First in a series

In the Summer issue of CommonWealth, with the Boston mayor’s race gearing up, James Aloisi suggested that Boston faced a “surfeit of candidates and a dearth of critical issues.” He went on to say, “the absence of urgent ‘life or death’ issues is a reflection both of Mayor Menino’s stable tenure, and the overall good health of the city.” It’s fine to praise the good works of the mayor, but it’s a disservice to gloss over the very real issues the city and its next mayor face.

In July, the Boston Globe editorialized that priorities for the next mayor should include eliminating: “[t]he bias against late-night commerce. A tendency among established leaders to keep the region’s innovation economy at arm’s length. Parking and square-footage requirements that add to high housing prices. A baroque liquor-licensing system that defeats would-be restaurateurs and keeps neighborhood business districts from thriving.” In its September endorsement of John Barros and John Connolly for the preliminary election, the Globe enlarged that list to things that matter more to Boston residents: increasing the pace of school reform; building more housing in the neighborhoods; and embracing a more innovative, entrepreneurial economy. While these are worthy goals for the next mayor’s agenda, the issues facing Boston are deeper than the scope of the Globe editorials, to say nothing of Aloisi’s dismissal of the idea that there are many critical issues at all.

Bostonians must now ask the two final candidates to provide detailed responses to serious issues the city faces. The Boston economy is prospering, much like it did in the 1980s. The overriding challenge is how that prosperity will be shared with all of Boston’s residents. With more than 36,000 Boston children living in poverty, the furthest thing from the minds of their parents is how late bars stay open. As Northeastern University’s Andy Sum and I wrote recently, the top 10 percent of Boston families obtained as much income before taxes as the bottom 75 percent of Boston families combined. Families at the 95th percentile earned nearly 40 times the income of those at the 5th percentile. With poverty at a 20-year high in Boston, the next mayor must concern himself with addressing inequality.

During the prosperous period of the 1980s, Mayor Ray Flynn put in place policies designed to address inequality, including linkage – a fee paid for downtown development that was widely credited with providing jobs and housing for many of Boston’s poorest citizens. A report by MIT professor Paul Osterman found that during the growth period of the late 1980s more people worked and poverty was lower in Boston than it had been in decades.

“The reality is,” CommonWealth’s Michael Jonas wrote recently, “that political leaders can set a tone and try to shape the direction a city goes in, but they are largely powerless over the bigger forces that determine whether a city is experiencing boom or bust.” He is half right. Yes, we live in a global economy that affects our fortunes in huge ways, but the challenge for the next mayor is articulating a vision of how, in Boston, choices can be made that share the prosperity to improve the lives of city residents.

In order for Boston to reach its potential, the next mayor must offer a road map out of the poverty and inequality maze by creating policies that lead Boston to become more equal, not less. Let me suggest 10 priorities for the next mayor when it comes to addressing issues of social and economic justice and including all Boston residents in the prosperity of the city. Some of these were addressed at the many forums held among the 12-candidate field during the preliminary election campaign. The two finalists must now clearly articulate an economic and social justice vision for all of Boston.

1. Improving the Boston public schools. Improving a system where more than one-half of all schools are considered underperforming (Level 3 and 4) is on everyone’s agenda. While many challenges await the next mayor and school superintendent, one critical area that has received far too little attention over the past two decades is vocational-technical education. Boston, despite being home to world-class hospitals, and educational and research facilities, has failed to provide quality vocational education for its students. The non-profit and corporate sectors in the city must step up to the plate and provide both the talent and resources to support our schools. Madison Park Technical Vocational High School is an underperforming level 3 high school. When compared to urban voc-tech schools like Worcester Technical High, a level 1 high school in which the city’s business community has invested to make a real difference in preparing students for a future, we have fallen far behind. The recent effort to link Roxbury Community College with Madison Park through RoxMAPP to improve student achievement doesn’t go far enough. Linking two underperforming institutions will not get students the skills they need to survive in the new economy. Roxbury Community College’s three-year graduation rate hovers at about 6.5 percent. A bolder approach would be to connect Madison Park to successful private universities and employers. The next mayor should commit to making college and career readiness his top priority and to creating by the end of his first term a world-class voc-tech system for the majority of high school students who will not be attending college.

2. Enforcement and expansion of the Boston Residents Jobs Policies (BRJP) and Boston Jobs and Living Wage Ordinance. The BRJP, in place since the 1980s, lacks significant enforcement, with Boston residents accounting for only about 35 percent of the workforce on construction sites while the policy requires that figure to be 50 percent. The Living Wage Ordinance, adopted in 1998, has proven to have a positive economic impact on low-income workers. These ordinances should be strengthened and expanded to apply not only to construction and contracts with city vendors but to permanent jobs in all projects receiving city approvals, or financial or tax support. The next mayor should pledge to expand enforcement of these requirements in his first term.

