[Part 1 of “The Green New Deal in the Cities” provides an
extended account of the Boston Green New Deal, perhaps the most
comprehensive effort so far to apply Green New Deal principles in a
major city. ]
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THE GREEN NEW DEAL IN THE CITIES – PART 1: BOSTON  
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Jeremy Brecher
June 1, 2023
Labor Network for Sustainability
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_ Part 1 of “The Green New Deal in the Cities” provides an
extended account of the Boston Green New Deal, perhaps the most
comprehensive effort so far to apply Green New Deal principles in a
major city. _

Cityscape of Boston, @rabbit75_cav, Canva Stock

 

Urban politics often seem to produce not so much benefit for the
people as inequality, exclusion, and private gain for the wealthiest.
Does it have to be that way? In cities throughout the US, new
political formations, often under the banner of the Green New Deal,
are creating a new form of urban politics. They pursue the Green New
Deal’s core objectives of fighting climate change in ways that
produce good jobs and increase equality. They are based on coalitions
of impoverished urban neighborhoods, disempowered racial and ethnic
groups, organized labor, and advocates for climate and the
environment. They involved widespread democratic mobilization. A case
in point is the Boston Green New Deal.

Boston’s Green New Deal

According to a 2020 report, if global warming is not abated Boston
could have 40 days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit by 2030; 90 such
high-heat days – virtually the entire summer — by 2070; and 33
days reaching or exceeding 100 degrees.[1]
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is the nation’s third most gentrified city.[2]
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A nationwide survey shows Blacks consider Boston the least welcoming
of eight major American cities. Only 4 percent of households earning
$75,000 or more across Greater Boston are Black.[3]
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In April 2019, shortly after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator
Ed Markey submitted their Green New Deal resolution to Congress, the
Boston City Council passed 9-3 a resolution supporting it. Lead
sponsor City Councilor Michelle Wu said, “The climate crisis is here
now. We see it in Boston every single year.”[4]
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Wu also posed a question to the Boston climate community: “What
could the city do in the vacuum of federal leadership?”[5]
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Her answer came in the form of the report “Planning for a Boston
Green New Deal and Just Recovery.”[6]
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It took 18 months to develop through local conversations and
consultations with experts. Drawing on plans and programs from
Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Austin, Minneapolis, Madison, and Long
Beach, it called for carbon neutrality by 2040; 100 percent
sustainable electricity by 2035; net-zero municipal buildings by 2024;
expanding the city’s tree canopy; and establishing a youth Urban
Climate Corps. It also included a “Blue New Deal” to connect local
fishers to Boston restaurants and food distributors.

The plan emphasized the social justice dimension of the Green New
Deal. Brad Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation,
said “it really covers a broader range of issues and much more
explicitly ties the climate crisis to social justice issues.” Nina
Schlegel, a Boston climate activist on Wu’s staff, said we want
“policy change that also dismantles and rectifies past
injustices.” That means “looking at housing and displacement and
looking at the proliferation of luxury development.” It means
“looking at unequal access to transit, and where our heat islands
are located.” The plan proposed comprehensive rezoning to increase
neighborhood density; building cheap cooperative housing; adding
parks; free-to-ride electric buses; and intersecting bike lanes and
car-free walking districts. The plan included a “justice audit” of
city programs and spending. Green bonds and taxes on predatory
landlords would help fund it.[7]
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The Boston Green New Deal built on more than a decade of research and
grassroots organizing around climate and justice issues. It was also
the program for Wu’s anticipated run for Mayor of Boston.

The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Wu was the first nonwhite woman
to serve as City Council president. She presents her concerns about
both climate and social justice based on her personal experience.
Climate change is “very personal”; we need to “draw people in by
focusing on how every single person is deeply impacted.” She tells
people, “I’m a mom, and I have two boys, they’re 3 and 5. I want
more than a coin flip’s chance for my two boys to be able to live on
this planet and enjoy it.”

