WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. The city election cycle is upon us. And today we began our candidate roundtable focusing on district greens Derby for 18 years Maureen Feeney has been securely seen as Dorchester city councillor when she announced that she would not seek a ninth term. The political enthusiasm that's been bottled up over the years burst forth with no end of candidates tossing their hats into the ring. There are now seven on the ballot and the roster is as diverse as the district itself from season two when it comes to community activists to small business owners. Today we meet four of the seven vying to represent Dorchester vying to take on the challenges of this community from preventing crime to creating jobs. Up next. This is what democracy sounds like. The candidates running for District 3. First the news from NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying President Obama is taking

his jobs pitch to North Carolina residents this hour on the heels of touring a machine company in the Raleigh Durham area. The president is at North Carolina State University outlining his ideas for helping small businesses police officers teachers and students. We're creating. Good middle class jobs again. Jobs that pay well. Jobs the office and security jobs for all the young people who are going to graduated from NC State or Congress is reviewing the nearly 450 billion dollar plan introduced to lawmakers last week. The latest economic data out today lackluster no change in prices at the wholesale level in August. NPR's Paul Brown reports. That comes as a surprise after retailers reported strong sales during the month. The Labor Department's producer price index shows that overall businesses paid the same amount for goods and services last month as they did the month before with lower energy

prices counterbalancing higher food prices even with food and energy stripped out wholesale prices are up just a tenth of a percent. Wholesale prices have increased more than 6 percent over the past full year. That's mostly because of higher food and energy costs and increased post recession demand and it's raised some concern about a return of serious inflation. But the recent slowdown in demand growth appears to be keeping prices stable. Paul Brown NPR News Washington. A new government report blames the oil giant BP Transocean and others for a series of failures that led to the oil rig explosion and to the deaths of 11 oil rig workers in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports on the findings from a joint investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of ocean management. Investigators found that the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon could have been prevented if not for system deficiencies and crew missteps leading up to the April

2010 explosion. They cite poor maintenance of equipment the bypassing of alarm systems and a culture that did not emphasize safety. The report also finds BP made critical management on operational mistakes that led to the failure of the well's blowout preventer resulting in nearly five million barrels of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Investigators say the government also shares some of the blame for a lack of proper oversight and regulation of deepwater drilling. Debbie Elliott NPR News. Work continues in Europe to get around Greece's growing debt crisis. A teleconference is being held today among the leaders of Germany France and Greece. At last check on Wall Street the Dow is up 70 points at eleven thousand one hundred seventy one. This is NPR. The top U.S. diplomat in the Middle East visited Tripoli today for talks with the rebel leaders who ousted strongman Moammar Gadhafi. Jeffrey Feltman is the highest U.S. official to visit Libya since the

start of the revolution. And we have details from NPR's Corey Flintoff. Feldman said the U.S. stands with the Libyan people and supports the process of forming a new government. He said the U.S. is aware of concerns that Islamist radicals will try to take advantage of the revolution. But he added that he thinks Libyans will prevent that from happening. We are concerned that one group is going to be able to dominate the aftermath of what has been a shared struggle by the Libyan people to open the door to a better future Feltman inspected damage at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli and said the U.S. plans to open a full mission to Libya as soon as the embassy has been repaired. Corey Flintoff NPR News Tripoli. The death toll stands at 27 following yesterday's attack on the U.S. embassy and other sites in Kabul. Marine Corps General John Allen the commander NATO's and U.S. forces in Afghanistan says the 20 hour long assault claimed the lives of civilians Afghan police and insurgents. Some signs of movement today in the campaign to

free two Americans held in Iran since 2009. The lawyer for Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer says he's working with Swiss embassy officials in arranging a half a million dollars bail for each prisoner. The Swiss represent U.S. interests in Iran because Washington and Tehran don't have diplomatic ties. Also the Gulf state of Oman reportedly has sent a private plane to Tehran. But Iran's powerful judiciary said today it is still reviewing the provisions of the men's bail. This is NPR News. Support for NPR comes from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation helping NPR advance journalistic excellence in the digital age. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley quick do you know what September twenty seventh is. Well if you're like a lot of folks you might not know it's election day in Dorchester and that's just a little over two weeks away

where a very intense race to the finish line is underway. So today we kick off our series of candidate round tables with a focused on the District 3 derby that is in Dorchester. There are seven candidates vying to fill the void left by outgoing city councilor Maureen Feeney. She's been representing the district for 18 years. Today we'll have four of the seven candidates Doug Bennett Stephanie Everett Craig Alvin and Marty Hogan. We're still waiting for Marty Hogan but Craig Doug and Stephanie are with me now. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you for having us. And next week we'll hear from the other three candidates so that everybody's voice will be heard from district three. So let me set the table this way for folks who are in their minds may have an image of what Dorchester is or what how big it is but it's big. It's Boston's largest neighborhood. It spans wide areas of Dorchester in Dorchester from Columbia Road and Savin Hill to the pub to the Neponset River. It

