Participants of the International Mayors’ Conference at the Western Wall in Jerusalem
Apparently Mayor Warren kept good company this past week when he traveled to Jerusalem with 39 other mayors from cities around the world for the 30th International Mayors Conference. The theme of the conference was “Smart Cities,” and they were scheduled to meet with Israeli leaders including PM Netanyahu and innovation leaders.
Other mayors scheduled to attend were: Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City; Mayor Rudrah Singh Tamang of Katmandu, Nepal; Mayor Swati Godbole of Jabalpur, India; Mayor Mauricio Esteban Rodas Espinel of Quito, Ecuador; Mayor Lovelly Warren of Rochester, New York; Mayor Robert L. Crowell of Carson City, Nevada; Mayor Roland Ries of Strasbourg, France; Mayor László Papp of Debrecen, Hungary; Deputy Mayor Lu Kai of Xian, China; Mayor Remigijus Šimašius of Vilna, Lithuania; Mayor Anabela Freitas of Tomar, Portugal; Mayor Siniša Mali of Belgrade, Serbia; Mayor Lake Ayalew of Bahid Dar, Ethiopia; Mayor Krzysztof Żuk of Lublin, Poland; Mayor Gaspar Soares of Dili, East Timor; and Mayor Andres Jafif of Punte del Este, Uruguay.
Unbelievable.
Perhaps he was there to import some poor people! (for the humor challenged, that was a joke)
Seriously, I think it’s terrific when our mayor is able to represent our city, especially in Israel, given the large number of Isreali businesses that have opened offices in Newton.
But I am surprised there was no advance announcement, as there was last time, or nothing since, including not even a mention of his travels on his Twitter or Facebook pages.
You may be slipping. “Mayor Warren of Boston, MA and Mayor of New York City De Blasio leaving Oct 16 for 30th International Mayors Conference in Israel” on Twitter various places with pictures since then. I wonder too why he didn’t announce it.
Here’s my announcement for the mayor:
Dear citizens of Newton, I am proud to announce that I am in Israel to hone up on my foreign policy experience. Unfortunately, I can’t see Russia from my window. I can do more for Newton, being in Israel, than I can if I was home. Some of you might think I spend more time in air transit than I do in Newton. Please don’t bother me with simple stuff like affordable housing, filling potholes, fixing our streets, enhancing our schools and filling vacant department head positions as I will be briefing Hilary when I come home and we all go door to door canvassing in New Hampshire.
All the best to the citizens of Newton.
+1 on Tom’s comment. These repeated trips to Israel by the mayor of a city with fewer than 90,000 people give the casual observer the impression that the man is all about personal ambition and very little about serving his constituency (in its entirety, anyway).
I travel internationally at least 2 or 3 times a month and much as I desperately try to pretend otherwise, trips like BOS-TLV generally halve my productivity for the week or so following my return. And that’s on top of having fallen behind on my work schedule while I’m gone.
There are many basic issues, projects, and concerns that need to be addressed in this city right now. Somebody needs to please tell the mayor that he ought not accept every special-interest junket that gets offered to him.
.. Not to mention we have a billion bucks to find.
Great leadership example of showing the city how to lead from the front, getting priorities straight and being fiscally smart.
I think these are not unusual for mayors, and while we would all like to pretend that our executives stay in their office or in the city 24/7, I think that multi-tasking and email being what it is, I’ve got no problem with this. I’m assuming the city didn’t pay for much of this.
Look, I’m not a huge fan of the mayor, but if I’m going to criticize him, it will be on something he screwed up. Reaching out to Israel, especially considering Newton’s large Jewish population and the various business contacts between the two locals, seems to me to be job related.
And yes, I’ve considered the possibility that he is doing this to increase his foreign policy credentials. But I’m willing to look at both sides, and realize there are legitimate reasons why going could be good for the city.
“especially considering Newton’s large Jewish population”
Fig,
according to you’re logic, it would then be OK for the Mayor to go to Italy, Ireland, China, Russia and may more because we have such a diverse citizenry.
