The politics of parks

City Councilor Tito Jackson is so vexed by the idea that a new building downtown would throw an early-morning shadow on Boston Common that he is willing to forego a massive new investment in the Common and Franklin Park, which are in desperate need of long-term financial support.

Or could it be that Jackson’s opposition to the Winthrop Square project is less about the skyscraper, and more about the man promoting it?

Yes, if Mayor Marty Walsh says something is good, then as the candidate trying to unseat him Jackson simply has to say that same thing is very, very bad. That’s politics, of course. Unfortunately the campaign seems to be complicating what should be a rather simple discussion.

For the proposed tower to proceed, Walsh and the Boston Planning and Development Agency need the City Council to go along with a change in state law governing building shadows on the Common and Public Garden. The change would allow fleeting early-morning shadows from the new building but the city would collect $100 million up-front from the sale of the property, and another $50 million from future condo sales.

In floating his opposition to the plan in a January op-ed, Jackson complained that the revenue wouldn’t go toward new affordable housing. A valid concern — but the same piece waved off the millions the city had earmarked for parks, including $28 million for Franklin Park, Boston’s largest, part of the famed Emerald Necklace and home to a zoo, golf course, athletic fields — all in desperate need of investment (another $28 million would benefit the Common).

Jackson is on firmer ground when he frets that the city’s proposal pits neighborhoods against each other. But to claim that the city is selling its “soul” to the highest bidder, as he did at Monday’s hearing, is just, well, nuts.

In fact, it’s selling a rare and valuable piece of city property — and earmarking the revenue in a way that benefits the entire city. A fair and honest assessment of the project would acknowledge its benefits and its flaws. Then again fairness and honesty rarely factor into political campaigns.