A World of Potential
It began with a great idea: Gather a diverse group of local civic leaders and take them around the globe to see how other great cities are growing and innovating. But in our notoriously insular town, petty politics and small-mindedness keep the City to City program from reaching its full promise.
In Beijing, businessman
Darryl Settles (eyeing model up close) and (from
left, front row) John Hancock’s Carol Fulp,
Richard Walker of the Federal Reserve Bank,
and entrepreneur Clayton Turnbull, as well as the
BRA’s Kairos Shen (right of Settles) check out a
model of National Stadium, one of the sites for
this year’s Summer Olympics.
(Photo by Cancan Chu)ALREADY ASTONISHED BY THE MASSIVE SCALE OF construction in Shanghai, a group of Bostonians touring China last fall stopped for a demonstration in a music class in the Jing An school district, marveling at something with no mass at all - the absent strings of a harp. In this spotless elementary school classroom filled with instruments and joyous shouts of children, narrow beams of light replaced the strings, and electronic notes danced forth as visitors' fingers plucked the air.
In a city throbbing with economic growth - several historic areas were being restored, and Shanghai was competing with Singapore and Hong Kong for the title of world's busiest port - this glimpse of artistic expression combined with education and technology emerged as one more example of a city redefining itself and its potential. By comparison, Boston in many ways seemed lethargic at best.
Gary Kaplan, one of the few dozen in the group, runs a non-profit firm that conducts computerized education programs in 40 Massachusetts schools. He pointed out later that Shanghai schools have regular testing, just as Massachusetts schools have MCAS. But he was taken aback by the breadth of learning in Shanghai, where schools have two or three music rooms, three or four art rooms and a kiln, and children are learning English in the first grade. In Boston, he says, "we're trying to teach kids basic English in 10th grade. They're running circles around us."
Eye-opening experiences like this were the reason Kaplan and the other members of the group - a diverse collection of corporate, civic, and nonprofit leaders participating in a program called City to City - came on this tour. Since 1997, City to City has taken influential Bostonians on annual trips to major metropolitan areas, mostly in the United States but occasionally overseas, to see firsthand how others are solving urban problems and sparking growth, as well as to develop business relationships between cities and foster interaction among prominent Bostonians themselves. Sometimes the trips lead to specific ideas and initiatives, other times, more general inspiration. But all the trips have catalyzed connections among the groups of travelers. And directly or indirectly, Bostonians often end up benefiting.
For 10 days in October, the tour group members traveled to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou (a sister city to Boston). If some came back a little less enamored with progress in their hometown, they also returned hopeful. "I was blown away," says Casey Recupero, executive director of Year Up Boston, an intensive education and training program for low-income high school graduates and GED recipients. "Each year, City to City builds and strengthens a real asset for Boston, and I'm proud to be a part of this network."
John Werner, executive director of the after-school program Citizen Schools Boston, discussed the success of extracurricular activities in Shanghai schools during testimony before a legislative committee on Beacon Hill, and he's working on adding new Citizen Schools apprenticeships "that will help kids understand global trends." Annette Rubin, executive director of the Boston Children's Chorus, hopes to take the ensemble to China at some point. Darryl Settles, the founder and co-owner of the Beehive restaurant and nightclub in the South End, is negotiating to open a large establishment in Shanghai. And, after meeting each other on the trip, Michael Olivieri, publisher of the Boston Business Journal, and Jerry Villacres, director/editor of the Spanish language weekly El Planeta, are exploring opportunities for the two publications to collaborate. Even Governor Deval Patrick said his own trip to China in December was informed in part by briefings from City to City travelers.
In Boston, which far too often lives up to its reputation as a parochial and insular city, the program has quietly proved to be a vital counterbalance to that mind-set, looking outward to broaden perspectives, embrace diversity, and raise the bar of expectations.
How can it be then that, at a time when Massachusetts and Boston, like the rest of the country, are increasingly connected with, and dependent on, the rest of the shrinking world, City to City is not only struggling to garner institutional support but also facing an uncertain future?
