Tom Menino

Boston dark after dark

adamg — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:53:38 -0400

Boston skyscrapers to go dark after 11 p.m. to save energy.

Wouldn't you hate to be the guy who has to go around all those offices turning off the lights?

Menino to ban kids, teens from MFA, BPL?

adamg — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:23:03 -0400

Above: Channel 4 attempts to educate its audience about our latest crisis without giving them the vapors.

Oh, the horror! The Dig runs a cover showing crudely drawn cartoons of naked people and our little provincial backwater goes all to hell. As Channel 4 reports:

"It's totally irresponsible to have a photo like this in a paper that's widely distributed around our city," Menino said. "Young children can see it. It's not what we should be showing our young people."

Right. So keep them out of the MFA. Because you sure wouldn't want them to see this or this or this or this (and could somebody tell the mayor that a cartoon is not a photo?).

And we don't even need to bring up this scandalous statue - just a short walk from the children's room at the Copley Square BPL!

But Hizzona also wants to try to get Dig honor boxes uprooted from locations near city buildings - because you know how productivity must be suffering, what with frenzied hordes of Assessing and DPW workers racing out of their offices in a mad dash to Dig boxes.

Below: The shocking cover. If you're under 18, or are prone to inexplicable bouts of screaming hysteria, or are the mayor, stop looking now!

Boston orders local cabs to get cleaner, safer

adamg — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:09:10 -0400

Boston today approved higher fares for local cabs - but at a price: In addition to allowing rates to go up (from $13.95 to $16.20 for a five-mile ride), Mayor Tom Menino and Police Commissioner Ed Davis announced a series of new regulations aimed at making local cabs - and their drivers - cleaner and safer.

By 2015, all Boston cab drivers will have to convert their vehicles to hybrids. More immediately, a series of new measures aimed at cleaning up the soiled reputations of local cabs goes into effect Jan. 1, 2009, including:

Cabbies will be required to accept credit cards.
Cabs must be clean "at all times" - washed and vacuumed at least once a day.
Same goes for drivers, who will no longer be allowed to wear T-shirts (clean or not) or any sort of ripped apparel or apparel bearing offensive words or logos. Swimsuits, jogging suits, tank tops and gym shorts are right out.
Drivers will no longer be allowed to talk on cell phones while driving.
Owners have to install roof lights that indicate whether a cab is available or not and prominently display fare information in the passenger area.

"Today's announcement underscores our commitment to ensuring that Boston residents, members of the business community and our many tourists are provided with safe, clean and efficient taxi service," Davis, whose Hackney Carriage Unit oversees Boston cabs, said in a statement. "The implementation and strict enforcement of these improvements will significantly enhance our local taxi service and provide a more customer-friendly experience."

Menino said requiring hybrid cabs would lead to cleaner air, reduce gas costs for drivers and improve service for customers.

Mr. Menino, tear down this wall!

adamg — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:13:30 -0400

Why does Tom Menino hate freedom?

Turns out the barricade his minions put around Faneuil Hall block the Freedom Trail and could violate an agreement by the city - in federal court no less - not to interfere with the First Amendment rights of street performers. Dan Kennedy posts e-mail from local street-performer activist Stephen Baird - along with an embarrassing photo of the Freedom Trail blocked by a barricade:

The fence is a blight not only on the city, but the country. The fence, similar to the old Berlin Wall, is a symbol of Mayor Thomas Menino's and other government officials' failure to develop intelligent and equitable public policies and regulations.

There was no warning or public process before this crackdown. Portrait artists, living statues and street performers were suddenly told they could no longer exercise their First Amendment artistic expression in this public park by the police. There are no written guidelines or laws, just the arbitrary whim of the police officers and government officials of where people can perform and audiences can gather.

More from Baird, including copies of filings from the 2004 lawsuit against the city street-performer regulations.

Earlier:
Staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown.

Staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown

adamg — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:28:18 -0400

Tom Menino has a new mission: Turn Faneuil Hall into the Natick Mall. The Globe reports that an angry Menino, way up there near Mt. Crumpit, could no longer take the noise, noise, noise, noise and ordered Boston Police to bust up those dangerous street performers - and balloon artists - in front ot Faneuil Hall:

The officers shooed away clowns and caricature artists. They ordered music and dance acts to contain their performances to a single, small patch of brick - measuring 15 feet by 15 feet - near a stand of trees. And they erected steel crowd-control barricades in a wide swath around three sides of Faneuil Hall, to make sure the performers didn't sneak back.

But did they confiscate their tartinkas and who-hubas?

Why, Tommy, why?

Municipal musical chairs

adamg — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:10:13 -0400

The Herald reports South Boston state Sen. Jack Hart is proposing moving the Aquarium to Southie, City Hall to the Aquarium site and, um, something to City Hall Plaza (ooh, I know, I know: Luxury apartments!).

Of course, the same exact argument made against moving City Hall to South Boston (lack of real mass transit, unless you consider the Silver Line real mass transit) would apply to the Aquarium.

Oh, my God, Menino's got a sword!

adamg — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:44:01 -0400

What? Oh, phew, he's just using it to slice a mutant July Fourth cake, not Michael Flaherty.

Earlier:
The mayor gave me a cupcake.

Menino to BC: Cut the doublespeak

adamg — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:00:34 -0400

Menino tells Banker & Tradesmen that maybe a bit of sophistry is involved when BC says it'll house all its undergrads on campus, then turns around and buys a high-rise apartment building on Comm. Ave. that isn't on campus.

Via Michael Pahre, who notes that BC officials are careful to talk about "university-controlled" housing rather than "on campus."

Michael Flaherty needs to bone up on his reading skills

adamg — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:15:49 -0400

Tom Menino sure pulled a good one on him, slipping $2 million into the city budget to study moving City Hall to South Boston, which Flaherty managed to vote for even though he opposes the move, because, well, it was on page 342 of the budget:

In an interview after the hearing, he said that he did not realize he had already voted to approve the funding for the studies.

As a reporter, I once covered a similar issue in Natick - when one selectman realized he'd been similarly, if not quite so back-of-the-bookishly, bamboozled, he said "If I'd realized what I was voting for, I would have voted against myself."

No offense to Natick, but shouldn't we expect more from Boston councilors, who, after all, get paid full-time wages? Surely a man who would be mayor of Boston would realize he has to be on guard when it comes to the man who is mayor of Boston - even if he does have a point about spending $2 million on a study like that in times like these.

Maybe the mayor has Commerce Insurance

adamg — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:59:42 -0400

Because he was awfully calm after a woman hit him while he was riding his bike on River Street in Hyde Park last week:

He fell off his bike and suffered a small cut to his ankle, but told the flustered motorist to "just get going, and don't be late for work," Joyce said.