Thomas Menino

Thomas Michael Menino (born December 27, 1942) is the current mayor of Boston, Massachusetts. He is the city's first Italian-American mayor as well as the city's longest-serving mayor. A native of Boston, Menino served on the city council for several years before becoming mayor. He worked to bring the Democratic National Convention to Boston in 2004. He was the subject of public debate in 2012, when he said he would work to prevent Chick-fil-A from coming to Boston over the organization's stance against gay marriage. In late March 2013, a Boston reporter said that Menino would announce that he is not running for re-election as mayor.

Early life
Menino was born in Readville, a part of Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood. He is the son of Susan and Carl Menino. Menino received an associate degree in business management in 1963 at Chamberlayne Junior College, and went on to the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Community Planning in 1988. He currently resides in Hyde Park with his wife, Angela Faletra, with whom he has two children: Susan and Thomas, Jr.

Political career
Menino served nine years on Boston's city council when Ray Flynn left the mayor's seat to become United States Ambassador to the Holy See. Menino, the council president at the time, became acting mayor for four months. He was elected to his first term in November 1993, defeating State Representative James Brett 64% to 36%. He became the city's first non-Irish-American mayor since 1930. After running unopposed for a second term in 1997, Menino defeated Boston City Councilor Peggy Davis-Mullen in 2001 for a third term with 76% of the vote and in 2005 garnered 67% of the vote in beating Maura Hennigan, another councilor. On July 13, 2009, Menino became the longest-serving mayor in Boston history. On November 3, 2009, Menino garnered 57% of the vote, defeating Boston City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty and securing an unprecedented fifth term.

According to Menino’s official biography, “Among his main priorities, are: providing every child with a quality education; creating affordable housing; lowering the crime rate; revitalizing Boston's neighborhoods; and promoting a healthy lifestyle for all city residents.” Menino was president of the United States Conference of Mayors from 2002 to 2003. He resides in Hyde Park with his wife, Angela Faletra, and children, Thomas, Jr. and Susan. On March 27, 2013, Boston journalist David Bernstein reported via Twitter that Menino is expected to announce that he will not run for re-election this year.

Construction
In 2006, Menino proposed two major construction projects that would have a significant impact on the city. Trans National Place is a proposed 1000 ft tower to be built on the site of a city-owned parking garage in Boston's Financial District. The second proposal calls for the city to sell Boston's City Hall, a 1960s example of Brutalist architecture. Menino would then have the city use the proceeds from the sale to fund construction of a new seat of government on the South Boston waterfront, on the site of the current Bank of America Pavilion (Drydock 4). As of early 2011, neither project had moved forward.

In March 2011, Menino proposed renovating the abandoned Ferdinand's Furniture building in the Roxbury neighborhood and relocating 400 Boston Public School employees from the School Department's headquarters at 26 Court Street, a block from Boston's City Hall. The "Ferdinand" building is a circa-1895, Baroque Revival structure located in the Dudley Square area of Roxbury. The renovation is estimated to cost $100–115 million, an amount raised by issuing municipal bonds that would be paid back by selling or leasing five of the city's municipal buildings.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns
On April 25, 2006, Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hosted a summit at Gracie Mansion in New York City, during which the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition was formed. The coalition, of which Menino remains co-chair, stated its goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The initial group consisted of 15 mayors; the 15 drafted and signed a statement of principles and set a goal to expand their membership to 50 mayors by the end of 2006. That goal was met six months ahead of schedule, and led to its current membership of 210 mayors, with members from both major political parties and 40 states.

DNC 2004
Menino brought the Democratic National Convention to Boston in 2004. Though controversial in the beginning for fundraising difficulties, security concerns, protests by unions, and inconvenience to residents, Menino estimates the convention generated $150 million in business for the city; meanwhile, other estimates suggest the convention generated $14.8 million for the city.

"Beantown" to "Greentown"


In 2008, the City of Boston was ranked as the third greenest city in the United States by Popular Science. In the last decade, there have been new initiatives around planting more trees in the city, single-stream recycling, increasing the solar power capacity of the city, investing in alternative energy, and biking. One of the most innovative ideas has been green building zoning, which requires large-scale private construction to be “green” by LEED standards. Boston is the first city to revise its building code to ensure green construction. The documentary The Greening of Southie by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis tells the story of the first green residential building in Boston.

The city has partnered with other government agencies and local businesses to accomplish its goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 7% below 1990 levels by 2012, and to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

Chick-fil-A opposition
On July 19, 2012, Mayor Menino stated that he would work to prevent Chick-fil-A from opening restaurants within Boston, especially near the Freedom Trail, citing their opposition to same-sex marriage and what he called Boston's status as "a leader when it comes to social justice and opportunities for all." The next day, Menino sent a letter to Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy. Menino urged the company to "back out of your plans to locate in Boston" because of his stance on gay marriage. Gay rights supporters applauded the mayors support of gay marriage rights, while first amendment advocates decried the potential for abuse of office to infringe on free speech rights. Menino later stated that he knew there was little he could do as mayor to prevent them from opening restaurants, and that he was stating his personal opinion. He maintained, however, that they were not welcome in the city.

Cities Are Neighborhoods
Menino is also known for focusing on neighborhood development in Boston, organizing services by neighborhood and appointing neighborhood coordinators who serve as ambassadors from the city in their areas, believing that development should happen in every neighborhood. In 2001, Governing magazine named Mayor Menino Public "Official of the Year" for effective neighborhood development in Boston. This model has spread to other cities as a result of its effectiveness.