CITY TO CITY WAS THE BRAINCHILD OF Hubie Jones, a native New Yorker who has been one of Boston's most visionary civic leaders for half a century. The former dean of the Boston University School of Social Work, Jones was a founder of Massachusetts Advocates for Children, which pushed for the state's groundbreaking special education law, and was a leader of Critical Friends, an independent oversight group that held the Boston public schools to high standards. Known for his quick tongue, he isn't afraid to speak out, or stand alone. In 1986, Jones supported a proposal that Boston middle and high school health services provide - with parents' permission - birth-control devices to students, calling the policy "a regrettable necessity." When others, including the head of the Boston NAACP, called the proposal racist because the plan was suggested for city rather than suburban schools, Jones minced no words in saying that the large number of minority 13- and 14-year-olds getting pregnant was worse. "What is more genocidal?" he said.
At 74, Jones is still running City to City, advising the City Year youth volunteer program that he helped launch, writing a book about Boston race relations, and devoting a lot of time to his latest creation, the Boston Children's Chorus. Balding and slightly stooped, he's still easily recognizable around town by his black-rimmed classes, simmering kinetic energy, highly developed sense of outrage at injustices, and sharp sense of humor. In pursuing old passions or new discoveries, Jones loves the fray.
It is typical of Jones that he did not create City to City as some abstract idea, but saw an opportunity and began to build. In a 1996 forum Jones had organized while assistant to the chancellor at UMass-Boston, Atlanta businessman Walter Huntley described that city's dynamism and diversity, exemplified by its hosting of the Summer Olympics earlier that year. Jones recalls that Huntley, after the forum, gave him a piece of advice about the Boston civic leaders he had addressed: "Hubie, these people need to get out of town. Why don't you bring them to Atlanta?" Jones went to Paul Guzzi, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and the two, with support from the Chamber and UMass-Boston, organized the first trip, the following year, to Atlanta. Delegations traveled in subsequent years to Seattle, Belfast and Dublin, Barcelona, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Chicago, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Philadelphia.
From the start, the purpose of the initiative was dual: to learn specific lessons useful to Boston and to build a network of connections among the Boston travelers - a group intentionally designed to be diverse by occupation, age, color, and cultural background. The China trip kept to that goal. The group of 49 included 18 people from for-profit organizations, 22 from nonprofits ranging from health centers to community work to philanthropy, and nine from governmental or quasi-governmental organizations, such as the Massachusetts Port Authority and the Federal Reserve Bank. It also included 20 women, 20 persons of color, and 22 City to City first-timers.
The roster formed a mini who's who of Boston: Carol Fulp, a vice president at John Hancock; David Weinstein, an executive vice president of Fidelity Investments; Kairos Shen, director of planning for the Boston Redevelopment Authority; Libbie Shufro, president and CEO of the Boston Center for the Arts; Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association; Lowell Richards, chief development officer for Massport; Darnell Williams, president and CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts; and John Connolly, vice president for development for real estate power Sawyer Enterprises. And they are just a few of the prominent names.
Many veterans believe the first trip, to Atlanta in 1997, was the most successful. Mayor Tom Menino went, and a healthy contingent of business leaders joined nonprofit and academic peers. Race relations was one intended focus. Partly as a result, the Chamber began working with groups in a program called Building a Better Boston, to encourage minority professionals to put down roots in the city. But the visitors also looked closely at Atlanta's experience in hosting the 1996 Summer Olympics, and the lessons from that encouraged Menino in his pursuit of a major national event for Boston - a campaign that brought the Democratic National Convention here in 2004. In 2000, a City to City trip to Barcelona influenced Boston officials as they planned the development of Fan Pier, the waterfront, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
The network of City to City participants has grown thick. The Urban League's Williams says the personal connections made on trips are invaluable back home. "When you make a call, you have a foundation - you get things done," he says. On countless occasions, City to City participants have added fellow travelers whom they had not met previously to their boards of directors.
Over time, however, many of the top leaders of organizations, including CEOs of large corporations, stopped making the trip. Menino hasn't participated since 2002. Part of the problem, several participants say, is that the leaders of nonprofit organizations kept putting the arm on business executives for financial contributions and other support. Also, some business leaders grew impatient with programs that focused partly on social and cultural issues, when a single-purpose business trip could accomplish their corporate goals far more efficiently.
