Councilor Ricardo Arroyo put forward a hearing request at the body’s Wednesday meeting, where he discussed the potential for a pilot district in Roslindale Village, a shopping and dining area where parking meters will soon be added by the city.

“If we are going to create meters, which I think help move traffic along and do help, they should also take that money that comes from those meters — that are coming from folks frequenting that area or those businesses, and reinvest them into beautification projects within those areas,” Arroyo said.

If a pilot program were to be established, it could then be implemented in other districts, according to Arroyo, who represents Roslindale on the City Council and learned of the concept from Roslindale Village Main Streets representatives.

While the state authorized the use of parking benefit districts through the Municipal Modernization Act in 2016, the City of Boston has chosen not to move forward with the concept, which advocates describe as a type of parking reform that frees up high-demand curb space and benefits people paying the meter fees.

The districts have been “effectively utilized” by three other Massachusetts communities, Arlington, Brookline and Reading, “to manage parking supply and generate resources for commercial area improvements,” Arroyo said.

The bodies typically designated to manage the parking districts include main streets organizations, community planning groups and business improvement districts, he said.

“Folks in the neighborhoods who put more money into these meters should see that money directly benefit the areas in which they are placed,” Arroyo said. “The goal for this hearing is to figure out how we go about setting this up around the city, so it’s not just thrown into the … general fund and sent in different directions.”

The hearing request was largely supported by the rest of the City Council, and referred to the Committee on City Services and Innovation Technology after a brief discussion.

Councilor Gabriela Coletta, who represents East Boston, Charlestown and the North End, said her constituents often talk to her about the concept when mentioning ways to solve the “perennial issue of parking in the city.”

Councilor Liz Breadon said the districts have already been discussed as a possible parking solution in the two neighborhoods she represents, Allston and Brighton.

The matter “merits a discussion” around ways to maintain, upgrade and revitalize city streets, Breadon said, and free up curb space to ensure “someone doesn’t park their car in the main street district and leave it for the whole day.”

The Herald has learned that enforcement will begin at 8 a.m., a police crackdown that follows a week’s worth of city efforts to connect the area’s homeless and drug-addicted individuals with a pathway off the streets.

Boston police officers will begin taking down tents and tarps, and moving people out of the area, an effort that city officials expect will result in a “very significant reduction” in the number of tents by the end of the day, and last through Nov. 30.

“It’s about time,” said Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union. “This was long overdue.”

The union supported the mayor’s ordinance and understood the police commissioner’s point of view on the matter, he said, but he emphasized that the department has “always had the power to move the tents.”

“I understand the need for the ordinance,” Calderone said. “Maybe this gives us some type of superpower or better protection, but we’ve always had the ability to move the tents. So, we’re happy this day has finally come.”

City officials have stated efforts were taken to ensure the new ordinance complies with constitutional requirements, providing more protection against a potential legal challenge than what was already on the books for clearing encampments.

Police are able to take down tents and tarps, provided that individuals are offered shelter, transportation to services and storage for their belongings.

Ricardo Patrón, a spokesperson for Mayor Michelle Wu, said outreach workers and provider partners have been at Mass and Cass since the City Council passed the ordinance last Wednesday, alerting individuals about the pending enforcement and connecting the ones who live there with shelter and treatment options.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 56 people have agreed to leave the Atkinson Street encampments, out of the 80 to 90 who have been sleeping there on a daily basis, Patrón said.

Thirty-five people have moved on to their next destination, whether it be relocation to a shelter, treatment center or low-threshold housing, or reunification with their families. Another 21 have accepted placement at one of those destinations, but are waiting on transportation and storage of their belongings, he said.

For the homeless individuals who refuse those options, or the people who come to the area to engage in criminal activity, law enforcement will begin Wednesday.

A memo was sent out to Boston Police officers Tuesday evening, detailing that enforcement, which begins at 8 a.m.

Four police officers and one supervisor from each police district in the city will be  deployed to Newmarket Square to start the day. Officers will then be staged at different locations, with deployments to Atkinson Street taking place at 8 a.m., 4:30 p.m. and 12:15 a.m. each day, through Nov. 30, per the memo.

While some of those officers will be tasked with taking down tents and working with city officials on enforcement of the ordinance, other response squads will be available, should there be resistance that gets out of hand, according to the memo.

City Council President Ed Flynn told the Herald last week that he expects some people may keep coming to Mass and Cass once enforcement begins, to test how serious city officials and police are about eliminating the area’s open-air drug market and violence.

Patrón said Tuesday, however, that the Wu administration isn’t expecting any resistance, physical or otherwise, on the first day of enforcement. He noted that there were no arrests the last time the mayor tried to clear out tents, shortly after taking office in January 2022.

Calderone said police are cautiously optimistic as well, stating, “We’re hopeful that there will be no resistance and that it will be peaceful compliance.”

Council President Ed Flynn and Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy filed a resolution ahead of the body’s Wednesday meeting, to commemorate Veterans Day. The measure “honoring all those who served our country” is aimed at helping to mend a relationship that remains strained by last June’s budget vote.

Flynn said residents, veterans and military families across the city and country were “shocked and extremely disappointed” at the “disrespect” shown by many members of the City Council, who voted to cut $900,000 from a budget that broadly supports low-income veterans and their families.

“The sacred oath that we have made to veterans has been negatively impacted by the vote of the City Council to cut $1 million,” Flynn, a U.S. Navy veteran, told the Herald. “But I am confident that we learned from this terrible mistake and we’re not going to make that mistake again.”

The cut was included as part of a 7-5 vote to approve a $4.2 billion operating budget for this fiscal year. Flynn and Murphy were among the five councilors who voted against the cut, which was quickly vetoed by Mayor Michelle Wu.

Ricardo Arroyo, Liz Breadon, Tania Fernandes Anderson, Kendra Lara, Ruthzee Louijeune, Julia Mejia and Brian Worrell voted to pass a budget with the $900,000 cut. Frank Baker, Gabriela Coletta and Michael Flaherty voted against it.

Tony Molina, president of the Puerto Rican Monument Square Association and a Purple Heart veteran, said he was “very upset” that city councilors who have never served the country were “trying to harm veterans” with their budget vote.

“I’m happy that it didn’t happen, but I’m still upset, and my relationship with some of the city councilors who voted against (the veterans) is no longer a relationship,” Molina told the Herald Monday.

“I viewed it as a slap in the face,” added Tom Lyons, who chairs the South Boston Vietnam Memorial Committee.

Lyons, a Marine veteran who served in Vietnam, said several months have gone by and veterans are moving on from the budget vote as they look forward to a “celebration of their service and sacrifice of the men and women who have worn the uniform for this country,” on the Nov. 11 holiday.

“Hopefully, moving forward the City Council will take care of veterans versus going there for the first place to cut,” he said.

While Lyons said he would have been furious that a city official would have to put forward a resolution that celebrates veterans in his younger years, the “older, mature” version of himself appreciates the gesture made by the council president.

“At the same time, it’s kind of sad that he has to do that,” Lyons said.

Going forward, Molina said he thinks the relationship between the Council and city veterans is repairable, but urged councilors to contact veterans’ services before making “ignorant decisions” about cutting from their budget.

“The cuts never should have been made in the first place, and frankly, I think the city owes our veterans an apology,” Murphy told the Herald. “They stood up for us, and the least we can do as a community is support them.”

Flynn said he met with the city’s mayor, police commissioner and district attorney this week to advocate for a “zero-tolerance” approach toward the drug dealing and violent crime occurring at Mass and Cass, and throughout Boston.

“We have rules in place, and people need to follow the rules,” Flynn told the Herald Friday. “If they break criminal laws, they need to be arrested and prosecuted.”

The city’s promise to change its permissive attitude toward the crime occurring regularly on Methadone Mile marks a “new era” of responding to residents who are “demanding that we address public safety and quality of life issues,” he said.

Police will start taking down tents and tarps at the troubled intersection next Wednesday, per a new city ordinance passed by the Council this week.

The measure, put forward by Mayor Michelle Wu, dictates that individuals must be offered shelter, transportation to services and storage for their belongings before camp materials are removed.

While addicts and homeless individuals may take advantage of the shelter and treatment options offered by the city, Flynn said he doesn’t anticipate others who come to partake in the area’s criminal activity will heed a warning from the police commissioner to stay away, once enforcement begins.

People coming to Atkinson Street to deal drugs and commit crime will no longer encounter an “area of permissiveness,” Commissioner Michael Cox said Thursday, and there will be a heavy police presence moving forward.

“I think they’ll try to test the city to see if the city of Boston is serious about dealing with this issue,” Flynn said. “We’re going to make tough decisions and not allow anyone to pitch a tent or sleep in a public park or wherever they want to. This city has rules and regulations, and people must follow them.”

Flynn urged inter-departmental collaboration in implementing the new ordinance, but emphasized that there needs to be a “zero-tolerance” approach for enforcement. The tents are a public safety concern, he said, and need to come down immediately.

There will be a “heavy” police presence in the area, as cops begin taking down the tents and tarps contributing to much of the crime occurring at the intersection known as Methadone Mile, Cox said at a City Hall press conference.

While he vowed to partner with the Wu administration in adhering to the spirit of the mayor’s ordinance, which is to get homeless individuals and addicts the help that they need, Cox issued this warning: People coming to Atkinson Street to engage in criminal activity will no longer encounter “an area of permissiveness.”

“We want to make it clear to the people who come to the city with a different intent, whether it’s to sell drugs or criminality, or to victimize the people that are in these areas, we’re not going to allow that,” Cox said.

Sue Sullivan, head of the area’s Newmarket Business Improvement District, said her cohort welcomes the additional police enforcement.

“Everyone thinks that they can come down there and it’s one big party,” she said.

Cox and Sullivan joined Mayor Michelle Wu in providing an update on her three-pronged approach for tackling crime and homelessness in the troubled area, following a Wednesday vote from the City Council to approve an anti-encampment ordinance she filed in late August.

Wu said the city is distributing written notices in 11 different languages to people living at Mass and Cass, informing them that enforcement will begin on Nov. 1. The number of people sleeping there fluctuates between 80 to 90 on a daily basis, the city’s Mass and Cass coordinator Tania Del Rio said.

Sheila Dillon, the city’s chief of housing, said more than 100 shelter beds have been set aside for next week for individuals displaced by the ordinance. A temporary 30-bed overflow shelter, as part of the mayor’s plan, has opened nearby on Massachusetts Avenue.

The ordinance gives police the authority to remove tents, provided that individuals are offered shelter, transportation to services, and storage for their belongings. It also eliminates the 48-hour heads up police were required to give before removal.

