Racial Justice and Equality Commission meets for the first time in 2023

Subcommittees of the Racial Justice and Equality Commission (RJEC) will have their first meetings of the year this Wednesday, February 1st. The Commission, created by Mayor Gorton in 2020, works to close equity gaps and dismantle systematic racism in Lexington. In October 2020, the Commission published a report with 53 recommendations on solving specific systemic issues in Lexington. The Mayor’s Administration is in progress on implementation of the report’s recommendations. You can read the report here, and its progress report from March 2022 here.

Here’s how the subcommittee meetings went:

• At the Education and Economic Opportunity Subcommittee meeting, members talked about a recent statistic on kindergarten preparedness and what actions are being taken to address gaps in early childhood education.

• In the Housing and Gentrification Subcommittee, members expressed concerns that the many of the recent affordable housing developments occurring in Lexington are strictly senior-housing. They plan to examine what new affordable housing projects for families are planned to be built in the future.

• In the Law Enforcement, Justice, and Accountability Subcommittee, members want to learn more about police accountability and community relations updates since the last 18-month progress report from this Commission came out in March of 2022.