UPDATED 8:47AM: To reflect a correction. Gilet grew up in Nanuet, N.Y., not the Bronx. SPRINGFIELD—Standing only yards away from a success his opponent highlights on the trail, Kency Gilet formally launched his Council bid with an eye toward better connecting residents with City Hall.
SPRINGFIELD—Donald Trump’s policies, like his “Mexico-financed” wall, face push back everywhere. It is no different here. However, an effort to urge Springfield’s Finest to stay out of immigration enforcement ran aground procedural complaints and clerical minutiae. The result was a flip from the prior regular
SPRINGFIELD—Since becoming the first ward representative for Ward 2 since the dawn of the Kennedy era and the city’s youngest city councilor, Michael Fenton has faced no opposition. Every remaining ward councilor from the class of 2009 has nevertheless faced opposition of some kind. Fenton’s
SPRINGFIELD—The steady drumbeat of the at-large Council race grew a bit louder with the formal kickoff of Kelli Moriarty-Finn’s campaign Tuesday evening. The prospect of a vacancy among the five at-large seats has drawn a sizable and growing field. Both returning challengers and newcomers are
SPRINGFIELD—In politics, the City of Homes likes a comeback story. Over the last twenty years, the most successful at-large City Council challengers have made a stab at the office—or even held it—once before. That factor favors Ernesto Cruz and Jesse Lederman as they seek one of five
SPRINGFIELD—Emotion and politics ran high at Monday night’s City Council meeting as a labor pact with district fire chiefs failed and the food truck ordinance returned to committee. Both items faced months or even years of anticipation. The rejection of the labor pact with the
SPRINGFIELD—An early wave of enthusiasm has greeted the start of only the second mayor-less election cycle in the region’s largest city. A sizable clutch of candidates for City Council and School Committee took out papers Tuesday, the first day they were available for the 2017
Discontent over winter storm cleanups are nothing new in Springfield. It’s hard to compare to the long past, but post-Control Board, inevitably, there are bad cleanups and good ones. The one follow this past Tuesday’s storm was not among the city’s best. It was only
SPRINGFIELD—A short agenda sailed through the City Council’s Tuesday meeting here without any banality or vainglorious interrogatories. In addition to the usual financial housekeeping and grant acceptances, the meeting’s focused on a new library and new labor pacts set to last into 2020. The early
Media remains an essential part of the landscape within which politicians and government officials operate. This is true on almost all levels except, perhaps, very small towns—where it is possible to get to know everybody—and some small cities that behave as such. Springfield is not