After Nov. 1, Del Rio said the city expects the encampments at Mass and Cass to “be reduced very, very significantly.”

“(Wednesday’s) vote from the City Council to pass an ordinance enables the administration to move with more immediacy in our response,” Wu said. “Our goal is to permanently shift the dynamic on the street and in the surrounding neighborhood and citywide, to be safer and healthier for everyone.”

The 9-3 vote, with one councilor voting present, wasn’t close, but those who voted in favor Wednesday joined objectors in sharing a number of concerns that they felt were not properly addressed by the Wu administration throughout a process that began in late August with the mayor’s filing.

“I’m going to vote ‘yes,’ but I’m going to work closely with the police commissioner and with the Public Health Commission, and I am disappointed with them,” City Council President Ed Flynn said. “I feel like they haven’t given us the answers that we need, that we deserve.

“I don’t feel like they have engaged us and provided the right information as well.”

Flynn echoed several of his colleagues who mentioned that their support was largely due to a feeling that the tents, which authorities say are being used to shield drugs, weapons and violence, need to come down as soon as possible.

The level of violence that’s taking place on Atkinson Street and throughout Mass and Cass — “rapes, stabbings, shootings” — the city should never allow that type of situation to occur again, Flynn said.

“I don’t think this will be what saves us,” Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune said. “I don’t think this is ultimately going to be the solution, but can it be part of what’s getting us there? I believe so, as long as you’re protecting people’s First Amendment rights.”

The ordinance acknowledges that the homeless individuals living on Methadone Mile are in need of shelter, and that the tent situation is “untenable,” she added.

Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts said “the ACLU will be watching to ensure that people’s rights are not violated in the execution and enforcement of this ordinance.”

“The city must ensure that people’s property is safeguarded, and that available temporary housing includes realistic options for the people who will be displaced from their only living situation and cannot sleep in congregate settings due to disability or family circumstances,” Rose said in a statement.

The measure gives police the authority to remove tents and tarps, provided that individuals are offered shelter and transportation to services. It is tied into the mayor’s three-pronged plan for tackling crime and homelessness in the area.

The Council vote gives the Wu administration the go-ahead to open a 30-bed shelter on Massachusetts Avenue, for homeless individuals displaced by the ordinance.

While this part of the plan has been controversial among community members and certain councilors who criticized the addition of a so-called “fourth shelter” in the South End, Wu has insisted that the facility would close as soon as the targeted individuals are set up with permanent housing.

The mayor’s plan also calls for an increased police presence, aimed at both enforcing the anti-encampment ordinance at Mass and Cass, and preventing tents from popping up in other locations throughout the city.

“We are grateful to the Council for their partnership in approving this ordinance to help address the public safety of patients, workers and residents in the area so our team can continue outreach to individuals in need,” a Wu spokesperson said in a Wednesday statement.

“City staff and provider partners have been working for weeks to prepare for our plans to reopen Atkinson Street to standard roadway operations and expand citywide outreach for shelter, services and treatment.”

Wu will join administration officials in providing updates on her plan for the troubled area Thursday morning, at a City Hall press conference.

Flynn, Louijeune, Liz Breadon, Gabriela Coletta, Sharon Durkan, Tania Fernandes Anderson, Michael Flaherty, Erin Murphy and Brian Worrell voted in favor of the ordinance, as amended by Councilor Ricardo Arroyo.

Arroyo, Frank Baker and Kendra Lara voted in opposition. Julia Mejia abstained from taking a side, by voting ‘present.’

Arroyo said that while he was against the measure, he felt that the amendments he added to the mayor’s initial proposal strengthened the legality of the ordinance.

His amendments eliminated a monetary, or $25 fine, for violators, and added language to require the direct involvement of the Boston Public Health Commission in cases where alternative shelter space is unavailable, but the city must place restrictions on outdoor encampment activity.

The administration is also required to attend an annual City Council hearing to provide an end-of-year report on the ordinance, per the changes, and must provide notice of tent removal in a variety of languages.

Arroyo spoke at length about his opposition, saying that there is no evidence that similar efforts to clear out homeless encampments have worked in other parts of the country.

While he acknowledged that the administration’s efforts to tie housing into the ordinance are well-intentioned, the only way for such a measure to work is through further investment on the local and state level, to provide additional beds for shelter and long-term care, he said.

“The practical reality is that when this goes into effect, there will be people who are sleeping on floors in shelters,” Arroyo said. “Unless we do a secondary effort from the state, from the city, to fund more action with this, that’s not going to be sustainable.”

A department investigation determined that Capt. John Danilecki neglected his duty, used poor judgment and failed to complete required police reports for these incidents, but did not use improper force, as alleged in at least one case.

“The commissioner has signed off on the findings and the discipline of a three-day suspension has been imposed,” Boston Police spokesperson Mariellen Burns told the Herald in a Tuesday email.

The BPD Internal Affairs Division sustained a neglect of duty violation, for failing to complete a required incident report, but dismissed five other counts including a use of non-lethal force violation reported by Dorchester resident David Nave in 2019.

Nave said Danilecki grabbed and pulled him down to the ground, and pinned him there with a knee to his chest while he was speaking with the neighborhood “kids” who had allegedly stolen his son’s phone, according to federal court documents.

Internal Affairs did not sustain another violation charging Danilecki with untruthfulness in his police report, nor did it find that he violated department rules around respectful treatment and unreasonable judgment.

Danilecki stated in a police report at the time that Nave was acting aggressively, and he had put him on the ground for his own safety, according to prior media reports. His required reporting on the incident was incomplete, however, resulting in the sustained violation.

“Captain Danilecki failed to complete a required department report or a FIOE report after activating himself in a fight he had observed and making physical contact with the complainant,” the Internal Affairs violation states.

The internal investigation also sustained two other violations connected to a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest and a 2019 “Straight Pride Parade.” Danilecki was reported to have torn up a protestor’s sign during the 2020 demonstration and released pepper spray on people protesting the parade a year earlier.

Video also depicts Danilecki pushing and grabbing protesters, and attempting to rip the mask off of one, at the Straight Pride Parade, according to footage shared as part of a prior Boston Globe report.

“During a protest Captain Danilecki used poor judgment when he seized and destroyed an item without inspecting its evidentiary value,” the violation states, referring to the 2020 incident. “The item was a cardboard sign belonging to one of the demonstrators and not contraband as he thought.”

For the earlier case, Danilecki “failed to complete a required FIOE report when he used force while having an interaction with the complainant who was attending the Straight Pride Parade,” the violation states.

The amendments would eliminate a monetary, or $25, penalty for people who refuse tent removal, and directly involve the Boston Public Health Commission in cases where shelter space is unavailable, but the city must place restrictions on outdoor encampment activity for public health and safety reasons.

City officials would also be required to track available shelter space on a daily basis, per the changes, and provide notice of tent removal in a variety of languages, Arroyo wrote in a letter to councilors.

“The chair of the committee does not support this ordinance,” Arroyo wrote, referring to himself. “These amendments, however, clarify implementation of this ordinance for city departments and city employees, and also make efforts to strengthen the legality of the ordinance as a whole.”

While Arroyo has stated that he plans to vote against the mayor’s ordinance, he is recommending that it “ought to pass” in the new draft he filed Monday.

His recommended amendments were based, in part, on feedback solicited during the two government operations committee hearings he chaired, on Sept. 28 and Oct. 16, his letter states.

The hearings considered an ordinance proposed by Mayor Michelle Wu in late August, that would give police the authority to remove tents and tarps, provided that individuals are offered shelter and transportation to services.

While the measure is aimed at cracking down on the crime occurring on Methadone Mile, it would apply citywide, and be tied into an increased police presence that would seek to prevent encampments from recurring in other locations.

The amended ordinance expands upon a definition for what constitutes an individual’s personal belongings, which the city would be required to store for a homeless person displaced by the ordinance.

It also adds a section that would require administration officials to attend an annual City Council hearing to provide an end-of-year report on the ordinance.

Other than eliminating a $25 fine, which councilors agreed was unlikely to be paid by anyone down on Mass and Cass, Arroyo did not make any other changes to  sections for enforcement and removal of tents.

Councilors wanted an outreach worker to be present during the removal of tents, which is broadly left to “the city” in the ordinance and expected to be carried out by the Boston Police Department.

Wu administration officials explained during last week’s committee hearing that while enforcement would depend on which city official finds the encampment first, “the goal would be a co-response system,” Arroyo’s letter states.

A majority of councilors have cited concerns with the mayor’s anti-encampment ordinance, ranging from doubts about whether it was necessary to remove tents, to the legality of a measure some felt criminalizes homelessness, to skepticism about an approach that was characterized as putting housing before treatment.

Most agree, however, that the tents, which authorities say are shielding drugs, weapons and violence at the troubled intersection, should be taken down.

If the mayor’s ordinance passes this week, enforcement would begin seven days later. If it fails, the ‘no’ vote is not subject to a mayoral veto.

“We urge the Council to approve the ordinance on Wednesday so city officials and provider partners can finalize preparations for implementation,” Wu spokesperson Ricardo Patrón said in a Monday statement.

Her description of the Hamas terrorist organization as a “militant group” and characterization of the Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis as a “military operation” last Wednesday was heavily criticized, but isn’t expected to turn off a majority of voters in District 7, two former city councilors said.

“Do I think it’s going to impact her election? Probably not,” Michael McCormack, an attorney who served five terms on the City Council, told the Herald. “I think she wins with so few votes that the people who vote for her are probably just as uninformed as she is with respect to what she filed and her comments.”

Also working in her favor is the “very weak” opponent she’s running against, McCormack said, referring to Althea Garrison, a perennial candidate who was trounced by Fernandes Anderson in the September preliminary.

He noted that Fernandes Anderson benefited from facing another weak opponent two years ago, stating that had she faced strong opposition like the other district councilors, “she probably would not have been elected in the first place.”

“She’s probably the one who does as little as possible and who in her representation of her constituents is the weakest of the district city councilors,” McCormack said. “But she’s running against someone who historically just runs and runs, and that’s Althea Garrison who will not beat Fernandes, in large part because no one votes in her district. Simple as that.”

The progressive Fernandes Anderson was elected to represent District 7, which includes Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and part of the South End, in 2021.

She was heavily criticized by some of her colleagues for her description of Hamas and the terrorist attack it carried out on Israel, in a resolution she filed calling for de-escalation and a cease-fire in Israel and “occupied Palestine” at last week’s City Council meeting.

