Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan ray On Doubsy Boston's news video.
Speaker 1: Thank you al the Red Sox. They missed a couple
Speaker 1: of extra points nineteen they were nineteen and the hell
Speaker 1: the Orioles to a field goal, so a football like
Speaker 1: score at Fenway Park today, there were a couple of
Speaker 1: the Oriole pitches at the end.
Speaker 2: They have astronomical earned run averages.
Speaker 1: Now they'll spend the rest of the year working those
Speaker 1: are earned run averages, including I guess at third basement
Speaker 1: he gave up eight runs in one inning, so he
Speaker 1: hasn't earned run average at seventy two.
Speaker 2: I'm someone who reads box scores, and I gotta tell
Speaker 2: you that's tough. That's a tough.
Speaker 1: That's we thought early on the Oriols would be a
Speaker 1: pretty good team, and I think that's not to be.
Speaker 1: They've already fired their manager and it's going to be
Speaker 1: a long season in Baltimore. Well, welcome back everybody. We'll
Speaker 1: dispense with the sports talk here and we're going to
Speaker 1: get to politics, which is what is our meeting potatoes
Speaker 1: here on Nightside and with us, I'm delighted to have
Speaker 1: former Boston City councilor Frank Baker, Frank Baker, Welcome to Knightside.
Speaker 2: It's been a while. How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm good, Dan, Thanks for having me tonight.
Speaker 2: Well, I have to.
Speaker 1: Go over this because you are walking a path but
Speaker 1: very few politicians walk, and that is you ran for
Speaker 1: city council and were elected and served six terms twelve
Speaker 1: years as a district councilor, representing sort of a district
Speaker 1: that primarily was Dorchester, but you had a little bit
Speaker 1: of other sections of the city in your district.
Speaker 3: Correct, Yeah, Lower Roxbury and a little piece of the
Speaker 3: South End, a little bit of South Boston.
Speaker 1: Okay, So a couple of years ago you would have
Speaker 1: been re elected. I think there's no question about that.
Speaker 1: But a couple of years ago you decided twelve years
Speaker 1: is enough and you stepped aside. And there's another, uh
Speaker 1: district councilor from from your old district. Why did you
Speaker 1: step away? You know, it's very few politicians retire or
Speaker 1: step away voluntarily.
Speaker 3: Well, to be honest with you, did I was simply
Speaker 3: out of gas and you know it was a difficult
Speaker 3: It was a difficult group. I guess you could say
Speaker 3: back then and you know, yeah, I'll just leave it
Speaker 3: at that it was a difficult group and and and
Speaker 3: I was, I was out of gas.
Speaker 2: It hasn't gotten any better.
Speaker 3: I think it has well, I think it. I think
Speaker 3: I you know, and I'm and I'm trying to be respectful.
Speaker 3: I think there is I think there's opportunities.
Speaker 2: There to.
Speaker 3: Maybe bring the body together somewhat and work towards common
Speaker 3: goals that that are gonna, you know, be beneficial for
Speaker 3: the city of Boston.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: No, And I'm I was not trying to be a
Speaker 1: wise guy when I said that, But you you are
Speaker 1: are are going to be a different sort of voice.
Speaker 1: I said early on that I like to consider myself
Speaker 1: a voice of reason here in w b.
Speaker 2: Z on night Side. You have always been, in my.
Speaker 1: Opinion, a voice of reason when you served on the
Speaker 1: Boston City Council. So, okay, you've had a couple of
Speaker 1: years to to kind of step aside and uh and
Speaker 1: and watch it from a distance. Now you're going to
Speaker 1: run you You're not going to go back and run
Speaker 1: against the gentleman who who succeeded you in in your district. Uh,
Speaker 1: You're going to go state city wide. That's a tougher race.
Speaker 1: That's a tougher race. So tell us what what has
Speaker 1: prompted you to not only come back to the to
Speaker 1: the to the game of Boston politics, if I can
Speaker 1: refer to it as a game, but also to come
Speaker 1: back and be running city wide as a district councilor.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, as a.
Speaker 1: City wide an at large councilor excuse me, at large.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, well it is. It is a much bigger task.
Speaker 3: But I was fortunate my twelve years there. I think
Speaker 3: I earned a pretty good, pretty good name, and you know,
Speaker 3: like I plan on dispensing common sense, and you know,
Speaker 3: I've got thirty seven years of experience in the in
Speaker 3: Boston in different departments, you know, twelve years on the
Speaker 3: city council. And quite frankly, Dan, you know, you can't
Speaker 3: really complain about the game unless you're playing. And this
Speaker 3: is like you had said earlier, We're done with the sports.
Speaker 3: Let's get into politics. Politics is the is my blood
Speaker 3: sport now where I used to play other sports when
Speaker 3: I was younger, but now this is what I do
Speaker 3: when I'm drawn to it, and I think I can,
Speaker 3: I think I can, you know, add a little bit
Speaker 3: to the city. There's a lot of people that fail
Speaker 3: left out of left out of city hall, that don't
Speaker 3: feel connected into city hall. And I did hear from
Speaker 3: you know, this sounds quirky or you know, like maybe
Speaker 3: patting myself on the back. But I would be out
Speaker 3: and people will come up to me. Would you ever
Speaker 3: run for anything else again? Would you? Would you ever
Speaker 3: come back? And you know, my brothers would come home
Speaker 3: and say, I ran into people there. Everybody's asking what
Speaker 3: are you doing? What do you know? And I just
Speaker 3: needed some time away from city hall, time away from
Speaker 3: a toxic environment to kind of get gather my thoughts,
Speaker 3: get my head and and you know, get my strengths back.
