Free Roxbury with free enterprise

From the files of Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe

Governor Charles Baker acted prudently in pulling the plug on a scheme to relocate the state Department of Transportation from its headquarters in bustling Park Plaza to a long-vacant Roxbury lot known as Parcel 3.

A view of Parcel 3, the long-vacant property at Tremont and Whittier streets in Roxbury
that years of government plans and proposals have not succeeded in bringing to life.

The half-baked plan, inherited from former Governor Deval Patrick, may have been well-intended; its goal was to revitalize a struggling neighborhood with a $350 million construction project and the influx of state employees. But the new administration concluded that the expense and upheaval couldn't be justified, especially in light of a $1.8 billion budget shortfall.

Halting an unrealistic top-down proposal was a no-brainer. The real challenge is to unleash the entrepreneurial energy to stimulate better ones — from the bottom up.

This wasn't the first failed attempt at a grand scheme to develop Parcel 3, which lies near the intersection of Tremont and Whittier streets. The Boston Police Department headquarters went up across the street in part to jump-start economic activity in the area.

As far back as 1985, then-Mayor Ray Flynn's administration argued that the investment in a new police headquarters would lure prospective builders and businesses as they realized that Roxbury was a sound investment.

A few years ago, former Mayor Thomas Menino's administration thought it had persuaded Partners HealthCare System, the state's biggest medical network, to establish its administrative and back-office operations at the Roxbury venue.

When that fell through, hopes for anchoring "Tremont Crossing," the master plan to develop 1 million square feet of leasable space for retail, residential, and cultural use, switched to focus on BJ's Wholesale Club, which is reportedly aiming to build a 90,000-square-foot store on the site. Here's hoping for good news, but don't uncork the champagne just yet. As the Boston Globe noted in December, "the Tremont Crossing project has suffered fits and starts over the years."

Meanwhile, the land lies empty.

And there's more vacant Roxbury land a few blocks away, where Parcel 9 on Melnea Cass Boulevard has been touted as the site of a $42 million Marriott hotel complex. The project had been strongly pushed by City Hall — until politics and special interests intervened.

Several city councilors have declared their opposition to the plan because the hotel isn't expected to be unionized. Apparently they are less troubled by the continued economic stagnation in their neighborhood than by the prospect of a commercial development that isn't organized exactly to their tastes.

Candidates for office talk endlessly about their "plan" for economic growth, as if jobs and businesses and markets spring to life at a politician's say-so. But that's a delusion. Government officials and their small circle of influencers are not omniscient.

Even with all the goodwill in the world, they are no more fit to determine the most productive use of a parcel of land than any other group of interested citizens. State and municipal authorities may have the power to spend millions of taxpayer dollars, but their judgment, like everyone's, is fallible.

Boston is replete with examples of what can go wrong when politicians put themselves in charge of a neighborhood's economic growth and development. The bulldozing of the West End. The elevations of the Central Artery. The transformation of a lively Scollay Square into the dead zone of City Hall Plaza.

And Roxbury's vacant acres.

Years of central planning haven't brought Parcel 3 or the empty stretches of Melnea Cass to life. Instead of expecting government to have all the answers, why not reduce the government's role, freeing up entrepreneurial space for others to come in with ideas of their own?

Beacon Hill and City Hall impose so many barriers to growth — sales, income, property, and capital-gains taxes; minimum- and prevailing-wage laws; zoning restrictions, vending permits, and occupational licenses. These can be difficult hurdles to surmount even in flourishing towns and neighborhoods. In areas plagued with poverty, poor schools, crime, and welfare dependency, they can be impassable.

But imagine what Roxbury might become if, for the next 10 years or so, all state individual income and sales taxes within the neighborhood were reduced to 2 percent, property taxes were halved, and long-term capital-gains taxes were suspended. Imagine dropping the corporate income-tax rate to zero for any firm operating in Roxbury, and allowing Roxbury-based employers and employees to deduct their federal income taxes from their state income-tax returns.

Dudley Square in Roxbury, back when it was picture-postcard material.

Imagine lifting all but essential zoning restrictions, and imposing no wage and hour rules more stringent than those required by federal law. Imagine a hyper-streamlined permitting process that came with a guarantee: A single day is all you will need to complete the government paperwork required to launch a new company.

In short, imagine turning Roxbury into a true free-enterprise zone — one that doesn't pin its hopes on government master plans, but on grassroots investment and innovation. Rather than betting on favorites or trying to pick winners, the state should get out of the way and allow the success stories emerge.

