The Mayor Who Should Be King

IN HIS MORE THAN 15 years of major public service, Melvin H. King has been a steady force for change in Boston, a vocal and forceful advocate for the city's dispossessed, the city's tenants, and the city's workers. Today he is facing seven other candidates in a preliminary election that will determine which two compete for the city that Kevin H. White has ruled for 16 years.

Mel King should be Boston's next mayor, not because he is Black, but because in a surprisingly strong field of mayoral hopeful, king has shown himself to be the best man to bring a divided city together. And Boston sorely needs a leader who will balance downtown development with neighborhood redevelopment, who will end corruption and patronage in City Hall, who will convince whites and Blacks that the city is big enough for both of them. Neither of the other two front-running candidates has convincingly shown that they have the integrity to salvage a city that has grown distant from its government and its leadership.

What separates former state representative King from the pack is his confidence that he is right. Unlike Raymond L. Flynn, he does not have to distribute 17 different campaign pamphlets to 17 different areas of Dorchester. Unlike David 1 Finnegan, he doesn't have to change his stance on issues to stay in agreement with the polls--the way Finnegan did after a Boston Globe poll showed overwhelming public support for the concept of "linkage," or connecting downtown expansion with neighborhood rehabilitation.

And unlike his two main rivals, King does not have to resort to ad hominem assaults when his proposals or his integrity are challenged.

We support King's agenda for improving lower and middle-class housing by protecting tenants from rent hikes and eviction and by seeking to reclaim landlord-abandoned housing. We support his continued efforts to use state end city funds to develop jobs and businesses on the community level. We support his efforts to stop race and sex related crimes through education and community programs rather than through "Kick ass" police enforcement. And we especially support King's confidence that the Hub can transcend racial hatred and violence.

When the field, narrows down to two, race is sure to become an issue. Though King may be leading in the polls against a large field, analysts predict the either Flynn or Finnegan would be favored over a Black candidate. And the high level of the campaign so far will most likely erode two candidates find themselves in the homestretch.

Of King's two major opponents, Finnegan, the former School Committee chairman, has run a campaign without ideas, without principle, and without conviction. Flynn, on the other hand, may be a man of conviction, but the many questions about his past opposition to busing--including a proposal to abolish mandatory education--and an inconsistent record on social issues can only lead one to believe that he does not have the political savvy to run the city.

That is why it is important to support King now and in the final election--because he is the only front-running candidate who has truly exempted himself from the vulgar opportunism endemic to city polities. True, King is not the most dynamic of personalities, and true, he has no management experience. But neither do any of the other frontrunners.

And what Mel King lacks in experience he makes up for in vision. Call him too optimistic or call him too idealistic, but if there is one place that needs such a man, it is City Hall.