touches Codman Square manna pan and the Harbor Islands and takes in lower Mills Ashmont Fields Corner and beyond. So we're talking a lot of area many many different many neighborhoods in the big neighborhood. Which leads me to my first question for all of you and I'll start with you Craig. How do you characterize District 3. Well I think that's a great question I think that district 3 is a huge melting pot and were lucky to have the diversity that we have and we have an opportunity to learn all different things about all different types of culture and the people that live there and the District is a wonderful place to live I've lived there my entire life and I'm excited about the opportunity to represent the district. All right. Kelly the District 3 is definitely the most diverse district in the city. Forty five percent of the district is African-American. Twenty five percent of it is Cajun. Fifteen percent of it is Vietnamese

or Asian 10 percent Hispanic. There's also a large Cape Verdean population around the meetinghouse Churchill area. And you know it's very exciting. You know I've been campaigning. For the last year and you know I've traveled to 37000 houses across the district and in fact you know many houses multiple times and I've been fortunate to have met. A lot of people. You know of all colors creeds religions and District 3 is definitely it's a wonderful place to be. OK. Stephanie how would you characterize. I used to. Have to agree with my fellow candidates. It is very diverse. It's a place where you can go and you can find just about any culture inside of it and engage in that culture there's a lot of activities that go on. I love it. It's the reason I'm ahead and I chose to move into the district. It offers a lot of the qualities that we

want for our children. Well while you're talking Stephanie let me start with you and ask why are you in the race. Why do you want to represent this one says wonderful. You all say diverse melting pot from Craig White why you addressed it as much of it as that of Earth. I do think that there is a large population that is and direct within it and they're not engaged. When I was x time Ryan I absolutely had no intention that I ever done this in my life. But I'm speaking to so many different people about the need to make sure that they had someone that they can relate to someone that was really going to speak to everyone in the state to me not a portion of District 3. It really required me to think long and hard about in that the and I felt like I had an obligation to make sure that the entire district would be represented. Doug. Well I ran because I'm running because you know I believe I'm an agent of change and I believe that I could go to City Hall and really make a difference for the people I think that people want fresh blood they want fresh perspective and ideas. I'm a 35 year old single father. I have a 17 month old son.

I got calluses on my hands and flood like everyone else and I think it's important that we get someone in there that's going to be a man of the people. Heard someone that will always do the will of the people. Because a lot of times elected officials they forget who their bosses. So that's how I feel. All right Craig. Yeah like I said earlier as a lifelong resident of Dorchester I'm extremely passionate about Dorchester I'm actually even more passionate about the people from Dorchester and I think that as a as we as I as I knock doors in this community I find that you know people want very similar things they want safe streets they want accessible schools and they want development. They want you know they want economic development they want jobs. So you know during my investigatory stage when I was thinking about this and talking to people I heard these things and I I just see that it aligns with the passions that I have. And and I know for a fact that I can be a free independent voice at city hall

and a hard worker resourceful up at city hall and represent the district which I love so it was a no brainer. After I sat down with people that I trusted and I'm lucky enough to have great candidates running with me and we're learning we're learning stuff from each other as we go along the course. And it's it's been a wonderful wonderful experience I wouldn't change at all. Well one of the things that's that's clear in Dorchester in this race is that a lot of people are interested in it because this is the first time that the seats been open for 18 years. Following on the heels of Maureen Finis tenure but she brought a lot but she but she did do it in representing Dorchester. Do you feel the weight of carrying on the legacy that she brought in our representation in other words if you look at the City Council there are some people that may stand out in terms of folks knowing that they went to the table for their districts. And I would say that one of her shoes her name is one of those. Do you feel that weight

Stephanie and wanting to follow in her behind her. I don't feel a way. I feel an obligation like I said earlier I mean a lot of stuff a lot of people and the district is always going to be grateful for her time as a counselor. But I also think that there is an opportunity to expand on what she has created in her 18 years. It's a new day. There's a lot more people inside of the district who unfortunately aren't engaged and so. As far as going out to meetings definitely do that was done at Senate chamber there's office I understand that completely. But being a little bit more involved just because of things that I've gone through personally being a mother at 19 I was homeless by the time I was 20. There's a lot of things that I have gone through that will be a different approach than what she was doing not to say what she was done with. You know and correct but I do think that there's a lot more people who need to be engaged to know that there is someone out there that's fighting for them who is going to you know march with them when there's something that goes on what you file it's in a community

to try to really create change in the community. And so for that I think that there will be a lot of things that she's done that you will see that over my term it's from like I said a counselor but I also think that there is a huge opportunity to grow and I will definitely see that moment. Doug you talked about the need for fresh blood do you feel the weight of her legacy though. I mean Maureen Maureen did a great job. I mean 18 years a long time she accomplished a lot. Served this presidency council and she made her mark. But I do feel it's time for some fresh blood. You know I moved a mast used 10 years ago from a pencilling farm boy. I actually was a carpenter on Nantucket and I was fortunate to have been elected as a selectman county commissioner out there and I we had a million dollar budget. I compared it to point four billion dollar budget here in Boston. But it gave me a good grasp on the mechanics of municipal government. And I really believe that I have the experience in the ground running. And I think that you should only serve two or three terms. You know I'm a firm supporter of term