Let Roxbury's workers and businesses keep more of their own money, and they're apt to do marvelous, productive things with it. Can empowered individuals outperform "helicopter" government?

Set Roxbury free, and we'll find out.

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The Politician ~ the Coach ~ the Founding Father

The politician, the coach and the Founding Father by Jeff Jacoby with the Boston Globe

No, winning isn't the only thing. North Attleborough track
coach demonstrated the importance of integrity, which
is far more valuable than any athletic trophy.

In a Christmas Day update to his email list and Facebook followers, Governor-elect Charlie Baker touched all the right notes: gratitude to Massachusetts voters who elected him, admiration for "the ideas and the genuine commitment" he encounters in his travels across the commonwealth, sobriety regarding the gaping hole in the state budget ("the only outstanding question is how big it will be"), and optimism about the "smart, experienced, and unabashed" individuals who have agreed to join his new administration.

But the most valuable part of Baker's message was his celebration of Derek Herber, a track coach at North Attleborough High School, who led his team to a second consecutive Division II state championship last spring ~ only to realize after the trophy had been awarded that a scoring error had given North Attleborough too many points.­­

"Herber didn't hesitate," Baker wrote. "He called state officials and notified them that Central Catholic from Lawrence had actually won the meet, and his team had finished second. Then he faced his kids ~ to inform them about what he had done and what it would mean. And everybody got it."

Baker is by no means the first to extol Herber's sportsmanship. After relinquishing the trophy, the coach told the Boston Globe, he was interviewed 34 times ~ which was 33 more interviews than he gave after winning the state title in 2013. To be praised for his probity by the incoming governor, however, was especially significant.

Some months back I deplored Baker's choice of "loyalty" as the quality he most valued in others. Loyalty in the abstract is a fine trait, but loyalty-above-all is an invitation to corruption, particularly in politics. The favoritism and venality in the Probation Department scandal, I wrote at the time, were only the latest reminder of what can happen when loyalty trumps integrity.

So it was heartening to see Baker make a point of singling out Coach Herber for putting integrity first and giving his young athletes a demonstration of honor far more valuable than any mere trophy.

When such exemplars of good character are "recognized for what they are and what they mean," Baker wrote, "we all benefit." That is absolutely right, and it can't be emphasized enough.

Which is why I hope Baker will seek out more opportunities to celebrate standout models of admirable character, and to make clear that the inculcation of good character is as important a policy goal as economic development or reducing opiate addiction.

"The development of character is perhaps the central task of any civilized society," affirms Richard V. Reeves in a recent essay in the journal National Affairs. To a generation raised to think that it is no business of the state to concern itself with shaping the civic virtue, prudence, and integrity of its citizens, it may seem radical or illiberal to claim otherwise.

In reality, argues Reeves, a British historian and philosopher now based at the Brookings Institution, to focus on the importance of character is to "echo classical liberal ideas about what government is for" ~ ideas stretching from the ancient Greek and Roman republics to the thinkers who inspired America's founding fathers in the 18th century.

Good character reveals itself in the choices individuals make, above all when those choices pit integrity against expediency, self-discipline against temptation, or ethical standards against popularity or personal advancement.

"Every man has his price!" exclaims the ambitious Richard Rich in the opening scene of "A Man for All Seasons" Robert Bolt's classic play about Sir Thomas More.

"In money.… Or pleasure. Titles, women, bricks-and-mortar, there's always something." The only defense against that cynical worldview is good character, and only where good character is cultivated can freedom and democracy thrive.

Over and over the founders underscored the indispensability of character to liberty. At his inauguration next week, Baker, like his predecessor, will take an oath to "bear true faith and allegiance and … support the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

The principal author of that constitution was John Adams, and his remarkable charter ~ the oldest still in effect anywhere in the world ~ directly links character and democratic statecraft.

John Adams, the principal author of the Massachusetts
constitution, knew that good character is necessary
for democracy and liberty to thrive.

"Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people," the constitution declares, are "necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties."

Accordingly, it is "the duty of legislators and magistrates … to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings … among the people."

When good character is scarce, social problems multiply, opportunity shrivels, and freedom recedes. Every society needs more Coach Herbers, and the integrity they exemplify.

"Let's be great again, Massachusetts," exhorts the incoming governor. It will take a lot to make that happen, but character is where it starts.

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Who will be looking down on Baker?

Who'll be looking down on Baker from the files of Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe

Calvin Coolidge, the 48th governor of
Massachusetts, was one of the greatest
vote-getters in Commonwealth history — and the
 only Bay State governor to become president.

