WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm counting cross like this is the Cali Crossley Show. Today we're talking about Boston and what it would take to keep our newly minted grads and young professionals from fleeing this fusty city. The 2:00 a.m. last calls the lack of 24 hour hangouts a transportation system that likes to turn in early. They all conspired to give Boston a reputation. As a hardly hip and happening town. And these are just the lifestyle issues. Dig a little deeper and there are other institutionalized forces that are contributing to Boston's brain drain. Like the cost of housing growing economic inequality between the rich and poor and decisions out of city hall that slow down start ups and hamper small businesses. So does the Commonwealth deserve this crusty reputation or are these quaint quirks that make Boston Boston getting a bad rap. Up next rebooting Boston. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Jim Howard. The U.S. is joining several other countries in

expelling top Syrian diplomats. Others include Britain Germany France Australia and Italy. The move is aimed at increasing pressure on Syria over last week's massacre in Hola. The U.N. is investigating that incident. Spokesman Rupert Murdoch says it appears to have been a systematic killing of civilians. But I needed to have the shelling by tanks and artillery over a prolonged period of more than 12 hours. You then had what seems to be at least two separate occasions into different parts of this village where militia went in and went house to house and kill people. Spokesman Rupert Colleville international envoy Kofi Annan has been meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus hoping to find a way out of the current situation. Home prices in the U.S. rose in March in most major cities NPR's David Mattingly says that's according to the latest data from Standard and Poor's Case Shiller. It's the first time in seven months that home prices went up in most major cities tracked by the end x. They include Miami and Tampa two Florida cities where home

prices have been sluggish. Prices also went up in Dallas Phoenix and Seattle. Lawrence unit is chief economist with the National Association of Realtors. Kay Schiller data is a somewhat of a lagging indicator because it's a rolling average of January February March. In the latest state up. But nonetheless the lower inventory is helping the civilized home values. Some of the increase is being pegged to the spring buying season. Dave Mattingly NPR News Washington. Scientists have found tiny traces of radioactivity in tuna that crossed the Pacific after swimming near the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan. NPR's Richard Harris reports that the traces of radiation are not a health concern. Pacific bluefin tuna spawn off Japan and then swim across the Pacific to feed off the coast of California and Mexico. Scientists sampling 15 of these tuna last summer discovered traces of radioactive cesium in them with a clear fingerprint showing it came from the nuclear accident at Fukushima. The levels of radioactivity are tiny. To know like everything else

contains naturally occurring radioactive material like potassium 40 and the added radiation is 30 times less than the naturally occurring material. So the researchers reporting these findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say it's not a public health issue. Much of the Pacific bluefin tuna that's caught off the west coast is shipped back to Japan for the lucrative sushi market. Richard Harris NPR News. A Russian based Internet security company says it has discovered a spyware virus that appears to be more powerful than all previously known viruses Kaspersky Lab says the virus dubbed flame has unprecedented data capabilities and appears to have alluded to texting since March of 2010. On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 88 points at twelve thousand five hundred forty three. The Nasdaq is up eight points at one thousand three hundred twenty six. This is NPR. Good afternoon from the WGBH radio newsroom in Boston I'm Christina Quinn with some local stories we're following. Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee has responded to Curt Schilling's criticism of his handling of the state's 75 million dollar loan guarantee to 38 Studios saying he was trying

to strike a balance between providing information to the taxpayers and not jeopardizing 38 Studios. Schilling blames Rhode Island economic development officials and Governor Lincoln Chafee for much of the financial troubles facing his video game company saying that Chafee's public commentary on the situation was devastating to the 238 studios. Jonathan Savage a business lawyer who is representing Chafee tells the Providence Journal that he was merely stating the obvious when he commented publicly on the company's troubled finances. Congressman Barney Frank is apologizing for comments he made about the Trayvon Martin case at a college graduation ceremony. Referring to the hooded academic robot civil rights leader Hubie Jones received Sunday. Frank said You now have a hoodie you can wear and no one will shoot at you. Prominent Boston defense attorney is going on trial on charges he conspired to help a former client launder drug money. Robert George has represented organized crime figures and Christopher McCowen a trash collector convicted in the 2002 murder of Cape Cod fashion writer Christa Worthington. A Yale graduate who died in a Cape Cod car crash just days after commencement had implored her classmates to make something happen to the world and her

final student newspaper column. Police say 22 year old Marina Keegan of Wellfleet Massachusetts died Saturday while heading to a family vacation home. Rhode Island still has New England's highest unemployment rate the New England office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the regional jobless rate was 6.9 percent in April but was eleven point two percent in Rhode Island. Support for NPR comes from Ally Bank who believes smart listening and Smart banking go together. Learn more about Ally Bank Ally Bank dot com. Right now it's 64 degrees in Boston with overcast skies and tonight we can expect mostly cloudy skies with a chance of showers in the evening then showers and thunderstorms after midnight lows in the upper 60s. The time is 106 and you're listening to eighty nine point seven WGBH. On last call. So. Where is she. Don't. Go. To. Day. Good afternoon I'm Calla Crossley. Today we're talking about Boston about its

