Everybody knew his name, but he was called a lot of things: Hizzoner, the urban mechanic, the people’s mayor, a friend to the little guy, a good listener, thin-skinned, vengeful, and a bully who would take a sledge hammer to swat a fly. Each carried a ring of truth, including that “Mumbles Menino” moniker.
Tom Menino was a true public servant, a mix of tough and soft. Tough on illegal guns, soft on kids who just needed a break. He once said, “There’s no such thing as bad kids, they’re just misguided, kids who don’t have anyone to tell them, ‘Hey Charlie, do this the right way or stop doing that.’” He even once referred to a gang of murderous street thugs as “knuckleheads,” suggesting their crimes were more foolish than evil.
When he decided not to run for a sixth mayoral term last spring, Menino said, “I can no longer do things the Menino way.” Meaning he could not keep a 16-hour-a-day schedule, run for mayor, care for the city and care for himself at the same time. By then, a battery of illnesses had taken its toll— sarcoma, Crohn’s disease, broken bones, a respiratory illness and finally, the cancer that took his life at age 71.
Menino got into politics late in life. He was 41 when he made his first run at office in 1983, seeking to become a Boston City Councilor. During that first campaign, his father Carl, told WGBH that Tommy had “refused” to go to college. “Why should I?” Menino would muse, citing his idol, president Harry Truman, who never went to college. Menino eventually changed his tune and earned his degree from UMass Boston in 1988.
Thomas Michael Menino was born and raised in an Italian neighborhood in Hyde Park by his parents, Carl and Susan, who he credits with his compassion for anyone struggling to make it in the world. He said his mother used to translate for the neighborhood, teaching people how to shop, how to get a job, how to enroll their children in school. Menino said his ideological soul blossomed through his parents— embracing the social movements of the time from civil rights, to women’s rights, to gay rights.
In 2012. Menino famously snubbed the efforts of Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy from opening a franchise across from City Hall. Referencing Cathy’s opposition to same sex marriage, Menino wrote: “There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it.”
Menino wasn’t shy about sharing his frustrations. In 2004, he blasted stores that sold and anyone that wore, “Stop Snitchin’” T-shirts, an intimidating effort to dissuade people in crime-ridden neighborhoods from cooperating with law enforcement. At the same time, he wasn’t afraid to take on the city’s public safety unions, fighting with police and fire over what was fair.
To his admirers, Menino was tough and persuasive. To his detractors, he was petty and spiteful. He had a say in every building that went up in Boston over the past 20 years. He’s the reason there’s a quirky king’s crown atop 111 Huntington Avenue, and he made sure buildings he didn’t want built never were; just ask developer Don Chiafaro. When he faced mayoral challengers Peggy Davis Mullen, Maura Hennigan and Michael Flaherty, he pulled down hard on the heavy lever of the Menino machine, grinding all but Flaherty to political dust.
Mayor of Boston was his highest aspiration; his dream job. He transformed the face of the city from Savin Hill to the Seaport. He worked hard to improve the public schools, once challenging voters to “judge me harshly” if he failed to turn around the struggling school system. He was proud to bring the 2004 Democratic National Convention to Boston but wary about proposals to host the Olympics in a city where there were “more important things to worry about.”
In all his years, nothing tested the mayor’s strength more that those grim days following the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013. Hospitalized and suffering from a series of ailments including a foot that would not heal, Menino pulled himself from his hospital bed, got himself to an interfaith service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End and rose from his wheelchair saying:
“Nothing can defeat the heart of the city. Nothing can take us down because we care about one another, even with the smell of smoke in the air and blood on the streets, tears in our eyes. We triumphed over the hate inflicted on Monday afternoon.”
Menino admitted he was not the most polished speaker and would brush off those who made fun of his verbal gaffes and mispronunciations saying simply, “I wasn’t elected because I’m a great orator, I know that.”
Still, it was hard to stifle a giggle as he referred to Celtics players Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo as “KJ and Hondo”, or former Patriots receiver Wes Welker as “Wes Wreckler”. He once welcomed “Home Deep-Co” to the city instead of Home Depot. He had Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek “splitting the uprights” instead of Patriots kicker Adam Vinateri. Then there’s my personal favorite, referring to the Fenway Park jumbotron as the “Jumbletron”.
Together with his wife Angela, Menino attended thousands of charity events, parades, neighborhood outings and ribbon cuttings. He made home visits to the relatives of those lost to senseless violence and more than once, rode the snow plows to make sure the job was done right. Over his mayoral tenure he personally met 60 percent of Boston’s residents.
He was the man who personified the universally recognized theme song from the Boston-based TV show Cheers.
Be glad there’s one place in the world
Where everybody knows your name,
And they’re always glad you came;
You want to go where people know,
People are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.
