Massachusetts: Boston City Council

            Thank you again to the BMG community for your comments on the Shared Bike Program legislation that I filed with the Boston City Council last summer.  To bring you up to speed on this initiative, the City’s Request for Information (RFI) was released last summer and all submissions were due this past November.  The City is making the Request for Proposals available during the first week of March.  I continue to meet with community biking leaders to discuss how best to implement a shared bike program and I intend to hold a hearing this spring to bring the administration and community leaders together to discuss the City’s progress on shared bike.

This blog has been picking up some new readers, perhaps because the city election year is starting, perhaps in part as a result of my efforts to build up my Facebook network.  (If you're not my FB friend yet, please friend me, and encourage anyone else interested in politics to do so as well!)

As is true for many blogs, this one has a tendency to repeat certain assumptions or references without explanation. For example, for a month now this blog has been goading John Kerry aide Ayanna Pressley to run for Boston City Council. You might suspect that I have some motive for this -- that I think she'd be a terrific councilor, or that she's a friend of mine, or that I have some personal stake in her candidacy.

We've been speculating about who will run to replace Sal DiMasi in Boston's 3rd Suffolk state house district.  Someone mentioned Susan Passoni and I said I hope she runs.  Well, it turns out she is going to run!

I remember Susan Passoni from her 2007 run for Boston City Council, where she came in "surprisingly close" according to Blue Mass Group.  During that race, sco interviewed her for .08 acres.  She focused on education and housing; clearly understood and talked about the fact that education leads to economic growth, something we've discussed recently.

Interestingly, the 3rd Suffolk house district overlaps with the city council district she ran for.

Dear Blue Mass Group,

I'm pleased to announce that I am running for Mayor of Boston.   I'm running to bring open, honest, transparent government to Boston City Hall, something that I believe everyone on this blog would agree needs to be done.

I've been an occasional poster and commenter, and frequent reader over the years.   I'd like to thank David, Bob and Charlie for setting up this wonderful forum where citizens can respectively (for the most part!) discuss the issues of the day.  It is this sort of dialogue that I believe we need to bring to all forms of government.

If elected, I will continue to stay in touch, ask for your input and advice, and still continue to post.