limits and I feel that what happens is you too many times you elected officials they get in there they get they forget who the boss is. They forget you know they they all they care about is getting re-elected. And I think that you need to change it up every couple years. You served two or three terms and then you give it up for the next person. OK. I asked the legit legacy question you did not ok. Go ahead. Moreno has definitely done a wonderful job for the past 18 years and she's grown into that job and she's really she's really set the mark for us to reach up to. You know it's funny because as a child or a young boy I delivered newspapers up and down the streets here in Dorchester and working my way through college at North East and I you know I worked on the back of a rubbish truck in these neighborhoods Roxbury Dorchester and you know as I sit every day I'm I'm lucky I'm a realtor and every day I get to sell the goodness that Dorchester has to offer. And so you know I think I think there's an opportunity for us here in Dorchester in District 3

to increase our economic development to really have a plan to ask people and beg people and talk people into coming into Dorchester because I think every day the people of District 3 leave District 3 for services that they need. And I think we need to find people that want to come here and offer the services to the people that are in districts that want to be here. You know I I know that we have a lot of challenges in the schools in the school so I mean policy is one and I know that you know we can work through those things I just think that we need to promote Dorchester work extremely hard. Listen to what the people want. And and I think I know I have that skill I'm lucky enough to be the guy that my neighbors call when they need things done already. So I'm excited about knowing that the map of how to get things done and and I'm excited about leading this is three. All right. Marty Hogan has joined us so. Hi how are you. Good to me. I'm going to ask you the first question I asked the others and that is how would you characterize District

3 District 3 this. It's a very vast landscape. I think there's a lot of different neighborhoods a lot of different people. It's a great place to live. My wife and I have the luck you know of living there for the last seven years and it's just been great. I also am able to boast that working with the Dorchester parade Committee on Dorchester day and that's you know what I've been doing for the last five years up until now. And you know again I love I think there's so much about Dorchester we could tote. Why are you running. A couple reasons one I look at this job and it is a job it's a job that would be doing for the residents and our neighbors and our friends of Dorchester. As an opportunity to give public service and my father was a teacher in the past public schools for 27 years he he dedicated himself to public service to the to the people of Boston and to the children in the future. And

I see that there are a lot of things that we do all right there's a lot of things we could do so much better in this. You know I think I'm just a different voice that can come in and try to unite all the different parties that are involved and have everyone at the table and able to you know voice their opinion and have a person they can rely on in city hall. Well we have a lot more to talk to you all about and we will on the other side of this break. I'm Kelli Crossley we're hearing from the candidates running for city council to represent district three come January one of them will be representing Dorchester the city's largest neighborhood. We're opening up the lines we really hope to hear from residents in District 3. That's primarily Dorchester parts of Matt pan and Ashmont. Tell us what you want from your city councilor. Call if you have a question call if there is an issue you want to tackle. 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 0 9 7.

We'll be back after this break. Stay with us on WGBH. At the. WGBH programs exist because of you. And Elsa Dorfman Cambridge portrait photographer still clicking with the jumbo format Polaroid 20 by 24 analog camera and original Polaroid film online at Elsa Dorfman dot com. And that's Elsa Dorfman dot com. And design associates architects of Cambridge and Nantucket striving to create practical unbuildable design for what you want with attention to detail and the budget. You can see what their clients are saying at design hyphen associates dot com.

On the next FRESH AIR Will Arnett he costarred in Arrested Development his job and on 30 Rock he played Jack's rival Devon Banks now Arnett is starring in the new comedy series Up All Night about a sleep deprived couple adjusting to their new lives as parents. And we'll hear from two neuroscientists who've written a new book about how a child's brain develops. Join us. This afternoon at two on eighty nine point seven. WGBH sustaining membership is easy. You pick an amount you want to give you each month and that amount automatically renews. In fact if WGBH here is from 2012 new sustainers by December 30 first Not only will eighty nine point seven eliminate the first fund raising campaign of the new year but you'll see the new season of Downton Abbey on WGBH television

fundraiser for him. Take the 2012 challenge online at WGBH dot org. It would be the world he had seen it in. From long in my life coming up at 3 o'clock on eighty nine point seven WGBH. Welcome back to the Kelly Crossley Show. If you're just joining us you've tuned in to our city council election series. Today we're talking about the District 3 Derby. There are seven candidates running for MRN Fini seat. She's the outgoing city councilor who's represented the district for 18 years. Here today are four of the seven candidates Doug Bennett Stephanie Everett Craig Alvin and Marty Hogan. And next week we'll hear from the other three candidates. We're opening up the lines we want to hear from the citizens of District 3. Tell us if you're voting. Call us if you have a question for the candidates call if you want to voice an issue you're concerned about 8 7 7

