Future Boston Alliance

Someone else ran an article about this a week or two ago. I agree with what Selkoe's saying, but he'd be crazy to run against Menino. Even if Menino declined, Selkoe would be crazy to run against any of the current city councilors or even someone who wanted to do a lateral move from the State House. Anyone with any political experience would just cream him; he's got money, but no campaign infrastructure.
 
He has an extremely inflated sense of himself. After the flurry of coverage he got when his non-profit launched, I haven't really heard much about any of the work they have done.

Just seems like he is throwing money at a problem he doesn't really understand.
 
joebos said:
Isn't that all one needs to run this town?
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+1, great point haha

The problem with a young, ambitious person running for mayor is the young, ambitious people in the city won't bother to show up to vote for the candidate.
 
Good article.

http://bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2013/03/foe_menino_serves_up_leftovers

Foe: Menino serves up ‘leftovers’
Says he’s reheating ideas in big speech

By:
Marie Szaniszlo


Mayoral candidate John R. Connolly and Future Boston Alliance founder Greg Selkoe yesterday blasted Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s plans for the city as too little, too late.
“I agree largely with the vision, but where was it 10 years ago?” Connolly told the Herald. “We could have had a downtown school that would have kept thousands of families here. It’s about the follow-through. It’s about seeing things as they’re developing, not just reacting to the crisis of the moment.”
In a wide-ranging speech to 500 business leaders, Menino said development in the city is expected to triple this year from $1.6 billion. Wegmans will open its first Hub grocery store in the Landmark Center in Fenway and construction at the old Filene’s in Downtown Crossing will begin in late spring.

He also announced a plan to lay the groundwork for the creation of 30,000 new housing units by 2020, invest more than $11 million to complete the overhaul of Millennium Park in West Roxbury, bring 10,000 more mobile devices to the city’s public schools over the next two years and begin an e-reader lending program at the Boston Public Library in May.
Connolly said the city needs a business and development strategy that focuses on the long-term, not just on life sciences, and that Boston shouldn’t limit innovation to one district.
Both he and Selkoe said the 70-year-old mayor’s speech was a blatant attempt to broaden his appeal among young people. The five-term mayor, who climbed a flight of stairs to the podium yesterday aided by a cane, returned home Saturday for the first time since October after a long hospitalization and a three-month stay at the Parkman House on Beacon Hill, where he was recuperating from a series of illnesses.
“The speech was mostly a re-heating of leftovers of things the city has already been saying,” Selkoe said in an email. “Clearly, the mayor is trying to appeal to younger people all of a sudden after 20 years because he sees what a huge threat Connolly is. ... I applaud the mayor for finally paying attention (to young people), but I would challenge the mayor to show the depth of his understanding of these issues by ... answer(ing) unscripted questions about technological advancements in the city, what his strategies are for retaining young talent and on what the innovation district means and how the city is engaged there besides taking credit for market forces and putting up signs.”
Dot Joyce, the mayor’s spokeswoman, said the city’s progress “speaks for itself.”
“The mayor’s focus on housing, education and people has been woven throughout the administration and is why the city’s successes are what they are,” Joyce said. “It’s unfortunate that those seeking political office use negativity instead of positive solutions.”
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Now that the FAB has a voice who is running for office, things could get interesting.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of anything Selkoe and his organization have really contributed to moving the city in a new direction. His company is very successful, and it's great to see a homegrown business leader invest in his city, but I haven't seen any interesting, thoughtful work come form him or his "non-partisan" organization.
 
Menino proposes 30,000 new residential units by 2020--what a visionary! This city needs 30,000 new units by the end of 2013.
 
That's what I was thinking when I saw that statement. I'm in the middle of Avent's The Gated City and one of the examples he trots out is that Phoenix approved permits for 62,000 units in a single year when the Bay Area only approved 15,000.
 
Ya, DFW added 250,000 people in the last two years. I'd say thank you for the additional seats in congress, but they probably won't be occupied by anyone I vote for in Texas.
- Love, lonely "dumbocrat" in Dallas :(
 
Gonna lol hard when Seattle overtakes Boston. And I mean metro. City is already a lost cause.
 
Well both Phoenix and Riverside/San Bernardino are going to beat Seattle to it by 2020. What will you do then?
 
It's truly not a fair comparison at all. One goes to the next stretch of desert, the other tries to infill into already dense and designed communities.

Permitting needs to be overhauled in places like Boston tremendously to support faster cycles and more middle class developments and density, along with the infrastructure to support it all. It can't be compared to a place that moves 25 yards away and is on an uninhabited landscape.
 
That was bound to happen. I really never expected Seattle to ever catch up, but it seems they're all drinking the urbanism kool-aid up there while Boston is as stubbornly complacent as ever.
 
choo said:
It's truly not a fair comparison at all. One goes to the next stretch of desert, the other tries to infill into already dense and designed communities.

Permitting needs to be overhauled in places like Boston tremendously to support faster cycles and more middle class developments and density, along with the infrastructure to support it all. It can't be compared to a place that moves 25 yards away and is on an uninhabited landscape.
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According to the census, both the urbanized areas of Riverside/SB (at 3546 people per square mile) and Phoenix (at 3165 per square mile) consume less land per capita than the Boston area (2232 per square mile). The Southwest has space, but it doesn't have water. Lots are tiny. Once you're 5 miles from the MA state house, the Boston area has tons of space AND water AND infrastructure. It's not Boston and Cambridge that are the worst "gatekeepers" in Mass, although they aren't without their gatekeeping tendencies obviously, it's the suburbs.
 
^agree 100%. I was talking more about city proper. But once you get in the suburbs there is a lot of space and people throw a fit if you plan a apartment complex- even tho "affordable housing" is defined as 80% of the towns median income, which in places like Hingham and Concord are still better then the US average.

In these towns, "historic nature" and "town character" while in some cases valid, are often used as screens to keep out development that would bring in 'outsiders' (read:poorer people)
 
a630 said:
Ya, DFW added 250,000 people in the last two years. I'd say thank you for the additional seats in congress, but they probably won't be occupied by anyone I vote for in Texas.
- Love, lonely "dumbocrat" in Dallas :(
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Good thing that Massachusetts has such a diverse congressoinal delegation...

Though a quick look at the various Congressional districts around Dallas shows that there actually is a pretty good mix, looks like 2 Dems and 2 Reps in DFW (of course, all the surrounding are solid red).
 
choo said:
^agree 100%. I was talking more about city proper. But once you get in the suburbs there is a lot of space and people throw a fit if you plan a apartment complex- even tho "affordable housing" is defined as 80% of the towns median income, which in places like Hingham and Concord are still better then the US average.

In these towns, "historic nature" and "town character" while in some cases valid, are often used as screens to keep out development that would bring in 'outsiders' (read:poorer people)
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I have to disagree with the general sentiment to a certain degree. In my travels around the country, I've been amazed at how much further apart different income levels live when compared to New England.
 
Seattle seems hell bent on repeating the mistake of the Big Dig w/the Alaskan Way Viaduct so there's that...

Maybe it's lonely out in Dallas now but with all the immigration of northerners, Texas is going to turn "purple" eventually.
 
Matthew said:
Seattle seems hell bent on repeating the mistake of the Big Dig w/the Alaskan Way Viaduct so there's that...

Maybe it's lonely out in Dallas now but with all the immigration of northerners, Texas is going to turn "purple" eventually.
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Not northeners, Latinos.

exhibit8.gif


From the State of Texas Comptroller.
 
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