Comments made by Fernandes Anderson as part of a discussion on the resolution were also described by two Jewish groups as “antisemitic.”

“I think the likelihood of this impacting her is slim,” Larry DiCara, a former city councilor and longtime observer of Boston politics, told the Herald. “But that does not mean that two years from now, there may be an effort to move her out, and then some people may step up and put some money behind it.”

He said he wasn’t surprised by the comments, however, saying that Fernandes Anderson identifies as a Muslim, who has a tendency to speak from the heart and a different way of viewing things going on in the Middle East.

“Certainly my Jewish friends are all up in arms about it,” DiCara said. “It may be just one of many things that will hurt her down the road.”

Both McCormack and DiCara said the City Council should have stayed away from weighing in on the Israel-Hamas war, with DiCara stating, “I wouldn’t have touched it with a 10-foot pole.”

“We have enough problems that we don’t have to delve into the problems of the rest of the world,” DiCara said.

Fernandes Anderson filed her resolution in response to one made by Councilor Michael Flaherty, who wanted to condemn “Hamas and their brutal terrorist acts against Israel,” and express solidarity with the state of Israel and Israeli people.

McCormack said he didn’t like Fernandes Anderson’s comments “on a personal level,” but was more broadly struck by how she “has no idea what her role is as a city councilor,” which is to deal with city issues, “not make comments that are at best just fatuous and a waste of time.”

Michael Ross, an attorney who served for 14 years on the City Council, declined to comment on the upcoming election, but did speak to the councilor’s remarks, and other left-leaning criticism of Israel in the wake of this month’s attack.

“As a progressive Jewish person, I am heartbroken that some on the left are incapable of standing with the Jewish people during the worst attack against them since the Holocaust,” Ross told the Herald. “Israel is not perfect, but what happened on Oct. 7 defies geopolitics, and demands humanity’s collective outrage for the perpetrators and support for its victims.”

The Anti-Defamation League of New England and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston both released statements Thursday criticizing the “troubling” remarks made by Tania Fernandes Anderson at this week’s City Council meeting.

“Drawing on the oldest tropes about Jewish power and influence to make a political statement is not just unacceptable, it is antisemitic,” Rabbi Dr. Jonah Steinberg, ADL New England regional director, said in a statement.

“Excessive Jewish power and influence controlling global affairs is a dangerous myth where Jews are cast as manipulative schemers who use money and influence to advance an evil agenda,” he added.

“Words matter,” Steinberg said, saying that while the ADL welcomes a conversation, the “community deserves an apology” from the councilor.

When introducing a resolution calling for de-escalation and a ceasefire in Israel and “occupied Palestine,” Fernandes Anderson made remarks insinuating that the violence against Israeli people was garnering more attention because of their “money and influence.”

“Nobody wants people to die,” Fernandes Anderson said. “The Holocaust was horrific. The African holocaust was horrific. The Australian holocaust of the Aborigines was horrific. But when we start talking, we only talk about people with money and influence.”

She added, “We never talk about Black people. We never talk about people suffering. We never talk about brown people. So if you’re Indian and you’re Palestinian, nobody gets up and supports any of this stuff.”

Her resolution was filed in response to one put forward earlier in the week by Councilor Michael Flaherty, who wanted to condemn “Hamas and their brutal terrorist acts against Israel.”

In it, Fernandes Anderson refers to the Hamas terrorist organization as a “militant group” and characterizes the Oct. 7 attack that killed over 1,400 Israelis, among them women, children and babies, as a “massive military operation,” language that sparked outrage from some of her colleagues.

The resolution further states that Israel’s policies and actions toward the Palestinian people have been recognized by international human rights groups as “apartheid,” and Israel’s recent actions to cut electricity, fuel and water sources from Gaza constitute “war crimes.”

“At a time when our community should be attuned to the risks and challenges of antisemitism in all its forms, we, and our member organizations, representing a multiplicity of Jewish perspectives, found Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson’s recent comments troubling,” Jeremy Burton, JCRC chief executive officer, said in a statement.

He added, “In civic debate, there should be no place for perpetuating long-persistent antisemitic tropes, such as Jewish individuals as wealthy and powerful, ignoring the historical underpinnings of antisemitism as a term literally created to frame hatred of the Jewish community in a precise way, and obfuscating the historic origins of the Jewish people in the region that is now called Israel.”

While his organization’s preference is dialogue, it could not leave her public comments unaddressed “at a time when the emotional and physical safety of the Jewish community in the U.S. and beyond is at risk,” Burton said.

“We will continue to make efforts to meet with members of the Council,” he said, “to share our perspective and understanding of these ideas that are both divisive and inaccurate.”

Fernandes Anderson did not respond to a request for comment.

Grand Rabbi Y.A. Korff, chaplain for the City of Boston, said he was in the Jerusalem Great Synagogue in Israel when the attack occurred on Oct. 7. He joined other chief rabbis in evacuating the building and taking refuge in bomb shelters when “air raid sirens went off.”

“The blessing of it was I was able to give some comfort to the people and families who were mourning,” Korff said at a Wednesday City Council meeting before leading the body in its weekly prayer.

Korff said he saw photos in the days that followed, of “bullet-ridden babies with their heads cut off,” and comforted a father whose daughter was missing.

The father later received a phone call from his daughter’s cell phone, but it wasn’t her on the other end. It was a member of the terrorist organization Hamas, who said, “I’m about to rape your daughter. I’d like you to listen, and when I’m done, I have friends,” the rabbi recounted.

“This is inhumanity,” Korff said. “This is pure terrorism, barbarism. To support Hamas is unacceptable.”

While Korff said he wasn’t at the council meeting to make a political statement, he did speak about the need to rid the region of Hamas, to support the Palestinians who deserve to “live in freedom and peace within their own state.”

He also criticized some of the protests occurring at home and around the world, “not in sympathy with Palestinian civilians, but supporting what Hamas terrorists did and celebrating it.”

“That’s what’s unacceptable,” Korff said. “I have to stop,” as he began to get upset.

The resolution filed by Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson calling for de-escalation and a cease-fire in Israel and “occupied Palestine” was introduced at a Wednesday City Council meeting in response to one filed earlier in the week by Councilor Michael Flaherty, who wanted to condemn “Hamas and their brutal terrorist acts against Israel.”

“To call them a militant group that launched a massive military operation is completely absurd and disgusting,” Flaherty told the Herald. “That wasn’t a military operation. That was a terrorist attack — and it was the worst barbaric aggression towards innocent Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Councilor Frank Baker also slammed his colleague’s portrayal of Hamas as a “Palestinian militant group” that “launched a massive military operation,” saying he was “at a loss for words” after reading Fernandes Anderson’s resolution.

“It’s a terrorist operation,” Baker said of the Oct. 7 attack. “They dragged people out of their houses. They killed people that were in a concert.”

He spoke favorably of Flaherty’s resolution, however, saying that the City Council needs to “condemn Hamas” and call this month’s slaughter for what it was: “It was a terrorist attack.”

The City Council briefly discussed, but chose not to vote on Flaherty’s resolution at the outset of the meeting. His measure had also called upon the body to express solidarity with the state of Israel and the Israeli people, as well as “innocent Palestinians suffering as the result of the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas.”

It wasn’t until nearly the end of the meeting that Fernandes Anderson brought her resolution, a late file, forward. This prompted another discussion, one that became considerably more heated as Fernandes Anderson became emotional over “innocent children” that she said had been killed as a result of the conflict in Israel and Gaza.

Her resolution states that Israel’s policies and actions toward the Palestinian people have been recognized by international human rights groups as “apartheid,” and that Israel’s recent actions to cut electricity, fuel and water sources from Gaza constitute “war crimes.”

“If you’re killing innocent children, in my eyes, you’re a terrorist,” Fernandes Anderson said. “I don’t know what ethnicity you are, what religion you are. No matter what, you’re a terrorist. You’re a horrible person.”

While her resolution prompted blowback from conservative-leaning councilors, the measure was co-sponsored and supported by another progressive, Julia Mejia, who praised Fernandes Anderson for her “courage” in calling for a cease-fire.

“I’m hoping that in standing in solidarity with calling for de-escalation of the cease-fire, it is a pathway towards love,” Mejia said. “We all hope what we can do is bring about peace in the Middle East.”

Earlier in the meeting, Mejia spoke against taking a vote on Flaherty’s resolution, however, stating that the City Council was told a few months ago to “focus on city business,” when one of her colleagues put forward a measure pertaining to Cuba.

Both resolutions were sent to the Committee of the Whole for a public hearing, after objections to a vote being taken Wednesday. Gabriela Coletta had objected to a vote on Flaherty’s measure, and Sharon Durkan objected to the one introduced by Fernandes Anderson.

In making her objection, Coletta said a public hearing would allow for a more “nuanced conversation” on the matter.

Coletta said that while she rejects the terrorism that occurred in Israel “at the hands of Hamas,” she also recognizes that what has transpired since has caused “immeasurable pain and suffering” to Palestinians with no connection to Hamas.

The objections, per City Council rules, effectively prohibited further discussion.

While the two resolutions led to strong disagreement among councilors, the Boston Police Department was prepared for the situation to escalate further.

Police officers formed a blockade at the entrance of City Hall about an hour before the meeting began, and restricted elevator access to the fifth floor, where the City Council chamber is located.

Word got out earlier in the week that Flaherty filed a resolution calling for solidarity with Israel, prompting some blowback on social media — particularly from Fernandes Anderson, who baited her colleague on the site formerly known as Twitter with pro-Palestinian posts.

A small contingent of community members made their way into the Iannella Chamber, however, leaving after an impassioned speech from Fernandes Anderson, while chanting, “Stop the genocide.”

A protest was held about two hours later outside City Hall.

The meeting kicked off with Councilor Erin Murphy inviting Rabbi Y.A. Korff to lead the weekly prayer. Upon hearing that Korff was in Israel on the day of the Hamas attack, Flaherty asked that the rabbi share a firsthand account.

The rabbi spoke about seeing pictures of babies in their cribs riddled with bullets, and of comforting a father who got a call from a member of Hamas, saying that he’d like the man to listen while he raped his daughter.

“When I’m done, I have friends,” the father was told.

Councilors Ricardo Arroyo, Kendra Lara, Ruthzee Louijeune and Brian Worrell were absent from the day’s meeting.

After chairing a seven-plus hour working session on the ordinance Monday, City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who is tasked with pulling the matter from committee and calling for a vote, texted his colleagues Tuesday evening to inform them that he tested positive for COVID-19.

“I will bring it out for a vote next week,” Arroyo told the Herald Tuesday.

