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Before she takes office as a city councilor, Althea Garrison has one last election
By adamg on Wed, 09/05/2018 - 12:35pm
Poster in Dudley Square this morning.
Perennial candidate Althea Garrison, who has run pretty much every year since the 1960s for city council, state representative or state senator - all but once without success - will finally get back into office after Ayanna Pressley goes to Washington on Jan. 1.
But first, she's still running for state representative in the 5th Suffolk (Roxbury, Dorchester) state representative's race, as an independent against Liz Miranda, who won yesterday's Democratic primary.
Garrison, 78, will become an at-large city councilor because she came in fifth in the 2017 elections. The city charter specifies that whoever comes in fifth will become a city councilor should one of the four incumbents leave office. Garrison will serve to at least the end of Pressley's two-year term, which ends on Dec. 31, 2019. That's how Steve Murphy first got onto the council in 1997.
Garrison was elected as a Republican to the state House in 1993 after years of running for various offices, by knocking incumbent Nelson Merced off the ballot through a successful challenge to his nomination signatures. She lost her re-election bid after the Herald outed her as a trans person.
Over the years, Garrison has run annually - along with former state Rep. Roy Owens - sometimes as a Republican, sometimes as a Democrat, and sometimes, as this year, as an independent. Earlier this year, she lost a bid as a Democrat for the state senate seat that Linda Dorcena Forrey vacated.
Garrison will bring a conservative viewpoint to the council - she has opposed both abortion rights and same-sex marriage. But on more locally specific issues, during a council debate last year, she called for a moratorium on conversion of small apartment buildings to condos and a return to rent control. And she said local colleges either need to do more to help educate Boston kids or start paying taxes.
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Comments
She barely ages
Seriously?
I don't know who this person in your gif is and I don't get the supposed joke, but I do know that posting a picture of a male-presenting person and suggesting it is someone who is a transgender woman is transphobic. I'm no fan of Althea Garrison, but I'm even less of a fan of transphobia. Please just don't.
I fixed it
Are you happy now?
insecure boys with tiny....
Back in my 'hanging out at MIT' days, my besties and I would got to Paradise for cocktails and hunks! We have many trans friends and found them just as delightful and fun and up for PI DRiNKY TIME! as anyone else. In fact, the only thing funny about them was the rage that they incited in insecure straight boys who would never have a chance with someone with the beauty and deep, deep intellect that I have.
#metoo
#ALTHEATOO
#notinyboys
And anyone who needs to prove a point...
by putting down a certain demographic (whether past or modern-day) through inferred insults isn't any better than the folks they're talking about. No "hashtag" needed.
Green sign boy
Should try to get a job on her staff.
Out of date technology and software at Boston City Council.
As a Staffer at Boston City Council update the technology and software used for Council Public Meetings. Current technology and software is out of date for optimizing greater civic engagement.
sigh
"she called for a moratorium on conversion of small apartment buildings to condos and a return to rent control"
Just what we need. Her and Lydia "I've never met a project I didn't oppose" Edwards will get along well. I hope everyone is ready for even higher rental prices.
If housing is a necessity
then pricing of housing shouldn't be entirely left to the free market.
Especially in an era where most people consider maximizing profit as their only motivating factor to be in business in the first place.
era
Lets be real here: People have been considering maximizing profit for the entire history of development. See below:
It's been tried
And government control of housing, from Soviet-style complete control of housing by the government, to Western-style public housing (not just in the U.S., but also council estates, logement social, etc.), to rent control/stabilization, and it doesn't work well.
Apart from affordability, does anyone really aspire to live in BHA housing? BHA's operating budget is in the neighborhood of $1,000 per unit, per month (this excludes Section 8 vouchers) and that doesn't provide a great product.
When the government meddles in housing, the well-connected tend to get special deals which the general public can't; i.e. Charlie Rangel's 4 rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem or the mayor of Cambridge's rent-controlled apartment (prior to the statewide repeal). And the typical result of rent control is a large number of units more or less permanently off the market; who in their right mind would voluntarily give up rents well below market value?
Our current system of affordable set-asides isn't much better given that the lottery winners pretty much stay in those units forever and the implicit subsidy drives up the cost of producing new housing units.
Because
the mass influx of boxstrosities™ and gut renovations of 3-families into fauxury condos is doing so much for affordability.
boxstrosities
And what's your solution? Not building anything? Yea, that'll help housing prices alright.
