As prepared for delivery.
I want to thank Business Manager Lou Antonellis and all the members of IBEW Local 103, for hosting us tonight. To my mother Mary, Lorrie and Lauren: I love you. Thank you for always being there for me.
Before I begin, I’d like us to remember the people of Puerto Rico, the Caribbean Islands, Houston, and Florida, and their families here in Boston. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
I want to thank every single person who came out today and voted, regardless of who you voted for. To candidates Joseph Wiley and Robert Cappucci and your supporters, thank you for putting your views out there and engaging voters. I wish you well. I congratulate Councilor [Tito] Jackson on advancing, and I look forward to six weeks of positive conversation in all the neighborhoods of Boston.
Most of all I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, everyone who is part of this campaign, for all your hard work. The campaign team, led by John Laadt, Tom McKay, Gabrielle Farrell, and all the staff and interns. The neighborhood captains and their volunteer teams in every single ward of this city. The elected officials who stood with me. My sisters and brothers in the labor community. And a special thank you to the young people, our rising stars like Skyler DeJesus, a fellow on our field team. She’s just 16 years old and a student at Cathedral High School in the South End. She did an incredible job.
And to our more than 2,000 volunteers: you are the backbone of our campaign. You came from every single neighborhood. You made over 700,000 phone calls. You knocked on 65,000 doors. You went to 750 different events, rallies, and parades. You are what this campaign is all about: people who love our city, care about their neighborhoods, and fight to make a difference.
You are seniors like Maria Sanchez and her neighbors in Mission Hill. We fought together for senior housing, so they can stay in the community and keep it strong. You are small businesses owners like Catherine Hardaway of Final Touch Boutique in Dudley Square. She finds working people the clothes they need to help start new careers. That’s what this city is all about: neighbor helping neighbor, lifting each other up, making our communities stronger, building a Boston for all of us.
We achieved a great result tonight. We won 212 out of 255 precincts, 83% of the precincts in the City of Boston. Thank you. But when I say all of us, I mean all of us, and I think of some special people I met on this campaign. I think about the young woman at a T stop in Jamaica Plain, who let me know she’s four months sober. Or the little girl who asked me: “is the president going to make my mom leave the country?” Not if I have anything to say about it. I was a kid from an immigrant family in Dorchester. I needed a second chance. And I got to live my dream. So I will never stop fighting until every single Bostonian can live their dream as well.
In Boston, we don’t care who you are, or where you were born; how you identify or who you love; the color of your skin; or how old you are. If you are here, and you are part of our community, then you are one of us and we have your back. That’s the Boston I know and I love. That’s the Boston I fight for.
It’s a Boston for all of us—where every child gets the start they need in school.
It’s a Boston for all of us—where every worker can find a good job and an affordable home.
And it’s a Boston for all of us—where every neighborhood has a great quality of life.
Four years ago we went to work building that Boston for all of us. We came together as a city and we made historic progress.
We added more than 60,000 jobs—and cut unemployment in every neighborhood.
We created 22,000 new homes, including 9,000 for low- and middle-income families and seniors.
We added over 700 high-quality pre-kindergarten seats. We have more high-performing schools than ever. Our graduation rate is at an all-time high. We no longer have the shortest school day in the country. And we secured free community college, to bring life-changing opportunities to low-income students.
We made our community policing a national model. We are building trust and safety in every neighborhood. And we launched city-wide dialogues on race that address the need for healing in our city.
We put $100 million into neighborhood libraries. We are ranked number one in the nation for access to parks. We are ranked number one for energy efficiency. We were named the most innovative city in America.
By taking good care of the City’s finances, we achieved perfect, AAA bond ratings, four consecutive years, the first time it’s been done in the City of Boston.
We have new companies like G.E., Lego Education, and Reebok, to take our economy to the next level. We used that growth to get more funding for our schools, more job training to our neighborhoods, and more resources to parks, playgrounds, and libraries than ever before.
Perhaps best of all: 1,100 homeless men and women who used to live on the streets now have a home. And we ended chronic veterans homelessness in the City of Boston. That’s a Boston for all of us—where everyone’s voice is heard, and no one gets left behind.
We know there’s a lot more work to do. The truth is, we’re just getting started. We built the foundation, now we’re ready to soar. We won’t stop until every student and every worker, in every family and every neighborhood, is a full partner in our city’s success.
In the last four years, we built a roadmap to get there. Working with thousands of Bostonians, we created our first citywide plan in more than 50 years. Now we are making that vision a reality—for all of us.
In the next four years:
We’re going to invest $1 billion in new schools and school renovations.
We’re going to build more affordable housing in every neighborhood, for every age and income level.
We’re going to fight for a statewide $15 an hour minimum wage—because our workers deserve a raise.
We’re going to bring in more employers and more good jobs. We’re going to do more job training and get more residents into those careers. We don’t just talk the talk on inequality. We’re building real solutions for real people.
We’re going to invest millions of dollars in Franklin Park and Boston Common, and we’re going to build a park at Fort Point Channel that will protect our city from flooding. We’re going to be the greenest city in America.
And we’re finally going to build a memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to honor his life and inspire us to build a Boston that’s truly equal for all of us.
And we’re going to keep fighting: fighting for our immigrants, fighting for our seniors, fighting for our veterans, fighting for our LGBT community, fighting for our recovery community. Whether the attacks come from hate groups or they come from Washington, we will stand with all our neighbors, because that’s what it means to be a city for all of us.
For the next six weeks, we will continue this conversation in every corner of every neighborhood in our great city. We’re going to keep listening to the needs, the hopes, and the dreams of every Bostonian. We’re going to keep showing how much we love our city, and keep working to make it even better.
We’re going to keep proving what Boston stands for. We are a city with a big heart where neighbors can count on each other. We are a city with big ideas that change the world. We are a city that leads with our values, lifts everyone up, and shows the nation a better way forward. We are Boston, the greatest city in the world and a city for all of us. And I ask all of you for your vote on November 7.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the City of Boston.