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McCrea officially endorses ’Floon’ in front of Downtown Crossing hole by Brandon Simes
Managing EditorThursday Oct 29, 2009 McCrea saw BRA as deciding factor in his endorsement process
South Ender Kevin McCrea, the third challenger to Mayor Thomas Menino in the four-person race prior to Sept. 22, officially endorsed the "Floon" ticket of City Councilors Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon outside the hole in the ground at Downtown Crossing on Thursday morning, Oct. 29.
Calling eliminating the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) his "litmus test" for any candidate running for city office, McCrea gave his support to the challengers’ camp with just five days until the Nov. 3 municipal elections that will decide if Flaherty replaces Menino as Boston’s top office-holder.
The press conference started off with Yoon speaking first, saying that the hole in the ground that replaced Filene’s Basement "is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the mayor."
Yoon said that Menino shifts blame by using the BRA to do his work.
"The mayor is the BRA," said Yoon.
Next up was McCrea, who first announced his support for District 1 city council challenger Chris Kulikoski and District 9 challenger Alex Selvig-who both attended the press conference-before endorsing Flaherty.
"We really need a change in City Hall," said McCrea, who added that he and his wife "spent a lot of time" in making their decision on whom to endorse. McCrea met with both camps before making a decision, and called Menino a "very empathetic person."
McCrea said that Flaherty "has really grown" and learned to accept good ideas, no matter whether they come from constituents, mayoral rivals like himself or Yoon, or from within. The South Ender, along with South End News columnist Shirley Kressel and Boston resident Kathleen Devine, sued the Boston City Council in 2005 for 11 Open Meeting Law violations, charges then-Council president Flaherty and the rest of the Council initially fought in court before acknowledging the violations last October.
Flaherty’s stance on eliminating the BRA, however, put the challenger ahead of Menino in McCrea’s eyes.
"The BRA is a non-democratic, corrupt institution," said McCrea.
Flaherty said that McCrea’s "leadership will help make [him] a better mayor," and said that McCrea "has his word" that he’ll follow through on his promise to eliminate the BRA if elected.
Flaherty also said that his administration would use performance bonds to guarantee that projects like the one at the former Filene’s Basement site would not stall without penalty. He repeatedly said the hole in the ground looked like a scene from Fallujah, a battleground city in Iraq during the American occupation after U.S. forces took down the Saddam Hussein regime, not downtown Boston. He also called the situation a "direct result of failures" of the Menino administration.
McCrea, himself a developer, agreed that tighter regulation is needed in order to prevent developers from ignoring stalled projects.
"You have to hold these developers’ feet to the fire," he said.
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