波士顿-波士顿市长预备会议选举就在一个月之后，选民们即将做出一个历史性的决定，缩小五位主要候选人的范围——他们都是有色人种。
自近200年前首次开始选举市长以来，波士顿只选择了白人男性来领导这座城市——这种趋势肯定会在今年结束，这在一定程度上反映了这座城市不断变化的人口结构。
随着前波士顿市长马蒂·沃尔什(Marty Walsh)今年早些时候离任，成为乔·拜登总统的劳工部长，这座城市已经见证了一个政治第一——金·珍妮(Kim Janey)被提升为代理市长，这是第一位担任这一职务的女性和黑人。
但作为市议会主席上任的珍妮，正面临着激烈的竞争，因为她试图彻底赢得这一职位。波士顿市议会的三名成员——吴弭、安德里亚·坎布尔和安尼萨·艾萨比·乔治——也在争夺市长职位，沃尔什的前经济发展主管约翰·巴罗斯也是如此。每个候选人都是有色人种。
这是一个巨大的转变。波士顿在历史上一直与种族冲突作斗争，包括20世纪70年代的校车事件和查尔斯·斯图尔特的案件，据信查尔斯·斯图尔特在1989年枪杀了他怀孕的妻子，同时试图将这起谋杀归咎于一名身份不明的黑人男子，加剧了种族紧张局势，然后从托宾桥跳下身亡。
所有候选人都是民主党人，尽管波士顿的市长竞选不包括政党初选，自1930年以来，没有一名共和党人当选领导这座城市。在9月14日的初选中，得票最多的人将在11月2日展开正面交锋。
这座城市面临的挑战包括飙升的住房成本、交通困境、种族不公正和治安、学校以及对新冠肺炎大流行的持续应对。
其中最紧迫的是住房成本，它正迅速超过许多租户和潜在房主的经济能力。候选人同意存在住房危机，但提供了多种解决方案。
吴正在推动恢复一个版本的租金控制，或租金稳定，这是由1994年的选票问题禁止全州范围内。此举将基本上限制住宅租金的年涨幅。
父母从台湾移民到美国的吴(音译)在最近的一封电子邮件中说:“在波士顿，房租上涨，住房自有率下降。“种族财富差距继续扩大，我们城市的家庭正被赶出他们的社区。”
其他候选人提出了不同的方法。
詹尼已推动增加对符合收入标准的首次购房者的首付援助，而坎贝尔表示，她将迅速开始开发100个城市自有地段。
Essaibi George表示，她还将支持首付和关闭成本方面的援助，同时专注于为工薪家庭建造住房。巴罗斯倡导社区投资基金，让当地居民购买新的开发项目。
具有佛得角血统的巴罗斯在《英联邦杂志》最近的一篇文章中说:“我们有工具让波士顿所有人都能买得起房。“我们不会通过锁定现状，让目前的租房者与未来的居民对立来达到目的。”
珍妮试图利用自己的地位巩固市长的形象，但这种关注也可能适得其反。
她最近被指责援引奴隶制，并在讨论纽约要求人们在进入室内公共场所前证明他们已经接种疫苗的努力时，在唐纳德·特朗普的推动下散布关于巴拉克·奥巴马公民身份的谎言。
珍妮说:“这个国家有很长的历史，人们需要出示他们的证件，无论我们是从，你知道，作为一种方式来谈论这个，在奴隶制之后，期间，后奴隶制，以及最近的，你知道，移民人口在这里必须经历的。“我们听到特朗普拿着出生证明胡说八道。”
她的对手很快就批评了珍妮，坎贝尔称这些评论“荒谬”
“已经有太多针对我们居民的关于这场大流行的错误信息，尤其是对黑人和棕色人种的居民，”坎贝尔说，他是黑人。"作为领导人，我们有责任不让这些阴谋得逞。"
珍妮后来收回了这些比较。“我希望我没有用那些类比，”她说。
吴曾表示，作为市长，她将要求在拥挤的公共场所提供疫苗接种证明。艾萨比·乔治说她想避免授权。坎贝尔宣布了她竞选团队的疫苗授权。珍妮说，所有18000名城市雇员都将被要求接种新冠肺炎疫苗或接受每周检测。
波士顿在继续与过去抗争的同时，也变得更加多样化。美国最新的人口普查统计数据显示，与黑人居民(19.1%)、拉丁裔居民(18.7%)和亚裔居民(11.2%)相比，认定为白人的居民占总人口的44.6%。
《波士顿环球报》报道称，她的市议会办公室试图破坏一个建筑项目，该项目将阻挡她丈夫拥有的一栋豪华公寓大楼的视野，此后，艾萨比·乔治也发现自己受到了审查。
在接受GBH新闻采访时，自称是第一代阿拉伯裔波兰裔美国人的Essaibi George说，她的丈夫的名字从未出现在市政听证会上，她是在被记者询问后才知道他的参与。
“我立即咨询了律师，并开始与道德委员会一起采取那些必要的步骤，”她说，并补充说，她反对建筑项目与她的丈夫无关，而是反映了社区的意见。
Boston edges toward historic shift as mayoral field narrows
BOSTON -- With Boston's preliminary mayoralelectionjust a month off, voters are on the verge of making a historic decision by narrowing the field of five major candidates — all of whom are people of color.
