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O'Malley could face challenger in JP, West Roxbury next year

By adamg on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 11:20am
Kendra Hicks

Kendra Hicks, currently director of radical philanthropy at Resist, and a former Boston street worker, says she is running for the District 6 City Council seat now held by Matt O'Malley.

Whether it be organizing against a highway, fending off the construction of a Kmart, or calling for the city to prioritize Youth First in Jackson Square, the story of District 6 is the story of ordinary people coming together to make their neighborhoods better for everyone. Kendra Hicks is a part of that story.

The district includes Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury and a small strip of Roslindale. O'Malley was first elected to the seat in 2010.

Neighborhoods: 
Jamaica Plain
West Roxbury
Topics: 
Politics
Free tagging: 
2021 elections
City Council


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Comments

By Kenneth Johnson on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 11:38am.

Love x3 Kendra, very excited in seeing her on this elevated platform.

By Anon.Y.Mouse on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 11:45am.

What is a 'street worker'??

By Citygirl on Thu, 09/03/2020 - 11:14am.

Street workers, not to be confused with sex workers, are people who walk around the community and talk to and mentor at risk youths. They walk up to drug dealers, prostitutes, etc and talk with them about why they do what they so, how they can make better choices and give resources available to change their lives. They are the people on the ground who try to curb violence and gang involvement through mentorship and just good old listening. Not everything is a joke....

By Anon on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 12:28pm.

What did she recommend would replace the highway and Kmart projects and why? This report is incomplete. Being against something is easy.

By adamg on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 10:26pm.

I hadn't heard about the KMart, but I suspect she wasn't even here for the highway fight (which happened when Tom Menino was a young man). She was giving them as examples of JP's fighting spirit.

By Observer on Thu, 09/03/2020 - 10:29am.

Background

By Jay Pee on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 12:58pm.

When my neighbors and I have run into issues with the city, O'Malley has been nowhere to be found. The at-large councilors, especially Michael "Five Car" Flaherty, stepped up to fill his boots. I'd vote for Althea Garrison before voting O'Malley.

By anon on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 2:54pm.

It's hard to imagine someone with her current title is going to be a Frank Baker.

The council as a whole needs to get back to serving it neighborhoods and resolving daily issues for constituents. 99% of their time is currently spent grandstanding.

By anon on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 11:10pm.

What sort of problems did you have with the city? I'm curious if maybe Councilor O'Malley was doing the majority of his constituents will by leaving you be.

By Anon on Thu, 09/03/2020 - 12:26pm.

The only thing I can think of that he has done in his tenure is put sunscreen dispensers up at Millennium Park (and they are gone now). He is an idiot. Time to move on Matt, brush up that resume for your next hack job. He does NOTHING for his constituents! What a loser! West Roxbury will be glad to see him go - don't let the door hit you in the *ss on your way out!

By Residente on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 1:36pm.

It's about time. O'Malley has also been bad when it comes to issues of racial justice. He voted to support the Mayor's budget which only called for a 3% cut to police overtime pay instead of 10% of the total budget that the other councilors were asking for. I also haven't heard him publicly state whether he supports suspending the exam school exam this year as the NAACP and others have called for. I think he voted to suspend the test, but he should be more vocal about it and speak up at school committee hearings.

By Anon on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 2:55pm.

Without studying his whole record, I don't think these two items are proof of a lack of commitment to racial justice. There were some passionate feelings about the mayor's budget, and it was hard to come out in favor of the budget, but I remember that there were reasonable arguments to vote for the mayor's budget even with a strong commitment to racial justice.

He voted to support the Mayor's budget which only called for a 3% cut to police overtime pay instead of 10% of the total budget that the other councilors were asking for.

By tmrozzie on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 3:05pm.

There is 0% chance Matt will ever vote for anything that takes away the privileges of his voters, and that means he's unmovable on BPD budgets and BPS exam schools.

By anon on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 3:30pm.

Of electing a representative?

By markk on Thu, 09/03/2020 - 3:13am.

He also endorsed Greg Henning for Suffolk DA.

And JK3 but that wasn't a racial justice issue.

By JohnAKeith on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 1:38pm.

Who announces a run for city council 14 months prior to the election?

By bulgingbuick on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 1:47pm.

It's never too early to build signs. If a certain candidate consulted with Plywood Doug last year, Murph would be eating lunch in Naples right now instead of sleeping at the Brooke.

By erik g on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 2:59pm.

if you paint enough plywood signs, then when you lose by 80 points, you can fashion them into a crude shelter. Win-win!

By tmrozzie on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 3:04pm.

If we only expect candidates who can start a race with $50,000 that really limits who can legitimately run.

O'Malley has $160k sitting around after being unchallenged last cycle.

By dpalomares on Thu, 09/03/2020 - 12:07am.

I think she announced September in '14, and started door-knocking early in '15, correct me if I'm wrong. I remember this because years ago Yancy only started campaigning in the summertime, just before the election and Campbell had campaigned for over six months.

EDIT: Grammer

By Mont on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 2:56pm.

Matt doesn’t stand for anything. He goes and scores “yay progressive” points on things that don’t impact anyone’s lives. He’ll talk and talk to constituents. But even when he knows what’s right he won’t stand up.

By bulgingbuick on Thu, 09/03/2020 - 8:21am.

Expert at political hide and seek and now, dammit, he's been found.

By Lee on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 3:36pm.

I look forward to hearing more about her.

By bulgingbuick on Thu, 09/03/2020 - 4:16pm.

Conservative West Roxbury gets its vote out and cannot be looked upon as the progressive bastion the JP part of the district represents. It's a pure bellybutton contest.

By anon on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 4:53pm.

What's a street worker?

By adamg on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 10:31pm.

Somebody who works on, well, the street, to try to keep things from boiling over, by working with young people in general and gang members in particular. BCYF is better known for its community centers, but it has a street worker program, for example.

By eeka on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 5:19pm.

I've been very impressed with her work.

By Freelance copy editor on Wed, 09/02/2020 - 10:42pm.

Hey Universal Hub, thanks for all your very up to date local coverage. Would you consider changing StreetWorker to be capitalized and written as one word, maybe adding BCYF before it to clarify for readers that it is one of the city's youth programs? It is not clear as written what a (lowercase) street worker is to folks who are not up on names of Boston's youth programming.

By Optimistic on Thu, 09/03/2020 - 7:39pm.

Yeah. I’ll be that person but I’m just curious about her educational background. English High, exam school, college, major, focus? This will help folks understand where her other strengths lie. Her youth activism, art background and non-profit leadership is all mentioned and extremely interesting. I’d just like to hear more about her educational background. Being a City Councilor requires knowledge in economics and accounting, zoning, public health, local law, education, public and municipal services etc. These are items one can learn through academia either in a cursory fashion or intensely.