If Marty (Martin J.) Walsh wins the final next month to become Boston’s mayor, he won’t do it by being a drama queen or BS artist. As always, he was candid, serious and detailed on today’s Left Ahead show.
We only had a half hour. That’s plenty for many guests and topics, but his platform is very broad and deep. I add the link here in case you have not checked it.
walshblsIn what seemed like a stereotyper’s delight, the Marty Walsh v. John Connolly final seemed to be shaping up clearly. Both are Irish-American progressives and lifelong Bostonians. The former has more of a claim on Irish, as he is a first-generation American who started in labor, becoming a union leader and the latter is very Boston coming from a political family, graduating from Harvard and adding a law degree. Surely, it would be the battle of the work boots against the tassel loafers.
Fortunately, with a wee diversion for competing outside-money sniping, the contest has so far been more about issues. The two have not let it degrade into class warfare.
Same But Different
Walsh is very detail-oriented, including analyzing how he and his opponent differ. While they favor many of the same positions (marriage equality and a drive to reduce HS dropout rates, for examples), Walsh thinks it very important that he actually voted on the issues. As a state Rep for 16 years, he helped pass or defeat laws affecting education, marriage and more.
He discussed education at length, a big topic for both. He believes his proposals are more specific and more realizable. Walsh does not care for generalities. For one simple example, he decries the terrible condition of many of the BPS buildings. He plans a 10-year, $1 billion overhaul or replacement program. He described how it would be funded largely through an existing state program that provides 69% or more of the rehab or build-new money. It already exists; Boston has not taken much advantage of it. It would mean new or rebuilt schools without new taxes.
We did hit on a few of the more sensational issues, such as contract negotiations with unions. Another stereotype of Walsh was that as former, long-time head of Boston Building Trades (while as state Rep), he would be in thrall to unions. He was very plain how that wasn’t going to be the case.
The next mayor will likely have to deal with fallout and probable renegotiation of the patrolman’s contract arbitration award, other unions seeking similar bumps, and discussions with the teachers’ union for such issues as longer school days. You can listen in below as he speaks of having sat on both sides of the table and what he’d bring to the process. Specifically, he says he’d lay his cards on the table and say up front what was impossible and unlikely.
Bigger Visions
I opened the show with a discussion of my surprise at how high-tech his platform is. Along with and enabling that transparency and accountability, come the communications and computers. He proposes a concept through implementation tracking across everything from constituent services to construction projects. The money and other resources, the targets and progress — the works — would be online.
Walsh says this attitude was a result of his own dealings as a legislator and a mayoral candidate. For example, when he wanted to research BPS figures, he was frustrated not to be able just to find it. He often had to call or visit City Hall or Court Street. Likewise, as mayor, he would see that citizens would pay real estate taxes online as they can elsewhere.
More fundamentally, he showed his progressive bent speaking of institutional racism in Boston. He cited neighborhoods where people were afraid to walk down their own streets at night and the terrific disparity in HS graduation rates for black and Latino students in contrast to white ones. He finds those drivers to ensure both improved schools and more jobs.
His other big ideas include tens of thousands of new housing units, and matching new industries. He wants affordable housing and to bring jobs to where residents live. His vision would provide affordable units and minimize gentrification, while letting neighborhoods maintain their identities.
Let it not be said Walsh is not ambitious for Boston.
Listen in for the details.
Next Tuesday, Oct. 15th, the other finalist for mayor, John Connolly, will be on the show at 2:30 PM Eastern.
if he’s so detail oriented, surely Walsh knows that it has been possible to pay Boston real estate taxes on-line for years. Haven’t gotten to listen to the whole interview, so I must have missed something.
Yeah, that’s a little snippy but a real, if minor point. He was going for the concept here — City Hall should make as many mundane tasks, whether research or payments, as easy as possible for residents.
This is a risk of live chats. We picked two examples of things that should be easy and online. The other was paying parking tickets and he admitted he was not sure whether that was possible online yet.
Yes, accuracy would have been good. He was, however, responding to my questions and not using his campaign lit.
—Mike
If you haven’t done it yet, do look at his platform. His specifics and concepts are all there and give a better sense of what he wants to do.
I noted that in his conversations in part because in my initial scan of the 12 preliminary candidates’ sites, I was not particularly impressed by his or most others. Now that he and Connolly have fleshed out their offerings, there’s a lot more content, both conceptual and specific.
there is something weird about the formatting that makes it impossible for me to edit it. Any chance you can strip out the weird formatting? You might have to re-post it.
I commiserate. This WP install doesn’t work well on any of my current browsers.
I’d complained before and have been waiting the promised comments or fixers from your web overlord.
If I save any HTML in a diary and use Visual, I can’t then see or edit in text. Yet, I use three other current versions of WP on my other blogs, all without problems.
I can email the code to you separately.