(EAST BOSTON June 23, 2014) - Committing to work tirelessly at the State House so that every East Boston resident has the opportunity to work, live, raise a family and be successful, Celeste Ribeiro Myers this week officially launches her campaign for State Representative in Suffolk County’s First District. Myers, a lifelong East Boston resident and former co-chair of No Eastie Casino, a group she founded, says she believes the neighborhood’s best days are ahead of it.
“I love this community, and I am running to make sure it remains a place for young families to settle, a gateway for newcomers to this country, and a thriving district for entrepreneurs that is the envy of other Boston neighborhoods,” she says. “Too often, big business – be it an airport, an oil company, a luxury developer or, yes, a casino – have tried to dictate the direction this neighborhood is going. I believe the people know best how East Boston is to grow and prosper.”
Promising to run an energetic campaign in which she shares with voters her ideas for healthy neighborhood development, more efficient transportation, and an economically thriving, environmentally responsible East Boston, Myers will lay out her more comprehensive platform at a campaign kickoff event Thursday, June 26, from 6-8 p.m., at the Zumix Firehouse, 260 Sumner Street in East Boston.
Myers is known for leading the ballot question campaign group No Eastie Casino, which last year successfully defeated a proposal to site a casino at Suffolk Downs in East Boston. (Her opponent, incumbent Carlo Basile, opposed an area casino as a candidate in 2007 but vigorously supported casino plans in the run-up to the vote.) As Suffolk Downs continued to push a so-called “Revere-only” casino in the days and months following the November vote, Myers regularly appeared before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission as a representative of the more than 4,000 residents who voted “no” and continues to push toward repealing the law.
But long before the casino issue reared its head, Myers was active in the East Boston community. Her father, a former probation officer in Eastie, used to take her to protests against Logan Airport expansion and to volunteer with children at area family shelters. Celeste’s first pivotal opportunity to impact an issue came at the age of 9 when she wrote and delivered remarks to the Boston Public School Committee during a hearing in an effort to save her grade school, the Curtis Guild, from being closed as a result of budget cuts. More evident than her activist streak is her ardent desire to build community – usually in a hands-on capacity. Celeste played an instrumental role in producing community -galvanizing events including the Sacred Heart Festival, the Columbus Day Parade, Eastie Pride Day, the East Boston Community Thanksgiving Dinner, and has served as a team captain for the annual Relay for Life.
“For me, service is key,” she says. “The casino fight showed me how committed my neighbors are to protecting the neighborhood they love. So many of them tell me they’ve felt underrepresented at the state level; I’m ready and willing to step up and serve them, with the people and future of East Boston ever on my mind.”
Source: Myers campaign
