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When Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh confirmed on Wednesday that General Electric is indeed relocating its global headquarters to Boston's Seaport, there were two words conspicuously missing from their joint press release: "Innovation District." You can see the press release right here.
The Seaport was officially designated as the Innovation District in 2010 by the late Thomas M. Menino, Boston's former mayor, as part of an initiative to develop 1,000 acres of land there, lure in companies and create new jobs. The fact that GE chose to locate itself there is a testament to Menino's legacy, but the Innovation District name seems to be fading away.
A few news reports about GE's big move this week referred the Seaport as the Innovation District, but Baker and Walsh made no effort to mention the name Menino bestowed upon it. For what it's worth, GE also didn't mention the Innovation District by name in its own press release, so the name itself likely wasn't a big part of its pitch to GE. (It's also fair to point out that we didn't call it the Innovation District yesterday.)
Boston's official website for the Innovation District also appears neglected. The site's latest blog post, about co-working spaces, was made in December 2013, just a month before Menino stepped down, and at least one part of it appears to be outdated. The associated Twitter and Facebook accounts haven't been updated for one year and two years, respectively.
When asked if Walsh still supports Menino's Innovation District initiative, spokeswoman Laura Oggeri responded, "Yes, he still supports it. The press release was about GE." She didn't elaborate further and didn't address a question about whether Walsh's office is still using the Innovation District name to describe the Seaport anymore.
One caveat: Walsh and Baker's press release does say that "bringing General Electric's operations to the Seaport District will cement the company as an anchor in the city's innovation industry." It seems to be that Walsh is pointing to the city's broader effort to develop innovation districts across the city, which is an important point to bring up here.
In September of last year, Walsh detailed his plan to turn other Boston neighborhoods into innovation districts, "building upon the success and lessons learned from the Seaport Innovation District," according to a city press release at the time. That appears to be the last time Walsh made mention of the Seaport as the Innovation District in a press release, but maybe that's because there won't be just one in the future.
Photo of Mayor Walsh by Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, (CC BY-ND 2.0).
