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November 4, 2004

The new Boston

Winds of change are blowing in Boston. Pessimists will insist that nothing much has changed. However, the facts refute the justification for pessimism.

Boston has always had a strong reputation for a city of its size because it is the undisputed major locus of higher education. Now as the home of the world champion Red Sox and New England Patriots Boston has to be considered to be a city of considerable importance even to those who are unimpressed by its academic achievements.

Two other recent events have added to Boston’s luster. The successful organization of the National Democratic Convention, the first time such a challenge was accepted by Boston, gives the city world-class status. The completion of the Convention Center, which has been acclaimed by architects as of extraordinary good design, prepares Boston to be the site of very large commercial and industrial meetings.

These changes have influenced Bostonians to think of the city as less parochial. Boston is still a city of neighborhoods and strong ethnic identity, but the concept of racial and ethnic diversity is beginning to take hold. That is a good thing because the African American, Latino and Asian populations became the majority group for the first time in the 2000 Census, and the size of the group has been growing.

Despite the world championships in baseball and football, politics remains the game of choice for most Bostonians. Changes in the way that game is played really establish the extent to which Boston is coming of age. Blacks, Latinos, progressive whites and Asians are now coalescing to change the political landscape.

The first indication that change was in the air was the election of Tom Menino as mayor, the first Italian-American to hold that post. After the Irish political colossus evicted the Yankees from City Hall it seemed for decades that Gaelic ancestry was a primary qualification to hold that office. The extraordinary vision and achievements of Menino certainly established that competence should trump ethnicity.

Last fall Felix Arroyo became the first candidate of color to be elected to one of the four at-large seats on the Boston City Council. Arroyo surprised the pundits when he climbed from the fifth place in the preliminary election to finish second, only 1,702 votes behind council president Michael Flaherty. In his climb to second place, Arroyo leaped over Maura Hennigan and Steve Murphy, two perennial Boston politicians.

Political pundits tended to treat Arroyo’s achievement as an aberration. Few perceived then that a real sea change was underway. However, the election of Andrea Cabral a year later as Suffolk County Sheriff really established that Boston politics had changed.

There was little doubt in the thinking voter’s mind that Cabral was the quality in the race. She had already demonstrated her administrative competence by establishing a tone of professionalism in the Suffolk County Sheriff’s office that had fallen victim to cronyism.

Cabral won 61 percent of the Boston vote. Out of 5,976 votes cast in West Roxbury, a middle-class predominantly Irish community, Murphy won by only 70 votes. Now even the pundits understand that the political landscape has indeed changed.

The challenge for African American and Latino leadership is to assure that their communities are prepared to benefit from the change in racial attitudes.

 

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