Davis-Mullen has promises to keep

20 April 2001

Peggy Davis-Mullen offers a campaign of fire and brimstone, the kind that says we're going to hell unless we reform. But, if elected, does she really offer salvation?

Davis-Mullen, who three days ago announced her candidacy for mayor, is brash, articulate and unafraid to speak her mind. Political junkies are salivating over the anticipated clash between her and incumbent Tom Menino.

But get past the theatrics and one is left with a credible and experienced candidate. Davis-Mullen, who first entered political life as a School Committee member and has spent the last eight years on the council, deserves to be taken seriously. Underdog or not, she may win in November.

And if she does, one thing's for sure: on Inauguration Day, a lot of people will be looking for jobs.

Davis-Mullen is harsh in her assessment of the men - and few women - who surround the mayor. Public works, headed by Joseph Casazza since the days of Mayor Kevin White, "needs new leadership," she says. She derides Thomas Payzant, Boston's superintendent of schools, as a "bureaucrat" who's afraid to rock the boat.

Indeed, says Davis-Mullen, all of those who serve in Menino's cabinet can expect their jobs to be at risk. Should she win, don't look for a milquetoast transition.

And then what?

Underlying Davis-Mullen's attack on Menino is a strong whiff of "us vs. them."

"I'd build a city for residents, not for visitors," she says.

She paints Menino as the imperial mayor, a man who has over the years become increasingly removed from the day-to-day lives of the city's residents and more beholden to Boston's business community.

That means that under Davis-Mullen, virtually every major planned real estate development in Boston would either stop or be changed dramatically. She questions whether the convention center should proceed at all, citing its cost, poor transportation and uncertainties about national demand for new convention space. A better approach, she argues, might be to expand the Hynes Convention Center in the Back Bay.

Similarly, she is uncomfortable with the direction of development of the waterfront. Current plans put buildings too close to the water, she says. They're too tall, too commercial, and they just don't fit into her vision of building, as she puts it, with "reverence and respect for the city."

And she flat-out opposes a new ballpark in the Fenway, saying that the 10,000-seat expansion is akin to trying to fit a "size 10 foot into a size 5 shoe." If that means the Red Sox leave Boston, she says, so be it.

Real estate developers won't be the only ones who are unhappy with a Mayor Davis-Mullen.

Davis-Mullen objects to Menino's focus on tourism as a key means of growing the local economy; that's one of the reasons she opposes the convention center and a new Fenway Park. At the same time, she argues that Boston has reached its limit on institutional expansion, meaning that health care and education - two key employers - would need to look outside the city for growth.

Davis-Mullen says she is not anti-business - although many in the business community would regard her ideas as just that. Instead, she says, she is pro-neighborhood.

She wants to build new schools, lots of them, and add in a full- day K-1 program. Her hope is that every child can walk to school and she wants the buildings to become more like community centers, available from early in the morning until late in the evening.

Her prescription for the recent escalation of housing costs is for Boston to increase sharply the money it spends on subsidized housing while at the same time pressing hard for new market-rate construction.

She also hopes to expand greatly the Public Works Department. She criticizes Menino for shrinking the size of the department by what she says is more than 100 employees and promises to boost salaries as well - not only for them, but also for all city employees.

The problem with Davis-Mullen's approach is that she tries to offer all things to all people. Firefighters want more money? She'll give it to them. Don't like a building going up in your neighborhood? She'll stop it.

In reality, she can't do both. She can't create new housing while at the same time acceding to residents' wishes that nothing new be built in their neighborhoods. She can't build new schools without money (new federal and state aid are unlikely), yet her opposition to large new developments largely forecloses significant increases in the city's tax base.

That's the flaw with the "us vs. them" dichotomy. Do that and you end up with a city like Detroit: no us, no them, no nobody.

Of course, this is a campaign, a time when rhetoric is strong and promises are easily made. Menino, two terms into the daily balancing act of wants vs. means, can no longer wish such hard decisions away. Should Davis-Mullen step into his shoes in January, she too will find that salvation doesn't come easy.