Too bad for mayor all politics not local
The first two
months of each year are Tom Menino's hardest. The
To be sure, Menino doesn't mind the spotlight. But he does mind the speeches. Not only are they a test of his (self-admitted) woeful elocution, but they also require him to say something important, something significant. It's the old "vision thing," as President George Bush No. 1 used to lament, and it's a big problem.
It isn't that Menino is incapable of vision things. It's that he doesn't want to do them. Part of that is by personal inclination. For the mayor, politics is less about ideas than it is about people: engaging with individuals one on one, trying to come up with ways to help them or make their lives a little easier. That seemingly small- time stuff is what genuinely excites Menino. Those around him say he's never happier than when he's traveling around the city, simply talking to folks.
Of course, it's also smart politics. Menino is in his third term, will run for a fourth, and may even go for a fifth (a prospect that pains the dozens who are growing ever grayer as they await their shot at the job). Menino knows that most of his constituents aren't looking for lofty pronouncements. Rather, they want plowed streets, cheap housing and safe neighborhoods.
And so these annual speeches rarely soar. Rather, they're more like guidebooks to urban living, laundry lists of the hassles and challenges of making a city work. This week's speech was no different.
Menino begged the business community to help him gin up summer jobs for the city's youth (it's a perennial request; "the part of the speech that you look forward to every year," he said wryly). He's newly excited about traffic jams and proposed spending $3 million to devise plans to move autos better. He's launching a new affordable housing program (after saying, "We did a great job reaching and exceeding the goals" of the last housing strategy). He's worried about the rise in homelessness and the excessive demand placed on city shelters.
And the list went on: 13 topics in all. He touched on efforts to keep young adults living in the city, the status of labor negotiations with the city's unions, the recent increase in residential property taxes, and even on promoting "green" building design (Menino a tree-hugger? Who knew?).
Yet, ponder the mayor's inventory of trials and tribulations and it becomes apparent that these are more than just local concerns. Menino takes pride that municipal governments are "first responders," the ones on the front lines. But many of the problems he faces are part of a larger issue. Instead of being an agent of change, Menino is more a victim of circumstances, one who's trying to manage as best he can. And it's quite clear that frustrates him.
Consider, for
example, one topic he addressed: the cost of pharmaceuticals. The city spends
$61 million annually on prescription drugs for about 7,000 current and former
employees. Prices in
One can't fault Menino for his concern. The lower Canadian price structure is a grating and puzzling anomaly (it is odd as well that those who otherwise defend free trade are so willing to support import controls when it comes to drugs). Yet, as Menino knows, this isn't a local subject; it's national. Sure, angry cities and towns may play a role in getting the topic on the table. But that's about it.
Parse many of Menino's other concerns and the same conclusion emerges: These issues are bigger than one city. Substance abuse, energy efficiency, housing, homelessness and tax policy - all have components that are statewide or national in scope.
Which is why there is a tension in Menino's speeches of late, a tension between his natural focus on the details of everyday living and his growing understanding that the solutions to those concerns often have to come from without.
Menino
frequently tells people he has the "best job in
Eleven years in it, he certainly understands the problems.
Yet he can't create the solutions. He's master of his own ship, but in an ocean filled with icebergs, his fate is not his own.
Talk back to Tom Keane at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.