As promised, here’s the last of Brighton Reader’s thoughts on former Mayor Ray Flynn, who BR argues wasn’t the father of modern Boston progressivism as recently portrayed in this Globe op-ed and later discussed by Hub Blog here and here. Simply put, Flynn was more complicated than any single label. He was part liberal, part populist, part deeply conservative Catholic, as Brighton Reader remembers him. From BR:

“During Ray Flynn’s first campaign for mayor in 1983, Peter Lucas labeled him the ‘Lech Walesa of Boston politics.’ He was sometimes called a populist, given his working class background, focus on neighborhoods, support for unions, and for rent control, too. He was out in the neighborhoods as a city councilor, and a publicity hound. Both traits continued as mayor, sometimes going into the ridiculous (grabbing a fire extinguisher from a Santa Claus!?). But Ray first made his mark as a state rep with relentless opposition to legal abortion. That issue gave him the attention that got him onto the Boston City Council and ultimately led to his the candidacy for mayor. …

“During Flynn’s first winter storm as mayor, he hopped in a plow alongside the driver, reporters from the then robust Boston media corps (tv stations! Newspapers! Radio stations!) went along for the ride. It was a hallmark of his mayoralty, the streets were plowed, the parks improved, street cleaning and resident parking expanded, abandoned cars were towed.

“There were two ‘factions’ in the Ray’s first term, those on the left were called ‘Sandinistas.’ The other didn’t have a name, as I remember, but were the South Boston/Dorchester people who had supported him for years, also the pro-life people from across the city. The Sandinistas were mainly activists, not from Boston, who supported him based on things like rent control and linkage, and had gotten to know him after he became a city councilor. Ray Dooley, Flynn’s campaign manager, seen as the leader of them, became head of a the Department of Administrative Services. At the time, this role made him the most important department head, overseeing the budget, with lots of influence on city policy. Having been campaign manager, he had a good relationship with Flynn, which gave him even more influence. He could get people hired throughout city government. 

“Joe Fisher, Flynn’s trusted confidant, was the most influential of the other group. His desk was just outside of Flynn’s office. He was another person with lots of influence on policy, hiring, who got what. He didn’t oversee any department directly, he was a ‘special assistant’ to the mayor.  He landed in jail for taking bribes.

“Btw – Ray Flynn and Billy Bulger were both from South Boston. They did not much care for each other.”

Photo above via city of Boston archives.