The Wu administration had wanted the City Council to vote on the mayor’s anti-encampment ordinance Wednesday, Arroyo said at the working session.

The 60-day order, which would give police the authority to take down tents and tarps provided that individuals are offered shelter and transportation to services, was filed by Mayor Michelle Wu on Aug. 28.

It would automatically go into effect at the end of this month, if the City Council were to take no action. Next week’s meeting is the final chance for a vote.

A majority of councilors have cited concerns with the ordinance, placing the mayor’s plan for the troubled area in jeopardy. Arroyo is among the several who have stated that they would not be voting for the measure.

Failure to comply with this law has led to injury and death for state troopers, firefighters and tow truck operators, state police union representatives testified at a Tuesday legislative hearing, where several bills on the matter were considered.

“It is imperative to protect our first responders so we can protect you,” said Patrick McNamara, president of the State Police Association. “Failure to obey this law results in lives disrupted, irrevocably altered and lost in a blink of an eye.”

“Virtually every instance” where a motorist failed to slow down and move over, and then ultimately hit a first responder was preventable, he added.

Three proposed bills are seeking to update what state Sen. Walter Timilty called an “archaic” penalty structure that caps fines at $100 per vehicle, “which simply is not a deterrent in this day and age.”

Under the proposal, fines would increase to $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second offense, and $1,000 for all subsequent offenses. In instances where violations result in “bodily injury” to an individual, the fine would increase to $2,500 and the offender could face up to a year in prison.

McNamara said the State Police Association is requesting that the legislation considered at the day’s Joint Committee on Transportation hearing be recognized as the Trooper Thomas Devlin bill.

Devlin was struck by a passing vehicle on Route 3 in Billerica, on July 26, 2018, and endured what his widow, Nancy Devlin, described as “six grueling surgeries” before succumbing to “complications of blunt force injuries” two years later.

The 35-year State Police veteran had been conducting a traffic stop on foot when he was hit by a car. The motorist who hit him, Kevin Francis, was sentenced to 18 months in jail in April 2022. At the time her husband was struck, however, the penalty was just a $100 civil infraction, Devlin said.

“The operator veered into the breakdown lane at highway speed and he never touched his brakes,” Devlin said. “He was not paying attention. He did not slow down or move over. My husband sustained severe and catastrophic injuries including a devastating traumatic brain injury.”

The crash left Trooper Devlin with “profound” cognitive deficiencies, and “he lost every level of his functionality,” his widow said, adding that the loss to their family has been “immeasurable.”

“He adored me and our kids and he wanted nothing more than to come home safely to us,” Devlin said, while flanked by her two sons. “One operator completely and devastatingly changed the trajectory of our lives forever.”

Trooper Christopher Johnson, legislative aide for the state police union, said he was “pretty damn lucky” to be able to testify in front of the committee, given that he was struck by a vehicle traveling “87 miles per hour” over Interstate 495 in August 2017.

Johnson said he was diagnosed with a Grade 3 concussion, splenic laceration, and permanent disc damage to his back. He is recovered and back to work, he said, but will have to “live with those injuries for the rest of his life.”

Nick Allen, who was struck by a car on Interstate 93 in Randolph this past June, may not be so lucky. It’s unclear if he will “ever come back to work in his capacity as a state trooper,” Johnson said.

The day’s testimony pointed to potential favorable action from the joint committee. Timilty, a committee member, testified in favor, and Senate Chair Brendan Crighton put forward a separate bill that would further amend the “move over law” to include utility and disabled vehicles.

“We’ve been favorable toward this kind of fix so we’ll all be optimistic about it,” House Committee Chair William Straus said.

The toddler was seen inside a car parked in a lot on Massachusetts Avenue last Thursday night, with his mother asleep behind the wheel, but it wasn’t until past 8 a.m. the following morning that a street outreach worker alerted authorities about a woman with a “baby” on Southampton Street, a Boston Police report states.

Southampton and its surrounding areas, the report notes, “are known for the avid use of drugs, illegal drug sales, human trafficking and violence.”

“I think it’s a troubling development,” Flynn told the Herald Monday. “I want to first acknowledge the professionalism of our first responders, but having a child in the Mass and Cass zone is horrific, and it’s certainly child endangerment.”

Flynn sent an email to Dr. Bisola Ojikuto, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, on Monday night, requesting an investigation into the matter, to determine how long and how often the child has been there.

He also wants to know whether this was an isolated incident or if other children have been found in the area, including underneath the tents on Atkinson Street.

The BPHC deferred comment to the Department of Children and Families, which has taken custody of the child, and to the report provided by Boston Police. A spokesperson for DCF said it has received a 51A child abuse or neglect form for the incident, and “is investigating.”

According to the police report, the 34-year-old woman stated she was on Southampton Street last Friday morning because her car was towed from a McDonald’s parking lot, at 870 Mass. Ave., the night before.

The woman claimed to have spent much of the night with her son at Boston Medical Center, to stay warm and charge her phone. She said she left the hospital at approximately 6:30 a.m., and headed toward Topeka Street to get “dosed” at a methadone clinic, the Boston Comprehensive Treatment Center, the report states.

Police were informed by security officers, however, that the woman was seen on Atkinson Street last Thursday night, “pushing a stroller with a baby inside of it.” She was also seen at the nearby Alltown gas station, “nodding off” by a gas tank the following morning, at 7:35 a.m., with her child present, the report states.

Officers had also been alerted to a woman who was apparently asleep behind the wheel of her car in the McDonald’s parking lot shortly after 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Her car was towed for an expired registration, the report states.

It wasn’t until past 8 a.m. the following morning that the woman and toddler’s presence at Mass and Cass was called into authorities by a street outreach worker, the report states.

Tania Del Rio, the city’s Mass and Cass coordinator, said at a Monday Council hearing that the incident was called in “as soon as staff laid eyes on the child.” He spent the night there, she said.

The woman was questioned by police and a fire lieutenant in front of the nearby fire department headquarters on Southampton Street. She had previously been accompanied by a man “who was under the influence of an unknown substance,” Fire Lt. Gary Cullinane told officers.

The man, identified as the boy’s father, was not on scene when police arrived. Albert Giannini, 37, was later arrested on two active warrants, charging him with operating under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of a Class A drug, a category that includes heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and LSD.

At the time of the interview, police and fire personnel noted how cold it was. The toddler was wearing only a single layer, despite the temperature being between 40 and 45 degrees, the report states.

Due to the inconsistencies in the woman’s story, police could not confirm if the child had “spent the night in adequate shelter,” the report states.

“It is very disturbing to me that a child was exposed to the unsafe and unhealthy environment on Atkinson Street for an extended period of time before authorities knew and stepped in to remove them,” City Councilor Erin Murphy told the Herald. “It highlights the public health and safety emergency that has been happening in the area for a very long time now.”

Flynn said Atkinson Street was “festered with mice and rats” when he and Murphy walked through the area two weeks ago to get to the Southampton Street shelter, and he was “troubled by the open-air drug market and drug use in public.”

There are “stabbings, shootings, drug dealings, rapes and sex trafficking happening all the time and it needs to come to an end,” Murphy added.

“We can no longer ignore it and we need to use all of our public health and first responder supports to stop another child from being down on Mass and Cass,” she said.

Encampments have been seen downtown near South Station, behind the Steriti Memorial Rink in the North End, between Lambert’s Market and the Murphy School, and near a bowling alley off of Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester, a City Hall source told the Herald.

There has also been tent activity in Roxbury, the South End, Moakley Park, and at the state-owned Carson Beach, the source said. Further, an encampment is at Stony Brook Reservation, DCR-regulated land located near the city-owned George Wright Golf Course, according to Boston’s parks and recreation commissioner.

“There are smaller encampments that are now starting to pop up in surrounding neighborhoods, and it’s being driven by how dangerous Mass and Cass has become,” City Councilor Michael Flaherty told the Herald Saturday.

Flaherty said that while Methadone Mile’s typical inhabitants may be congregating there during the day to engage in the open-air drug market culture, and obtain “drug kits” passed out by the city, they’re not sleeping over there.

“They’re sleeping in playgrounds and tot lots and ballfields and behind skating rinks, and on park benches,” Flaherty said.

These people are trying to avoid the uptick in violence, he said, which prompted the mayor to roll out a new plan in late August, aimed at cracking down on the crime occurring in the troubled area.

The City Council is currently weighing an anti-encampment ordinance proposed by Mayor Michelle Wu as part of that plan, and could vote on the measure as soon as Wednesday.

If approved, police would be given the authority to remove tents and tarps, provided that individuals are offered housing and transportation to services.

Authorities would no longer be required to give a 48-hour heads up before removal, which Police Commissioner Michael Cox said last month creates a “whack-a-mole” effect, where the encampments pop up in other locations.

Of the latest encampments, a Wu spokesperson said, “The ordinance will apply citywide and will allow for enforcement by all law enforcement entities in the city.”

For tents on state-owned properties, the spokesperson said the city is in “ongoing discussions with state agencies about the ordinance,” including State, MBTA and campus police departments, “as we prepare for enforcement.”

“We currently work closely with State Police when folks move onto the connector by Mass and Cass, and have a weekly meeting with (Executive Office of Health and Human Services) leadership,” the city spokesperson said. “BPD and State Police will be meeting on Monday, and the enforcement of the ordinance on state-patrolled property will be discussed.”

The Department of Conservation and Recreation is reviewing the situation at Stony Brook Reservation, where the city parks commissioner says an encampment is located. Further, DCR removed a single abandoned tent at Carson Beach last weekend, at the request of State Police, a DCR spokesperson said.

Whether the mayor’s ordinance will be approved, however, is uncertain following a hearing on the matter late last month, when only two city councilors indicated that they would be voting in favor.

Progressive councilors cited concerns with the legality of such an ordinance, while more conservative-leaning ones were unhappy with the housing-first approach, when they felt the focus should be on getting addicts into detox and treatment.

City Councilor Erin Murphy said an ordinance is “not needed to end the criminal activity” occurring in the Mass and Cass zone. The measure may get more ‘no’ votes if it adds more low-threshold housing in the South End, she said.

“My hope is that the ordinance passes so we can once and for all remove the tents, but if the ordinance does not pass, my hope is that the mayor will take appropriate action and remove the tents,” Flaherty said.

Flaherty, who chairs the Council’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee, says this new encampment activity has led to an increase in break-ins and attempted breaks in residential neighborhoods, most of which has gone unreported.

He anticipates these break-ins and attempts, where an individual tries a doorknob to see if it’s open but claims to have the wrong house and moves on if it’s occupied, will increase during the colder months.

