May 23, 2025 • 38 mins
Frank Baker, a longtime Boston City Council member who served 6 terms over 12 years as a district councilor representing most of Dorchester and parts of South Boston, decided not to seek reelection in 2023. Flash forward to now and the former councilor has decided to seek election as a Boston city councilor at large to represent the entire city of Boston. Baker says after hearing a “steady beat of Bostonians urging me to step back in and get involved” he decided to answer that call. Frank Baker joined us to share his story.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan ray On Doubsy Boston's news video.
Thank you al the Red Sox. They missed a couple
of extra points nineteen they were nineteen and the hell
the Orioles to a field goal, so a football like
score at Fenway Park today, there were a couple of
the Oriole pitches at the end.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
They have astronomical earned run averages.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Now they'll spend the rest of the year working those
are earned run averages, including I guess at third basement
he gave up eight runs in one inning, so he
hasn't earned run average at seventy two.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm someone who reads box scores, and I gotta tell
you that's tough. That's a tough.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That's we thought early on the Oriols would be a
pretty good team, and I think that's not to be.
They've already fired their manager and it's going to be
a long season in Baltimore. Well, welcome back everybody. We'll
dispense with the sports talk here and we're going to
get to politics, which is what is our meeting potatoes
here on Nightside and with us, I'm delighted to have
(01:04):
former Boston City councilor Frank Baker, Frank Baker, Welcome to Knightside.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It's been a while. How are you.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I'm good, Dan, Thanks for having me tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, I have to.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Go over this because you are walking a path but
very few politicians walk, and that is you ran for
city council and were elected and served six terms twelve
years as a district councilor, representing sort of a district
that primarily was Dorchester, but you had a little bit
(01:39):
of other sections of the city in your district.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Correct, Yeah, Lower Roxbury and a little piece of the
South End, a little bit of South Boston.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay, So a couple of years ago you would have
been re elected. I think there's no question about that.
But a couple of years ago you decided twelve years
is enough and you stepped aside. And there's another, uh
district councilor from from your old district. Why did you
step away? You know, it's very few politicians retire or
(02:14):
step away voluntarily.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Well, to be honest with you, did I was simply
out of gas and you know it was a difficult
It was a difficult group. I guess you could say
back then and you know, yeah, I'll just leave it
at that it was a difficult group and and and
I was, I was out of gas.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It hasn't gotten any better.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
I think it has well, I think it. I think
I you know, and I'm and I'm trying to be respectful.
I think there is I think there's opportunities.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
There to.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Maybe bring the body together somewhat and work towards common
goals that that are gonna, you know, be beneficial for
the city of Boston.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
No, And I'm I was not trying to be a
wise guy when I said that, But you you are
are are going to be a different sort of voice.
I said early on that I like to consider myself
a voice of reason here in w b.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Z on night Side. You have always been, in my.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Opinion, a voice of reason when you served on the
Boston City Council. So, okay, you've had a couple of
years to to kind of step aside and uh and
and watch it from a distance. Now you're going to
run you You're not going to go back and run
against the gentleman who who succeeded you in in your district. Uh,
(03:42):
You're going to go state city wide. That's a tougher race.
That's a tougher race. So tell us what what has
prompted you to not only come back to the to
the to the game of Boston politics, if I can
refer to it as a game, but also to come
back and be running city wide as a district councilor.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Well, yeah, as a.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
City wide an at large councilor excuse me, at large.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yes, yes, well it is. It is a much bigger task.
But I was fortunate my twelve years there. I think
I earned a pretty good, pretty good name, and you know,
like I plan on dispensing common sense, and you know,
I've got thirty seven years of experience in the in
Boston in different departments, you know, twelve years on the
city council. And quite frankly, Dan, you know, you can't
(04:37):
really complain about the game unless you're playing. And this
is like you had said earlier, We're done with the sports.
Let's get into politics. Politics is the is my blood
sport now where I used to play other sports when
I was younger, but now this is what I do
when I'm drawn to it, and I think I can,
I think I can, you know, add a little bit
to the city. There's a lot of people that fail
(04:59):
left out of left out of city hall, that don't
feel connected into city hall. And I did hear from
you know, this sounds quirky or you know, like maybe
patting myself on the back. But I would be out
and people will come up to me. Would you ever
run for anything else again? Would you? Would you ever
come back? And you know, my brothers would come home
(05:21):
and say, I ran into people there. Everybody's asking what
are you doing? What do you know? And I just
needed some time away from city hall, time away from
a toxic environment to kind of get gather my thoughts,
get my head and and you know, get my strengths back.
And I have all that, and I cared deeply about
the city of Boston, which is what ultimately is going
(05:44):
to draw me into my decisions. And I didn't come
come to this decision lightly by any stretch of the imagination,
because you know, I had a difficult couple of years there.
It was it was we went through COVID and people
people were you know, everything was zoom. We weren't in person,
and that led to a lot of a lot of
the issues. I think that that happened. You know, where
(06:06):
people are now, you're advocating on a keyboard instead of
it's five different when you're standing in front of somebody
than it is if you're if you're just doing everything
on a keyboard. So, I mean, I'd like to bring
a lot of what we do back to in person.
You know, it's it's how we connect, Like politics is
one hundred percent connecting with your with however you connect
(06:28):
with your heart or with your with your mind, whatever.
We as a society I think need to get back together,
back at the table, talking and hashing out issues that
we have.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, look, Tip O'Neil said, all politics are local, and
I still think that was probably one of the wisest
things that things that have ever heard of a politician.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yes, say absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Essentially, what I'm hearing is that you've taken a couple
of years off and your batteries.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Are recharged that yeah, obviously, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
I don't know if if that's the metaphor you want
to use, but you're going to have to now reach
out to the entire city and I'm hoping that we're
going to hear from some of our Boston listeners tonight. Obviously,
love to hear from your former constituents who you hope
to have as future constituents, but also people in other
sections of city. I mean there's a huge portion of
(07:20):
the city. As a district councilor you probably represented roughly
ten percent of the city as an at large because
there are nine districts in Boston, nine district councilors and
four at large councilors. Have you had well, First of all,
how'd you do on the signature collection, which is which
(07:40):
is always an onerous task, particularly when when you no
longer have the incumbent, the power of the incombs incumbency
to work. How did that go? I know you were
working on it a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah, I well say, to just put it into perspective,
I was the last person to pull papers. I pulled
papers on my mother's nine eight birthday May eighth, so
I got my I got my papers on on the
ninth and and basically turned in and turned in enough
by the following week to to to certify. So I'm
already certified. We took it serious.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I had.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I had wonderful volunteers all around the all around the city,
and you know, people were people were gracious, you know,
to sign my to sign my papers. It's it's, you know, uh,
a democratic sort of exercise. And and to sign the papers,
that's just to allow you to be able to put
your name on the ballot. You need to come up
with a certain number. And we you know, I don't
(08:39):
want to say we knocked we knocked it out of
the park sports metaphor, but we did a pretty good job,
all right.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
My guest is Frank Baker UH, a former district city
council in Boston, and he is he stepped away a
couple of years ago. He is stepping back into the
ring this time. He's running at an at as an
at large candidate, UH, which, to put it simply means
that in his first six elections in Boston, his constituents
(09:07):
represented certain areas Lower Roxbury, Dorchester, that that was pretty
much his base of operation. Now he has to reach
out everywhere from places like Reedville and Hyde Park and
West Roxbury and Brighton and Alston and Charlestown, the North End,
East Boston, Back Bay, South End, all of Dorchester, all
(09:30):
of Roxbury, all of Mattapan, Roslyndale, Jamaica, Plaine.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
It has to has to basically be everywhere.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
It's a daunting task, and I'd love to have you
if you are particularly a Boston resident, if you'd like
to call, love to hear from me. If a question
for Frank, if you want to give him a word
of encouragement, I'm sure he'd appreciate that. I think it's
interesting because very rarely do you have a former city councilor,
or for that matter, a current city councilor up a
(10:00):
district seat, which tends to be fairly solid. They are
very stable. Let me put it like that. Very few
district councilors have turned out to step back in or
to step up and go at large city wide. So
this is an interesting political experiment. And knowing Frank Baker
(10:20):
as they know him, he has a lot of respect
around the city, and he has a lot of support,
and I suspect he's going to be a very formidable candidate.