Jones is quick to say that City to City would provide a fuller experience if more high-level corporate executives would go. He and others also contend this would occur if Menino participated and if members of the Chamber were more involved in promoting City to City's mission. There's some truth to that, but it's also apparent that business leaders would be more likely to join if they understood the value of the diverse experiences and delegations that are at the core of the City to City concept.
In 2005, the Chamber stopped providing City to City with office space and financial support. There just wasn't enough of a constituency in the private sector, Guzzi says. The Boston Foundation stepped in temporarily, giving the program a home and a three-year challenge to prove its viability. Jones and the members of his advisory board responded vigorously. A visit to Philadelphia in 2006 and last year's China trip - by far the program's most ambitious - have drawn healthy participation and positive reviews from the travelers.
Not everyone, however, is cheering. Menino, referring in an offhand remark to the number of people taking time off to head to China, said initially about his own nonparticipation, "Somebody's got to keep working." In truth, 10 days was too much of a commitment for many, but it was also an easy excuse for people wary of Boston's shortsighted naysayers. Tony Nunziante, spokesman for the Mayor's Office of Arts, Tourism, and Special Events, which handles sister-city relationships, says cries of "junket" affect Menino's travel plans. "We get visitors all the time from the sister cities," Nunziante says. But "we never go anywhere. We get killed in the papers."
Explaining his decision not to go on recent trips, Menino says that during his time as mayor, and especially during the year he was president of the US Conference of Mayors, he had visited and come to know fairly well many City to City destinations. He acknowledges the lower turnout of corporate leaders but says he believes the program is still valuable for those who do sign on. "I think it's great for the nonprofits," he says.
Jones wants more. However, even if the program can gather more backing, long-term support remains an issue, and aspects of the City to City model clearly need updating. As it stands, the program is an ad hoc group gathered by invitation for annual trips in the fall and, since 2001, annual two-day retreats in Chatham - the next one is this weekend. There is an 18-member Advisory Council, cochaired by Jones and James Segel, now special counsel to US Representative Barney Frank, but there is no formal membership. The trip budgets range from about $120,000 for Philadelphia to $240,000 for China, but 80 percent of that is paid by the participants. The administrative budget of $80,000 - currently supplied by the Boston Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the University of Massachusetts, and the Urban Land Institute - supports a part-time manager and trip planner and incidental expenses.
Instead of shrinking, should the program expand - incorporate, hire full-time staff, and provide services apart from the annual trips? Thomas Payzant, who went on a City to City trip while he was Boston school superintendent and says he learned a lot, feels the program failed to make enough use of the trip experiences. "There were good intentions but not enough follow-up," he says. Such comments led to the February retreats, but Jones and others are considering different strategies.
Another hurdle: finding a new leader. Jones wants to reduce his role and hand the reins over. But whoever replaces him may have a big challenge, because Jones has been the program's heart and soul from the start. "He has always been the visionary," says Vivien Li of the Boston Harbor Association. Many participants have been attracted to the program precisely because of their relationship with Jones. As the China trip began, John Werner of Citizen Schools Boston asked newcomer Clayton Turnbull, an entrepreneur whose business, the Waldwin Group, operates several Dunkin' Donuts franchises, "How are you part of the Hubie fan club?"
Turnbull's response: "I met him."
JONES SAYS THE DECISION ON LAST fall's destination was easy. "It is very important for Boston's leaders to understand that Boston's economic future is tied to China," he says. The country is Massachusetts's sixth-largest export market - nearly $1.3 billion in merchandise from companies in the state was shipped there in 2006, according to a recent Globe report that cited Holyoke Community College's World Institute for Strategic Economic Research.
The governor focused on clean energy and life-sciences opportunities during his own trip to Beijing and Shanghai (which, he said, warranted a return visit), but the links between China and the Commonwealth are much broader than that.