Homeless perpetrators are somewhat protected from being charged for these offenses, as part of the Suffolk District Attorney’s 15-item “decline-to-prosecute” list implemented by former DA Rachael Rollins in 2019.

A prior Suffolk DA memo states that prosecution should be a final resort for breaking and entering into a vacant property to sleep or escape cold and no property damage, and breaking and entering into a non-vacant property to sleep or escape the cold, with property damage.

“We’re starting to see in the surrounding neighborhoods that they’re getting a little more brazen because there’s no accountability,” Flaherty said. “We have to nip that in the bud immediately.”

When asked whether the Suffolk DA’s office still adheres to the same policy for break-ins, spokesman James Borghesani said “these charging decisions are situational and guided by the facts of the incident and prosecutor discretion.”

Boston Police officers responded to a report of a person shot at 1194 Blue Hill Ave. shortly before 12:30 a.m. Saturday, and found a man in his 20s “suffering from apparent gunshot wounds,” Superintendent-in-Chief Gregory Long said at an early morning press conference.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. He has not been identified.

“It’s very concerning anytime you have any act of violence,” Long said. “Having two in the short period of time, it is concerning like I said, and we’re doing everything we can to find those individuals that were responsible and hold them accountable.”

The overnight shooting occurred roughly 10 hours after a man was shot and killed in “broad daylight” at 46 Corona St. in Dorchester Friday afternoon. The victim in that instance was also pronounced dead at the scene.

The Boston Police Department’s Homicide Unit is investigating Saturday’s shooting. No arrests have been made, Long said.

“It’s unacceptable for any family in Boston to experience the loss from whatever trauma comes with violence and gun violence on our streets,” Mayor Michelle Wu said at a late morning event in Dorchester. “We remain a city that is entirely focused on public safety. That’s our baseline for everything we do.”

Anyone with information should contact the Homicide Unit at 617-343-4470, or share details anonymously by calling 1-800-494-TIPS or by texting the word “TIP” to CRIME (27463).

Lance Reynolds contributed to this report. 

This is a developing story.

Under the new program, the majority of residents who sign up for a Boston Bike Pass will be charged $60 for an annual Bluebikes membership, a 53% reduction over the regular $129 rate.

The discount is only available to residents who have not had an annual Bluebikes membership for the past three years. That requirement doesn’t extend, however, to income-eligible residents, who will see their annual membership drop from $50 to $5 if they sign up for the city’s new bike pass, Wu’s office said.

“We are incredibly excited to make this more accessible for all of our residents,” Wu said at a Thursday press conference outside City Hall. “We know there’s tremendous hunger and appetite to get out there and find faster, more convenient ways to get around.”

Wu said the bike-share option could serve as an alternative travel mode during the 16-day partial Red Line shutdown that starts this Saturday. She pointed to how Bluebikes usage surged when it was offered as a free mitigation measure during the 30-day Orange Line shutdown that occurred in the summer of 2022.

While high usage did not continue after that particular shutdown, she said Bluebikes numbers from that month-long period indicate that “when financial barriers come down, the interest is there, the energy is there.”

“We want to continue making that possible throughout the year, not just as mitigation to very difficult transportation situations,” Wu said.

The MBTA announced plans to shut down part of the slow-zone-riddled Red Line in late August, with General Manager Phillip Eng saying at the time the lengthy closure will allow the agency to accelerate track work and remove 28 speed restrictions.

Shuttle buses will replace train service between JFK/UMass and Ashmont stations, from Saturday to Oct. 29. The entire Mattapan Line, a trolley service that forms part of the Red Line, will also be closed during that time.

Wu said the city is installing additional Bluebikes docks at Red Line stations, and will be offering a limited number of free passes during the shutdown. She also directed residents to use the Fairmount Commuter Rail Line, which will be free during the closure.

“The Red Line has been a particularly difficult part of the commuting experience and it’s gotten worse over the last several years, and certainly over the last several months,” Wu said. “We’re extremely hopeful that the shutdown will result in significant improvements in the rider experience.”

The day’s press conference concluded with Wu joining a handful of mayors from around the country in a bike ride from City Hall Plaza to the Museum of Science.

Mayor Michelle Wu appeared before Beacon Hill lawmakers for a second straight year on Wednesday to testify in favor of a home rule petition she filed in 2022, that would add a real estate transfer fee for sales that exceed $2 million.

The seller would incur the fee, with proceeds payable to the City of Boston. The city would then deposit the money into a neighborhood housing trust, for the purpose of furthering housing acquisition, affordability, creation and preservation, and senior-homeowner and low-income-renter stability, the legislation states.

“We’re doing everything we can at the city level,” Wu said, citing efforts to overhaul the city’s zoning code for more housing affordability, provide tax incentives for converting offices into residential buildings, and provide financial assistance to homebuyers.

“But the one powerful tool that remains out of reach without legislative and gubernatorial approval is a transfer fee,” the mayor added at a Joint Committee on Revenue hearing at the State House.

In her testimony for the proposed bill, H.2793, Wu cited statistics that show roughly half of renters, and more than 40% of households, are cost-burdened, meaning that they pay more than 30% of their income on housing costs.

Rising housing costs are “deepening racial and socioeconomic disparities,” she added, pointing to stats that show nearly 60% of renters of color are cost-burdened compared to 38% of white renters.

A “modest 2% transfer fee,” Wu said, would translate to $50,000 for a $2.5 million property sale. Based on 2021 data, the fee would have affected roughly 7% of sales that occurred that year, and generated up to $100 million in local revenue, she said.

“Revenue raised through this fee will help us build supportive housing and ensure that our seniors can stay in their homes,” Wu said. “It will help build new homes for families who have been forced out by skyrocketing prices and make it possible for more first-time homebuyers to put down roots and raise their families here in Boston.”

Testifying alongside the mayor was state Rep. Brandy Fluker Oakley, who filed the proposed legislation that grew out of Wu’s home rule petition, which was approved by the Boston City Council last year.

The bill was among a number of transfer fee petitions considered by the joint committee on Wednesday. Also lobbying for the fee were officials from Amherst, Arlington, Cambridge, Chatham, the Cape and Islands, Provincetown, Somerville, Truro, and Wellfleet.

Noting the Legislature’s past resistance to imposing a real estate transfer fee, Wu said Boston’s proposal differs from prior years, in that it would create a provision to increase the number of people eligible for the 41C senior property tax exemption, “nearly doubling the amount of seniors who could stay in their homes.”

The bill, which needs to be greenlit by the committee, faces strong opposition from industry groups. In its submitted written testimony, the Greater Boston Real Estate Board said a “new real estate tax will harm the economy, further constrain housing and is simply a bad tax policy.”

Such a tax would strip “hard-earned sweat equity” for sellers looking to put that money toward a down payment on a new home. Increasing the cost of selling a home would penalize existing residents who want to stay in their communities, and in some cases, price buyers of the market, the board’s statement said.

Further, the board states that Massachusetts cities and towns were already granted the authority to impose a property tax surcharge of up to 3% to pay for affordable housing, 22 years ago, through the Community Preservation Act.

Creating new taxes, especially on housing, in the wake of last week’s “historic” tax relief bill, “would move the state backwards,” Mark Kavanagh, government affairs committee chair for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, added.

“Transfer taxes will harm our communities — they are unfair,” Kavanagh said. “In our opinion, taxing a small percentage of a population for the gain of an entire community sets a bad precedent.”

The body’s 7-5 vote on Wednesday releases four years worth of funding to the intelligence arm of the city’s police department, money that has been earmarked by the state since fiscal year 2020, but had been held up by the City Council.

“At the end of the day, BRIC helps solve crimes, particularly violent crime, homicides,” City Councilor Michael Flaherty said. “BRIC brings justice and some solace, a little bit of peace and a little bit of closure to those that have had a loved one killed in the streets of Boston.”

The funding will go toward improving technology aimed at fighting crime, gangs and terrorism. It will allow the intelligence center to hire eight additional analysts, four of whom will “monitor active events and communicate in real time,” Mayor Michelle Wu, who filed the grants, wrote in a letter to the City Council.

“The BRIC provides invaluable intelligence gathering and data to keep our city safe and prevent crime,” City Council President Ed Flynn said.

“We want intelligent police,” Councilor Frank Baker added. “We don’t want the opposite of an intelligent police force.”

In a Wednesday statement, the mayor praised the Council for voting to advance the grant funding, saying that the BRIC plays a “critical role” in providing the intel and analysis to “close gaps through deploying coordinated resources and service.”

“With the leadership, culture and oversight in place today, I am confident in the Boston Police Department’s capacity and commitment to keep our communities safe, and will continue to ensure that Boston is implementing necessary changes to build community trust and collaboration,” Wu said.

Most of the opposition centered around the BRIC’s gang database, which critics say is racially discriminatory in that it disproportionately tracks people of color.

The five councilors who voted against the grants were unconvinced that reforms, through new leadership at the police department and efforts to purge inactive names from the database, have done enough to repair prior harms.

“I don’t believe it makes us safer,” Councilor Ricardo Arroyo said. “They haven’t proven their worth and the fact that they’re currently under investigation for possible civil rights abuses and racial discrimination makes it impossible for me to vote for these grants today.”

Councilor Kendra Lara said a vote in favor of funding the BRIC was “regressive,” and one that points to a city “moving backwards on police reform.”

“We should not only be moving funding away from BRIC, we should be looking at how to get rid of the gang database altogether,” Lara said. “I am a little discouraged that it is evident this vote is going to fall along racial lines.”

Councilors Gabriela Coletta and Liz Breadon voted in favor while calling for more accountability, transparency and oversight of the entity. Coletta called for the body to hold bi-annual hearings with BPD to “help us get the lid off of BRIC.”

Flaherty, who criticized the City Council’s vote to reject $2.5 million in BRIC funding three weeks ago, challenged opposing councilors to put “your money where your mouth is” and do the work to hold the intelligence center accountable.

“Don’t be an obstacle, be a partner,” Flaherty said. “Today’s BRIC is not the BRIC of two years ago, not the BRIC of five years ago, not the BRIC of 10 years ago. Give them an opportunity to earn the respect and trust we’re willing to offer them.”

Frank Baker, Liz Breadon, Gabriela Coletta, Sharon Durkan, Ed Flynn, Michael Flaherty and Erin Murphy voted to approve the BRIC grants. Ricardo Arroyo, Kendra Lara, Ruthzee Louijeune, Julia Mejia and Brian Worrell voted in opposition. Tania Fernandes Anderson was absent from the day’s meeting.

