Did either candidate express alignment or lack thereof with specific politicians?

Yeah, so there was actually a very big debate where Julianna Stratton, the Democratic candidate, kept trying to liken Don Tracy to Donald Trump, but that was something that he kept rejecting.

But yeah, we found that much of the policies that he was supporting were almost the exact same as Donald Trump.

He criticized Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, but he said that it didn't go according to plan because of sanctuary cities and because cities weren't cooperating with immigration authorities, but he didn't criticize saying that ICE was inherently wrong or ICE was doing something wrong.

What did you all find were the biggest takeaways from the forum?

I think it all boiled down really to affordability at the end of the day and Canada's different take on affordability.

I think they recognize that that's an issue that a lot of Americans are really dealing with.

Stratton's policies for increasing the minimum wage and tax cuts for the middle class and tax increases for the wealthy.

What are you doing differently? You know, November 3rd, 2026.

There was a whole technology upgrade where for the first time last election cycle, our poll workers used what are called poll pads, basically tablets where everyone gets checked in live.

And that way you can monitor the level of ballots, the number of ballots that have been given out in each precinct and also cross-reference it to the voter database in real time and be assured that all the Supplies are where they should be.

The tricky part about this November, just in general for voters, is that there are so many ballot questions that it is a nine page ballot.

Three pieces of paper, five sides of a ballot.

But just want to remind people to go all the way through the ballot, all five sides of the three pages.

I'll just take my money elsewhere.

I think odds are I don't have to talk to that developer in a generic way because if you have a project that's already been approved in Boston, we've already been talking to you.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming here and sharing your concerns.

I think the issues that you mentioned, safety, schools, quality of life, is what we are pushing on every day and what we are seeing important progress on.

The...

Challenges of homelessness and the opioid epidemic and mental health are not solved by any means.

But I will just share kind of we follow the data overall to have a picture of what happens year to year.

Boston safety statistics continue to be on a decline overall.

One, how do you respond to the Globe's criticism? And two, even if you find it or even if it's a point of view with which you are obviously in disagreement with, Why shouldn't people who are critical of schools be able to buy an ad space and voice their point of view?

Do you have rules or an approach at home specifically?

We try-- [chuckles] So this is a big point of contention because apparently every other child in the whole world has a phone and, and access to technology, uh, according to them.

But we, we try very much to also preserve room for reading, so we try to have a no screens policy.

More and more of the assignments do involve doing your math homework on the computer or following up with a certain set of, um, programs that allow for individualized study at a pace that better matches your student.

And so we're seeing many of our schools now using programs like that, which allow for different, um, needs to be addressed in the classroom.

Um, even the assignments are posted on Google Classroom, and, and so we have to access it that way.

So we have one shared computer out in a common space at home.

So how do you then get some things done? Let's say th- the next two years, with the reality of the situation at hand, what is your strategy to get things that you need passed by the Massachusetts legislature passed?

In the two races where your challengers lost to incumbents, Brownsburger and Collins, do you – While you say you don't regret having urged them to run, do you worry that their opposition to things that you care about for the city, which is, I assume, why you urge people to challenge them, is going to get more intense and be more difficult for you to move things on Beacon Hill? Because you've had a fairly tough go on a lot of issues there.

Well, I want to clarify one tiny point and then a bigger point.

And the tiny thing is I did not ask either of these candidates to run.

Every campaign is a really personal, really intense journey.

And you have to really feel it, want it, believe in it to be a credible candidate.

And Latoya Gale and Daniel Lander, I know we haven't seen the last of the two of them because they were amazing candidates.

both of whom I was proud to endorse but endorsed much later into their campaigns and was not part of a massive sort of do someone's bidding or anything like that.

Can you add more electric for next summer?

In retrospect, do you have any regrets about how you handled, uh, these kinds of issues in the wake of, uh, the death of this, again, this woman who you knew?

I take every detail of our city very seriously, and I see it as the job of any leader within an organization to be able to understand at a thirty-thousand-foot view and also at the ground level how decisions are being made and where resources are being allocated.

And so, um, we are still in the midst of rebuilding and, um, getting our streets and, um, roadway operations to a point where it's not only responsive but also sustainable and, um, able to be carried out in the long run.

There were-- There, there have been, um, you know, over the history of Boston's fifteen years of working on multimodal streets, there have been different reports written and internal audits done over many years.

In the last several weeks, I've gone through and read probably four hundred pages of, of all of them.

And any one of those snapshots from twenty twenty-two, from, um, twenty seventeen, you could have applied it to-- if you didn't see what the date was, you could have thought easily that it was being written about right now based on what some of the headlines and the concerns have been, that, um, historically there has always been a push and pull in every transportation and streets department about when are you maintaining and, and managing the operations of repaving, um, making sure you're, you're, um, keeping s-- uh, crosswalks and sidewalks built up and, and smooth and, and safe, and when are you doing new things and using your dollars and capital investments to add a pedestrian bump out or to add a new bike lane that is protected with, um, either posts or concrete or, or some other barriers.

We haven't gotten that balance right all the time in the city, and it's always been a push and pull over the last fifteen years.