reputation as a sleepy up tight city. We're looking at what Boston needs to do to keep newly minted graduates and young professionals from moving to other cities. Our lackluster nightlife and puritanical vibe have been blamed for making this a city that can't keep young talent. Joining me to talk about this are Collin Kingsbury a writer for Boston Magazine and Maliyah Lanzhou executive director for the future Boston Alliance thank you both for joining us. Thank you here. OK so I'm starting off with you. How would you describe Boston at this moment. I would use a lot of different ways to describe Boston I would start by saying we're a championship city and we're about to see that again with the Celtics continuing on to play against the Heat. And we're very bifurcated city. If you're a college student There's a lot for you to do here and you know when you get pushed out of the clubs at 2am and then there's a lot of stuff for empty nesters to do. So if you can afford the Boston Ballet if you can afford

Mistral a scholar's there's great things for you to do. But in between you know someone like myself today is my 30th birthday and thank you. And tonight we're going to be going you know to someplace to a restaurant in Cambridge. But I would I really wish that there was some type of a lounge that I could go to where I wouldn't be sighted if I did decide to shake you know shake my booty a little bit. But I don't do it the way I used to do it when I was 21 right there's no reason for me to go to Arielle tonight. And I think that's what we're missing. And and where we're talking about closing time where we're you know we're talking about these different problems but really what I think we want to do is instead of looking at the problems. Turn it around and have us come together to see what is it that we're really talking about what are we really saying that we're missing. All right Colleen I want you to answer the same question How would you describe us. Well I would say it's the best of times in the worst of times I think compared I've been here for 18 years and over that time I've seen a tremendous amount of evolution in a lot of things.

The food and dining scene and a lot of that has just improved enormously over that time. But we're still stuck in a lot of very old patterns in how we do things and I think there's a smugness and a self-satisfied attitude that we've got it we're a great city and we don't need to do anything all that much or will do a little bit around the edges. But there isn't any sense of urgency that and and there are real problems in this area. I think a lot of I think the leadership doesn't appreciate how big a liability it is and how big it's becoming. So when you say it's a liability to lose the folk that Malia was referring to why is it a liability for the city. You know because I mentioned there are people listening saying hey you said we're championship city. You've said this great dining and now places to go. So if you people can't find a place here go elsewhere where we're not missin you. I think the liability is that the people who are most likely to leave are the

people who we need to attract to stay. These are the ones who are creating the companies that are bringing money here and keeping it in building headquarters and building great businesses here these are the people who are doing interesting things that make this a magnet for talent and for the kind of people who are going to fill these buildings we're building in the Innovation District. I think if you go to these people this type of person and you look at I know a lot of people in Boston who given the operative in a decent opportunity would be thrilled to move to New York would be thrilled to move to San Francisco Austin Texas. A lot of other places like that you go to these places and you see how many people there would love to have the opportunity to move to Boston. A lot of I think you're going to find indifference OK. So that is the reason for future Boston alliance. What would you. Talk about that and and what the organization is trying to do because you're directly aimed at the folks that

Collins's are leaving. Yes yes we were started by the CEO of Karmaloop dot com which is a street wear company and I like to consider our office one of the coolest places in Boston. Everyone there is you know street where Kanye West gets his sneakers from from Karmaloop right it's a very cool place and one of the things that I was getting very frustrated with is he would have Cowan they would be coming out for mass are coming out from the colleges. He would train them up and they would be great in the fashion world so they would be off to New York they would be you know on to L.A. and when he also tried to recruit talent. So one of his you know that the young man who's running plunder right now is from Oakland California a brother from Oakland and was literally told no don't move to Boston they shoot black men there. And so when he was when he was watching the brand that he was sort of going up against for this city. And he realized that if it wasn't true. Right that we've come a long way from busing and Charles tour and you know

as Khan was saying we've also evolved with our restaurants and scenes like that but that there was still a wet blanket feeling if you were to the city and that's really what motivated him. So what is the future Boston alliance where a hub of innovators of entrepreneurs of young professionals of interested Bostonians coming together where we can reduce our silos and really talk about how we have evolved I mean 30 percent of Bostonians have moved here in the past 10 years. And I think if you add in both both censuses it's 50 percent. You know somewhere around there so the city that were holding onto is actually no longer the city Ayana Pressley is the highest vote getter. You know Suzanne Li almost beats Linehan. Frank Baker right wins his morning Fini seat. So we begin to see that Boston has actually evolved and I think that our story and our brand needs to catch up.