I don’t know if you know this or not, but our Mayor travels to NY, Las Vegas, Wyoming,etc on a quarterly basis. It wouldn’t surprise me that he didn’t “get away” over 12 times per year. These trips used to be covered by hus campaign expenses. He has slowed down his trips the past several months, which means he has either stopped going on these trips (I hope) or he has found an alternate way of paying for his trips.
You seem to think this is an unusual occurrence, it’s not. If it were, I’d have no problem with it, either. Good Luck.
These trips are quite unusual for a city of Newton’s small size – especially when those cities are integrated into more significant metropolitan areas. If there are trade opportunities to be had, they should be explored and promoted by the Commonwealth, or preferably the US Commercial Service. To pretend that little Newton should be devoting any resources to such endeavors is absurd.
Also, I don’t understand why it should be the job of a mayor act as a liaison between ethnic groups in his or her city and those groups’ homelands. If Catholics outnumber Jews in Newton, which may well be the case, then should we be sending Setti to Vatican City a few times every year? (I can hear the mayor’s emphatic response: Yes, we should!!!)
Also, we have a Nissan dealership in town; should we send the mayor to Yokohama to give thanks?
The answer, clearly, is no – I hate to break it to the mayor, but he’s still very much junior-varsity in the grand scheme of things (as any mayor of Newton would be), and he needs to focus on building up a track record of accomplishments in his own little hometown before he sets sights on bigger and grander things for himself.
In the meantime, these junkets just make him look plain silly.
Michael and Tom:
I just looked up the link.
The nearly 40 participating mayors include: Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City (USA); Mayor Rudrah Singh Tamang of Katmandu, Nepal; Mayor Swati Godbole of Jabalpur, India; Mayor Mauricio Esteban Rodas Espinel of Quito, Ecuador; Mayor Lovelly Warren of Rochester, New York (USA); Mayor Setti Warren of Newton, Massachusetts (USA); Mayor Robert L. Crowell of Carson City, Nevada (USA); Mayor Roland Ries of Strasbourg, France; Mayor László Papp of Debrecen, Hungary; Deputy Mayor Lu Kai of Xian, China; Mayor Remigijus Šimašius of Vilna, Lithuania; Mayor Anabela Freitas of Tomar, Portugal; Mayor Siniša Mali of Belgrade, Serbia; Mayor Lake Ayalew of Bahid Dar, Ethiopia; Mayor Krzysztof Żuk of Lublin, Poland; Mayor Gaspar Soares of Dili, East Timor; and Mayor Andres Jafif of Punte del Este, Uruguay.
I agree that Newton doesn’t fit in that well with many of the other attendees. Still not sure if the city isn’t paying that I’m too upset, and again, I’m not exactly a Setti supporter. But I did want to post and acknowledge that it was an interesting group of mayors.
Michael and Tom are dead on. The Mayor must devote his time and resources to Newton. Enough is enough with these junkets to promote himself to a national or world stage. The TAB should do a story about how much time he really spends in Newton. I have also heard that he will soon start campaigning for Hillary. All in all he’s a big disappointment.
For the record I probably agree with the mayor on about 95% of the issues, but I don’t think that the public should have to tolerate politicians who seem to (quite arrogantly) devote so much effort to self-promotion and mightier aspirations.
Another case in point would be our congressman, Joseph Kennedy III, with whom I also agree on probably 95% of the issues.
Last month a colleague of mine in Kathmandu alerted me to India’s very unfair and likely illegal embargo on goods entering Nepal, due to Indian concerns that the new Nepalese constitution would allow for closer relations with China. Supplies of fuel, foodstuffs, and medicine were nearing exhaustion as the Indian blockade stretched out for over a week. All of this was, of course, in the context of Nepal’s desperate disaster recovery efforts.
The international media paid very little attention to the situation and there was no official US response – so I sent an email to Congressman Kennedy asking if he was aware of the situation, what his position was, and if he foresaw any possible remedy.
That was over a month ago at this point, and I’ve yet to receive a response. I’ll chalk that up to either arrogance or managerial incompetence.
All of this to say: Setti, Joseph, et al, please put more effort into the day-to-day concerns of your local constituencies, even if you think it’s beneath you. That would include 1) not trying to build up your foreign policy experience when you’re the mayor of a suburban city of 90,000, and 2) responding to communication from your constituents in a timely manner, even if it means having an intern send out a form letter. In the end, your upwardly mobile career will benefit from much broader support and you’ll likely go farther.