And people always watch in the at large races, they
watch who finished first, who finished fourth. You have to
finish at least one through eight. Do you know at
this point, Frank, how many candidates are running at large
(10:42):
for the September primary as yet? Do you know how
many people have pulled papers?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Well, eighteen people had pulled papers. I think so far
that eight have been certified. That may have changed in
the last two days. So we had a candidates night
last night and a people were there, Okay, including myself.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
All right, so I think obviously eight will qualify in
the primary. Uh, and then of course it'll be a
mad dash to the finish line in November.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
But but if this isn't going to be an interest,
it's going to be an interesting campaign. Let's keep it rolling. Here.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Uh, the only line they have open. I got six one, seven, a, nine, three,
one ten thirty. Got two lines there. Uh, the lines
at six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty A
full up. So you can avoid calling that for now.
Try six one, seven, nine, three, one ten thirty if
you'd like to get in. We'll try to get to
as many folks as possible. My guest is Frank Baker.
(11:40):
I will want to ask Frank a couple of questions
when we come back about, besides the idea of running,
what does he want to accomplish as a city councilor
what direction does he want to take the city. What
are the issues that he is going to be talking about. Uh.
At most importantly, obviously everyone talks about improving city services
and etc. But I also want to find it if
(12:02):
there are some issues that are going to identify Frank's campaign.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
We'll be back with Frank Baker. Your phone calls. My
name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I happen to love Boston politics. I love city politics,
I love state politics, and I love federal politics. However,
I will remind you that the most important vote you
can cast is your local vote. Because when you vote
in a presidential race, there's another one hundred and seventy
million or so Americans who are voting, and there's another
four or five million in Massachusetts who are voting. But
(12:32):
when you vote locally in a city council race, your
vote has much more significance in weight. It's a very
important vote back. And so all of you need to
be registered and get ready to vote on primary night,
on primary day here in Boston next September. We'll get
to all of that with Frank Baker and your phone calls.
We'll be right back here on Nightside. The lines are
(12:53):
full right now. As soon as they start to drop
and we clear some of the lines, i'll let you know.
For now, you can sit back and relax, coming back,
Good Night Side. You're on Night Side with Dan Ray
on w b Z, Boston's news radio. All right, my
guess it's Frank Baker. He's the city council candidate. He
had served in the city council for six terms. Frank,
(13:14):
we only got a couple of minutes left here before
the bottom of the hour. I don't want to short
change any of the callers. We have Greg, Tom, Paul,
Peteon Gordon lined up and several of them are from Boston.
As a matter of fact, four out of five of
them are from the Boston area. So we're going to
talk to potential constituents. What is your impression of the
city council? Now, you have one member of the city
(13:35):
Council who has pled guilty to corruption charges. She remains
a member of the city council, still drawing a salary
as a member of the city Council, and probably will
not resign until she's forced to resign when she is
sentenced to federal prison in late July. Is that a
(13:56):
factor in you deciding to get back into this race.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
No, no, I mean that's an unfortunate situation for the
for the people of District seven. That you know that
that that's the repentation representation that they have now. But
but no, I think I think the people that are
on the city council now, I think generally the the
they're good people and they just they're in a they're
(14:22):
in this odd time. When when I first got elected,
Dan every person on the body, when I first got there, I.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Came in alone.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Every person offered to, you know, get to know me,
take me off for coffee, take me to lunch, something
like that. Those sorts of little gestures stopped happening. So
the relationships that you when you're elected to a body,
you're supposed to work as a body. You're not supposed
to actively work against each other. And and and I
(14:50):
think that I can bring a little bit of that
experience in terms of maybe this is how we can
we can be a body. Am I going to be
a silver bullet? No, by no stretch of the imagine nation.
But I think I can, you know, maybe help to
build relationships and build common ground with the people are
there now. Like I said, I think anybody that gets
involved in politics, they care about what they're doing because
(15:14):
it takes a big you know, it takes a big
hot and you know, a car in person to just
put your name on the ballot. A lot of people
will will, you know, talk whatever way about oh you're
a politician or this and that. But the reality is
most people are never going to have the gumption to
be able to put their name on a ballot. It's
a very very difficult thing to do. So I have
(15:35):
respect for the people that are in there. I just
think we're gonna we're gonna have to, you know, work
on some things and find some commonality between us, and
I hope that I'm able to be there and help
to do that.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Okay, so let me ask you this, in your opinion,
is the city of Boston going in a good direction
or or or not the direction that you'd.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Like to see it go.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I'm not crazy about the direction of the city, but
I have hope for the city.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Okay, what would you likency changed?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Well? Again, everything for me, dan is is relationships. What
I'm hearing, mostly in different neighborhoods is we don't have
anybody to call in city Hall. Nobody's nobody. It's not responsive.
Your people aren't calling us back. The one thing and
you had mentioned in earlier how important municipal elections are.
(16:33):
What people don't understand is someone from the city is
sitting at your kitchen table nearly every day, whether if
it's ISD or if it's the water department, or whether
you know you've got a ticket on your way in.
Someone from the city is around your life every day,
you know. And it isn't like and when you vote
for president. Yeah, you may think it's the most important thing,
(16:53):
but it's it's pretty far removed. The City Council is
the closest to the people than any other sea that
you could run for.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more. Let's do this, Frank,
I think you've said it.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Well.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
There's nothing I can ask you that's gonna I think
encapsulated better than that. We're gonna take a break. We
got a newscast coming up, and we are going to
get right to phone calls. We will handle everybody who's
on the line, and hopefully several more folks.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
This is an interesting race. This is one you want
to follow.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
I'm coming right back on Nightside with Frank Baker, candidate
for an at large seat in the Boston City Council.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Back on Nightside after this, It's night Side with.
Speaker 6 (17:37):
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
All right, Frank Baker, we got a bunch of phone calls.
Let's see what the folks have to say about your run.
We have with us Greg from Abington, who is a
Plymouth County commissioner.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Hey, Greg, welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
How are you.
Speaker 7 (17:54):
I'm doing well, Dan, Thanks very much for having this
gentleman on. You have to congratch him on the choice
to get back in the game. But to tell you
the truth, and I met Frank about three years ago
when we had a delegation of folks come over from
Ireland that we signed assist a county program with Donegall Ireland,
(18:15):
and Frank actually drove these folks down, he picked them
up at the airport for us. And over the last
three years we've been talking and since he got out
of the game, you know, he's never stopped helping people.
And the reality is once you're out, you're out. And
it was very frustrating, I think for Frank to try
to help people when he no longer had that cachet
(18:37):
of being that public person, having been a former city
council in the city quinsing the seleckmen in Pembroke. You know,
they like to say politician, but can I just say
something when it comes to Frank Backer, he's a public servant, Okay.
He likes to help people. And I think part of
the and he probably wouldn't say it, but part of
his frustration was you can't help you if you didn't
(19:00):
have elected. So I just wanted to congratulate him and
thank you Dan for putting him on, because he's a
common sense person who likes to get things done. He
said in himself, he's a broker. He likes to get solutions.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, I mean I.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Would see I would see Frank every year at the
Mary and Brett food pantry over in Dorchester. The Brett
family a great family here in Boston, Bill Brett and
Jim bretton, you know all Harry Bretton, the entire Brett family,
Tim Brett, the whole group of them. But I remember
talking to Frank and saying, you know what, and he
(19:38):
just seemed down. But he he sounds now to me
like he's got the political bug again and he wants
to get back out. And I knew him always as
someone who wanted to help people, and that's why I'm
having him on tonight.
