Boston’s acting Mayor Kim Janey Monday said she’s using her final eight days in office to extend free ridership on the 28 bus, which runs from Mattapan Square to Roxbury’s Ruggles Station, through the end of the year.
“I know this is a priority for Mayor-elect [Michelle] Wu, so I’m hoping that she will be able to build upon this work,” Janey said in an interview on GBH News’ Boston Public Radio, adding that “yes: we’re right now in communication with the MBTA, making sure that we’re getting the negotiations completed so that we can extend through the end of the year.”
The Roxbury native, who first became a teen mom and, decades later, City Council President, saw her political prospects rise dramatically with the resignation of Mayor Marty Walsh in March. She reflected on her management of the pandemic, her accomplishments and regrets, the high-profile enforcement at Mass. and Cass over the past week and whether she might have a future in the Wu administration.
On the state of COVID-19 in Boston:
“I am not a scientist, and I’m not a future-teller, but we’ve done great work over the last eight months getting folks vaccinated,” Janey said, touting the city’s vaccine compliance as one of the primary achievements of her tenure. Nearly three-quarters of Bostonians have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 shot, she said, and the city has plans in place to vaccinate newly eligible 5- to 11-year-olds.
“I can’t predict whether or not there’ll be more variants that come, but we know that our best protection is the vaccine. It’s the best way to protect ourselves, and those that we love,” she continued. “Boston is one of the most vaccinated big cities in the country, so I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to do on that front.”
On Friday, Janey announced a series of vaccine clinics throughout the city for children and anyone else looking to get their COVID shot. Bostonians will be available to visit the clinics in Mattapan, Dorchester, Hyde Park and Roslindale starting this week.
For information on where you can schedule a vaccine appointment, try Gov. Charlie Baker’s COVID-19 online vaccine finder tool. A map of vaccine locations in Boston can also be found here.
On what she’s most proud of from her time in office:
Janey said she’s most satisfied with her work leading the city on COVID, “providing stability and comfort at a time where [nobody] knew what was going to happen.”
“That’s the one thing,” she said. The second, she added, would be “moving us forward in terms of our racial equity work and making sure that we were tackling homeownership.”
In June, Janey quadrupled down payment assistance from $10,000 to $40,000 for first-time homeowners in Boston.
On the regrets from her tenure:
“I would’ve liked to have had a successful campaign,” the acting mayor quipped.
“Related to the vaccine, I think how I expressed my concerns around equity and what it would mean to ask people to prove their vaccination just to do basic things like going to the grocery store — I think I could’ve expressed that in a different way,” Janey said, recalling when she came under fire over the summer after comparing proof of vaccination cards to carrying slave documents.
“I think the way I did express it, the equity argument got lost,” she admitted.
On the situation at Mass. and Cass:
“We’ve taken a lot of steps to make sure that we were approaching this with a public-health lens,” Janey said. “Making sure that we weren’t allowing folks to continue to talk about tents and encampments, when the real issue [is] people.
“In the one week since we’ve implemented our protocol, we’ve helped close to 70 people find housing and treatment. The vast majority of those 70 people — or 66 people, to be exact — have found their way into either permanent housing or shelters or treatment, residential treatment.”
Janey was asked to comment on a recent lawsuit filed against Boston by the Massachusetts ACLU. The suit alleges Janey unlawfully authorized the removal of city residents from encampments at Mass. and Cass, the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in the South End. Many unhoused people have been living in tents in the area; Janey issued an executive order in mid-October that targets the “placement and maintenance” of encampments across the city.
“I am not going to comment on specifics of the lawsuit or any litigation, but I would say, in terms of the steps that we’ve taken and the work that we are doing, it is very much using a public-health approach, treating people with dignity and respect,” she said.
“No one is being asked to leave without adequate housing options for them,” Janey added, saying that legal enforcement comes “as a last resort.”
“All of these other touches would’ve happened, and in the week that we’ve been operating, no one has been arrested due to our encampment protocol,” she said. “ Arrests that’ve happened have been due to warrants that existed — drug trafficking, human trafficking, things of that sort.”
On what she’s hoping to do after passing the baton to Mayor-elect Michelle Wu:
“I’m gonna get some rest,” Janey said. “I’m gonna travel, I’m gonna get some rest.”
The acting mayor did also say she’s open to serving as a “resource” to the Wu administration, but added that she’s most focused on taking time to “rest and reflect and write.”
On that note, readers be aware: Janey said there is “definitely” a book about her administration in the works.
