White was more than a quarter century removed from power when he died in the company of his family after a long illness on Friday night. He could walk virtually unknown down Beacon Hill, through the garden, and into Copley Square, as he frequently did.
Despite the anonymity that sunset often brings, this Boston, the contemporary Boston, what White and others used to refer to as the “New Boston,’’ still carries his mark on every brick, every dream, and every plentiful promise - fulfilled and unfulfilled - that defines this town.
White is often given credit, justifiably so, for remaking the city’s skyline, for overseeing the reconstruction of Quincy Market into the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, for launching the careers of dozens of Boston’s brightest lights who saw in him a reason to dedicate themselves to civic affairs. They, in turn, have changed the city, the state, and the nation in the 28 years since White vanished swiftly and almost entirely from the public stage.
But perhaps his most critical accomplishment is a little more ethereal than any of that. When White arrived in power at just 38 years old, the first mayor to sit in what was the new City Hall, Boston still suffered the reputation as a parochial backwater forever doomed by the twin political vices of cronyism and corruption.
The two mayors before him worked hard to unshackle what they knew to be the city’s potential. John B. Hynes launched the construction of the Prudential Center, a 52-story tower, then the tallest in the world outside of New York, rising from what had been a sprawling rail yard. John Collins razed the tawdry bars and shops of Scollay Square to make way for Government Center and hired a planner, Ed Logue, who recognized possibility in every grimy block.
Say this about Boston voters: Going back more than half a century, they have a knack for electing good mayors.
