An exclusive Q&A with South End’s Mayor’s liaison, Sarah Sharpe!
The South End thrives on its vibrant community spirit, and keeping residents informed and engaged is essential to its growth and success. That’s where Sarah Sharpe, the Mayor’s Liaison for the South End, comes in. Sarah serves as a bridge between residents and City Hall, ensuring that community concerns are heard and city resources are accessible.
In this exclusive Q&A, we dive into the responsibilities of her role, how she helps address local issues, and what exciting initiatives are on the horizon for South End residents. Whether you're looking to stay informed, get involved, or simply learn more about the work being done to support our neighborhood, Sarah shares valuable insights that every South Ender should know.
1. What are the responsibilities of the Mayor's liaison position?
A neighborhood liaison attends community meetings, assists residents with city services, shares important information directly with neighborhoods, and helps the City respond to emergencies. If there’s a fire in the neighborhood, for example, we make sure anyone displaced connects to the appropriate City departments, community organizations and resources they need.
2. How does your role as the Mayor’s liaison help address the concerns and needs of South End residents?
Liaisons are essentially a bridge to City Hall. So by attending community meetings; organizing walk-throughs; and hosting office hours, we’re able to help residents address any issues they’re experiencing with our internal knowledge of city departments and the resources readily available. What’s unique about the South End is that we have 18 neighborhood associations, so I’m able to gauge community needs in all of the different pockets of the neighborhood with the help of civic leaders.
3. Can you share any upcoming city initiatives or events in the South End that the community should be excited about?
For City initiatives, I’d say we should tune into Boston’s Rodent Action Plan (BRAP), which is a new initiative to combat the rodent population we’re seeing in our city. I’d also highlight the Legacy Business Award, currently open for nominations. I love this award because we can nominate a long standing business we think contributes to community character, which is special for a historic community with so many local businesses like ours. Nominate your favorite business here. The list can go on, but folks were also very excited about the City’s Spooky Mini Grants which offered support for halloween/harvest parties. I will keep South End residents posted about any future grant opportunities.
4. How can residents best stay informed and get involved in decisions affecting the neighborhood?
The best way to stay informed is to sign up for the neighborhood newsletter, where you can find both city and South End related news including initiatives and events. You can also follow me on Social Media at Instagram, or join me for my office hours on Fridays. I would also recommend connecting with your neighborhood civic association which I’m happy to help people find.
5. What do you enjoy most about working with the South End community, and what’s one thing you’d like to see more of in the neighborhood?
I always say the best part of the job is getting to be in the community connecting directly with residents and businesses. I’ve met some really great people and it’s rewarding when we can help them solve an issue or connect them to resources they need. I’d love to see more families and individual voices at community meetings alongside some of our longstanding leaders. We often see the same voices and faces at community meetings and it would be great to fill these rooms with more perspectives. We’ll have a major meeting coming soon about the South End Public Library, which is almost ready for construction. I aim to have more families and young voices tune in, who I know are eager to have this space open again.
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Photos: City of Boston photographers
