knows that you're poor. So, I think that there's I would love to see some programming where
you could do that with dignity. And I think that that is the missing piece of all of this work as it relates to the food insecurity situation. And I I don't have an answer for for that. We created a little program with the Bodega project where
you can go shop and nobody knew that you you had a gift card like you had you just gave your name at the checkout and they can buy whatever they want. What happens with food insecurities? You get what you get and you don't get upset. You get a box and they put whatever they want in that box and then you have if
you don't eat potatoes, you're going to have to figure out you're going to sell them to the person that does, right? Like I just feel like those are the things that I feel like there are there's an opportunity for us to really think creatively of how we we can
help address that issue. And then the last thing that I'll say in regards to um food insecurity is that we worked with um it's Codman Square. They um there are a few that have winter farmers markets
and but they didn't have um coupons for winter discounts. Um they have them in the summer and not the winter. and we leveraged our personal network and we were able to provide them a small um mini grant so that they can provide I
think that you do have some of that winter funding or no? So we h the coupon program has not been we have not been doing our this specific citywide coupon program in the winter. Um, I know there's definitely
opportunities, um, with the way it was structured to really with the goal of having folks have as much choice citywide as possible and just sort of operationally, it it didn't make sense the last couple years to have because there are so few winter markets. And
right now we're doing this planning process with the farmers markets. Um, and and Cotman Square is is one of the the markets on the planning committee. We are looking at sort of now that we aren't running the specific ARPA funded coupon program after this year, what are sustainable approaches that could
include yearround support um and not being tied to this one specific operational um design, but like what how do we meet the needs? Um, and so I I'm hoping that that will include things that might be um not your just your
traditional farmers markets, maybe CSAs, maybe winter markets. Um, sort of depending on resources and and yeah, and yeah, I I would say that the Codman Square would probably be a good case study since they piloted their winters coupons because they were able to get a
small fund to to do that and I think it was really successful in terms of the need. Um, so it would be a good followup um with Cynthia Loach. Um, she could probably help. She was the one that administered it. Um, and then there was
a question about the 2030 climate action plan. I believe it's winding down, right? No, it's actually uh uh counselor, it's um we're right in the thick of it and May is um one of the biggest months um for um sort of coming up with ideas with the community and um
there's lots of meetings um and then there'll be a public comment period in July and then we'll do u more um meetings after that. Oh, okay. So, um that's good to know. I thought since we're almost getting to 2030, we'd be in
a different place. So, I thought we would be winding down, but we're just getting started. Well, we we do a climate action plan um every 5 years approximately. The last one um was in 2019, so it's um overdue. So, we've been really looking to do this um quickly so
that we have um a really good starting point for the next um five years. Um and thinking about it more in terms of um sort of all the the building blocks to 2050, but really focusing on what we're going to be doing over the next So, the 2030 will become the 2050. Uh, no. Think
of 2050 as sort of like the long-term goal. Be all dead by then, but yeah. Well, you're right. I I hope at least to be retired by then. But um but but actually to if if I can turn this joke into something real. We used to do these plans only focusing on 2050, kind of
knowing that we weren't going to be around for them. And now we're doing them. We're doing this one for 2030 when we're all still going to be here and we're going to be accountable for it. So, it's a new kind of plan. Okay, great. I'm happy to hear that because I remember in 2019 when I ran for office, everyone there was a a forum and they
asked everybody, "Did you read the 2030 report on the CLA and all of the candidates, they were like, "Yeah, I'm like, y'all are lying." I said, "I did not read it. I'm sorry. Who has It was a big document." Um, but yeah, I I think
that y'all should make it more creative. I just feel like there's a lot of information there in the 20 in the in that plan that again I'm going to keep going back to you have to make things digestible for people who aren't in
these spaces having these conversations because there is real there there was then a disconnect. So I think that in order for people to really get excited about the plan then maybe we should include some of the folks in designing the plan. Absolutely. Do you invite
Absolutely. Yeah. We we have um we have a a great deal of engagement where we're really doing things differently from the from the past and really um giving opportunities for people on a huge range of ways to get involved. If it's someone who just wants to be at home and fill
out a survey on their phone, that's possible. Um all the way to meetings in a bunch of different neighborhoods um coming to events. also folks um who want to actually maybe spend a little more time at a meeting on a particular topic that it's being hosted by a um community
