Menino served an unprecedented and unsurpassed five terms as mayor of Boston. On March 28, 2013, Menino announced that he would not seek a sixth term. After Menino's death, Katherine Q. Seelye of
The New York Times wrote that Menino "presided over one of the most successful urban renaissances in modern American history" as mayor.
Politics and President
Bill Clinton at Mike's City Diner in Boston on January 18, 2001 Menino was a
liberal and a
Democrat.
In the 2001 mayoral general election, Menino faced
Peggy Davis-Mullen, with a third opponent,
Althea Garrison, having been eliminated in the nonpartisan primary. Menino won 73.37% of the vote in the primary election and 76.06% of the vote in the general election. Menino faced a negative campaign from Henigan, who blamed Menino for the city's high cost of living and a recent rise in its crime rate. However, Menino had stayed above the fray, largely not responding to her attacks.
In the 2009 general election, Menino faced
Michael F. Flaherty after
Sam Yoon and Kevin McCrea were eliminated in the nonpartisan primary. On April 25, 2006, Menino and New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg hosted a summit at
Gracie Mansion in New York City, during which the
Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition was formed. The coalition stated its goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal
guns off the streets"—Menino remained co-chair there until he left the office. The initial group consisted of 15 mayors; the 15 drafted and signed a statement of principles and set a goal to expand their membership to 50 mayors by the end of 2006. That goal was met six months ahead of schedule and led to its current membership of more than 900 mayors, with members from both major political parties and 40 states. Menino supported the
2008 presidential campaign of
Hillary Clinton, sending his own campaign workers to
New Hampshire to work for her candidacy ahead of the
2008 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary. In September 2012, he endorsed Democratic nominee
Elizabeth Warren in the
2012 United States Senate election in Massachusetts.
Fiscal matters Throughout Menino's tenure, the city of Boston had an operating surplus. This led
Moody's Investors Service and
Standard & Poor's to boost the city's bond rating a combined nine times over the course of Menino's mayoralty. He also supported public funding of abortions. Menino was a supporter of
gay rights. By the time he was elected mayor in 1993, Menino had already taken the public position of supporting that gay and lesbian couples be allowed to act as
foster parents. He was among the first mayors in the United States to extend such benefits to same-sex partners of municipal employees. At one point, Menino refused to partake in the
South Boston St. Patrick's Day parade due to their exclusion of gays. Menino would state that he knew there was little he could do as mayor to prevent the company from opening restaurants in the city, but maintained that they were not welcome in the city.
Urban development During Menino's tenure, the city's total square footage of office and residential space increased by 11%, and 80 million square feet of development was constructed. Menino often faced criticism accusing him of playing "favorites" with developers. The influx of millions of dollars of new high-priced housing during Menino's tenure contributed to
gentrification, which had the negative impact of pricing longtime residents out of neighborhoods. Menino also known for focusing on neighborhood development in Boston, organizing services by neighborhood, and appointing neighborhood coordinators who serve as ambassadors from the city in their areas, believing that development should happen in every neighborhood. In 2001,
Governing magazine named Mayor Menino Public "Official of the Year" for effective neighborhood development in Boston. This model has spread to other cities as a result of its effectiveness. Menino oversaw the development of the
Seaport District in
South Boston, Menino was involved with negotiating with
Boston Red Sox ownership and the state of Massachusetts a deal to provide public funds to build a new baseball stadium near the existing
Fenway Park. However, the Boston City Council rejected the deal, and the existing Fenway Park was instead renovated. Menino failed in his effort to lengthen school days, meeting resistance from the Boston Teachers Union. However, in 2009, Menino came out in support of charter schools, praising what he proclaimed to be charter schools' ability to attract quality teachers, arrange lessons to fit students' needs, and establish flexibile workplace rules. Menino took office amid the "Boston Miracle", a successful joint effort by police, churches, and neighborhood groups which worked to decrease youth-on-youth violence. which is credited with decreasing homicide rate in the city. In his last year in office, the
Boston Marathon bombing took place. Menino, who had been recovering in the hospital from a leg fracture at the time of the attacks (confining him to a wheelchair), checked out of the hospital in order to be present in the aftermath of the attacks. In April 2011, in a similar effort to fight
obesity, Menino banned advertisements and sales of sugar-heavy drinks in municipal buildings and at city-sponsored events.
Environmental issues In 2008, Boston was ranked as the third-greenest city in the United States by
Popular Science. In the previous decade, there had been new initiatives around planting more trees in the city,
single-stream recycling, increasing the
solar power capacity of the city, investing in
alternative energy, and biking. One of the most innovative ideas has been green building zoning, which requires large-scale private construction to be "green" by
LEED standards. Boston is the first city to revise its building code to ensure green construction. Menino was a founding members of the US Mayors' Alliance for Green Schools. Under Menino, Boston became the first major city in the United States to incorporate green building standards in its zoning codes. Boston changed its zoning codes to require private construction larger than 50,000 square feet to adhere to the
U.S. Green Building Council's
LEED standards.
Public image Menino enjoyed strong popularity. Menino's perennial popularity garnered him the
tongue-in-cheek epithet "Mayor for Life." In July 2012, it was reported that Menino had an 82% approval rating. Menino made appearances at community events, such as parades and community meetings. Menino, who famously was dubbed, and even styled himself, as an "urban mechanic", had a reputation for focusing strongly on "nuts and bolts" issues. The "urban mechanic" nickname had both positive and negative connotations to it. He had been given this nickname in late 1994. ==Post-mayoralty==