3. Modernize the linkage formula to build more affordable housing and train Boston residents for jobs in the knowledge-based economy. The linkage formula, which requires developers to pay into a trust fund used for the building of affordable housing and job training, is long overdue for revision. A new formula should include strict enforceable requirements beyond the Boston Residents Jobs Policies for construction and permanent jobs for Boston residents in every project. After nearly 30 years with a very successful linkage program, one of the most progressive in the nation, we need to reevaluate and adjust the fee structure to 21st century realities. Linkage did not “kill the goose that laid the golden egg,” and developers have adjusted quite well, building soaring towers and making millions. The city is desperately in need of additional affordable housing, and expansion of housing in every neighborhood should be leveraged from the development of luxury housing downtown to stem the tide of a Boston of rich and poor, with no middle class. Now is the time for developers to reach deeper to promote greater opportunity and equality in Boston for jobs, housing and training.

4. Transparency in providing tax breaks to corporations. The city has awarded significant tax breaks in recent years to companies, including Liberty Mutual, Fallon Companies, Vertex, Millennium Partners, the Boston Red Sox, and State Street Corp. Tax breaks should not be granted unless the benefits to Boston residents in terms of jobs and incomes are substantial, clearly articulated, and guaranteed. Liberty Mutual, which received more than $46 million in tax breaks, is now cutting the benefits of its employees while at the same time paying former CEO Edmund F. “Ted” Kelly $200 million over four years, and spending $4.5 million to renovate the office of new CEO David Long. Add the long-stalled Filene’s project, where tax breaks were offered after the project was finally underway, and the agreement struck with the Boston Red Sox (who we all certainly hope will go on to win another World Series) and you have to question whose interests are being represented in these deals.

5. Financial institution responsibility. Banks and other financial institutions should be required to reinvest city deposits and retirement funds at below market rates in housing and small businesses in Boston’s neighborhoods. The Boston City Council recently unanimously adopted an Invest in Boston ordinance proposed by Councilor Felix Arroyo, which was then vetoed by Mayor Menino. The next mayor should work with the City Council, reintroduce the ordinance, sign, and enforce its provisions.

6. Focus on the needs of both in-school and out of school youth. There are more than 12,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 that are not in school or at work. As Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies has documented, with youth employment at an all-time low, especially for youth of color, investing in jobs has both positive economic and social returns. Building upon Mayor Menino’s efforts to secure summer jobs for teens, the next mayor should pick up where he left off and call upon the hundreds of companies in the city that fail to give even a single kid an opportunity and the experiences that will reconnect these disconnected young people to Boston’s economy.

7. Respond to the growing violence in Boston neighborhoods. Since the April 15 terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon, there have been more than 145 shootings in Boston. New strategies and partnerships will be needed to stem the shootings and senseless violence that plague city neighborhoods on a daily basis. With the next mayor appointing a new police commissioner, considering a talented candidate of color to reflect the diversity of the majority-minority city should be a top priority. The next mayor needs a plan on day one for how to respond to the persistent violence in the city.

8. Deal with the issue of racial violence and hate crimes. The Boston Business Journal reported late last year that, in 2011, Boston had the second highest number of hate crimes of any US city, 206, with one-half based on race and nearly one-third on sexual orientation. While it is no doubt true that racially -motivated attacks have decreased since their height in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there remains a very real threat that the next mayor will both have to recognize and respond to. As the BBJ reported, “One could even say Boston is the hate crime capital of the country, at least on a per capita basis.” It is time for a renewed focus on the role of the police department’s Civil Rights Unit in order to elevate the issue to the priority it deserves.

9. Address the homelessness crisis. Homelessness in Boston is growing, with nearly 7,000 persons reported as homeless last year. The next mayor should have a plan to respond to this crisis. Have any of the candidates even mentioned homelessness?

10. Track our progress. Finally, the mayor should regularly issue an economic and social justice report card that monitors the progress in each of these areas important to Boston families. City residents have a right to know that their mayor is working to respond to the real challenges they face in a serious and meaningful way.

Over the final weeks of the mayoral contest Marty Walsh and John Connolly will be debating these and other issues. They both will have an opportunity to demonstrate their willingness to embrace new ideas and ways of doing business that lead to “one Boston.” The next leader of the city should be a mayor who deals with real issues and develops a vision and strategy that will benefit all of Boston’s residents.

Don Gillis is the former executive director of the Economic Development Industrial Corporation of Boston under Mayor Flynn. He is a Ph.D. candidate at Boston University and is writing a book about recent Boston history titled, Transformative Moments in Boston: 1980-2000.