“Progress is not about the headlines. It’s not about the buildings... It’s what we do that’s lasting in our society, the difference we make in people’s lives. In Boston, it’s about building a city that works for everyone.”
Mayor Menino,
Conference on Aging,
December 2004
“If the Boston region were to apply sufficient imagination and collaborative leadership to the critical challenges that now face it, it’s within its power to become one of the most rewarding places on earth to live, work, learn and prosper in the 21st century.”
The Citistates Group,
Boston Unbound,
May 2004
It is a tenet of systems thinking that it takes only one part of a system to transform the whole. In the regional economy it anchors, Boston is already playing that role, taking the lead in a number of areas and creating proven models for other municipalities and regions to explore for themselves. This practice of innovation and the export of new ideas are firmly embedded in Boston’s history and the fabric of its civic culture. In fact, Boston cannot cease to innovate and still retain its core identity.
Under the leadership of Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Boston is at the forefront of a number of transformative initiatives. For example, Boston leads among large urban school districts in the success of its school reform initiatives and the exploration of a broad range of school types—from schools within schools to pilot schools. In 2004, Boston enacted new “green” building codes in alignment with its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. Boston also leads the Commonwealth in addressing the need for more housing, with more than 7,900 new units approved between 2000 and 2003, and the highest percentage—20%—of affordable housing units among all municipalities in the Commonwealth. Going forward, the Mayor has pledged to build 10,000 additional units by 2010, 20% of which will be guaranteed affordable. And the Mayor has committed the City of Boston to offering early education to 4-year-olds. Bostonians are also making inroads in diversifying leadership structures, with recent elections of candidates of color and new young faces in positions of leadership in a number of city departments.
However, many of Boston’s greatest challenges require something more than the city can do on its own: more strategic and fairer tax policies; a more coherent regional approach to economic development; a comprehensive and complementary approach to transportation and housing; even greater civic commitment to educational excellence for all at all levels; and a focus not only on health care but health.
Recent trends and events are convincing even the most skeptical of the need for coherent regional strategies, and, in the face of growing nervousness about the future, a broad consensus is beginning to emerge across ideology and partisan politics. Derived from the work of many of the region’s most respected and accomplished researchers, think tanks, policy makers and civic leaders, this consensus reflects agreement on the seriousness of the region’s challenges, a willingness to align resources on behalf of shared goals, and a nascent commitment to new civic structures to drive progress.
The Boston Indicators Project was created not only to provide data and a set of measures but also to aggregate data and recent research, and, through a process of dialogue and synthesis, craft a shared Civic Agenda to support progress on these identified goals.
To that end, since 1997 the Project has hosted hundreds of convenings with stakeholders and experts within and across sectors. During that time, project participants have offered their visions for the future and suggestions about how best to target and measure progress in pursuit of these goals. The recent consensus among experts, combined with these civic deliberations, has been shaped into an emerging Civic Agenda of long-term goals and short-term targets that address key challenges in the context of shared aspirations for the future and high-leverage interventions in the present.
A Civic Agenda does not create or invent new wheels. Rather, it should reinforce existing wheels to more effectively drive change. The elements of the Civic Agenda presented here reflect shared visions and strategies that leverage change across sectors. And while any number of milestones could be listed under each area, in this first presentation an effort was made to focus on just a few key measures of achievement.
Bostonians can begin to catalyze action on this Civic Agenda today by coming together and aligning their work to support efforts already underway, such as the MetroFuture planning initiative coordinated by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council; Mass Insight’s Technology Road Map of strategic alliances between the private sector and key institutions; the Early Education for All and Great Schools campaigns; the Commonwealth Housing Task Force; the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance, among many more. And while this Civic Agenda will ultimately require regional collaboration, Bostonians also can lead the way by developing strategies to include more residents and stakeholders in the implementation of the Civic Agenda, and by engaging in regional strategies and initiatives.
The ultimate success of the Civic Agenda will depend especially on the capacity of the members of the Baby Boom generation, now holding most of the positions of leadership throughout the City and Commonwealth, to forge more resilient relationships, to create more inclusive civic structures, and to craft more coherent strategies and policies. These Baby Boom leaders can open the doors of civic participation to all; ensure that children and youth are educated to 21st educational standards; mentor young adults and engage all age cohorts in civic dialogue; and draw on the expertise of older ready to leave the workforce who are seeking new ways to contribute to Greater Boston’s vitality.
By 2030, when the youngest of this great Baby Boom cohort reach retirement age, their achievements—or failure to act—will almost certainly have defined the direction of the city and region for the remainder of the 21st century.
What follows are the four components of the emerging Civic Agenda—the major areas that consistently have emerged in the hundreds of convenings that have been held by the Boston Foundation since 1997. They reflect broad agreement and alignment across the 10 sectors tracked by the Boston Indicators Project. Each area contains several milestones – or high leverage points – against which measurable progress can be tracked. While many other goals and milestones were articulated over the course of the convenings, the ones listed here were identified as critical levers of change. Many of these goals and milestones have been articulated elsewhere and reflect strategies identified by many organizations, experts and stakeholders within specific fields. For the first time, they are presented as a coherent and shared high-leverage Civic Agenda.
1. A Dynamic and Open Civic Culture
2. World Class Human Resources
3. 21st Century Jobs and Economic Strategies
4. 21st Century Infrastructure
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