The trip offered no shortage of impressive examples in infrastructure, education, and economic growth. In Shanghai, the world's first commercial magnetic levitation train travels 19 miles from the city out to its international airport in about eight minutes, reaching a top speed of 267 miles per hour. In Hangzhou, Bostonians expressed amazement at the scale and speed at which the city has developed a high-tech business zone. The zone, featuring dozens of large buildings that have been built in the past three years, includes a "pioneering park" designed specifically to attract Chinese students who are returning after overseas study by providing technology, office, and laboratory space and other resources that will help them launch their ventures.
The director of the zone, Wu Caimin, when asked what Massachusetts could offer him, was emphatic in saying he sought ways to cooperate with Harvard and MIT. "Every square inch of the zone needs them," he said. City to City participants said they felt China was far ahead of the United States in valuing and retaining talent, working hard to lure its students back. Barry Bluestone, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University, noted sarcastically, "What a goddamned shame if some of these young geniuses came to America and stayed."
Travelers also saw Greater Boston's influence on China. Hu Jie, one of the chief planners for the Beijing site of this year's Olympics who once worked for the Watertown architecture and design firm Sasaki Associates, described an enormous new park being constructed to help the Olympics be "green." It will include an amphitheater inspired directly by Hu's enjoyment of concerts at Tanglewood. "I wanted to copy it," he says.
Amid the stunning sites, China's underside was also evident at times - at least partially so. Despite generally beautiful fall weather, smog blanketed Beijing as the group arrived and lingered in Shanghai as it left. The group's Chinese guides acknowledged problems with the country's one-child-per-couple law. In housing, Chinese officials said the people displaced by development (an estimated 1.3 million were swept from their homes to make way for the Olympic site) were provided for by the government, but how many were satisfied? Apart from CNN in the hotels, independent news sources of any kind were hard to find, and sometimes censored. Massive traffic jams were a constant. And, after seeing a modern low-rise building in the booming city of Langfang, near Beijing, Bostonians viewed with alarm a video about the area, in which officials, accompanied by loud martial music, talk about deciding on a plan, and how "the plan is the law."
The group visited and revisited the question of whether the strong-arm tactics of the Chinese government were inseparable from the dynamic growth that has undeniably made the country an economic superpower. Still, says Shen, the BRA planning director, there's a measured lesson for Boston: China acts quickly and decisively, while "we grind our teeth a lot."
ON THE LAST DAY OF THE TRIP, AFTER breakfasting with five members of his advisory council, Jones outlined City to City's plans. They included the recruitment of new leadership; a trip in October to Miami, where immigration and education issues will be colored by presidential politics less than a month before the national election; and this weekend's retreat in Chatham, where the members will focus on potential roles the program can play. (One idea worth discussing: Why couldn't City to City serve as an active link with Boston's several sister cities?)
Some of that planning remains tentative because of the uncertainty surrounding the program and its long-term funding. (Jones says City to City has enough money for this year's Miami trip.) Mary Jo Meisner, a vice president of the Boston Foundation who went on the China trip, says the program can stay at the Foundation "for the foreseeable future." But she adds that it will be looking at City to City's plans. Meanwhile, Jones, in typical fashion, is thinking bigger, not smaller. He says Boston should take a lesson from cities like Atlanta, Barcelona, Beijing, and Shanghai and use major events to leverage its progress - something Boston did, to some extent, with the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Now Jones says he will encourage City to City to push for another high-impact event, such as an international ideas symposium, building on Boston's claim to be the intellectual capital of the world.
As for the diverse travelers, many of whom bonded after being thrown together in hotels and two tour buses 6,700 miles from home, they kept talking. Shen talked about making urban planning more dynamic. John Werner, from Citizen Schools Boston, talked about enlivening education programs. Carol Fulp of John Hancock and David Weinstein of Fidelity talked about the hot financial climate in China. Barry Bluestone of Northeastern talked about mega-housing. Lowell Richards of Massport talked about shipping and air connections to China. And they talked to one another, cross-pollinating and fertilizing a rich crop of observations to take home and cultivate. Considering the vast range of knowledge and talents of all the travelers in this group, those are conversations that other cities - from Chicago to Shanghai - would envy.
Former Globe staff writer Robert L. Turner is the Boston Globe Fellow at UMass-Boston. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.
