In a democracy, people get the mayor they deserve...
Apr 23, 2008 10:44
So, is this the best we can do? The Boston Globe
reports that Mayor Menino is wildly
popular,
especially among
women.
He gets high
marks
for trash pick-up and keeping the streets and parks
clean; but a lot of that work is done by frustrated
residents, who join his
community clean-up
brigades,
or just hire private companies to clean up around
their block. He
attributes
his popularity to his work on health issues (??) and,
amazingly, on the public schools, which are still,
after 15 years of his reign, marked by seriously
uneven and racially skewed quality -- even with all
the private money he lures into them for after-school
and other special programs.
He knows that he gets a lot of mileage just by showing up, getting around, meeting folks, talking to them. But he talks to people he wants to talk to; he doesn't necessarily meet with people who want to meet with him. The Safety Net group fighting the bioterror lab has tried for six years.
I've tried too, last time in 2004 when he was ordering his departments to allow the unlawful tear-down of the historic Gaiety Theatre. I was at the front desk begging the secretary for an emergency meeting to tell him the demolition scaffolding was up, and he should halt the work because a community development group wanted to rehab the Theatre and build housing above. He happened to come out of his office, and I told him. He smirked, "Really? The scaffolding is up?" and walked away. The secretary told me to send in a letter requesting a meeting; the waiting time was six months. The Gaiety's graveyard is still a rubble-filled pit; no theater, no housing, no taxes, no jobs -- all of which would have been achieved by the proposed community project. When I later put in a Public Record Request to get information on his relationship with the property owner, he ignored the Request totally; not even a NO. This is the real Mayor Menino.
When I get to ask him questions in public, he never faces the problem head-on, but says what he wants to say and moves on. He won't debate during elections; he doesn't have press conferences; he doesn't appear at community meetings where people are contesting controversial issues, like development or institutional expansion -- he uses the BRA as a shield for that. He's been "negotiating" with the police and fire departments for 15 years, and finally the FBI has to come in to investigate. I'm wondering what it takes to interest the FBI...
He won't talk about unfair property taxes; he won't admit that he gives away our capital budget to the BRA by giving it valuable City land.
I don't ask to meet with him any more, because it's a one-way conversation in each direction. Either he doesn't understand, or he knows but doesn't care.
I once asked a group of black community residents why they support Menino, since their neighborhoods and schools are treated so shabbily. They answered that they are used to getting so little from politicians that the bit of attention he shows them is enough to get their votes. Maybe that's true of most other people, too.
The way to cook a frog, the saying goes, is to put it in cold water and turn up the heat very gradually. It seems that a whole lot more damage can be done before Bostonians, right here in the cradle of democracy, will jump out of the pot and make better use of their power.
He knows that he gets a lot of mileage just by showing up, getting around, meeting folks, talking to them. But he talks to people he wants to talk to; he doesn't necessarily meet with people who want to meet with him. The Safety Net group fighting the bioterror lab has tried for six years.
I've tried too, last time in 2004 when he was ordering his departments to allow the unlawful tear-down of the historic Gaiety Theatre. I was at the front desk begging the secretary for an emergency meeting to tell him the demolition scaffolding was up, and he should halt the work because a community development group wanted to rehab the Theatre and build housing above. He happened to come out of his office, and I told him. He smirked, "Really? The scaffolding is up?" and walked away. The secretary told me to send in a letter requesting a meeting; the waiting time was six months. The Gaiety's graveyard is still a rubble-filled pit; no theater, no housing, no taxes, no jobs -- all of which would have been achieved by the proposed community project. When I later put in a Public Record Request to get information on his relationship with the property owner, he ignored the Request totally; not even a NO. This is the real Mayor Menino.
When I get to ask him questions in public, he never faces the problem head-on, but says what he wants to say and moves on. He won't debate during elections; he doesn't have press conferences; he doesn't appear at community meetings where people are contesting controversial issues, like development or institutional expansion -- he uses the BRA as a shield for that. He's been "negotiating" with the police and fire departments for 15 years, and finally the FBI has to come in to investigate. I'm wondering what it takes to interest the FBI...
He won't talk about unfair property taxes; he won't admit that he gives away our capital budget to the BRA by giving it valuable City land.
I don't ask to meet with him any more, because it's a one-way conversation in each direction. Either he doesn't understand, or he knows but doesn't care.
I once asked a group of black community residents why they support Menino, since their neighborhoods and schools are treated so shabbily. They answered that they are used to getting so little from politicians that the bit of attention he shows them is enough to get their votes. Maybe that's true of most other people, too.
The way to cook a frog, the saying goes, is to put it in cold water and turn up the heat very gradually. It seems that a whole lot more damage can be done before Bostonians, right here in the cradle of democracy, will jump out of the pot and make better use of their power.
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