Globe columnist Adrian Walker welcomes the coming Boston mayoral campaign, the first open race for the city’s top job since Tom Menino took power 20 years ago. What’s more, he writes this morning, “the most important statement Menino made last week was that he had no intention of attempting to pick successor. Call me naive, but I believe he meant it,” writes Walker.
Adrian: I think you’re naive.
And one didn’t have to dig much harder than yesterday’s Herald for some early clues on that front.
“At this time I have no intentions at all to endorse anybody. I’m staying out of this race, at this time,” Menino told the Herald during a stop at an Easter egg hunt in Roslindale Square. “If somebody says derogatory things about the city, that will hurt the city, of course I’ll have to make up my mind.”
Now it seems highly unlikely that anyone seeking votes to be Boston’s next mayor would speak ill of the city they hope to lead. Mayoral candidates might, however, have the temerity and nerve to suggest a new path or to even criticize ways the city has been led under Menino’s watch. In the mayor’s mind, it appears that being critical of any aspect of his reign would be the same as saying “derogatory things about the city” — and that could void his carefully crafted pledge to stay out of the race “at this time.”
Praise, much of it deserved, has been heaped on Menino in the wake of his announcement that he’ll step down early next year after a record-breaking five terms as Boston’s mayor. He has been a steady leader for Boston, a prudent steward of its fiscal purse strings, and an unequivocal voice for inclusion in the increasingly polyglot precincts of the city he so clearly loves.
But he has also been a leader that brooked little dissent, was always worried about perceived challenges to his reign, and drained much of the life out of local politics. A city once known for freewheeling debates and lively political give-and-take went into virtual lockdown mode under his watch. With most of the city’s civic, business, and nonprofit leaders fearful of ever voicing reasoned disagreement with a Menino initiative, It became, like the Roslindale park where he appeared yesterday, a land blanketed with eggshells .
“Everybody got used to doing business this way,” Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham wrote yesterday. “There are employees at colleges and corporations all over this city who are paid handsome salaries because they have managed to stay on Menino’s good side. The amount of energy that goes into trying not to tick off the mayor could put Cape Wind out of business.”
All of which makes the prospects of an open race for mayor a particularly welcome development for the city. The race itself should be a chance for civic debate and dialogue to breathe free. And one hopes the ultimate winner might also bring a more open-door governing style to City Hall. A healthy airing of different opinions should be seen not as a threat to be squelched but as the fertile soil from which civic innovation emerges in a city riding the crest of the innovation economy.
Menino would do well to try to follow the lead of the last mayor to finish out his term while the race to succeed him went on. Kevin White didn’t feel compelled to weigh in anytime the 1983 mayoral race hinted at criticism of his tenure, a not infrequent occurrence in a campaign that centered on a pledge to cater to neighborhood needs following the undue downtown focus White was accused of having adopted.
White gracefully stayed out of the mix and let Boston move forward on its own terms, not his, the mark of a leader secure with his place in the city’s history.
–MICHAEL JONAS
BEACON HILL
The Massachusetts film tax credit: Hit or bomb? asks the Lowell Sun.
Lowell reps are out of favor in the House after backing Rep. John Rogers for Speaker in 2009, the Sun reports.
The Pioneer Institute’s Mary Connaughton, a former candidate for state auditor, presses the Legislature on spending transparency.
Tim Cahill won’t testify at the corruption trial of former Probation boss John O’Brien.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Gloucester and the private company that used to manage its municipal water system settle a dispute over a 2009 “boil water” incident, the Gloucester Times reports.
Emergency planning for Newton and other communities along the Boston Marathon route is well underway.
CASINOS
A new poll shows Boston residents fairly evenly divided on the whether they favor a casino in East Boston, with a narrow plurality in support. Casino expert Clyde Barrow says a citywide vote could be tough for proponents, as opponents to casinos tend to be more passionate and therefore likely to turn out to vote.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
The Armed Citizen Project seeks to give free shotguns to residents of Tucson’s most troubled neighborhoods, the Associated Press reports (via Wall Street Journal).
New York magazine pals around with Jack Abramoff, the disgraced former lobbyist come back to haunt Washington, by means of explaining in plain language how influence peddling works.
ELECTIONS
The Wall Street Journal checks in on the race for John Kerry’s seat, with commentary from the MassINC Polling Group.
Steve Murphy ponders escaping the Boston City Council by running for mayor, but worries that if he fails, it’ll ruin his plan to escape the Boston City Council by running for state Treasurer.
A Democratic pollster says the 2014 elections could portend ill for the GOP with voter frustration at politics in general and party leadership in specific threatening Republican incumbents through low turnout.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
A New York appeals court upholds a sales tax for online retailers, the New York Times reports.
The Fall River Office of Economic Development is losing about $100,000 from a federal block grant, part of more than $1 million in federal funds the city has lost in the last two fiscal years.
A new study shows online giving increased by 21 percent last year over 2011, but the report also shows the number of people who gave in response to an emailed solicitation dropped by 21 percent.
EDUCATION
Jeff Riley, the state-appointed receiver for the Lawrence public schools, is pushing for a new merit-based pay system for the city’s teachers that state Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester calls “revolutionary.” Last fall, CommonWealth looked at the big school reform effort underway in Lawrence.
The dropout rate at Salem High School dropped sharply since 2008, the Salem News reports.
HEALTH CARE
New state and federal mandates are increasing Worcester’s health care costs by 9 percent, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
TRANSPORTATION
The Globe rolls out the second of three installments of a devastating Spotlight Team report on the city’s taxi industry, where the exploitation by fleet owners of the largely immigrant drivers is likened to “urban sharecropping.” Here is yesterday’s opening piece.
The Berkshire Eagle wants Speaker Robert DeLeo to reconsider Gov. Deval Patrick’s transportation finance initiative.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The Cape Cod Times argues that backing away from solar power incentives is misguided.
The Wall Street Journal digs into the shifting economics of coal-fired electricity. The Journal cites a distressed sale that saw Dominion Resources dump its Brayton Point power plant in Somerset; CommonWealth’s previous coverage of that sale is here.
MEDIA
A legendary anonymous commenter on the Patriot Ledger site is calling it quits.
David Carr of the New York Times examines the state of journalism education by examining the hiring of Steve Coll as the new dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Keller@Large says to expect big things from the Red Sox this year. Based on what, we’re not sure. Over at The Weekly Standard, William Kristol compiles a conservative (as in ideology, not modest) list of odes to Opening Day.