Speaker 7 (19:51):
Well that's great, and I just wanted to call and
congratulate him in a test to the fact that he's
never stopped working for people, you know, right down with
the Irish community that I'm involved with, who just finished
the trans Atlantic UH Climbing Alliance Conference UH and we
celebrated a welcome dinner for the Ambassador Island, retired Claire Cronin.
(20:15):
She awarded the first ever award for similar to the
typical Neil Award to the Mayor of Donne Gaul Nieve
Kennedy and Frank came down and just participated. So he's
he's become a friend. I want to be a friend
to him, and I wanted to call and let you
know I'm on board, Frank. Whatever you need from us,
(20:36):
the Hanley Brothers will be with him. Dan, thank you
for the opportunity to say so.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Well, absolutely, Frank says, great, Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Frank, thank you for the kind words.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
Greg.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
You're a good friend.
Speaker 6 (20:47):
You're a good friend.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I'm fortunate.
Speaker 7 (20:50):
We'll be there for your brother.
Speaker 8 (20:52):
Keep the faith, Dan.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
I let the other talkers, people waiting on the line talk,
but thank you for having me and.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Keep keep listening to night Side.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Okay, my four bears are from a little a different
part of the old sid County Cork, the town of
Mattaw Cork.
Speaker 7 (21:09):
As they say, we got the down in Brockton. We
have the credence and that's their court people as well.
You and I are members of a distinct club, Dan,
so I'll look forward to our next year's meetings.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Well, I know we're talking about the Clover Club. I
assume that's what you're talking about. Yeah, well, somehow I
was elected president in a secret ballot vote. It was
so secret no one knows who voted, who votes.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Thanks Greg, Thanks good luck, Thanks Craig, good night, Thank.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
You great appreciate. Let's keep going.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
The only line there is six month, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty, the regular line. Tom is in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
We have a Boston voter here, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Tom. You're all with Frank Baker.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Hey Frank, and thank you Dan for having this night
with Frank. I was just when Frank. When Frank gets elected, Frank,
can you and will you try to bring the council
back to the middle. Can you try and bring back
actual council meetings where there's dialogue instead of petulant children
(22:23):
banging on desks and yelling and screaming about things that
are happening all around the world that have zero effect
on the city of Boston. Can you try to bring
back the maya to the middle. Also, she just does things.
It goes around the council and goes around community groups
and knocks down buildings and knocks down stadiums with zero input.
(22:47):
And she doesn't wait for court decisions.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
That's assumed she'll still be the mayor when Frank gets elected.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Tom, by the way, remember oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Well Tom, Tom, that's exactly that. That's exactly what I'm
what I'm going to try to do, and it's one
seat at a time.
Speaker 6 (23:03):
Tom.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
You know, I'm someone that I think throwing my hat
in the ring, I think I can get elected. And
I'm someone that's in the center. I'm not I'm not
a leftie, I'm not a righty. I'm directly in the center.
And you hit it. It's we need to have conversations
and we need to talk about business. That's germane to
the city of Boston. I mean, we have eighty percent
(23:24):
of our kids in the third grade not reading proficient,
and we're talking about everything else under the Sun. We
need to get into city issues. We need to we
need to put the city of Boston in the focal
point of of everybody's in top of mind for everybody,
and that especially the city council. So hopefully I can
do that. Hopefully I can drag some people back to
(23:45):
the center and let them know it's nice to be
in the center. So, yes, that's what my plan is.
Speaker 8 (23:51):
Tom.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well, the center is the one place get The center
is the one place where you actually can have some
dialogue and conversations. I think a lot of folks on
the extremes. Uh forget that.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Frank so and uh yeah yeah, Tom. I appreciate your calling.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Thanks well, Dan, thank you for having me on, Frank,
thanks for hearing me out and vote Baker and craftman.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Tom, thank you. I will be at the I will
be at the parade for Buncle Hill say hi, absolutely.
Speaker 9 (24:24):
Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
Thank you. Guys.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
All right, have a good one, have had good weekend,
Happy Memorial Day. Paul is in Dorchester, Paul, another Boston voter,
your own Frank Baker, Paul, Hey.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Hi, guys, I guess congratulations Dan and Fred. You put
a smile on my face. When I hear it, you're back.
You got to vote from Savin Hill. Uh. I just
we got some frightful people in politics nowadays. I would
love to see a sane, normal guy like yourself back,
(24:59):
you know, bless you and uh and like I say,
I'll talk it up for my neck of the woods.
And and you know what, I called city hall a
couple of times today, I've been trying to address the
rat issue, and I was wondering, what do you think
about owls, like like snowy owls or like gray owls
(25:21):
or something. They used peregrine falcons on the State House,
so they already got the birds through. They've proved proved
them to kill the pigeons in the state House. But
like as long as nobody was using pesticides that they
could stop that for a while. I think maybe introducing
some some owls might be a possibility. But that's just
maybe a pet project we could have.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah, Paul, that's that's an interesting subject, something that I
didn't see coming at me. But you know, anyway we
can get rid of get rid of the rats.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Just to be just to be clear, we're talking about
the two legged rots here.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Let's make sure it's really clear.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Oh, I thought, Paul, the floor legged.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Oh no, the fore leged.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Okay, the two legged.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
One, we'll leave. We'll leave the two legged ones alone. Okay,
we'll go after the four legged.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
There's the two legged skunks.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
But I think, by the way, I didn't. I didn't realize. Look,
owls are our amazing birds. And I think Frank Paul's
suggestion is kind of interesting. If if owls would our
predators towards pigeons, I'm with the owls.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Yeah, the owls go after the rats. The peregrine falcons
are in the State House. They're actually there, you can.
And there's less pigeons.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
But.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
Absolutely they brought them in and and and owls would
be great because they'd be stealthy. You'd never hear them.
They come out at night. They maintained themselves. And if
you do. He wanted to be like, wow, I saw
her on you know.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
And they're very wise, very wise.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
We should owls in Georchester more on the city council lately.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
All right, thanks, I have a good one. Okay, let's
keep rolling here. Frank, you're going to take one more
here before the break. We're gonna I don't want to
make people wait any longer than necessary. Let's go back
to Charlestown and Pete joins us from Charlestown. We got
a couple of lines at six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty. Pete, welcome back your next.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
Good luck mister Baker in your re election. Let me
ask you, are you in favor do you support Ice
coming into Boston uh and doing the appropriate thing by
removing people in here illegally. And my second question is
me and wo would you give her for a grade
(27:53):
on the universal grading system? How do you think she's
done so far as May? What would you give her
for a grade?
Speaker 3 (27:59):
I would give her a C.
Speaker 8 (28:01):
And I was at I was at a a candidate's
night last night, and I advocated for Boston police to
be able to work with ICE.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
So we're able to understand and know who it is
that we need to we need to get out of
the city. I'm not going to be in favor of
breaking up families, you know, especially if someone isn't it
isn't a criminal. You know, we have to get the
criminals off the street. And I did advocate for, you know,
to to actually say we're not going to cooperate. Just
(28:33):
think of that for a second. We're not going to cooperate.
Adults cooperate. We have conversations, we talked, So there's no
reason why Boston police can't know what Ice movements are
and when possible, be in collaboration with them. So I think,
I think that all all branches of government are all
(28:54):
all you know, forms of police should be able to talk.
That's part of our intelligence when we when we went
through nine to eleven, one of the big criticisms where
you know, the left hand didn't know what the right
hand was doing. We shouldn't be advocating to say no,
we're not going to help out in any any sort
of any sort of you know, exercise to keep our
(29:19):
people safe.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
Good comments, Frank, good luck, thank you, thank you, thank.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
You very much. Frank.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I think that's a pretty common sense position that you
just articulated, and I wish more politicians would were talking
that way. I'm going to be next hour critical of
President Trump's battle with Harvard. I don't understand why the
president seems to be so focused or the administration seems
(29:49):
to be focused so focused on going after.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Harvard and all of that.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
There is so many more important things that need to
be done in this country. I want to get the
real bad guy as the people who were here, you know,
the people who were into child trafficking, into bringing you know,
really deadly drugs into this country, fentanyl and issues like that,
the child rapists, people who are who are working the system.
