When Tom Menino completes his fifth and final term as mayor of Boston in January, he can rightfully take pride in the resurgence and promising future of Massachusetts’ City Upon a Hill. As the longest-serving mayor in Boston’s 383-year history, Menino has led Boston’s successful effort to reinvent itself during his 20-year tenure with passionate focus across a wide range of issues. As the detail-oriented “Urban Mechanic,” Menino’s most laudable accomplishments include efforts to reduce crime, repair infrastructure, foster diversity, and promote economic growth.
A City on the Brink
In the 1980s, Boston was nearly indistinguishable from other declining Northeast and Midwest manufacturing cities. Menino assumed office in 1993, the year Boston suffered its worst annual violent crime rate. Four decades of suburban migration had reduced the population to pre-1900 levels and urban blight was rampant in many Boston neighborhoods. These factors conspired to depress the tax base and limit business growth. Significant racial tensions from the court-mandated busing crisis still permeated the city. Finally, Boston faced economic uncertainty as it struggled to replace lost manufacturing jobs.
Against this dire backdrop, Menino, then president of the Boston City Council, became Boston’s acting mayor in July 1993. Boston politicians respected Menino’s work on the City Council. However, as former Boston City councilman Larry DiCara told the HPR, “A lot of people were wondering whether he was up for the [mayoral] job. Most people [had] low expectations.” Political insiders were skeptical that Menino would succeed because Boston had never elected a councilman to serve as full-time mayor. Beyond Boston’s political community, few Bostonians outside Menino’s home neighborhood of Hyde Park knew Menino well.
Defying these low expectations, Menino worked hard to gain enough support to be elected to a full mayoral term four months later. Once elected, DiCara noted, “He never looked back.” Reelected four times, Menino has never received less than 57 percent of the vote.
Reinventing Boston
One of Boston’s most pressing needs when Menino took office was crime reduction. Reverend Ray Hammond, chairman of the Ten Point Coalition—an organization dedicated to assisting troubled and at-risk Boston youth—explained to the HPR, “There was a lot of concern back then that the level of homicide was high and the ages of those involved were low.” Menino embraced the innovative strategy of community policing, bringing together police and neighborhood leaders to proactively deter crime. “When private civic sector and public sector work together, that’s a kind of wrap-around message that’s very powerful,” Hammond added. The pinnacle of these efforts was Operation Homefront, a 1998 program that encouraged police officers, teachers, and clergy to work with high-risk youth to encourage strong family ties and discourage criminal activity. Menino’s community policing strategies have helped reduce Boston’s violent crime rate by 50 percent since he took office.
Beyond making neighborhoods safer, Menino helped revitalize Boston neighborhoods by redeveloping local infrastructure such as parks, community centers, and important thoroughfares. As Hammond described, “The infrastructure was crumbling and not being well cared for. It wasn’t clear where things were going in terms of bringing new life to the neighborhoods.” In response, Menino brought the Main Street Program to Boston in 1995, which helped Boston neighborhoods to rebuild their infrastructure while retaining their traditional charm and character. As Paul Grogan, president and CEO of The Boston Foundation, Boston’s largest community foundation, described to the HPR, “There’s now almost no physical blight [in Boston.] You almost have to hunt for physical blight in the city.” The program rehabilitated 10 neighborhoods in six years and has created over 1,100 new businesses.
While working to rebuild the physical aspects of Boston’s neighborhoods, Menino also improved race relations and diversity in Boston. Praising Menino’s commitment to promote
a multicultural city, Grogan explained to the HPR, “It’s just a different city now. The Mayor has been strongly in favor of diversity and openness.” Beyond racial and ethnic diversity, DiCara noted that “Menino has been way out in front on gay rights.” For example, after the president of Chick-fil-A publicly opposed same-sex marriage in 2012, Menino penned an open letter to the company’s president, urging him not to expand into Boston because the city is “full of pride for [its] support of same-sex marriage and [its] work to expand freedom to all people.”
Finally, Menino’s policies have repositioned Boston’s economy. The economic recessions of the 1970s, racial violence, a national decline in manufacturing industries, and a ballot measure that limited Boston’s ability to increase property taxes all contributed to Boston’s economic malaise in the 1970s and 1980s. However, starting in the late 1980s and continuing under Menino’s guidance, Boston successfully replaced its reliance on manufacturing with high-paying jobs in the burgeoning financial services, technology, and healthcare industries. DiCara, also a prominent Boston real estate lawyer, noted that Menino “has a very good working relationship with the business community.” In 2010, Menino created Boston’s Innovation District for high- tech and scientific-oriented companies. Despite a weak national economy, the Innovation District has created over 5,000 new jobs.
Big Shoes to Fill
When Menino departs City Hall in January, he will leave Boston in much better shape than when he took office. But while Menino has put Boston on a successful path, his successor, Marty Walsh, has the opportunity to build upon that progress. As Hammond noted, “There’s a sense that Boston has definitely made progress, but that the rate of progress has to be greater.”
Walsh must maintain Boston’s fiscal stability by making prudent decisions regarding municipal expenses, including upcoming contract negotiations with public sector unions. As Sam Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, explained to the HPR, “Menino will hand off a city in a relatively good financial position, but it wouldn’t take more than a couple of decisions in the next mayor’s term to turn that around.” Walsh must also continue Menino’s commitment to community revitalization, which has promoted job growth, leading to greater tax revenues. Further policies that promote racial and ethnic diversity will help raise tax revenues by creating a climate that encourages a broader range of people to move to Boston.
Beyond fiscal stability, Walsh will need to sustain economic growth, but manage the new challenges such growth brings. As Boston’s economy continues to mature into a high-skill, innovation-based economy, the city must provide adequate education and training to ensure equal opportunities to all Bostonians. Boston’s economic reinvention has brought great wealth to the city, but has increased income inequality. The Gini coefficient, which measures inequality based on income disparities, is 24 percent higher in Suffolk County, where Boston is located, than the average for New England and 40 percent higher than the national average. Citing such inequality, Grogan explained, “The next mayor really has to worry about creating upward mobility and building a middle class that will stay in the city.” If residents believe they lack access to the Boston’s robust opportunities, they may leave the city.
Without a doubt, Boston still has room to grow and improve. Nevertheless, as Mayor Menino completes his final term, Bostonians should not lose sight of the substantial progress he has led over the last two decades. Menino leaves the city in a position few would have imagined 20 years ago. Boston reinvented itself under Menino and his legacy will permeate Boston’s culture for decades to come.