People love to tout triple-decker row houses as some idealized form of development where developers built the prettiest things imaginable because they used to all be good people, even though they were built for the same reasons as boxstrosities are built today: because they were cheap and easy to mass produce at a time with housing shortages.
Here's from the New England Historical Society:
Selective interpretation
Where did I say to build more triple deckers? I didn't. I said to stop gutting them and passing them off as "luxury" (they're not) condos. And in the context of your original argument, doing the above does not help keep prices down.
Also in the context of your original argument, say what you want about history, etc., but the fact is these massive buildings (and I'll even throw you a bone on industrial renovations) are also not keeping prices down in 2018.
I can tell you for a fact that both of these are driving up rents, through both property taxes and constraining the supply of places you don't have to sell a kidney to afford.
You Can?
I would be interested in reading those papers - can you give links?
Why do
suburbanites love to argue with city residents that this isn't happening? Like, how the hell do you not realize taking your average 3 family and converting to $600,000+ per floor condos is going to increase demand for existing "reasonably priced" stock? Or that all of this development is inflating surrounding property "value" and taxes by simply existing?
My proof is that I live it daily. So do my friends and neighbors.
Suburbanites
There is a wall around Boston and these problems are unique?
Sorry to break this to you: EVERYWHERE in the area is having affordability problems. And gentrification problems. If you can't see that, you need to do even more homework than you have already avoided.
who said it isn't happening?
You said you knew for a fact, but you didn't present any facts.
Everyplace around your area has these same problems. Somerville. Everett. Chelsea. Malden. Medford, These cities are being hit with the same bomb. People in those cities live this everyday just like you do.
Why do NIMBYs all pretend that their problems are unique, isolated and special?
Well, this went south fast
Swirly came off as questioning the truth of what I said. My proof is rent increases, conversations amongst the neighborhood, etc. Replying to a statement like that and asking for documentation...what point are you trying to make?
Every place you mentioned above is also a city, not to get caught up in a separate debate over what constitutes "the 'burbs."
And as much as we all love to go off on tangents, let's get back to the original statement here:
Building fauxury condos and/or converting existing stock to such does nothing to help affordability as the original commenter was claiming. It has the opposite effect. Period,
Put up or shut up
Let's get back to the real problem here:
You present zero evidence for your claims.
You were asked to present evidence and responded by complaining about suburbs suffering the same issues.
You are still avoiding presenting evidence.
You are sitting behind an entire theater full of strawmen just so you don't have to present evidence.
You made a strong statement. You got called on it. Repeating it does not support it. Asserting it as unquestionable makes you sound like Trump. Providing information supports it.
Edit
Decided to stop feeding the trolls.
If you need someone on the internet to prove to you that "luxury" housing doesn't keep prices low, you should probably be the one doing the research.
I lied
He ya go, chief.
She Persisted
Can we be honest?
Althea is a complete goofball, bordering on illiterate, and stands for nothing except getting elected , which she did once, by accident. She is a complete joke.
And even though she is a transgender female, she is no friend to the LGBTQ community. She is still not out as a transgender woman even though everyone knows. And she had always been against same sex marriage.
She is a bit odd
No doubt about it
Don't you dare!
Don't you dare criticising anyone for not coming out. It's none of your damn business to dictate when or how someone should come out, including whether they ever want to. Coming out is a privilege for mostly upper-class white people, and is an impossible dream for working class people, or those of color.
Coming out is tough on anybody, regardless of who s/he is,
who they are, or what they look like. To say that coming out is a privilege for anybody is ridiculous, especially because hostility towards such differences, or differences generally is so rampant in our society, generally.
Althea can run but she can't hide.
As a gay man, I agree that the decision to come out and to what extent is very personal and each person has to decide for themselves how to handle it. However you are completely wrong to say coming out is just for white people or rich people. That's absurd and you have no facts or data to back up your ridiculous claim.There are plenty of working class and people of color who are out, and plenty that are not.
Althea is a public figure taking public stances and soon to be voting on issues that affect everyone in her constituency. Everyone knows she is transgender but she has to date refused to talk about it. She is a conservative anti gay politician with the potential to harm.fw She needs to explain her hypocrisy and we the voters and constituents need to demand answers and criticize her. .
She is a hypocrite and apparently a self loathing hypocrite.
I mean
The above commenter is right, that being able to be out is something much more available to people with more privilege. Your "but but there are some POC who are out" comment doesn't remotely refute this fact.