(30:15):
There was a story in the Herald today about some
woman who had like eight social Security numbers. I forget
the specifics of it, but she's been living here for
twenty years. She's illegal, she's voted in elections. You know,
we we got to tighten things up a little bit.
And I think what you said made a whole lot
of sense. You know, we're not before we go after
(30:36):
you know, people who pick food or who clean hotel rooms.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Let's get the bad guys out of here first, you know.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Let's see Yeah, yeah, there's plenty, there's plenty of them here,
and I think we could we could do that job
more efficiently if all levels of laren for US enforcement
were able to talk to each other. We're not asking
Boston police to go in on raids, but the Boston
police know Boston better than anybody. If you'll bring an
ice in from if a guy that lives in Pennsylvania
(31:04):
and he's and he's with ice. He doesn't know what
the Boston neighborhoods are, so he doesn't know how we
treat each other. Boston police know that we've got the
best police in the country and we should be utilizing them.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Well said, Well said. My guest is Frank Baker.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
He is an at large City Council candidate, which means
whether you live in East Boston, West Roxbury, Charlestown, Mattapan,
and all the points in between, Hyde Park, Reedville, you
can vote for Frank Baker this September, and assuming that
he qualifies for the final ballot in November, you can
(31:39):
vote for him in November as well. He served six
terms in the Boston City Council twelve years. Stepped away
a couple of years ago, but I think he well,
I think he has the fire in his belly and
he wants to get back, and he wants to get
back and do some positive things for Boston. And so
I'm delighted to have him tonight, pretty much his campaign official.
(32:00):
About a week ago, I wanted to get him on
the program and he said, Dan, let me get my
signatures squared away first, which is a perfectly reasonable position,
and we're happy to have him. Tonight, we have got
a couple more calls from Dorchester, and I got a
little bit more room if you want to jump on
board six one seven, two five thirty, six one seven
nine three one thirty.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
It's Night Side with.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Let's get some more calls in here for Frank Baker,
candidate for Boston City Council, a city wide at large candidate.
Gordon in Dorchester. Gordon, you're next with Frank Baker. Go
right ahead, Gordon.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
How you doing, Frank.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
I'm good, Gordon.
Speaker 9 (32:44):
Frank, thank you for refueling and getting back in the
race to instare integrity to the City of Boston and
to the City Council.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Thank you, Gordon.
Speaker 9 (32:57):
I mean that is that any I'm going to be brief.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
That's okay, go right a head, Gordon.
Speaker 9 (33:04):
I just want to get that message out restore integrity
to the City of Boston in the City of Council.
I love you, Frank, Thank you, best wishes deal.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Thank you, Gordon, thank you very much.
Speaker 9 (33:19):
Welcome my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Thanks Gordon, appreciate your call. Let me get very quickly.
Let me get Joe in from East Boston. Joe and
you are next one. Nice with Frank Baker, candidate at
large Boston City Council.
Speaker 10 (33:32):
Hey Dan, Hey Frank, how are you great?
Speaker 6 (33:35):
Hi?
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I'm good good.
Speaker 10 (33:37):
Thank you for running. It sounds like we've got somebody
with integrity here, and that's what we need. I cannot believe,
I'll be quick if I can. I cannot believe that
a convicted felon is going to continue in their job.
And you know why that is because they don't want
to pay for a special election. But I have no confidence.
I've lost all confidence in my own city councilor and
(33:58):
most of the city councilors except for quite a few,
which it's when I think I really wish he had
run for mayor anyway. In East Boston, we have bike lanes.
No one uses them because our street is so dangerous.
We have accidents every day on Bennington Street. They ride
on the sidewalk to which these motorized bikes are on
the sidewalk and we're not safe. So that's one thing.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
Number two.
Speaker 10 (34:24):
In the community, we have a community process. We have
these community groups. I was head of mine at Orient Heights,
and they get people to believe they have a say
in what goes in your neighborhood. And so they bring
the attorneys in, and they bring the people that want
to build these you know, humongous complexes, and you have
(34:45):
you know, they come in three times and you go
back and forth, and if the community votes it down,
the mayor will always veto the vote. Nine times out
of ten the vote gets vetoed and that big cong
larmer and goes in anyway. And so we everybody thinks
the community process is a joke, a waste of time.
(35:06):
It's just a belief that we have to say, but
we don't. We need to bring back the power in
the community groups. And I hope that that's something you
can think about doing. But I would appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
And one way that the community groups can assert their
power is to support candidates like Frank Baker who are
responsive to community groups.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
If you want to be.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
If the incumbents aren't being responsive, then you have to
change the incumbents, simple as that.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
True.
Speaker 10 (35:32):
So I was going to run this time, but I
just decided I'm better as a social worker. But Frank,
will you come to your Boston and talk to a
couple of our groups.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
I will, I will Joe in. So let me just
say one thing. I think one thing that we should
be looking at doing with, especially with the big planning initiatives,
I think we have to get off of zoom and
bring those in it. If you're planning on imputing hundreds
of apartment in someplace, you should have you should have
the decency enough to come and sit in a room
with the people that are going to be affected. And
(36:04):
that's a ployee where we have all the zoom because
if someone is speaking out against the project, product project,
all you need to do is they just neute you now.
And also that's not what we're used.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
To Frank, you feel isolated when you don't. You don't
realize there's one hundred other people who agree with you.
The zoom works against community groups. Joe Inn, We're going
to have Frank give his UH address where you can
get in touch with him. So get a piece of
paper and pencil. I'm going to get one more caller
in real quickly.
Speaker 10 (36:33):
Okay, thank you so much. I'll call back another time.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Thank you, Joe. In your Orient Heights the Orient Heights group, well,
Larentine is going to back me. Sal Yep's gonna be
with me?
Speaker 10 (36:46):
Yeah right, Well okay, joe In hold on again it
joe In you you just get a pencil and we'll
get it.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Get an address for you. I want to get one more.
Call in real quickly for Frank Paper.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Thank you, Gregory in Dorchester. Greg, you're a little bit
at the end of the line here. We only got
about thirty seconds for you. Can be Can you be quick,
my friend? I got you in.
Speaker 9 (37:08):
Yeah, Frank, you're the assault of the earth.
Speaker 6 (37:12):
We need you.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Well, there's not a better endorsement that you could have
than than Greg And that says it all.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Greg, well said my friend. Thank you so much, Dad.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Thank you for opening, for talking about a kidd the
other night.
Speaker 9 (37:26):
You open an off line of doors open afterwards.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Thank you, my friend. I appreciate that. I really do. Greg,
you know that. Thank you. Thanks buddy, we'll talk to it.
Have a great have a great weekend, Frank. How can
folks get in touch with your campaign if they are
so inspired?
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Well, I mean I have my cell phone number. I
don't have a campaign email just yet. I'm just setting
everything up. I have a campaign headquarters at eight five
eight Dorchester, rav and I'm having my campaign kickoff on
June fifth, seven o'clock at Florian Hall. Like for joe
In Alamentina has has my phone number. There's a lot
(38:03):
of people around that just I don't necessarily want to
get my cell phone.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Numb totally get that.
Speaker 4 (38:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
But but again, we'll have you back and we'll we'll
try to get the people in touch with you.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Okay, people can.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
And I'll have a website up up and running very shortly, Dan,
and I'll make sure that I'll make sure that you
know people will have it. But I have my campaign
headquarters and my kickoff is on the fifth of June
at at Florian Hall. I'd love to have everybody across
the city come over and and have some fun with
me that night.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
So sounds great, Frank, I enjoyed it. I think you
had a good night, and you're off and running. Best
of luck. We'll talk it again.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Thanks, Dan, You're welcome, my friend.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
We'll talk soon. All right, We've got to take a break.
