By Philip Marcela, Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) - Boston Mayor Martin Walsh is touting his administration's achievements in housing, development, public safety and education as he wraps up his first year in office and previewing some of the initiatives he hopes to roll out next year, from new online tools for City Hall business to faster building permitting procedures.
"We hit the ground running and we didn't let up," Walsh said at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce forum Wednesday morning. "We set new standards in development, education, public safety, housing, public health and infrastructure - the building blocks of our great city."
Walsh said the city remains one of the safest big cities in the country, with violent crime and property crimes down over last year's numbers.
He also told business leaders that Boston was on pace to meet his administration's goal of 53,000 units of housing by 2030 and to offer all-day kindergarten to every 4 year old in the city by 2018.
Walsh, a former state representative and high-ranking labor union official, noted development is booming in Boston, with $4 billion in new construction so far breaking ground this year and leading to over 12,000 construction jobs.
The region's technology sector is equally humming, the mayor said. Boston startups received over $1 billion in venture capital financing through the first three quarters of 2013, Walsh said.
He said his administration is also working to assure that LogMeIn, a cloud computing company, stays in Boston with its 350 jobs and adds about 450 new ones over the next five years.
For next year, Walsh said his administration will look to promote housing and commercial development in South Boston and Jamaica Plain that takes advantage of the subway lines running through those neighborhoods.
He also promises to issue an executive order guaranteeing that businesses owned by military veterans get the same first chance at city contracts as those run by women or minorities.
In the digital arena, Walsh said the administration will continue to launch new smartphone applications and website tools so that residents can complete City Hall business easier, as well as plans to add some 17 new free Wi-Fi hotspots on top of the city's current 18.
And the mayor pledged to roll out initiatives to speed up the often Byzantine building permitting process. Among them: clearing appeals backlogs, responding faster to phone inquiries, and launching new online programs to help permit applicants monitor and review their requests.
"We'll make sure Boston is open for business," he said.