But yes, I agree that we can and should criticize one specific individual for refusing to acknowledge she is trans, when it's a case in which said trans woman is actively homophobic and transphobic (and also a case in which it's already widely known that she's trans). It was wrong for someone to out her without her permission in the first place, but now 20-whatever years later, she actually isn't in a position where she's suddenly going to lose friends, family, employment, housing, etc. by coming out, seeing as how she's a public figure and surely they already know and have already been acting toward her with transphobic bias if that's their tendency. Also, did I mention that she's rampantly homophobic and transphobic? Pardon me if I don't give a fuck about protecting her feelings.
Term of Office? Date to begin?
a) How long is the remainder of the Term for At-Large City Councilor? b) When would the new City Councilor begin?
How long?
Councillors are elected to two-year terms, so I would think that Ayanna Pressley's current term would expire at the end of 2019. It's likely that she will resign near the end of 2018 and Garrison will take over and serve until being voted out in 2019.
Great job voters
You asked for it you got it.
It gets to collect 100k for a salary next year.
Congrats Althea. You finally did it.
Going to start calling you "it"
Sorry if she doesn't conform to your genitalia policing or gender rigidity. That isn't her problem it is yours.
If trans people bother you, see a shrink about your fundamental inability to mind your own goddamn business when it comes to the private parts of others.
As for "finally", well, she was a state rep for a term in the 1990s.
He never referred to Althea as “it”
He referred to the job using the pronoun “it.”
Which pronoun do you use to refer to a job?
If the fact that you can’t handle English only using gender to refer to people or animals, move to a place where the predominant language uses gender to refer to all nouns.
EDIT- right after I posted this, I did notice the second use of “it”. Since I can’t delete the whole thing, I’ll keep my error up.
Oh the hell he did!
Second sentence, at the start, hon.
Can't even Douchehat that one away, can you?
EDIT: noble of you to notice "it". Thank you.
We were both too quick
Sadly, I was too quick to read in the first place.
I don't care
What sexual preference you identify with.
I do care when somebody wears wingtip shoes and a dress.
What a relief
that no one gives the faintest hint of a damn what you think, you retrograde transphobic asshole.
Please explain
What the fuck such clothing choices have to do with you? Other than scare you or hurt your precious fragile snowflake man feels?
How, exactly, does it have any impact on anything other than the person wearing them? Why is that in any way your business?
Amazing how some people get older and never seem to grow up. Makes me wonder if it is maturity that you lack or if you are just some pervert obsessed with other people's genitals.
Seems the apple falls below the tree
See what teaching hate to your children causes?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/06/30/city-worker-was-put-leave-a...
Nice revisionist history, Adam
She lost re-election because she was a Republican. I don’t recall the Herald’s expose (ie Howie Carr’s column) having much traction away from Wingo Square. She got in on a fluke and lost by her successor making sure the fluke wasn’t repeated.
Don't blame me
I voted for the clown.
Althea Hypocrite Garrison?
Lucky enough to live at a time when a person's internal grasp of their gender can balance out the mistake nature made in giving them the opposite gender's body, yet opposes same sex marriage? The "I got mine, screw you" attitude that happily lives in Libertarian political-economic philosophy.
She has a mind that earned various educational honors, enjoyed a privilege rarely enjoyed in the past by any person who did not have the physical body that matches their mind's grasp of their gender, yet is homophobic. God has a special place for her when her time comes.
She should apply to work for the Koches. She has as much honor as they do.
Yes
Im perplexed by her stance on these two issues. But then again, many people often vote against themselves when it comes to politics.
She has a real opportunity to make a difference and be a role model, especially has a trans person. I wonder if she will rise to the occasion. Maybe.
I doubt she will rise to the occasion Cybah
Althea appears to be a self loathing trans person. Sad. As a gay man , and due to her anti-gay stances, I regard her as a political enemy not an ally.
New Member of Boston City Council.
The new Member of Boston City Council https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althea_Garrison
"Althea Garrison for State Representative 2006" http://votealthea.tripod.com/id2.html
and http://votealthea.tripod.com/id4.html
When will Redistricting begin?
When will Redistricting begin?
Map clearly indicating Names of Boundary Streets between adjacent Districts isn't online for folks nearby Boundary Streets of neighboring Districts, for visualizing Redistricting with less ambiguity. Current maps omit Names of Boundary Streets or obscure Names of Boundary Streets with too many Names.
After the next census
And that is for federal, state, and city offices.