BOSTON (WHDH) - As Marty Walsh prepares to leave Boston for Washington, local leaders said he kept the city running during his seven years in office but also rose to the occasion during crises.
Walsh was first elected in 2013 after Mayor Thomas Menino chose not to run for re-election, and was handily re-elected in 2017.
“People want the trash picked up, the potholes filled, snow plowed … when you think back on Mayor Walsh’s tenure, all that got it done,” said Boston Chamber Of Commerce President Jim Rooney.
Two of Walsh’s biggest plans — hosting the Olympics and Paralympics in 2024 and the Grand Prix in 2016 — fell apart. But Rooney said Walsh stepped up during the coronavirus pandemic.
“You have to give Marty Walsh high marks for the way he lead during the pandemic crisis,” Rooney said. “These were very difficult and challenging choices to make decisions in the interest of public health knowing that there would be economic suffering by both business and by people.”
And Boston NAACP President Tanisha Sullivan said Walsh tried to address racism in the city, pointing to his declaration of racism as a “public health crisis.”
“That was actually a very significant declaration … racism as a public health pandemic also treats it like we would treat any other illness,” Sullivan said. “I think Mayor Walsh was intentional about trying to go deeper in his listening and deeper in his learning.”
But Sullivan said Walsh’s record building developing Boston was not as considered.
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