Speaker 3: And I have all that, and I cared deeply about
Speaker 3: the city of Boston, which is what ultimately is going
Speaker 3: to draw me into my decisions. And I didn't come
Speaker 3: come to this decision lightly by any stretch of the imagination,
Speaker 3: because you know, I had a difficult couple of years there.
Speaker 3: It was it was we went through COVID and people
Speaker 3: people were you know, everything was zoom. We weren't in person,
Speaker 3: and that led to a lot of a lot of
Speaker 3: the issues. I think that that happened. You know, where
Speaker 3: people are now, you're advocating on a keyboard instead of
Speaker 3: it's five different when you're standing in front of somebody
Speaker 3: than it is if you're if you're just doing everything
Speaker 3: on a keyboard. So, I mean, I'd like to bring
Speaker 3: a lot of what we do back to in person.
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's how we connect, Like politics is
Speaker 3: one hundred percent connecting with your with however you connect
Speaker 3: with your heart or with your with your mind, whatever.
Speaker 3: We as a society I think need to get back together,
Speaker 3: back at the table, talking and hashing out issues that
Speaker 3: we have.
Speaker 1: Well, look, Tip O'Neil said, all politics are local, and
Speaker 1: I still think that was probably one of the wisest
Speaker 1: things that things that have ever heard of a politician.
Speaker 3: Yes, say absolutely so.
Speaker 1: Essentially, what I'm hearing is that you've taken a couple
Speaker 1: of years off and your batteries.
Speaker 2: Are recharged that yeah, obviously, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know if if that's the metaphor you want
Speaker 1: to use, but you're going to have to now reach
Speaker 1: out to the entire city and I'm hoping that we're
Speaker 1: going to hear from some of our Boston listeners tonight. Obviously,
Speaker 1: love to hear from your former constituents who you hope
Speaker 1: to have as future constituents, but also people in other
Speaker 1: sections of city. I mean there's a huge portion of
Speaker 1: the city. As a district councilor you probably represented roughly
Speaker 1: ten percent of the city as an at large because
Speaker 1: there are nine districts in Boston, nine district councilors and
Speaker 1: four at large councilors. Have you had well, First of all,
Speaker 1: how'd you do on the signature collection, which is which
Speaker 1: is always an onerous task, particularly when when you no
Speaker 1: longer have the incumbent, the power of the incombs incumbency
Speaker 1: to work. How did that go? I know you were
Speaker 1: working on it a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I well say, to just put it into perspective,
Speaker 3: I was the last person to pull papers. I pulled
Speaker 3: papers on my mother's nine eight birthday May eighth, so
Speaker 3: I got my I got my papers on on the
Speaker 3: ninth and and basically turned in and turned in enough
Speaker 3: by the following week to to to certify. So I'm
Speaker 3: already certified. We took it serious.
Speaker 4: I had.
Speaker 3: I had wonderful volunteers all around the all around the city,
Speaker 3: and you know, people were people were gracious, you know,
Speaker 3: to sign my to sign my papers. It's it's, you know, uh,
Speaker 3: a democratic sort of exercise. And and to sign the papers,
Speaker 3: that's just to allow you to be able to put
Speaker 3: your name on the ballot. You need to come up
Speaker 3: with a certain number. And we you know, I don't
Speaker 3: want to say we knocked we knocked it out of
Speaker 3: the park sports metaphor, but we did a pretty good job,
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 1: My guest is Frank Baker UH, a former district city
Speaker 1: council in Boston, and he is he stepped away a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. He is stepping back into the
Speaker 1: ring this time. He's running at an at as an
Speaker 1: at large candidate, UH, which, to put it simply means
Speaker 1: that in his first six elections in Boston, his constituents
Speaker 1: represented certain areas Lower Roxbury, Dorchester, that that was pretty
Speaker 1: much his base of operation. Now he has to reach
Speaker 1: out everywhere from places like Reedville and Hyde Park and
Speaker 1: West Roxbury and Brighton and Alston and Charlestown, the North End,
Speaker 1: East Boston, Back Bay, South End, all of Dorchester, all
Speaker 1: of Roxbury, all of Mattapan, Roslyndale, Jamaica, Plaine.
Speaker 2: It has to has to basically be everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's a daunting task, and I'd love to have you
Speaker 1: if you are particularly a Boston resident, if you'd like
Speaker 1: to call, love to hear from me. If a question
Speaker 1: for Frank, if you want to give him a word
Speaker 1: of encouragement, I'm sure he'd appreciate that. I think it's
Speaker 1: interesting because very rarely do you have a former city councilor,
Speaker 1: or for that matter, a current city councilor up a
Speaker 1: district seat, which tends to be fairly solid. They are
Speaker 1: very stable. Let me put it like that. Very few
Speaker 1: district councilors have turned out to step back in or
Speaker 1: to step up and go at large city wide. So
Speaker 1: this is an interesting political experiment. And knowing Frank Baker
Speaker 1: as they know him, he has a lot of respect
Speaker 1: around the city, and he has a lot of support,
Speaker 1: and I suspect he's going to be a very formidable candidate.
