I didn’t know Mayor Menino. Sure I’d met him a time or two, but apparently who hadn’t? One survey calculated that at least 60 percent of Bostonians had at one time or another shaken his hand or chatted with him. He was theirs and they were his.
Like or loath his policies, the people were drawn to his authenticity, the take-me-as-I-am guy who mumbled, didn’t take well to criticism, and was a hard fisted decision maker. He was the city’s top leader but he saw himself as Boston’s everyman, even though he was one of the most powerful mayors in the nation and often rubbed shoulders with world leaders.
For Tom Menino there was no higher aspiration than being the mayor of Boston. And he showed it every day. Each of the 7, 484 days he was on the job. Only he would have checked himself out of the hospital so he could stand front and center reassuring Bostonians in those horrible moments after the twin marathon bombings. Mayor Menino always said he wanted to help people, and no problem was too small for him to tackle on their behalf. He called into his own administration to get potholes fixed, he rode the snow plows to check the streets, and he held the hands of parents who lost children to violence. Earlier this year, he was critical of his own inability to fix Boston’s notorious traffic problem, saying “It’s probably my fault, I haven’t forced the issue.” He was sometimes criticized for his perceived lack of vision, labeled an urban mechanic for his focus on nuts and bolts.
Somebody said, “my work is my legacy”, and I imagine that is how Tom Menino would have wanted us to reflect on his 20 years leading the city on a hill. His work to make Boston better and stronger concretely changed the city. Developing the waterfront altered the landscape of Boston, and reaching out to marginalized communities began a process of racial rehabilitation.
From the 5th floor of City Hall, Mayor Tom Menino could see his political footprint. And it’s where he shared a moment of reflection with the Boston Globe as he packed up five terms of papers and memorabilia. With trademark humbleness, he noted, “It was never mine. I’m just a custodian.”
When the mayor left office and started his new life as a professor at BU and Boston elder statesman, we all thought he’d have time to enjoy a much-deserved next chapter. He knew better, and in characteristic take charge style, he made his last days count, sharing time with some of those closest to him.
We may not see the likes of Tom Menino again anytime soon, but we’re likely not to forget his name.
