By Noa Dalzell, news correspondent
Many students were excited to cast their first presidential ballots on Nov. 8, and boasted of their political engagement throughout the last election cycle. But while many closely followed the Trump-Clinton showdown that dominated national politics this past year, few students will be following the mayoral race that will directly affect the City of Boston.
Sophomore political science major Nathan Worob noticed this lack of political engagement at the local level and decided to promote involvement among Boston students. As the Boston regional director of College Democrats of Massachusetts, Worob began Project Boston, an initiative to involve Boston students in local politics.
“We may or may not like what is happening on the national level or even the state level,” Worob said. “But we can do so much to really make our streets, our city, our neighborhood better for us—better protected, better secured, the kind of environment we would be happy to call home.”
Through Project Boston, Worob plans to set up meetings between club leaders at local universities with members of City Council and other municipal bodies.
“These events will focus on generating student consensus on what we believe as college students, as one-third of the entire population of the City of Boston, needs to be done in order to leave the city better than we found it,” Worob said.
Worob said that some of his specific goals include job protection for disenfranchised populations in the city and infrastructural changes such as improved bike lanes and traffic control.
Ruchit Bhandari, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, said he is interested in getting involved in local politics and sees Project Boston as a potential way to do that. Bhandari said since moving to Boston from India last year, he felt safer in the city at night with more street lights and visible law enforcement.
“To me, safety is an issue for sure,” Bhandari said. “At night, it’s dark in many places without enough street lights. I’ve been stopped in Ruggles and have heard of people being mugged. Sometimes I don’t feel safe enough to walk around.”
Bhandari said he sees this apparent feeling of insecurity as something Project Boston could encourage students and City Council to address.
Diana Agori, a freshman international business student from Russia, said she felt that many international students wished they knew more about local politics, and that there was a lack of resources within the school to get students engaged. Agori said she saw this initiative as a way to potentially engage the large community of international students with local politics.
Currently, Worob is the sole leader of this initiative, but he is working collaboratively with other members of the Northeastern University College Democrats. While Project Boston uses the Democratic party’s resources and platform, the initiative is meant to be nonpartisan.
As the mayoral race between City Councilor Tito Jackson and incumbent Martin J. Walsh unfolds, Worob said Project Boston will remain uncommitted in the mayoral decision. Instead, it will encourage students to get informed on the candidates involved.
“I have all too often encountered the college student who wants to be engaged in politics but simply doesn’t realize the full capability that they have to change what’s going on outside our doorstep,” Worob said. “I’m essentially trying to bring the city government to them.”
Photo courtesy Nathan Worob
