After an extended hospital stay, Mayor Tom Menino’s ability to pick up where he left off is a testament to the good will he has banked with Boston voters.
It’s also a testament to the lock Menino has on city politics — as well as to the power of the old-boy network when it comes to protecting its own interests.
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All true - but is it healthy for the City of Boston?
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Actually "fairpl4y" raises a more interesting question than Vennochi's article. Is it good for Boston? "Kitch" quickly said no and I of course no longer live there, but still Menino. Hmmm. Well the public certainly seems to think so. I know the Menino "machine" but you can't have a machine these days if folks don't at least like you. When I lived there I loved Boston. Had no great complaints. although I'm not one to whine about "taxes" or "fees" or such. I'm more into streets plowed, electricity, in those days schools. Darn it, I'll have to admit it, I really don't know if it is good or not. I suppose if I were one of those "crazy haired" anti-govt types I wouldn't like it. Nah, I just can't find anything to wire up about.
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Well "Kitch" I"ve never been much of a term limits guy but I get where you are coming from. It can seem like some pols hang on long after their usefulness is worn out. Still in the enterprise that is govt. there is something to be said for knowing how things work.
One of the things I learned in my years of public service is that one of the biggest problems with the public is they have no idea on how things work. Not only from a political standpoint but from the very practical application of how it works for them and what they have available to them through govt. I spend a lot of my retirement time helping folks navigate SS and Veterans Benefits.
A little of the"devil you know" is going on, but absent serious problems, who the opposing candidates are will make the difference.
There is a crisis in the Boston school system _ but, only if people can recognize the issues.
There is a crisis with unsolved crime in Boston City.
There are major issues with Mayor Menino's penchant for holding grudges. . . and the list goes on, and on, and on.
Here's a crisis, there's a crisis. Everywhere there's a crisis. Kind of makes the word meaningless. I haven't noticed the sky falling, or the city on the brink of bankruptcy, or a huge crack running through Government Center.
Most intelligent people know that not every problem is a "crisis."
Where was the Menino clout when Martha Coakley lost? Boston is a small city. I grew up there,and chose to leave the city 16 years ago to raise my kids elsewhere. All of my friends have left because the Boston schools are a mess. Menino has not improved the schools at all. Anyone want to dispute that? Why Menino is afforded the respect he gets baffles me. The city ran fine without him because he is a figurehead. Does anyone believe he understands the city budget? Does he know the residential tax rate? Does he realize he is clinically obese?
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Toooo Funny! "Does he realize he is clinically obese?"
Dr. Judy Ann Bigby is Menino's primary physician _ what more is there to say.
"If he does, he will win." That may well be true, but damn, I just don't get it. I *never* have a conversation with anyone who doesn't think that Menino is well past his shelf life and can't wait for a new era to begin. Who ARE these people who keep electing him? I am registered unenerolled, but was born with a "D" on my forehead, and haven't seen a reason to vote for a Republican for a long time, although I'd love to. I get *nothing* from the city that I see as fair recompense for the taxes I pay. As a homeowener at the end of a dead-end street in West Roxbury, I am basically snowbound all winter because the city refuses to actually make the street drivable. Trash isn't so much "picked up" as "spread around" and I have to find my barrels every Monday. Street cleaning? City Hall civility? There is NOTHING about this man's administration I see benefiting the average person, so it has to be the unions and big business, that's always what it comes down to, and there are more of them than us. So I guess I'd better get ready to genuflect.
IF not for the Dem blinders the email deletion / coverup scandal should have brought this guy down.
Don't you mean Mitt's e-mail deletion?
You remember Mitt's hard drive theft too.
And I don't suppose there's any chance Boston's voters stay with Menino because he's a good mayor. Shouldn't that be up to Bostonians, not kibitzers?
It is not respect for the status quo, but rather fear of political reprisal, that keeps other s from challenging the mayor in an election.
Menino has done a pretty good in most respects, but he has created a very dangerous vacuum. His adminstration is exhausted and out of ideas. The police department has gone backwards, the fire department is a corrupt sinkhole of money, and the school department is not competently managed.
All anyone cares about is "will the mayor get mad"? That is an idiotic way to run a major city.
The police department hasn't gone backwards. You must not live in Boston. The police here were corrupt for years. Back in the 1980's I twice came upon a scene of police brutality. One of them is still vivid in my mind -- a young kid being beaten on his legs and and torso by two cops on Boyston St. while two other cops held him upright by his arms.
I remember an incident several years ago where police sexually assaulted a male in a police station with a broom handle. I could go on, but there's no point. We don't see or read much of that nowadays.
I don't have the energy to discuss your other ridiculous and ignorant statements.
Ascribing Boston's 250 million Elizabeth Warrren votes to Menino's mention is innaccurate. Warren campaigned in Boston for the entire year, met with and was endorsed by clergy, by labor, by women's groups and others. She worked and worked and worked.
Did his machine help? Yep. But it wasn't the only thing.
Another way of saying respect for the status quo is to say that Bostonians feel Menino has done quite a good job as mayor. I used to live in the South End, in a very mixed-income neighborhood that is about as well-integrated as Menino's Boston gets. Tommy Menino has intentionally broken down those nasty old barriers of race, ethnicity and class to create a more integrated city that places respect for people as a higher priority than it used to. His government is effective and about as efficient as I've ever seen one. As a Bostonian, I found little to complain about and much to praise. He's done a good job, and as far as I'm concerned, he ought to continue it as long as he's able.
"Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason,” is a saying that has appeared on bumper stickers, but is of unknown origin.
You get your information from bumper stickers nowadays?
Normally, I agree with Joan Vennochi. The problem I have with trashing Mayor Menino is that, as far as I can tell, he hasn't done anything wrong. I don't have a long history with the South End, but I like the direction it is headed right now. I also have to applaud Menino for his approach to bringing cycling into the downtown area. His hospitalization wasn't the result of any recklessness on his part, so I say we support him. I don't know much about the history Joan V. refers to in her column, so I don't know about any Good Old Boys. I do know that I work with some Good Old Boys and Tom Menino is not even close to being a Good Old Boy. Carry on, Mr. Mayor.
There are no "political machines" that I know of, but some in the press use that term too readily to describe popular politicians who have held office for several years and have been able to organize some of their supporters.
Political machines of old used coercion, patroniage, the spoils system, powerful bosses, even ballot fraud. They once gathered up people on the street and marched them to the poles. It's pejorative and negative term.
Tom Menino is no Michael Curley. Today the "organization", a neutral and non-perative term, consists of neighborhood offices and persuasion. Nobody stuffs the ballot boxes or coerces voters. If they do, you should be exposing it, rather than hinting such things go on by using code words.