So call in the Boston Globe sponsored a panel discussion recently called loosen up Boston. I know that there's a question mark at the end of that though which was kind of interesting. I'd like you get your take on the question mark and you came away frustrated or so it seemed from what you wrote. Yes it's a good conversation to have but yet. You know people just didn't seem it could have been more sort of treading over old ground is what I took from what you wrote about it. Talk about that if you will. Yeah if the question mark is a great point on that because I think it does. It's there's still even now that we're talking about there still is an uncertainty like really. I think that it's great that they had the discussion and that is a sign of progress and evolution and recognition that this sort of big A stablish thing decided that this was worth talking about. Unfortunately what I felt like happened at the discussion was a lot of I feel like a lot of red herrings got trotted out. And there are a couple of things that you invariably hear about that I think people really overestimate the

importance of. I think last call the 2:00 a.m. last call other than New York City. There aren't a ton of cities in the U.S. that have a last call that's much later than 2 a.m.. San Francisco has a 2:00 a.m. last call. I'm pretty sure Austin Texas has a 2:00 a.m. last call Seattle It's either two or 230 Portland is either 2 or 230. A lot of these are places that a lot of people would hold up as exemplars of much better nightlife than Boston. And there's that's not the difference. The T shutting down shortly after midnight is also something that you find in most of those other cities. New York is a huge outlier. And so I don't think comparing to New York is necessarily very instructive on any level for these things and that's what kind of and then housing. You know no one's moving to Williamsburg or the Mission District for cheaper housing. They're moving there for more cultural vitality for more energy for more of the things that Molly is talking about trying to get here.

So OK so if you say these things are red herrings and that's what you hear are the issues. I mean I made a little list of all of the issues that come up all the time when we when this discussion is is is being held. Liquor licenses taxi shortage early closings are restaurants and bars. Boston's reputation for racial bias. Food trucks now is a new thing and but other than food trucks fairly new to the list everything else is we heard about a lot. So why does it when it comes when these things come together in Boston it seems to have more than just one wet blanket. Impact it seems to me like you know you're under a down quilt. Here in Boston whereas it might not be the same in Austin as you say. Yeah I think that it's there it's less one giant thing the racial segregation issue I think is a fairly large issue and I think Molly is right to say that it's we're kind of changing we're really not the city that we were 10 15 20 30 years ago and we could probably be marketing a little

better. I think it's it's the aggregation of all those little things that when you get them all together it's sort of if you're a nightlife entrepreneur and you're trying to do something new You've got 19 little you know it's like little of Putins you know tying down Gulliver's that you've got all these little things that get you know one of them is unbreakable but by the time you get all of them together it just results in an atmosphere of what can we do or we can't do anything. It's the death by a thousand cuts. And Millie I want you to take that up because the video that the future Boston alliance put together really sort of went right at the centralized government which according to your video translates into nanny state right. Try and translate into nanny statism where let's say a bar owner who has to close at 2 AM NOT unusual is calling his sin. But if you had to fight to get the liquor license and if your patrons when they let out at 2 am I can't get a

taxi. And then there's no public transportation because that's stopped. It all comes together exactly exactly you know where I am. I mean I think the people who want to talk about late nights where with Collen on this one. You know 2:00 a.m. is fine maybe have a couple like I remember the loft back when I was in college. I'm sure there's still something like that I'm just too old to know about it nowadays but it's not about you know it's not about the time right like that's not what causes violence late night is not what causes violence violence is what causes violence. And I think that we need to sort of move away from you know from these simple solutions and really have an honest conversation about what do we want our city to look like. We have the future Boston Alliance really believe that if you want a city that's going to be vibrant then everyone needs to participate. A centralized structure does not allow for that. I think a great example is looking at what Cory Booker did in New York now that. A very strong mayor structure right as we saw with him. He ran it on business or his predecessor Yes. But then you see a

guy who comes in who handles his his tweets right who who will be out there tweeting like oh my gosh this road is horrible. We have to get on it right. He completely democratized his position and because of that I think you're seeing the excitement in change and coming to New York now. Now that's a city that was I would say was a lot worse off than we and they don't even have a comment. We have recession proof economy so we're supposed to be number one. Right I mean it's like my mother always says you don't get credit for bringing home A's and and when you have MIT and when you have Harvard and when you have insurance and when you have medical like yeah we should be single poorish right like it should make sense. And so we wanted to take on the 800 pound gorilla in the room. And it's not because he is the only problem right I mean we think essentially lining Mayor Menino meaning right meaning the administration. Because we don't believe we don't believe that's true but we believe the tradition. Sometimes you can take local politics a little too far right sometimes you can take patronage a little too far.

We all understand hold the sign get a job right vote get chicken in the pot. Lately we get that part. But when you know when you need half a million dollars to open up a bar and we say bar in people where you need a drink or no you know I mean if you go to San Francisco if you go to Austin Austin's nightlife is awesome it's not because there's a bunch of clubs but it's because you learn about new bands there's always live music so people feel good they're walking around they're smiling at one another and that's really what we wanted to show is that it starts on the top. And if your leadership is closed and if your leadership is has a very strong hold on the city then the city might might start feeling that way and so you know we are coming up again and we really wanted to let people know like we want to have this conversation. Honestly we we don't want to tinker around the edges that way Collin was talking about. All right well we have much more because you've laid down the gauntlet both of you about what the issues are and lip Lilliputian and some hand but on the other hand big enough to bring down

