Kim Janey

Kim Michelle Janey (born May 16, 1965) is an American politician and community organizer who served as the acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th district from 2018 to 2022. As a black woman, her tenure as acting mayor made her the first woman and the first person of color to lead the city. Janey began her career as a community organizer and education advocate, working for groups such as Parents United for Child Care. and Massachusetts Advocates for Children. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded to be a political progressive, she entered politics when she successfully ran for the Boston City Council in 2017. She entered the Boston City Council in January 2018, and was selected as president of the Council in January 2020. On the city council, she represented the 7th district (which includes Roxbury, with parts of the South End, Dorchester, and Fenway). Being the incumbent City Council president, she became the acting mayor of Boston upon Marty Walsh's departure from the post when he resigned after being confirmed as the United States secretary of labor. She was a candidate in the nonpartisan primary of the 2021 Boston mayoral election, but had an unsuccessful fourth-place finish. She later endorsed Michelle Wu for the general election. Wu went on to win the general election, and became Janey's successor. As acting mayor, Janey dealt with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. She launched a Vaccine Equity Grant Initiative to increase awareness and access to the COVID-19 vaccine in communities that were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. She announced a municipal eviction moratorium in August, after the United States Supreme Court overturned a federal moratorium that had been in place. She also dealt with the homelessness population in the Mass and Cass area, clearing the area's tent city towards the end of her acting mayoralty. She signed into law an ordinance which restricted the Boston Police Department's use of tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets, a measure in the line of which had been vetoed earlier in the year by Mayor Walsh. She launched a pilot program that made the MBTA Route 28 bus fare-free for three-months.