On April 13, the Springfield City Council took a few forward actions that could have significant implications for two neighborhoods. It granted a zone change to Temple Beth El’s property on Dickinson Street, which could yield significant housing development. Meanwhile, the body authorized funding for a new branch library for East Springfield.
Western Mass legislators are no longer having all the fun. Tara Jacobs, the Governor’s Councilor whose district encompasses the 413, shall have primary challenge. Her 2022 rival Michael Fenton, a Springfield City Councilor, has pulled papers to run for the seat.
SPRINGFIELD—City councilors hurled disapproval and invective, at times in an apparent violation of the body’s rules during Monday’s tempestuous meeting. In the end, however, it signified nothing—at least for now. The Council voted down a resolution of no confidence in Council President Tracye Whitfield but not before trading fire amongst themselves for some time.
Supporters of Whitfield filled the chamber, but there had been signs before Monday the no-confidence push might peter out.
The trouble erupted after City Council Tracye President Whitfield failed to immediately recuse herself from consideration of a street discontinuance. She co-owns the entity that owns a property that would grow once the city discontinues the street. Plus, her son was presenting the item. While she did not vote on the item, her time briefly presiding during consideration means the Council must purge its vote to terminate the street.
SPRINGFIELD—Tracye Whitfield started her fifth term as an at-large City Council by taking a second office: City Council President. In doing so Monday, she became the first woman of color to lead the municipal legislature here. Although historic, a fact that inarguably filled the city’s biennial inaugural exercises, it was hardly the only takeaway Whitfield intended people to have.
SPRINGFIELD—There was no arithmetic grinch to upend at-large Councilor Tracye Whitfield’s march to the council presidency Monday night. Indeed, despite the doubt heading into the evening, the informal election of the body’s leader for 2026 occurred quickly and with little fanfare. As a result, Whitfield is on track to become the first woman of color to serve as City Council President here.
The substance of 2025’s last meeting, however, had its twists and turns.
The Springfield City Council again put off approval of a bevy of permits for GoNetSpeed, an Internet Service Provider, fearing the company will not deliver on promises to wire the whole city. The issue has bubbled up at full Council and subcommittee meetings. In July, councilors continued the permits.
Springfield City Council and School Committee hopefuls plied their political wares last week during an outdoor forum. Focus Springfield and White Lion Brewing organized and staged the event in the “Pridelands” beer garden, across Main Street from the brewer’s taproom in Tower Square. It may
Returning for July before it summer semi-recess, the Springfield City Council blasted through a pile of grants, funding acceptances and other financial orders on July 14. Relatively noncontroversial financial items were not the only things to move with speed last Monday. The body granted first step to an ordinance that purports to control out-of-town landlords, provide transparency and address housing prices, if indirectly.
This past Wednesday, the Massachusetts Appeals Court overturned a lower court ruling and, in effect, reanimated—although did not fully resurrect—the prospect of a biomass plant in Springfield. The decision gives the biomass plant proposed for Page Boulevard enough life to punch open the project’s coffin.