City politics

1999 in review

by Ben Geman

Politics didn't die in Boston in 1999. But it could have. Consider the potential death blows. No mayor's race. The letdown after 1998's tight -- if banal -- governor's race, and the overcrowded scramble to fill Joe Kennedy's Eighth District seat in Congress. Plus, the kind of hot economy that serves to lessen the need for City Hall (see "It's the Economy, Stupid"). After all, if you can buy an SUV, you care little about potholes.

But city-council elections, turnover and scandal at City Hall, and the mayor's struggles kept politics alive -- and made 1999 worth watching.

Elections

At-large city councilor Albert "Dapper" O'Neil's long reign as City Hall's alpha reactionary ended in 1999. The pol who beat him, Mike Flaherty, ran a solid citywide race from his South Boston home, assembling support from Jimmy Kelly loyalists in South Boston and city progressives who saw the 30-year-old as the best chance to plant a liberal in the top four.

A tectonic shift? The left stirring? Maybe. It proves a liberal can win a citywide race, as long as that liberal is white and from a high-voting neighborhood like South Boston or West Roxbury. Flaherty will learn that building a coalition is easier than keeping it together. So will Michael Ross, who won the race for the District Eight seat being vacated by incumbent Tom Keane. Ross, a former Menino aide who out-hustled his opponents to win, will face questions about his ties to City Hall just as Flaherty faces questions about Kelly.

The most interesting new face on the council is not so new at all. Left-of-center observers hope long-time activist Chuck Turner will pump up progressive politics with his blast-from-the-past victory in the race for the Roxbury council seat being vacated by Gareth Saunders.

Turner's district aside, Menino -- who made an absurd claim of neutrality in the elections -- fared okay in the council races. Ross is a likely ally, the mayor helped Flaherty behind the scenes, and Peggy Davis-Mullen's distant third-place finish erodes her clout as chief Menino-basher. (Though Davis-Mullen's recently announced move to West Roxbury might have an interesting impact on future elections.) But Turner, who's already been whacking the mayor, is not who Menino wanted representing Roxbury on the council.

Scandal

The Menino administration's biggest scandal occurred in 1999 -- and it stalled one of the mayor's top priorities (affordable housing) while serving one of his needs (he was able to fire a powerful foe).

In October, the Globe revealed that Matt O'Neil, the $91,000-per-year chief-of-staff of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), had used a city program for affordable-home sales to land a sweet waterfront condominium at bargain prices. Exit Matt O'Neil from the city payroll. When it became apparent that BRA director Tom O'Brien -- who had a lousy relationship with Menino but was widely respected by developers -- had signed off on the deal, Menino ousted him.

Meanwhile, in the elections department, both elections commissioner Abe Hantout and department supervisor Vincent Cawley left under pressure. Cawley allegedly had used department machines and workers for his private election business on city time; Hantout was said to have used department workers to install carpet in his home.

Schools

This year saw Menino officials do away with race as a factor in the city's school-assignment policy. The school committee's decision probably would have been made for the city anyway -- increasingly, the courts are rolling back integration programs. In a similar vein, Menino said he'd seek a return to neighborhood schools and announced plans for several new schools.

Opponents of the new assignment plan fear that schools will end up resegregated, turning back the clock on the integration plan required by the courts 25 years ago and leaving minority neighborhoods with less access to good schools. Perhaps wanting to see no evil, Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr., who mandated the school-busing plan that divided the city in the mid 1970s and remained scapegoat number one for the anti-busing crowd, died this year at age 79.

Race

The decline of diversity programs in Boston went beyond the schools. Earlier this month, Police Commissioner Paul Evans said he would not challenge a Suffolk Superior Court decision that will end consideration of race in civil-service promotions policy. That limits the department's ability to make the ranks better reflect the city's racial make-up.

The decision came in a year when evidence of racism in the police department and elsewhere in the city continued to surface. In April, a black lieutenant found a noose hanging from his motorcycle. And a federal Department of Housing and Urban Development report on the Boston Housing Authority found persistent racial incidents at BHA developments. The report, though, showed progress at the authority since 1996.

The HUD report apparently smoothed relations between Menino and HUD secretary Andrew Cuomo. An earlier study released in February faulted the BHA for its failure to respond to racial intimidation and assaults at South Boston and Charlestown developments in the early and mid 1990s. That report -- which didn't take into account the authority's efforts over the past three years under BHA head Sandra Henriquez -- had apparently enraged Menino, who wasn't warned about its scathing findings before it was released to the press.

Housing

Menino was criticized for moving slowly -- or just sideways -- on the city's pledges regarding new housing and other programs to temper the city's outrageous market. The irony is that Menino took more heat for this in 1999 than he did for the troubled school system. City Hall, of course, can effect more change in city schools than it can in rents and home prices. Nevertheless, the Menino administration has stumbled forward on housing. The mayor has worked with community groups to preserve affordability at some sites and has announced new rental and sale units for low- and moderate-income residents. And after a debate that became a flash point between factions that want more regulation and those who favor a market-driven approach, the city council passed a Menino bill that adds protections for some low-income and elderly renters when their buildings are targeted for condominium conversion.