Copyright The Boston Herald
Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn has perfected the art of swimming upstream. As a progressive tide swamps city politics, Flynn continues to call out bad policies and speak out for ordinary citizens. This is especially needed as Boston navigates entrenched problems and new challenges. When a registered sex offender with multiple convictions for sexually assaulting a child was revealed this summer to be a parks and recreation employee for the City of Boston, Flynn called for a hearing to review the city’s policy for hiring ex-convicts. The hearing was abruptly canceled, earning another clapback from the District 2 councilor. “It sends a signal that politics is more important than actually trying to help returning citizens and having a discussion about potential jobs that would preclude returning citizens from acquiring such as Level 3 sex offenders,” Flynn said. Flynn is one of the few on the council who try to slow the Wu train, as the voices of ordinary Bostonians are too often dismissed by progressives in lockstep with Mayor Michelle Wu’s agenda. Take, for example, the plans for White Stadium. Boston Public School students desperately need an overhauled stadium, but that laudable project is entangled with Boston Legacy, a new National Women’s Soccer League team. And the bill for Boston taxpayers keeps growing. Flynn cited the ballooning cost and community opposition in calling for the Wu administration to cancel the White Stadium plan. “Residents did not feel that they were taken seriously when it came to the cost for the city, other available options, the use of public property, or quality of life and environmental issues,” he said in a statement. Flynn has our back, despite numerous attempts to block his efforts. This summer he put forward a resolution seeking an emergency declaration for the open-air drug market at Mass and Cass. There are many words to describe the addiction nightmare in that part of Boston, and emergency is one of them. But former Wu staffer Sharon Durkan, now a city councilor, blocked the resolution. “Declaring a local public health emergency does not unlock any additional authority or resources,” said Wu spokesperson Emma Pettit. The council’s vote in May 2024, passing a resolution in support of a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas War, did exactly nothing to bring about peace between Hamas and Israel, but they did it anyway. “Our message is simple: All life is precious,” said the resolution’s sponsor, then-Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson. “The time has come for us to stand up and call for an end to this senseless violence.” And it’s time to stand up and call for an end to the senseless degradation of life due to addiction at Mass and Cass and neighborhoods beyond. All life is precious, and that includes the victims of the opioid crisis on Boston’s streets, and the families and businesses who are caught in the crossfire. Ed Flynn gets it, and thankfully for the city, he gets back up when he’s knocked back by progressive voices and continues the fight for Boston residents. The Herald endorses Ed Flynn for District 2 City Councilor
