#elevate boston

[elevateboston]

ELEVATE Boston is meeting with both candidates over the next week to discuss their plans to elevate our city, addressing health equity, economic equity and community safety. Be sure to read the ELEVATE pledge for candidates, to be presented at those meetings!

[elevateboston]

As a health care provider, an educator of parents and young people, and an advocate for women, Planned Parenthood sees every day how health care access, economic equity, and public safety are interconnected.

Martha “Marty” Walz, President of the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund

[elevateboston]

Street harassment negatively affects a significant number of Bostonians. Hollaback! Boston believes that harassment in public space is a community issue and that our community can work, with the support of the next Mayor, to bring it to an end. We envision a Boston where street harassment is not tolerated, a Boston where everyone can walk down the streets or ride the T in safety, without fear of unwanted comments, leering, whistling, or assault.

Britni de la Cretaz, Hollaback! Boston Co-Director

[elevateboston]

The Mayor of Boston has a major role to play in the prevention of and response to all forms of violence. At a minimum, the police, public health and educational appointments reflect the mayor’s vision and investment in elevating Boston’s capacity to prevent violence and respond effectively when incidents occur.

Gina Scaramella, Executive Director of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center

[elevateboston]

And Then There Were Two

  Congratulations to Marty Walsh and John Connolly on their victories in yesterday's Boston Mayoral Preliminary Election!

We look forward to hearing more about how you plan to elevate Boston on issues relating to health equity, economic equity and safe communities for all.  

We'll be continuing the conversation in the coming weeks leading up to Election Day on November 5th. Join us! Read the candidates' responses to our questionnaire, be a part of the dialogue on Twitter, like us on Facebook, submit your questions to the candidates on how they will address issues uniquely affecting women, girls and the LGBTQ community and give us your suggestions for how you think the next mayor should ELEVATE Boston.  

image credits: 1-WTOP; 2-boston.com

[elevateboston]

We applaud Marty Walsh's willingness to make addressing the commercial sex industry an issue in the Mayor's race. This is a deadly serious issue that deserves the attention of the candidates and the electorate. We formed ELEVATE to ensure issues just such as this were at the forefront of our next Mayor's agenda.

image credits: Alia Gilbert

[elevateboston]

The Missing Plank: Where are Women and LGBTQ communities in the Boston Mayoral race?

This post was originally published by NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts at Blue Mass Group on September 17, 2013.

Last week, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts joined with Ayanna Pressley, Planned Parenthood, MassEquality, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, Casa Myrna and a growing list of Boston-based organizations making up the ELEVATE Boston Coalition to ask the Boston Mayoral candidates: why aren’t you talking to us? With only a week left until the preliminary, the mayoral candidates have been mum on what they will do for women, girls and LGBTQ communities.

Now, we understand that charter school caps and casinos have been raging in the news—and the candidates have been tripping over themselves to please all on these issues. But there have been a number of other issues in the news that our potential next mayor can’t ignore. How about Amy Lord? Or Jennifer Martel? Why aren’t candidates talking about the high rates of drop outs due to teen pregnancy? Or the exorbitantly high rates of Chlamydia in Mattapan?

As Ayanna put it so eloquently last week in our press conference, “People told me not to run on these issues. People told me that I couldn’t win on these issues. But I made history by running on these issues—becoming the first woman to ever top the ticket for city councilor. As City Councilor for 4 years, I have made a point to speak specifically to issues women and girls face in my city.”

In the Planned Parenthood online voters’ guide, the leading mayoral candidates mostly look the same. They seem to all support sex education, condoms in high schools, and access to legal abortion. We are asking the candidates to differentiate themselves for us so that we know who will be the best leader for reproductive and sexual health care for the city.

At NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, we advocate to guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions to prevent unintended pregnancy, raise healthy families, and choose safe, legal and accessible abortion.

Our mission goes far beyond the clinic door to ensure that every woman has the ability to choose her life. Without access to medically accurate health care, without access to economic security, and without access to the city services they need, the women of Boston don’t have any choice.

There are so many ways to move the city forward. We could follow the lead of San Francisco, which offers transgender health care as part of the city’s new health care plan. Or we could look to our neighbors north in Newburyport who are creating the best practices to prevent domestic violence from turning into homicide. Our next mayor could join the growing fight to make sure that workers have a livable minimum wage and benefits like earned sick leave—an issue that we know disproportionately helps women and single mothers.

If these issues aren’t sexy enough for a campaign, shame on you.

ELEVATE Boston expects that our next Mayor will act as a leader on these issues. Candidates for Mayor have begun to answer our questions and we appreciate those who have. Throughout the final week of the preliminary, we will be publicizing their responses.

See what they say on our Facebook page!

This post was originally published by NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts at Blue Mass Group on September 17, 2013.

[elevateboston]

ELEVATE Boston: An Introduction

Boston is a great city, made up of 22 distinct neighborhoods with residents of many cultures, ages, races, sexual orientations, gender identities, and religious beliefs. We envision a Boston where every person has the opportunity and resources to live healthy lives and thrive economically. We envision a Boston where all residents feel safe at home, in school, in our parks, and on the streets. We deserve a Mayor who will foster understanding across communities and who embraces the thinking that Boston will be at its best when every resident in every neighborhood is successful. We want to collaborate with the next Mayor to raise these issues as policy priorities and to ELEVATE Boston.

We have three areas of policy focus: health equity, economic equity, and safe communities for all. In order to ELEVATE Boston, these issues must be a policy priority for the next Mayor. These issues are germane to city government and areas that the Mayor of Boston has wide latitude to make a difference in.

ELEVATE submitted a questionnaire to mayoral candidates, and compiled their responses, in order to make their positions available to voters. Read responses from each candidate by category, by clicking above or on the sidebar to the right. Join the conversation on twitter and facebook, and let candidates know what you think would help to elevate Boston!