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An avid reader of editorial pages and opinion columns, I usually skip over the puff pieces written by prominent politicians of various stripes – or, more accurately, by their staffers. But sometimes a carefully crafted piece of political happy talk manages to speak volumes, albeit not in the way it was intended.
Along those lines, I did a doubletake when I spotted, on the opinion pages of our leading local newspaper, an op-ed piece by Gov. Charlie Baker and fellow governor Larry Hogan of Maryland.
The governor of Massachusetts – home to Greater Boston, the nation’s most traffic–clogged metro area – hosting the National Governors Association’s Infrastructure Stakeholder Summit and opining about solutions to highway gridlock? And his co-author, the governor of Maryland, the state with the nation’s second most congested roads?
Now that’s rich!
And since the summit is not just about roads, but “infrastructure,” let’s not forget that the governor of Massachusetts also oversees one of the world’s most reliably unreliable public transit systems, otherwise known as the MBTA.
Out-of-State Honesty
Comic possibilities abounded of governors from Oklahoma and Nebraska blundering around, lost on the Blue Line in Revere or stuck on a tour bus in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Route 128, but alas, it was not to be.
The national infrastructure turned out to be much more of an intimate, regional affair, with Baker and Hogan joined by New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo.
There was a field trip to some sort of state traffic control center, but no unauthorized Red Line forays or embarrassing highway delays, with Baker and his fellow governors safely ensconced at Boston’s Fairmount Copley Hotel.
It took Raimondo, the sole Democrat in the group, to cut through the happy talk and get to the heart of the matter, while also managing a not-so-subtle dig at the host of this grand infrastructure summit.
“Having just driven up here this morning, I can tell you the traffic is brutal,” Raimondo told reporters.
Maybe it’s no wonder, then, that Raimondo is teaming up with Baker to explore a high-speed rail link between Providence and Boston.
Sometimes a carefully crafted piece of political happy talk manages to speak volumes, albeit not in the way it was intended. Such was the case when Gov. Charlie Baker penned an op-ed with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan about transportation issues in their states.
What Was Left Unsaid
Raimondo’s no–BS comment about the state of Greater Boston traffic was that much more refreshing, though, in light of the essential lack of candor in Baker and Hogan in their op-ed piece in the Boston Globe.
It wasn’t so much what the governors had to say about the transportation woes their states face, but rather what was left unsaid.
The gubernatorial duo touted the Maryland’s “historic” $14 billion investment in transit, before going on to acknowledge the said projects might offer relief to “local residents, who suffer the nation’s second-worst traffic congestion and the second-longest commute times.”
That’s some rare candor, albeit in a piece that ran in a Boston newspaper, and not exactly on the home turf of Maryland commuters caught in murderous Beltway traffic.
From there, the op-ed zips off into the Baker–Polito administration’s wonderous proposals for tackling highway bottlenecks, skipping right by one very simple and relevant fact.
While Maryland residents may be slogging through the nation’s second worst traffic, guess who holds top honors in this dubious category? None other than Massachusetts, of course, but you wouldn’t know it from reading the governors’ op-ed.
Baker Played Role in Underfunding
Yet maybe the most disingenuous part of the op-ed is the way the governors, and Baker in particular, try and distance themselves from the years of transportation underfunding that led to the current mess we are in.
Sure, the governors decry “the effects of decades of under-investment in our transportation system on our roads, bridges and public transit,” while pointing a finger at cuts by the federal government.
But state governments, including here in Massachusetts, have spent years cutting and skimping on spending on transportation infrastructure, from highways and byways to new subway cars.
Scott Van Voorhis
Much of the damage was done under a series of Republican governors, from Bill Weld to Mitt Romney. And Baker was there from the start, serving as a top cabinet official under Weld and then later under Weld’s successor as governor, the late Paul Cellucci.
More out of necessity than desire, Baker is now trying to redefine himself as the transportation governor. But he has been a reluctant transportation warrior at best, forced into the role by the triple collapse of the commuter rail, bus and subway systems during the epic snowstorms of the winter of 2015 and the Great 2019 Red Line meltdown.
It’s all nice and fine that Baker wants to position himself as some sort of transportation savior, but he would make a more convincing case by acknowledging his own role in creating the mess we are now in.
Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.