GOVERNOR DEVAL PATRICK will be leaving his office on the third floor of the State House in a few weeks. It's a good bet that Governor John Andrew will be leaving at the same time.

Patrick, the Commonwealth's 71st chief executive, will be succeeded in January by Charlie Baker, and by tradition each incoming governor chooses the portrait of a predecessor to hang in the corner office.

Patrick's choice was John Albion Andrew, the Bay State's 25th governor and an ardent abolitionist best known today for his role in creating the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. It was a fitting salute to the 19th-century Republican who said with conviction that whatever earthly sins he might have to account for, "this I know: that I was never mean enough to despise any man because he was black."

Two recent governors, Mitt Romney and Paul Cellucci, put Governor John Volpe's painting in the coveted spot — Cellucci to celebrate Volpe's Italian heritage; Romney because his father had served with Volpe in Richard Nixon's cabinet.

Gazing down on Jane Swift was turn-of-the-20th-century governor Winthrop Crane, who like Swift was a native of Berkshire County. William Weld never explained why he favored the portrait of a rabble-rousing crook like James M. Curley — no doubt it amused him, as many things did.

Baker has been called a Weld protégé, but he's unlikely to make a similarly sardonic pick. Elbridge Gerry, eponym of "gerrymander," presumably won't be returning to the corner office with the next governor. Neither will nativist Henry Gardner, who rode an anti-immigrant wave to power as the state's only Know-Nothing governor in 1855.

Of course, Baker couldn't go wrong by hanging the picture of a former governor who was also one of the nation's founders, such as Samuel Adams or John Hancock. The former was honored by Michael Dukakis; the latter was the pick of Edward J. King.

But a shrewder choice would be the 1925 Edmund Charles Tarbell oil of Calvin Coolidge. It's a splendid portrait of a splendid governor — a leader as renowned for his competence and fiscal prudence as for his courage and political skills.

Coolidge was one of the greatest vote-getters in Massachusetts history, and his most famous speech — "Have Faith in Massachusetts" — remains well worth consulting, especially by a governor-elect who summarizes his vision as "Let's be great again, Massachusetts."

Besides, Coolidge is the only Massachusetts governor who became president. If that's not a decor recommendation, what is?

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Running from the 'R' word

Running from the 'R' word by Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe

The five gubernatorial candidates — Charlie Baker, Martha
Coakley, Scott Lively, Evan Falchuk, and Jeff McCormick
posed for a photo before the start of the WBZ-TV debate.

If Attorney General Martha Coakley uttered the word "Republican" even once in last Yuesday night's televised gubernatorial debate, I missed it. For a Democrat hoping to win the highest office in one of the nation's bluest states, it was a mystifying omission.

After all, most Massachusetts voters, most of the time, would rather crawl through broken glass than vote for the candidate with the "R" after his name. The GOP's brand in this state could hardly be more toxic.

That is why Charlie Baker's second campaign for governor has so clearly been built on a strategy of being the sort of Republican Massachusetts voters can feel comfortable with — the sort of Republican who supports a socially liberal, activist government, but who promises to run it more efficiently and economically than it's been run under Deval Patrick.

Baker found opportunities last night to show the kinder, gentler persona he hopes will win over skeptical Bay State Democrats. He told Coakley graciously at one point: "No one is challenging your record as a child advocate across a long and distinguished career in public service."

That was deft and diplomatic, considering that an independent political action committee strongly backing Baker has been running a TV ad that brutally challenges Coakley's record on exactly that ground: She "tried to silence children's advocates," the spot intones; "Martha Coakley failed our most vulnerable citizens."

Nothing so harsh came out of Baker's mouth last night. Instead there was plenty of forgettable boilerplate about how Beacon Hill in recent years "took its eye off the ball" and how the next governor should be a "weed-whacker" focused on data, preventing mismanagement by keeping "a firm hand on the tiller."

When he did say something strong and quotable, it was an eight-word pledge: "Taxes under a Baker administration will go down."

Will voters believe that? Should voters believe anything these candidates say? Running for governor in 2006, Patrick insisted that property taxes would go down on his watch. Eight years later, property taxes area whole lot higher.

Baker's political mentor, former Governor William Weld, vowed in 1990 to vigorously resist then-Senate President Bill Bulger and the culture of corrupt cronyism he embodied. Then he won the Corner Office and reinvented himself as Bulger's best pal.

So take it all with large dose of salt, voters. Debates like Tuesday night's can be entertaining. But as a road map to the next administration, they are woefully inadequate.

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