Gulliver it seems. And we'll talk more about it we're talking about what Boston needs to do to keep young talent from moving to other cities. Join the conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 170 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. How would you change the city. How does the city fail to measure up to other cities like Chicago Atlanta New York San Francisco 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 0 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Of course you can write to our Facebook page or tweet me at. Kelly Crossley We'll be back. This is the Calla Crossley Show The conversation continues on WGBH Boston Public Radio. This program is on WGBH thanks to you. And Russell's a family gardening tradition for over 135 years with annual perennials herbs and shrubs

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If you're looking for something that's cool and sweet and sprinkled with fun to WGBH Fun Fest is all that with a cherry on top. Saturday July 14th at WGBH in Brighton. It's a day Han packed with ice creamy goodness mix it up with PBS Kids characters swirl and some rides games music and more. It's enough to make you melt. Tickets will sell out and that's a sure bet. So don't waffle. Get the whole scoop at WGBH dot org slash funfest while you still comb. Sorry Cat. Great question and it's a great question and it's a great question. It's a great question. Rick great question on fresh air you'll hear unexpected questions and unexpected answers this afternoon at your own eighty nine point seven. We're talking about Boston and what the city needs to do to keep college grads and young professionals from

moving to other cities I'm Kalee crossly. I'm speaking with Cullen Kingsbury a writer for Boston Magazine and Maliyah Lazarou executive director for the future Boston alliance. You can join us at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Are you aiming to leave Boston. Are you someone who just moved here. How does Boston compare to other cities 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Now before we went to break you were mentioning Sydney Australia as an example of the possibilities and I wonder if you just describe that and then I'm going to take a lot of calls here. So Sydney Australia is one of the models that we're actually looking at you know a lot of cities have this problem and liquor licensing is something that can you know very quickly become Chet's right and and white people can pass out to get favors and so their liquor license works. It was extremely expensive

and Sydney basically became a frat house and they were able to track and see people leaving Sydney from Melbourne literally because young professional couples couldn't have things like date night. You know young women don't want to go out by themselves. And so a lot of people felt trapped in their own home just because of the feelings and the bars because they all they could do was produce value. Right that's how they were going to make money and I think we're not that bad. But that's part of our problem so if you have people who only have you know three hours to drink and you release all of them at the same time and you can't get people into cabs and you can't move people guess what happens with drunken people alright is violence people don't act within their you know within their best selves and and I think we rather than just becoming very punitive and you know and blaming the folks who who are involved in blaming all of us for what a couple of people who are obviously just very angry people in general are doing. I think it's important that we look at different models that there are you know that

other successful cities have used. OK. Craig from Metro West Boston Go ahead please you're on the Kelly Grassley show. Eighty nine point seven I think a lot of the point you brought up an excellent one but I think one of the most basic. What do we need to do to make the area to make Boston a more welcoming city. We've been in the area for more than a decade highly involved in civil war going to zation. We're still referred to as the new people and what do we know. Yeah you're right. I mean if it's a decade of community involvement still as you referred to has been you guys you know what's the point there's got to be a general feel that it makes the area more accepting. Thank you so much Craig. Colleen that's an excellent point. Yeah absolutely I mean there's a lot of people here who came over with the first load of bricks. And it's not surprising I think if you didn't go to college here. Like for me I was also a transplant from evil New York of all places and it was going to

college here that I then got connected with a lot of local people and slowly got adopted. The I think a big part of it is that because of some of the things Molly has talked about and what your caller is talking about is that a lot of those people come here they're here for a few years and they're like oh man this place is awful. I'm leaving and so you don't create You don't create a dynamic that's welcoming to new people because all the new people leave. So I think all of these things if you do these more of the transplants will actually take root here and they'll remember their experiences and be a little more tolerant and accepting. All right Jay from Boston Go ahead please you're on the Calla Crossley Show. How are you guys. How I first want to say is you know I think it's I love this by the boss and one thing the guy was talking about is trying to keep people who create business here you want to keep busy. But for me I think it's great because I have a small record label that are trying to grow it as opposed to go New York or L.A. or the bigger

cities where I mean I guess the idling just you rent. I feel like here it is. There's more that allow us to focus on your business and still have the store. Cost of living. I think it might not be such a bad thing. Absurd over on noise readers because regardless of where they end up they got their start in Boston. Yeah but. But what if you leave after you start your thing then we don't get the benefit of your talent and your business day. Well I'm back. I mean when I was able to start here. That will never change and that's always going to play a huge role in whatever I do wherever I go and I think it's important to create new life for new business as well. I don't think that turnover. That's really a bad thing I think it brought awareness. I've rated it. OK well that's one perspective. Thank you so much. When you want to weigh in on that I do the I think one thing that comes up a lot in any of these discussions about Boston and what do we want it to be is I think a lot of people have ideas

