Will He Make History?

Tom Menino already has by ensuring that he will be mayor of Boston for 20 years. 20 years. Boston has been an American city for only two and a quarter centuries. 20 years is a long time. Things have gotten better over those two decades, and there is a promise that the Mayor has made to use his “political capital”, as he put it, to make major changes. To make history.

We are rooting for the mayor, and we hope that he can use the 15-part series that we did together with the Boston Municipal Research Bureau on the major issues facing our fair city as buoys as, in his final four years, he takes the ship of city government to a better landing place.

A Vision for Boston: Questions for the 2009 Mayoral Candidates focused on

Payments-in-Lieu-of-Taxes
City Personnel Spending
The Next Teachers’ Contract
School Dropouts
Charter Schools
Mass Transit
Health Insurance Costs
Performance Measurement
Mandatory Alcohol and Drug Testing
Public Safety
Transportation
Student Transportation
City Planning and Development
Casino Gambling
Jobs

The mayors’ answers as to how he would address each of these questions are at each of the links. He has thought generally about these issues, and shown progress on many. We are not there. The mayor can get us there, but these will be the hardest years he has spent as mayor if we are to reach our real destination of the stinkin’ best city in North America.