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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