District 7 needs a new city councilor. Who can take on its challenges?

With just days to go until the 2025 General Municipal Election, Boston’s District 7 is once again ready to pick a new City Councilor. Eleven candidates competed in September’s preliminary election to replace former Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson. Now, finalists Said Ahmed and Rev. Miniard Culpepper are looking to represent the historically Black and politically active district.

The idea of ‘tree equity’ is taking root

Founded in 2018, Speak for the Trees has been hosting their “tree walks” to talk about the benefits of trees, and to look at where there should be more of them. It’s an issue of equity. Trees provide a wide range of benefits, from filtering out air pollution to improving mental health — but not everyone gets to feel those benefits. From neighborhood to neighborhood, or even street to street, there are often wide disparities in the number of trees, which can have a broad impact on the overall health of a community. On a local, state and national level, though, governments and nonprofits are investing to make up the gap as the concept of “tree equity” is beginning to take root.