Mayor For A New America

By Thomas M. Menino

Boston’s late, revered mayor explains the power behind the city’s dramatic success — and its lessons for Washington power brokers.

When Thomas Menino stepped down from office as one of the longest-serving major-city mayors in the nation’s history, he was among the most popular politicians in modern memory. In Mayor for a New America, Menino gives a play-by-play look at how he managed to wield political influence while staying fiercely loyal to the interests of the people he was elected to serve.

The unassuming guy from Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood was an unlikely politician. He’d been a backstage campaign workhorse whose career nearly ended the second he stepped into the spotlight, tongue-tied. Although not a fancy talker, Mayor Menino took to the details of running the city he loved. By taking care of the small stuff — fixing potholes, cleaning up parks, plowing the streets quickly after snowstorms — he won the public’s trust to deliver on the big issues. He had a progressive agenda and was forward thinking in his support of an innovation economy and a champion of gay rights. He also held fast to the values of his childhood — good schools, a growing middle class, and close-knit, welcoming communities.

In this candid look back at a career that spanned the busing crisis of the 1970s, the remarkable resurgence of the neighborhoods, and the city’s extraordinary response to the Boston Marathon bombing, Menino tells behind-the-scenes stories and gives a master class in urban politics. And his proven, people-focused track record provides inspiration for a dysfunctional Washington to actually get things done — just like he did in Boston.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9780544302372

Thomas M. Menino

Elected five times as Mayor of Boston and five times as a City Councilor, Thomas M. Menino (1942-2014) spent a lifetime building a better city for residents and businesses. Menino was known as a mayor of the people and was widely recognized for meeting more than half of Boston’s residents. Following his final term, which drew to a close in January 2014, Mayor Menino joined Boston University, where he served as codirector for the newly founded Initiative on Cities. He is survived by his wife of forty-eight years, Angela, their two children, and their six grandchildren. Jack Beatty is a news analyst for NPR’s On Point and the author of The Rascal King, a biography of Boston mayor James Michael Curly.

Reviews for Mayor For A New America

[daniellemd-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

1 of these 5 stars is just because I loved him so damn much.
This is a fascinating look into the recent history of Boston. Socially, economically, politically, and educationally. There are a few especially beautiful sections that brought tears to my eyes.

May we someday again have a mayor who cares as much as Menino did.

Thank you for all you did, Mr Mayor.

[jamesbanzer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mayor Thomas Menino was opinionated, as politicians are generally wont to be. He was held in high regard by the people of his beloved Boston. You need not have been a Bostonian to know that. The fact that his tenure as mayor spanned two decades proves his enormous appeal. A politico who manages to stay in the same office that long must be masterful. Shortly after receiving my copy of Mayor for a New America, the recently retired Menino died from cancer at the age of 71. It almost seems his purpose had been fulfilled and it was time to check out. Thankfully he was able to write about his tenure as mayor before his death. In this book Menino runs down a list of the most important things he accomplished while in office. He also enumerates fights with people of opposing views. Menino, of Italian descent, came from the Hyde Park neighborhood. He broke a longstanding tradition in which people of Irish stock had been the only seemingly electable mayoral candidates. That wasn't easy for the man who had problems with elocution. He was not a great speaker, and he knew it. He had to work hard to make people see past that. Here are a few of the things I find most interesting about the man. After a blaze that killed two firefighters, one of the deceased was found to have cocaine in his system. An autopsy revealed that the other had alcohol in his system. Menino subsequently pushed for drug testing for firefighters. After a police SWAT team mistakenly broke into the apartment of a 75-year-old man, the resident died of a heart attack. Menino made a public apology to the community. He was a mayor who cared about quality of the schools. The Boston Globe praised him for what he did for education.The late Tip O'Neill is widely remembered as saying that all politics is local. Menino epitomized the meaning of that phrase. The writing in Menino's book is not the best, but I highly recommend it for the messages contained therein.