The City Council voted unanimously, however, to approve a $1 million federal grant for the police department, to detect “nuclear and other radioactive materials.”

“I’m proud to endorse Ben Weber to represent District 6 on the City Council,” Wu said in a Tuesday statement. “As a BPS dad, youth soccer coach, neighborhood council member and attorney fighting for workers’ rights, Ben has spent many years actively working for a bright future for our city.

“He’ll be an effective partner on the policies and constituent services for Boston to be the best city for families,” she added.

Weber, of Jamaica Plain, was the top vote-getter in a September preliminary that eliminated Lara. He will face off against William King, an information technology specialist from West Roxbury, in the Nov. 7 general election.

“I am deeply honored to earn the support of Mayor Wu,” Weber said in a Tuesday statement. “We share the same progressive ideals and, if elected, I look forward to working with the mayor to make the city a healthier, more equitable place to live for all Bostonians.”

Of the decision to back his opponent, King said “the mayor has the right to support whomever she likes.”

“I was certainly not surprised by her decision, as it seems consistent with other endorsements she has made in the past in campaigns with similar dynamics,” King said.

Wu endorsed Weber’s boss Shannon Liss-Riordan in last year’s Democratic preliminary over now-Attorney General Andrea Campbell. Weber is an attorney with Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C.

“A candidate’s lived experience and track record of involvement in their community matters when it comes to deciding who our next city councilor should be,” King said.

The endorsement, first reported by Politico, is the mayor’s latest effort to reshape a City Council prone to infighting and scandals over the past two years. Her flex has proved successful thus far.

Sharon Durkan, a political fundraiser who worked for the mayor when she was a city councilor, won a special election for District 8, a seat left vacant when Wu appointed Kenzie Bok to lead the Boston Housing Authority. Durkan will have to beat her opponent, Montez Haywood, an assistant Suffolk district attorney, again in November to keep her new seat.

Enrique Pepén, who worked as the executive director of the Boston Office of Neighborhood Services under Wu, was the top vote-getter for District 5 in the preliminary, which knocked off Ricardo Arroyo. Pepén faces retired Boston Police officer Jose Ruiz, who was backed by former Mayor Marty Walsh.

Wu endorsed another of her former employees, Henry Santana, in an at-large race that opened up when longtime Councilor Michael Flaherty decided against seeking re-election. Santana was the mayor’s director of civic organizing.

James Rooney, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, wrote a letter in support of advancing $3.4 million to fund the BRIC, money that has been earmarked by the state for the past four years, but held up by the council.

The City Council is expected to vote on funding the intelligence arm of the city’s police department on Wednesday, three weeks after rejecting three $850,000 grants set aside for the BRIC. A fourth $850,000 grant was later filed by the mayor.

“The Chamber continues to hear from concerned workers, residents, community leaders, business owners and the broader public about the recent rise in shootings and violent incidents,” Rooney wrote in a letter to the Council. “Funds for appropriate and necessary technology utilized for anti-crime and emergency response will help address the violence in all of Boston’s neighborhoods.”

Rooney said the funding would bolster “data-driven policing that will support the highest quality of life and healthier business climate.” His letter states that crime increased by 7% in downtown Boston for the first half of 2023.

During the previous 19 months, the Boston Police Department was called to the Macy’s department store in Downtown Crossing nearly 150 times for reports of disturbances, threats and acts of violence. In other neighborhoods, shootings and violence continue and remain unsolved, the letter states.

“Community leaders have expressed that the safety and well-being of the public is at a crisis point, and police funding is needed to quell recent violence,” Rooney wrote.

The BRIC grants, from fiscal years 2020-23, would go toward improving technology aimed at fighting crime, gangs and terrorism. It would allow the department to hire eight analysts, Police Commissioner Michael Cox said at a Friday City Council committee hearing.

The Chamber joined Mayor Michelle Wu and City Council President Ed Flynn in posturing ahead of Wednesday’s vote on the BRIC grants, in light of the opposition raised by progressive-leaning councilors and members of the community at last week’s hearing.

Most of the opposition centered around the BRIC’s gang database, which critics say is racially discriminatory, in that it disproportionately tracks people of color.

Rooney’s letter, while sent to the Council last Thursday, was shared via one of the Chamber’s social media pages on Monday. Wu’s office shared a letter the mayor sent to the City Council on Tuesday, explaining why she flipped on her prior opposition to the BRIC, which included voting down an $850,000 grant in 2021.

Flynn’s office also shared a statement, saying that the council president would be voting in favor of the grants on Wednesday. Flynn joined Councilors Frank Baker, Liz Breadon, Michael Flaherty and Erin Murphy in voting in favor last month.

The mayor’s letter reiterates what she stated on a radio appearance last week. Wu wrote that new leadership at the city’s police department and efforts to clear names that were no longer relevant from the BRIC’s gang database caused her to change her earlier view.

As a mayoral candidate, Wu stated support for abolishing the BRIC and dismantling the gang database.

In 2021, the mayor’s letter states, new regulations were put in place that required BPD to remove inactive individuals on a regular basis, which led to 609 names being purged from the database in 2021, and 1,836 in 2022. Wu also pointed to a city ordinance that created the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency.

“In order to most effectively deploy our investments and resources to reduce gun violence and other types of crime within our neighborhoods, we must invest in public safety intelligence and analysis,” Wu wrote.

During Friday’s hearing, Councilor Julia Mejia, who called for abolishing the BRIC in 2021, had requested that the mayor provide an explanation “on the record,” saying that she would not consider voting in favor of the grants otherwise.

“Many of us do not believe that BRIC is operating with the best intentions of Black and brown and Muslims and people of diverse experiences,” Mejia said. “We do not have that data that affirms us, that makes us believe that you have our best interests in mind. This is not about an anti-police situation. This is about people’s civil liberties.”

Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune expressed similar sentiments. Citing prior court rulings made against the gang database, she said, “I don’t see a reason to trust the data the BRIC is collecting.”

Cox said, however, that the data-driven work done by the BRIC “is not about vilifying people of color. It’s really about identifying … the people who are driving the crime, violent crime in our city, and keeping track of that information.”

By tying non-transferable licenses to 10 ZIP codes, the legislation seeks to remedy inequities created by the city’s current structure, which allows licenses to be transferred from the targeted neighborhoods to wealthier areas like the downtown and Seaport, Wu told a joint legislative committee.

“We have a system now where some neighborhoods have more than 60 liquor licenses, and some have fewer than 10,” Wu said. “It is those neighborhoods that are often home to lower-income residents, residents of color, where there are hardly any sit-down restaurants, if at all.”

This is due in part to a lack of available licenses. When a bar or restaurant shuts down, the license is sometimes sold by businesses on a so-called secondary market.

Driven by high demand, the cost of these privately sold licenses, at $600,000-plus, is prohibitive to “new entrepreneurs representing different cultures,” Wu said.

“That means that when they open up, they often get pulled to areas of the city with higher foot traffic, wealthier areas, less diverse and representative of all of the cultures of Boston,” she said.

Today’s system operates as a “zero-sum game,” added City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, who, along with Councilors Brian Worrell and Ricardo Arroyo co-sponsored the home rule petition passed by the body and signed by the mayor in March.

“Each new establishment in areas like the Seaport often means a closure of a restaurant elsewhere,” Louijeune said. “This creates a competitive environment where growth in one neighborhood comes at the expense of another.”

She added, “By adding more liquor licenses, we can break the zero-sum cycle and promote growth throughout the city without displacing existing businesses.”

The legislation would seek to remedy that by tying 250 non-transferrable liquor licenses to 10 of the city’s 38 ZIP codes, 02119, 02121, 02122, 02124, 02125, 02126, 02128, 02131, 02132, and 02136 — areas including Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, Roslindale, East Boston and Hyde Park.

It would make five new licenses available a year for five years for each ZIP code. Three of those would be all-alcohol and two for sales of wine and liquor.

Unlike the current system, city officials said, the licenses could not be sold or transferred if a bar or restaurant were to close. Rather, the license would revert back to the city’s licensing board for issuance in the same ZIP code.

While much of the day’s hearing featured advocacy from an array of restaurateurs, city and state officials, members of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure did raise a number of concerns with the petition.

“I don’t understand why the city hasn’t tried to recapture those licenses that were extracted from the neighborhoods and remove that type of practice, which seems to be more predatory,” state Rep. David LeBoeuf said of the secondary market, “and essentially affects the communities that are looking for more licenses.”

Committee members questioned whether there would be demand for 250 new liquor licenses in the targeted neighborhoods over the next five years. They also raised concerns about a potential monopoly in a designated area in terms of an owner snatching up all five available licenses.

“Bringing in more licensure and restaurants sometimes can be viewed as the first step in gentrification,” Mary Keefe, the House committee vice chair, said.

To become law, the bill, sponsored by state Rep. Christopher Worrell and Sen. Liz Miranda, would need to pass the full Legislature and be signed by the governor.

Six of 13 councilors indicated they would vote in favor of funding the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), but the same number cited concerns with its gang database, which the state’s attorney general is investigating for possible racial bias.

“Public safety is paramount for our city,” said Councilor Michael Flaherty, who chaired a Friday committee hearing on the matter. “I know the important role BRIC plays in each and every homicide in the city of Boston. They don’t go around tooting their own horn. It’s a team effort.”

Acknowledging the concerns from his colleagues, most of which came from councilors of color, and testimony from community members who said they have been unfairly targeted by the BRIC’s gang database, Flaherty urged police to purge the names of people who “shouldn’t be on there.”

“I think we’re all in agreement, if there’s someone on that list that should not be on that list, as the chair, on behalf of this body, that name has to come off and we need to make some adjustments,” he said. “If that’s happening, that has to stop. If it’s already stopped, obviously that’s welcome news.”

Earlier this month, Flaherty pushed for bypassing a hearing and called for an immediate vote on three $850,000 state grants, earmarked for the purpose of improving technology aimed at fighting crime, gangs and terrorism.

The funds were rejected by the City Council, 7-5, prompting Mayor Michelle Wu to refile the three grants, from fiscal years 2021-23, and file a fourth of the same amount, from FY20. The body has now voted to reject the grants three times.

Police Commissioner Michael Cox said he is “dumbfounded” that the BRIC is not “so well-received” for the work that it does, which “is so central to do what we do as a police department.”

“The work that they do is not about vilifying people of color,” Cox said. “It’s really about identifying the people who are driving the violent crime in our city, and you’re keeping track of that information.”

