Mayor Thomas M. Menino came across a newly renovated house in Roslindale a couple of years ago that wasn?t quite to his liking. So he snapped out his cellphone and barked at his chief development aide: ?How could something so ugly get built???
When the answer came back that the home fell within zoning code, Menino ordered the code rewritten. Now, homeowners in wide swaths of the city need City Hall permission to build additions.
A few years earlier, in Menino?s ceremonial conference room, the anxious developer of a Back Bay skyscraper was trying to win the mayor?s blessing. He placed a scale model of his proposed tower on the table. He had a line of a dozen possible tops for the building that he placed on the model one at a time, like hats.
Menino picked the one he liked best - it resembled a king?s crown - and with that, the project was as good as built.
Never before in Boston, and perhaps nowhere else in the nation, has a mayor obsessed so mightily, and wielded power so exhaustively, over the look, feel, and shape of the built city. Routine construction projects on remote streets need City Hall approval; prominent towers that climb the downtown skyline carry his mark; independent city boards bow to his will.
Interviews with numerous developers, neighborhood activists, residents, and current and former city workers, as well as a review of hundreds of Boston Redevelopment Authority records, reveal a common theme: The difference between success and failure - approval and denial - often depends on pleasing Menino.
Indeed, a small cadre of favored developers and consultants, most of whom have close personal, professional, or political ties to Menino, have routinely won approval for their buildings, all the while showering the mayor with the kinds of campaign contributions he once promised to reject.
Stories abound of developers who have seen proposals put on ice because of some perceived slight - often something as simple as not calling the mayor personally before a proposal first appears in the newspaper. As widespread are the tales of savvy - and successful - developers who live by two simple rules: Never surprise Menino, and always include him.
Menino?s unorthodox leadership has led to enormous successes for Boston - massive development during a roaring economy that brought gleaming towers, luxury hotels, and posh condominium projects, with thousands of new jobs and millions in local property taxes. The boom reaped neighborhood victories, including a new shopping center in a blighted section of Roxbury. Menino also slashed the red tape that had famously snarled developers for years.
His leadership also led to failures - bare parcels in prominent places, uneven progress on marquee stretches of the city, and criticism that Boston lacks a coherent vision for its future.
The mayor makes no excuses and offers no apologies.
(cont'd)