3 0 1 0 8 0 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 and we have a caller. My child from Boston you're on the Cali Crossley Show on WGBH. Go ahead please. Hi my question for the candidates was just if each could listen to one specific idea they have for District 3 and how they plan to get that accomplished if they. The council member. Excellent question you took my question and I'm happy to add that you took it so I'll start with Marty you just came in so why don't you start. Well my fear is that we need to have a better system for our residents to be informed of the issues and specifically of the budget that we deal with in the city. I don't think that comes off fast enough we have the information but I don't think a lot of people understand it what's going on where it comes down to so I would my big issue. I'm an I.T. professional. I would like to build a website that would be from my office

and hopefully it could catch on in all the city councils could do this where we could expose what is actually being used and where it's being used and how we can cut back on the. Either the excessive spending or the wasteful spending in the budget so that's that's my one big idea. All right Stephanie. My biggest one of my top priorities would be you Phylis prevention. I've worked on that since I was at my PC and I unfortunately had the unfortunate times when in the 90s of burying a lot of my friends being the last person to talk to someone on the phone. But the reality is in dealing with the violence for so long is that we never bring you to the table. We always have a conversation with adults and we are trying to figure out what to tell adults tell to tell I used to do which is not really realistic. A lot of the time because we don't know. So for me one of my top priorities would be to create a group that includes media making our youth sit at the table figure out what's going on with parents really looking at our kids in a holistic

approach. Are there certain things that are the parents of these kids need that we're not providing for them. I think if you get youth in a table and you get all these groups in a table we will take you violence by chokehold and figure out what we need to do including all the right parties. And again that includes the youth the parents the teachers school administrations media. A lot of times media will talk about us and then it's the last page and the paper the next week and unfortunately families are still reeling from that the kids who are affiliate with a child who has passed away a stone with it. So we need to really look at them in a holistic approach to make sure that they're given all the tools they need to be successful. You're listening to eighty nine point seven WGBH an online at WGBH dot org. I'm Kelly Crossley we're talking about the city council race for District 3 here today are four of the seven candidates running to fill Maureen Feeney seat she's represented Dorchester for 18 years here in the studio. Our Stephanie Everett Craig Galv and Marty Hogan. And we're about to hear from Doug Bennett answering the question from a

caller. What one thing would you bring to the table if you were city councilor. Thanks Haley. I mean I think we need to be we need to be honest the I mean city council does not have a lot of power or the their power is to vote up or down on the budget and constituent services and I think that under constituent services I think that a way that we can deal with crime and violence is by instituting the mayor's Violence Intervention crime prevention program. OK. Because you've got all these gangs that are running around the district barely through progress right to charge gangs the Crips right Dement pleasant gang. You've got the Norfolk Street gang right. And you have prostitutes running around cat walking across Adams Street and Dorchester Avenue intersection. Twenty six of them. All right that's what the police say. Right you have senseless murders like that of Missoula who is you know shot to death in May the seven Hilti stop and people aren't coming forward because they're afraid of retribution. How would you change that. Well I think that we need to do's have the Department of

Public Health elected officials and members of the police force go house to house and talk to people and continue going house to house. And what that does is that increases communication right and it builds trust and community members are more likely to come forward with information that leads to tips. And I I would do that as a city counselor you know. I've been cross crisscrossing the district going everyone's homes every six or seven weeks and a city councilor you know I would lead that type of effort in the district. All right Craig Allen. You know there are a number of issues that we have here in Dorchester that are important to me and crime is definitely one of them. Economic development like I said in the past is another one but the one that really rings true to me and that's very very important is the school assignment policy. I think that it's broken. And as a realtor I get to sit in the living rooms with people every day that are leaving this community kicking and screaming because they don't have any

expectation of where their kids are going to go to school. And we can't push the middle class out and let people leave here that love this community. So as one of the one of my my my my important things that I will try to accomplish is I'll roll my sleeves up here with this school assignment policy and I will tackle it and we'll work together on it. I will bring people in. This policy is broken and it doesn't work it doesn't. It doesn't sit well with parents it doesn't sit well with students. It just it is it's scares people out of the city they leave here in droves because they're scared for their children which we can't blame them. But I as a father of Boston public school students I can tell you that the struggle is worth it. We have teachers that want to teach and we have kids that want to learn. And I think that we all know that you know good good teachers and students and administrators cause good schools and good schools cause good

neighborhoods and I'm willing and I promise to tackle this issue I know that it's not going to happen overnight but we really need to have some real frank conversations about what's going on with this school assignment policy instead of having eight mediocre choices for our children. We need to have four good ones. They need to be you know parents need to be involved administrators need to be involved. And our kids need to have a seat at this table and I'm telling you that I see it every day and it's a scary thing to see somebody that's lived in this community for over 50 years and they have to leave here all 30 years of 40 years and they have to leave it there because they're fearful for what their kids have in front of them. And that's a real real evident problem that people are talking about but not enough and I promise to bring this to the forefront. That's something that's very very personal to me and it's something that is unacceptable and I won't let it happen. We're at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 looking to hear from residents of District 3 in Dorchester. I'm here

