Boston Mayor Marty Walsh condemned on Tuesday an act of vandalism targeting a monument to Puerto Rican veterans over the Memorial Day weekend.
“This is a site I visit every single year,” Walsh said, noting that the Boston Police Department is investigating the incident. Action will be taken, the mayor said, “to make sure that [the monument] is fully restored and we never stop honoring veterans of all kinds in our city.”
Authorities believe that vandals knocked over a stone pillar and threw the Puerto Rican flag to the ground on Saturday night.
During a wide-ranging news conference, Walsh also highlighted the work done by the Boston Hope Medical Center, a 1,000-bed field hospital set up in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, to stop the spread of COVID-19.
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The field hospital will be closing, at least temporarily, once all remaining patients are safely discharged, Walsh said. The facility will remain available for use throughout the summer if needed.
“Boston Hope was and is a great Boston story,” Walsh said, adding that the hospital was set up in just one week in April, when there was great uncertainty about how fast and how widely coronavirus had already spread in the city and the commonwealth.
Walsh said the hospital provided care to about 700 COVID-19 patients.
“I want to thank especially the staff, who worked every day tirelessly and cheerfully to not only provide care but to provide compassion to people facing a very frightening illness,” the mayor said. “Of all the events that have happened at the convention center since the beginning, Boston Hope is the most significant even that ever occurred at the Convention Center.”
As Massachusetts continues a phased re-opening, Walsh is promoting a number of city resources for small businesses, including a new $6 million "Re-Open Boston" fund to help businesses with fewer than 15 employees purchase necessary personal protective equipment and implement social distancing measures to comply with the coronavirus regulations.
“I hear from small business owners all the time about their struggles and their needs, and we’ve heard it from day one of this crisis,” Walsh said. “We know how tough the situation is and how many businesses have their futures hanging in the balance.”
Walsh said his administration has allocated more than $7 million toward a city-funded small business relief program, and has already awarded more than half that amount.
The rate of COVID-19 infections and deaths continues to drop in Boston, as it does statewide. More than six hundred individuals have died from COVID-19 in Boston alone and more than 6,300 statewide, according to the most recent data available.
Asked whether he expects students to return to Boston colleges and universities this fall, Walsh said he hoped so but that there are still “a lot of questions” about how that might work.
Meanwhile, the mayor reiterated the need for residents to continue practicing physical distancing and wearing masks.
"I certainly understand it’s not easy, it hasn’t been easy for the least three months," he said. "But it’s not the time to let up. It’s the time for us to continue to make sure we’re vigilant and we take care of our own health and the health of those around us."
