City Council | Affordable Housing | Dear Editor

First Ever Chinatown City Council Hearing

The first ever City Council hearing was held in Chinatown on April 12th at the Josiah Quincy School on how to increase voter participation. Two hundred residents, community activists and organizational representatives spoke on issues ranging from the need for bilingual translation to the need for more housing and redistricting. The Chinatown community is a predominantly immigrant and working-class neighborhood but suffer from over-crowded housing, traffic, pollution and prostitution. Studies have shown that there are more people per square mile in Chinatown compared to any other part of Boston. A report published by the Boston Globe reported that Downtown, which is nearby Chinatown, has the highest polluted site in the city.

One of the key demands at the hearing was the call for multilingual access to all public meetings sponsored by City Hall. A group of immigrants, calling itself the Multilingual Voting Rights Coalition, has proposed that the City of Boston purchase simultaneous interpreter equipment and provide on-call interpreters for City Council, School Committee, Boston Redevelopment, or other public meetings. To demonstrate how an interpreter system could be implemented for future public meetings, the Chinese Progressive Association hired interpreters for the April 12th hearing. Simultaneous interpretation was available when Chinese speakers testified in their native language and English speakers listened through a receiver and headphones. Community organizations like the Boston Tenant Coalition have already used such a system when bringing people to public hearings.

Ironically, none of the city councillors but District 7 Councilor Chuck Turner attended. None of the mainstream press came that day to report the hearing. Councilor Turner announced the good news that the City Council is receptive to the proposal of a multilingual interpreter system and that it would discuss a resolution at a later date. Mayor Menino has already established an immigrant affairs office known as the Office of New Bostonians. A small allocation in this spring’s budget would allow the City to set up and administer such a system.