with four candidates for the seat of city council you just heard from Craig Alvan. Each of you have made your way or have specific long term seems to be ties to Dorchester But as we've said at the beginning of this conversation which is just huge get big variety inside it and there's only one guy at the table who's OSD that would be you originally from Dorchester and as I read a lot of information that is a lot of weight. How are you. What kind of response are you getting from people how is that or does that make a difference in 2011 it used to have a lot of weight anyway. Yeah. As I said in the past and I wear that with a badge of honor because the people of Dorchester have taught me so much. OK. They've taught me I've had cultures and teaches and you know peer leaders and people that my parents and my aunts and uncles and people that I've looked up to that have taught me. How to give back. And I have given back over the last 25 years of my life I've

helped coach youth. I'm on the list. The vice president Leahy Holleran Council. I served on the board of the elegy bakehouse you know I've worked with the fields going to main streets in St. Mark's Main Street. And these are the things that are going to make Dorchester better you know. And we need to do these things together. And what I'm proud of and what I'm most proud of like I said is I'm proud of the fact that I O F T but I'm also proud of the fact that I have an open mind and I am thrilled with the with the with the can do attitude. Well the last 20 years we have a renaissance of change with people from all different backgrounds that have provided us with a can do attitude to make Dorchester a better place. And you know I'm proud to have the endorsement of a progressive group like thought out. And I think that that's important to show that. Yes. Craig Allen is originally from Dorchester but he is open minded and willing and has open arms to listen to people. And you know you know it's going to be an important part.

Doubt by the way is a civics organization representing gays and lesbians over to Doug Bennett. As I said each of you has some you know ties to the community more than just a casual visitor you at one point were both the mayor of Dorchester. Right. You know as I was selecting and can commission I can talk it all right. But you're the only person that's had elected office Yeah right so how does a wave have different meaning now because Durkin just changed I think I think. I think the plane changed. I mean we just elected our first African-American president. You know I think that people are more accepting to change and I think that like with myself you know I told you in Pennsylvania farm boy I moved to Massachusetts 10 years ago. And if there is any place it was that's more parochial than Boston and Dorchester. It was Nantucket. And I remember people saying oh you're not a native.

But what happened was by working very hard by going to their homes and introducing myself again and all of us get to know each other they trusted me and they elected me to represent them and I believe that's what's going on right now in the district. You know people want change. You know people are tired of not being listened to. Tired of being ignored. They're sick of the phone calls not being returned and they want some fresh blood. And I'm an agent of change. You send me to City Hall. And Boston city government will change. Right now you're not worried about OSD you Stephanie. Where do you put it in. Oh FDA is originally from Dorchester How do you feel about that in 2011. It's important in Dorchester. I think one I want to say that distinctly also encompasses a slave of Madame pan where I live at right now and I have lived there my entire life so I am ok and I think I do it's funny because I've

talked to people who are not from here and they don't understand you're from Boston why you just don't say you're from Boston why do you say that individual neighborhoods. There was a sense of pride of where you're from. There's also a sense from you're familiar with what we're going through you know what we're experiencing rather than someone who comes in and that's not always a bad thing we can. Look at it but when you're dealing with it on a regular basis it's completely different so I don't think that all of D is as big to the entire district. I think there are pockets of the district that really love the fact that you know a 50 but then there's pockets of the street that really don't care where you're from long as you can speak to the issue as long as you know what they're going through and that you're going to go to City Hall and you're going to fight to make sure that they have a better life. And so I do think that there was a time when I was the was you know humungous I think being from Boston is humongous but I respect people who are over 50 and the tightness that they have with each other. I just want to make sure that that extends to the entire district and that is a part of the district and

like I said a lot of people forget that magic pants part of it. But I have a deed that says Madoff hit on it and we just need to be really respectful of the fact that you don't really have to be from here but if you bought a home like I did. Well if you decide if you're going to make a permanent place here that you should be respected just as much someone else who is a lefty. Well Marty Hogan if you were organizing the Dorchester parade every year that's like get you close to 0 as well if you're not. Yeah I had to get my visa when I came over. No. I am originally from selfie and I am DBC though just a light choice. OK and here's the thing I think that it's great to you know pride ourselves in where we come from. Everybody has a hometown when they were born where they come from their families are from. Unfortunately a lot of that has changed because as Doug said The world has changed. But at the same time I pride myself in the fact that I know that

