The other night, state Rep. Sam Montaño (D-15th Suffolk) hosted a meeting at English High School to talk about Boston Medical Center’s plans to turn Shattuck Hospital into a large recovery center possibly featuring several hundred housing units in addition to a rebuilt hospital building.
And boy was former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson pissed – not just at BMC, which both supporters and opponents agree is doing a terrible job communicating with the community, the Globe reports – but with Montaño, whose name she so loathed she couldn’t even mention it in a Facebook rant:
So last night was a 1st on a few fronts. (1) I attended a community meeting at English High School where the topic was Shattuck Hosp Plan in Franklin Park. In my 40+ years of community activism, I’ve never had to go to another neighborhood to talk about a proposed project around the corner from my house! (2) The State Rep host couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights so the auditorium was nearly dark! (3) Though in a public school, the State Rep said it was a private meeting and asked a Black man to leave. He refused. She threatened to call the cops. Cops were there 5 min later. And this was in the first 10-15 minutes of the meeting. Things didn’t go well from there. But WOW! Is this some new jack politics where elected officials have meetings about things happening in their colleague’s districts and don’t even invite them?
Surprise- The Rep presented Boston Medical Center’s plan to build an 851-unit addiction village in Franklin Park. As I said, it didn’t go well.
Montaño fired back today:
Hi! I’m the Rep she’s talking about. Last I checked I live closer to the shattuck than she does, unless her adddress with official state files is incorrect. Also I specifically did not say I would call the police on Shawn Nelson who was interrupting the meeting by yelling. I merely sat down and said I would wait. The lights were not off, just dim because we were presenting with a projector and multiple meetings have happened there without the ability to control the lighting. This meeting was not about the project, just to set the working point from which we would advance to discuss community process. This meeting was specifically to talk with constituents I represent about a project where I literally represent the closet abutter to the project but the project sits in land that is not in the boundaries of my district. Land doesn’t vote, people do. Happy to have this convo on the phone but it was started here and when I talk about others it’s not a blind item
Wait, did she say Shawn Nelson? The guy police had to tackle when he ran full-steam at the mayor in Dorchester, who had to be separated from City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune by a phalanx of Boston cops in Hyde Park and who
threw a woman against a wall overlooking a two-story drop at City Hall? Yeah, that guy, who had calmed down enough to come in second to last in the at-large Council race last year (beating out fellow anti-vaxxer screamer Catherine Vitale)?