A poll by Demos shortly before the election found strong support among
Boston voters for a Green New Deal Agenda that would enable the Boston
City Council to pursue policies to invest in green energy and promote
clean air and water for residents. Boston voters support pursuing a
Green New Deal Agenda by more than a 60-point margin — including
Democrats by a more than an 85-point margin and Independents by more
than a 34-point margin.[8]
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Wu explained her electoral strategy in an interview in _The Nation_:

In my time in City Hall, it has been less about shifting the odds of
who can win and more about shifting the sense of what was possible. In
Boston, from the very beginning of our campaign, my team and I decided
we would run on big ideas and deep organizing and focus more on
building community anywhere we went rather than trying to corral the
numbers for a specific day and leave it there. So, we ran a campaign
that put our resources toward distributed [grassroots] organizing and
multilingual outreach. We had neighborhood organizing teams across
every neighborhood in our city, and we had launched a campaign almost
14 months before Election Day, but many of our volunteers and
neighborhood leaders were first-time campaign volunteers. We were
lightly supporting and checking in with everyone, but our teams were
running independently and designing their own activities.[9]
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On election day Wu won 64% of the vote.

The Boston Green New Deal Hits the Ground Running

A central plank of the Boston Green New Deal — embodying both
climate and justice objectives –was free public transportation, aka
“Free the T.” On her first day in office, Mayor Wu announced a
pilot fare-free bus program which set aside $8 million for lines
serving environmental justice communities.

That was quickly followed by unanimous passage of an ordinance to
divest Boston’s $1.3 billion trust funds from fossil fuels, tobacco,
and private prisons. Signing the ordinance as her first in office,
Mayor Wu said, “In this closing window of time to act, Boston must
lead by taking every possible step for climate justice. Divesting from
harmful industries to invest in sustainable and healthy jobs is not
only the pathway to a green and resilient future; it’s also the most
responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.” She called it a “big
step forward towards a Boston Green New Deal.”[10]
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Two weeks later Mayor Wu announced a new Fleet Utilization Policy to
deploy electric vehicles for the city and add 78 EV charging stations
by the end of 2022. The city also partnered with two community
organizations to launch a community-based EV car share service in
Roxbury called Good2Go which makes available EV cars for as little as
$5 an hour.[11]
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The city subsequently launched an electric school bus pilot program,
replacing 20 diesel buses with electric ones as a first step toward
full electrification of the school bus fleet by 2030. The city also
launched an electric vehicle “train the trainer” program under
which the City’s Central Fleet Management team will train students
and City fleet managers in electric vehicle maintenance.[12]
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The Boston Green New Deal moved rapidly to address the needs of
historically poor and discriminated-against communities. In April
Mayor Wu announced a Heat Plan focused on five environmental justice
“hot spot” communities: Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston,
Mattapan, and Roxbury. The Heat Plan is a component of Climate Ready
Boston, the City’s initiative to prepare for the near- and long-term
effects of climate change, including sea level rise, coastal storms,
extreme precipitation, and extreme heat. Climate Ready Boston was
based on a historical analysis that showed redlined areas are 7.5°F
hotter in the day, 3.6°F hotter at night, and have 20% less parkland
and 40% less tree canopy than areas designated as “A: Best.” The
Heat Plan is coordinated with an Urban Forest Plan which provides
nature-based cooling solutions like tree protection and new tree
plantings. The city also launched a Boston Extreme Temperatures
Response Task Force to deal with heat emergencies and distributed 30
pop-up cooling kits, including a hose, misters, and a tent, to
community organizations planning summer events.[13]
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In May, the city launched a “Solarize Eastie” pilot program to
expand neighborhood solar panel installation and onsite battery
storage to the environmental justice community of East Boston. The
program uses a group buying model to reduce costs by aggregating
demand and securing a discounted price per watt. Boston’s Chief of
Environment, Energy and Open Space Reverend Mariama White-Hammond
commented that such programs “allow us to bring energy benefits to
environmental justice communities while helping us achieve our
collective goal of decarbonization.”[14]
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A few months later the city announced another component of Climate
Ready Boston designed to protect East Boston and Charlestown from
coastal flooding from sea-level rise and storm surge through
nature-based solutions. The plan aimed to preserve the essential
functions and historic character of the East Boston and Charlestown
waterfronts while undoing the harm of historic planning that put the
communities at risk.[15]
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Early in 2022 the Office of Budget Management, the Boston City
Council, and the mayor began a series of listening sessions and a
survey in 12 languages to help draw up the city budget. More than a
thousand residents directly engaged in the process. The budget,
unveiled in April, included such items as:

