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Boston Globe
31-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
In reversal, developer Thomas O'Brien says he won't challenge Michelle Wu after all
Advertisement A former head of the Boston Redevelopment Authority and one of Boston best-known developers, O'Brien is the founding partner of The HYM Investment Group, a firm behind some of the city's largest and most complicated projects. HYM played key roles in the development of Boston Landing in Brighton and the NorthPoint campus on the Boston-Cambridge-Somerville line. The firm currently has approvals to build 10,000 units of housing at Suffolk Downs, a former horse-racing track straddling the East Boston-Revere line, as well as major projects downtown and in Roxbury. 'My commitment to Boston remains unwavering,' O'Brien's statement said. 'I'll keep working to make our city a more affordable, inclusive and vibrant place to live, work and thrive — and I look forward to partnering with Mayor Wu, her administration and others to help achieve that vision.' Advertisement O'Brien had been planning an announcement for some time this week, at an event in East Boston, and sources who had discussed the race with him said he planned to focus on immigration, housing, and other issues key to Boston's future. An O'Brien candidacy would have posed a serious challenge for Kraft, as both have close ties in a business community that has grown skeptical of Wu. In Boston mayoral elections, the top two finishers in a September preliminary election advance to a runoff in November. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu gives the State of the City address on March 19. Brett Phelps for The Boston Globe Now Kraft, who entered the race in February, Wu is expected to formally kick off her reelection campaign this Saturday in the South End. Kraft officially launched his bid to unseat Wu on Feb. 4 after more than a year of speculation as to whether he would challenge her. Kraft is well known in Boston's civic and business circles, particularly for his time leading the Boys & Girls Club. Kraft came out swinging at Wu right out of the gate, criticizing her over stalled housing development in the city, her push to install bike and bus lanes around Boston, and her controversial move to redevelop Franklin Park's White Stadium for Boston Public Schools students with a new professional women's soccer team. Wu countered that Kraft, who only recently moved within the city's boundaries in the fall of 2023, would not be the right fit to lead Boston. Advertisement Josh Kraft is challenging Boston Mayor Michelle Wu in this fall's election. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff Wu has also been Kraft has raised nearly $567,000 in contributions from early February through March 21, according to state campaign finance data. Wu has a little less than $1.8 million in cash on hand, according to her most recent campaign finance report from the start of March. Check back soon for more on this developing story. Catherine Carlock can be reached at
Boston Globe
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Community activist Domingos DaRosa says he is running for Boston mayor
'I've been at it for a while when it comes to trying to make some real drastic changes to Boston's services,' he said. Later this spring, he will start work to gather the 3,000 signatures needed to appear on the ballot next fall. The city will begin distributing nomination forms April 30 and the deadline to submit petitions is May 20. DaRosa, 47, whose family immigrated to Boston from Cape Verde when he was nine months old, said he will run as an Independent and has a 'grassroots team' supporting him. Advertisement 'I've got young people telling me to have a TikTok and just talk about politics and draw that crowd, because they're tired of Boston politics too,' he said. Wu is also facing a challenge by Josh Kraft, the son of billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. On Monday, the Globe reported that Thomas O'Brien, managing partner of The HYM Investment Group and a former top planning chief under Mayor Thomas Menino, A 1996 graduate of Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Roxbury, DaRosa said he wants to ramp up enrollment and sees an opportunity for the school to serve as an avenue for young Boston residents to find construction jobs around the area. 'We have a construction boom but none of the Bostonians are getting the jobs,' he said. 'The entry point is Madison Park, but we're not feeding the system. Madison is empty. There's no exam to get in like at Minuteman Tech, like at Blue Hills Regional. Madison has no waiting list.' Advertisement Boston school officials have recently been exploring funding strategies for a Across the Boston school system, DaRosa said more should be invested in students' experiences beyond the standard lessons taught in the classroom. 'We need to be able to provide these kids with resources such as swimming, arts, music, extracurricular activities, school sports,' he said. 'We've lost a lot of that in BPS, especially at the high school level.' DaRosa has also been active in raising the alarm about the opioid crisis and conditions at the intersection known as Mass. and Cass, an area near the border of Roxbury and the South End where He said he knows as well as anyone how the addiction crisis has affected the community in the vicinity of Mass. and Cass. As a Pop Warner football coach in nearby Clifford Park, DaRosa and other coaches would walk the field before practices DaRosa was the longtime head of the Boston Bengals Pop Warner program, but he said the program ended after the 2022 season due to unsanitary conditions on their practice field and ongoing drug activity around it. 'There was no way [it could continue] like that,' he said. Advertisement DaRosa said he has long been a proponent of reopening the Long Island recovery campus that shuttered after the bridge that connects Moon Island in Quincy to Long Island was closed in 2014. Boston officials have sought to place a large addiction-recovery campus on Long Island and have been 'We can do things as a city to get Long Island back in order,' he said. 'It hasn't really gotten off the ground, while other plans have. So we want to see things like that actually roll out.' DaRosa is in the early stages of forming his campaign. He said he will soon launch campaign pages on social media and create a website. He said he is hoping that 'working folks' will support him and volunteer to help get the word out about his candidacy. 'These are folks who are working a seven to three, a nine to five, and they're willing to help and support me because they've watched me put in the legwork over the years,' he said. Nick Stoico can be reached at
