By Todd Feathers, News Staff
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the longtime stalwart of old-school politics who guided the city through a period of vast transformation, announced he would not seek a sixth term last Thursday.
The mayor delivered the televised speech at Faneuil Hall in characteristic Menino style – fondly reminiscing about the city’s neighborhoods, boldly declaring he could have won another election and charmingly botching parts of the English language.
“I am here with the people I love, to tell the city I love, that I will leave the job that I love,” Menino said. “I can run, I can win, and I can lead, but not ‘in-the-neighborhoods-all-the-time’ as I like.”
After that announcement, the supportive crowd gathered before Menino stood and gave the city’s longest serving mayor a standing ovation. Despite his decision not to run and a string of health problems that left him hospitalized for several months last year, Menino, 70, made clear that his departure from office did not signal a future devoid of public service.
“I know from community leaders and business executives and non-profit champions and teachers of all types that there are more ways to impact our city than just this one,” he said. “So I do plan to stay very engaged in Boston’s future. I am not retiring, but just turning the page on this chapter to the next.”
Perhaps with an eye on his legacy, Menino detailed some of the statistics that have helped boost his popularity ratings to exceptionally high levels – 74 percent of respondents had a favorable impression of him in a March 27 Boston Globe poll.
“Jobs, graduation rates, construction and credit ratings are all at record highs,” he said. “Population, school enrollment, crime rates and housing all have hit their best mark in years. Boston’s neighborhoods are thriving as they never have. Most important to me, we are a more open and accepting city.”
Menino stated bluntly that his biggest regret was losing his physical ability to seemingly be everywhere at once, a quality that earned him the respect and votes of a majority of residents throughout his many years.
“One of the great blessings of this job was meeting half the people who live in this city,” Menino said. “I get asked all the time how I met so much of Boston. I just did what I loved, and then it wasn’t too hard.”
In that vein, Menino signed off with some parting advice for whoever will follow him as mayor. And the race for that position grows more crowded by the day.
If you want to meet half the people in this city, all you do is go to their homes and their jobs and where they raise their families and where they strive to improve their neighborhoods and say this: Boston is the greatest city on earth. It is a buzzing, amazing, history-making place,” he said. “It gets better every day because of you, and as long as you work together that will never change.”
