Timothy McCarthy

District 5: Hyde Park, Roslindale

 

At the City Council hearing on March 6, 2015, Councilor McCarthy did not ask any tough questions of Boston 2024, but was present and attentive.

 

On April 10, 2015, Councilor McCarthy’s Chief of Constituent Services told the JP Gazette that the councilor is still “seeking as much information” as possible and is “hearing all sides” before making a decision.

 

In an interview with Comcast Newsmakers on April 13, 2015, Councilor McCarthy said, “I’m very excited about the Olympics. I’m listening. We’re crawling—not exactly walking yet. I have to keep my mind open. I was assigned to the committee. I’ve been listening to the No Boston Olympics people as well as the Boston 2024 people trying to dig through all of the rhetoric, all of the information. There’s a lot going on….So I’m very interested as we continue the process, and I would say probably the next 7 or 9 months will be very important as Boston 2024 is taking in all of the questions and all of the information, and they’ll begin to spin it outward, telling us exactly what’s going to happen. So it’s going to be exciting.”

 

Councilor McCarthy did not respond to No Boston 2024’s request for his current position on April 20, 2015.

 

At the City Council hearing on May 18, 2015, Councilor McCarthy said that he was “excited” about the Olympics but “trying to keep [his] mind open.” He noted that he has received calls both for and against. He asked about the timetable for Recommendation #4 in Agenda 2020 (sustainability) and asked the Boston 2024 representatives to clear up people’s concerns about costs and future white elephants.

 

At the June 26, 2015 City Council hearing on Olympic venues and financing, Councilor McCarthy noted that the presentation was “certainly coming together.” He noted that “we stumbled out of the blocks a little bit,” seemingly conflating “Boston 2024” with the “City of Boston,” before then using the more appropriate “you” and saying that they are “starting to right the ship.” He asked about Boston 2024’s conversations with colleges and universities around Boston other than those where venues have already been announced. McCarthy spoke of “venue inaccuracies” that he has been hearing from both Boston 2024 and “No Boston 2024.” We have never spoken with him (He did not respond to our request for comment in April), and we only report venue information that has been made public. He said the “truth lies somewhere in between” what Boston 2024 and “No Boston 2024” are saying and asked Rich Davey what the “top five or six inaccuracies” are venues are. It was unclear to what exactly his question was referring.