about what Boston has always been like that sometimes and not to go after Jay too personally here but that are not necessarily true. And we think of. And so Boston today has a population of around 600000. If you go back to around 1950 I think we had a population of around 800000. So Boston is a small in that measure or a smaller city today than we were a long time ago and I think if you and there are and if you look at a city like Detroit or Cleveland or that they've gone from being a million to half a million so I think the fight for us is. It's not like we're never going to be in New York I don't think Jay has to worry about us becoming you know like that. But but I think we do have to worry about us turning into Cleveland OK. I want to bring Jessica Martin in she is a research manager for the Boston indicators project at the Boston Foundation. Jessica thank you for joining us. Hi thanks for having me. The Boston indicators project really takes a look at what are the chief indicators that

keep talent here that attract people to Boston so you all are right at the center of this conversation have been for some time. And one of the big issues is the retention of recent college graduates. Can you talk a little bit about how tough that continues to be. And that's of these of the what has been saying and column has been saying about trying to keep talent in Boston. Drifting because when you look at what's happened over the last decade rather than what happened in the previous decade in the 90s it looks like we've actually started to increase the population that key demographic of 20 to 34 year olds. So from the year 2000 to 2010 over the last census that population actually grew by about 11 percent in Boston. And this is largely due to an increase. It looks like college students graduate students this guy getting people ages 20 to 24 grew by about 18000 over the past decade. But when we look at the 25 to 34 year olds or the younger workforce they only grew by about 3 percent. So this whole group as a whole actually did grow

faster than the city population as a whole but again we see a drop off from the kind of undergrad college and graduate school age population and the young workers. Now that research has been done by the Boston Federal Reserve has shown that really jobs are the number one reason why people stay or why people leave. Me. And you know we know that Boston has done better than a lot of cities and regions around the U.S. throughout this recession that that may have contributed to some of this. Some of the the population growth that we're seeing are some of the retention that seems like we may have started to see in the past decade. But also issues. Just connectivity some of the things that the callers just brought up about being new vs. being of the community those are still very important to young people and people of all ages coming into Boston. And if I may Jessica isn't it true that these days and times when when young people understand that they're never going to be someplace for 30 years if you are a you are the

talented person and everybody is coming after you can make a lifestyle choice or you can make a decision based on lifestyle. And so what I hear anyway and what I think Collen Millia have have underscored is that a lot of young people who are talented say well you know if I've got a struggle I'm struggling Sam says go and be have a little bit more fun have a little bit more to offer me and take my talent there. Are we not facing that as a big issue here. Oh certainly I mean I think every major city is facing that as an issue especially a place like Boston that does attract so much talent so many people at a certain point in time I mean really very few other cities in the nation attract the kind of talent that we attract of people who are between the ages of 18 and 24. So it's certainly retention is going to be a bigger issue for someplace like Boston. But you know I can't necessarily tell. There are a lot of these numbers why people are staying or why they're leaving we can just kind of infer based on some of the job

opportunity issues the housing affordability issue which turned out to be not quite as big as. Some of the other drivers are as we might think we do know that you know many of the talented people who do come here and specially to our very selective colleges and universities do tend to leave. The Fed has also found that those at the highest most selective colleges and universities have the highest mobility rates after graduation. Well there is the point. You're listening to eighty nine point seven WGBH an on line a WGBH dot org. We're talking about Boston and how the city needs to change to offset its reputation as a stuffy town a town that can't hold on to young folks. I'm joined by Collin Kingsbury a writer for Boston magazine. Molly allows you of the future Boston alliance and Jessica Martin. She's with the Boston Foundation you can join the conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. You can write to our Facebook page or send us a tweet. Betty from West what rests West Roxbury I can say it. Go ahead please you're on the Calla Crossley Show.

I Cali. I just wanted to echo Billy's point about the centralized government. I just return. Of a time traveling to Portland Oregon where I had lived before living in Boston and. It's just amazing how much better it seems like the city work. And I just feel that Boston you know if somebody were to govern Boston Boston that was not from Boston that that might be a huge benefit because we are so steeped in our tradition and you know this is the way it's always been kind of mentality West Roxbury is very much known for peace and I think and you need to you need to break the mold and if it feels like it's very incremental here you know nothing has to change quickly and you just don't have that kind of time anymore. So that's that's really my point. I think just one small example is I don't think the city looks

very good. You know you walk on the Freedom Trail we take our relatives there in the line isn't even painted properly anymore it's all worn out in some major places. And I mean I think if if some of the small things are looked at disclaiming up in front of buildings Portland Oregon is incredibly clean there are bubblers all over the place with clean water coming out of the you know they have a farmer's market. It is just as much activity but it shifts its sparkling clean and I don't know how they do it but I think Boston could do it too. Betty What drew you to Boston given that you had such a great experience elsewhere. Well Mike I grew up here not in the city in the suburbs. So I I returned and and you know and I like a lot of the things about it but I don't like the you know I think this centralized government notion to me is huge is a huge part of the problem

