Boston Preliminary Mayoral Race The Start Of History: The HUB

The HUB is a daily newsletter designed for what you want — to be caught up on the most interesting, important news in 5 minutes or less. Today, we give you a special election edition, with voters hitting the polls for the preliminary mayoral race. Otherwise, it's your typical issue of the Hub. It's a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but if there's something you want more or less of, email me at jimmy.bentley@patch.com.

Today is Tuesday, September 14. Let's get started.

Boston's preliminary mayoral election is today, and a lot is still up in the air as five major candidates vie for two spots on the November ballot. But one thing is for certain. For the first time is Boston's 199 years as an incorporated city, voters will elect a mayor who isn't a white man.

Four of the five major mayoral candidates are women, and every contender in the race is a person of color. Candidates include: City Councilors Andrea Campbell, Annissa Essaibi George, and Michelle Wu, Acting Mayor Kim Janey, and John Barros, the city's former economic development chief.

Though this historic moment is now a certainty, the question remains if Tuesday's and November's votes will mean change coming to the city on important issues like affordable housing, racial inequality and more. Segun Idowu, the president of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, told Commonwealth Magazine he's optimistic it will.

"For me, the great thing about having multiple people of color running in this race means that we're focused on substance rather than the symbolic nature," Idowu said during an episode of the magazine's podcast, the Codcast. "A lot of the race has been focused on the issues rather than just stopping at the fact that the person will be different."

And those issues have created divides among the candidates on affordable housing and addressing homelessness and the opioid epidemic, especially along "Methadone Mile" at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard.

On Thursday, during the last debate before the preliminary election, Wu stood as the only candidate to support rent control, a policy she said is needed to address Boston's affordable housing crisis. In doing so, Wu, who leads in the polls by a large margin, accused the other candidates of not addressing the crisis with enough urgency.

"We know every single day our residents are at risk of getting pushed out," Wu said.

But others on stage like Barrows argued Wu doesn't explain how rent control would solve the problem. He said it would only make the crisis worse, creating a "further shortage of housing."

Candidates during the debate also differed on how they'd address the worsening situation at "Mass and Cass."

Earlier this summer, Janey's administration shut down a comfort station in the area that provided toilets, hand-washing sinks and outreach services. The Atkinson Street station was shut down, amid growing violence along "Methadone Mile," including a fatal stabbing on Aug. 23.

In Thursday's debate, Janey said her administration is reviewing plans to make addiction treatment on Long Island in Boston Harbor sustainable. Janey said she's also considering launching a ferry service to bring people from "Mass and Cass" and other parts of the city to the island for drug addiction treatment. This idea was originally pitched by one of her rivals, Campbell. See more about where the other candidates stand on the issue in the Boston Globe.

Voter information

The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday. If you work late, fret not. As long as you're in line by 8 p.m., you're legally allowed to vote, even if you don't get to the ballot box until after 8 p.m.

As for where to vote, things can get a little confusing, since there are 255 precincts in Boston. But you can check where to vote easily on the Massachusetts Secretary of State page. Just enter your address, and you're good to go!

If you requested a mail-in ballot, but haven't sent it in yet, it's too late. But that doesn't mean there aren't other ways to vote. Residents can either drop off their ballot in one of Boston's 20 ballot drop boxes, or just vote in person.

When voting in person, don't forget there are still COVID-19 protocols in place. Boston has an indoor mask mandate, and voters will also be required to wear a mask and stay 6 feet apart when waiting in line outside.

More election coverage

• Major changes are coming for Boston City Hall: Meet the City Council candidates (Boston Globe)
• On election eve, these undecided voters in the Boston mayoral election could determine who goes on to November (Boston Globe)

Other top Boston stories

A former clerk for the Boston Police Department admitted in federal court to stealing just under $30,000 in overtime pay. Marilyn Golisano, 68, handled overtime paperwork for the department. In her guilty plea, she admitted to twice forging her supervisor's signature, once to take $11,000 in 2017 and again stealing $18,000 in 2018. (WHDH)

The city is bringing back "Open Newbury Street," after closing the popular shopping area to traffic, brought in thousands of patrons last month. From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sept. 26, the street will be closed to cars from Berkeley Street to Massachusetts Avenue, to give people a chance to get outside and support small businesses impacted amid the coronavirus pandemic. (NBC 10 Boston)

A group of criminal justice advocates marched from Springfield to the State House in Boston, demanding that no new prisons be built in Massachusetts. The march was a response to a Beacon Hill proposal to build a new women's prison for about $50 million. Advocates called the proposal "fiscally irresponsible" and "inhumane" and hope to put a moratorium that would prevent new prisons from being built for at least five years. (WWLP.com)

A Lighter Touch

Bruins defense man Matt Grzelcyk is once again showing the Boston hockey community is about a lot more than lacing up the skates and putting the biscuit in the basket. As a former player, I know the hockey community cares about each other. And Grzelcyk showed that spirit when he visited Jake Thibeault, a Milton Academy player who was left paralyzed when he suffered a spinal cord injury on the ice last week. (Milton Patch)

Did You Know:

I'm sure you know parking can get expensive in Boston, but how about having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars? Sure, it might be worth it to pay a pretty penny to avoid the nightmare that is the city's street parking, but at $375,000? I'll let you be the judge of that. (Boston Herald)

Weather:

The National Weather Service says mostly sunny, with a high near 72. North wind 6 to 11 mph becoming east in the afternoon.

– Jimmy Bentley

About me: Jimmy Bentley is a Massachusetts and Rhode Island field editor for Patch covering Cape Cod, Braintree, Barrington, East Greenwich, East Providence and North Kingstown. He was a reporter at the Plympton-Halifax Express and interned for Patch while earning his master's at Emerson College. In his free time, Jimmy hits concerts (sometimes reviewing them for Patch), watches movies and plays ice hockey. Email: jimmy.bentley@patch.com. Twitter: @PatchBentley.