Speaker 1: And people always watch in the at large races, they
Speaker 1: watch who finished first, who finished fourth. You have to
Speaker 1: finish at least one through eight. Do you know at
Speaker 1: this point, Frank, how many candidates are running at large
Speaker 1: for the September primary as yet? Do you know how
Speaker 1: many people have pulled papers?
Speaker 3: Well, eighteen people had pulled papers. I think so far
Speaker 3: that eight have been certified. That may have changed in
Speaker 3: the last two days. So we had a candidates night
Speaker 3: last night and a people were there, Okay, including myself.
Speaker 1: All right, so I think obviously eight will qualify in
Speaker 1: the primary. Uh, and then of course it'll be a
Speaker 1: mad dash to the finish line in November.
Speaker 2: But but if this isn't going to be an interest,
Speaker 2: it's going to be an interesting campaign. Let's keep it rolling. Here.
Speaker 1: Uh, the only line they have open. I got six one, seven, a, nine, three,
Speaker 1: one ten thirty. Got two lines there. Uh, the lines
Speaker 1: at six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty A
Speaker 1: full up. So you can avoid calling that for now.
Speaker 1: Try six one, seven, nine, three, one ten thirty if
Speaker 1: you'd like to get in. We'll try to get to
Speaker 1: as many folks as possible. My guest is Frank Baker.
Speaker 1: I will want to ask Frank a couple of questions
Speaker 1: when we come back about, besides the idea of running,
Speaker 1: what does he want to accomplish as a city councilor
Speaker 1: what direction does he want to take the city. What
Speaker 1: are the issues that he is going to be talking about. Uh.
Speaker 1: At most importantly, obviously everyone talks about improving city services
Speaker 1: and etc. But I also want to find it if
Speaker 1: there are some issues that are going to identify Frank's campaign.
Speaker 2: We'll be back with Frank Baker. Your phone calls. My
Speaker 2: name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Speaker 1: I happen to love Boston politics. I love city politics,
Speaker 1: I love state politics, and I love federal politics. However,
Speaker 1: I will remind you that the most important vote you
Speaker 1: can cast is your local vote. Because when you vote
Speaker 1: in a presidential race, there's another one hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: million or so Americans who are voting, and there's another
Speaker 1: four or five million in Massachusetts who are voting. But
Speaker 1: when you vote locally in a city council race, your
Speaker 1: vote has much more significance in weight. It's a very
Speaker 1: important vote back. And so all of you need to
Speaker 1: be registered and get ready to vote on primary night,
Speaker 1: on primary day here in Boston next September. We'll get
Speaker 1: to all of that with Frank Baker and your phone calls.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back here on Nightside. The lines are
Speaker 1: full right now. As soon as they start to drop
Speaker 1: and we clear some of the lines, i'll let you know.
Speaker 1: For now, you can sit back and relax, coming back,
Speaker 1: Good Night Side. You're on Night Side with Dan Ray
Speaker 1: on w b Z, Boston's news radio. All right, my
Speaker 1: guess it's Frank Baker. He's the city council candidate. He
Speaker 1: had served in the city council for six terms. Frank,
Speaker 1: we only got a couple of minutes left here before
Speaker 1: the bottom of the hour. I don't want to short
Speaker 1: change any of the callers. We have Greg, Tom, Paul,
Speaker 1: Peteon Gordon lined up and several of them are from Boston.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, four out of five of
Speaker 1: them are from the Boston area. So we're going to
Speaker 1: talk to potential constituents. What is your impression of the
Speaker 1: city council? Now, you have one member of the city
Speaker 1: Council who has pled guilty to corruption charges. She remains
Speaker 1: a member of the city council, still drawing a salary
Speaker 1: as a member of the city Council, and probably will
Speaker 1: not resign until she's forced to resign when she is
Speaker 1: sentenced to federal prison in late July. Is that a
Speaker 1: factor in you deciding to get back into this race.
Speaker 3: No, no, I mean that's an unfortunate situation for the
Speaker 3: for the people of District seven. That you know that
Speaker 3: that that's the repentation representation that they have now. But
Speaker 3: but no, I think I think the people that are
Speaker 3: on the city council now, I think generally the the
Speaker 3: they're good people and they just they're in a they're
Speaker 3: in this odd time. When when I first got elected,
Speaker 3: Dan every person on the body, when I first got there, I.
Speaker 5: Came in alone.
Speaker 3: Every person offered to, you know, get to know me,
Speaker 3: take me off for coffee, take me to lunch, something
Speaker 3: like that. Those sorts of little gestures stopped happening. So
Speaker 3: the relationships that you when you're elected to a body,
Speaker 3: you're supposed to work as a body. You're not supposed
Speaker 3: to actively work against each other. And and and I
Speaker 3: think that I can bring a little bit of that
Speaker 3: experience in terms of maybe this is how we can
Speaker 3: we can be a body. Am I going to be
Speaker 3: a silver bullet? No, by no stretch of the imagine nation.