being from selfie orse Craig being from Dorchester they're proud of the fact that people have worked hard to make those things a prideful thing. It's not something you carry and you're afraid of or you're ashamed of. I find it funny that I go all over I friends everywhere in Massachusetts and I never hear. Originally from Quincy or I'm originally from Weymouth or I'm originally from Lowell I hear it in Boston because we're prideful and it's something that means you're going to take more pride in your ownership of way with the rent or own. You're going to take more pride in what you do for your everyday person. Now being the president of Dorchester Day parade I was very surprised when I was elected. I was on it because I never thought that connection could happen. But I am proud of everything that I have done in this district. And I think that this district is is a great place and I don't think that we should push out we should say that being originally from Dorchester the anything else if you come in with

that work ethic if you come in with a pride of who you are and what you can do for the community and you for your family. I have no problem with that. And and I respect the FTC. All right well if d o f m a. The whole gamut and brand new blood according to. We've got it all here and we'll be talking more to the folks sitting at this table when we come back from break I'm Kalee Crossley we're hearing from the candidates running for city council representing District three come January one of them will be representing Dorchester the city's largest neighborhood. We're opening up the lines at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 callers hang on I see that your waiting will get you when we come after break and we'll be back after this break. Keep your dial on eighty nine point seven. This program is on WGBH thanks to you. And the Cardiovascular

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If you've recently volunteered a financial gift of support to WGBH Thanks Joy investment has gone straight to work powering the programs that you depend on. And if you're looking for a way to become even more involved consider signing on as a WGBH volunteer help post in-studio events become a WGBH tour guide and join the behind the scenes team at WGBH radio and television. Details online at WGBH dot org slash volunteer the latest local news headlines are as close as your smartphone with the new WGBH app. Single tap keeps you up to date with headlines from business to arts and culture. Just a free download away at the App Store or learn more at the GBH dot org. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley. If you're just joining us we're kicking off our city council series today meeting the candidates running for various seats. Today we're talking about the

District 3 race for city council. There are seven candidates vying for Maureen Feeney. She's the outgoing city councilor who's represented the district for 18 years. Here today are four of the seven candidates Doug Bennett Stephanie Everett Craig Calvin and Marty Hogan. And thank you for joining us. Next week we'll hear from the other three candidates you can join us at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 seventy 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. We really want to hear from people in District 3 today 8 7 7 3 0 1. Eighty nine seventy eight 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 and you can send us a tweet or write to our Facebook page. So Kareem from Dorchester you're on the callee Crossley Show on WGBH Go ahead please. Yeah I tell you I love you I know Emily so well thank you. I have a comment and a question. My comment is you know I. Think of what any of the candidates. From what I've heard so far. You know I think any of them would be a good choice and obviously want the best of the best. But you know I think

there's a stall with the crop of candidates out there. And my question is why I guess I should give my background a little bit. First I want to really know just get to the question Kareem. OK the question is as a city councilor could each of them give an example of the types of issues that their constituents would approach them about like and like running the gamut of minor to major something minor would be how to handle a parking ticket and something major would be you know the prostitution that Doug already mentioned and also you know sometimes I work late at night and when I park the car you know whitetail or insecure about walking even three or four blocks. Security maybe think that a truck you know. OK thank you very much and I wake up and go Oh thank you. Karma Seven Hail major and minor issues just knock him

out one major and one minor issue on mine or you know someone if their sidewalk is a mess right they give me a call right and I contact the DPW and I make sure that that's taken care of immediately. I think for major problems like I just earlier I think to crime and violence could be tackled with such little money. All we need to do is use physical stamina she leather and use that program I talked about earlier the Violence Intervention crime prevention program. Right send out the I understand that. Yes I hate to interrupt you but what you're describing is a is a community policing model yes. You know everybody said works well but we've been cutting funds for that because the city and the state are you know in deep trouble like many cities and states are so but here's the beauty of that of that program. It doesn't cost any money. Right shoe leather. It's people going out they're going to have say they have to go door.

It means something that as a city councillor I will personally lead the charge in District 3. I will go to everyone's homes and find out what's going on. OK so you're saying that you're adopting a police model but for yourself as a city councillor to be in touch with people. Absolutely. OK got you. All right Marty Hogan major minor minor would be just the I think that one of the things we have to do is get information out to people faster easier. I don't know if you've gone to the city website lately but to quote my mother who used it the other day to try to change some of her addresses it's a nightmare. It's hard to navigate. It's hard to dis you know discern information. Again I'm an I.T. professional. It's something that should be easy to do. Form should be there easy it should be an easy you know easy situation. The harder the major thing that I see is that we are spending a lot of money and we still are cutting services that do work we're cutting

budgets everywhere. I think that we could do a lot better by seeing what in the budget as Doug said earlier the major thing is the budget. We can see where we can cut some spending as I've said throughout this campaign one of the areas is transportation in the bus public schools. You know you see buses going up and down the streets empty every day whether going to school or coming back. We can save money save fuel and save the environment by the way by doing it smarter and doing less of it. So the budgets the big thing for me because without the budget having the ability to give to education crime any of the areas we can't fix anything. So you take take the limited resources and prioritize them caressed him right away. All right Craig. You know I think as we all know that this is definitely a constituent services job and I think that you know the little things that we can do are you know street cleaning make sure streets are plowed making sure that you know