So I just wanted to get an understanding of where you stand on the budget cuts that are gonna be made for this year.

Is that true?

Okay.

So I have read that entire Lincoln Land Institute report.

I didn't, I didn't get to read the one that just came out this year, but I went through it extensively last year and the year before as we were going through the tax legislation conversation.

And there's a-- The key sleight of hand that they're doing, first of all, this organization's goal is to advance, um, corporate, uh, uh, in, in this case, trying to reduce, um, property taxes for commercial interests rather than homeowner occupied, uh, residential interests.

And I do not begrudge them that.

That is what a lobbying organization is supposed to do, is to make their best case that they possibly can.

[clears throat]

I asked Wu if the pushback has changed her mind about the bus lanes.

I remain fully supportive of trying to make sure we're improving public transit access and traffic flow and beautification on that corridor.

Those are multiple goals that this project was always intended to deliver.

Now, the grant funding that has been allocated, it's funding that's in hand, over $150 million between state and federal funds that is tied to public transit improvements with a center running bus lane as the way to ensure that there's significant improvement in experience for public transit riders.

The design, though, matters.

In the last version of the public design for this project, the way the bus stops were initially placed would nearly double the number of stoplights on that corridor, and so that design, for example, I could not support, and we should not pursue federal funding if it is left at where it is.

But that-- the, the way the process always happens is you start what you-- you put something on paper, and then you refine and refine and re-refine as it gets through the process.

Would you tell Blue Hill Ave residents that that's a serious, plausible option?

Um, I wanted some clarification about some of this new budgetary cuts that are mostly impacting the local arts community, and I wanted clarification on why this should be justified for a police budget where the police have been falling short on this new initiative for delivery drivers across the city.

Okay.

Um, thank you, Curtis, for calling in, and, um, thanks for raising a bunch of different issues, some of which I think are very much related and some of which are maybe less related.

I would push back on, on, um, them being directly causal or connected.

But, um, let me start with arts and the budget.

So, um, you know, we are in a different time now than the country and the city were in, let's say, uh, pre-COVID, uh, you know, seven, eight years ago, when interest rates were near zero, when it was incredibly, um, basically cheap to get money to be able to fund development projects that could then, um, generate lots of economic activity in a different way than right now, when energy costs are spiking because of wars that have been started, when tariffs and other federal policies continue to create this uncertainty over everything, and when interest rates show no signs of abating anytime soon.

It just means we have to adjust to a different, um, set of constraints.

Thanks for your call.

How much do you think are the limits of what you can accomplish as a mayor given that the legislature has to sign off on a lot of what you wanna do?

We're also surrounded by the context of what's happening at the state and national level and around the world.

And that has had a real influence on what we're able to do, even with all of the resources that we're pouring into it, housing and housing production at the local level.

On public transportation, yes, we are at three bus routes that are free in the City of Boston, fare-free to our residents.

They have become the highest ridership routes.

They have made a huge difference in our economic connectivity, and we have to do more.

We have to do it faster.

How are you finding the right way to push back without undignifying the office?

What- what- what lesson did you gain from that? What would you say, uh, to Democrats who have to be running and trying to take House seats away from some of those Republicans?

Look, one thing now, um, I am proud to report instead of a seven-week old baby, uh, (laughs) that I had at that time, now I have a 10-month old and, uh, in all of these weeks that have passed by, unfortunately we continue to see the same playbook used again and again, a false narrative trying to paint cities as dangerous, scary, horrible places simply because people are different from each other.

When, come to Boston, come to any of this country's thriving major urban hubs and you'll see beautiful communities where people are bridging their differences, getting things done and- and especially in our city, we have made tremendous progress over the last four years.

More affordable housing created than in any comparable period.

More expansion of free universal pre-K and early education, investments in our schools and a- advanced math and new programs and rigorous academics, and just a sense of safety from being not only the safest major city in the country, the lowest levels of crime ever recorded in Boston's own history, but a real sense of belonging and community.

So, you have to push back.

You have to stand up for what's right, and most of all you have to get things done that matter to people.

people.What can you do now in the face of Donald Trump's attack, in so many ways, on your city?

What do you, what do you say to the people who, uh, in your constituency who, who might feel like, "Hey, why are we doing this? What's the big deal with this, uh, sanctuary city thing? If people are illegally in the country, shouldn't we arrest them and get rid of them?" What is the big deal?

Yeah, we are, again, we're the safest city because we're safe for everyone.

In a community where over a quarter of your residents come from... were born in another country, if people are afraid to drop their kids off at school, or call 911 when they need help, or share information when they actually have information to report about a crime that happened, that makes everyone less safe.

Whether or not you are an immigrant, whether or not you're here in this country six generations or, or just arrived.

So, we're really focused on being that home for everyone, and it's worked.

And so all of the, the buzz around, you know, whether these kinds of cities that are more welcoming for immigrants are more dangerous, it's about a false narrative that immigrants are somehow more likely to commit crimes or cause harm, and that is just simply not true.

We know that in our city where our immigrant communities are entrepreneurs, are holding up our health...

(laughs)