3 ways Marty Walsh’s State of the City address responded to Tito Jackson
From the beginning of Mayor Marty Walsh’s State of the City address Tuesday night, one particular word was emphasized: Together.
“At my inauguration I pledged to listen, to learn, and to lead—because we are in this together,” Walsh said. “Tonight, I’m proud to say we are still listening, learning, and leading; and because of all our work—together—the state of our City is stronger than it’s ever been in our history.”
The theme appeared to rebuff criticism from City Councillor Tito Jackson, who announced last week his intentions to unseat Walsh in Boston’s mayoral election this coming fall. The early focal point of Jackson’s appeal has been that while much of Boston has grown, many have been left behind.
However, Walsh’s words Tuesday at times belied Jackson’s critique, projecting continued progress affecting all Boston’s residents for the better. And at other points, the Democratic mayor’s speech struck very similar notes as Jackson, showing how boxed in the progressive challenger’s campaign could be.
1. Opportunity
In his mayoral campaign launch last week, Jackson described a city in which different Bostonians live disparate experiences.
“My district is from Back Bay to Roxbury, and there’s a 33-year difference in life expectancy in two miles,” the city councilor said in a campaign video, adding that half the city’s population makes $35,000 or less per year.
At his formal announcement, Jackson juxtaposed tax incentives used to lure GE with the inability of the city to maintain access to the Long Island homeless shelter. Jackson also decried the recent cuts to Boston’s public schools. On his campaign website, Jackson says the city should prioritize restoring those cuts and invest in teaching trade skills.
In the State of the City speech Tuesday, the mayor made no apologies for the deal to bring in GE and other companies to the city. Touting record-low unemployment, Walsh iterated his commitment to increasing opportunity citywide.
“Our goal is more than new logos in the skyline,” said the mayor. “It’s good jobs and job training for all. We’re developing a high-tech manufacturing sector that provides just that. In robotics, 3-D printing, medical devices, and more, employers are coming, they are growing, they are hiring. And, at our request, they are in our schools, helping young people get ready for those jobs.”
And with Jackson’s campaign expected to lean heavily on the support of black voters, Walsh said he was filing legislation to offer free, “high-quality” pre- kindergarten to every single four-year-old in Boston, which he said would reduce economic and racial inequality. Additionally, Walsh announced a 10-year plan to invest $1 billion in public school buildings, lauding record-high graduation rates at Boston’s high schools and colleges.
The mayor also shouted out a publicly funded business incubator opened in 2014 in Jackson’s own Roxbury neighborhood, purportedly expanding the “start-up economy.”
2. Crime
Another early tenet of Jackson’s campaign has been increased violence in some city neighborhoods. While Boston saw a 15-year-low 40 homicides in 2015, the city’s 2016 murder rate increased to 46 (though overall shootings decreased).
In Jackson’s launch video, he described a “huge uptick” in violence in some neighborhoods. He says he wants to bolster community policing, as well as “supports for families that have been traumatized by violence.”
“The most heartbreaking part of my job as Councillor is to look a mother who has just lost her child in the eye and try to apologize,” reads Jackson’s campaign website. “We have all failed her. There is no excuse great enough to make up for the death of a child. There was a 30 [percent] increase in homicides between 2015 and 2016.”
But for those who only watched Walsh’s State of the City, Jackson’s message would appear out of another reality.
“We brought violent crime down by 9 percent, property crime down by 16 percent, and, just as important, arrests are down 25 percent since 2014,” Walsh said. “As I said last year, we make Boston safer not by locking people up, but by lifting people up.”
Walsh said Boston is already “one of the safest big cities in the country,” but he admitted that even one murder is too many. But he said workforce development programs already implemented by the city were working to give young people “the hope, the skills, and the jobs they need to leave the streets behind.”
Walsh also announced Tuesday newly created “neighborhood trauma teams” in Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, East Boston, and Mattapan to “coordinate immediate response and sustained recovery” for those affected by violence—which sounds exactly like the increased trauma support Jackson is advocating.
3. Affordable housing
Boston’s growing and long-documented housing affordability crisis is another one of Jackson’s core focuses.
“Offering housing opportunities for people of all economic levels is imperative to promoting strong, healthy and resilient neighborhoods,” reads his website. Jackson says they city’s current requirement that developers designate 13 percent of new construction “affordable housing” is inadequate.
“It actively displaces our people. We will push to increase this requirement to 20 [percent]” says his website.
Walsh, however, said Tuesday the city “tackled” the housing shortage with 19,000 new housing units in 2016, nearly 39 percent of which he said were designated for low- and middle-income families. According to the mayor, the current development requirements “call for another $45 million from recent project approvals.”
Walsh also said the city would find “creative ways” to lower housing costs in 2017 and committed to filing five bills protecting residents from displacement.
“Boston is a city for everyone,” he said. “Whatever your age, whatever your income, whatever your dream: you should be able to make a home here.”
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