or topic organization, not us. Um so that it's sort of more approachable. A big range of different options. Yeah, we should do one at a hair salon. You get your hair blown out. Great. Have fun. They got 45 minutes sitting in that chair. You know how long it takes to get your hair done? Um okay. So, I'd like to
be on your committee on your outreach and engagement committee to help you with getting more people involved in the climate action because if I'm going to be a part of it, which I'm going to be a part of this next iteration of it because now I'm in the seat. Before I was trying to get into the seat and I I
didn't understand. Now that I'm in the sea, I want to make sure that I'm helping to um develop or at least help collect information to for the next plan. So then when my daughter's in this seat, she could be like, "My mom helped
me with this 50 plan." Okay, I'm done for the day. Thank you very much for the indulgence. I really do appreciate uh you all taking the time to answer my questions. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Mahil. Um all right, I'm going
to give myself some time as well. You're not. You're still 14 minutes. All right. So, first of all, just thank you so much for being here for this hearing. And I do want to thank you all already for collaborating with my office
for doing a um flood mitigation meeting in Rosinell. Believe it or not, we do have flooding issues in Rosinell. That's why we don't have a body of water near us. Um so, I'm looking forward to that meeting. I also just wanted to say thank you to a district 5 resident, Alisa, for
all the work that you do. And to another District 5 resident that I see over there, thank you so much for everything that you do as well. Um, District 5 is well represented. Okay, I'm going to dive right into questions. Alisa, I'm going to start with you. The, as you
know, the daily table closed in my in my district right in Madapan Square. that was probably one of the best resources for food um for healthy affordable food in that part of Madapan or in Madapan in general. I would love to know one is
your office being approached in terms of what is going to replace that establishment? How can residents continue to get healthier food? Um I personally believe that you should be part of the conversation as to what goes there because I do want to see another
grocery store. Um but what's your take on all this? Yeah. Um I appreciate the sort of concerns and not knowing how folks in that neighborhood are going to compensate. I do know some um some folks probably are going to the Dorchester
Daily Table. They have seen an increase in foot traffic since the Matipan they had to close the Madapan store. Um and and so you know hopeful that people are many people are still being able to afford uh food but obviously that's you know
not right in their community. Um we have not been part of any direct conversations about what who will be leasing that space. I I know it's still uh vacant. Um but we'd be interested in you know if there are ways we can help connect dots around around that.
Um, and there was the first part of your question. I'm now I think there was another piece to your question. I I would just say we we're conscious of thinking about, you know, making sure with our other programming that we're really attending to the needs of that
community. Um, in Madapan and and Hyde Park, um, we have sort of expanded our engagement with particularly for the farmers market coupon program. Until last year, we didn't have any organizations that were distributing coupons in hide park and now we do. We
actually and that's expanded. So I and with the assessment that we did, we were really trying to due to the high food insecurity rates in Madapan sort of over sample and and ensure that we are understanding the particular needs of residents facing food insecurity there.
But definitely open to any ideas about um how to sort of address that gap because um It's unfortunate. Yeah. And I'm we are lucky in that part of this my district that there is a lot of food popups and a lot of food pantries that
are organized by community members. We actually heard one of the testimonies from Rick Henry who leads an amazing one called the High Park food popup. But what they were kind of explaining to me when the last time I was there is that they don't have a place to store their food if it's not
taken that day of. So it kind of goes to waste or they just I don't know just think about who they're going to give it to that day of. So is there anywhere in the southern part of the city where we can have like a community well I say
community refrigerator not like the ones we see out in the blocks but I mean like a big storage room. Have we thought about that? Yeah. Um so I know that the folks the different nonprofits that are setting up the greater Boston collaborative food access hub. Part of
the the grant opportunity there and the the broader scale of the project is to have somewhere at least one place in the city that does include what we've been calling as a retail pilot or sort of a uh food distribution site that does include that's includes um actually sort
of this focus on dignity that councelor Mahia was mentioning where people have choice is experience of going to a grocery store there's adequate cold storage um we you know it's up to those nonprofits where they decide what is feasible like because there's so many different organizations involved. I know
that beyond the YMCA of greater Boston, ABCD, um the neighborhood food action collaborative which includes the High Park park food papa, a number of organ other organizations are sort of in conversation about how do they set something like that up now that they
that can benefit from the cold storage both in the 30 Northampton site as well as on site wherever that um is. And I know that I think folks are thinking about kind of that community and and what the the gaps are. I think it's just, you know, may depend on sort of
