JPer announces run for City Council

(Courtesy Photo) Shaun Ivers in his campaign photo.

(Courtesy Photo) Shaun Ivers in his campaign photo.

Shaun Ivers, a Jamaica Plain resident who said he is a freelance consultant for the Boston Municipal Research Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America, has announced his intention to run for an At-Large City Council seat.

“With an open race for the Mayor’s Office and several city councilors putting their jobs on the line to run for that job, Boston has a unique opportunity to radically change city government,” said Ivers, according to a press release. “For too long this great metropolis has buckled under the weight of bloated and entrenched career politicians.”

The Boston Municipal Research Bureau said that, despite Ivers’ claim, he has never been employed by that organization.

Ivers had not applied for nomination papers by the Gazette deadline. He also does not have a campaign website, but does have a opinionated blog (shauniverse.wordpress.com) titled, “The Shauniverse: Let’s face it, you know I’m right.”

The blog covers a variety of topics, including how Ivers was in favor of Whole Foods moving to JP; that he did not vote in Massachusetts until about four years after moving to the state; and that Michelle Wu, another At-Large City Council candidate, has the fact that she is a minority woman going for her. His latest blog was in January of this year.

His post on Aug. 12, 2010 ventured into Iver’s views on how lesbians interact with society. He wrote that he was sitting outside J.P. Licks when a lesbian couple walked by.

“And I don’t mean they were a pair of flannel-wearing, buzzcut-sporting man haters,” Ivers wrote. “They were two ladies who looked more normal than your average lesbian, holding hands and generally enjoying each other.”

He wrote he smiled at them and received “sneers of disgust.” Ivers wrote that he doesn’t understand “why it suddenly becomes unacceptable for a healthy, red-blooded American male to smile at these ladies.”

Asked to comment on that post, Ivers replied, “I know this is the sort of thing that some people get up in arms about, but I was only kidding. The whole point of the post was that sometimes people get too hung up trying to be politically correct. I have no problem with lesbians. I have had numerous positive experiences while in the company of lesbians. Same goes for gay guys.”

Updated version: This version has been updated with comment from the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

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