Mayor Michelle Wu would have us believe that she’s a heroic blue city mayor who battles greedy downtown business interests to spare homeowners a massive tax increase.
As Wu pushes her controversial proposal to shove more of Boston’s tax burden onto half-empty office buildings, that’s the tale she’s spinning.
Enter the neighborhood community leaders and activists who make up the District 7 Advisory Council, who have just issued a stunning rebuke to Wu’s proposal.
Named
after the City Council district that covers Roxbury, Dorchester, the
South End and the Fenway, the council’s 33 members include Rodney
Singleton of Highland Park NC, Dorothea M. Jones, Urban League Guild of
Eastern MA. Bill Singleton, United Neighbors of Lower Roxbury, Louis
Elisa, Franklin Park Coalition, Angela Williams-Mitchell of the Boston
Jobs Project, and former state Seator. Dianne Wilkerson.
Last
week, the District 7 Advisory Council sent a letter to Wu detailing
serious concerns with her proposal and its potential impact on
neighborhood businesses.
Decades
after the devastation wrought by urban renewal, efforts are ongoing to
rebuild the commercial and small business infrastructure in Roxbury,
Dorchester, and other neighborhoods.
“District
7’s small business ecosystem is fragile. Longstanding businesses are
fighting to survive. New ones are struggling to take root,” the letter
notes.
By raising
commercial tax rates, Wu’s plan poses a serious threat to “small,
culturally significant businesses like Nubian Markets and Frugal
Bookstore,” the advisory council notes.
“Shifting
additional tax burden onto commercial payers during a period of steep
valuation, risks further vacancies, stalled investment, and renewed loss
in neighborhoods already harmed by prior eras of redevelopment,” the
letter warns.
Instead,
the advisory council says it favors an alternative, more targeted
proposal by state Senators Nick Collins and William Brownsberger.
Instead
of raising commercial rates, the senators’ proposal would use the
city’s reserve funds to prevent big tax hikes on “seniors, MassHealth
recipients, unemployed residents, and owner-occupants receiving the
residential exemption,” the D7 council notes.
While
the D7 advisory council urges Wu to negotiate with the two senators,
that seems unlikely given the mayor’s all-out push for her plan.
That includes apparently recruiting a candidate to run against Collins in the Democratic primary.
Scott van Voorhis is a longtime Boston reporter specializing in real estate and is the publisher of Contrarian Boston.