what actual buildings are available or resources. They've been looking at sort of other philanthropic opportunities that could provide that kind of investment um that leverages the the ARPA investment from the city. Yeah. I was when you were talking I was I was
trying to look up um there's an organization in the Reedville part of High Park like very end of Reedville almost Milton um that almost dead I'm sorry that is a food distribution company and they have a huge warehouse
down there so maybe that's somewhere look looking in terms of collaborating with them for space but I their name is escaping me at the moment so I'm going to try to get that for you. Yeah. And in and in terms
of the former space of the daily table, I think that connect I I know I've been in conversation with Chief Shagonu to create a partnership with you. So to help identify what would be a right
institution or business to replace the daily table there. So maybe we can make that interdep departmental connection. Yes. Thanks counselor. We'd be very open to that. Of course. Um, all right. I have a question regarding BSS Bess
Systems. I'm not sure who's that for, but there is a proposed location by Eversource behind the stop and shop on American Legion Highway in my district. And I understand the reasoning behind it. I think it's a obviously we need it. I I believe that the energy level in
High Park and Rosa has reached its limit in terms of actual giving proper energy. How do you see this impact in the city or energy cost in terms of there? I know there's a lot of question of like is this safe? Is this reliable? Um you don't have to go into the weeds because
we already had a hearing on this, but I just want to know like what do you foresee this impact on the city? Yeah. Um I think battery energy storage systems at scale are part of the solution to a reliable affordable green grid. uh and we know that one of the
challenges that we have with uh renewables like offshore wind or solar uh is are we generating the green power we need at the time that we actually want to use it or do we need to store it and so one of the technologies over the last decade that's really increased significantly you know on the order of
sort of the microchip and you know and um computer capacity you know is uh storage um and so when we think at scale some of the plants that are being described now are are the size of sort of from a from a storage capacity of the size of a a mediumsiz power plant. So,
what that allows you to do is um is identify locations within the grid and within Boston uh where they make sense, where they can address some of these choke points. So, I know that that's an area, you know, in Hyde Park where there's been power reliability issues. And if the question is do you want a
substation with all of you know the wires that those require in that infrastructure or can storage actually help mitigate that nearer term and provide the benefits of um being able to store renewable power when it's generated perhaps in the middle of the night you know from offshore wind and then you know you can use it when you need it. um it's going to be part of our
future and the question is as Oliver had been mentioning uh is where do we put them in the most strategic ways that meet our energy grid so we're not you know um replacing every wire that's out there but also are cognizant of are they economic development opportunities or in the locations that make sense if we
address all the safety concerns um so I think we're going to see more of those it is new which is why we're looking across the country at best practices at standards um how do we site them but it is part of the solution as opposed to saying you know We just need a whole lot more power plants and need over capacity. Absolutely. No, I have I've
been lucky enough to meet with Eversource a few times on this and go to the Mountain Hope Canterbury Neighborhood Association meeting where they've done a great job of presenting. So, I think that the community finally has an idea of what this is um and why we need it. So, hopefully that goes
well. My the last question that I want to bring up is the Neponit River is the only body of water that runs through my district. I think it's the the second river in the city that crosses other than obviously the Charles River. We are currently seeing a lot of projects
through DCR that are improving the access to it. But I want to know what role does the city play in terms of access and the health of the Nepons River because there's a huge organization in High Park in Madapan that are meeting on a I think on a
bi-weekly or monthly basis to make sure that the projects are going through. There's a park right now being built on River Street that is going to give access to the to the to the river. So, what role does your cabinet play in all this? Yeah, I'm happy to begin and Chris, you can feed in the details.
Actually, what one of my first uh public events in returning to uh city hall is with EPA region one um and David Cash. Uh there are a number of brownfield sites along the Neon River that are being cleaned up. Um and part of that is through um land that the city controls
either is um either is defined park space or or otherwise that is owned that we're providing access to. Um so I think the the first thing is like let's make sure the river and the access is clean and we're reinforcing and then it's how do we bring to it you know the types of uses be they passive or active
recreation access to that water um uh you know in the right fashion. Um, but I think we are, you know, one of the challenges that Chris and and the city and I deal with is that we don't own a lot of our shoreline, right? Only 16% of, you know, including River Shoreline is actually owned by the city of Boston.
