Kevin White and the Importance of Leadership

Kevin White died Friday.  I am not old enough to remember his time as mayor, but over the past few days I have been reading about him and about the city of Boston.  I particularly enjoyed Brian McGrory ‘s column in the Globe.

White was major for 16 years, from 1968 to 1984.  A difficult time in history, to be sure.  But something else struck me about his time as mayor, and it’s the physical changes the city went though during that period.

Imagine Boston without Fanuel Hall marketplace.  Seems like it’s always been there, right?  No, Kevin White built the place.  The Four Seasons Hotel across the street from the Public Garden?  That used to be a McDonald’s.

Boston is a tourist mecca now.  But it wasn’t always that way.  But White worked hard at it, and he was not dealt an easy hand.  When he was elected, Boston’s politics were disjointed and polarized.

Sound familiar?

I think so.  It made me think about my own town, and how people see it the way it is today.  You don’t hear many people expressing a vision the way White did in Boston — and then execute it.

Like Boston in the middle of last century, Billerica has many areas that can be vastly improved.  White (along with two mayors before him, as McGrory explains), worked hard to turn blighted areas into useful, beautiful places.

Billerica can do that, too.  But we can can’t do it without leadership.  Who will step forward to be our Kevin White?  Who has the wisdom, the influence, and the guts?

MBTA Budget Plan Working to Perfection

A few days ago I predicted the the MBTA would enact neither of its two scorched-earth budget plans.  They are using those plans to scare riders into thinking they might lose service unless the T gets more money from the state.  I outlined this devious plan as follows:

1. In the upcoming fiscal year, costs cannot be covered with anticipated revenue and/or regular-sized budget cuts.
2. Pick a bread-and-butter service or other service that taxpayers are emotionally tied to (e.g. teacher positions, firemen, police, library) and write a budget that slashes it.
3. Announce your plan.
4. Give constituents plenty of time, space, and opportunity to unite, assemble, and express anger.
5. Plenty of media coverage follows, gaining the sympathy of observers.
6. Ask for more money.
7. Panicked constituents fork over the cash, averting disaster.

I presumed that ordinary T customers would deluge their representation on Beacon Hill, begging for more cash for the T.  But I never imagined that one of state’s mightiest pols would lend a hand.  Today the Globe reported that the mayor of Boston wrote a letter to Massachusetts leadership asking to raise the gas tax.  Step #6 in the plan could not be going better.  Can you picture the high-fiving yelps of joy in the T corner offices this morning?

Also from the Globe story:

Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo noted the letter’s receipt but otherwise declined to comment.

Patrick said recently that the state transportation system needs a permanent financing fix, though he has no immediate plan; Murray and DeLeo have said they will wait until MBTA public hearings conclude in March to weigh in.

In other words, “Once the T creates enough angry constituents in all the neighborhoods it serves [Step#4], there should be enough momentum to force a higher gas tax.”  This is related to a political lesson I learned early in my own career in the public sector: Don’t do anything until the people ask for it.

Of course, the Globe story itself (front page, above the fold) contributes nicely to Step #5.  Well done, MBTA!