City Edition
Suffolk County
Boston, Massachusetts
In 2026, exactly 4,841 people decided where $2.2 million of Boston’s money would go. They put it into a legal defense fund for immigrants, a push to get fresh food into neighborhoods that do not have any, and financial literacy workshops for teenagers. In a city of 675,647 people, fewer than five thousand votes moved all of that. Here is the best part: to cast one of those votes, you had to be eleven years old and live in Boston. That was the entire requirement: eleven years old, living in Boston, with no voting age and no citizenship test standing in the way.
Money and power you can reach before you turn eighteen
Everything on this page is real, open to a teenager, and running right now. Two of them pay you. One of them closes at the end of this month. None of them asks you to be old enough to vote.
- Tell the city how to spend $2 million. Open until July 31, 2026.Boston is collecting ideas for its participatory budget right now. You submit an idea, the city develops the strongest ones into real proposals, and residents vote on the winners. Submit at participate.boston.gov, leave a voicemail on the multilingual line at 617-635-3059, or fill in a paper form at City Hall or a BCYF community center.
- Youth Lead the Change. One million dollars, decided by people aged 14 to 25.In the city’s own words, Boston youth “have the power to spend one million dollars every year.” It was the first youth participatory budgeting program in the United States. Ideas, proposals, and the vote are all theirs.
- SuccessLink. A city job at $15 an hour.Every SuccessLink youth job pays $15 an hour at ages 14 to 18, and $20 an hour at 19 to 24. The city runs the hiring. Application windows move each year, so call the Office of Youth Employment on 617-635-4202 and ask when the next one opens.
- The Mayor’s Youth Council is taking applications.Youth Councilors sit inside City government, run their own initiatives, and report to the Mayor’s office. The 2026 to 2027 application is open on boston.gov/myc. Questions go to myc@boston.gov or 617-961-6980.
Look at what none of these asked you for: a birthday, or a ballot. Boston built four doors into its own budget and its own payroll, and every one of them is standing open to you right now.
Find your Boston
Boston is one city, and it is also two dozen neighborhoods that rarely think of themselves that way. Ask someone where they are from and they will say Eastie, or Southie, or Dot. Those neighborhoods are stitched into nine council districts, and the district you sleep in decides which of the thirteen city councillors is obliged to answer your email. A student in Roxbury and a student in West Roxbury live four miles apart under the same mayor and can have completely different fights on their hands. Find out which one is yours.
Districts as adopted by the City Council on May 24, 2023. Boundaries drawn from the city’s own open data. Several neighborhoods, including Dorchester, Roxbury and the South End, are split across more than one district, so your street matters more than your neighborhood’s name. See the full breakdown.
- District 1. Gabriela Coletta ZapataCharlestown, East Boston, the North End
- District 2. Edward M. FlynnDowntown, South Boston, Chinatown, part of the South End
- District 3. John FitzGeraldMost of Dorchester, part of the South End
- District 4. Brian WorrellMattapan, part of Dorchester, parts of Jamaica Plain and Roslindale
- District 5. Enrique PepénHyde Park, Readville, parts of Mattapan and Roslindale
- District 6. Benjamin WeberJamaica Plain, West Roxbury, parts of Roslindale, Mission Hill and Roxbury
- District 7. Miniard CulpepperRoxbury, Fenway, parts of Dorchester and the South End
- District 8. Sharon DurkanBack Bay, Beacon Hill, the West End, parts of Fenway, Kenmore and Mission Hill
- District 9. Liz BreadonAll of Allston and Brighton
Boston at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- Government: a strong-mayor charter, rooted in a state act of 1909. Mayor Michelle Wu was re-elected in November 2025 and her term runs to 2030.
- The money: a $4.9 billion operating budget for FY2027. Boston Public Schools takes $1.7 billion of it, roughly a third, the largest single line by far.
- The capital: the Massachusetts State House sits on Beacon Hill, inside the city. Your state representative works in your town.
How Boston’s Government Works
Boston runs on a strong-mayor charter, which means real executive power is concentrated in one elected person. The Mayor proposes the budget, runs every department, and appoints the entire School Committee. The thirteen-member City Council writes the ordinances and votes the budget up or down. Until recently the Council could only accept or reject the Mayor’s budget whole, which is a bit like being handed a menu with one item on it. That changed in 2021, when Boston voters passed a ballot question giving the Council the power to move money line by line.
The Mayor
The elected chief executive. Runs the departments, proposes the $4.9 billion budget, appoints department heads, and appoints every voting member of the School Committee.
City Council
Thirteen members: nine elected by district, four at large by the whole city. Two-year terms. Passes ordinances, holds hearings, and since 2021 can amend the budget line by line rather than only accept or reject it whole.
School Committee
Seven voting members, every one appointed by the Mayor. Boston is unusual in this: most Massachusetts cities elect theirs. A Boston student also holds a seat, and it is the seat you should read about first.