Re the mayors travels .
This is a guy who was his high school class president all four years he was in attendance and has been a political wonk ever since. It’s great that he has been able to pursue his adolescent ambitions with some success. It’s also great that he has been able to take vacations at taxpayers expense. Would that we all were all so fortunate.
Soon when he comes home he will once again be able to pursue his political ambitions of jambing 4000 units of new housing ( 800 affordable & 3200 market rate ), on his Garden City. To what purpose ? To polish his resume for Hilary’s appointment to HUD? This is the leadership we have signed up for. Let’s keep it up !
I wholeheartedly agree with Tom, Michael and Doug on these political jaunts regarding Mayor Warren’s extensive travel schedule.
Since personal safety appears to be on the top of Setti Warren’s list of importance (I have seen a Newton policeman – packing, btw) with Setti on all of his public appearances in the last year, I wonder if he travelled to Israel with a personal bodyguard and at who’s expense. Does anyone know?
The important thing is not that the Mayor went on this trip, but WHY he went on this trip. It’s the same reason he initiated the proposed project at Austin Street, and the same reason he at first suggested Newton had met its 40B threshold, but then failed to vigorously defend that position. Nearly everything Setti does, is done to advance his own political career. It doesn’t make him a bad mayor, but it’s clear he puts his own political interests ahead of Newton’s best interest. If you are not viewing him through that lens, you are not seeing the real Setti.
Mayor Warren is kept quite busy as the USCM Community Development & Housing Committee Chair and as a member of its Advisory Committee and as a member of Metro Mayors Coalition. Just to name a few. In 2012, he was a member of the delegation to DC, that was lobbying HYD Secretary Shaun Donovan to ensure CDBG funding at the current level as the department writes it budget.
He was one of 7 mayors who traveled to Saudi Arabia in January, 2014 to “explore economic development opportunities” and then to Israel in April, 2014. This year in June, 2015, the USCM was in San Francisco for their conference as well as in Boston, Oct 7, 2015 to discuss economic development. Then on to Israel on Oct 16 as one of 40 international mayors.
I’m thinking he has his sights set on a Cabinet position, which is fine by me.
W0w. Tough crowd here. I can see why the mayor may have wanted to keep the trip secret, although I don’t agree with that.
I know there are people who believe that everything you’d ever want to know about running a municipality can be found right here on Village 14 or at least inside our city limits.
I’m of the belief that there’s lot to learn from traveling, attending conferences, meeting with peers. Who’s to say the there’s not a city in Portugal, Belgrade or Nevada that has a new approach to a problem we face here?
And for those of you who keep clamoring for more commercial development (instead of housing), one of the proven paths to growing your commercial sector in a global economy is to travel the globe.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the mayor going to Israel, particularly if it helps drum up business ideas for Newton. I do wonder though why it was so hush-hush. No announcement, nothing on his Facebook or Twitter accounts where he usually touts everything he does.
The timing of the trip is even more noteworthy. The board is voting on the Austin Street Project soon and most people expect a close vote. If the mayor is as invested in this project as he has claimed, he should be at City Hall fighting for every vote. He should also be campaigning for the Newton pols who will help push his agenda. Even if all the incumbents win, if ASP goes down, an anti-development message will gain a lot more traction in the community. There’s a lot more at stake with the Austin Street vote than 68 apartments and some retail space. It’d be comforting to see the mayor of Newton show that he hasn’t given up on this project.
Janet – You know perfectly well that the Mayor has a police attendant after a significant threat has been received. It’s a well known reality and one that Newton shouldn’t be proud of.
@Gail-
I don’t think you need to wonder all that much 🙂 ….and your second paragraph nailed it.
The “anti-development” message is more “pro”: Pro prudent fiscal policy, pro being loyal to current residents, pro staying as suburban as possible, and being pro green space when opportunities present themselves.
@Charlie: We can debate the motives of the people opposing increased housing, but I’m not alone when I hear the message as anti-development. Nothing I’ve read has convinced me otherwise