71 Facts About Marty Walsh

Martin Joseph Walsh was born on April 10,1967 and is an American politician and union official who served as the mayor of Boston from 2014 to 2021 and as the 29th United States secretary of labor from 2021 to 2023.

Marty Walsh was born in Dorchester, Boston, to John Marty Walsh, an Irish American originally from Callowfeenish, a townland near Carna, County Galway, and Mary, from Rosmuc.

Marty Walsh grew up in the Savin Hill area of Boston's Dorchester neighborhood.

Marty Walsh was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma at age 7, forcing him to miss most of second and third grade and repeat fifth grade.

Marty Walsh went to high school at The Newman School.

Marty Walsh later took night classes as an adult, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in social science from the Woods College of Advancing Studies at Boston College in 2009.

Marty Walsh was elected secretary-treasurer and general agent of the Boston Metropolitan District Building Trades Council, a union umbrella group, in the fall of 2010.

In 2011, Marty Walsh was named head of Boston Building Trades.

Marty Walsh resigned in 2013 when he announced he was running for mayor.

Marty Walsh was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1997.

Marty Walsh represented the 13th district of Suffolk County, which includes Dorchester and one precinct in Quincy.

Marty Walsh was the chairman of the Committee on Ethics, and served as a co-chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party Labor Caucus.

Marty Walsh served as chair of the House Homeland Security and Federal Affairs Committee, as well as the chair of the House Committee on Ethics.

Marty Walsh served as vice chair of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, as well as the vice chair of the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government.

On February 13,2013, Marty Walsh introduced a bill to have The Modern Lovers song "Roadrunner" be named the official rock song of Massachusetts.

Marty Walsh resigned the Trades Council position in April 2013 after formally announcing his bid for mayor.

Marty Walsh campaigned on the promise to champion a 24-hour Boston, including extending the hours of operation of the "T" into the night.

The MBTA answers to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which is a state and not city agency, but Marty Walsh campaigned on the promise to extend MBTA service thanks to his tenure in the state house.

In July 2017, Marty Walsh announced he would seek a second term in the 2017 mayoral election.

Marty Walsh was sworn in for his second term on January 1,2018; then-former vice-president Joe Biden presided at the ceremony.

Marty Walsh hired Eugene O'Flaherty as the city's corporation counsel.

Marty Walsh reappointed a number of cabinet chiefs from his predecessor, Tom Menino's, administration.

In December 2020, after it was advanced by a vote of the Boston City Council, Marty Walsh announced that the city would become the first major United States city to put "affirmatively furthering fair housing" requirements into its zoning code.

In January 2021, the Boston Zoning Commission unanimously voted to add them to the city's zoning code, and Marty Walsh signed it into effect that month.

Marty Walsh cycled through school superintendents, depriving the system of needed stability.

Marty Walsh showed little appetite for tough decisions on education, such as consolidating schools in a system with huge overcapacity or reducing the bloated school transportation budget.

Towards the end of 2014, Marty Walsh proposed and negotiated a 40-minute extension to the school day of Boston Public Schools, which was implemented.

In 2015, Marty Walsh launched the Climate Ready Boston initiative to prepare Boston for the effects of climate change.

Marty Walsh served in the leadership of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.

In 2017, Marty Walsh spoke in opposition to President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.

In 2016, Marty Walsh's administration opposed a proposed plastic bag ban that was debated by the Boston City Council in 2016.

However, in December 2017, Marty Walsh signed into law a plastic bag ban authored by City Councilors Michelle Wu and Matt O'Malley.

On October 8,2014, Marty Walsh, citing the advisement of various City departments, agencies and leaders, and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, ordered the closure of the Long Island Bridge due to disrepair and the evacuation of the programs for the homeless located on Long Island.

Later that year, Marty Walsh unveiled plans to renovate a facility to house hundreds of homeless people displaced due to the closure of the Long Island Bridge.

In November 2019, Marty Walsh announced that the city had obtained a $4.7 million grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development that would go towards housing homeless youth.

In March 2020, Marty Walsh announced that the city had secured hundreds in additional interim bed capacity to house homeless.

In October 2014, Marty Walsh had signed a letter stating that he would sign the Host City Contract without reservation; however, in July 2015, he stated that he was not comfortable signing the financial guarantee in its current form at that time.