Speaker 3: But I think I can, you know, maybe help to
Speaker 3: build relationships and build common ground with the people are
Speaker 3: there now. Like I said, I think anybody that gets
Speaker 3: involved in politics, they care about what they're doing because
Speaker 3: it takes a big you know, it takes a big
Speaker 3: hot and you know, a car in person to just
Speaker 3: put your name on the ballot. A lot of people
Speaker 3: will will, you know, talk whatever way about oh you're
Speaker 3: a politician or this and that. But the reality is
Speaker 3: most people are never going to have the gumption to
Speaker 3: be able to put their name on a ballot. It's
Speaker 3: a very very difficult thing to do. So I have
Speaker 3: respect for the people that are in there. I just
Speaker 3: think we're gonna we're gonna have to, you know, work
Speaker 3: on some things and find some commonality between us, and
Speaker 3: I hope that I'm able to be there and help
Speaker 3: to do that.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let me ask you this, in your opinion,
Speaker 1: is the city of Boston going in a good direction
Speaker 1: or or or not the direction that you'd.
Speaker 2: Like to see it go.
Speaker 3: I'm not crazy about the direction of the city, but
Speaker 3: I have hope for the city.
Speaker 2: Okay, what would you likency changed?
Speaker 3: Well? Again, everything for me, dan is is relationships. What
Speaker 3: I'm hearing, mostly in different neighborhoods is we don't have
Speaker 3: anybody to call in city Hall. Nobody's nobody. It's not responsive.
Speaker 3: Your people aren't calling us back. The one thing and
Speaker 3: you had mentioned in earlier how important municipal elections are.
Speaker 3: What people don't understand is someone from the city is
Speaker 3: sitting at your kitchen table nearly every day, whether if
Speaker 3: it's ISD or if it's the water department, or whether
Speaker 3: you know you've got a ticket on your way in.
Speaker 3: Someone from the city is around your life every day,
Speaker 3: you know. And it isn't like and when you vote
Speaker 3: for president. Yeah, you may think it's the most important thing,
Speaker 3: but it's it's pretty far removed. The City Council is
Speaker 3: the closest to the people than any other sea that
Speaker 3: you could run for.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more. Let's do this, Frank,
Speaker 1: I think you've said it.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: There's nothing I can ask you that's gonna I think
Speaker 1: encapsulated better than that. We're gonna take a break. We
Speaker 1: got a newscast coming up, and we are going to
Speaker 1: get right to phone calls. We will handle everybody who's
Speaker 1: on the line, and hopefully several more folks.
Speaker 2: This is an interesting race. This is one you want
Speaker 2: to follow.
Speaker 1: I'm coming right back on Nightside with Frank Baker, candidate
Speaker 1: for an at large seat in the Boston City Council.
Speaker 2: Back on Nightside after this, It's night Side with.
Speaker 6: Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1: All right, Frank Baker, we got a bunch of phone calls.
Speaker 1: Let's see what the folks have to say about your run.
Speaker 1: We have with us Greg from Abington, who is a
Speaker 1: Plymouth County commissioner.
Speaker 2: Hey, Greg, welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 6: How are you.
Speaker 7: I'm doing well, Dan, Thanks very much for having this
Speaker 7: gentleman on. You have to congratch him on the choice
Speaker 7: to get back in the game. But to tell you
Speaker 7: the truth, and I met Frank about three years ago
Speaker 7: when we had a delegation of folks come over from
Speaker 7: Ireland that we signed assist a county program with Donegall Ireland,
Speaker 7: and Frank actually drove these folks down, he picked them
Speaker 7: up at the airport for us. And over the last
Speaker 7: three years we've been talking and since he got out
Speaker 7: of the game, you know, he's never stopped helping people.
Speaker 7: And the reality is once you're out, you're out. And
Speaker 7: it was very frustrating, I think for Frank to try
Speaker 7: to help people when he no longer had that cachet
Speaker 7: of being that public person, having been a former city
Speaker 7: council in the city quinsing the seleckmen in Pembroke. You know,
Speaker 7: they like to say politician, but can I just say
Speaker 7: something when it comes to Frank Backer, he's a public servant, Okay.
Speaker 7: He likes to help people. And I think part of
Speaker 7: the and he probably wouldn't say it, but part of
Speaker 7: his frustration was you can't help you if you didn't
Speaker 7: have elected. So I just wanted to congratulate him and
Speaker 7: thank you Dan for putting him on, because he's a
Speaker 7: common sense person who likes to get things done. He
Speaker 7: said in himself, he's a broker. He likes to get solutions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I.
Speaker 1: Would see I would see Frank every year at the
Speaker 1: Mary and Brett food pantry over in Dorchester. The Brett
Speaker 1: family a great family here in Boston, Bill Brett and
Speaker 1: Jim bretton, you know all Harry Bretton, the entire Brett family,
Speaker 1: Tim Brett, the whole group of them. But I remember
Speaker 1: talking to Frank and saying, you know what, and he
Speaker 1: just seemed down. But he he sounds now to me
Speaker 1: like he's got the political bug again and he wants
Speaker 1: to get back out. And I knew him always as
Speaker 1: someone who wanted to help people, and that's why I'm
Speaker 1: having him on tonight.
