Boston City Council Unanimously Names Library Children's Room for Teen Climate Activist

BOSTON -- May 11, 2022, Boston City Council unanimously names Brighton library children's room for teen climate activist J. Ram Rodriguez-Ramrau. The council voted 12-0 on a resolution offered by District 9 Councilor Liz Breadon dedicating the children's room of the renovated Faneuil Branch Library in Oak Square as "JJ's Room," in memory of J. Ram Miguel Rodriguez-Ramrau, who died in a rock-climbing accident in Brazil on July 2, 2019, at 17. J. Ram had testified before the council just three months before his death, citing city data that buildings account for 70.6 percent of Boston's greenhouse gas emissions and calling the net-zero buildings plan "more than just desirable, it's necessary." The library, closed for a renovation that has been in the city's capital portfolio since 2006, is expected to reopen in spring 2023. The council also referred a hearing order on workforce housing for Boston's roughly 20,000 city employees, more than 7,500 of whom earn near-poverty wages, to the Committee on Housing and Community Development, and sent a resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba to the Committee on Labour, Workforce and Economic Development.