Washington Street in Boston's Downtown Crossing neighborhood. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff
While he gears up to redraft a roughly $62 billion state budget without the benefit of knowing whether the federal government might pull back its support to the state, Rep. Aaron Michlewitz is also at the center of an expansive effort to address mounting public safety and health concerns in downtown Boston.
The House Ways and Means Committee chair, who lives in the North End and represents most of the city’s downtown neighborhoods, hosted a public safety summit last week with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, other state and local elected officials, police department representatives, and city department heads to jointly recommit to dealing with things like open drug use, shoplifting and petty crime that are especially visible in the Downtown Crossing / Boston Common area.
Michlewitz hosted the meeting alongside the Downtown Boston Neighborhood Association, City Councilor Ed Flynn and Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden. Rep. Jay Livingstone also attended, and meeting organizers said Sens. Nick Collins of South Boston and Lydia Edwards of East Boston were also invited.
“Collaboration is the only way we can continue to stay ahead of Downtown Boston’s evolution, particularly around public safety. I look forward to using this as a springboard to more productive conversations and ideas on how we can better serve a community we care so deeply about. My office is fully engaged and will always be available as a resource going forward,” Michlewitz said.
The meeting featured a “candid discussion” among representatives of 45 organizations and agencies, and 92 city and state government officials, law enforcement leaders, and other stakeholders, according to the Downtown Boston Neighborhood Association.
The group said a comprehensive list of the next steps and action items discussed in the closed-door meeting, including the launch of special task forces, will be announced later this week.
The 46-year-old Michlewitz has chaired the powerful budget writing committee since former Speaker Robert DeLeo tapped him for the post in 2019, and has continued in that role under Speaker Ron Mariano. Michlewitz has served in the Legislature since 2009 when he won he won a special election to replace former Speaker Sal DiMasi, for whom he worked and who resigned before he was indicted for corruption.
Viewed as a leading contender to become speaker of the House after Mariano, Michlewitz considered running for mayor of Boston in 2021 but decided against it, saying he “can be most effective to the residents of the city of Boston in my current role as the chair of Ways and Means with a seat at the table leading us through the economic recovery necessary to see the Commonwealth of Massachusetts out of the damage caused by the pandemic.” He backed Wu in that year’s election and has been a close ally during her time in City Hall.