Speaker 7: Well that's great, and I just wanted to call and
Speaker 7: congratulate him in a test to the fact that he's
Speaker 7: never stopped working for people, you know, right down with
Speaker 7: the Irish community that I'm involved with, who just finished
Speaker 7: the trans Atlantic UH Climbing Alliance Conference UH and we
Speaker 7: celebrated a welcome dinner for the Ambassador Island, retired Claire Cronin.
Speaker 7: She awarded the first ever award for similar to the
Speaker 7: typical Neil Award to the Mayor of Donne Gaul Nieve
Speaker 7: Kennedy and Frank came down and just participated. So he's
Speaker 7: he's become a friend. I want to be a friend
Speaker 7: to him, and I wanted to call and let you
Speaker 7: know I'm on board, Frank. Whatever you need from us,
Speaker 7: the Hanley Brothers will be with him. Dan, thank you
Speaker 7: for the opportunity to say so.
Speaker 2: Well, absolutely, Frank says, great, Go ahead.
Speaker 3: Frank, thank you for the kind words.
Speaker 6: Greg.
Speaker 3: You're a good friend.
Speaker 6: You're a good friend.
Speaker 3: I'm fortunate.
Speaker 7: We'll be there for your brother.
Speaker 8: Keep the faith, Dan.
Speaker 7: I let the other talkers, people waiting on the line talk,
Speaker 7: but thank you for having me and.
Speaker 2: Keep keep listening to night Side.
Speaker 1: Okay, my four bears are from a little a different
Speaker 1: part of the old sid County Cork, the town of
Speaker 1: Mattaw Cork.
Speaker 7: As they say, we got the down in Brockton. We
Speaker 7: have the credence and that's their court people as well.
Speaker 7: You and I are members of a distinct club, Dan,
Speaker 7: so I'll look forward to our next year's meetings.
Speaker 1: Well, I know we're talking about the Clover Club. I
Speaker 1: assume that's what you're talking about. Yeah, well, somehow I
Speaker 1: was elected president in a secret ballot vote. It was
Speaker 1: so secret no one knows who voted, who votes.
Speaker 3: Thanks Greg, Thanks good luck, Thanks Craig, good night, Thank.
Speaker 2: You great appreciate. Let's keep going.
Speaker 1: The only line there is six month, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 1: ten thirty, the regular line. Tom is in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: We have a Boston voter here, go ahead.
Speaker 2: Tom. You're all with Frank Baker.
Speaker 5: Hey Frank, and thank you Dan for having this night
Speaker 5: with Frank. I was just when Frank. When Frank gets elected, Frank,
Speaker 5: can you and will you try to bring the council
Speaker 5: back to the middle. Can you try and bring back
Speaker 5: actual council meetings where there's dialogue instead of petulant children
Speaker 5: banging on desks and yelling and screaming about things that
Speaker 5: are happening all around the world that have zero effect
Speaker 5: on the city of Boston. Can you try to bring
Speaker 5: back the maya to the middle. Also, she just does things.
Speaker 5: It goes around the council and goes around community groups
Speaker 5: and knocks down buildings and knocks down stadiums with zero input.
Speaker 5: And she doesn't wait for court decisions.
Speaker 1: That's assumed she'll still be the mayor when Frank gets elected.
Speaker 2: Tom, by the way, remember oh yeah.
Speaker 3: Well Tom, Tom, that's exactly that. That's exactly what I'm
Speaker 3: what I'm going to try to do, and it's one
Speaker 3: seat at a time.
Speaker 6: Tom.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm someone that I think throwing my hat
Speaker 3: in the ring, I think I can get elected. And
Speaker 3: I'm someone that's in the center. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 3: a leftie, I'm not a righty. I'm directly in the center.
Speaker 3: And you hit it. It's we need to have conversations
Speaker 3: and we need to talk about business. That's germane to
Speaker 3: the city of Boston. I mean, we have eighty percent
Speaker 3: of our kids in the third grade not reading proficient,
Speaker 3: and we're talking about everything else under the Sun. We
Speaker 3: need to get into city issues. We need to we
Speaker 3: need to put the city of Boston in the focal
Speaker 3: point of of everybody's in top of mind for everybody,
Speaker 3: and that especially the city council. So hopefully I can
Speaker 3: do that. Hopefully I can drag some people back to
Speaker 3: the center and let them know it's nice to be
Speaker 3: in the center. So, yes, that's what my plan is.
Speaker 8: Tom.
Speaker 1: Well, the center is the one place get The center
Speaker 1: is the one place where you actually can have some
Speaker 1: dialogue and conversations. I think a lot of folks on
Speaker 1: the extremes. Uh forget that.
Speaker 2: Frank so and uh yeah yeah, Tom. I appreciate your calling.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: Thanks well, Dan, thank you for having me on, Frank,
Speaker 5: thanks for hearing me out and vote Baker and craftman.
Speaker 3: Tom, thank you. I will be at the I will
Speaker 3: be at the parade for Buncle Hill say hi, absolutely.
Speaker 9: Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 6: Thank you. Guys.
Speaker 1: All right, have a good one, have had good weekend,
Speaker 1: Happy Memorial Day. Paul is in Dorchester, Paul, another Boston voter,
Speaker 1: your own Frank Baker, Paul, Hey.
