ADDRESS BACK AT WALSH'S CRITICS HITS
Mayor Martin J. Walsh laid out a list of accomplishments and new promises in his third State of the City address, trumpeting achievements in education and public safety — areas in which he’s been criticized by mayoral candidate Tito Jackson — but saying the speech was not a pushback on his rival.
“I don’t counter anybody, I’ve been the mayor for three years, that’s what I’m building on,” Walsh said when asked if last night’s speech, which called Boston “a city that lifts everyone as it rises,” was a response to Jackson’s claims of inequality in the city.
“I’ve been talking about it for three years, we’ve been doing it for three straight years. I’ll continue to do it as the mayor,” Walsh said.
The speech before a packed Symphony Hall, which concluded with Walsh loudly declaring how he would keep fighting for residents, came less than a week after Jackson announced his candidacy. The speech touted increased jobs, decreased violent crime and low unemployment, with Walsh claiming “the state of our city is stronger than it’s ever been in our history” and laying out a six-point plan for the city, including infrastructure upgrades and doubling down on community-driven public safety.
But one of his key proposals — using money from the state’s convention center fund to pay for free universal pre-kindergarten for Boston’s 4-year-olds — was news to Gov. Charlie Baker, who would have to sign off on the measure and said he had not been briefed on the plan before the speech.
“I don’t want to speak to it until I understand the details other than to say it’s an interesting idea,” Baker said of the plan after the speech. “It’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
Walsh told reporters he’d talked to Baker’s administration yesterday but hadn’t gotten into “the fine details” of the plan.
As Walsh spoke, the hashtag #MartyLostMeWhen began trending on Twitter with users criticizing Walsh over numerous issues, including the school budget and Boston 2024. When asked if his cam-
paign was involved with the hashtag, Jackson, who attended the State of the City, just said, “I was here.”
Though Walsh spent much of the speech highlighting past accomplishments, he said the city still has work to do.
“There’s plenty of room for improvement,” Walsh said. “The gaps that remain come in the shape of race, language and need. Equity demands bold solutions.”
Walsh also said neighborhood trauma teams would respond to violent crime in certain city neighborhoods, adding that one murder was too many. But Walsh also said the city’s safety record had consistently improved under his watch: “We’re one of the safest big cities in the country and getting safer every year.”