50% is owned by the state. A lot of that is DCR. Um, and so we're constantly partnering with our state partners and then federal resources to get, you know, water bodies cleaned up. that event which I I think you may have been at was like one of the cooler you know there were birds flying down at the time that were opening up and that was phase one
of a multi-phase cleanup but like we are making progress these projects take a long time um but you know it was just great to see that potential and rivers have an amazing amount of um ecological restoration capacity in themselves once you remove the ongoing pollution where
like nature starts doing its thing again um and creates a positive spiral The one quick thing I would add counselor um with credit to the sponsor river wershed association they are convening a 14 the 14 communities essentially that um are part of that wershed uh and are putting forward an
implementation plan both about the ecology and health of the river itself as well as projects whether around storm water resilience or coastal resilience that we should be thinking about in the neposit river and the river estuary. um happy to sit down with you and sort of go through that plan. Happy to bring in uh Nebraska Water Association who are
really leading this effort that's of interest. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. It's something that my office is starting to get more involved and we were able to team up with the Edgewater Neighbor Association for that project. So, um it's it's something that everyone's excited for in the district. And councelor, if I may, I I know you
know this, but for um all the people watching here of of course um one of the core, you know, functions that we have is the conservation commission and um I know you know um director Alice Brown quite well. Um we'd be happy to talk about specifically the Neponet, but just
in in general, this this is a that we we are happy to say that um DCR does go through the conservation commission process. um which is wonderful and um sort of uh give themselves um of the go through the process that um allows the conservation
commission to to look at all the different things that affect quality of life and environmental quality. And also just to bring it full circle to a comment from um councelor um Kleta Zapata quite a while ago. This is another instance of why the um uh wetlands ordinance and being able to um
incorporate climate resilience and environmental justice is so important because that is something that the um conservation commission promulgates. Absolutely. And the last thing I'll say, it's not really a question, more of just like an
observation. We are very excited for the Matah Hunt Woods to open up. That's something that the residents have been waiting for. So, I'm looking forward to that ribbon cutting whenever that happens. So, thank you so much for prioritizing that project. It seriously is one that is going to add value to
that area and I'll make please let me know before that happens so I can so that I can invite the neighbors so that the neighbors get to be part of the celebration. And on a more serious note, Madapan continues to have the highest rate of childhood asthma.
Um, and as someone that has asthma, I just want to make sure that you all always have that in the back of your minds when you're doing projects and investing in into communities to really consider MatterPan always for that. And my office is actually we're teaming up
with the children's hospital to host a asthma symposium during in May. So actually it is May. Wow. um at the end of this month to make sure that we are bringing awareness to this and if there's any way our office could team up with your cabinet to just bring more awareness and
what else we can do as a city, I'll really appreciate that. Absolutely. Yeah, happy to. I mean, as I'm sure you're keenly aware, there's um their outdoor triggers and their indoor triggers. Yeah. Uh Jasmine, I think one of the things you've seen us focus on in particular with our um our push on
electric induction cooking and understanding kitchens is that uh you know removing sources of uh and actually to you know counselor Mah's earlier point like removing sources of natural gas burning in your house continuously is a public health issue, right? And it reduces the triggers of asthma and it's
good for the environment, but that's not the thing that most people care about. asthma rates of their kids and senior citizens and you know, you know, our our family members. Exactly. But that's it for me. Um, Council Mia, do you have follow-ups? Just two. Absolutely. Go ahead. Y'all are never
going to come back to these hearings when I'm here, right? Um, no, you have here until 5, just so you know. Um, but you just there's two things I'm curious and and if I'm curious, I'm sure other people are curious. You're talking about the storm water where you put the little
plants and that's how the gutters and can people do that in their homes too or is just you have can can you do that in your in terms of green roofs? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So green roof systems u can come in trays and so it's it's the tray that sort of controls the water and then the plants drink the water and then
it also evapot transanspirates when you know it's sunny out. So yeah. Yeah. Green roof trays are are a great addition to most roofs but check with your structural engineer because I know we're on the right. So there should be a program for the city to pay to help people learn about that and to do it, right? Or there is already anyone. So
through the Boston Water and Sewer Commission and their storm water uh program, there are grants and credits that they're offering for folks to make alterations to their property. Happy to follow this information. You welcome everybody that's tuning in. See, I'm giving you stuff that you can take advantage of. And then this is a
question that may be a little bit um interesting but most recent um and this is you may this is not within your scope but it is something that I'm intrigued by. Um, so White Stadium, you
know, the Emerald City people were upset because we're taking we're killing trees and we're taking land that's green and making a whole stadium and everyone's talking about the public transportation and all those things. I'm just curious, and this is a real innocent question because I'm I'm really trying to grapple
with this dynamic here. At one point, we're talking about climate justice and reducing transportation and all this. We're doing a a stadium in a place that is predominantly green right now. We're going to
be creating a whole entertainment industry, if you will, at some point. um there'll be more trans there will be more buses there'll be more all of these things that we say impact the climate and environment are now going to be in
that concentrated area that already feels like a concrete jungle right from the other parts of it. So I'm just curious like how is the city from a climate justice like how are we grappling with this dynamic?