* $206 million for housing stability, affordable homeownership and
financial assistance to first-generation homebuyers;
* $34 million for economic opportunity and inclusion, to grow
BIPOC-owned businesses, further invest in Main Street business
districts, expand tuition-free community college and workforce
training programs, and create a commercial rental rebate program to
support small business recovery and build wealth in Boston
neighborhoods;
* $31.5 million for climate-focused investments, including expanding
the Green Youth Jobs program, creating walking and biking
infrastructure, growing and preserving the urban tree canopy,
strengthening local food systems, and supporting electrification of
the City vehicle and school bus fleet;
* $20 million for transformative arts and culture investments that
will facilitate placemaking and strengthen both downtown and
neighborhood communities. (Community arts and culture programs were
among the most visible expressions of the original New Deal of the
1930s.)

The budget works in concert with $350 million in federal funding from
the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) “to accelerate a Green New Deal
for Boston.”[16]
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A month after releasing the budget, Boston announced a Green New Deal
for Boston Public Schools. It included $2 billion to launch 14 new
construction or major renovation projects and accelerate ongoing
district-wide improvements, including energy and water efficiency
upgrades, the installation of solar panels, renovations to bathrooms
and kitchens, school yard improvements, and the installation of air
conditioners and drinking water fountains. Jessica Tang, President of
the Boston Teachers Union, said, “The BTU is thrilled to hear the
announcement of much-needed upgrades to school facilities through a
Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools.”[17]
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A critical part of Boston’s Green New Deal strategy is to use the
city’s procurement powers to reshape its economy. It moved to
establish a Contractor Opportunity Fund and to expand access to City
contracts for minority- and women-owned business enterprises. And it
is seeking to address the past and present effects of discrimination,
disparities, obstacles, and barriers in its procurement process on
minority-owned and women-owned businesses.

In 2022 the Boston Public Schools began providing free breakfast and
lunch to its 50,000 students regardless of income. In May 2022 the
City of Boston and Boston Public Schools (BPS) announced that City
Fresh, a Roxbury-based employee- and Black-owned food service company,
will provide breakfast, lunch, after-school meals, fresh snacks, and
summer meals for the 50,000 students in the Boston Public Schools. All
meals will be freshly made in City Fresh’s Roxbury production
facility with nutritious ingredients, including locally sourced food.
With a projected value of over $17 million, this is the largest
non-construction contract the City has awarded to a certified
Black-owned business. BPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said,
“Our new partnership with City Fresh ensures BPS students and staff
have access to a wide range of culturally relevant, nutritious foods
and keeps City dollars in our neighborhoods by supporting a
black-owned business that represents the heart and soul of Roxbury.”
The program implements a City Council ordinance passed in 2019 setting
goals for Boston’s Good Food Purchasing Program, the local
embodiment of a national program to align city food procurement with
the goals of racial equity, environmental sustainability, and local
economic development.[18]
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Worker empowerment is an often underemphasized aspect of the Green New
Deal. Toward the end of her first year as mayor, Michelle Wu
established a Boston Cabinet for Worker Empowerment headed by a Chief
of Worker Empowerment. While its mandate is so far rather vague, its
focus includes “regulating, overseeing and improving workplace
conditions and health for workers” and “expanding economic
opportunity for workers through access to quality jobs, skills
trainings and career pipelines.”[19]
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The city also established a Chief People Officer and a Chief People
Officer Operations Cabinet to oversee programs for city employees,
including mental health supports and employee transit benefits.[20]
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From the outset the Boston Green New Deal focused on a Youth Green
Jobs program. According to Mayor Wu, “Boston’s Youth Green Jobs
Corps acts as a roadmap to provide livable wages, good benefits, and
strong worker protections for our young people and returning
citizens.” Reverend Mariama White-Hammond, Chief of Environment,
Energy and Open Space, said “The green jobs program serves the dual
purpose of creating job opportunities for our young adults while
protecting our city from the ravages of climate change and enhancing
quality of life for all residents.”[21]
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The green jobs corps is an “earn and learn” program which pays
workers to participate in hands-on training while providing them with
career readiness support and connections to employers in green
industries. Priority populations include returning citizens,
court-involved residents, youth who have experienced homelessness or
housing instability, young people who have been in foster care, and
other marginalized communities.