In 2018, Walsh appointed William G Gross as commissioner, making Gross the first African American individual to hold the position.

In January 2021, upon Gross' retirement, Marty Walsh made Dennis White, African American, the new commissioner of the Boston Police Department.

Days after appointing White, Marty Walsh suspended him pending an investigation into allegations of domestic violence.

Marty Walsh allotted $2 million of the 2019 city budget to fund a police body camera program.

In June 2020, Marty Walsh created the Boston Police Reform Taskforce.

In January 2021, Marty Walsh vetoed an ordinance that would have limited the use of tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets by the Boston Police Department, calling into question the "practicality and potential consequences" of the proposals in the ordinance.

Marty Walsh argued that it infringed on the authority of the police commissioner.

In 2014, Marty Walsh vetoed an ordinance by the Boston City Council to create a commission on Black men and boys, claiming that he did so because such a commission would, "duplicate and complicate efforts that my administration is already engaged in", and that the ordinance was written in such a way that he believed it would violate the city charter.

In June 2020, Marty Walsh declared racism to be a public health crisis.

That month, in an effort to address institutional racism, Marty Walsh announced he would create an "equity and inclusion cabinet" in his administration, launch a racial equity fund, and declared his intent to pursue a new zoning amendment aimed at addressing the issue of resident displacement.

On March 14,2020 Marty Walsh declared a municipal state of emergency regarding the pandemic.

Marty Walsh urged Bostonians to adhere to social distancing guidelines, and made efforts to limit public activity.

On March 16,2020, Marty Walsh announced the Boston Resiliency Fund, a city-led fundraising effort to support programs and charities serving those impacted by the pandemic.

Marty Walsh established the Boston Rental Relief Fund in April 2020, using $3 million of city funds.

Marty Walsh later added an additional $5 million in June 2020.

Marty Walsh canceled the 2020 edition of the Boston Marathon, after having first postponed it, due to pandemic concerns.

Marty Walsh worked with Councilor Ayanna Pressley on an ordinance requiring municipal trucks to have side-guards in order to protect cyclists.

In January 2015, Marty Walsh filed a lawsuit in an effort to stop a casino from being built in nearby Everett, Massachusetts.

Marty Walsh dropped his legal objections in January 2016, after striking a deal between the city of Boston and Wynn Resorts, who were behind the Everett casino project.

Marty Walsh was a prominent opponent of the legalization of recreational cannabis in Massachusetts ahead of the vote on 2016 Massachusetts Question 4.

Marty Walsh supported an ordinance in the city council which regulated short-term rental of housing units.

In July 2020, construction began on a remodel of City Hall Plaza, which Marty Walsh had been working planning on for years.

In 2016, Marty Walsh announced goals to increase minority participation in municipal contracts.

Marty Walsh resigned as mayor on March 22,2021, the same day that he was confirmed for his position in the Cabinet of Joe Biden.

On January 7,2021, Marty Walsh was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as Secretary of Labor.

Marty Walsh was the final department secretary of Biden's Cabinet to be confirmed.

Marty Walsh is the first Cabinet secretary to openly be in a twelve-step program for recovery from addiction.

Marty Walsh is the first former union leader to serve in the position in roughly 45 years.

Ben Penn of Bloomberg Law reported that, as labor secretary, Marty Walsh lobbied trade unions not to criticize the prospective appointment of David Weil, which helped to clear the path for Biden to nominate Weil to serve as the administrator of the Wage and Hour Division.

However, he argued that Marty Walsh disappointed the expectations that unionists had for his tenure, citing shortcomings of his tenure as well as direct actions such as his support of Biden's decision to allow congressional intervention in order to resolve the 2022 United States railroad labor dispute.

Marty Walsh rendered a resignation from the Department of Labor effective March 11,2023.

Marty Walsh was formally confirmed by the NHLPA's board of directors to hold that role on February 16,2023, and the Department of Labor announced that he would leave office as secretary of labor in mid-March.

Marty Walsh has been a season ticket holder of the NFL's New England Patriots since franchise owner Robert Kraft bought the team in 1994.

Marty Walsh speaks Irish and holds both American and Irish citizenship.