Speaker 4: Hi, guys, I guess congratulations Dan and Fred. You put
Speaker 4: a smile on my face. When I hear it, you're back.
Speaker 4: You got to vote from Savin Hill. Uh. I just
Speaker 4: we got some frightful people in politics nowadays. I would
Speaker 4: love to see a sane, normal guy like yourself back,
Speaker 4: you know, bless you and uh and like I say,
Speaker 4: I'll talk it up for my neck of the woods.
Speaker 4: And and you know what, I called city hall a
Speaker 4: couple of times today, I've been trying to address the
Speaker 4: rat issue, and I was wondering, what do you think
Speaker 4: about owls, like like snowy owls or like gray owls
Speaker 4: or something. They used peregrine falcons on the State House,
Speaker 4: so they already got the birds through. They've proved proved
Speaker 4: them to kill the pigeons in the state House. But
Speaker 4: like as long as nobody was using pesticides that they
Speaker 4: could stop that for a while. I think maybe introducing
Speaker 4: some some owls might be a possibility. But that's just
Speaker 4: maybe a pet project we could have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Paul, that's that's an interesting subject, something that I
Speaker 3: didn't see coming at me. But you know, anyway we
Speaker 3: can get rid of get rid of the rats.
Speaker 1: Just to be just to be clear, we're talking about
Speaker 1: the two legged rots here.
Speaker 2: Let's make sure it's really clear.
Speaker 3: Oh, I thought, Paul, the floor legged.
Speaker 2: Oh no, the fore leged.
Speaker 4: Okay, the two legged.
Speaker 2: One, we'll leave. We'll leave the two legged ones alone. Okay,
Speaker 2: we'll go after the four legged.
Speaker 4: There's the two legged skunks.
Speaker 1: But I think, by the way, I didn't. I didn't realize. Look,
Speaker 1: owls are our amazing birds. And I think Frank Paul's
Speaker 1: suggestion is kind of interesting. If if owls would our
Speaker 1: predators towards pigeons, I'm with the owls.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the owls go after the rats. The peregrine falcons
Speaker 4: are in the State House. They're actually there, you can.
Speaker 4: And there's less pigeons.
Speaker 3: But.
Speaker 4: Absolutely they brought them in and and and owls would
Speaker 4: be great because they'd be stealthy. You'd never hear them.
Speaker 4: They come out at night. They maintained themselves. And if
Speaker 4: you do. He wanted to be like, wow, I saw
Speaker 4: her on you know.
Speaker 2: And they're very wise, very wise.
Speaker 5: We should owls in Georchester more on the city council lately.
Speaker 1: All right, thanks, I have a good one. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: keep rolling here. Frank, you're going to take one more
Speaker 1: here before the break. We're gonna I don't want to
Speaker 1: make people wait any longer than necessary. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to Charlestown and Pete joins us from Charlestown. We got
Speaker 1: a couple of lines at six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 1: ten thirty. Pete, welcome back your next.
Speaker 6: Good luck mister Baker in your re election. Let me
Speaker 6: ask you, are you in favor do you support Ice
Speaker 6: coming into Boston uh and doing the appropriate thing by
Speaker 6: removing people in here illegally. And my second question is
Speaker 6: me and wo would you give her for a grade
Speaker 6: on the universal grading system? How do you think she's
Speaker 6: done so far as May? What would you give her
Speaker 6: for a grade?
Speaker 3: I would give her a C.
Speaker 8: And I was at I was at a a candidate's
Speaker 8: night last night, and I advocated for Boston police to
Speaker 8: be able to work with ICE.
Speaker 3: So we're able to understand and know who it is
Speaker 3: that we need to we need to get out of
Speaker 3: the city. I'm not going to be in favor of
Speaker 3: breaking up families, you know, especially if someone isn't it
Speaker 3: isn't a criminal. You know, we have to get the
Speaker 3: criminals off the street. And I did advocate for, you know,
Speaker 3: to to actually say we're not going to cooperate. Just
Speaker 3: think of that for a second. We're not going to cooperate.
Speaker 3: Adults cooperate. We have conversations, we talked, So there's no
Speaker 3: reason why Boston police can't know what Ice movements are
Speaker 3: and when possible, be in collaboration with them. So I think,
Speaker 3: I think that all all branches of government are all
Speaker 3: all you know, forms of police should be able to talk.
Speaker 3: That's part of our intelligence when we when we went
Speaker 3: through nine to eleven, one of the big criticisms where
Speaker 3: you know, the left hand didn't know what the right
Speaker 3: hand was doing. We shouldn't be advocating to say no,
Speaker 3: we're not going to help out in any any sort
Speaker 3: of any sort of you know, exercise to keep our
Speaker 3: people safe.
Speaker 6: Good comments, Frank, good luck, thank you, thank you, thank.
Speaker 2: You very much. Frank.
Speaker 1: I think that's a pretty common sense position that you
Speaker 1: just articulated, and I wish more politicians would were talking
Speaker 1: that way. I'm going to be next hour critical of
Speaker 1: President Trump's battle with Harvard. I don't understand why the
Speaker 1: president seems to be so focused or the administration seems
Speaker 1: to be focused so focused on going after.
Speaker 2: Harvard and all of that.
