To the Editor:

If there has been one theme in Boston news media over the past three weeks, it has been: “City Council is a mess!” Headlines have varied in their word choice, ranging from tainted, hurt credibility, dysfunction, clown show, infighting, plagued, messy, warfare, chaos, and failed, to name a few.

Now this recent uptick is absolutely tied to two headline-worthy events involving City Councillors Ricardo Arroyo and Kendra Lara. But the media have been using these two incidents as examples rather than outliers.

The overall theme of “dysfunction” has been placed on this legislative session of the City Council for quite a while. You may say that this nonstop negative coverage is a further illustration of the point that this legislative session has been a dysfunctional failure. I would argue the opposite – that no other municipal or state-level branch of government has done more to improve the lives of the people of Boston than our City Council.

Before I make that argument, it is worth wondering why much of Boston’s media have been focused on framing this current Council as dysfunctional. As has been noted recently, it has seen its share of both screaming matches and fistfights on the legislative floor, probably since its inception. Reasons I can think of for the massively negative coverage include romanticizing the past, the desire for clicks, and the lack of historical context in journalism. Racism also cannot be overlooked.

A recent opinion piece by the Globe’s Joan Vennochi directly juxtaposed the new diversity of this elected class with its dysfunction. Regardless of the reasons or limitations of the news media, and even acknowledging the sensational events, accusations, and drama both within and outside of the council chambers, our City Council has managed to come together to pass rent control, an elected school committee, the abolition and replacement of the BPDA, a lowered municipal voting age, an end to urban renewal, and a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure.

Why aren’t the people of Boston experiencing this beautiful new reality? It is not because of the inaction of a dysfunctional City Council; it is because of the sterile tranquility, the calm passivity, and the robotic uniformity at the State House.

Outside of one of the above pieces of legislation – Michelle Wu vetoed an elected school committee – all of these measures are now at the State House and haven’t moved. Meanwhile, the people of Boston are dealing with a public transportation system that is both crumbling and on fire. Traffic is the fourth worst in the world. Housing affordability is one of the worst in the country. And inequality for both income and life expectancy is just as bad.

Where is the media’s scorn? Why have the thesauruses not had their spines eroded by the daily headline use of words like barren, lethargic, malfunctioning, anemic, indifferent, apathetic, and cowardly? Is the deafening silence from a state government that does little to improve our lives preferable to a noisy municipal one that exhausts its political power in the attempt to do so?

As we enter the political campaign season, have some pride in our City Council. They can at least pass a budget on time.

Evan George
Dorchester