Yawu Miller, “Wu challenges Walsh as Boston embraces progressive politics,” Bay State Banner (9/16/20)

The growth of the activist groups Progressive West Roxbury/Roslindale and Jamaica Plain Progressives has helped candidates of color pick up votes in neighborhoods that in past years they might write off. Those groups regularly hold forums where candidates are asked their positions on progressive issues such as support for rent control and curbing police abuse.

Shifts have also occurred in Hyde Park, a majority people of color neighborhood that has long been dominated by Irish-American and Italian-American city councilors. In 2019, Ricardo Arroyo became the first person of color elected to the council from that neighborhood. Then, in March, a coalition of Black, Latino, Haitian and progressive white activists wrested control of the Ward 18 Democratic Committee from the mostly white group that had long dominated the city’s largest ward committee.

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While in years past, Boston’s electorate based support for candidates primarily on ethnicity and neighborhood affiliation, now it’s candidates’ stands on public policy issues that drives voter interest, notes Rachel Poliner, an organizer with Progressive West Roxbury/Roslindale.

“Now the City Council is more like the city’s creative think tank,” she said.