The program was inspired by the Philadelphia PowerCorpsPHL and
supported by city funds and $9 million from the American Rescue Plan
Act (ARPA).

In December, 2022 Boston graduated the first PowerCorpsBOS cohort. The
21 graduates had spent six months learning about various green
industries and skill sets, such as native and invasive plant
identification, environmental conservation, parks maintenance, general
labor operations, OSHA safety certification, career readiness, and
resume writing and interviewing.  PowerCorpsBOS assisted 87 acres of
public land, removed 284 bags of invasive material, worked with 18
service project partners, planted 61 trees, underwent 16 hours of tree
climbing training, earned three college credits from UMass Mount Ida
in Arboriculture, talked to 68 employees in private to public
industry, worked with four different city departments, pruned 32
trees, attended International Society of Arboriculture New England
chapter conference, participated in 12 hours of mock interviews, and
completed 16 hours of financial literacy courses.[22]
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In Boston as in many other cities, urban planning and development –
aka “urban renewal” — has been a crucial factor in destroying
communities and segregating cities by race and class – one that has
been difficult for even progressive city administrations to reverse.
According to Mayor Wu, the purpose of Boston’s redevelopment agency
from the time it was established 70 years ago was to “clear the way
for new development, even if that meant displacing tens of thousands
of working class, immigrant, and Black and brown residents.”

The original Boston Green New Deal plan had proposed to address
displacement, luxury development, and comprehensive rezoning. In her
first State of the City report a year after her inauguration, Mayor Wu
announced a dramatic step: shutting down the Boston Planning and
Development Agency and replacing its urban renewal mission of
eradicating so-called “blight and urban decay” with a new City
Planning and Design Department to address “resiliency,
affordability, and equity.”[23]
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This will “restore planning as a central function of City
government” rather than leaving it in the hands of private
developers and a semi-autonomous urban development agency.

Racing Step by Step

While Mayor Wu strove to fully utilize the powers and visibility of a
big-city mayor, the Boston Green New Deal drew on decades of work by
community, labor, and other civic organizations and issue advocates.
Many of these forces were brought together in the Boston New Deal
Coalition which holds monthly meetings to report on and mobilize
support for Green New Deal programs.[24]
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While a review of the first year of the Boston Green New Deal reveals
dozens of programs initiated at rapid fire speed, Mayor Wu herself was
frustrated by what she considered its slow start and limited
achievements. On the first anniversary of her inauguration, she
complained to a radio interviewer that the slow-moving searches for
top leaders to fill crucial cabinet posts and establishing new
collective bargaining agreements with the city’s unions commanded a
large portion of her time.[25]
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While the original Boston Green New Deal plan laid out big-picture
climate and social justice objectives and broad policies to realize
them, Mayor Wu’s actions in her first year were primarily aimed at
achieving immediate gains that would affect a wide range of
constituencies and sectors and create momentum for realizing more.
This involved understanding the powers and limits of municipal
government and how they affect ordinary people. She told an
interviewer:

City government is where a Green New Deal means doubling the number of
street trees, so we are absorbing storm water, cleaning our air, and
bringing beauty to our communities. It means converting our school bus
fleet of about 300 diesel buses and another 400 fuel buses over to
electric, which will not only get harmful pollution out of the lungs
of our kids and out of our neighborhoods, but also tap into mobile
charging stations that large electric buses can become in times of
power outages.

For every big issue, we have a way to take immediate action at the
city level. When we talk about our economic recovery and closing the
racial wealth gap, we are focused immediately on how we’re spending
nearly $700 million every year of city contracting dollars through our
procurement system, making sure those dollars are going to Black and
brown businesses, to local Boston entrepreneurs, to keep dollars
circulating within our neighborhoods. There’s always a way to make
an impact, day by day, at the city level.

The interlocking crises of the pandemic, climate change, and our
day-to-day economic situation and racial injustices mean that if
you’re truly meeting people where they are, you have to move at the
speed of families rather than the speed of government.