Speaker 1: There is so many more important things that need to
Speaker 1: be done in this country. I want to get the
Speaker 1: real bad guy as the people who were here, you know,
Speaker 1: the people who were into child trafficking, into bringing you know,
Speaker 1: really deadly drugs into this country, fentanyl and issues like that,
Speaker 1: the child rapists, people who are who are working the system.
Speaker 1: There was a story in the Herald today about some
Speaker 1: woman who had like eight social Security numbers. I forget
Speaker 1: the specifics of it, but she's been living here for
Speaker 1: twenty years. She's illegal, she's voted in elections. You know,
Speaker 1: we we got to tighten things up a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I think what you said made a whole lot
Speaker 1: of sense. You know, we're not before we go after
Speaker 1: you know, people who pick food or who clean hotel rooms.
Speaker 2: Let's get the bad guys out of here first, you know.
Speaker 3: Let's see Yeah, yeah, there's plenty, there's plenty of them here,
Speaker 3: and I think we could we could do that job
Speaker 3: more efficiently if all levels of laren for US enforcement
Speaker 3: were able to talk to each other. We're not asking
Speaker 3: Boston police to go in on raids, but the Boston
Speaker 3: police know Boston better than anybody. If you'll bring an
Speaker 3: ice in from if a guy that lives in Pennsylvania
Speaker 3: and he's and he's with ice. He doesn't know what
Speaker 3: the Boston neighborhoods are, so he doesn't know how we
Speaker 3: treat each other. Boston police know that we've got the
Speaker 3: best police in the country and we should be utilizing them.
Speaker 2: Well said, Well said. My guest is Frank Baker.
Speaker 1: He is an at large City Council candidate, which means
Speaker 1: whether you live in East Boston, West Roxbury, Charlestown, Mattapan,
Speaker 1: and all the points in between, Hyde Park, Reedville, you
Speaker 1: can vote for Frank Baker this September, and assuming that
Speaker 1: he qualifies for the final ballot in November, you can
Speaker 1: vote for him in November as well. He served six
Speaker 1: terms in the Boston City Council twelve years. Stepped away
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, but I think he well,
Speaker 1: I think he has the fire in his belly and
Speaker 1: he wants to get back, and he wants to get
Speaker 1: back and do some positive things for Boston. And so
Speaker 1: I'm delighted to have him tonight, pretty much his campaign official.
Speaker 1: About a week ago, I wanted to get him on
Speaker 1: the program and he said, Dan, let me get my
Speaker 1: signatures squared away first, which is a perfectly reasonable position,
Speaker 1: and we're happy to have him. Tonight, we have got
Speaker 1: a couple more calls from Dorchester, and I got a
Speaker 1: little bit more room if you want to jump on
Speaker 1: board six one seven, two five thirty, six one seven
Speaker 1: nine three one thirty.
Speaker 2: Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 5: It's Night Side with.
Speaker 3: Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1: Let's get some more calls in here for Frank Baker,
Speaker 1: candidate for Boston City Council, a city wide at large candidate.
Speaker 1: Gordon in Dorchester. Gordon, you're next with Frank Baker. Go
Speaker 1: right ahead, Gordon.
Speaker 9: How you doing, Frank.
Speaker 3: I'm good, Gordon.
Speaker 9: Frank, thank you for refueling and getting back in the
Speaker 9: race to instare integrity to the City of Boston and
Speaker 9: to the City Council.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Gordon.
Speaker 9: I mean that is that any I'm going to be brief.
Speaker 2: That's okay, go right a head, Gordon.
Speaker 9: I just want to get that message out restore integrity
Speaker 9: to the City of Boston in the City of Council.
Speaker 9: I love you, Frank, Thank you, best wishes deal.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Gordon, thank you very much.
Speaker 9: Welcome my pleasure.
Speaker 1: Thanks Gordon, appreciate your call. Let me get very quickly.
Speaker 1: Let me get Joe in from East Boston. Joe and
Speaker 1: you are next one. Nice with Frank Baker, candidate at
Speaker 1: large Boston City Council.
Speaker 10: Hey Dan, Hey Frank, how are you great?
Speaker 6: Hi?
Speaker 3: I'm good good.
Speaker 10: Thank you for running. It sounds like we've got somebody
Speaker 10: with integrity here, and that's what we need. I cannot believe,
Speaker 10: I'll be quick if I can. I cannot believe that
Speaker 10: a convicted felon is going to continue in their job.
Speaker 10: And you know why that is because they don't want
Speaker 10: to pay for a special election. But I have no confidence.
Speaker 10: I've lost all confidence in my own city councilor and
Speaker 10: most of the city councilors except for quite a few,
Speaker 10: which it's when I think I really wish he had
Speaker 10: run for mayor anyway. In East Boston, we have bike lanes.
Speaker 10: No one uses them because our street is so dangerous.
Speaker 10: We have accidents every day on Bennington Street. They ride
Speaker 10: on the sidewalk to which these motorized bikes are on
Speaker 10: the sidewalk and we're not safe. So that's one thing.
Speaker 6: Number two.
