Boston Mayoral Candidates Weigh in on the Built Environment
The BSA asked current candidates running in the 2021 Boston mayoral election to answer seven questions around Boston's built environment.
The Boston Society for Architecture (BSA) is a community dedicated to improving the quality of life for everyone through architecture and design. Our core focus areas center around equity, environment and advancing architecture. From housing to climate change to public open space, policies that affect the built environment have great impacts on the lived experience of every resident in the City of Boston. The following questions are designed to gain a better understanding of how each candidate will address the City's most critical issues.
We encourage all who are able to vote in the primary in September and in the general election in November. We look forward to continuing the conversation around how to build a better Boston.
Meet the candidates below in shortened survey answers and on each candidates' expanded page providing the full answers to each question.
*Note that we are awaiting Acting Mayor Janey's responses and will post them when available.
Boston's former Economic Development Chief John Barros
Dorchester resident
Full interview responses here
City Councilor Andrea Campbell
Mattapan resident
Full interview responses here
City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George
Dorchester resident
Full interview responses here
City Councilor Michelle Wu
Roslindale resident
Full interview responses here
Environment
Climate change is the greatest single threat to the equity, health and abundance of current and future generations. The building industry contributes to climate change and impacts environmental and human health through greenhouse gas emissions, environmental degradation and resource consumption. However, architecture can also positively and equitably build the health of the environment through new ways of designing and building.
Housing
Recent surveys have shown that housing is a top concern of Boston residents. As the City continues to build towards its goal of 69,000 new homes by 2030, there is a critical need to build a mix of housing types at a range of affordability levels to truly address the needs of all existing and new residents.
Equity
The pursuit of equity expands access to power and decision-making and also requires diverse coalitions and changing the status quo. However, outside of the profession and its collaborators, including the City, processes of decision-making about the built environment remain opaque and inaccessible.
Architectural Advocacy
The BSA seeks to be a convener, building on partnerships with other industries and the greater public. Our members serve on public boards and commissions that help shape the built environment and work in advisory roles in many of the City's recent initiatives around climate, housing and neighborhood planning.