By combining urgency with small steps forward, the Boston Green New
Deal aims to help lay the groundwork not only for local but for
national transformation. According to Mayor Wu:

We can each be a proof point for how big change can happen day by day.
And we can create the momentum for state and federal government to
really show that we can put forward big changes that deliver immediate
impact and draw more people into government.[26]
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[1]
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“Planning for a Boston Green New Deal and Just Recovery,” Office
of Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu, August 2020.
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[2]
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“Boston Lawmaker, Eying A Mayoral Run, Maps Out A Nordic-Style
Climate Haven,” | _HuffPost_, August 17, 2020.
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[3]
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“Planning for a Boston Green New Deal,” Ibid.

[4]
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Ellen Gerst, “Boston City Council Passes Resolution Supporting Green
New Deal,” _Boston Magazine_,  April 11, 2019.
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[5]
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Katelyn Weisbrod, “Boston Progressives Expand the Green New Deal to
Include Justice Concerns and Pandemic Recovery,” _Inside Climate
News_, September 28, 2020.
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[6]
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“Boston Lawmaker,” Ibid.

[7]
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“Boston Lawmaker” Ibid.

[8]
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Ryan O’Donnell, Gustavo Sanchez, and Brian Burton, “Voters Want
Michelle Wu to Be the Next Mayor of Boston,” _Data for Progress_,
October 21, 2021.
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[9]
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John Nichols, “Michelle Wu: Cities Must Lead for the Green New
Deal,” _The Nation_, December 14, 2021.
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[10]
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“Mayor Wu signs ordinance to divest City funds from the fossil fuel
industry,” _Boston.gov_, December 1, 2021.
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[11]
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“New steps to reduce vehicle emissions in Boston,” _Boston.gov_
December 13, 2021.  
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[12]
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“Progress Made Toward Electrifying City of Boston Vehicle Fleet,”
| _Boston.gov_, April 6, 2022.
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[13]
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Boston Orange 波士頓菊子: Mayor Wu Announces Critical Action to
Mitigate Extreme Heat in Environmental Justice Communities,” _Boston
Orange_, April 22, 2022. 
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[14]
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John Lynds, “Wu Announces New Solar-Power Pilot Program in
Eastie,” _East Boston Times-Free Press_, May 11, 2022.
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[15]
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“Mayor Wu announces strategies to enhance coastal resilience in East
Boston and Charlestown,” _Boston.gov_, August 23, 2022.
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[16]
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“Mayor Wu Unveils First City Budget and $350 Million Federal
Spending Plan,” _Boston.gov_ April 13, 2022.
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[17]
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“Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools Launched,” _Boston.gov_
May 12, 2022.
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[18]
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$17 Million BPS Food Service Contract Announced with Roxbury-Based,
Black-Owned Business, _Boston.gov_, May 18, 2022.
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For Boston’s Good Food Purchasing Program, see
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[19]
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“Wu Announces Cabinet for Worker Empowerment,” _Beacon Hill
Times_, September 8, 2022.
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and
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[20]
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“Alex Lawrence named Chief People Officer; Ashley Groffenberger
appointed Chief Financial Officer,” _Boston.gov_, June 13, 2022.
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[21]
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“Executive Director of Youth Green Jobs Initiative Named,”
_Boston.gov_ February 14, 2022.
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[22]
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“Graduation of Boston’s Inaugural PowerCorpsBOS Cohort
Celebrated,” _Boston.gov_, December 23, 2022.
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[23]
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Roberto Scalese and Walter Wuthmann, “Wu sets sights on housing,
schools in first State of the City address, _WBUR News_, January 25,
2023.
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and READ: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s first State of the City
address,” WBUR Newsroom, January 25, 2023.

[24]
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Boston Green New Deal Coalition,  [link removed]

[25]
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Saraya Wintersmith, “Mayor Wu says staffing and contract talks
consumed a lot of her first year,” _WGBH_, November 16, 2022. 
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[26]
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John Nichols, “Michelle Wu: Cities Must Lead for the Green New
Deal,” _The Nation_, December 14, 2021.
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* Green New Deal
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* Boston
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