Tom Menino

WBUR reports.

WBZ reports the Cathedral High football team will be having lunch with Tom Menino.

The Herald reports on the looming battle royale between Tom Menino, who wants a casino at Suffolk Downs, and Robert Kraft, who wants a casino next to his football stadium/mall in Foxboro.

A MassInc production.

Earlier:
An Internet tip from Tom Menino.

Via A.P. Blake.

Steve Poftak looks at the numbers from Tuesday's election, notices that John Connolly's tally in Hyde Park and the neighboring part of Roslindale dropped more than 1,000 votes from 2009:

What's the explanation here? Well, my best guess would be a certain 60-something Readville resident and civic leader might have been less than fully supportive.

Chris Lovett also looks at Hyde Park's numbers - from 1999, the year of Dapper O'Neil's last hurrah.

The Globe reports the mayor threatened the company that runs the city school-bus system he's thinking of pulling its contract because so many school buses are still showing up at school late.

The Herald reports the mayor continues to back plans for a resort casino at Suffolk Downs, but that he'll have to fight off Milford, which is also expected to put in a bid for a gambling emporium.

Ed. question: The Herald actually says the racetrack's owners want to build a "resort-style casino." How is that different from a plain old "resort casino?"

The Herald was slow to rev up to the Mac Miller affair, but now it's in full-court mode: Dave Wedge has the mayor blaming burb thugs and citing Haverhill specifically as a possible hogmosh of teen violence. Because we know kids from Westie and Southie would never cause problems.

Miller raps about sexin' up bitches and hoes under a Menino banner. Video | Lyrics

The Herald reports Mayor Menino is meeting with advisors today to discuss "unrest" at Saturday's Mac Miller show, which featured a rapper making more explicit references to the druggy lifestyle than the T-shirts the mayor blasted Niketown for displaying in its storefront on Newbury Street - plus bonus random mayhem as some fans took the opportunity to pummel each other and throw water bottles into the air.

It's Boston vs. the suburbs over what roads fuel tankers can take, the Herald reports.

Earlier:
City study: North End streets no place for trucks with hazardous cargo.

The East Boston Times-Free Press reports the mayor is vowing to go ahead with the $11.3-million project even without the $8-million state grant the city had applied for, but probably won't get.

Last year, BPL trustees had targeted the Orient Heights branch for closure, in part on the assumption the city would build an entirely new branch to replace the tiny building and the neighborhood's other branch.

In one of its periodic overviews of the eternal debate over neighborhood boundaries today, the Globe quotes Tom Menino as referring to "a hogmosh of undefined lines."

The Globe reports a planned 47-story addition to Copley Place has critics roiling.

Mike Ball, himself an avid bicylist, ponders the ramifications of a City Hall statement that Hizzona Himself wants bicyclists to stop for red lights and wonders if the new enforcement will also involve going after signal-disregarding motorists as well:

Given the adversarial and disdainful attitude of many non-cyclists here, a well-handled education program should be amusing all around. To hear the anti-cyclist types tell it or read their comments on newspaper and other websites, every single cyclist is a crazed scofflaw who terrorizes the aged, toddlers and law-abiding motorists and pedestrians.

Yet, if the Mayor's release is right, a very overdue crackdown on red-light runners, crosswalk blockers, and those who don't yield to walkers or other vehicles (including bikes) should follow. Motorists, whose tickets for moving violations are considerably higher than $20 and can come with license suspensions and multi-year insurance surcharges, will be in for a much greater shock than cyclists.

Ed. car karma note: This morning, I was approaching the city's worst intersection, where Morton Street and Gallivan Boulevard slam together, to get onto Gallivan from Morton, when I had to hit the brakes because some jerk on the other side blew through the stop sign and barreled onto Morton. This was followed almost immediately by the sound of a police siren and the sight of flashing blues as a cop waiting by the hardware store took off behind me after the miscreant.

Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts explains why she's proud of Tom Menino:

Mayor Menino deserves credit for staying true to Boston's reputation as a city that welcomes newcomers and citizens alike, while focusing on community-based policing as the best way to keep our streets safe. Let's hope that the Mayor continues to be smart on public safety and makes a final decision to scrap S-Comm for good.

A day after police and inspectors swooped down on a Blue Hill Avenue building nearby residents called a criminal warren, city councilors and lawyers began hammering out an ordinance for cracking down on owners of troubled apartments - including a provision that would require licensing for landlords with repeat offenses.

Operation Kickstand comes the day after a 4-year-old was shot in Harambee Park by somebody who then used a motorized dirt bike to escape.

Initially, Boston Police and city transportation workers are being directed to tow illegal dirt bikes, specifically ones without registration, being driven in parks and being driven by drunks or other reckless people. However, Mayor Tom Menino says he will file a home-rule petition with the state legislature for permission to ban the vehicles completely from city streets:

These types of loud, dangerous vehicles are allowing individuals to intimidate our residents and cause disruption in our neighborhoods - and it must stop.

The city and state define a motorized bicycles as

A pedal bicycle which has a helper motor or a non-pedal bicycle with a motor that does not exceed 50 cubic centimeters of cylinder capacity, has an automatic transmission and cannot go faster than 30 miles an hour.

The Herald reports the mayor is outraged about T-shirts at Niketown he says promote drug use.

John Carroll suggests the mayor leave Newbury Street fashion policing to the Back Bay Hysterical Society.

Props to our own Kaz.

We'll have none of that: Fans outside the Garden after Game 6. Photo by Courtney Sacco.

Just not enough time to plan security, hizzonah determines:

"Some people get exuberant have a few and act up, and you know, this is a sport, and a lot of families who like to watch sports bring kids, and I wouldn't want to send the wrong message to anyone," said Mayor Menino.

Photo copyright Courtney Sacco. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

WBUR reports the mayor will ask the FCC for the right to tell Comcast what they can do with their rates. He says Comcast has a monopoly in Boston because RCN is an also ran and Verizon refuses to light up Boston for FiOS (and why would that be?).

The Globe reports on a compact to be announced today between the city and publicly funded but privately run charter schools. In exchange for consideration on reusing closed public-school buildings, the charter schools will focus their student recruitment on the geographic area around them, in an attempt to cut the city's school-bus costs. City and charter schools might also team up on cost-saving measures, such as bulk purchases of supplies.

It began, John Pepper says, with a phone call Wednesday from City Hall: Could one of his Boloco restaurants supply burritos for a major announcement the mayor wold be making in front of City Hall on Thursday?

Here's hoping they got a permit from ISD - we wouldn't want children scarred for life seeing the Easter Bunny being tossed into the back of a cruiser.

The hunt is this Saturday at 10 a.m. in Adams Park. Video by RoslindaleVillage.

John Pepper, founder of the Boloco chain, is ripping into the city on Twitter tonight for what happened with the burritos the mayor's office promised bicyclists who showed up at the Hubway bike-rental announcement in front of City Hall today:

City of Boston threatened 2 shut down fed st Boloco b/c City of Boston didn't pull food permit for their own event. We donated 200 burritos.

How a city can thank businesses for supporting its civic efforts with rudeness, threats, and disrespect has us reeling today.

Not staying quiet any longer. Between the union rackets, bureaucracy, red tape, and lack of graciousness it's a wonder anything gets done.

The mayor recently proposed a one-stop Business Resource Center aimed at making it easier for small businesses to get things done in Boston. However, it's part of his budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.