City address highlights the need for Boston jobs

Posted on January 25, 2015

The mayor’s address highlighted how he would create more Boston jobs and a slew of other things.

The mayor’s plans include:

•
ParkBoston, a new mobile app available now that will allow drivers to pay the parking meter with a smart phone.

•StartHub, to unify and bolster start-ups, support entrepreneurs growing businesses in Boston, and market Boston’s startup scene to the world.

•Upgrading the Mayor’s Hotline with a more effective and convenient 311 system.

•Creating a cross-departmental, citywide Office of Analytics, to bring the power of big data to city services and operations, and a full-time “start up czar” to help entrepreneurs grow businesses in Boston.

•Putting out a Request for Information inviting ideas for significant upgrades in space and programming on City Hall Plaza.

The mayor also announced:

the Mayor announced:
•The launch of a Children’s Savings Account (CSA) for College pilot program, giving Boston families a new tool to help save for college.

Last year, the Mayor laid out his Boston 2030 plan, calling for the creation of 53,000 new housing units to accommodate the expected 91,000 new Bostonians by 2030.

•Making 250 city-owned parcels available for development through the Neighborhood Homes Initiative to provide housing for low- and middle-income families where it is needed most.

•”Main Street Makeovers,” beginning with Bowdoin-Geneva in Dorchester and Grove Hall in Roxbury, Main Street Makeovers will provide targeted public space upgrades, extra help for small businesses and priority services from Public Works.

•Pushing the City’s universities to build more dorms to help solve the City’s student housing problems and relieve pressure on rents in the neighborhoods.

•Asking the Massachusetts Legislature to support giving a tax break to developers of middle income and workforce housing.

•The creation of a Boston School Building Authority, to tap funding sources for new schools that the City has failed to secure in the past.

•A new partnership with global software company SAP that will create a high-tech pipeline for students from Charlestown High School, connecting them with Bunker Hill Community College and job placements.