mayor

A local resident changes the channel to snark when Citizens Connect staffers falsely mark a ticket resolved.

The reception at the mayor's office seems crystal-clear, and they're on the same wavelength with a bit of cleverness themselves.

Mumbles sez:

"Another 18 inches on top of what we have is going to create a real strain on Public Works' ability to keep doing the job they’ve been doing. They've done a good job removing snow, but 18 more inches will narrow each street by a foot, foot and half."

"A good job removing snow"? Funny - when I surfed the Citizen's Connect recent reports a day after the storm, there were dozens of reports coming in of unplowed streets. Surf the reports now, and you'll see reports of all sorts of snow removal problems.

All the bike lanes around Boston (5 feet wide, roughly) disappeared for days- even the ones with snow emergency parking bans like Centre Street in JP. Until late last night, Hyde Park Avenue had several feet of snow coming out into the roadway. South Huntington Avenue has piles of snow 4-5 feet high sticking out 5-6 feet into the road. As I type this (days after the storm passed, a storm which fell most overnight), my street has more than three feet covered with several inches of snow on the side where there's no parking. Citizen's Connect is rife mostly with unshovelled sidewalk reports, but also cases like this.

The East Boston Times reports a "frenzy in the neighborhood" over the possibility that Councilor Sal LaMattina would become city council president, which would make him mayor when Menino quits in the middle of his current term - just like what happened to Menino, except the mayor's expressed little interest in becoming ambassador to the Vatican.

Via The Boston Channel

Mayor Thomas M. Menino today took his record fifth oath of office at Faneuil Hall.

In his inauguration speech (complete text), Menino said his next four years would be devoted to four main goals: Transforming education in Boston, creating a high-tech research community on the waterfront, improving basic city services through new technologies and bringing the city's residents and neighborhoods closer together.

The City Council today rejected a proposed limit on how long somebody can serve as mayor.

While backers of the measure, sponsored by at-large Councilor Sam Yoon, said it would reinvigorate the political process and prevent the abuses of incumbency, opponents said it was insulting to tell voters they could not vote for the candidate of their choice as often as they want.

Against: Ciommo, Consalvo, Feeney, LaMattina, Linehan, Murphy, Yancey.
For: Connolly, Flaherty, Ross, Tobin, Turner, Yoon.

The council voted 8-5 to reject a proposal by at-large Councilor John Connolly to limit city councilors as well; Ross, who voted for mayoral term limits, voted against.

Comments from councilors before the vote:

In its last week of existence, the current city council this morning is debating a proposal by outgoing at-large City Councilor Sam Yoon to limit Boston mayors to two terms. The council will vote on the measure - which would require approval by the mayor and the state legislature - on Wednesday.

Sam Yoon is asking his supporters to barrage city councilors with phone calls to convince them to vote on a measure to limit Boston mayors to two terms in office. The proposal currently sits in Maureen Feeney's committee on government operations - to which a proposal to keep the city-council president from becoming mayor if the sitting mayor resigns has also been consigned.

The Boston City Council today deferred action on a proposal by Councilor John Tobin that would block a rumored attempt to make fellow Councilor Rob Consalvo the next mayor.

Your guy won/lost this past Tuesday. You can take the sign down now.

The preliminary precinct breakdowns from the city show that Michael Flaherty actually carried Ward 5 (Back Bay, Beacon Hill and part of Fenway), although barely (2,544 to 2,472). In the September preliminary, that was Menino country.

Floon also carried the day in Ward 16 in Dorchester, another area Menino took in September. Obviously, though, that and the Flaherty strongholds of Charlestown, South Boston and neighboring Ward 7 in Dorchester were not enough to overcome Menino romps in areas such as Hyde Park, Roslindale and Roxbury.

Matt O'Malley, who has much better eyes, dives into the numbers in much greater depth. On Blue Mass. Group, Bob has still more analysis of the numbers.

Right here - get your reading glasses on.

Via Harry Mattison.

The Globe declares Menino A leader in touch, in gear. The Herald looks ahead to 2013 and wonders if Menino will really stick around that long.

John Carroll predicts Menino will regret running for that fifth term. David Bernstein hopes Menino uses some of his political capital to deal with "some very difficult things that need doing." Scot Lehigh starts with the nagging. Peter Gelzinis talks to some voters, provides a sort of O. Henry ending.

Call him Hizzonah again.

Boston today gave Tom Menino a record fifth term today, re-electing him by a 57-43 margin over challenger Michael Flaherty.

"Let's be clear: We haven't made history with this election, but we will in what we create of it," Menino told supporters. History will not record the win until we make "a new Boston Miracle for our kids," he said. "Complacency is the highest hurdle we face. Let's fend off the temptation to rest on past accomplishments."

At-large candidate Tito Jackson lets a voter have cake at Holy Name School in West Roxbury this morning.

What are you seeing out there?

Only instead of kids at the door, it's politicians on the phone. John Kerry robo-called in support of his good friend Ayanna Pressley. Not one minute after I sat back down on the couch, Ayanna her-robo-self called. I hope we don't run out of candy - or my wife's patience.

Kevin McCrea explains why he's voting for Flaherty tomorrow - and how he almost endorsed Menino instead, he and his wife even went to dinner with the Meninos at Hammersley's Bistro in the South End. In the end, he writes it came down to a single issue:

WBUR declares Chuck Turner kind of a cult leader, says that helps explain why the Innocent Until Proven Guilty Councilor will win tomorrow.

The Globe compares Menino and Flaherty on education and crime.

Scot Lehigh reports on a visit by King Thomas the Eternal to the Globe, did not come away impressed.

David Kravitz, a Flaherty backer at Blue Mass. Group, dissects the Globe's endorsement of Menino, doesn't find much meat there.

The Globe endorses Menino.

The Herald reports Flaherty is going after the party-hardy vote and details the Kenneally-mobile.

John Carroll gets his crank on, describing Menino as "his usual incoherent self" at a WBUR forum yesterday and calling Flaherty a "Boston mayoral footnote."

Tom Menino and Michael Flaherty will both be on Radio Boston today, at 1 p.m. - 90.9 FM or streaming on the Web.

The South End News gets the scoop.

Floon journeys to Downtown Crossing today to use The Hole as a backdrop for their call to force developers to put up performance bonds before they start digging.

Seems the majority owner of the Hole is sitting on $2.8 billion in cash and is looking for good investments, which apparently Boston isn't.

Globe: Menino, Flaherty present opposing views of Boston in heated debate.
Herald: Michael Flaherty, Tom Menino take last licks.

The four Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate seat debate tonight starting at 7 p.m. on a local channel near you.

The last mayoral debate is Tuesday, starting at 6:30 p.m. at Faneuil Hall. You need to register for tickets; this one won't be on TV.

There's a forum for district 9 council candidates in Brighton on Tuesday at the Jackson-Mann School, starting at 6 p.m. More.

There's a forum for at-large and district 1 candidates on Wednesday at the Nazarro Center in the North End, starting at 7 p.m. More.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette highlights this week's debate among at-large council candidates on park and open-space issues in the city. Somebody asked Felix Arroyo what "Asian Longhorned Beetles" meant to him; he replied he had no idea, but figured anything with horns was probably bad. The tree-felling beetles have yet to hit Boston, although people are starting to look for them, just in case.