Copious Coping: How Other Mayors Fare

From urban Crusader to "King Kevin"

Kevin Hagan White, 51, was elected mayor of Boston 14 years ago as a liberal reformer. Most liberals and reformers support him still, but increasingly they wonder why. This year, as the city has despaired through perhaps the worst financial crisis in its history--still unresolved--White's first concern has been the preservation of his own power. The onetime urban crusader laid off hundreds of policemen and firemen and closed police and fire stations while initially keeping all of his public relations staff. He vetoed financial rescue plans because they would have forced him to spend funds only as overseen by the city council. Last month he admitted assembling a secret "black book" on the political loyalty of thousands of city employees. A city union claimed he gave average raises of about $3,500 to precinct captains and ward leaders, compared with $300 for the "politically inactive."

White was among a 1960s wave of young, telegenic big-city mayors that included John Lindsay of New York and Jerome Cavanagh of Detroit. Today he is the last left in office, and now acts like the late boss of Chicago, Richard J. Daley, albeit with a Williams College polish. The four-term Democrat, known to critics as "King Kevin" and "Mayor De Luxe," has been threatened with recall petitions and recently ducked out the back door of a restaurant to avoid picketers. Yet he fits a city whose favorite slogan is, "Don't get mad, get even."

White veers from arrogant to melancholy, and can be vindictive in either mood. He is usually at odds with every other major politician in the state. He has ethical blind spots: this winter, for example, he scheduled a birthday party for his wife, encouraged cash gifts from city employees, then canceled the party after public and media pressure and pledged to return the money. He has a keen eye and a generous hand with young talent, yet he fires some and drives many of the rest away.

Nonetheless, he can still inspirit his city. He wavered on school busing but stood fast on racial harmony; after a welter of racially motivated assaults in 1976, he led a march of 30,000 people to protest violence. During his tenure, Boston has rebuilt its downtown and waterfront, added thousands of hotel rooms and sold itself, accurately, as "the livable city." Faneuil Hall Marketplace is the ultimate urban mall.

The fiscal crisis disrupting the city is not White's fault. He has controlled most municipal spending, but has no legal power to restrain the Boston school committee, which annually overshoots its budget (currently $210 million) by as much as $30 million. Worse, Boston depends more than any other major city on the property tax, but as a result of a statewide tax protest referendum enacted last November, the city must cut its property taxes by 15% a year until the rate is a small fraction of its present total. That means laying off 2,000 city employees by next month, 4,000 the following fiscal year. White knows the situation is grim enough to endanger him in politics. Says the former dark-horse presidential possibility, now a would-be survivor:

"The question is whether I am still up there politically to take these measures."

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