Tom Menino

Madison Park, the city's only vocational high school, hasn't gotten the improvements the mayor and the school superintendent promised, the Globe reports.

Mayor Menino today appointed Hardin Coleman, dean of the Boston University School of Education, to the School Committee to fill the term left vacant when John Barros resigned to run for mayor.

Coleman chaired the committee that came up with a plan to change the way elementary- and middle-school students are assigned to schools.

Coleman's term expires in January. In a statement, the mayor said:

Dean Coleman brings a unique blend of expertise and experience to the Boston School Committee — his leadership at one of our city’s finest higher education institutions; his extensive work with educators, counselors, and other partners; and a distinct perspective of Boston's schools and families through his recent work to improve our system's school choice process.

Menino receives degree. Don Harney for City of Boston.

Awarded honorary doctor of laws degree at Harvard today.

Meanwhile, the Dorchester Reporter talks to Dr. Hizzona about the importance of Dorchester:

I look at Dorchester as an integral part of Boston in my years as mayor. The real strength of Dorchester is its people, and how they get involved. They're on top of the issues, they know the issues.

When it will have been exactly a week since the bombs went off.

Gov. Patrick and Mayor Menino announced today that Kenneth Feinberg will serve as administrator of One Fund Boston, which is collecting donations to help the victims of Monday's bombings.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, more than $7 million had been committed to the fund by corporate partners and 5,000 individual donors, they added.

Surgery tomorrow, the Herald reports.

WGBH followed Tom Menino's run for a city council seat in 1983.

Who are we to argue with the president of the United States?

Boston is the vibrant, welcoming, and world-class city it is today because of Tom Menino.

Tom Menino entered Faneuil Hall a little after 4 p.m. today to a standing ovation and "My Way."

"I never dreamed I would end up here, mayor of Boston during its best years," he told the packed auditorium, saying that in jobs, graduation rates, construction, credit ratings, population and crime, the city is at its best numbers in decades.

"Boston's neighborhoods are thriving as they never have," he said. "And most important to me, we are more open and accepting city."

David Bernstein (who broke the news that Hizzona was not running again) wonders what exhibits the curators of a Menino museum simply must have (needless to say, it would have to be located near the Menino Arts Center and the Menino Wing of the Hyde Park library):

Mayor Thomas Menino will announce Thursday that he will not run for re-election this fall.

The mayor has set an announcement for 4 o'clock at Faneuil Hall - after telling his top City Hall administrators at a meeting in the morning, sources say.

"It appears to be the end of the line," said one of the mayor's close friends, who wished to remain unnamed.

It is believed his doctors have told him the rigors of a full fledged campaign might be too much for him to withstand in his present physical condition. The mayor has apparently said that he does not want to enter a campaign and fail to go through with it.

Mayor Menino announced the new program - in which iPads will come "preloaded with bestselling books and apps to connect them with job searching, social media, and language-learning tools" - in a speech today before the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

Menino also pledged to have 30,000 new housing units built in Boston by 2020 - and that not all of them would be luxury apartments in downtown high rises.

Also announced: New tennis courts and other fields at Millennium Park in West Roxbury and a new committee to look at ways to improve the quality of Boston schools now that BPS is switching to a new assignment system for elementary and middle-school students.

WGBH reports on a chat Tom Menino had with Emily Rooney today.

If a casino comes to Boston, it will arrive with the full-throated support of Boston's mayor and East Boston's city counselor, representative, and senator. Our local leaders – including those who grew up here and know Eastie the best – risked everything they'd helped East Boston become and threw their support behind the statewide casino bill and the idea of expanded gambling at Suffolk Downs.

They didn't always support a casino here, though:

It's just not municipal election season until we hear the rumors about Menino winning re-election, getting Rob Consalvo elected city-council president and then stepping down so Consalvo can become mayor without an election. Oh, yeah, and the side rumor about Menino being Consalvo's godfather (he isn't).

mit·i·ga·tion /?mit?'gaSH?n/ (noun) - The action of reducing the severity, seriousness or painfulness of something

As you read this, a committee hand-picked by Mayor Menino is behind closed doors figuring out how much Caesars and Suffolk Downs will have to pay the city back for building a casino that sucks income from local businesses while increasing its crime, traffic, pollution and gambling addiction rates. It's called "mitigation," and it's essentially how casino companies get cities to even consider welcoming them.

The mayor, who apologized to locals a couple days ago about the pace of snow removal, went on national TV this morning and gave the city an A+ for snow removal.

Jordan Graham localizes the storm.

Via Steve Annear.

The Dorchester Reporter gets a copy of his letter to the advisory committee looking at changes in how to assign students in lower grades to public schools.

And it's attached:

At least, in Boston. Just over the transom is a press release from Hizzona's office:

Mayor Thomas M. Menino today announced the Boston economy has made a full recovery from the Great Recession. New data released by the Boston Redevelopment Authority in its 2013 Economy Report shows the unemployment rate in Boston has fallen steadily over the last two and a half years. The City is projecting an all-time record for employment in 2012 with 682,000 jobs. The data shows Boston has regained nearly all jobs lost between 2008 and 2010 and new investment from construction topped $3.8 billion, a 10-year high, in fiscal 2012.

The Wall Street Journal reports Bostonians are not going to lose anywhere near the 1 million pounds the mayor challenged us to lose.

Well, I'm not the only person who browses citizen complaints. Yesterday, somebody complained about how people were putting out crap to save their parking spaces in snowfall that required a microscope to measure its depth and said it was all Menino's fault. Another citizen replied:

The person who posted this complaint sounds like an uneducated moron. Menino's health issues have nothing to with the complaint filed, our mayor has always done a great job running this city & still is.

The Daily Free Press interviews a guy who seeks donations for opening the door at the Kenmore Square 7-Eleven on a proposed city ordinance that would restrict areas open to panhandling - specifically, the middle of the street.

"At least I'm doing something for someone,” Price said. "I'm not robbing or stealing. I'm only asking, and the person I'm asking can say yes or no. I've got no shame in my game."

City officials say they're not out to stop panhandling altogether, but want to address complaints about particularly aggressive panhandlers.

David Bernstein thinks the guy has a point and maybe should consider running against the incumbent mayor next year.