We will be back here right after the ten o'clock news,
and we're going to talk about this a weird fight
between Donald Trump and Harvard Back on nights out, after
this
It's Night Side with Dan ray On Doubsy Boston's news video.
Thank you al the Red Sox. They missed a couple
of extra points nineteen they were nineteen and the hell
the Orioles to a field goal, so a football like
score at Fenway Park today, there were a couple of
the Oriole pitches at the end.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
They have astronomical earned run averages.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Now they'll spend the rest of the year working those
are earned run averages, including I guess at third basement
he gave up eight runs in one inning, so he
hasn't earned run average at seventy two.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm someone who reads box scores, and I gotta tell
you that's tough. That's a tough.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That's we thought early on the Oriols would be a
pretty good team, and I think that's not to be.
They've already fired their manager and it's going to be
a long season in Baltimore. Well, welcome back everybody. We'll
dispense with the sports talk here and we're going to
get to politics, which is what is our meeting potatoes
here on Nightside and with us, I'm delighted to have
(01:04):
former Boston City councilor Frank Baker, Frank Baker, Welcome to Knightside.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It's been a while. How are you.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I'm good, Dan, Thanks for having me tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, I have to.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Go over this because you are walking a path but
very few politicians walk, and that is you ran for
city council and were elected and served six terms twelve
years as a district councilor, representing sort of a district
that primarily was Dorchester, but you had a little bit
(01:39):
of other sections of the city in your district.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Correct, Yeah, Lower Roxbury and a little piece of the
South End, a little bit of South Boston.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay, So a couple of years ago you would have
been re elected. I think there's no question about that.
But a couple of years ago you decided twelve years
is enough and you stepped aside. And there's another, uh
district councilor from from your old district. Why did you
step away? You know, it's very few politicians retire or
(02:14):
step away voluntarily.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Well, to be honest with you, did I was simply
out of gas and you know it was a difficult
It was a difficult group. I guess you could say
back then and you know, yeah, I'll just leave it
at that it was a difficult group and and and
I was, I was out of gas.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
It hasn't gotten any better.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
I think it has well, I think it. I think
I you know, and I'm and I'm trying to be respectful.
I think there is I think there's opportunities.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
There to.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Maybe bring the body together somewhat and work towards common
goals that that are gonna, you know, be beneficial for
the city of Boston.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
No, And I'm I was not trying to be a
wise guy when I said that, But you you are
are are going to be a different sort of voice.
I said early on that I like to consider myself
a voice of reason here in w b.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Z on night Side. You have always been, in my.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Opinion, a voice of reason when you served on the
Boston City Council. So, okay, you've had a couple of
years to to kind of step aside and uh and
and watch it from a distance. Now you're going to
run you You're not going to go back and run
against the gentleman who who succeeded you in in your district. Uh,
(03:42):
You're going to go state city wide. That's a tougher race.
That's a tougher race. So tell us what what has
prompted you to not only come back to the to
the to the game of Boston politics, if I can
refer to it as a game, but also to come
back and be running city wide as a district councilor.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Well, yeah, as a.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
City wide an at large councilor excuse me, at large.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yes, yes, well it is. It is a much bigger task.
But I was fortunate my twelve years there. I think
I earned a pretty good, pretty good name, and you know,
like I plan on dispensing common sense, and you know,
I've got thirty seven years of experience in the in
Boston in different departments, you know, twelve years on the
city council. And quite frankly, Dan, you know, you can't
(04:37):
really complain about the game unless you're playing. And this
is like you had said earlier, We're done with the sports.
Let's get into politics. Politics is the is my blood
sport now where I used to play other sports when
I was younger, but now this is what I do
when I'm drawn to it, and I think I can,
I think I can, you know, add a little bit
to the city. There's a lot of people that fail
(04:59):
left out of left out of city hall, that don't
feel connected into city hall. And I did hear from
you know, this sounds quirky or you know, like maybe
patting myself on the back. But I would be out
and people will come up to me. Would you ever
run for anything else again? Would you? Would you ever
come back? And you know, my brothers would come home
(05:21):
and say, I ran into people there. Everybody's asking what
are you doing? What do you know? And I just
needed some time away from city hall, time away from
a toxic environment to kind of get gather my thoughts,
get my head and and you know, get my strengths back.
And I have all that, and I cared deeply about
the city of Boston, which is what ultimately is going
(05:44):
to draw me into my decisions. And I didn't come
come to this decision lightly by any stretch of the imagination,
because you know, I had a difficult couple of years there.
It was it was we went through COVID and people
people were you know, everything was zoom. We weren't in person,
and that led to a lot of a lot of
the issues. I think that that happened. You know, where
(06:06):
people are now, you're advocating on a keyboard instead of
it's five different when you're standing in front of somebody
than it is if you're if you're just doing everything
on a keyboard. So, I mean, I'd like to bring
a lot of what we do back to in person.
You know, it's it's how we connect, Like politics is
one hundred percent connecting with your with however you connect
(06:28):
with your heart or with your with your mind, whatever.
We as a society I think need to get back together,
back at the table, talking and hashing out issues that
we have.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, look, Tip O'Neil said, all politics are local, and
I still think that was probably one of the wisest
things that things that have ever heard of a politician.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yes, say absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Essentially, what I'm hearing is that you've taken a couple
of years off and your batteries.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Are recharged that yeah, obviously, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
I don't know if if that's the metaphor you want
to use, but you're going to have to now reach
out to the entire city and I'm hoping that we're
going to hear from some of our Boston listeners tonight. Obviously,
love to hear from your former constituents who you hope
to have as future constituents, but also people in other
sections of city. I mean there's a huge portion of
(07:20):
the city. As a district councilor you probably represented roughly
ten percent of the city as an at large because
there are nine districts in Boston, nine district councilors and
four at large councilors. Have you had well, First of all,
how'd you do on the signature collection, which is which
(07:40):
is always an onerous task, particularly when when you no
longer have the incumbent, the power of the incombs incumbency
to work. How did that go? I know you were
working on it a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah, I well say, to just put it into perspective,
I was the last person to pull papers. I pulled
papers on my mother's nine eight birthday May eighth, so
I got my I got my papers on on the
ninth and and basically turned in and turned in enough
by the following week to to to certify. So I'm
already certified. We took it serious.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I had.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I had wonderful volunteers all around the all around the city,
and you know, people were people were gracious, you know,
to sign my to sign my papers. It's it's, you know, uh,
a democratic sort of exercise. And and to sign the papers,
that's just to allow you to be able to put
your name on the ballot. You need to come up
with a certain number. And we you know, I don't
(08:39):
want to say we knocked we knocked it out of
the park sports metaphor, but we did a pretty good job,
all right.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
My guest is Frank Baker UH, a former district city
council in Boston, and he is he stepped away a
couple of years ago. He is stepping back into the
ring this time. He's running at an at as an
at large candidate, UH, which, to put it simply means
that in his first six elections in Boston, his constituents
(09:07):
represented certain areas Lower Roxbury, Dorchester, that that was pretty
much his base of operation. Now he has to reach
out everywhere from places like Reedville and Hyde Park and
West Roxbury and Brighton and Alston and Charlestown, the North End,
East Boston, Back Bay, South End, all of Dorchester, all
(09:30):
of Roxbury, all of Mattapan, Roslyndale, Jamaica, Plaine.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
It has to has to basically be everywhere.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
It's a daunting task, and I'd love to have you
if you are particularly a Boston resident, if you'd like
to call, love to hear from me. If a question
for Frank, if you want to give him a word
of encouragement, I'm sure he'd appreciate that. I think it's
interesting because very rarely do you have a former city councilor,
or for that matter, a current city councilor up a
(10:00):
district seat, which tends to be fairly solid. They are
very stable. Let me put it like that. Very few
district councilors have turned out to step back in or
to step up and go at large city wide. So
this is an interesting political experiment. And knowing Frank Baker
(10:20):
as they know him, he has a lot of respect
around the city, and he has a lot of support,
and I suspect he's going to be a very formidable candidate.