Other initiatives
The Mayor's Youth Council, started in 1994, meets with Menino twice a month to discuss youth issues in the city of Boston. In April 2011, in an effort to battle obesity, Menino banned the sale and advertising of sugar-loaded drinks from city-owned buildings and city-sponsored events.

Public opinion
Menino enjoys high approval ratings among Boston residents. An April 2008 Boston Globe-UNH poll indicated that the city was “smitten” with the mayor, with a 72% approval rating; 54% reported having personally met the mayor. Menino's perennial popularity has garnered him the tongue-in-cheek epithet "Mayor for Life."

Menino has met with controversy a few times during his political career. In 1993 when running for mayor, Menino pledged to serve "only two terms, and that's it for me." In 2001, when Menino ran for a third term, he clarified "I promised I'd serve two terms - in every century." In 2001, Menino personally intervened to help stop a chain drugstore from opening a few blocks from a pharmacy owned by a close friend and political supporter. The case raised the question of favoritism and cronyism in the city's zoning and licensing practices.

In 2008, the Friends of Mary Cummings Park delivered a complaint to the Massachusetts Attorney General alleging breach of charitable trust by the Menino administration, which had sought to sell over 200 acres of public parkland for development. The Menino administration had used hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Mary P.C. Cummings care and maintenance trust fund, substantially depleting the fund, to pay for legal services working towards breaking the trust and to hire a real estate agency to prepare a extensive plan on how to develop the public parkland as either commercial or residential real estate. According to the Boston Business Journal, Joe Timilty, "the former Boston city councilor and developer who spent time in prison for his part in a 1980s real estate deal gone bad", was among those interested in acquiring the land from the City. "Timilty at one point looked closely at the Route 128 land owned by Boston, hoping to build an upscale golf community featuring a green surrounded by luxury homes". Attorney General Martha Coakley, a fellow Democrat, declined to investigate.

In 2009, the Boston Globe printed an article alleging dirty tricks in Menino's mayoral campaign race. The article reported several instances of questionable behavior, including more than one case of Menino's associates monitoring mayoral opponent Michael F. Flaherty's Facebook affiliations. According to the article, the Menino campaign sent out a campaign memo containing the name of at least one small business owner who supported Flaherty. In 2011, Flaherty alleged that his former running mate Sam Yoon had to leave Boston after running against Menino because the mayor's allies made it difficult for Yoon to find a job locally.

In 2011, controversy arose surrounding Menino's decision to evict members of the Occupy Boston protest on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Menino later commented that "I simplify [sic] with their issues, some of those issues we really have to look at in America, but when it comes to civil disobedience I will not tolerate civil disobedience in the city of Boston."

Malapropisms
Mayor Menino is known for his distinctive voice, thick Boston accent and malapropisms, leading some (such as conservative radio show host and author Howie Carr) to call him "Mumbles Menino" or "Mayor Mumbles". A typical example involves a reference to Boston's parking shortage as "an Alcatraz around my neck" (meaning, instead, an albatross around his neck). He referred to former mayor John F. Collins as "a man of great statue" rather than stature. On a public service announcement about prostate cancer, Menino said, "Together, we can defeat prostrate (sic) cancer." At least one website has been developed to document Menino's verbal gaffes.

During the 2004 Major League Baseball playoffs, Mayor Menino was at a Boston Red Sox rally when he said, “Much like a cookie, I predict the Yankee dynasty will crumble and the results will be delicious for Red Sox fans." During the 2004 presidential race, Menino was asked if he would run for John Kerry's Senate seat should the Senator win, and responded "I will not be candidation nor I'll seek, but I'll accept a draft.".

During a ceremony honoring Boston Bruins hockey legend Bobby Orr, Menino mentioned a number of "ionic" Boston sports figures, including "Varitek splitting the uprights." Jason Varitek was a member of baseball's Red Sox; Menino probably had Varitek confused with Adam Vinatieri, the New England Patriots football kicker known for game winning kicks in Super Bowls XXXVI and XXXVIII. Also, at a dedication ceremony at the Tobin Community Center in 2010 when the Boston Celtics were in the NBA Finals, he mispronounced NBA Commissioner David Stern's name as "Donald Sterns." Menino congratulated the 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins, an ice hockey team, as "great ball players on the ice and great ball players off the ice."

In January 2012 when discussing the Patriots during the 2011-12 NFL Playoffs, Menino referred to wide receiver Wes Welker as "Wes Weckler" and tight end Rob Gronkowski as "Grabowski." During the NBA playoffs the same year, when talking about Kevin Garnett ("KG") and Rajon Rondo of the Celtics and their run in the championship series, he said, "There’s a lot of heart on this team, let me just tell you, K.J. is a great ... but Hondo's really the inspiration. I mean Hondo drives that team."

On January 16, 2013, Menino was on the phone with Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake discussing the upcoming AFC Championship Game pitting the Patriots against the Ravens. In the conversation, Menino mistakenly called Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork "Wilcock," despite having been wearing Wilfork's jersey at the time. In the same conversation, Menino mistakenly referred to the injured Rob "Gronk" Gronkowski as "Gonk:" "We have it all. (Aaron) Hernandez is going to do a great job. He'll step in for Gonk because Gonk's hurt."

Health
Menino has been hospitalized several times since taking office. He has been admitted for abdominal pain and intestinal inflammation, and was treated for kidney stones in 1995 and 1997. In 2003, Menino underwent surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital to remove a rare sarcoma (DFSP) on his back. The tumor had not spread, and the mayor was able to return to work in a matter of days. In 2004, the mayor's doctors confirmed he has been diagnosed with Crohn's disease, helping to explain his recurring intestinal problems. The condition requires life-long treatment with anti-inflammatory medication and careful monitoring of his diet.

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