The funds, he said, would help to fill several gaps in BRIC’s analytical operation, by hiring eight civilian analysts, positions that would be sustained for five years. Today, the BRIC is understaffed in that area, with only one analyst per shift on duty from Friday to Monday, police officials said.

The gang database is a “relatively small part of what we do,” and the requested funding would not be directed to that component of the BRIC, according to its Deputy Director Ryan Walsh, who said three-fourths of its 52-member personnel is devoted to its anti-terrorism initiative.

Regardless of where the funding is going, city councilors who spoke in opposition were most concerned about the gang database, which critics say disproportionately tracks people of color.

“As a first-term city councilor, I can’t say I have enough information to see that you are out in our communities for good and not for discrimination,” said Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, later adding, “I don’t see a reason to trust the data that the BRIC is collecting.”

Councilor Julia Mejia, who has called for abolishing the BRIC in the past, criticized the mayor for flipping on her past opposition.

As a city councilor, in 2021, Wu voted down one of the $850,000 grants. That year, while campaigning for mayor, she stated support for abolishing the BRIC and dismantling the gang database, but is now asking the Council to fund the entity.

“I’d love to hear from her, because if she can convince me as to why we’re doing this right now, then she might be able to provide me with some clarity on the record,” Mejia said. “Because if you want me to switch it up, you’re going to have to explain it to me. Otherwise, I’m not going there.”

Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who as a city councilor recommended that the body reject a BRIC grant in 2021, launched an investigation of the database and the police department’s gang unit this past May.

In 2019, in response to a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, the city’s police department released data that showed of the roughly 5,000 people listed on its gang database, 66% were Black, 24% were Latino and 2% were white.

In 2021, the police department changed its rules around how names were added to the gang database. Since that time, 2,494 inactive names were removed, including 49 in 2023, 1,836 in 2022, and 609 in 2021, Walsh said.

Names are added based on “reasonable suspicion” that someone is engaging in criminal activity on behalf of an organization, Walsh said. There are 85 gangs in Boston, he said.

City Council President Ed Flynn, along with Councilors Frank Baker, Liz Breadon, Sharon Durkan, Flaherty, and Erin Murphy all indicated they would vote in favor at Friday’s hearing.

While Mejia called for another hearing, Flaherty has stated he wants to quickly call for another vote on the grants.

“I’ll take that under advisement,” he said. “I appreciate your opinion, but they’ve been waiting since 2020.”

While most councilors agreed that the tents should be taken down, the opposition ranged from doubts about whether an ordinance to remove them was necessary to the legalities of a measure some felt criminalizes homelessness to skepticism about an approach that was characterized as putting housing before treatment.

Only two councilors, Sharon Durkan and Ruthzee Louijeune, indicated that they would be voting in favor of the ordinance, which would give police the authority to remove tents and tarps on Methadone Mile, provided that individuals are offered housing and transportation to services.

“I don’t feel like there’s any evidence that this is actually helping in the same way in which I believe other programs and other efforts that you have led in a very specific way,” City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who chaired the day’s committee hearing, told a panel of Wu administration officials.

“My concern is that unlike other things that we can afford to get wrong, if you get this wrong, more people die. More people are harmed. That’s a very different consequence. You don’t get to unroll that,” Arroyo added.

Arroyo was among the three councilors who expressed outright opposition to the mayor’s anti-encampment ordinance, which Wu proposed in late August as part of her three-pronged plan for tackling increased crime in the Mass and Cass zone.

He, Frank Baker and Kendra Lara all stated that police already have that authority, and an ordinance is, thus, not necessary. The three differ, however, in other aspects of their disapproval, which, in the case of Baker, hinges more on the shelter and housing component of the mayor’s plan.

“I believe in my heart of hearts we’re going down the wrong path,” Baker said, adding that the focus should be on getting people into treatment, rather than trying to set them up in housing, where addicts will continue to use drugs.

“We don’t need this ordinance,” he said. “This ordinance is a way for this administration to try to spread blame across this body right here. If my voice were listened to in this conversation, I wouldn’t mind taking some of the blame, but my voice isn’t being listened to.”

Arroyo and Lara were more concerned with the legalities of the ordinance. Arroyo pointed to constitutional challenges other large cities have faced when trying to clear out homeless encampments, saying there’s “no evidence” similar laws have worked in other parts of the country.

Tania Del Rio, the city’s Mass and Cass coordinator, disputed this, saying what Boston is trying to do is innovative and thus, isn’t comparable to what’s been implemented in other cities.

The other two parts of the mayor’s plan, a new 30-bed shelter in the South End to temporarily house individuals displaced by the ordinance and an increased police presence, do not require City Council approval.

They are somewhat intertwined, however, meaning that a vote against the anti-encampment ordinance may put a damper on the entire approach.

For example, more police would be deployed to enforce the ban, prevent encampments from reoccurring in other locations and restore Atkinson Street to a tent-free public way.

Further, the new shelter would open only after the ordinance is passed, and enforcement begins. It would shut down after the individuals occupying the 30 beds are connected with permanent and low-threshold housing, Wu has said.

This part of the plan has been particularly controversial, with some dubbing it a “fourth shelter” in the South End.

City Council President Ed Flynn, who represents the area, raised concerns about the shelter on Thursday but spoke favorably of other parts of the plan, saying that the tents should come down “immediately.”

“There can’t any longer be a climate in Boston where anything goes,” Flynn said. “People have to follow the rules and if you don’t follow the rules, there has to be consequences for that.”

Louijeune spoke favorably of the plan as well, saying, “I think this ordinance provides an opportunity to get people out of inhumane situations and at the same time, when we read language, a bed that is practically available.”

Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the ordinance would remove the 48-hour notice his officers are required to give before removing tents and tarps, which creates a “whack-a-mole” effect, where the encampments pop up in other locations.

The intent of the ordinance, Cox said, is to separate the people in need of shelter and services from the criminals coming to the area to engage in its open-air drug market and prey on the vulnerable.

There was a significant uptick in crime in the Mass and Cass zone in July and August, compared to that time period last year, he said.

While the intersection only accounts for 2.5% of the city’s land area, it comprises 8% of violent crime reports, 5% of property crime reports, and 6% of arrests, Cox said.

The two 12-0 votes taken by the body on Wednesday, to both fund the contract in the fiscal year 2024 budget and reduce the city’s collective bargaining coffers by that amount, represent the final step in a lengthy bargaining process.

Boston Firefighters Local 718 had been working with an expired contract for two and a half years prior to the new agreement, which was tentatively reached with the city on Sept. 3 and ratified by the union’s roughly 1,600 members on Sept. 15.

“Boston firefighters and their families deserve this contract,” Local 718 President Sam Dillon told the Herald Wednesday. “Boston firefighters go to work every single day and they put themselves on the line for this city. To see that recognized at the bargaining table is what we like to see.”

Dillon said he was “very satisfied with the results of this contract,” which provides firefighters with retroactive pay increases of 3% apiece for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, and a 2.5% raise for fiscal year 2024, which began on July 1, 2023.

It also includes a 1.5% increase for hazardous duty compensation, which only includes the current fiscal year, and a nighttime paid detail bump of $8, the latter of which is meant to incentivize work that had grown unappealing due to low compensation, city officials said.

The contract extends from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024, meaning that the two sides will be back at the bargaining table this spring, with the aim of reaching a new three-year agreement, City Councilor Brian Worrell said Wednesday.

“Anyone who wears a badge for this city, and anyone who puts their life on the line for the city of Boston should never have to work without a contract,” Dillon said. “We are grateful that our union and our workforce has been brought up to date.

“Moving forward, we believe it should be a pinnacle focus between Local 718 and the city of Boston, that as long as we’re both here, no boss and firefighter should ever have to go to work under an expired contract,” he added.

Why the prior contract was allowed to expire “predates not only myself and my administration, but the mayor’s office as well,” Dillon said.

The new deal was reached after months of failed negotiations. In April, Local 718 “filed for and received” state intervention with the Joint Labor-Management Committee, which assists in resolving collective bargaining disputes involving municipalities and their police officers and firefighters, Dillon said.

The two sides were able to avoid arbitration, however, an avenue Dillon said the union “never aggressively pursued.”

“We wanted to avoid arbitration and we were able to avoid it, which is in the best interest of the city and union,” he said.

The resulting contract “compares favorably” to the two prior agreements, 2017-18 and 2018-21, a city official told the Herald. It is arguably more union-friendly, given that there are no givebacks, a term for concessions made by a labor union.

The Wu administration plans to pursue fire department reform in future collective bargaining agreements, the official said.

“This was a catch-up contract just to make sure people get paid,” Lou Mandarini, the mayor’s senior advisor for labor, said at a Monday City Council hearing that hashed out the particulars of the contract.

At the committee hearing, councilors were supportive of the new deal, but did push for future language changes aimed at improving parental and military leave policies and diversity in the fire department, which only has 17 female firefighters.

Councilors wanted to see a new position created to “respond to lab-specific emergencies,” according to Worrell, who chaired the committee hearing.

Further, Councilor Michael Flaherty made a pitch for the two sides to come to an agreement on additional compensation for the 150 firefighters who work at BFD headquarters, where heavy-duty planning and hardcore management takes place.

A source familiar with the negotiations said the city had been aggressively pursuing a bump for that stipend, which has not been raised since 2001, but it was ultimately left out of the new deal.

The lack of incentive creates a “revolving door effect” at headquarters, where employees end up leaving because they can “make much more money” and “have an easier life” working in a firehouse, the source said.

All 48 union contracts were expired when Mayor Michelle Wu took office in November 2021. Roughly 90% of the city’s union workforce is now under contract, given the latest agreement with the firefighters, her office said.

The $27.35 million cost of the latest contract brings the city’s collective bargaining balance to $48.3 million, for fiscal year 2024, Budget Director James Williamson said at Monday’s hearing.

The snub was largely shrugged off, however, by many other councilors who either left immediately after stating that they, like the mayor’s team, were prioritizing a Thursday hearing on Michelle Wu’s anti-encampment ordinance, or chose to skip out on the day’s session entirely.

“I do think it’s a shame that the administration is willing to forgo this opportunity,” City Councilor Erin Murphy, who chaired the day’s committee hearing, said. “We all know it’s a tragedy and it’s, in my opinion, unprecedented in our city’s history in both its severity and its duration.”

She added, “We will all be judged on how we respond to this tragedy. So far, I’m afraid, I think many would agree that the city has fallen short in its response and the lack of accountability is deeply troubling to me.”

Murphy joined three other councilors, Frank Baker, Michael Flaherty and the body’s President Ed Flynn in calling upon the Boston Public Health Commission to declare a state of emergency at Mass and Cass in a Sept. 1 letter.