Um I'm happy to take that one. Um, so as you know, this is a rebuild of a stadium that's been there since the 1940s. Uh, so a lot of the trees and and this is all up on the website. We had a tree hearing in December. A lot of the trees that are being removed are actually invasives or older and poor health or
have literally grown through the fences and the concrete over decades of that deterioration of what has always been a BPS sports facility. Um and when we think about uh climate justice and environmental justice, we also have to think about, you know, who are the users of the facilities that we have produced,
um one of the stats that I have found most startling is that the uh the sports participation rate of BPS students is half of the statewide average. So when you talk about opportunities for all of our students, but in particular, you know, our black and brown students to have access to state-of-the-art athletic
facilities, which is part of the motivation, certainly when I was in high school, of continuing to go to school and get good grades and focus, we need to provide those facilities and places that make sense to do that. That's not the question. The question really is is the extra the extra add-ons which is the
beer garden, the the the soccer, you know, people coming from the suburbs to come and be, you know, spectators of the hood. Like those are the sort of things that I'm struggling with. Like how what's that look like? Because I'm not talking about we all agree that we need
to um restore White Stadium. My concern from uh the climate justice conversation is the influx of vehicles that are going to be coming into the city that are going to be occupying, you know, and and and they're
talking about buses and buses have fumes like how is that how are we coming to terms with that? That's what I'm struggling with. Yeah. So, okay. So for that particular question, the timing of the question is is excellent because the the draft transportation plan is out for
comment in terms of to allow uh you know access to this stadium uh on not only for um Boston soccer games but also for BPS events. Uh and there's been a prioritization for utilizing our public transit system. So focusing on last mile from the orange line from the committed
rail stops um using shuttle buses that do prioritize uh EV wherever possible. As I know you're aware, we're transitioning as quickly as we can all of our bus infrastructure to be uh EV and low emissions. Um so that we are we are not adding parking, you know, at
Franklin Park for uh the reason that you're talking about, you know, not just the congestion, but saying we don't want to invite, you know, additional vehicle traffic, you know, to the park itself. We want to actually consolidate and have, you know, as much of that done through a managed transportation plan as possible. Yeah, I'm I'm going to let that one go
just cuz that's just I it it's one of those things that I'm just going to have to keep on marinating and trying to have a better understanding so that when people ask me questions, I know what to say. I just still don't feel like I got it. But I appreciate you helping me at least get it a little bit closer. Thank
you. Thank you, Councelor Mahia. I don't have any follow-up questions. But I believe we have a inerson testimony here from Mr. Pearson. Um, Mr. Pearson, would you like to testify?
Um, Oh, okay. Okay. That's totally fine. Well, it's good to have you here, sir. Um, well, that with that, I would like to move to closing remarks to the panelists. Would you like to provide any closing statements? No, I appreciate the opportunity to
answer your questions. If um if we did leave anything out, you know, feel free to reach out. We're happy to respond. Absolutely. Um Councilman, any closing statements? Just making sure. Hey, thank you for your time. Just making sure. No, seriously, thank you all so much for the
work that you do. Thank you for being here. I look forward to continuing the collaboration with your separate departments and offices. So with that this hearing on dockets number 0822 through 0830 it's okay also number 0835 through
0836 is adjourned