Rep. Barrios Gets Results In Brief House Term

"Barrios means neighborhood."

In the summer of '98, that constituent-oriented campaign slogan for Jarrett T. Barrios '90 was chanted, plastered on bumper stickers and printed in campaign literature.

Now, a year after Barrios, a young Democrat from Cambridge, won his State Representative seat, he is showing that Barrios also means results.

His effectiveness in the last year has sometimes been overshadowed by media portrayals focusing on Barrios' homosexuality and Latino heritage.

In a recent interview with The Crimson, Barrios emphasized his results in the last year--and his disappointment at the inevitable typecasting.

"I'm always boxed," he said of the 'gay Latino' label that has been attached to him.

Entering the Public Realm

Before his campaign last year, Barrios took a hard look at the issues--and the ideology--which would soon define his political style.

He was a lawyer at the prestigious Boston firm of Hill & Barlow, but he says it was more for the salary than for a love of working in a private law firm.

"How else do you pay $1,300 a month in law school debt? You have to get a job that helps you pay it," Barrios said.

He had always planned to go into public service, and his curiosity was piqued by the area of public interest law.

In politics, Barrios found a way to satisfy both these interests.

Directly after graduating from Harvard, he interned as an aide to a Boston City Councillor, getting an early taste of Massachusetts politics.

But he apparently picked up enough political savvy along the way to run what local politicos called a brilliant campaign in 1998.

His success came from a simple tactic: listening.

"When I campaigned, I found people wanted somebody who represented them, to both represent their values and to be results-oriented," he says.

So he focused on "making a difference on affordable housing, on schools, on childcare, on healthcare--issues that matter in this neighborhood," he says.

His number-one campaign promise for the voters of Cambridge was more affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families.

"One of my top priorities was passing a state low-income-housing tax credit," Barrios said.

He fulfilled that campaign promise when he co-sponsored the Massachusetts Low Income Housing Credit and helped get it included into the state budget--the first credit of its kind in 10 years.

The tax credit will be given to developers who would normally develop middle- and high-income housing for high profit. The tax credit will offer an incentive for developers to build affordable housing.

Simple Plans

During the interview, Barrios displayed energy and passion as he described his achievements of the past

year.

Surprisingly, he didn't show the most passion about his legislative successes but about the simple accomplishment of securing funds and support to renovate the decrepit Magazine Beach park.

Barrios cites this challenge as one in which he had to get people to think in different ways, which he says is one of his most important goals of his term.

"It's a place for low-income folks who can't afford to go to Martha's Vineyard to go," he said. "It meant a lot for me to see if we could make a difference in the environment [where they live]."

Thus Barrios began an eight-month long talk to get the Metropolitain District Commission (MDC), which owns and operates the park, to allow the City of Cambridge to help physically and fiscally improve the park.

His persistency paid off in November when the city council voted on the agreement between the city and the MDC.

Now the two bodies will jointly run the park, with Cambridge using its resources to help improve the riverfront space.

New approaches to problems, he says, have been a key to his political ideology.

"The challenge for me with the agencies which impact my district was to get them to think in different ways. We do right by [voters] by thinking about ways about the ways we could solve problems," he says.

Voters, too, should consider fresh approaches, he says.

"It's my job to help them think in different ways. What I've learned most in my first year is it's trying to use my skills as an advocate to bring me and my peoples into the conversation," he says.

The Magazine Beach park victory was one accomplishment that had little to do with legislature but a lot to do with people skills.

"It had nothing to do with legislature," he says. "It was using the offices of bully pulpit to advance the issues that matter to me."

He often has to think broadly about his job like in this instance, he says, in order to serve his constituents rightly.

A state legislator isn't only a representative, he says.

"A state legislator is also an advocate. If it benefits my constituents to spend time over at the MDC instead of in my office at the State House, then yes, I'm going to spend my time doing that," he says.

To maintain contact with his constituency, Barrios meets with his neighborhood advisory committee and his informal cabinet.

"They keep me in touch with what

is going on. They also help me to define what I'm going to work on," he says.

An Accomplished Year

Barrios' other legislative undertakings display his belief in being an advocate for poor people, Latinos, gays and lesbians--or any of the 40,000 people that populate his district.

In the past year, Barrios was instrumental in a bill for interpreter services in hospital emergency rooms, an issue that affects many of Cambridge's immigrant residents. The bill was one of three health care bills to come out of the House this year.

His successes are many, but Barrios has also hit a few roadblocks.

He introduced a bill to increase the wage of human service workers to a "living wage" of $10.50, in order to maintain a high quality of service to people who need home health care.

However, at $60 million, this bill proved too expensive for this year's state budget.

Right now the bill is 'in study' in the Joint Committee on Commerce and Labor--which means it won't move without more research.

On a more personal note, Barrios, who is Cuban-American, started a book project for a Cuban library where some of his family members work.

However, because of sanctions against Cuba, the Cuban government did not allow him to donate the books to the town library.

Looking to the future, Barrios is looking to push a bill that would require mortgage institutions to lend to low-income neighborhoods. The current law requires only banks to lend to low-income neighborhoods. The inclusion of mortgage institutions, which Barrios says direct 60 percent of lending resources, would help fortify these communities.

"I needed to have the answers. God was smiling on me when they put me on the banking committee," he says.

Away From Stereotypes

Despite his achievements, a large part of Barrios' media play has focused on his unique position--the young, gay, Latino lawyer cum state representative.

Though this label can be restrictive, Barrios says that he has used his status as a "double minority" in positive ways.

"At the end of the day it's been a very positive experience," he says. "If I had allowed myself to have been marginalized, then I would have been

marginalized."

"To get angry in response to that [labeling] isolates me and cuts me off," he continues.

Instead, he says, he tries "to be true to my constituents, and in a friendly way, to bring people into my world"--and into his barrios.