The Board of Health discussed the request at its Sept. 13 meeting, but “determined that the confluence of issues concentrated at Mass and Cass does not meet the legal standard for a declaration of public health state of emergency,” Neil Doherty, the mayor’s acting director of intergovernmental relations, wrote in a Tuesday morning letter to Murphy.

The Wu administration declined to make any of its representatives available for Tuesday’s committee hearing, Doherty wrote, citing both the Board of Health’s decision and testimony that was already scheduled for a Thursday hearing on the mayor’s anti-encampment ordinance.

“This Government Operations Committee hearing was scheduled and publicly noticed several weeks prior to the hearing before the Committee on Public Health, Homelessness and Recovery,” Doherty wrote.

All seven members of the Boston Public Health Commission and its executive director, along with the city’s Mass and Cass coordinator, police and fire commissioners and chief of emergency medical services were among the people invited to be panelists at Tuesday’s hearing.

Baker blasted the decision, saying that it was “telling.”

“If we’re not allowed a seat at the table, we can’t help,” he added.

City Councilors Sharon Durkan and Ruthzee Louijeune both attended the beginning of Tuesday’s hearing, but left right away, stating that they considered Thursday’s session to be the appropriate forum for discussion.

“Given that the Boston Public Health Commission has already shared their determination that the situation at Mass and Cass does not meet the legal definition of a public health crisis, and I think we’ll be discussing this issue in depth on Thursday, I will not be fully engaging in this hearing,” Durkan said.

Councilor Julia Mejia, on the other hand, criticized her colleagues for playing politics at a time when people are dying, while Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson said it was “hypocritical” for the Council to bash the administration for not attending when most of the body either left early or didn’t show up as well.

For the six of 13 councilors who remained, a makeshift panel of four community members was formed, a couple of whom joined Flaherty in slamming the BPHC for “enabling” the area’s open-air drug market, by handing out “drug kits.”

The kits, Flaherty said, contain needles, tourniquets, cotton balls and cooking trays, and often end up in parks and playgrounds after they’re discarded.

“Boston Public Health Commission passes out one million of these every single year under the guise of harm reduction,” Flaherty said. “I call it under the guise of enabling.”

Even if BPHC were to declare a state of emergency, Flaherty said he lost all confidence in the entity’s ability to manage a public health crisis during the pandemic.

Commission spokesperson Jonathan Latino said “BPHC’s evidence-based harm reduction programs save lives and reduce the many risks associated with substance-use disorders.”

“Distribution of naloxone is critical for preventing fatal overdoses and our free drug-testing services can detect the presence of fentanyl, which can further prevent fatal overdoses from occurring,” Latino said. “Syringe exchange and clean smoking supplies prevent spread of blood-borne illnesses like HIV and hepatitis.”

“The distribution of these harm reduction tools also allows our outreach workers and clinical partners to build trusting relationships with their clients that helps get people on a path towards recovery.”

While she plans to call for a vote on a state of emergency at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, City Councilor Erin Murphy acknowledged that the focus of a Tuesday hearing on the matter may shift, given that the Board of Health opted against making such a declaration at its Sept. 13 meeting.

“We have declared state of emergencies before and it’s allowed us to put things in action and attack a problem with the resources needed,” Murphy told the Herald. “I’m going to assume that there’s reasons why they don’t think it’s a good idea, so I’m hoping they show up so we can ask them those questions — like what is better then, if it’s not a state of emergency and what should we be doing?”

Murphy was among four councilors who urged the Boston Public Health Commission to declare a state of emergency at Mass and Cass in a Sept. 1 letter. The others were Council President Ed Flynn and Councilors Frank Baker and Michael Flaherty.

BPHC spokesperson Jonathan Latino said the Board of Health did discuss the matter, as requested, at its Sept. 13 meeting, but ultimately “declined to take action on the recommendation.”

“Because addressing these complicated and entrenched public health and public safety issues requires lasting interventions, including public safety measures that are outside the scope of BPHC’s public health authority, it is important that the legal tools to address them not be tied to a temporary public health emergency,” Latino said in a Monday statement.

Latino said, however, that the Commission “shares the City Council’s urgency on the ongoing crisis at the area known as Mass and Cass, which is why BPHC fully supports the ordinance introduced by Mayor Wu on Aug. 28 that would establish the urgently needed public safety tools to allow the removal of tents and structures that pose serious threats to public safety.”

The ordinance, which would give police the authority to remove homeless encampments provided that individuals are offered shelter and transportation to services, will be discussed at a Thursday hearing of the government operations committee, chaired by Councilor Ricardo Arroyo.

While there’s been chatter of opposition to the ordinance among councilors who either oppose taking away housing or the so-called “fourth shelter” that would be created in the South End as an alternative to the tents, Wu said Monday that she was hopeful that it would be passed in the “next couple of weeks.”

Murphy said in a Monday statement that the City Council “has encountered limited responsiveness regarding Mass and Cass, and we’re looking for an explanation why there is reluctance to declare a public health emergency for a situation that clearly warrants it.”

“This is an opportunity for city officials to address the public’s concerns about the ongoing tragedy at Mass and Cass, unprecedented in Boston’s history in its severity and duration,” Murphy said. “The committee is hopeful that this hearing will illuminate for the people of Boston how their tax dollars are being spent to clean up this crisis in a humane, safe manner.”

All seven members of the Boston Public Health Commission and its executive director, along with the city’s Mass and Cass coordinator, police and fire commissioners and chief of emergency medical services were among the people invited to be panelists at Tuesday’s hearing.

As of late Monday afternoon, Murphy said she had still not received a response from those she had invited, “which always makes me wary.”

The flip-flop has the support of the city’s largest police union, but has been criticized by criminal justice advocates, feedback that the mayor addressed on a Monday radio appearance.

“There were lots of questions about the gang database, how it was being used to potentially feed information to further a school-to-deportation or school-to-prison pipeline,” Wu said on WBUR’s Radio Boston. “I did not believe that the gang database in its form at that point with the structures there should continue because it was causing active harm.”

As a city councilor, Wu said she opted to vote against an $850,000 grant for the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, based on a recommendation from then-City Councilor and current Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who was unhappy with the answers she received when chairing a committee hearing on the funding.

Wu said her “no” vote two years ago stemmed from a lack of clarity on how the funds would be used. That year, while campaigning for mayor, she stated support for abolishing the BRIC and dismantling its gang database.

Today, Wu is on the opposite side of the latest City Council vote to reject funding for the BRIC. Following the body’s 7-5 vote to pass on $2.5 million in state grants earlier this month, the mayor quickly refiled the three rejected $850,000 grants, for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023, and filed an additional $850,000 grant from FY20.

The four grants, totaling $3.4 million and earmarked for the purpose of improving technology aimed at fighting crime, gangs and terrorism, will be debated at a Friday hearing of the City Council’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice committee. The funds will then come before the full body for another vote.

“Fast forward to today,” the progressive mayor said of her change in policy, there’s new leadership at the police department and new structures in place as well.

The city has implemented an Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, she said, and a similar undertaking has occurred at the state level, through the Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST Commission.

Further, Wu said she spent “many hours” in her early weeks as mayor discussing the BRIC and its gang database with the police department, meetings that were aimed at “understanding some of the changes they were making.”

“One change, for example, was around names that were inactive in terms of any interactions with law enforcement, but had somehow gotten into the database and were just there, always affecting someone’s future potentially,” Wu said. “They’ve changed their procedures around how that database has been maintained, so thousands of names have been removed. Inactive names are regularly taken out.”

The mayor also addressed this month’s City Council vote, which was slammed as “petty” by Councilor Michael Flaherty, who had called for bypassing a hearing to immediately vote on the grant funds and will chair Friday’s session.

“We were, on the administration side, not expecting that it would be immediately put up for a vote; we expected that it would go into a hearing,” Wu said. “We’re very much and remain prepared to go through that entire legislative process to be clear about what these funds will go to.”

She added, “Even if I were on the Council, I would hesitate to support something without adequate information.”

The grant, awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration and announced on Friday, will go toward the total project cost of approximately $135 million. MassDOT and Amtrak plan to cover the remaining amount, at $18 million and $9 million, respectively.

The two entities, with the support of CSX, applied for the grant last December.

“I am thrilled we were able to secure this critical funding for central and western Massachusetts, which will lay the foundation for West-East Rail,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement.

Healey credited the Biden administration for making the investment, and the federal delegation for helping to secure the funds.

The funding will add two new daily round trips on the Amtrak Inland Route, to improve connections between Boston, Worcester and Springfield, and to communities beyond the commonwealth, in Connecticut and New York City, according to MassDOT’s December 2022 grant application.

It will also improve travel times for existing Amtrak Lake Shore Limited service, enhancing connections between Boston, Springfield, Pittsfield, Albany and other upstate New York communities, the application states.

The project will seek to alleviate passenger and freight train conflicts and reduce travel times along the remaining single-track segments on the CSX-owned track between Worcester and Springfield.

Transit officials see these improvements as a “necessary first step” for increasing train frequency and speed along the Inland Route corridor and the corridor between Boston and Albany, N.Y., the application states.

Passengers will experience increased train speeds along the 53-mile section of the CSX Boston & Albany Line between Worcester and Springfield, where infrastructure improvements will lead to increased corridor capacity.

Acting Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt said the planned capital projects “will have long-term positive economic impacts on the region.”

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, said the grant funding brings the state “one step closer to making East-West Rail a reality.”

The project’s framework, he said, “has the potential to serve as a model for expanding passenger rail service across the country.”

State lawmakers tasked with looking into how best to incorporate an East-West passenger rail connection have cautioned, however, that since the project involves private and federal railroad companies, it could take many years to incorporate.

Providing a public transportation link from western Massachusetts to Boston is not as simple as just extending existing Commuter Rail service, which may be the perception some residents have, state Rep. William Straus, co-chair of the Western Massachusetts Passenger Rail Commission, previously told the Herald.

Trains involved in such a service would instead run over privately-owned CSX tracks, in areas that federal railroad company Amtrak is already under agreement to run through. Further complicating matters is the freight rail traffic that also runs through the area, Straus said in a prior interview.

The state will have to “come to some future agreements on a passenger rail connection,” he said.

An East-West rail connection also carries a hefty price tag, at a projected cost that ranged between $2.4–$4.6 billion in 2020 dollars, according to a MassDOT study issued in 2021.

A draft version of a new report that will be issued by the Western Massachusetts Passenger Rail Commission is currently under review, Straus said in a Friday email.