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Community Organizer Walczak Plans Boston Mayoral Bid

Community organizer Bill Walczak is the seventh person to announce a bid for Boston mayor. He said he wants to look at innovative ways to keep Boston growing across all neighborhoods.

The 58-year-old Walczak co-founded the Codman Square Health Center in the city's Dorchester section in 1975. He is president and co-founder of the Codman Academy Charter Public School and vice president at Shawmut Design and Construction.

"I'm running for mayor of Boston because I think it's the best job in the world," Walczak told WBUR. "I've spent my entire adult life working to try to make the city of Boston a better place and my neighborhood of Dorchester. Over that time, I've come to realize just how important the mayor is in terms of making sure that things get done — or, if things aren't working, that they don't get done."

Walczak said his CEO experience gives him the knowledge of how to build teams, how to work toward goals and achieve them and how to measure impact.

"We need to connect the complete success of what's going on in our downtown area to the neighborhoods," he added. "And make sure that the jobs that are being created are available for people in the neighborhoods and that we're able to build the entire city up at the same time."

Walczak, who has 36 years in the health care system, noted that education and health care are not looked at jointly, and he hoped to combine them "to make people both healthier and also give people opportunities to have successful lives and careers."

Mayor Thomas Menino announced last month that he would not seek a sixth term. The other candidates are Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley; City Councilors John R. Connolly and Rob Consalvo; state Rep. Martin Walsh; newspaper publisher Will Dorcena; and radio station co-founder Charles Clemons.

With reporting by the WBUR Newsroom and The Associated Press

Earlier Coverage:

This article was originally published on April 07, 2013.

This program aired on April 7, 2013. The audio for this program is not available.

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