- Residents elect the Mayor and the thirteen councillors. They do not elect the School Committee.
- The Mayor proposes the budget and runs the city day to day.
- The Council amends and votes the budget, and can hold any department to a public hearing.
- Residents push back through public testimony, participatory budgeting, and the ballot.
- When Boston wants to change its own rules, it has to go ask the State House for permission. That is called home rule, and the climb is real. It is also a climb this city makes, and it is the whole story of The Capital City.
Civic Calendar
- City Council: meets every Wednesday at noon in Room 550, Boston City Hall, 1 City Hall Square. Agendas post on the city’s Legistar site after 4 p.m. the Monday before.
- School Committee: meets at the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, 2300 Washington Street, Roxbury. Public comment closes at 4:30 p.m. on the day of the meeting, so sign up early.
- Municipal elections: odd-numbered years. Mayor Wu and the Council were last elected in November 2025.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The next one is this November.
- Pre-registration: Massachusetts lets you register at sixteen. You are added to the rolls automatically the day you turn eighteen.
Only in Boston
Five things are true here and nowhere else in Massachusetts. Each one gets its own page.
- Which Boston Do You Live In?Two dozen neighborhoods, nine districts, one map
- Your School, Your SayA student already sits on the School Committee
- Busing and the Long Reckoning1974, and what it did to these schools
- The Capital CityHome rule, and the vote you cannot have yet
- Where the Money Goes$4.9 billion, and the part you can vote on
City Government
Community & Data
Who owns your problem?
The fastest way to get something fixed is to take it to the body that actually has the power to fix it. Find your problem below, and it will tell you exactly who decides it and where you can reach them. The useful surprise is the question of whether you can vote for them: most of these people were appointed rather than elected, and every single one of them still has to sit in a public room and listen to you.
| What is wrong | Who actually decides | Can you vote for them? | Where you push |
|---|---|---|---|
| A pothole, a dead streetlight, a missed pickup | A city department, through BOS:311 | No. They are appointed. | File a 311 report. It creates a dated public record, and that record is your evidence. |
| A city ordinance: rents, rats, what a landlord must disclose | The City Council, thirteen members | Yes. Every two years. | Email your district councillor. Ask one of them to file a hearing order. |
| Your teacher, your grade, a school rule, your building’s budget | Boston Public Schools and the School Committee | No. All seven are appointed by the Mayor. | Public comment at a School Committee meeting. Sign up in advance, on the day. |
| MCAS, how schools are funded statewide, the voting age | The Massachusetts Legislature | Yes, at eighteen. Your rep and senator are Boston’s own. | Testify at a State House hearing. No lawyer and no birthday required. |
| Your bus route, your fare, the late train | The MBTA, run by a board the Governor appoints | Not directly. Nobody in Boston appoints them. | This is the clearest case on the page of using a government you cannot vote for. Public comment at the T’s board, and your state legislators, who control its money. |
| A new building going up on your block | The zoning and planning boards, appointed | No. | Written comment to the Zoning Board of Appeal before the hearing, or speak at it. |
| Who gets charged with a crime, and the county jail | The District Attorney and the Sheriff | Yes. Both are elected countywide. | They are on your ballot. Start by knowing their names. |
Read every answer to “can you vote for them” in order. Most of the people who shape your daily life were appointed rather than elected, so the ballot box is only half your leverage. The other half is the room, and the room is open: turn up, speak, and put your question to them on the public record.
Your County Officials
Two of the people with the most direct power over your life are elected countywide. The district attorney decides who gets charged with a crime, and what they get charged with. The sheriff runs the county jail. Both of them answer to the voters of Suffolk County, and that includes Boston. They appear on your ballot. Now you know what to look for.
Every county in Massachusetts elects its own, and the job is the same everywhere: the charging decisions, the jail. Look up any town in the state and see who holds these two offices there.
Your First Civic Action in Boston
Every step below is something you can actually do, and most of it is open this month.
- Pick the right body. Potholes, parks, permits and police go to the City Council. Anything about a school, a teacher, a bus route or a budget line goes to the School Committee.
- Know your councillor. Use the map at the top of this page. Nine of the thirteen answer to a district, and yours has a name.
- Speak. You do not need to be eighteen, a citizen, or an expert to give public testimony. For School Committee, sign up before 4:30 p.m. on the day. State your name, your neighborhood, and what you want.
- Or skip the trip. Report a broken streetlight, a missed pickup or a dead crossing signal through BOS:311, by phone or in the app. It is logged, tracked, and public.
- City Hall main line: 617-635-4000. City Council: 617-635-3040, or city.council@boston.gov.
- City Clerk (records and agendas): Alex Geourntas, 617-635-4601, Room 601, City Hall.
- Boston Public Schools: School Committee office, 617-635-9014. bostonpublicschools.org.
4,841 people decided where $2.2 million of Boston’s money went, and at eleven years old you could have been one of them. Now you know where the door is.
Photo: Sharon Hahn Darlin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.