and it's always been that way. OK. I'm just. Thank you so much for the call. I want you to pick up on that because you know that's part of what the fused future Boston Alliance is saying. But I don't think a lot of people understand what that means exactly but I thought her point about if someone other. From Boston let's face it it was really quite eye opening. Right right I think whenever you get a fresh set of right different things are seen and that's critically important. The other thing about about looking towards a more decentralized structure is that you put the onus on the residents. Right so it's not just you can't blame them right. You find a way to include them and to have them have by and people in Portland have buy in in their civic space. You know when my mother lives there and and when you go there people do really have that sense of of a civic civic feeling you know like the third sector I

guess you could say and and we don't necessarily have to have that here. And the people who want to have buy in they'll have to hang around long enough to do it Jack. Anybody white and I think you know this guy who was talking about I've been here for 10 years and people are like oh you're a newcomer you know at the loosened up when I was on that panel had to loosen up Boston and the Boston Public Library. This guy said this guy from Beacon Hill said well I'm a I'm a Boston resident. Now I had just gotten jury duty that day so I know I'm a Boston resident. And I said while a Boston resident too. And now how are you different from how is your residency somehow bigger or you know should take President over my residency. You know I'm a voter I live in Fort Hill I live within the city limits. And he and I are actually getting coffee next week to talk about how to bring young people in you know I think we're not giving ourselves a chance because we're saying like oh well this is how we are we're stuck in our ways and the fact of the matter is that's just not true people want to feel good about the city they

live in and you know back in the 1950s and even before that we. Kind of a cool city I mean Elizabeth Gardner wasn't throwing Puritan parties and you know she was having a good amount of fun and and you know there was the high had and there was the speakeasy scene in the 20s and what other city can boast Frederick Douglass Malcolm X and a ground poet I mean we have such a such a unique diversity here that we should be celebrating. And I think we were unfortunately becoming more closed rather than more open. I want to just read one line from Peter Goelz in this column because he's pushing back on some of you guys who are speaking out saying Mayor Menino in this in the centralized government is the problem. This is the last sentence of his piece in which he says too bad you people are just no match for the mayor and forget it. And furthermore there needs to be some significant political buy in when this new generation of hipsters decide to stop jumping up and down long enough to

haunt street corners and West Roxbury Sevan Hill Roxbury Charles Town and Southey with candidate signs and nomination papers when they flood city hall to register to vote and go door to door stuffing campaign flyers into mailboxes then and only then will they be dancing to Tom Menino soon. So yeah you're not involved in the political process. Well that is not shot. I mean I think you know I mean I mean first of all. You know I love the Boston sarcasm of his piece and his very tongue and cheek ness and and I think it's feelings like that that reinforce you know why. It's why everyone assumes that the Bruins comments were coming out of Boston right. Those kinds of feelings and that type of negativity that I just don't prescribe to I don't prescribe to it in my personal life and definitely not in my political life. You know young people helped get the first black governor elected they also helped get the first black president elected. This idea that we're apathetic you know politics is the only multibillion dollar industry that blames his consumer for not buying its

product. I started mass vote back in 1996 and what we found out when you know we were in several redistricting lawsuits and got Tommy Findhorn in trouble right. Was that if you ask people to participate they will. And I think that that that type of feeling that Peter puts in his column is just you know for me it's really unfortunate and I think it's something that we that we as and young people and I'm glad everyone thinks I'm a young person. The young people I work with tell me all the time I'm not. But you know we don't prescribe to that type of words either this or that and if you're not on it. I mean what is that really like. Is this where we are in 2012 this is how we want to interact This is how we want our children to see the conversation in the final thing I'll say about that is that if given a choice to participate or not. People will participate and rather then just pointing the finger at them. You know I want I would love for Peter to come to Carmel and to see what it is that we do and what it is that we really mean because you can't put new wine in old skins.

All right. Collin quick comment for you before we go to break. Yeah that piece really was I thought quite awful and I think that if we look if we look past I would say you know smart money is he's right. And I looks at something like the case of Sam you know who was very promising up and coming new figure in politics until he ran against the mayor and promptly became more radioactive than a worker at the Fukushima plant. And basically the political lock there is so bad that he had to pretty much leave town to you know to get a job and I think what is the. Is that good for the city. Because if you look at what Peter's piece is really doing is it's I think on a certain level celebrating that kind of brass knuckles politics and you know it's fun from a sports perspective. But you know from the horse race aspect of it but is that really what we want to be. Well I got a few other criticisms for you guys to handle when we come back. We're talking about Boston with a focus on

