Page 4 RAIN July 1981 BOILING OVER IN BEAN TOWN by Mark Roseland Not long ago I spoke at a conference on the East Coast and enroute found myself as fortune would have it, in San Francisco, Newark, New York and Boston all in the same weekend-a great temptation for superficial comparisons which I'm still trying to resist. Having lived in Boston for many years, however (where horse is pronounced "hoss" and people say "so don't I" when they mean "I do, too"), I could clearly see in the days I stayed there some of the changes that have taken place in that town since the "new conservatism" has come into power. • Bostori not only has to put up with the Reagan Administration and the Co'ngress, but Massachusetts Governor Ed King-one of the more reactionary governors in the nation-and Mayor Kevin White. It's amazing how anyone as unpopular as "Honk If You Hate (Kevin) White" can be mayor of a major city, but that's another story. Everyone's known for years that some members of the City Council and the School Committee are on the take, but not until the disclosure of recent investigative findings did anyone realize the extent of the corruption. •Combine that with soaring inflation, a rising cost of living, add Proposition 2½ (analogous to California's Proposition 13), and you have a recipe for a city in trouble. Prop 2½ doesn't start until July, so what I observed in Boston was only a dark glimpse of what's to come. Cutbacks. Budget cuts. Words we hear.a lot these days. We're told we won't feel the effects until next year. I'm not sure there's gonna be a next year for places like Boston. When I arrived in Boston they were literally out of money to run the school system. After a lot of screaming and yelling the city obtained $10 million from the state to run the school system-for 10 days-if the police or fire departments didn't convince everyone that they should get that money. They sure were persuasive. Most of the police and fire stations in several sections of the city were closed (a mayoral decision), but not completely. Instead, allnight vigils were being held and many stations were being occupied-by middle-aged, middle-class whites, 'the very people who voted for King and Reagan! Every grown man who ever fantasized playing Adam-12 was getting his chance to operate the radio and • switchboard. The actual cops, meanwhile, with supportive residents of their districts, were out blocking traffic and causing major slow-_ downs and tie-ups on the expressways during rush hour! (Mayor White was actually caught in one of these tie-ups in the Callahan Tunnel on his way to Logan Airport to pick up, of all people, Ann Landers-hey, I don't make the news, I just report it-and had to talk with these angry folks face-to-face. That mus(ve been a sight!) All the while the Left is standing by helplessly, watching in dis·- belief, trying to figure out what to say or do, realizing that many of the tactics these people are using were employed 10 or 15 years ago by blacks, women, students, poor people and other criminals. Only this time it's "law-abiding citizens" who are breaking the law. While the city seemed to take on all the qualities of a Fellini movie, it wa·s talking with people I kn·ew that really brought home the effects of Reaganomics on individuals and families. I've known the Martin [names changedJ family for years. Albert is an electronics engineer, Jean is a schoolteacher, both mid-50s and,white. T,hey live in a small house in Newton, a bedroom suburb of Boston, and have two kids, both recent college graduates. One kid has medical problems requiring expensive treatment and medicines, and has been unable to find a decent job. The oth·er is working for VISTA. After years of secure employment along Rt. 128 (where most o_f Boston's electronics ,industry is located), Albert was out of work for a long time, as there were simply no jobs around for someone with his talents and experience. A few months ago he finally landed a disappointing but tolerable job, though it's on the swing shift so he only sees Jean on weekends despite the fact that they live in the same house. Jean has long,considered her position as a kindergarten teacher in the Boston school system very secure. Since she works in Roxbury, a high-unemployment, high-crime, mostly black section, she did not feel safe with her unreliable old car, so last winter bought a newer one. Now she's out of work, as are so many of Boston's teachers. There's more. Grandpa Bob; Jean's 78-year-old father, an able and independent character if ever you met one, lives in Boston. His apartment is being turned into a condo. So are most of the other apartments in his area. There is ·no place to turn, no place to move to, so the family feels pressured now to buy Grandpa Bob's condo. The strain on these people's faces is quite visible. This family is about to bust. They are, if anything, better off than most. It can't last. If it does, the hell that's gonna break loose is gonna make all this look like a picnic. The West can only hope t,!iat the crisis in Boston and the East Coast will force a national rethinking before the full effects of the "new conservatism" is felt here. What we're experiencing now is only a drop in the bucket.OD
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