After a century of Irish Mayors, Thomas M. Menino is the Ist Italian American Mayor, and is in his 3rd term, and is currently president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Menino has another important first, and has succeeded where so many others have failed, in that Boston may be one of America's first cities — incorporated in 1630 — but Boston has NEVER before played host to a major-party convention. The top five sites: Chicago, 25; Baltimore, 10; Philadelphia, 8; New York, 6; St. Louis, 5.

The mayor is a man of few pretenses.His father worked in a factory.Young Tom, a product of parochial schools, attended junior college and began his political career as a driver and gofer for a Democratic state senator, and was in his 40s when he realized that he had better get a university degree. He was 46 when he received his bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts.

Menino admits that he sometimes lives up to his nickname, Mayor Mumbles, when he uses syntax that kindly can be described as original. He also concedes he is not history's most stirring speaker, but he had a national platform Monday when he took the convention podium to address the delegates.

Thomas M. Menino, who brought Boston its first national political convention, says meeting residents' needs is the best part of his job.

Los Angeles Times
By Elizabeth Mehren
Times Staff Writer
July 26, 2004

BOSTON — His office is far from grand, and the most prominent object on his desk is a sign that decrees "No Whining." There are no silver-framed pictures of him with famous people, just a shelf filled with toys in case his five grandchildren drop by.

Thomas M. Menino, 61, this city's Democratic mayor, is a man of few pretenses. He describes himself as "a Boston guy," a man who thinks he has the best job in America — and who fought to bring the Democratic National Convention to town so the whole world could see "the city I love."

Menino was born and raised in Hyde Park, the working-class neighborhood where he still lives with his wife, Angela. He says his primary virtues are stability, "always thinking of new ways to get things done" and an unceasing devotion to his city's neighborhoods.

Menino will have a national platform tonight when he takes the convention podium to address the delegates. But he admits that he sometimes lives up to his nickname, Mayor Mumbles, when he uses syntax that kindly can be described as original. He also concedes he is not history's most stirring speaker.

"There are many great orators, but so what if there's nothing behind the oratation," he says.

"Oration," an aide gently corrects him.

He ignores the interruption. "My people go crazy. They tell me I'm not on message," he says. "I say, 'I'm on message. I'm myself.' "

Even now, in his third term, he occasionally marvels when he looks out his City Hall window at Faneuil Hall, the meeting hall where Samuel Adams rallied citizens to revolution.

"Whoever expected Tom Menino to be mayor of Boston?" he says. "Nobody."

His father worked in a factory. A foundry hovered behind the Menino family home. Young Tom, a product of parochial schools, attended junior college and began his political career as a driver and gofer for a Democratic state senator.

Menino was in his 40s when a party leader told him that if he wanted to go anywhere, he had better get a university degree. He was 46 when he received his bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts.

In 1983, Menino won a City Council seat from Hyde Park. As president of the council, he became acting mayor in July 1993, when Ray Flynn was appointed ambassador to the Vatican. Longtime Boston political operative Michael Kineavy, now director of the mayor's office of neighborhood services, says Menino had just 4% name recognition when he joined a crowded field hoping to become Flynn's official successor.

Menino won the race that November with 64% of the vote, becoming the city's first Italian American mayor and breaking a near century-long hold on the office by Irish American politicians.

Instead of appealing to ethnic allegiances, Kineavy says, Menino built a coalition of "dog people, parks people, preservation people — he had an 'issues' base."

Most of his days are spent out of the office, on the streets and in the neighborhoods among the city's 600,000 residents. The mayor says that is the best part of his job.

New immigrants have changed the city's fabric, making Boston, according to the most recent U.S. census, a "minority majority" city for the first time. The population shift has not been seamless. Three weeks ago, a Vietnamese American teenager was killed in a race-triggered brawl in a South Boston housing project. Tension between African Americans and Irish Americans that exploded into the busing crisis of the 1970s has cooled superficially, but Boston's old animosities die hard.

Menino insists that Boston is calmer and more tolerant than it has been in many years. "The diversity of our city is the strength of our city," he says, using one of his oft-told expressions.

On a recent day that begins with an 8 a.m. visit to a children's center, Menino says too many city leaders focus too hard on business and fail to connect with the needs of residents.

In that spirit, Menino makes sure streets gets plowed in winter, flower boxes get planted in spring, wading pools get filled in summer and leaves get raked in the fall. Staffers say he can drive them to distraction, fixating on such issues as "Mrs. Fitzgerald's garbage problem."

"Mayors have to make sure they take care of the neighborhoods — the places where people live and raise their kids," he says. "Downtown will take care of itself."

But developers in Boston are not universal fans of this philosophy. Some say he squelches development by placing so many restrictions on construction.

Menino often defers to neighborhoods, developers complain — for example, allowing the residents of South Boston to effectively veto a professional sports facility proposed for the waterfront because they did not want the traffic.

"I think developers don't like him because he considers it his city," says David D'Alessandro, chairman and chief executive of Boston's John Hancock Financial Services. He says the mayor tells developers: "This is not your city, and we are not going to become Houston."

Early in his tenure as mayor, Menino introduced a measure to allow city workers time off for cancer screening. That provision came in handy last year when the mayor received a diagnosis of a rare form of the disease on his back. He says the condition was cured by surgery.

He faced another formidable obstacle when contract disputes with city police officers and firefighters escalated in the weeks before the convention, and patrolmen threatened to picket convention parties. The conflicts have ended, with firefighters and the city reaching a last-minute agreement Sunday.

Menino's son, Thomas Jr., is a Boston police officer, but the mayor will not say if the controversy affected his family.

Menino, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, was openly critical when presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry canceled an address to the mayors organization in Boston rather than cross a police picket line. Menino and Kerry met later to mend their differences, the mayor says.

The mayor campaigned hard to bring the Democratic National Convention to Boston, said national party chairman Terry McAuliffe.

While the convention is a first for the city, Menino maintains it is not a stepping stone for him. He says he has no interest in being governor or serving in Washington. He calls the convention merely a part of his legacy.

"Four days does not make a legacy," he says. "My legacy is improving the quality of life, improving education and making things better for kids, who are the future of our city."

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Mayor Thomas M. Menino
Age: 61
Hometown: Boston, Hyde Park neighborhood
Political career: Menino is in his third term as mayor after serving nine years on the City Council. He is Boston's first Italian American mayor, following nearly a century-long succession of Irish American leaders. Menino succeeded Ray Flynn, who left office in 1993 to serve as ambassador to the Vatican.

Source: City of Boston

Mayor Eager for World to See 'the City I Love'
http://www.latimes.com/la-na-mayor26jul26,1,2360050.story