Thomas Michael Menino was an American politician who served as the mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014.
72 Facts About Thomas Menino
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Thomas Menino was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three months in the position of "acting mayor" following the resignation of his predecessor Raymond Flynn.
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Thomas Menino led a powerful political machine in Boston and played roles in national politics, such as serving as president of the United States Conference of Mayors from 2002 to 2003, bringing the 2004 Democratic National Convention to Boston, and co-founding the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
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Thomas Menino served as co-founder and co-director of the Initiative on Cities, an urban leadership research center based at Boston University.
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Thomas Menino was born on December 27,1942, in Readville, a part of Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood.
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Thomas Menino was the son of Susan and Carl Menino, both of Italian descent.
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Thomas Menino's father was a factory foreman at Westinghouse Electric, and his grandparents lived on the first floor of his parents' Hyde Park home.
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Thomas Menino enrolled in three night classes at Boston College before abandoning his college education.
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Carl Menino once recalled his son's reasons for opting out of higher education: "Truman didn't go to college," the younger Menino would tell his father.
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Thomas Menino eventually received an associate degree in Business Management in 1963 at the now-defunct Mount Ida College, which was then known as Chamberlayne Junior College.
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Thomas Menino graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in community planning in January 1988.
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Thomas Menino began working in sales at Metropolitan Life Insurance in 1963.
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Thomas Menino left the insurance industry in 1968 after Timilty got him an entry-level position at the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
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Thomas Menino again worked on Timilty's campaign in the 1979 Boston mayoral election.
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The 1983 Boston mayoral election coincided with the City Council election, and Thomas Menino endorsed Raymond Flynn over Mel King there.
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Thomas Menino announced a candidacy for Suffolk County sheriff in 1986, but abandoned his candidacy afterward.
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In 1988, Thomas Menino became chairman of the City Council's Finance Committee.
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Thomas Menino remained chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for the entirety of his tenure as City Councilor.
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Thomas Menino earned a reputation for having a strong understanding of the city budget of how to allocate funds to assist residents.
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Thomas Menino was known to be a "vigilant watchdog of the city budget," as hailed by The Boston Globe.
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Thomas Menino was again re-elected in November 1989 and November 1991.
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Thomas Menino was a founding member of the City Council's Tourists and Tourism Committee which was created in 1991.
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In 1992, Thomas Menino planned to run for the United States Congress seat that Rep.
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In 1993, Thomas Menino was elected president of the Boston City Council over Maura Hennigan.
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In 1988, Thomas Menino authored a 5-point plan outlining steps to stop the spread of AIDS among users of intravenous drugs, including use of needle exchanges, community health vans, street outreach workers, and increased drug rehabilitation facilities.
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Thomas Menino advocated as a city councilor for the Boston City Hospital to be reorganized.
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One cause for their rift was that, after Thomas Menino had promised he would appoint 100 new police officers when he took office, Flynn beat him to the chase and did so himself, which angered Thomas Menino.
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Thomas Menino was the first Italian American to lead the city.
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In early August 1993, Thomas Menino signed a grant agreement with the state which advanced $3.7 million in state funds to be allotted for the construction of a materials recycling facility in the city.
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Thomas Menino put a freeze on water utility rates in place in the city, which were at rising due to the need to pay off the expenses of a court-ordered cleanup of Boston Harbor.
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Thomas Menino formally declared himself as a candidate for mayor on August 16,1993, after many other candidates had already formally entered the race.
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On March 28,2013, Thomas Menino announced that he would not seek a sixth term.
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In 1997, Thomas Menino was re-elected, running formally unopposed after no challenger managed to collect enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.
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Thomas Menino faced a negative campaign from Henigan, who blamed Thomas Menino for the city's high cost of living and a recent rise in its crime rate.
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However, Thomas Menino had stayed above the fray, largely not responding to her attacks.
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In May 2002, Thomas Menino was elected president of the United States Conference of Mayors.
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Thomas Menino brought the Democratic National Convention to Boston in 2004.
