Michelle Wu\u2019s battle against Robert Kraft over a proposed Everett soccer stadium is the perfect election year setup for Wu \u2013 a powerful corporate billionaire trying to impose his will versus the feisty mayor trying to protect her city.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the narrative she wants to sell.<\/p>\n
Wu has Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, up against the ropes because he needs the city of Boston\u2019s approval to build a stadium for his New England Revolution on a dilapidated, contaminated site across the Mystic River. Kraft Soccer is now asserting that she\u2019s playing politics and going over them to the media to do her bidding.<\/p>\n
If it is about politics, they\u2019re walking right into the Boston mayor\u2019s trap.<\/p>\n
Kraft Soccer President Brian Bilello wrote to Wu\u2019s Chief of Planning, Kairos Shen, saying they have answered \u201cevery question that the City has posed promptly and thoroughly\u201d and were \u201cblindsided\u201d when Wu said they had not been cooperative and told the media about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat act of delivering your letter to the media contemporaneously with your delivery to us appeared politically motivated and out of line,\u201d Bilello wrote. \u201cYour actions unnecessarily complicate our efforts, and raise concerns about the City\u2019s commitment, to finalize a reasonable and fair agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Does politics play a role in this saga? Of course. Wu is up for reelection against Kraft\u2019s son Josh and the stadium tussle helps her reinforce her image as a fierce proponent for Boston residents. And it doesn\u2019t hurt that Robert Kraft is a Donald Trump supporter.<\/p>\n
But would Wu be doing the same thing even if she wasn\u2019t running against a Kraft? Probably.<\/p>\n
Wu is simply asking tough questions about traffic, parking, noise and other effects of the Everett stadium on Boston neighborhoods \u2013 the same she would have for any other major development proposal. Wu is showing she is a tough negotiator who\u2019s putting the interests of Boston first.<\/p>\n
And the mitigation the Kraft Group is offering is a pittance of the amount the city should be getting for a 25,000 seat stadium.<\/p>\n
What exactly does Boston get out of this? Nothing but a huge neighborhood disruption and headache. Who wants thousands of people traipsing through their neighborhoods? Charlestown residents are rightly concerned about the increased congestion the stadium would bring.<\/p>\n
Kraft, a New England legend who saved the Patriots from leaving Foxboro, is indignant that Wu is not rolling over for him like Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria.<\/p>\n
The Krafts need to have an open, transparent process that addresses the tough issues and avoids insulting the mayor.<\/p>\n
But if Kraft Soccer isn\u2019t willing to do the process out in the open and compensate the people of Boston fairly and address the issues of traffic, they should move along.<\/p>\n
If Kraft walks away from this because of Wu\u2019s stubbornness, how does that hurt Boston? Wu is trying to build another soccer stadium anyway in Franklin Park for the women\u2019s professional team.<\/p>\n
And while Josh Kraft says he would recuse himself from any stadium negotiations if he\u2019s elected mayor, the question should be posed to him: Is Wu doing the right thing by demanding more money and more accountability from Kraft Soccer?<\/p>\n
And a question for mediator Tom Glynn: Is taking these negotiations behind closed doors really in the public interest?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not how it works in the public sector.<\/p>\n
Wu should not agree to any confidentiality. They should do it out in the open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michelle Wu\u2019s battle against Robert Kraft over a proposed Everett soccer stadium is the perfect election year setup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[3333,49,48,66319,32239,66318,3315,66320,32236,927,66321,33478,561,82],"class_list":["post-119003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-boston","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-election-year","tag-everett-soccer-stadium","tag-joe-battenfeld","tag-mayor","tag-mayoral-race","tag-michelle-wu","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-column","tag-robert-kraft","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}