Marty Walsh seemed relieved the day after delivering his first State of the City speech, which was equal parts a recap of his first-year achievements and a guide to where he hopes to take the city.
He’s made other major speeches in the past year, but the Symphony Hall address was a milestone in putting his own stamp on the job. He got through without a hitch — though he had to race through the last section to finish before TV stations would have begun cutting him off.
Running a city is one of those jobs one can never be fully prepared for, and Walsh freely admits that it took some time to get his legs.
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“I think the first few months were just fast,” he said “The issues come fast and furious. The demands by the press come fast and furious. Somewhere around March, I was sitting here by myself, and I just realized, ‘OK, I understand this job.’ And what I mean by that is that things seemed a little clearer for me.”
High on his agenda is selecting a leader for the Boston Public Schools. A selection process for a new superintendent is grinding along — too slowly, if you ask me.
Walsh said he is hoping for a strong leader with an eye for identifying talented principals.
He said he worries that too many schools are underperforming, even amid a few conspicuous successes.
“The [William Monroe] Trotter and Orchard Gardens are two schools that were Level 4 schools,” Walsh said. Now both are widely hailed as successes. “When we made changes in the culture, we got parents invested in the schools, and those two schools became national stories. So if they can become national stories, why can’t every school become a national story?”
As far as Boston’s Olympic bid is concerned, Walsh has moved from skeptic to full-throated cheerleader, while acknowledging that not all the pieces are yet in place.
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“Right now, [Boston 2024] has to go out and raise a tremendous amount of money, and they’re going to do that. We’re going to make sure there is a strong public process. I think we’re in a strong position.”
Venturing where some mayors have been reluctant to tread, Walsh declared in his speech that he wants to begin a public conversation about race. He said he developed a heightened awareness on the issue while campaigning for mayor, as he discovered that racial divisions he assumed were buried really weren’t.
Walsh hasn’t worked out what form this conversation will take, though the city won a Rockefeller Foundation grant to support it.
He said grappling with race is fundamental to being a world-class city.
“Our police have been having conversations with ministers about young black men and policing, but it has to go beyond that,” Walsh said. “People have to feel that when I speak about West Roxbury, it doesn’t mean I don’t care about Roxbury. This isn’t something we’re going to be afraid to talk about.”
Feeling like the leader of the city didn’t happen all at once on Inauguraton Day. There have been key moments along the way, he said, one being the morning Tom Menino passed away.
After he got the news, Walsh said, he sat in the office by himself for a while, at the big table overlooking Quincy Market, where Menino conducted much of his business.
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“I sat over there, where he always sat, and I thought to myself, ‘I’m the mayor.’ Not that Tom Menino was guiding me or advising me on a lot of things, but his presence was around. He was such a big figure.”
That said, Walsh’s somber mood lifted. In minutes, he was discussing how the Olympic planning process might help improve transportation in Dorchester. The milestones of taking over have been ticked off, one by one, and Walsh is a mayor more inclined to look forward than back.
Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Adrian_Walker.