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great deal you'll feel great while you're doing it. But act fast. The spring auction ends on May 30 first place your bids now at auction. WGBH dot org. Welcome back to the Calla Crossley Show. If you're just tuning in we are talking about Boston with a focus on how it compares to other cities from housing to job opportunities to our nightlife. With so many college graduations underway is Boston offering newly minted grads enough incentives to stay here. We're at 8 7 7 3 0 180 978 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. I'm joined by Collin Kingsbury a writer for Boston Magazine Malea Lazarou executive director for the future Boston alliance. And Jessica Martin a research manager for the Boston indicators project at the Boston Foundation. Now one of the things that I want to hit is that Mayor Menino we're talking a been talking about this decentralized government or centralized government is case is has really pushed innovation in the

city. I want innovators I want innovation I want people to stay here. We've got a district there's a lot of of his talking about it certainly and that has to mean something coming from. His office but call him when you talk about innovation you're particularly frustrated because you say innovation means the ability to move now and that is not something that Boston does. Absolutely. I think that the Boston Globe panel there was a great example of this and I think the fact that the mayor recognizes this is good. He's actually I don't think he's as out of touch as it sometimes painted and does recognize that these things have value. But but as I think I said before and kind of comparing against what he was saying about Portland there isn't a sense of urgency here at that global panel. One of the things that came up was talking about food trucks and Randy Lathrop of the BRACA had mentioned that Boston Redevelopment Authority good writing had mentioned that. The trucks being located down

in the financial district at night that Boston police had said how they liked it because people were spilling out of bars and instead of you know getting into knuckle sandwiches with each other they were going and getting barbecue from you know where things from these food trucks are so that's good it's a moderating influence. And they were saying well one of the woman who owns the Bon meat food truck said well we're not allowed to park anywhere near bars because we're seen as competitive. And then others said that in their most trucks are only allowed to stay open until 10:00. But we're trying we're starting to have a few open until 11:00 and then maybe next year we'll have some up until 12:00. And there was a sense of like well could you do a little here and a little there. And I'm thinking why don't we just allow them to be open till 2:00 if their business is open till 2:00 in the area. Why do why do we have to move slowly Why do we have to take one little step in one little step. Why can we take a bigger step as other cities do. Right. And I think a place like Portland they have something to prove. They have to you know 10 years ago. Nobody outside of the music scene knew who

Austin Texas was. Now they have these huge conferences going on there and they're attracting enormous attention. These are places that frankly we have to set ourselves apart for good reason. Boston is pretty satisfied with ourselves we have some amazing things here but we get a little comfortable sometimes. And I should know what the food truck trend Buster was behind on that already to begin with because it was happening everywhere else. And if I can do a little commercial please come to WGBH and bark. We'd be happy to have you here. But I'm just saying that as an indicator of being in the moment in the Now if you look at food trucks as a microcosm of what's happening in other cities you know we were even slow to get on that train it took forever and it's still as you pointed out some struggles. I also wanted to bring up the liquor licenses as an issue because we've we've mentioned that in passing here but I'm sure people that don't know you know how that impacts folks. You talked about Sydney and what they were doing. I also want to talk about how that also has overlapped with Bostons reputation as a place of

racial bias because actually Diane Wilkerson is in jail now because she was trying to negotiate a deal with an African-American vendor to expedite the liquor licensing process which a lot of folks of color are kept out of it. One law firm handles that here it's very close. Yeah I think very expensive. Right like thank God we have Garrels sometimes so this kind of stuff overlaps and people don't think about it you have to say the same thing got to bring up the Cura lounge incident Cura lounge was just cited for you know people dancing and you know that seems ridiculous in this day and age they don't have a license to allow people to dance. But I've got to say Cura lounge could have had some other people in there if you had kept out some persons OK but they should have been cited for that not for the day while they were there. But I'm just saying that this all of the stuff overlaps and comes back to the brand that you know keeps getting put out there as you were talking about. Yes yes yes you know what one of the big things about decentralized structures and one of the reasons why it's it's hard especially for Bohemia to take them on is

that you have to let go. Right you have to allow for a merge and you have to let street you know let food vendors stay open until 2 a.m. and see what happens. Right. You don't start being punitive before and it's if you will. Creativity and innovation I mean that's basically what's happening you look at the Green Street vault guys I mean here are young kids out of Emerson College starting this you know starting this fashion truck. And Karmaloop was one of the first people to really support when they started getting attacked now you would think that Karmaloop would see them as a competitor. Right they sell the same kind of clothing the same kind of sneakers. But what we knew was that we needed stuff like that to be seen as cool like this is a great idea. Why not have a rolling fashion truck store. Because God knows we're not going to get a store like that in Roxbury or not upin or in Dorchester. So why not have dared be able to drive to Washington Park on a weekend. You know and it's really important that we do see how how these things and the feeling whenever I say that we're in a majority minority city

and I say that to you know one of my friends who's of color they're like shut up where are we that you know we don't we don't we don't see him right we don't get it. Want to know yeah right. You know and where you do with either at the Sheraton at you know at a rented hall or in someone's house. Right so. So I think that we do if we want to actually do something different and we have to act different. OK let me get this collar lies from Mansfield. Go ahead please you're on the cowling Crossley Show eighty nine point seven. Hi thanks for taking my call. I am 23 years old. I grew up in such very mass. 30 minutes west of Boston. And I just finished a nine month road trip all around the U.S. exploring different cities and seeing what kind of things they had to offer somebody my age about to embark on a professional career and I find Boston just to be so normal. The so were traditional and still and very hard like very

concerned with its institutions and its traditions and compared to places like Austin and Portland and Asheville North Carolina. There's just so much life there's so much. Exactly like you said innovation and creativity and just weirdness. Really this quirky weird things that are going on there and often doesn't seem to value that at all. All right. You're you're you're representing a lot of folks that Collins been speaking about here and writing about. So thank you very much for the call. Thanks so much. I want to read this current Facebook comment from Marina Ein the mother of two 20 somethings. What Boston needs to do is provide well-paying jobs. It takes money to stay out until 4am if the bars are open exclamation point and to take cabs or go out to eat and so on. There are other cities that have jobs perhaps minus the excitement factor but but the income expenses ratio is more favorable. Jessica you want to respond to that. Well boxing is a very expensive city particularly in housing at the Greater