trash is picked up and just actively being involved in those kinds of things and returning calls and making sure trees are tram then those kinds of things. One of the major things that I think that we need to work on is definitely comes to crime and crime prevention. We're plagued with crime in our neighborhood. And I think that it's an opportunity for us you know the Boston police have in my opinion have done a wonderful job fighting crime but we can't solve crime by responding to it we need to prevent it. And you know Captain SEC standin and Commissioner Davis have done a wonderful job when it comes to those things but we just need we really need to get down to brass tacks and start with early intervention instead of you know as a as the vice president of the Leahy hall or a community center instead of cutting services and closing community centers we should be expanding them. We live in it we live in a city that has the best universities colleges and hospitals. And we need to bring them to the table to be part of the solution. We do have one of those

as we speak today. We call it comes in to the Matterhorn community center and they staffed the community center. They offer the programming. So it's a win win that the college kids get exposure. And we keep the center open. But what I'm saying to you is that we need to find public private partnerships more like that to make sure that we have a safe place for our children to go and like I've said in the past every single time we cut a budget item we hurt our children and that's not something that I'm willing to do. I want to work hard to find out find different ways to do this and we need to call these universities. Maybe we need to email them maybe we need to call them. Maybe we need to knock on their door. The colleges in the universities in the nonprofits are there taking business is the taking buildings off of our prof of our rent rolls and our tax rolls and they need to they need to step up and give a little bit more back and I think that this is an easy win for us. OK Stephanie So we've heard better communication we've heard private

public partnerships and shoe leather. And for you. Minor and major. What I would like to say because I want to have this office for two and a half years and do it because Detroit Service says there is no minor issues to people. Every issue to a constituent is Major to them and you have to respect that. In that sense if I had a category something minor I would say probably cleaning up the streets as Craig just said and it could be as simple as there's a vacant lot and you want someone to come clean it out because kids are hanging around there or it's just a road and infested but to the person who is calling that's a major issue. So it's not something that I would treat as a minor issue. The other things from work in the science office that I've always gotten calls from when I was friends who received all the calls housing people either are losing their housing they want to stay in their housing or they need to go to a shelter need to know what they need to do to get there. I can offer that advice both personally from what I have gone through in professionally working in Sonia's office. The other thing is jobs. I

spoke to a woman a few weeks ago who said to me that she was a medical assistant but she wanted to transition to more of a nine to five desk job but she had no idea that she can go to different organizations in the community and get computer training for free. She didn't believe that she could just not going to do and say I live in a district I want to get the services but I think that's a bigger problem for us we do not let people in the city or the state know really what services are available to them. So again there is no major or minor. I think there's a lot of things that are going on that need to be addressed. And as a city council Your job is to make sure that they have access to them. The website is great. But I have seniors who do not have internet access I have low income people who do not have internet access so how do you engage them. How do you let them know that they need to access these resources to better their lives. So that will require you to be out in the community. It does require you to probably do a newsletter that's not an e-mail newsletter. It requires a lot more hands on approaching than just relying on technology that not everyone in the district has access to.

All right Jimmy from Dorchester Go ahead please you're on the callee Crossley Show WGBH. Hi good afternoon. A lot of mechanic talk about violence and I would say that the root of a lot of our problems in Dorchester is probably including violence and domestic violence and maybe even poverty is substance. We also have a large number of treatment facilities in Dorchester and I'd like to know what you think we can do to curb substance abuse and to support the facilities that are doing good work here. All right Marty how do you curb substance abuse and support the organizations that are doing good work. Well three ways that I see in curbing it are education. Returning jobs to the district so that people can have a pride in themselves and actually you know do a job get out there and not be confronted with the public nuisance with the the issue as much and the third thing is that we need to do edgy. We need

to. We need to make sure that the police are funded enough that they can combat this. I can speak to it right down the street from my house we had a a drug house and it took months upon months to even get any action on it. Now I understand the things happened that way and I think the police do a wonderful job. But I think that their hands are kind of time when it comes down to resources as many people know any time you call the police whether it's a minor or major in a Stephanie said in this issue. It's also nothing is minor everything is Major to everybody. You can wait a very long time to get a response. So I think that we need to support our police more make sure that we have enough personnel out there and that we're watching those those areas and we need to rely on the community with education and with you know again having jobs out there is going to make the community better. I agree there's a lot of things that you can do. One is that I think we need to talk about substance abuse of

