City
Councilor and mayoral candidate John Connolly wants entrepreneurs’ vote.
In order to help more Bostonians launch and grow their own business, Connolly is calling for an entrepreneurship center in Roxbury.
“Although Boston has one of the most innovative economies in the world, there are too many Bostonians who don’t have opportunities to take part in it,” Connolly said in press release. “We need new ideas to help people find work and reduce inequality.
“An entrepreneurship center in Roxbury would help connect more Bostonians to business and economic opportunity.”
Joined by a host of Boston business leaders and entrepreneurs, Connolly held at a press conference Thursday in Roxbury’s John Eliot Square.
The Roxbury Entrepreneurship Center would be developed through a public-private partnership, Connolly said during the press conference. As a pilot program, Roxbury would be the center of — what Connolly hopes will be — many entrepreneurship centers in neighborhoods across Boston.
This most recent announcement came on the heels of a plan Connolly unveiled earlier this month, outlining steps to support businesses owned by women and people of color.
“We shouldn’t limit innovation to a single district,” Connolly said, “and we shouldn’t accept a status quo in which neighborhoods are excluded from our city’s economic progress.”
In Roxbury, specifically, the mayoral hopeful plans to identify city-owned property close to public transportation that would provide affordable space for the proposed entrepreneurship center, which will include:
- Incubator and office space;
- A portal for acces to capital and supplier networks;
- Mentorship, training, and networking opportunities; and
- Industrial co-working space
Connolly’s Roxbury Entrepreneurship Center could be part of a larger strategy. He is (at the moment) in control of the education issue in the mayoral race. Naturally, he is looking to make this part of a larger platform, including crime prevention and minority opportunity.
Roxbury is one of Boston’s more diverse and crime-stricken neighborhoods. So, while an entrepreneurship center taps into the heart of the Boston’s innovated spirit, Connolly’s plan could also earn him support from potential voters of color — a demographic also targeted by Walsh– and from those with hopes the next mayor will focus on crime reduction.
