Lydia Marie Edwards[1] (born December 13, 1981)[2][3] is an American attorney and politician. She served as a member of the Boston City Council from the 1st district from 2018 to 2022 [4] and has served as a member of the Massachusetts Senate from the 1st Suffolk and Middlesex district since 2022. She resigned from the Boston City Council at the end of April 2022.[5]
Edwards has worked as a public interest attorney with Greater Boston Legal Services and served as the deputy director within the Mayor's Office of Housing Stability.[4]
In July 2018, Edwards and fellow city councilors Kim Janey and Michelle Wu introduced legislation to remove as-of-right designations for chain stores, requiring a conditional use permit for chain stores to open and operate in any area designated as a "neighborhood business district."[13]
Edwards and fellow councilor Kim Janey proposed a real estate transfer tax. Negotiations with other city councilors reduced this to a 2% tax on properties valued at $2 million or more, a decrease from their original proposal of a 6% tax. In December 2019, the Boston City Council voted to adopt Janey and Edwards' home rule petition requesting that the state permit the city to impose such as tax. Mayor Marty Walsh advanced the home rule petition to the legislature. If the petition had been authorized by the state, revenue raised from the tax (predicted to be in excess of $160 million annually) was to be placed in the city's Neighborhood Housing Trust to build affordable housing.[14][15]
In 2019, Edwards partnered with attorney general Maura Healey, congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, and fellow city councilor Michelle Wu in a digital campaign urging the state government to adopt the Roe Act. This was a proposed state statue intended to codify the protections of abortion care provided in the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision (a decision which was still good law at the time).[16]
In 2021, Edwards led the effort to amend the City Charter provision relating to city budgets.[17] An ordinance for the city to hold a binding referendum on amending the city charter during its November 2021 municipal elections was passed by the city council. The amendment's changes included giving the City Council the power to line-item veto some of the items in a budget put forth by the mayor, amend a mayor's proposed budget both in whole and in part, and the ability to override a mayoral veto of a budget by a two-thirds vote. These changes provide the City Council with more powering the creation of a budget. Another change in the amendment was creating an Office of Participatory Budgeting, giving the city's residents more power in the creation of city budgets.[18][19] In June 2021, Acting Mayor Kim Janey signed the ordinance.[18][19] Weeks later, State Attorney General Maura Healey cleared the referendum for inclusion on the ballot.[19] The referendum saw the amendment approved by voters, thereby amending the city charter.[17]
Edwards joined council members Michelle Wu and Matt O'Malley in a years-long push to have the city divest its financial resources from fossil fuels.[20] In November 2021, as mayor, Michelle Wu signed such an ordinance into law.[21]
Massachusetts State Senate
Official portraitEdwards (third from left) in 2022 with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (far left), U.S. Senator Ed Markey (third from right), U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (second from right), and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (far right)Edwards in 2024 with Governor Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Wu, and Congressman Stephen Lynch
In 2016, Edwards was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate in the special election for the First Suffolk & Middlesex District of the Massachusetts State Senate. However, she ran for the State Senate again in 2022, and this time she was successful.[22] She won the Democratic primary on December 15, 2021, defeating Revere School Committee member Anthony D'Ambrosio by a 60%–40% margin.[23] Edwards is the first woman and person of color to represent the senate district.[24]
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