Yesterday was High Five Day; today is Foursquare day. No, not foursquare, Foursquare. It's some kind of social networking for nerds where you can "check in" to different locations on your mobile device, earning badges for certain types of checkins, like a "douchebag" badge for going to lots of crappy clubs whose popularity no one can explain. You can even become the "mayor" of a place you go a lot, which you may know if you've become "mayor" of your local Starbucks because you go there forty times a day to stalk the cute barista you have a crush on and even though she's engaged you have a creepy Pam/Jim fantasy about her and it's unnerving her so much she's asked to transfer to another location where you'll probably become mayor all over again. But at least you get coupons for crappy coffee! Anyway. Foursquare picked today because 4^2=16 and it's April 16 and isn't that just so clever. There will be special badges on offer throughout the day and there's even a Boston Foursquare Day Party at the Good Life bar tonight from 6 to 9 pm, raising the question: who's the mayor of Good Life? And will there be a new mayor tonight?
Results tagged “mayor”
If you've been breathlessly following the squabbling that has kept Cambridge mayorless for months, you probably already know that Cambridge City Council finally chose David Maher to be its powerless leader. Unlike real cities, Cambridge leaves the selection of its mayor to city council, which chooses a mayor from among its ranks. The mayor has basically no authority but makes $30,000 more than the rest of the councilors, which strikes us as the sort of toothless egalitarianism that has given Cambridge its reputation. [Globe]
Tonight, Mayor Thomas Menino was reelected to a historic fifth term, which, if served, will make him the longest serving mayor in Boston history. He beat Michael Flaherty by a wide margin of 57 percent of the vote to 42 percent, according to unofficial results. Incumbent City Councilors at large John Connolly and Stephen Murphy also retained their seats by hefty margins. Felix Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley will join city council with 16 and 15 percent of the vote, respectively. Pressley will be the first African American woman to serve on city council in Boston's history. In District 7, Chuck Turner blew away his competition despite a cloud of legal troubles, and Sal Lamattina, Michael Ross, and Mark Ciommo each held off challenges in their respective districts. [City of Boston]
In a press release, mayoral candidate Sam Yoon proposed to undo Boston's BRA should he be elected. According to Yoon, the Boston Redevelopment Authority is an "outdated system that favors developers over communities, that lacks coordination, and that consumes a large amount of revenue with no oversight." He proposes to replace it with a "Community Development and Planning Agency,"—which, if he simply called it the "Community Neighborhood Development Operations Management," could have the acronym CONDOM—with an emphasis on transparency, citizen accountability, and green development. He even throws in a few biking shouts-out.
- Kick a guy when he's down! Former schoolmate remembers Philip Markoff as an arrogant nerd. [Boston Herald]
- CT AG wants Craigslist to tighten controls on erotic services. [Hartford Courant]
- Mayor Menino makes it official and will likely overstay his welcome at City Hall without debating his opponents. [Boston Globe]
- Unlike Boston College, Brandeis is allowing Bill Ayers to appear on campus. Some people are pissed off about it, of course. [The Justice]
-- Police arrested the Dorchester man responsible for the February 27th lunch brawl at West Roxbury High School. Edwin Reyes, 39, surrendered to police yesterday. Police say that Reyes led a posse of four adults, including his two brothers and an unidentified woman, to assault a West Roxbury student who had allegedly beat up Reyes's son.
What's going on here? Not only are students afraid to ride the bus to school, but they also might be afraid to eat lunch.
It was about a week ago when we noted that the Bruins were in 6th place in the Prince of Wales Eastern Conference, which was a decent place to be, thus drawing the winner of the weak-sister Southeast Division. In that week, the B's have solidified the 6th spot, but are now officially in spittin' distance of bigger and better things. They've won blowouts this week, they've won shootouts, they've won at home, they've won on the road. They've done everything but beat Montreal. Now we see 6th place as little more than a nice springboard.
Well, City Councilor John Tobin has a solution for low voter turnout, and it's not a MoFee Style Public Kvetch-Fest. If Mayor Tom Menino thought he didn't like the idea of Kvetch-Fest 2008, he must have blown his stack when he heard what Councilor Tobin proposed.
--Someone found violent messages in women's bathrooms, along with the date of February 28 (tomorrow), at Bridgewater State. Given recent violent incidents on college campuses nationwide, the school boosted security. Police are offering a $500 reward to find out who did it. [Boston Globe, Boston Herald]
City Council president Maureen Feeney (aka "MoFee") had plans to host a big gathering--or kvetch-fest, if you will--at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. At the time it was originally announced, it was seen as a potential irritant to Mayor Menino and a possible traffic nightmare.
There may be no institution in the city as diverse as the Boston Public Library, whose resources entice students, intellectuals, high culture types, the elderly, foreign language speakers, the homeless, and bookworms of all persuasions. Recently, though, the BPL has also been attracting some unwanted attention from Mayor Tom Menino.
This Bostonist finally got around to seeing There Will Be Blood last night, so we're prepared to concede that the West can be a harsh and pitiless place. Until this week, the West had been very good to the Celtics.
--Hendry Street isn't the only place suffering from the home-foreclosure crisis. In fact, so many areas are suffering that real estate agents are taking possible buyers on bus tours of other people's property. As if someone losing a home doesn't have enough misery, now they have to have complete strangers tramping about on the front yard. [Boston Globe]
--With this winter's especially foul weather, we have entered a new level of pothole hell. [Boston Globe]
Despite costing us the Super Bowl, Boston is Mayor Tom Menino's city to lose. Given relative peace and prosperity, and the incredible challenge of defeating an incumbent, Menino will likely decide when and how his tenure as mayor comes to an end. Still, a rival politician can dream.