2023 Boston City Council Candidate Jacob deBlecourt Interviewed

Tuesday, November 7, 2023 will be the final day that voters in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston will be filling out ballots to indicate which of the two candidates running in Boston's 2023 general election they want to represent District 9 on the Boston City Council in 2024.

So, in a recent email, this writer asked one of the candidates, Jacob deBlecourt, to respond to four questions. And what follows is the text of this October 2023 email interview with Boston City Council District 9 Candidate Jacob deBlecourt:

Is your position on restoring rent control in Allston-Brighton and other neighborhoods of Boston or in Massachusetts on a state-wide level any different than the position of the current Allston-Brighton representative in Boston's City Council?

Jacob deBlecourt: "Earlier this year, the Boston City Council passed a home rule petition to appeal to the Statehouse to bring back rent control for Boston, which my opponent voted to pass. While I am a proponent of rent control, the home rule petition that the Council passed does not reasonably bring back rent control.

"The maximum allowable increase a landlord subjected to rent control may raise the rent by is 10%. 10% of my rent is $300/month, far beyond what I or any of my friends/neighbors can afford to pay.

"Likewise, the home rule petition only applies to people who renew their lease, not those who are signing a new lease. Given that nearly a third of Allston-Brighton residents moved somewhere within Suffolk County within the last year, we're talking about a lot of people potentially not seeing the benefits of rent control in Allston-Brighton.

"What we should be doing instead is collaborating with our statehouse colleagues who are working currently to bring rent control to the ballot in 2024. By allowing cities to design their own form of rent control, as opposed to drafting a home rule petition to go die in the statehouse, we can have more autonomy to design rent control policies that better work for neighborhoods like Allston-Brighton.

"Lastly, it is important to understand that rent control is one tool of many needed to help reduce the cost of living in Allston-Brighton. We need to educate more residents about their rights, we need to build smartly in a way that addresses the housing crisis while also being respectful to the community, and we need to ensure that our housing stock is safe and habitable for the people who live there."

With regard to issues related to funding of Boston police department programs like the police surveillance program, is your position similar to or different from that of Allston-Brighton's current representative?

Jacob deBlecourt: "My opponent recently voted to approve a $3.4 million grant expanding the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) after having originally stated publicly that she would support abolishing the system altogether.

"The Council has a responsibility to provide advice and consent over the administration, but with only one hearing before the vote, the Council didn't do its job by not thoroughly vetting this funding. Regardless of where you stand on the state of security in Boston, the Council has an obligation to vote knowing all the facts. And the fact of the matter is that BRIC has yet to produce substantial evidence that its security apparatus has substantially prevented crimes in Boston.

"Furthermore, before federal courts had to step in to intervene, the BRIC-maintained gang database had an erratic point system which disproportionately impacted people of color. To get 6 points on the gang database was to be known as `gang affiliated' and to have 10 points was to be a known gang member. However, being the victim of a crime committed by a gang member would net you three points.

"So by simply being the victim of a gang-related crime, you are halfway to being gang affiliated yourself. This system does not make sense and the Council needs to more heavily scrutinize the grants they are asked to vote in favor of."

Why do you believe that you would do a better job representing the economic interests and political ideals of the majority of tenants, college students, workers, elderly people and owner-occupant small homeowners who are residents of Allston-Brighton in 2024 than would the current Allston-Brighton representative in Boston's City Council?

Jacob deBlecourt: "Allston-Brighton is a majority-renter neighborhood that is not represented by a renter. The lack of lived experience as to what it is like to be a renter living in Allston-Brighton in 2023 has had an impact on the policies which the Council passes, including the aforementioned rent control home rule petition.

"As someone who moved into the neighborhood to go to school, and who has fought hard to remain in the neighborhood despite rising housing costs, I am living the realities that many in our community are dealing with every day. When I am on the Council, I will know if the policies I am fighting for will work because I am actually living the realities of the policies the Council tries to pass.

"What makes Allston-Brighton special is that, regardless of who you are or what your background is, you can make a home here in Allston-Brighton. We need representation that is ready to lean into that diversity of lived experience and use it to create policies and civic spaces that bring us together instead of forcing us to move away."

Has your candidacy been endorsed by the Boston chapter of the DSA group, whose New York City chapter endorsed former BU student and BU graduate AOC, prior to her election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018?

Jacob deBlecourt: " I am not currently endorsed by the Boston DSA.