Families and Students to Protest Mayor Walsh’s State of the City Address

Standing alongside Kansas City Mayor Sly James and Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, Walsh discussed Boston’s progress in addressing the housing crisis, his adminstration’s push to end veteran homelessness, the drop in the city’s violent crimes, and his support of a $15 minimum wage.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, right, chats with Nicole Boggio, of Severna Park, MD, left, at a sidewalk cafe on Boylston Street near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 14, 2014, in Boston.

Mayor Martin Walsh speaks about keeping Boston safe by “lifting people up”, rather than “locking people up”, during the State of the City Address in Symphony Hall Tuesday evening.

And in the windup of his speech, Walsh seemed to reference those who so bitterly opposed his effort to bring the Olympics here when he urged people to “find common ground, even when we don’t agree on everything”.

“For the third straight year, I will send a budget to the city council that increases school funding, for a total increase of almost $90 million since I took office”, Walsh said, noting that parents are “frustrated” about waiting lists for the city’s pre-kindergarten program.

Commitment to the students is paramount, Walsh said.

Workers, activists and a few Democratic lawmakers have pushed proposals for a $15 per hour minimum wage at Logan Airport and among the state’s big box stores and major fast food restaurants. San Francisco and Seattle have approved plans to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour, according to Time.com. MA presently has a $10 statewide minimum wage.

“I was sitting with a colleague from the legislature, and we agreed that this kind of inspiration is particularly effective for the city as a whole, but also [that] the things that Boston is doing are inspiring to the state as a whole”, Bennett.

Walsh’s speech came a week after General Electric announced that it would move its global headquarters to Boston.

This year’s Boston Public Schools’ budget is estimated to be $1.027 billion, which would be a $13.5 million increase compared to last year’s and is the city’s largest-ever budget for the School Department. “But we should do more than compensate”, he said. The governor deferred to the mayor’s task force on a Boston minimum wage and said “I think he’s mostly interested at this point in having a conversation in his community, and as a former local official I’m a big believer in local communities working on stuff on their own terms and in their own way”.

Walsh’s speech focused heavily on education.

Returning to economic development, Walsh announced a plan to create a task force of workers and employers in order to study a $15-an-hour minimum wage in Boston.

Collaborating with the true stakeholders, demand democratically controlled public schools through an elected Boston School Committee.