The Curley Effect: A Tale of Four Cities, Pt. 1

Political scientists who study local government and politics sometimes write about the Curley Effect.

Part 1 of 6 of the Tale of Four Cities series

By Terry White and David Therkelsen

The phrase is named for colorful rogue politician James Curley, who held public office in Massachusetts almost without interruption from 1899 to 1950. It describes his method of winning reelection in each of his four terms as Mayor of Boston. (You might say he served two terms concurrently – his fourth term in City Hall overlapped with his first term in prison.)

Here was his sure-to-succeed formula to hold on to the Mayor’s office.  He spent gobs of money, and millions of words of incendiary rhetoric, on policies and programs that benefited the poor Irish working class and drove elsewhere those paying for the programs.

That’s how political science scholars view his legacy, but some outside of the Ivory Tower give Curley more credit. A later mayor, Ray Price, said Curley’s policies and programs did a lot of good. His public sanitation efforts led to decreases in communicable diseases. He motorized the Boston Fire Department, halving response times. He implemented a 48-hour work week for city employees at a time when the norm was 60 to 72 hours. He supported equal pay for women teachers.

How did Curley pay for all this when most of the people of means took themselves and their taxpaying means out of Boston? We’ve looked for but not found convincing answers. To us, the Curley Effect seems cynical, self-serving, and just plain bad governance. He drove out the rich, kept the working poor, and thereby secured landslide victories at the polls every time.

So was James Michael Curley good for Boston or a self-dealing charlatan? Both, maybe? We don’t have an answer, but the question is a paradox in line with others we will explore in a six-part Minneapolis Times series that starts with this article and will be followed by more through the summer and into the fall.

Here’s our reality in Minneapolis. Property taxes are rising. Downtown property values are falling. Storefronts sit empty. Residents are divided on how to address addiction on our streets and the growing housing population. These are not new problems, but they are getting harder to solve. Our city needs new ideas, but where will they come from?

The best ideas often come from other places who have faced – and in some cases conquered, in other cases maybe not – similar problems. Minneapolis is far from the only city where the quality of life has been threatened by seemingly intractable problem.

In this project, we are looking in-depth at three such cities: Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. We’ve already consulted about 50 sources that help us reach a tentative understanding of what’s going on in each of these cities. Did conditions get bad over the last decade or so? If so, did they get better? How? What combination of civic, community, business and political leadership helped overcome intractable problems – or fail to, as the case may be?

Today we leave on an 11-day trip to visit each of these cities for two to three days each. We’ve arranged meetings with leaders representing multiple perspectives in each city, and we’ll connect with ordinary citizens to explore topics such as these:

• Housing and the unhoused, harm reduction, enforcement, and what cities have actually tried.
• Commercial real estate and business attraction, vacancy, incentives, and what draws employers back downtown.
• Public schools and the social safety net, programs that moved the needle and those that didn’t.
• Policing, taxation and governance, models that balance accountability, revenue, public trust, and compelling civic outcomes.

Our preliminary research points us toward some specific lines of inquiry. There’s a tax on high paying businesses in Seattle and a similar measure being considered in San Francisco. What’s the experience so far; does the revenue from the new tax more than offset the losses involved in some businesses leaving for friendlier tax policies? People are moving into and out of Portland at about the same rate (actually, slightly more are moving out), but those moving out have considerably higher incomes on average than those moving in. What consequences, positive or negative, has this brought about? All three cities are facing budget deficits next year. How are they solving them?

These are important matters to study, and we are studying them – through research and also through conversations involving people with diverse perspectives.

We don’t undertake this as a political project, at least not in any partisan sense. We are not interested in promoting a party, a candidate, or an ideology. We intend to talk to people who actually live inside these challenges and bring their stories and lessons back to Minneapolis. We have no pre-set agenda. We are just seeking experience and ideas that Minneapolis can use.

We’re especially interested in pinning down results. It’s results, not ideology, not any positions on the political spectrum, that matter. Is homelessness getting better or worse? Are employment opportunities increasing or decreasing? Are police/community relationships improving or deteriorating? Are city finances strong and stable? Are more people coming than leaving, or is it the other way around? What is the evidence, what is the proof?

The remaining articles, which will run from August and likely into October, will include one on each of the three cities we are visiting. Another one looking at Minneapolis’ own circumstances and how they compare with the other cities. And a final one that will attempt to tease out whatever recommendations that Minneapolis could adopt in the months and years to come to assure our city is socially and financially strong, that it is safe for everyone, that it has the energy and vitality that characterizes great cities.

Why these cities and why us?

People we’ve spoken to about our project have suggested a number of cities that might be good candidates for examination. In selecting Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, there is a degree of arbitrariness; we could have made different choices. There is geographic proximity; it will be fairly easy to travel from one to the next to the next. All are larger than Minneapolis, but by a couple hundred thousand population, not millions. Although they are only a little larger than our city, their budgets and per capita taxation are much larger, raising questions of are they spending and taxing too much, or we too little? Or both or neither? These are interesting and perhaps uncomfortable questions, and we are pursuing them.

As to why us, “labor of love” is a cliché, but it fits. We’re both long-time residents of Minneapolis who have paid close attention to civic and political affairs here for many years. We’ve written about our city, Terry mostly in the Better Minneapolis blog and podcasts, Dave mostly in Minneapolis Times and Strib letters and Op-eds. We’re receiving no compensation, though we’ve asked for some community help to cover most of our travel expenses.

Both of us regard Minneapolis to be a beautiful, vibrant city with assets rarely so abundant in a city of less than half a million people. Neither of us are blind to its problems and issues. By undertaking this exploration, we hope to provoke discussion and debate that help Minneapolis be the best city it can be.

We’re receiving great and enthusiastic support from Minneapolis Times publisher David Tinjum, who himself is quite knowledgeable about the strengths and challenges of US cities. Because this is indeed a volunteer project for the two co-authors, both of whom have plenty of other things going on in their lives, we’ve not promised David a specific timeline on when the next five articles will get to him, but we’re confident that they’ll all be in print by Halloween!

There’s an old Irish toast: May you arrive in heaven 15 minutes before the Devil knows you are dead. It’s likely that in his time glasses were raised to Mayor Curley with these words. Was he the hero of ordinary working people; a modern-day Robin Hood? Was he a rascal and a scoundrel? Was he the personification of paradoxes that confront those of us who pay attention to civic life and public policy? Our Minneapolis Times series will wrestle with questions like these.