When I decided to run for Mayor, I knew that it would be an opportunity to tell the truth about how City Hall works – or doesn’t.

I’m writing today, on the eve of my vote on a $2.45 billion budget, to tell you an uncomfortable truth: Boston’s budget process is an embarrassment.

The Budget Problem

It is a process designed by insiders, for insiders – made for preserving the status quo. It ensures that Tom Menino stays in control, and that we make only baby step progress on our most pressing problems.

For a city to thrive and grow it needs an economic development and planning strategy that is focused on the future, that seeks out innovative ideas – and acts on them. And as the old proverb goes: “Without a vision, the people perish.”

The planning process in Boston is not working – and it is not working because there is no long-term vision coming from City Hall.

Internal squabbling, a lack of new ideas and stale leadership are choking the city’s development.

Let’s look at just some of what is happening in Boston: