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“All I want is a city that is livable and accessible to every single Bostonian,” one respondent said. With Boston voters heading to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 4 for the general Boston mayoral and City Council elections, readers say their top concerns haven’t changed much since this summer’s preliminary election — but the sense of urgency has only grown. More than a hundred Boston.com readers responded to our latest callout, weighing in on what matters most to them as they prepare to cast their ballots in the general election. Housing affordability once again ranked high on the list of priorities, with many residents describing a city that feels increasingly out of reach for working- and middle-class Bostonians. “Housing is simply too expensive,” reader Sara Z. from Boston said. “Zoning issues and a lack of efficient public transit, combined with high rents, prevent workers from accessing opportunities to thrive in Boston.” Public safety and the ongoing crisis around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard also remain front of mind for many respondents, while others pointed to the city’s strained infrastructure — from traffic congestion to MBTA reliability — as a key quality-of-life issue. Immigration policy continues to spark sharp divisions among readers, with some calling for more support and compassion for new arrivals and others urging city leaders to redirect resources elsewhere. Taken together, the responses reveal a city grappling with both growth and growing pains — and a community of voters eager to see real solutions from the candidates they elect on Tuesday. Responses have been lightly edited for grammar and clarity. Which local issue is most important to you in the 2025 Boston mayoral and City Council elections? Immigration “Immigration because people with desperate circumstances in their home countries are trying to come here to simply survive and give their families a livable life, as generations of immigrants have done since our country’s inception. They are being faced with bigotry and hatred for simply pursuing the American dream — which all of our ancestors did (minus Native Americans). Housing because if nothing is done, no one will be able to live in Boston or Metro Boston any more. The population will leave for affordable areas.” — Meg, Boston “I don’t appreciate the mayor using my tax money for immigrants, when our schools are in total failure. Then tries to put herself on the national stage by opposing Trump, and we lose federal grants. She’s totally over her head.” — Jim S., Roxbury “The removal of illegal aliens will free resources to address other issues, most directly housing and public safety.” — Allen, South End “The current city policy, with a sanctuary approach, benefits everyone by creating an environment of safety and trust among residents, police, health care, and city officials. And the current federal approach is harmful: it is targeting all immigrants, even those who have valid status, and it is using illegal and frightening techniques of detention in terrible conditions and deportation to foreign prisons and to unfamiliar countries. Because I care about community policing, I see this as a local quality of life issue. There are other local quality of life issues that are also important to me, but the immigration issue is currently most urgent.” — Jennifer L., Mission Hill Public Safety “Public services need to do more to support individuals with addiction problems. We are tolerating illegal behavior that is impacting the lives of people that live in the area and businesses that operate in the area. It impacts property values which in turn impacts the tax base and it impacts the willingness of people to do business in the area which in turn impacts people’s livelihoods and, again, the tax base. We risk, and are seeing, that the illegal behavior is migrating into other parts of the neighborhood and other parts of the city.” – Patrick C., South End “I do make it a point to look straight ahead when riding through areas like Mass and Cass or when I am driving and people come begging at the windows. I dislike people approaching me in a store to ask them to pay for my food. While I understand how hard it is to truly resolve some of this, I think the city has a long way to go for all of this.” – Holly, Dorchester “My daughter can’t safely walk between her dorm room and classes at Suffolk without getting harassed by homeless and drug dealers. She has had men follow her to the subway, and she didn’t go into it because she was afraid they would jump her once they got her alone. It’s just not safe for young women in this area at night. The Park Street stop constantly has open drug use and druggie men loitering.” – Sagine B., Boston “I no longer feel safe walking around Boston anymore regardless of the time of day. The amount of people high on drugs, tents being erected, drug paraphernalia found all over parks. The city has lost a lot of its charm and no longer feels safe.” – Stacey, South End “I no longer feel safe going into Boston. I used to frequently walk all parts of the city even at night and felt like there were enough cops or people around that I wasn’t going to be approached or attacked. But things have drastically changed in the last two years. My best friend got mugged in the Common this winter. Our group that used to travel into Boston for dinner and entertainment have stopped.” – James, Quincy Housing “Boston has become unaffordable and nearly unlivable. I’ve grown up in Chelsea and Boston my entire life and every year it gets harder and harder to find affordable, good apartments. My salary is stagnated, prices for everything are skyrocketing, and every year rents increase. It’s infuriating to live in a property with a landlord living across the country who has a property management company that rarely makes good, lasting repairs and is profiting massively off of the inflated rent paid. It’s also infuriating to watch new housing pop up knowing that barely any of that housing is going to be accessible to the working class of the city, those who are experiencing homelessness, and immigrants coming to Boston for a better life. Instead, the only housing being added here seems to be for transplants in high paying jobs. The state passing the brokers’ fees rules is a step in the right direction, but I’ve already seen grumbling that landlords will just raise the rent in retaliation. All I want is a city that is livable and accessible to every single Bostonian – students, locals, transplants, and those in need of permanent shelter.” — K.C., Brighton “The rent is crazy high in Boston, and it exacerbates the high homelessness rates in the city. We don’t need more police or incentives for landlords, we need rent control and better public resources.” — Lilith D., Roslindale “We must defeat the concept of rent control. Any economist will confirm that it is the worst policy a city can enact for housing and it impacts other areas such as schools and the overall tax base. The concept must be defeated.” — Alex, Roxbury “They seem to be in neighborhoods everywhere in Boston, in Brighton and the Seaport — even in Cambridge: Newly finished, but completely empty, life science lab buildings. With so much space sitting empty and massive decline of federal research funding, I am afraid, most above, the space will remain empty for decades. Is it possible to repurpose the empty lab space for housing?” — Newt, Charlestown Infrastructure “Making Boston an easier place to get around safely without a car would be so amazing. The bicycle lanes are an awesome start. Also need better bus service, safety improvements for people walking, better commuter rail service that runs more than every hour in the morning. The subway needs to be fixed. If they could simply make the commuter rail free, increase the frequency, and create more parking at the stations that would go such a long way to improving things for everyone.” — Sarah B., Cambridge “Until we have a reliable functioning T and reasonable coverage in all neighborhoods, we cannot keep packing housing projects into every open space.” — Albert O., Roslindale “Traffic gets worse every year. Even with expanded work from home post-COVID, it has continued to worsen. The MBTA is insufficient to meet demand. On both fronts, the city and the state have kicked the can down the road.” — Mike, Brighton “Boston has the second worst traffic in the country and the fourth worst in the entire world, according to MSN. It is long overdue to make the MBTA Commuter Rail free and attract more people to use public transportation.” — Tina, Jamaica Plain “Boston was not built for bike lanes, yet Wu insisted on creating them. Now pedestrians have to not only watch for cars, we have to watch for bikes which ignore signals and road rules.” — Pat W., South End Boston.com occasionally interacts with readers by conducting informal polls and surveys. These results should be read as an unscientific gauge of readers’ opinion.
