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EDITORIAL
Op-Ed; For good reason, Hub impresses Dems
THOMAS M. KEANE JR.

11/15/2002
Boston Herald
All Editions
031
(Copyright 2002)

Boston stands to gain a lot from hosting the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Democrats stand to gain even more.

A year ago Mayor Thomas Menino began what seemed a lonely quest to persuade Democrats to please come to Boston. He was often ignored, more frequently derided. "It's not our turn to shine," said one pundit in June. Another, in August, described Menino's quest as "pretty sad." The reasons Bostonians could give you for why the Democratic National Committee should not come were endless. The Big Dig wouldn't be finished. Not enough hotels. The city was bigoted. Menino's garbled speech would embarrass.

So who's right? The DNC or the Bostonians?

I'm with the DNC on this one.

Placed on the national stage, Boston has an extraordinary story to tell - and the story, fundamentally, is that Democrats can get it right.

For Boston is a modern-day, urban success.

Thirty years ago, it didn't look possible. Crime was high. The city was in the agonizing throes of the busing crisis, a predicament brought about by its own racism. The middle class was fleeing. Like a deflating balloon, Boston looked like it would collapse.

Yet today it thrives. The signal of that success has been a precipitous drop in crime. First under Commissioner William Bratton and then Paul Evans, the city invented a new model of public safety, combining community policing, zero tolerance and community outreach. It upended the traditional view of police as a paramilitary force and instead turned cops into social workers. And unlike New York - also on the short list for the convention - Boston managed its miracle without fanning racial discord.

In fact, the opposite occurred. Public safety was cast as a communitywide concern. The Black Ministerial Alliance and the Ten- Point Coalition worked side-by-side with police. And the new relationships began to filter through the city's entire culture. Neighborhoods homogeneous, tribal and unfriendly to outsiders became markedly more diverse. Overt hostility largely disappeared, replaced by a remarkable degree of civility.

Boston was once epitomized by a shocking, Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph. It showed white youths outside City Hall, one assaulting a black businessman with an American flag. Today it is better epitomized by that same businessman - Ted Landsmark - who is serving as president of the Boston Architectural Center, one of the nation's oldest architectural schools and a key creative font for Boston's physical revival.

And that physical revival has been startling.

To be sure, Boston has always had its picturesque places: Swan Boats in the Public Garden's lagoon, cobblestone streets on Beacon Hill and historic Faneuil Hill. But the city is much more than some museum frozen in time.

By the time the convention comes to town, the $35 million renovation of the Opera House should be complete, part of an effort to restore Boston's once-moribund theater district. Blue Hill Avenue, a burned-out shell after riots in the 1960s, is now a lively mix of retail and residents. Washington Street, from downtown to Dudley Square, has been transformed into the city's most exciting new urban neighborhood. Mission Main, just a decade ago a center for the New England drug trade, has been rebuilt, emerging as safe, mixed-income community.

Indeed, tour any of Boston's largely residential neighborhoods - from the South End to Hyde Park - and the changes are remarkable. Streets look better, parks are everywhere, trees line sidewalks and business districts are bustling. And because of all of this, the historic migration out of the city has reversed.

And then, of course, there's the Big Dig and the soaring symbol of the new Boston: the Zakim Bridge.

The national Democratic Party, still in shock from the midterm elections, needs some concrete way to show voters that good government can work. By its example, Boston can deliver that message. Attention to detail, a focus on community concerns and a politics of collaboration, not division - those are the elements.

This is not to say that Boston still doesn't have its problems. Indeed, on the day that Menino was announcing the convention, tenants and landlords were in a pitched battle in City Council chambers over the mayor's ill-advised rent-control proposal - just the kind of us-vs.-them politics that could persuade people to vote GOP.

Still, Boston's successes are far more frequent than its failures. To other cities, it has become a model to emulate. Perhaps skeptical Bostonians should concede the point: We really are OK.

Tom Keane can be reached at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.