And people always watch in the at large races, they
watch who finished first, who finished fourth. You have to
finish at least one through eight. Do you know at
this point, Frank, how many candidates are running at large
(10:42):
for the September primary as yet? Do you know how
many people have pulled papers?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Well, eighteen people had pulled papers. I think so far
that eight have been certified. That may have changed in
the last two days. So we had a candidates night
last night and a people were there, Okay, including myself.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
All right, so I think obviously eight will qualify in
the primary. Uh, and then of course it'll be a
mad dash to the finish line in November.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
But but if this isn't going to be an interest,
it's going to be an interesting campaign. Let's keep it rolling. Here.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Uh, the only line they have open. I got six one, seven, a, nine, three,
one ten thirty. Got two lines there. Uh, the lines
at six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty A
full up. So you can avoid calling that for now.
Try six one, seven, nine, three, one ten thirty if
you'd like to get in. We'll try to get to
as many folks as possible. My guest is Frank Baker.
(11:40):
I will want to ask Frank a couple of questions
when we come back about, besides the idea of running,
what does he want to accomplish as a city councilor
what direction does he want to take the city. What
are the issues that he is going to be talking about. Uh.
At most importantly, obviously everyone talks about improving city services
and etc. But I also want to find it if
(12:02):
there are some issues that are going to identify Frank's campaign.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
We'll be back with Frank Baker. Your phone calls. My
name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I happen to love Boston politics. I love city politics,
I love state politics, and I love federal politics. However,
I will remind you that the most important vote you
can cast is your local vote. Because when you vote
in a presidential race, there's another one hundred and seventy
million or so Americans who are voting, and there's another
four or five million in Massachusetts who are voting. But
(12:32):
when you vote locally in a city council race, your
vote has much more significance in weight. It's a very
important vote back. And so all of you need to
be registered and get ready to vote on primary night,
on primary day here in Boston next September. We'll get
to all of that with Frank Baker and your phone calls.
We'll be right back here on Nightside. The lines are
(12:53):
full right now. As soon as they start to drop
and we clear some of the lines, i'll let you know.
For now, you can sit back and relax, coming back,
Good Night Side. You're on Night Side with Dan Ray
on w b Z, Boston's news radio. All right, my
guess it's Frank Baker. He's the city council candidate. He
had served in the city council for six terms. Frank,
(13:14):
we only got a couple of minutes left here before
the bottom of the hour. I don't want to short
change any of the callers. We have Greg, Tom, Paul,
Peteon Gordon lined up and several of them are from Boston.
As a matter of fact, four out of five of
them are from the Boston area. So we're going to
talk to potential constituents. What is your impression of the
city council? Now, you have one member of the city
(13:35):
Council who has pled guilty to corruption charges. She remains
a member of the city council, still drawing a salary
as a member of the city Council, and probably will
not resign until she's forced to resign when she is
sentenced to federal prison in late July. Is that a
(13:56):
factor in you deciding to get back into this race.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
No, no, I mean that's an unfortunate situation for the
for the people of District seven. That you know that
that that's the repentation representation that they have now. But
but no, I think I think the people that are
on the city council now, I think generally the the
they're good people and they just they're in a they're
(14:22):
in this odd time. When when I first got elected,
Dan every person on the body, when I first got there, I.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Came in alone.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Every person offered to, you know, get to know me,
take me off for coffee, take me to lunch, something
like that. Those sorts of little gestures stopped happening. So
the relationships that you when you're elected to a body,
you're supposed to work as a body. You're not supposed
to actively work against each other. And and and I
(14:50):
think that I can bring a little bit of that
experience in terms of maybe this is how we can
we can be a body. Am I going to be
a silver bullet? No, by no stretch of the imagine nation.
But I think I can, you know, maybe help to
build relationships and build common ground with the people are
there now. Like I said, I think anybody that gets
involved in politics, they care about what they're doing because
(15:14):
it takes a big you know, it takes a big
hot and you know, a car in person to just
put your name on the ballot. A lot of people
will will, you know, talk whatever way about oh you're
a politician or this and that. But the reality is
most people are never going to have the gumption to
be able to put their name on a ballot. It's
a very very difficult thing to do. So I have
(15:35):
respect for the people that are in there. I just
think we're gonna we're gonna have to, you know, work
on some things and find some commonality between us, and
I hope that I'm able to be there and help
to do that.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Okay, so let me ask you this, in your opinion,
is the city of Boston going in a good direction
or or or not the direction that you'd.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Like to see it go.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I'm not crazy about the direction of the city, but
I have hope for the city.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Okay, what would you likency changed?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Well? Again, everything for me, dan is is relationships. What
I'm hearing, mostly in different neighborhoods is we don't have
anybody to call in city Hall. Nobody's nobody. It's not responsive.
Your people aren't calling us back. The one thing and
you had mentioned in earlier how important municipal elections are.
(16:33):
What people don't understand is someone from the city is
sitting at your kitchen table nearly every day, whether if
it's ISD or if it's the water department, or whether
you know you've got a ticket on your way in.
Someone from the city is around your life every day,
you know. And it isn't like and when you vote
for president. Yeah, you may think it's the most important thing,
(16:53):
but it's it's pretty far removed. The City Council is
the closest to the people than any other sea that
you could run for.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more. Let's do this, Frank,
I think you've said it.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Well.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
There's nothing I can ask you that's gonna I think
encapsulated better than that. We're gonna take a break. We
got a newscast coming up, and we are going to
get right to phone calls. We will handle everybody who's
on the line, and hopefully several more folks.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
This is an interesting race. This is one you want
to follow.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
I'm coming right back on Nightside with Frank Baker, candidate
for an at large seat in the Boston City Council.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Back on Nightside after this, It's night Side with.
Speaker 6 (17:37):
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
All right, Frank Baker, we got a bunch of phone calls.
Let's see what the folks have to say about your run.
We have with us Greg from Abington, who is a
Plymouth County commissioner.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Hey, Greg, welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
How are you.
Speaker 7 (17:54):
I'm doing well, Dan, Thanks very much for having this
gentleman on. You have to congratch him on the choice
to get back in the game. But to tell you
the truth, and I met Frank about three years ago
when we had a delegation of folks come over from
Ireland that we signed assist a county program with Donegall Ireland,
(18:15):
and Frank actually drove these folks down, he picked them
up at the airport for us. And over the last
three years we've been talking and since he got out
of the game, you know, he's never stopped helping people.
And the reality is once you're out, you're out. And
it was very frustrating, I think for Frank to try
to help people when he no longer had that cachet
(18:37):
of being that public person, having been a former city
council in the city quinsing the seleckmen in Pembroke. You know,
they like to say politician, but can I just say
something when it comes to Frank Backer, he's a public servant, Okay.
He likes to help people. And I think part of
the and he probably wouldn't say it, but part of
his frustration was you can't help you if you didn't
(19:00):
have elected. So I just wanted to congratulate him and
thank you Dan for putting him on, because he's a
common sense person who likes to get things done. He
said in himself, he's a broker. He likes to get solutions.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, I mean I.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Would see I would see Frank every year at the
Mary and Brett food pantry over in Dorchester. The Brett
family a great family here in Boston, Bill Brett and
Jim bretton, you know all Harry Bretton, the entire Brett family,
Tim Brett, the whole group of them. But I remember
talking to Frank and saying, you know what, and he
(19:38):
just seemed down. But he he sounds now to me
like he's got the political bug again and he wants
to get back out. And I knew him always as
someone who wanted to help people, and that's why I'm
having him on tonight.
Speaker 7 (19:51):
Well that's great, and I just wanted to call and
congratulate him in a test to the fact that he's
never stopped working for people, you know, right down with
the Irish community that I'm involved with, who just finished
the trans Atlantic UH Climbing Alliance Conference UH and we
celebrated a welcome dinner for the Ambassador Island, retired Claire Cronin.
