Staff Edit: Hennigan stands for
Boston
The Daily Free Press
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
City Councilor-At-Large Maura Hennigan may be facing
an uphill battle when it comes to winning next week's election
for mayor of Boston against the incumbent Tom Menino. But she
would bring a fresh start to the Office of the Mayor that has
been lacking since Menino took over 12 years ago.
Though Hennigan, who was first elected to the Council
in 1981, often criticizes Menino more often than explaining the
details of her platform, she has shown an openness to students
that the incumbent seriously lacks. In the last week, a Daily
Free Press reporter went through great difficulty in setting up
an interview with Menino, while Hennigan cheerfully and willingly
took up the offer, touring the reporter through Boston in her
car and pointing out what would be improved under her administration.
Hennigan's down-to-earth attitude toward students
makes her a more favorable choice to lead this city, especially
because Menino has proven that he is completely out of touch with
Boston's overwhelming student population, seen through his many
uninformed comments about students and through actions he has
taken against them. Menino consistently calls university students
"kids," and this newspaper has few quotations on record
in which Menino refers to students by their true identity, namely
"students" or "people."
It was Menino's plan to jumpstart Operation Student
Shield, a misnomer that gives the impression that it is an operation
to protect students when in fact it serves more like an offense
against students living independently off campus. Menino drafted
the plan to help calm loud parties from disturbing residents in
off-campus neighborhoods by imposing stricter punishments on students,
while punishments for other residents hosting loud parties were
not increased.
In enforcing the operation, Menino chose to punish
the least protected and most convenient demographic in the city,
even though they are a large part of what gives Boston its name.
Hennigan seems unlikely to support such an operation because she
has shown her willingness to listen to students' concerns and
represent them as their mayor.