Speaker 10: In the community, we have a community process. We have
Speaker 10: these community groups. I was head of mine at Orient Heights,
Speaker 10: and they get people to believe they have a say
Speaker 10: in what goes in your neighborhood. And so they bring
Speaker 10: the attorneys in, and they bring the people that want
Speaker 10: to build these you know, humongous complexes, and you have
Speaker 10: you know, they come in three times and you go
Speaker 10: back and forth, and if the community votes it down,
Speaker 10: the mayor will always veto the vote. Nine times out
Speaker 10: of ten the vote gets vetoed and that big cong
Speaker 10: larmer and goes in anyway. And so we everybody thinks
Speaker 10: the community process is a joke, a waste of time.
Speaker 10: It's just a belief that we have to say, but
Speaker 10: we don't. We need to bring back the power in
Speaker 10: the community groups. And I hope that that's something you
Speaker 10: can think about doing. But I would appreciate that.
Speaker 1: And one way that the community groups can assert their
Speaker 1: power is to support candidates like Frank Baker who are
Speaker 1: responsive to community groups.
Speaker 2: If you want to be.
Speaker 1: If the incumbents aren't being responsive, then you have to
Speaker 1: change the incumbents, simple as that.
Speaker 2: True.
Speaker 10: So I was going to run this time, but I
Speaker 10: just decided I'm better as a social worker. But Frank,
Speaker 10: will you come to your Boston and talk to a
Speaker 10: couple of our groups.
Speaker 3: I will, I will Joe in. So let me just
Speaker 3: say one thing. I think one thing that we should
Speaker 3: be looking at doing with, especially with the big planning initiatives,
Speaker 3: I think we have to get off of zoom and
Speaker 3: bring those in it. If you're planning on imputing hundreds
Speaker 3: of apartment in someplace, you should have you should have
Speaker 3: the decency enough to come and sit in a room
Speaker 3: with the people that are going to be affected. And
Speaker 3: that's a ployee where we have all the zoom because
Speaker 3: if someone is speaking out against the project, product project,
Speaker 3: all you need to do is they just neute you now.
Speaker 3: And also that's not what we're used.
Speaker 1: To Frank, you feel isolated when you don't. You don't
Speaker 1: realize there's one hundred other people who agree with you.
Speaker 1: The zoom works against community groups. Joe Inn, We're going
Speaker 1: to have Frank give his UH address where you can
Speaker 1: get in touch with him. So get a piece of
Speaker 1: paper and pencil. I'm going to get one more caller
Speaker 1: in real quickly.
Speaker 10: Okay, thank you so much. I'll call back another time.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Joe. In your Orient Heights the Orient Heights group, well,
Speaker 3: Larentine is going to back me. Sal Yep's gonna be
Speaker 3: with me?
Speaker 10: Yeah right, Well okay, joe In hold on again it
Speaker 10: joe In you you just get a pencil and we'll
Speaker 10: get it.
Speaker 2: Get an address for you. I want to get one more.
Speaker 2: Call in real quickly for Frank Paper.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Gregory in Dorchester. Greg, you're a little bit
Speaker 1: at the end of the line here. We only got
Speaker 1: about thirty seconds for you. Can be Can you be quick,
Speaker 1: my friend? I got you in.
Speaker 9: Yeah, Frank, you're the assault of the earth.
Speaker 6: We need you.
Speaker 1: Well, there's not a better endorsement that you could have
Speaker 1: than than Greg And that says it all.
Speaker 2: Greg, well said my friend. Thank you so much, Dad.
Speaker 4: Thank you for opening, for talking about a kidd the
Speaker 4: other night.
Speaker 9: You open an off line of doors open afterwards.
Speaker 1: Thank you, my friend. I appreciate that. I really do. Greg,
Speaker 1: you know that. Thank you. Thanks buddy, we'll talk to it.
Speaker 1: Have a great have a great weekend, Frank. How can
Speaker 1: folks get in touch with your campaign if they are
Speaker 1: so inspired?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I have my cell phone number. I
Speaker 3: don't have a campaign email just yet. I'm just setting
Speaker 3: everything up. I have a campaign headquarters at eight five
Speaker 3: eight Dorchester, rav and I'm having my campaign kickoff on
Speaker 3: June fifth, seven o'clock at Florian Hall. Like for joe
Speaker 3: In Alamentina has has my phone number. There's a lot
Speaker 3: of people around that just I don't necessarily want to
Speaker 3: get my cell phone.
Speaker 2: Numb totally get that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But but again, we'll have you back and we'll we'll
Speaker 1: try to get the people in touch with you.
Speaker 2: Okay, people can.
Speaker 3: And I'll have a website up up and running very shortly, Dan,
Speaker 3: and I'll make sure that I'll make sure that you
Speaker 3: know people will have it. But I have my campaign
Speaker 3: headquarters and my kickoff is on the fifth of June
Speaker 3: at at Florian Hall. I'd love to have everybody across
Speaker 3: the city come over and and have some fun with
Speaker 3: me that night.
Speaker 1: So sounds great, Frank, I enjoyed it. I think you
Speaker 1: had a good night, and you're off and running. Best
Speaker 1: of luck. We'll talk it again.
Speaker 3: Thanks, Dan, You're welcome, my friend.
Speaker 1: We'll talk soon. All right, We've got to take a break.
Speaker 1: We will be back here right after the ten o'clock news,
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about this a weird fight
Speaker 1: between Donald Trump and Harvard Back on nights out, after
Speaker 1: this