The Globe announced its endorsements for mayor today, and they really didn't come as a shock. Menino and Flaherty. Of Menino, the Globe writes:
Menino speaks to all the communities of his increasingly diverse city. His determination to maintain a vibrant downtown while spreading resources to the neighborhoods is fundamentally the right approach to governing Boston.
On Flaherty:
He presents himself as the Menino of 1993 returning to haunt the 2009 version, showing how Menino’s once-sharp instincts have dulled with complacency. [...] His calling card is wisdom, not charisma. And his hands-on understanding of Boston - its past, its changing face, and its untapped potential - separate him from Menino’s other two challengers.
The paper also described why they didn't choose McCrea and Yoon. Here's where things get interesting:
On McCrea:
Occasionally mean and sometimes overblown, McCrea’s criticisms have nonetheless served a useful function in debates, clearing the air with a bracing condemnation of business as usual. He’s not, however, ready to be mayor. A City Council run would be more plausible.
And, finally, Yoon:
Yoon is right to bemoan the ironclad control that Menino exerts over City Hall, and to look for ways to provide greater transparency in decision-making. But to suggest that the city must fundamentally change its system of governance, as Yoon also maintains, is foolhardy. Whatever its flaws, the strong-mayor system has provided effective and accountable government for decades, giving Boston’s top official the clout to represent residents against powerful businesses, universities, developers, and unions.
Boston.com was immediately flooded with comments protesting the calls. The majority support Yoon for mayor, and an overwhelming number of commenters argue that the paper is out-of-touch, choosing the past over the future. One commenter wanted to know "Does the Globe editorial board read the Globe?" considering its recent coverage of his iron-handed grip on development in the city. The most pungent comment, from "KostaD":
This is an endorsement of 4 more years of shameless bullying, cronyism, anti-intellectualism, bad planning and contempt for the law. I guess when a big metro paper is run by comfortable, feckless suburbanites it's easy for them to cast a blind eye to the corruption, nepotism and incompetence in city government that make life hard for those of us who've actually lived here all our lives. You think machine politics is "colorful" and "quaint". It's not. It's hell. And it's driving the city backward economically and culturally.
What do you think, readers? Is Boston hell?
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