But apart from his dubious residency, what do we know about Josh Kraft? Well, the current articles will probably mention that he is the son of billionaire Bob Kraft and that he was CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Boston for many years. He’s also the current board chair at the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts.

In the feudal era, older sons would inherit the family wealth and younger sons would be sent to the priesthood. A similar principle seems to be at play in the family of American oligarch Robert Kraft. Oldest son Jonathan runs the family business while younger son Josh was put in charge of reputation laundering, i.e. philanthropy. (For an in-depth look at how philanthropy serves the interests of the wealthy, check out Anand Giriharadas’ Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. Or just use your common sense—why would billionaire oligarchs have any interest in changing a world that has made them among the wealthiest people in history?)

So yes, Josh Kraft worked at the Boys and Girls Club for a long time. But, of course, any nonprofit hiring a billionaire’s son knows this is a pipeline to serious cash for the organization. I don’t know anyone who works at the Boys and Girls Club, but if it’s like any nonprofit I’m familiar with, its successes can usually be laid at the feet of the hardworking, underpaid folks at the bottom levels of the organization, who often manage to do good in spite of, or at least without any meaningful assistance from, upper management.

But maybe Josh Kraft really was an excellent CEO. This doesn’t change the fact that the man owes his entire career to his father’s money. Which leads me to my first point that I believe disqualifies Josh Kraft from being Boston Mayor. How can a person who has never once in their entire lives had the thought “I don’t know if I can afford this” empathize with the lives and struggles of ordinary Bostonians, especially in an era when the cost of living is one of the biggest challenges of living here? How can he understand the importance of schools to Boston’s families and neighborhoods? How can he understand really anything about being a non-wealthy person in Boston?

I initially thought that The Globe’s enthusiasm for Kraft’s candidacy was based on just this. Because the Globe’s point of view on all things Boston is to prioritize the interests of people who come to Boston over people who live in Boston. So I figured they’d prefer a mayor who will cater to suburbanites and CEOs rather than one who prioritizes Boston residents.

But then I decided to look into some publicly available documents. First I found that Josh Kraft’s home in Brookline is owned by a trust—I have no idea why one does this, but I assume it’s one of those legal but morally questionable tax avoidance things that rich people do. Anyway, there it is. He’s signed over the deed to his Newton home to his wife Carolyn, who is a bit of a local activist in Newton, speaking out against rezoning to make housing more affordable and against the Newton Public Schools’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts.

Then I looked at ocpf.us, the site that tracks Massachusetts campaign donations. And here’s where I found another possible source of the Globe’s enthusiasm for Kraft’s as-yet-unannounced candidacy. He gave $1k to Andrea Campbell in the last mayoral election as well as $1500 to the Better Boston PAC that supported her candidacy and whose donor list is a who’s who of anti-public-education rich people. Reed Hastings! Chris Gabrieli! Jim Walton! Stephanie Spector! Eleanor Laurans! Stig Leschly! (hedging his bets, he gave $1k to Michelle Wu as well).

Okay, so clearly The Globe wants a mayor who will work to charterize the Boston Public Schools, and it looks like Josh Kraft is that guy.

But let’s head over to opensecrets.org and look at Josh’s donations on the national scene! Because here’s where things get really interesting! There are a lot of donations, mostly to Democrats, including familiar names like Joe Kennedy, Richard Neal, Ayanna Pressley, Mike Capuano, Dan Koh (lol) and Jake Auchincloss. But there are a few donations here that should be extremely worrisome to Bostonians.

In 2019, Josh Kraft gave $1500 to Ohio Representative Bob Latta. Four years earlier, Latta cosponsored a bill to amend the Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. In 2020, Latta signed on to the amicus brief in the Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit that sought to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. In May of 2021, he voted against authorizing a commission to investigate the January 6th insurrection.