(20:15):
She awarded the first ever award for similar to the
typical Neil Award to the Mayor of Donne Gaul Nieve
Kennedy and Frank came down and just participated. So he's
he's become a friend. I want to be a friend
to him, and I wanted to call and let you
know I'm on board, Frank. Whatever you need from us,
(20:36):
the Hanley Brothers will be with him. Dan, thank you
for the opportunity to say so.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Well, absolutely, Frank says, great, Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Frank, thank you for the kind words.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
Greg.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
You're a good friend.
Speaker 6 (20:47):
You're a good friend.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I'm fortunate.
Speaker 7 (20:50):
We'll be there for your brother.
Speaker 8 (20:52):
Keep the faith, Dan.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
I let the other talkers, people waiting on the line talk,
but thank you for having me and.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Keep keep listening to night Side.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Okay, my four bears are from a little a different
part of the old sid County Cork, the town of
Mattaw Cork.
Speaker 7 (21:09):
As they say, we got the down in Brockton. We
have the credence and that's their court people as well.
You and I are members of a distinct club, Dan,
so I'll look forward to our next year's meetings.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Well, I know we're talking about the Clover Club. I
assume that's what you're talking about. Yeah, well, somehow I
was elected president in a secret ballot vote. It was
so secret no one knows who voted, who votes.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Thanks Greg, Thanks good luck, Thanks Craig, good night, Thank.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
You great appreciate. Let's keep going.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
The only line there is six month, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty, the regular line. Tom is in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
We have a Boston voter here, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Tom. You're all with Frank Baker.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Hey Frank, and thank you Dan for having this night
with Frank. I was just when Frank. When Frank gets elected, Frank,
can you and will you try to bring the council
back to the middle. Can you try and bring back
actual council meetings where there's dialogue instead of petulant children
(22:23):
banging on desks and yelling and screaming about things that
are happening all around the world that have zero effect
on the city of Boston. Can you try to bring
back the maya to the middle. Also, she just does things.
It goes around the council and goes around community groups
and knocks down buildings and knocks down stadiums with zero input.
(22:47):
And she doesn't wait for court decisions.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
That's assumed she'll still be the mayor when Frank gets elected.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Tom, by the way, remember oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Well Tom, Tom, that's exactly that. That's exactly what I'm
what I'm going to try to do, and it's one
seat at a time.
Speaker 6 (23:03):
Tom.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
You know, I'm someone that I think throwing my hat
in the ring, I think I can get elected. And
I'm someone that's in the center. I'm not I'm not
a leftie, I'm not a righty. I'm directly in the center.
And you hit it. It's we need to have conversations
and we need to talk about business. That's germane to
the city of Boston. I mean, we have eighty percent
(23:24):
of our kids in the third grade not reading proficient,
and we're talking about everything else under the Sun. We
need to get into city issues. We need to we
need to put the city of Boston in the focal
point of of everybody's in top of mind for everybody,
and that especially the city council. So hopefully I can
do that. Hopefully I can drag some people back to
(23:45):
the center and let them know it's nice to be
in the center. So, yes, that's what my plan is.
Speaker 8 (23:51):
Tom.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well, the center is the one place get The center
is the one place where you actually can have some
dialogue and conversations. I think a lot of folks on
the extremes. Uh forget that.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Frank so and uh yeah yeah, Tom. I appreciate your calling.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Thanks well, Dan, thank you for having me on, Frank,
thanks for hearing me out and vote Baker and craftman.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Tom, thank you. I will be at the I will
be at the parade for Buncle Hill say hi, absolutely.
Speaker 9 (24:24):
Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
Thank you. Guys.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
All right, have a good one, have had good weekend,
Happy Memorial Day. Paul is in Dorchester, Paul, another Boston voter,
your own Frank Baker, Paul, Hey.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Hi, guys, I guess congratulations Dan and Fred. You put
a smile on my face. When I hear it, you're back.
You got to vote from Savin Hill. Uh. I just
we got some frightful people in politics nowadays. I would
love to see a sane, normal guy like yourself back,
(24:59):
you know, bless you and uh and like I say,
I'll talk it up for my neck of the woods.
And and you know what, I called city hall a
couple of times today, I've been trying to address the
rat issue, and I was wondering, what do you think
about owls, like like snowy owls or like gray owls
(25:21):
or something. They used peregrine falcons on the State House,
so they already got the birds through. They've proved proved
them to kill the pigeons in the state House. But
like as long as nobody was using pesticides that they
could stop that for a while. I think maybe introducing
some some owls might be a possibility. But that's just
maybe a pet project we could have.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah, Paul, that's that's an interesting subject, something that I
didn't see coming at me. But you know, anyway we
can get rid of get rid of the rats.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Just to be just to be clear, we're talking about
the two legged rots here.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Let's make sure it's really clear.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Oh, I thought, Paul, the floor legged.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Oh no, the fore leged.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Okay, the two legged.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
One, we'll leave. We'll leave the two legged ones alone. Okay,
we'll go after the four legged.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
There's the two legged skunks.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
But I think, by the way, I didn't. I didn't realize. Look,
owls are our amazing birds. And I think Frank Paul's
suggestion is kind of interesting. If if owls would our
predators towards pigeons, I'm with the owls.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Yeah, the owls go after the rats. The peregrine falcons
are in the State House. They're actually there, you can.
And there's less pigeons.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
But.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
Absolutely they brought them in and and and owls would
be great because they'd be stealthy. You'd never hear them.
They come out at night. They maintained themselves. And if
you do. He wanted to be like, wow, I saw
her on you know.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
And they're very wise, very wise.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
We should owls in Georchester more on the city council lately.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
All right, thanks, I have a good one. Okay, let's
keep rolling here. Frank, you're going to take one more
here before the break. We're gonna I don't want to
make people wait any longer than necessary. Let's go back
to Charlestown and Pete joins us from Charlestown. We got
a couple of lines at six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty. Pete, welcome back your next.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
Good luck mister Baker in your re election. Let me
ask you, are you in favor do you support Ice
coming into Boston uh and doing the appropriate thing by
removing people in here illegally. And my second question is
me and wo would you give her for a grade
(27:53):
on the universal grading system? How do you think she's
done so far as May? What would you give her
for a grade?
Speaker 3 (27:59):
I would give her a C.
Speaker 8 (28:01):
And I was at I was at a a candidate's
night last night, and I advocated for Boston police to
be able to work with ICE.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
So we're able to understand and know who it is
that we need to we need to get out of
the city. I'm not going to be in favor of
breaking up families, you know, especially if someone isn't it
isn't a criminal. You know, we have to get the
criminals off the street. And I did advocate for, you know,
to to actually say we're not going to cooperate. Just
(28:33):
think of that for a second. We're not going to cooperate.
Adults cooperate. We have conversations, we talked, So there's no
reason why Boston police can't know what Ice movements are
and when possible, be in collaboration with them. So I think,
I think that all all branches of government are all
(28:54):
all you know, forms of police should be able to talk.
That's part of our intelligence when we when we went
through nine to eleven, one of the big criticisms where
you know, the left hand didn't know what the right
hand was doing. We shouldn't be advocating to say no,
we're not going to help out in any any sort
of any sort of you know, exercise to keep our
(29:19):
people safe.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
Good comments, Frank, good luck, thank you, thank you, thank.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
You very much. Frank.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I think that's a pretty common sense position that you
just articulated, and I wish more politicians would were talking
that way. I'm going to be next hour critical of
President Trump's battle with Harvard. I don't understand why the
president seems to be so focused or the administration seems
(29:49):
to be focused so focused on going after.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Harvard and all of that.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
There is so many more important things that need to
be done in this country. I want to get the
real bad guy as the people who were here, you know,
the people who were into child trafficking, into bringing you know,
really deadly drugs into this country, fentanyl and issues like that,
the child rapists, people who are who are working the system.