our youth at a younger age starting to talk to them in elementary school maybe a little bit late starting to talk to them early on in elementary to educate them on that and their parents who just the signs that they can start to pay attention to. One of the bigger ones we can do is work with our state counterparts on the budget every year. The substance abuse advocates come storm the state house because they want to make sure that their programs are not cut. They know that they themselves were once on the air. I think they always call themselves recovering addicts and they want to make sure the programs are in place so that they don't relapse. And we need to work with our state counterparts to make sure that there is money in the budget that they still have these programs when it is still a part really for the state and you know one of my pet peeves is the many liquor stores we have around. I'm not completely sure how you would work on this and trying to figure out but it bothers me if I can go to a gas station on a registry at 9:00 a.m. and then the liquor store is open and people are walking out with liquor. And it's. It's

sad because we have a responsibility and I know that a lot of these owners do not like a star on us may not live in the district they may not even live in Boston. Their top and bottom line is making the money but for the community they have to deal with it. I top and bottom line should be making sure that people are safe and they're healthy and that we give them the support they need. So I'm looking at how to deal with it. Look if that was the right thing that we really need to address it. I mean substance abuse is a serious problem in the district. And you know I was campus in the Cedar Grove area and I was walking down a hilltop and at the intersection of hilltop and house I found a used hypodermic needle. A couple days later. I was up by the South Monroe terrace pope's Hill. The ponces intersection. And again I said I found another hypodermic needle right at 68 crewed street. It's a known drug house.

Hey you got. And the neighbors are scared right now. So what we need to do is we need to make sure that. These programs have the money right to deter kids from using drugs. We also need to make sure that we're creating jobs right so that people aren't desperate. I think that we also need to make sure that we have enough programs out there for the youth so that we give them something to do so they're not doing drugs. So this is a very serious problem. And I will address it as your city councilor multifaceted approach you're saying Craig. Yeah yeah. I have familiarity with this and I think that it's real I think that I would fall behind Representative Marty Walsh who has been a leading leading advocate in Massachusetts for. For for this and you know we're fortunate that we have programs in the city run by you know Peter Bhutto and Willie Austin

guy and Bryony and people of the Gavin house and we're lucky enough to have halfway homes for our are afflicted but what's what's what's the most important thing is we need more beds. We need more beds and we need more beds for recovery for recovery. It's the only way that this problem can be solved. Recently I have I've worked with some people that you know have have some some sort of health insurance and they had they were afflicted with drug addiction and we finally get them into a place where they can be you know what they call a dry out and it's a 40 to this 78 to 42 I'm sorry to say 48 to 72 hour drive. Well you can't get in a halfway house unless you go from the from from the from the recovery to the dry out. They won't take they won't take you the insurance won't send it to the dry out. So they'll send you for the three days but they won't put you in a holding cell hold in a holding facility until they can find you a bed. So what they do is they send you to the street for 72 hours and they send you to the street. You're on heroin you're on

opiates you're addicted to alcohol you've had 72 hours of education and finally getting that out of a system. And they send you to the streets not working. The insurance companies are actually opening the door. They might have. Just open the door and throw the money out the window because they're paying for the time that they give you to for that for the recovery. But they're not paying for the time to put you in in a holding facility until they can get you a bed in a home with a halfway house where you can be every day working towards the goal of sobriety. And I just I got to tell you we need to we need to work harder at this and this is a real issue for people that live in this district and it's not going to go away by putting it under the rug. I mean this is definitely something that we need to tackle that we need to stand with and we need to tell anybody that to listen we need more beds. We need more beds and we need no beds and we need to have a real conversation with these insurance companies to say to them what you're doing is not working. Your solution to this

problem is not working. You are half fixing it making it worse with seconds to go I have to note that this is a very young table. Thirty two to thirty five is one forty one. It's a whole oh my birthday is coming up at the end of the month so I'll be 42. All right OK I'm going to say get the new generation of folk 20 I'd be representing Dorchester potentially. Can you is there some difference in your generational outlook. Just and I mean this seconds to go just quickly what do you think. Well I'll say as a business owner and as a as a homeowner and as a father of Boston public school students I keep my feet on the ground and the guy who's worked in the streets here I really get it. Over the last 40 41 42 years of my life I get an understanding as to what's going on here and I know that I can bring that hard working approach and resourcefulness to the city council. And on September 27 I Craig Allen asked for your vote. Kelly thank you very much. I mean I'm 35 years old single father.

I work hard for the people. So but it will make a difference that it will make it different OK. Yes I mean send me I'm Doug Bennett. I am going to just tell you about this generational thing Stephanie. I do think there is a different generation that think people are engaged and they were engaged before and so their eyes are open especially after Obama so people have really opened the door to saying that this could be me and that comment out. OK Marty. Yeah I think that more people involved I think that we need to encourage it though. That's the whole thing encourage younger people to be involved. All right thank you very much we've been talking with the candidates running for city council representing District 3 the PRI preliminary election is September the twenty seventh. I've been joined by Doug Bennett Stephanie Everett Craig Galvin and Marty Hogan. Next week we meet the other candidates. John O'Toole Frank Baker and Mary get to it. Today shell was engineered by Allen Madison Chelsea Mertz produced it along with Will Rose lip and Abbey was the where production of WGBH radio. Boston's NPR station for news and culture.