Since it first started electing mayors nearly 200 years ago, Boston has only tapped white men to lead the city — a streak certain to end this year, a reflection in part of the city’s changing demographics.
With the departure of former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh earlier this year to become President Joe Biden's labor secretary, the city has already witnessed a political first — the elevation of Kim Janey as acting mayor, the first woman and Black person to hold the office.
But Janey, who as city council president stepped into the office, is facing stiff competition as she tries to win the post outright. Three fellow members of the Boston City Council — Michelle Wu, Andrea Campbell and Anissa Essaibi George — are also vying to become mayor, as is John Barros, Walsh’s former economic development chief. Each of the candidates identifies as a person of color.
It's a monumental shift. Boston has wrestled with racial strife throughout its history, including the turmoil over school busing in the 1970s and the case of Charles Stuart, believed to have shot and killed his pregnant wife in 1989 while trying to blame the killing on an unknown Black man, inflaming racial tensions before jumping to his death from the Tobin Bridge.
All the candidates are Democrats, though mayoral races in Boston do not include party primaries and a Republican has not been elected to lead the city since 1930. The top vote-getters in the Sept. 14 preliminary election will go head-to-head on Nov. 2.
Among the challenges facing the city are soaring housing costs, transportation woes, racial injustice and policing, schools and the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the most pressing is the cost of housing, which is rapidly outpacing the financial means of many tenants and prospective homeowners. The candidates agree there is a housing crisis, but offer a variety of solutions.
Wu is pushing to revive a version of rent control, or rent stabilization, which was banned statewide by a 1994 ballot question. The move would essentially limit yearly residential rent increases.
“Here in Boston, rents are going up and homeownership is going down," Wu, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan, said in a recent email. "The racial wealth gap has continued to widen, and families across our city are getting pushed out of their neighborhoods.”
Other candidates have offered different approaches.
Janey has pushed to increase down payment assistance for income-eligible, first-time homebuyers, while Campbell said she’d quickly begin developing 100 city-owned lots.
Essaibi George said she'd also support assistance with down payments and closing costs while focusing on the construction of housing for working families. Barros has advocated neighborhood investment funds that would let local residents buy into new development.
“We have the tools to make affordable housing for all a reality in Boston,” Barros, who is of Cape Verdean descent, said in a recent article in Commonwealth Magazine. “We won’t get there by locking the status quo in place and pitting current renters against future residents."
Janey has tried to use her position to cement an image as mayor, but the attention can also backfire.
She was recently faulted for invoking slavery and lies about about Barack Obama’s citizenship pushed by Donald Trump when discussing New York’s effort to require people prove they've been vaccinated before entering indoor public settings.
“There’s a long history in this country of people needing to show their papers whether we’re talking about this from the standpoint of, you know, as a way to, after, during slavery, post slavery, as recent as, you know, what the immigrant population has to go through here," Janey said. "We heard Trump with the birth certificate nonsense.”
Her rivals were quick to criticize Janey, with Campbell calling the comments “ridiculous.”
“There is already too much misinformation directed at our residents about this pandemic, particularly for Black and brown residents,” said Campbell, who is Black. “It is incumbent upon us as leaders not to give these conspiracies any oxygen.”
Janey later walked back the comparisons. “I wish I had not used those analogies,” she said.
Wu has said that as mayor, she would require proof of vaccination in crowded public spaces. Essaibi George has said she’d like to avoid a mandate. Campbell has announced a vaccine mandate for her campaign staff. And Janey has said all 18,000 city employees will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing.
While Boston continues to struggle with its past, it has also grown more diverse. The latest U.S. Census statistics show residents who identify as white make up 44.6% of the population compared to Black residents (19.1%), Latino residents (18.7%) and residents of Asian descent (11.2 percent).
Essaibi George has also found herself under scrutiny after The Boston Globe reported her city council office tried to undermine a building project that would have blocked the view of a luxury condominium building owned by her husband.
In an interview with GBH News, Essaibi George, who describes herself as a first generation Arab-Polish American, said her husband’s name never came up in the municipal hearings and she only became aware of his involvement after being quizzed by reporters.
“I immediately consulted with counsel and began to take those necessary steps with the ethics commission,” she said, adding that her opposition to the building project had nothing to do with her husband, but reflected community opinion.
