Boston City Council Passes Closed Captioning Ordinance and Affordable Housing Resolution

BOSTON — December 7, 2022 — Boston City Council passes closed captioning ordinance and presses Wu administration on affordable housing. The council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve Docket 1392, amending the city code to require closed captioning activation on public-facing televisions in Boston's places of public accommodation during business hours, with enforcement assigned to the Mayor's Commission for Persons with Disabilities. The body also unanimously adopted Docket 1503, a resolution co-sponsored by Councillors Liz Breadon and Ruthzee Louijeune demanding expedited reform of the city's Inclusionary Development Policy, which has not been updated since 2015 and is four years overdue for revision; from January through September 2022, projects with nearly 3,000 new units were filed with the BPDA under the outdated policy. Breadon warned that delay of six to nine months could lock thousands of new units into affordability levels of 70 to 100 percent of the area median income for the next 50 years. The council also approved $46,778 in collective bargaining back pay for nine IBEW electrical inspectors at the Inspectional Services Department, with wage increases of 2 percent, 1.5 percent, and 2 percent, plus a one-time $1,000 COVID-19 stipend.