Hennigan for mayor
Phoenix endorsement
November 4 - 10, 2005
It's time for Boston to say thank you and farewell
to Tom Menino. Over the past 12 years - with some ups and downs,
for sure - he's had a good run. Boston today is in better shape
and is a better place to live than it was when Menino took office.
Although there are financial storm clouds on the horizon, the
city's fiscal health is better than it's been in recent memory.
The rate of progress in the schools may be too slow, but they
are stable and heading in the right direction. Neighborhoods like
Eggleston Square and Grove Hall have become precincts of hope
rather than tracts of despair. Blue Hill Avenue is bustling. Dorchester
Avenue promises to rebound. East Boston is on the move. And Roslindale
Square has reinvented itself as a model of livable civility.
Menino's record of achievement would not be complete without also
recognizing his championship of basic rights for gay and lesbian
citizens. From domestic partnership to same-sex marriage he's
been on the front lines. His advocacy for AIDS services and related
issues, such as needle exchange, is a model for others in public
life. His refusal to march in South Boston's St. Patrick's Day
parade because neighborhood intolerance does not truck with gays
and lesbians is decency personified.
But entrenched incumbents eventually grow stale and self-protective.
Mayors Kevin White and Ray Flynn didn't know when to quit. Their
considerable achievements were compromised during their last unsuccessful
years in office. We don't want Boston to suffer through another
unnecessary cycle of decline. That's why we urge voters to cast
their ballots for Maura Hennigan, who for the last 24 years has
served Boston ably and energetically as a city councilor.
We have no doubt that Hennigan is at least as qualified as Menino
was when, after nine years on the city council, he ascended to
the mayoralty. And Hennigan would have the advantage of a more
open personal style and a willingness to include, rather than
exclude, those on opposite sides of the political fence. We applaud
her stated desire to use - if elected - her unique position as
Boston's first female mayor to attract the best and brightest
to municipal service.
Hennigan says she wants to wake up a tired City Hall. We take
her at her word. At a minimum, she should replace the fire and
public-works commissioners and take a serious look at the police
commissioner. We have no doubt that she would act on her promise
to end conflicts and bring reason to the economic-development
process by splitting the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA)
into two separate agencies: one dedicated to planning, the other
to the actual business of building. In the meantime, she should
change the players at the BRA.
Boston would benefit from the energy and sense of future possibility
that a new mayor would offer. Hennigan has her faults. We think,
for example, that she underestimates what many of her reforms
would cost. She is also dead wrong about bringing back an elected
school committee. But she is, at heart, a woman of common sense.
That, together with her genuinely progressive ideals and her strong
love for the city, positions her to lead Boston forward for the
next four years