Michelle Wu’s battle towards Robert Kraft over a proposed Everett soccer stadium is the right election yr setup for Wu – a strong company billionaire attempting to impose his will versus the feisty mayor attempting to guard her metropolis.
That’s the narrative she needs to promote.
Wu has Kraft, the proprietor of the New England Patriots, up towards the ropes as a result of he wants the town of Boston’s approval to construct a stadium for his New England Revolution on a dilapidated, contaminated web site throughout the Mystic River. Kraft Soccer is now asserting that she’s enjoying politics and going over them to the media to do her bidding.
Whether it is about politics, they’re strolling proper into the Boston mayor’s lure.
Kraft Soccer President Brian Bilello wrote to Wu’s Chief of Planning, Kairos Shen, saying they’ve answered “every question that the City has posed promptly and thoroughly” and had been “blindsided” when Wu mentioned they’d not been cooperative and informed the media about it.
“That act of delivering your letter to the media contemporaneously with your delivery to us appeared politically motivated and out of line,” Bilello wrote. “Your actions unnecessarily complicate our efforts, and raise concerns about the City’s commitment, to finalize a reasonable and fair agreement.”
Does politics play a job on this saga? In fact. Wu is up for reelection towards Kraft’s son Josh and the stadium tussle helps her reinforce her picture as a fierce proponent for Boston residents. And it doesn’t harm that Robert Kraft is a Donald Trump supporter.
However would Wu be doing the identical factor even when she wasn’t working towards a Kraft? In all probability.
Wu is solely asking robust questions on site visitors, parking, noise and different results of the Everett stadium on Boston neighborhoods – the identical she would have for another main growth proposal. Wu is exhibiting she is a troublesome negotiator who’s placing the pursuits of Boston first.
And the mitigation the Kraft Group is providing is a pittance of the quantity the town ought to be getting for a 25,000 seat stadium.
What precisely does Boston get out of this? Nothing however an enormous neighborhood disruption and headache. Who needs hundreds of individuals traipsing by their neighborhoods? Charlestown residents are rightly involved in regards to the elevated congestion the stadium would carry.
Kraft, a New England legend who saved the Patriots from leaving Foxboro, is indignant that Wu will not be rolling over for him like Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria.
The Krafts must have an open, clear course of that addresses the robust points and avoids insulting the mayor.
But when Kraft Soccer isn’t keen to do the method out within the open and compensate the folks of Boston pretty and deal with the problems of site visitors, they need to transfer alongside.
If Kraft walks away from this due to Wu’s stubbornness, how does that harm Boston? Wu is attempting to construct one other soccer stadium anyway in Franklin Park for the ladies’s skilled crew.
And whereas Josh Kraft says he would recuse himself from any stadium negotiations if he’s elected mayor, the query ought to be posed to him: Is Wu doing the precise factor by demanding extra money and extra accountability from Kraft Soccer?
And a query for mediator Tom Glynn: Is taking these negotiations behind closed doorways actually within the public curiosity?
That’s not the way it works within the public sector.
Wu shouldn’t conform to any confidentiality. They need to do it out within the open.