In June 2020, Josh Kraft made a $1500 donation to help Illinois Representative Mike Bost stay in office. Bost was another cosponsor of the bill to amend the Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. In 2017, Bost explained he didn’t do town hall meetings because he didn’t support “cleansing that the orientals used to do.” Bost also signed on to the amicus brief in Texas v. Pennsylvania.

In July 2020, Josh Kraft donated $1500 to Georgia Representative Buddy Carter, cosponsor of a 2011 act to criminalize abortion nationwide under all circumstances. Buddy Carter is also against LGBTQ rights and said in 2017 that “we should teach the Bible in schools.” Oh yeah, he’s another signatory to the amicus brief in Texas v. Pennsylvania.

In February 2022, Josh Kraft donated $1500 to Wisconsin Representative Glenn Grothman. Grothman’s career is littered with more hateful and idiotic stances and statements than I have room to list. Here’s his Wikipedia page, and here’s a link to a video about Grothman from Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’s “People Who Somehow Got Elected” series. In 2022, anyway, Grothman got elected with help from Josh Kraft!

In September 2022, Josh Kraft rewarded Ohio Representative Bob Latta for his anti-democracy actions with another contribution: this time for $2900.

I understand that rich people and corporations give money to politicians for access, not ideology, which is why Kraft, like many rich people and corporations, gives to people from both parties. I assume Kraft’s donations to out-of-state Republicans are tied to business interests his dad’s company has in those districts or that are overseen by committees these guys are on. But the Krafts are sitting on more money than they could possibly spend in their lifetimes. They could certainly afford to take a financial hit by not supporting hatemongering congresspeople. But Josh Kraft chose to support them anyway.

I don’t know Josh Kraft’s positions on bodily autonomy for women, whether LGBTQ people should have the same rights as straight people, or whether the 2020 election should have been overturned. But I do know this: Josh Kraft has actively supported people on the wrong side of those issues.

I don’t know what, if anything, is in Josh Kraft’s heart, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. If he believes in the subjugation of women and LGBTQ people and the undermining of democracy, these things make him unsuitable to be Boston’s mayor. And if he doesn’t believe in the subjugation of women and LGBTQ people and the undermining of democracy, but he’s given monetary support to those who do, he’s shown such little regard for the lives and welfare of all Bostonians that he is unsuitable to be Boston’s mayor.

Seriously, we ought to be past the idea that a rich guy is going to ride in on his white BMW and save us all. Shame on The Globe for puffing up this candidacy, and while we’re at it, shame on the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts for making a man who supports hatemongers its board chair.

#politics #Boston #BosPoli

It’s not bad! The proposal seems respectful of the site and will make a lot of improvements to the stadium that will benefit Boston’s student athletes, who will continue to use the stadium for most of the year. (Said improvements won’t actually benefit Boston’s American football players, since that sport, which is currently played at White Stadium, will no longer be allowed there. I’m okay with this because given what we know about what American football does to players’ brains, I don’t believe schools should be offering this sport anyway, but I recognize that I’m an outlier in this.)

They’re replacing bleachers with seats and adding amenities and not cutting down a ton of trees. And, as a daily user of the park, I’m in favor of bringing more people into it. It’s a beautiful, historic, and very underappreciated and undermaintained, and I’d love to see more people enjoying it.

So far so good!

But the transportation options for game days are just laughably bad. They want to bring 10,000 fans to games. And there’s essentially no on-site parking. The closest MBTA stop is close to a 20-minute walk up a steep hill. The proposal calls for shuttle buses from the Jackson Square and Forest Hills T stops as well as from some yet-to-be-named satellite parking lots.

Now look. I’m excited to have a league that hosts some of the world’s best players happening within walking distance of my house. I’m sure a lot of city folks will support the team. But if you want butts in seats, you’ve got to get suburban butts in those seats.

And it’s here that the organizers just seem wildly out of touch with reality. The idea that a girls’ soccer team from the suburbs is going to take 2 trains and a shuttle bus is tough enough without even considering the fear and loathing that many suburbanites have for the city.