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Thomas Menino supported the 2008 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, sending his own campaign workers to New Hampshire to work for her candidacy ahead of the 2008 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary.
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At the time of his 1993 mayoral campaign, Thomas Menino took a position supporting an existing municipal executive order which allowed city employees sick leave or bereavement time in instances in which a domestic partner or other household member has taken ill or died.
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In 1998, Thomas Menino signed an executive order allowing domestic partners and dependents of gay, lesbian, and unmarried municipal employees to receive health benefits from the city.
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Thomas Menino came out in support of same-sex marriage in 2003.
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At one point, Thomas Menino refused to partake in the South Boston St Patrick's Day parade due to their exclusion of gays.
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In 2012, Thomas Menino headed the Mayors for Freedom to Marry effort.
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Thomas Menino often faced criticism accusing him of playing "favorites" with developers.
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The influx of millions of dollars of new high-priced housing during Thomas Menino's tenure contributed to gentrification, which had the negative impact of pricing longtime residents out of neighborhoods.
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In 2010, legislation was passed creating a downtown business improvement district, something Thomas Menino had been pushing for since the 1990s.
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Thomas Menino known for focusing on neighborhood development in Boston, organizing services by neighborhood, and appointing neighborhood coordinators who serve as ambassadors from the city in their areas, believing that development should happen in every neighborhood.
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Thomas Menino oversaw the development of the Seaport District in South Boston, known as the "Innovation District".
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Thomas Menino gave priority to the redevelopment of Dudley Square.
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Thomas Menino was involved with negotiating with Boston Red Sox ownership and the state of Massachusetts a deal to provide public funds to build a new baseball stadium near the existing Fenway Park.
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However, Thomas Menino was resistant to many school reforms, despite having promised to overhaul the schools.
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In June 2009, Thomas Menino voiced support for performance pay in Boston public schools.
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Thomas Menino failed in his effort to lengthen school days, meeting resistance from the Boston Teachers Union.
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However, in 2009, Thomas Menino came out in support of charter schools, praising what he proclaimed to be charter schools' ability to attract quality teachers, arrange lessons to fit students' needs, and establish flexibile workplace rules.
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Thomas Menino took office amid the "Boston Miracle", a successful joint effort by police, churches, and neighborhood groups which worked to decrease youth-on-youth violence.
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Thomas Menino supported Operation Ceasefire, which is credited with decreasing homicide rate in the city.
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Thomas Menino, who had been recovering in the hospital from a leg fracture at the time of the attacks, checked out of the hospital in order to be present in the aftermath of the attacks.
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Thomas Menino oversaw negotiations that led to the January 1996 merger of the Boston City Hospital with the BU Medical Center.
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Thomas Menino had, as a city councilor, previously given support to the idea of reorganizing the Boston City Hospital.
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In 2004, in an effort to fight childhood obesity, Thomas Menino banned sodas from Boston Public Schools.
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Under Thomas Menino, Boston became the first major city in the United States to incorporate green building standards in its zoning codes.
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Thomas Menino released an updated Climate Action Plan for the City of Boston on Earth Day 2011.
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Thomas Menino made appearances at community events, such as parades and community meetings.
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Thomas Menino had been given this nickname in late 1994.
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An example of Thomas Menino causing controversy with his choice of words occurred in an interview for the August 28,2013, issue of the New York Times Magazine.
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Thomas Menino was quoted as saying that he would blow up Detroit and start all over, in reference to the inaction of the city's leaders.
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Thomas Menino met Angela Faletra in 1963 when the two were playing tennis in Roslindale on adjacent courts.
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Thomas Menino was admitted for abdominal pain and intestinal inflammation and was treated for kidney stones in 1995 and 1997.
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In 2003, Thomas Menino underwent surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital to remove a rare sarcoma on his back.
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Thomas Menino was receiving hospice care at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
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The funeral services were pre-planned by Thomas Menino himself, including the list of invitees for the private funeral mass.
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Thomas Menino was buried at Fairview Cemetery in Hyde Park, around the corner from his home.