Boston’s little sister is Charleston, S.C. Both have an affinity for old things: historic churches, cobblestone streets, mayors who cling to office like barnacles in their salty old harbors.
Between them, Thomas Menino and Joseph Riley have spent 57 years in office. Charleston voters elected Riley to his 10th term in 2011. He’s a spry 68. Menino, if he runs again, will seek a sixth term at 70, even as he battles Type 2 diabetes. Not that it matters — FDR taught us that physical indignities need not impair the ability to govern.
Comments
Come on! This is as about as silly a column as I have seen in the Globe lately. Check back on the youngsters in five years and see what they are doing--it may be great and it may not be. There are reasons why Mayor Menino should be carefully thinking about the future. Opening up the job to a 22-year old is not one of them. By the way, I notice you don't live in Boston.
"FDR taught us that physical indignities need not impair the ability to govern." I beg to disagree, but not because of his polio. The outcome of the Yalta Conference, and the post-war structure of Europe, might have been very different had FDR not been on his deathbed from cancer. But a politician need not be dying in order to underserve his constitiuents, age and inertia can be even more damaging. Ask Fidel.
Grammar Point-The last sentence of the article reads: "Old age and treachery has long overcome youth and skill, but nothing trumps the age-old allure of something for nothing."
Shouldn't "has" be replaced with "have" (the plural verb) because "old age" and "treachery" together make mulitple subjects?
From the magazine “Planetizen” “From the establishment of the nation's most proactive food truck program, to rolling out a mobile city hall, to launching Circle the City and a new parklet program, 2012 is the year Boston embraced tactical urbanism" Not bad for an "old" guy ..
Wake up readers, Menino isn't going anywhere and when he does decide to go somewhere (anywhere?) the "machine" will DECIDE who replaces him and continues to propagate the, well, machine. Hey, you created this joke of a state voters, now you have it super sized. Enjoy having your brains taxed out.
One thing we learn in Boston. You do not take a shot across the bow on Mayor Menino. All this column does is intensify his resolve.
I would suggest that all the cities are actually striving to become a Boston. Perhaps the GLOBE might want to revese this story and it would be more on target and factually correct.
Any of the other cities mentioned in this article would envy and trade places in a second to have any of the following Boston traits/initiaves; the cleanliness and condition of our streets, sidewalks, parks, the building boom in Seaport, South Boston & city wide. Thriving business base along with a medical and educational infrastructure and insitutions--second to none. A restored harbor and on and on... I guess our old ways might just be the model for the young newbies to follow--and why not ask them to comment???