(30:15):
There was a story in the Herald today about some
woman who had like eight social Security numbers. I forget
the specifics of it, but she's been living here for
twenty years. She's illegal, she's voted in elections. You know,
we we got to tighten things up a little bit.
And I think what you said made a whole lot
of sense. You know, we're not before we go after
(30:36):
you know, people who pick food or who clean hotel rooms.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Let's get the bad guys out of here first, you know.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Let's see Yeah, yeah, there's plenty, there's plenty of them here,
and I think we could we could do that job
more efficiently if all levels of laren for US enforcement
were able to talk to each other. We're not asking
Boston police to go in on raids, but the Boston
police know Boston better than anybody. If you'll bring an
ice in from if a guy that lives in Pennsylvania
(31:04):
and he's and he's with ice. He doesn't know what
the Boston neighborhoods are, so he doesn't know how we
treat each other. Boston police know that we've got the
best police in the country and we should be utilizing them.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Well said, Well said. My guest is Frank Baker.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
He is an at large City Council candidate, which means
whether you live in East Boston, West Roxbury, Charlestown, Mattapan,
and all the points in between, Hyde Park, Reedville, you
can vote for Frank Baker this September, and assuming that
he qualifies for the final ballot in November, you can
(31:39):
vote for him in November as well. He served six
terms in the Boston City Council twelve years. Stepped away
a couple of years ago, but I think he well,
I think he has the fire in his belly and
he wants to get back, and he wants to get
back and do some positive things for Boston. And so
I'm delighted to have him tonight, pretty much his campaign official.
(32:00):
About a week ago, I wanted to get him on
the program and he said, Dan, let me get my
signatures squared away first, which is a perfectly reasonable position,
and we're happy to have him. Tonight, we have got
a couple more calls from Dorchester, and I got a
little bit more room if you want to jump on
board six one seven, two five thirty, six one seven
nine three one thirty.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
It's Night Side with.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Let's get some more calls in here for Frank Baker,
candidate for Boston City Council, a city wide at large candidate.
Gordon in Dorchester. Gordon, you're next with Frank Baker. Go
right ahead, Gordon.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
How you doing, Frank.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
I'm good, Gordon.
Speaker 9 (32:44):
Frank, thank you for refueling and getting back in the
race to instare integrity to the City of Boston and
to the City Council.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Thank you, Gordon.
Speaker 9 (32:57):
I mean that is that any I'm going to be brief.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
That's okay, go right a head, Gordon.
Speaker 9 (33:04):
I just want to get that message out restore integrity
to the City of Boston in the City of Council.
I love you, Frank, Thank you, best wishes deal.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Thank you, Gordon, thank you very much.
Speaker 9 (33:19):
Welcome my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Thanks Gordon, appreciate your call. Let me get very quickly.
Let me get Joe in from East Boston. Joe and
you are next one. Nice with Frank Baker, candidate at
large Boston City Council.
Speaker 10 (33:32):
Hey Dan, Hey Frank, how are you great?
Speaker 6 (33:35):
Hi?
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I'm good good.
Speaker 10 (33:37):
Thank you for running. It sounds like we've got somebody
with integrity here, and that's what we need. I cannot believe,
I'll be quick if I can. I cannot believe that
a convicted felon is going to continue in their job.
And you know why that is because they don't want
to pay for a special election. But I have no confidence.
I've lost all confidence in my own city councilor and
(33:58):
most of the city councilors except for quite a few,
which it's when I think I really wish he had
run for mayor anyway. In East Boston, we have bike lanes.
No one uses them because our street is so dangerous.
We have accidents every day on Bennington Street. They ride
on the sidewalk to which these motorized bikes are on
the sidewalk and we're not safe. So that's one thing.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
Number two.
Speaker 10 (34:24):
In the community, we have a community process. We have
these community groups. I was head of mine at Orient Heights,
and they get people to believe they have a say
in what goes in your neighborhood. And so they bring
the attorneys in, and they bring the people that want
to build these you know, humongous complexes, and you have
(34:45):
you know, they come in three times and you go
back and forth, and if the community votes it down,
the mayor will always veto the vote. Nine times out
of ten the vote gets vetoed and that big cong
larmer and goes in anyway. And so we everybody thinks
the community process is a joke, a waste of time.
(35:06):
It's just a belief that we have to say, but
we don't. We need to bring back the power in
the community groups. And I hope that that's something you
can think about doing. But I would appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
And one way that the community groups can assert their
power is to support candidates like Frank Baker who are
responsive to community groups.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
If you want to be.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
If the incumbents aren't being responsive, then you have to
change the incumbents, simple as that.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
True.
Speaker 10 (35:32):
So I was going to run this time, but I
just decided I'm better as a social worker. But Frank,
will you come to your Boston and talk to a
couple of our groups.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
I will, I will Joe in. So let me just
say one thing. I think one thing that we should
be looking at doing with, especially with the big planning initiatives,
I think we have to get off of zoom and
bring those in it. If you're planning on imputing hundreds
of apartment in someplace, you should have you should have
the decency enough to come and sit in a room
with the people that are going to be affected. And
(36:04):
that's a ployee where we have all the zoom because
if someone is speaking out against the project, product project,
all you need to do is they just neute you now.
And also that's not what we're used.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
To Frank, you feel isolated when you don't. You don't
realize there's one hundred other people who agree with you.
The zoom works against community groups. Joe Inn, We're going
to have Frank give his UH address where you can
get in touch with him. So get a piece of
paper and pencil. I'm going to get one more caller
in real quickly.
Speaker 10 (36:33):
Okay, thank you so much. I'll call back another time.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Thank you, Joe. In your Orient Heights the Orient Heights group, well,
Larentine is going to back me. Sal Yep's gonna be
with me?
Speaker 10 (36:46):
Yeah right, Well okay, joe In hold on again it
joe In you you just get a pencil and we'll
get it.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Get an address for you. I want to get one more.
Call in real quickly for Frank Paper.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Thank you, Gregory in Dorchester. Greg, you're a little bit
at the end of the line here. We only got
about thirty seconds for you. Can be Can you be quick,
my friend? I got you in.
Speaker 9 (37:08):
Yeah, Frank, you're the assault of the earth.
Speaker 6 (37:12):
We need you.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Well, there's not a better endorsement that you could have
than than Greg And that says it all.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Greg, well said my friend. Thank you so much, Dad.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Thank you for opening, for talking about a kidd the
other night.
Speaker 9 (37:26):
You open an off line of doors open afterwards.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Thank you, my friend. I appreciate that. I really do. Greg,
you know that. Thank you. Thanks buddy, we'll talk to it.
Have a great have a great weekend, Frank. How can
folks get in touch with your campaign if they are
so inspired?
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Well, I mean I have my cell phone number. I
don't have a campaign email just yet. I'm just setting
everything up. I have a campaign headquarters at eight five
eight Dorchester, rav and I'm having my campaign kickoff on
June fifth, seven o'clock at Florian Hall. Like for joe
In Alamentina has has my phone number. There's a lot
(38:03):
of people around that just I don't necessarily want to
get my cell phone.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Numb totally get that.
Speaker 4 (38:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
But but again, we'll have you back and we'll we'll
try to get the people in touch with you.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Okay, people can.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
And I'll have a website up up and running very shortly, Dan,
and I'll make sure that I'll make sure that you
know people will have it. But I have my campaign
headquarters and my kickoff is on the fifth of June
at at Florian Hall. I'd love to have everybody across
the city come over and and have some fun with
me that night.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
So sounds great, Frank, I enjoyed it. I think you
had a good night, and you're off and running. Best
of luck. We'll talk it again.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Thanks, Dan, You're welcome, my friend.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
We'll talk soon. All right, We've got to take a break.
We will be back here right after the ten o'clock news,
and we're going to talk about this a weird fight
between Donald Trump and Harvard Back on nights out, after
this
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.