I know from having taught in the suburbs that a fair amount of suburbanites believe that merely existing in an urban neighborhood is inherently dangerous, that your personal safety is compromised by being anywhere but a tourist area. Jackson Square and Forest Hills are used by a very diverse group of people. Jackson Square literally abuts the Mildred Hailey Apartments (f.k.a. the Bromley-Heath Projects.) Suburban girls’ soccer teams will not go there.

So I believe the project is doomed to failure. Boston had an NWSL team before—they played at Harvard Stadium in Allston, which is a long walk from a T stop and had limited on-site parking. And the team went under. I think the new team is headed for the same fate. Which is too bad, but not a tragedy for the city or anything. In fact, if the team owners sink millions of dollars into stadium renovations and the stadium is used exclusively by Boston Public Schools students, this will probably be a win for the city.

But my optimism here hinges on the idea that the folks making this proposal are either brightsided by positive thinking or else wildly out of touch with suburban soccer fans. There is another, darker possibility, which is that the team knows very well that their transportation proposal is laughable, and they’re going to get halfway through the renovations and then suddenly announce they can’t make the project work without taking park land for parking.

Mayor Wu says that paving any parkland is an absolute dealbreaker, and I believe her. But I also believe that the power dynamics change dramatically in the middle of the project, when the owners can threaten to walk away from a stadium that’s been torn up but not yet rebuilt unless they get their way.

I hope the city is prepared for some contractual shenanigans from the wealthy people who own the team (because, let’s face it, a well-developed sense of ethics is inimical to making the kind of money these folks make), but more than that, I hope I’m wrong.

#Boston #BosPoli #transportation

But here’s the thing about School Facts Boston. It’s not a parent advocacy organization. In fact, it’s unclear exactly what it is.

Here’s what we know: it was founded in 2019 by failed mayoral candidate/anti-public education activist John Connolly. According to Maurice Cunningham, who knows about such things, it was initially funded by The Barr Foundation, a “philanthropy” that funds a lot of education privatization initiatives.

On its website, School Facts Boston says it is a nonprofit. (It was incorporated as such with the Massachusetts Secretary of State). But it has not filed a form 990 with the IRS. It has a “family advisory board” but does not seem to have a board of directors. It lists no employees.

But on John Connolly’s LinkedIn, School Facts Boston is listed as his only job since 2018. I doubt he’s been volunteering this whole time. So who does he work for? For that matter, who at the group is a paid employee, and who’s a volunteer? How much money do the highest paid employees make? At legitimate nonprofits, this info is all on the Form 990. Here, it’s a mystery, despite School Facts Boston’s assertion on their website that they are “committed to transparency.”

So, okay, this whole organization is shady as hell. Who cares? The education privatization space is riddled with astroturf organizations funded by big pro-privatization donors: Democrats for Education Reform, National Parents Union, Latinos for Education, etc. School Facts Boston is just one more.

But here’s the thing—Vernee Wilkinson, who may or may not be an employee of School Facts Boston, was quoted in an article in the Boston Globe today about school bathrooms. The article, written by James Vaznis, identifies her as being “of School Facts Boston, a parent advocacy organization.”

A quick search for Vernee Wilkinson’s name on the Globe website shows she has been quoted in stories about the Boston Public Schools fourteen times in the last three years. Is there any other parent advocate who gets a call from the Globe once per quarter?

So this is why it matters. This organization has an outsized voice in issues of Boston Public Schools, and we don’t even know who they really are. We don’t know who signs the checks. We don’t know how many employees they have or how many actual BPS parents they represent.

(I suspect it’s not that many. A Wayback Machine archive of their website from 2020 says they’ll be expanding their Family Advisory Board to 40 members within a year. It still says that today, and there are only 13 members)

The Globe’s education coverage was bought—oh, sorry, funded—by The Barr Foundation a few years ago, so it’s pretty unlikely they’ll unmask who School Facts Boston really is. But if you know, feel free to tell me!

#Boston #education #BosPoli