Michelle Wu’s battle towards Robert Kraft over a proposed Everett soccer stadium is the proper election 12 months setup for Wu – a robust company billionaire making an attempt to impose his will versus the feisty mayor making an attempt to guard her metropolis.
That’s the narrative she desires 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 website throughout the Mystic River. Kraft Soccer is now asserting that she’s taking part in 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 “each query that the Metropolis has posed promptly and completely” and have been “blindsided” when Wu mentioned that they had not been cooperative and informed the media about it.
“That act of delivering your letter to the media contemporaneously together with your supply to us appeared politically motivated and out of line,” Bilello wrote. “Your actions unnecessarily complicate our efforts, and lift issues concerning the Metropolis’s dedication, to finalize an inexpensive and honest settlement.”
Does politics play a job on this saga? After all. 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 operating towards a Kraft? In all probability.
Wu is solely asking powerful questions on visitors, parking, noise and different results of the Everett stadium on Boston neighborhoods – the identical she would have for another main improvement proposal. Wu is exhibiting she is a tricky 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 needs 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 desires 1000’s of individuals traipsing by their neighborhoods? Charlestown residents are rightly involved concerning the elevated congestion the stadium would carry.
Kraft, a New England legend who saved the Patriots from leaving Foxboro, is indignant that Wu just isn’t rolling over for him like Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria.
The Krafts have to have an open, clear course of that addresses the powerful 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 visitors, they need to transfer alongside.
If Kraft walks away from this due to Wu’s stubbornness, how does that harm Boston? Wu is making an attempt to construct one other soccer stadium anyway in Franklin Park for the ladies’s skilled staff.
And whereas Josh Kraft says he would recuse himself from any stadium negotiations if he’s elected mayor, the query needs to be posed to him: Is Wu doing the best factor by demanding more cash 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 mustn’t conform to any confidentiality. They need to do it out within the open.