Boston housing report card for 2011 did find that Metro Boston has I believe that there are at highest rental markets. We do also have relatively speaking. Higher higher wages than a lot of other cities. But again it is very expensive to live here and many young people many house household in general are spending upwards of 35 percent 50 percent of their income on rental prices. So that definitely is something to be concerned about here and everywhere. Although what we do see is that Boston does tend to have more opportunities or has fared so much better in Q3 better than other cities and other regions throughout the recession. Hiring demand has been a little bit higher in metro Boston than in other metros across the U.S. And so it's you know it's not great anywhere I think but we are you know we do have more opportunities here in some cases particularly in education health care finance which is kind of our We'll have industry.

So and it's particularly important it's very good as you said before about those people who are most want it who we want would want most want to stay in town. So there's a lot of that. Thank you very much Jessica for just making that point. Janet go ahead pleased from Cambridge I like Cali. Yes your advice here when I listen to you every you know thank you. But if you are at the corner grocery it was a big day. I've been here. I came to college and I've been listening to great fascination to your program as I always do when I checked. One comment about Boston compared with Austin San Francisco or even Portland Oregon. Whether you know why they're here why they're here. Guys turn people off. My brother went to Cal Tech instead of MIT because of the weather. All right well thanks. Collins had a different experience looking around colony. You say that that in the whole scheme of things doesn't keep people if you had other stuff that would keep people away. I don't think it just I mean there are cities like Oslo is an incredibly cool

city. Copenhagen is like that in London. And none of those places are are known for their weather New York's climate is not that different from ours. Chicago is is hardware that's like the Arctic tundra up there ANY of the Canadian cities that are very desirable as were wrong or that so. So it's the other stuff. It's of course everybody complains about the weather and nobody here does anything about it or anyplace else for that matter. All right well we're going to and we're going to see that weather might turn some people away but again it's the combination of all of all of the stuff I don't know that I have to go and talk to make a point about the job because I think that is critical we're all trying to every city is trying to figure that out now and when it comes to allowing small businesses to thrive. They are the real job creators right it's the small businesses across America that keep people employed. It's not only the Googles right it is not only the Facebook. If we can encourage those small

businesses and that's why our first program that future Boston Alliance is going to be an accelerated program where we're going to help craftsmen and you know people outside of tech and medical we're going to help them start businesses because we believe it is that quirky jewelry store on the corner if she can survive that help give a feeling to the city. CONAN You wanted I was going to say that it's one of as you look at this Boston is and has become over the years one of these super elite cities that if you're an awesome developer if you're a biochemist if you're a high end banker then there are massive opportunities here. If you're a little bit below that upper 5 or 10 percent of professionals it's a harder road and I think Molina's point about these other kinds of businesses the food trucks the retail trucks making it easier for all kinds of small craftsman to do things those are creating opportunities that are accessible to people who didn't go to MIT or Harvard. All right so I note that there was a recent article about something called Night Club apartheid here in town. And I just want to make a point that Phillip Martin who works here at WGBH wrote a

piece in 1998 about the exact same thing so my point is this. With 30 seconds left to go can Boston change or will we be here five years from now having the same conversation golly we've been changing. So I think it's absolutely possible I think to some extent I feel like all I want is for the mayor to just keep following through on what he says he cares about and look at speed as well as distance covered. OK. Jessica can Boston change. Absolutely I think when you look at who our future is in terms of the young people of our population we have no choice but to change Malia last seconds. Boston can do whatever Boston decides to do because we are not only the first city but we are the best city. All right. OK well that's good I like by the way the last line of your video which is something about the future is really us. It's ours if we want it yeah. All right well thank you all both so much all all of you so much for this interesting conversation. I hope that you maybe this is the last time we have this one this

time. I've been talking to Collin Kingsbury a writer for Boston Magazine who of the future Boston alliance and Jessica Martin she's with the Boston Foundation and we've been talking about Boston and what the city has going forward and how far it needs to go to compete with other world class cities. Thank you all. You can keep on top of the Calla Crossley Show at WGBH dot org slash Calla Crossley. You can follow us on Twitter. Become a fan of the Calla Crossley Show on Facebook today show was engineered by Antonio only are produced by Chelsea mergers will Rose lip and Abbey Ruzicka lire production of WGBH Boston Public Radio.