Mayor Menino Announcement Speech

Announcement Speech by Mayor Thomas M. Menino

April 22nd, 2009

Good afternoon.  By birth or by choice, 600 thousand people – and counting – make Boston their home.  Newcomers choose our city over the suburbs.  They move here from far-away nations.  They come here for world-class universities.  They are born into third-generation families in triple-deckers.  Long time residents renovate old homes, start new businesses, and create non-profits.  They launch community groups – many community groups.

A city, more than three centuries old, changes every day.  Even as we keep our cobblestones and curvy streets, our Italian restaurants and our Irish pubs, our jazz clubs and our cultural festivals, we change.

We become doctors, engineers, scientists, artists, teachers, police officers, social workers, and entrepreneurs.  We innovate, like our host today, Digitas, this creative new media agency.  We work hard to improve the city around us.  In these difficult times, we work especially hard.  We make neighborhoods better today than they were the day before.

In government, we've been part of this innovation.  Together, we've made our city greener, our streets safer, our schools better and housing more available. We can all look around, and be proud of what we've helped to build.

Yet for a city – for a mayor – a record may be something to run on, but it's not something to run for. It's the vision, the dream, the confidence that things can be even better, that keeps us at our tasks.

Three years ago, we created a summer camp across the harbor for children in Boston's neighborhoods.  The kids come there and see opportunity, some for the first time.  They play on the sand and look at the city, and they dream of their place in it.  When I stand there at Camp Harbor View, I think of the city that looks back at them.

You know what I see?  I see that in our schools, libraries and community centers, we can craft a New Boston Miracle for our kids.  No Boston child will fall behind.  Around every corner will be a place that will help pull them forward and prepare for college and beyond.  And, "school day" will be an outdated label, as every sun-lit hour – and even some of the night – will be a time for learning and growing.

In our neighborhoods, we can help small businesses thrive, fill empty storefronts with new entrepreneurs, create new housing for families, and knit together communities, so neighbors can rely on neighbors in these challenging times.

At City Hall, we'll forge ahead with a new kind of urban mechanics.  The generation that gave us Facebook wants to engage in public service more than ever before.  I say to them that Boston can be your proving ground and home to a wave of municipal innovation not seen since cities first brought water into people's homes.

With Boston's businesses, we'll forge a new kind of compact.  Boston will be home to a new, sustainable capitalism that will be a model for the world.

We'll move ahead with a national agenda of college access and affordability, because it's what our students deserve and helps our colleges thrive.  We'll build green buildings at the water's edge and cultural institutions along the greenway.  We'll make sure no one is priced out of their neighborhood, foreclosed out of a home or left living on a sidewalk.  We'll cut crime so that no one is scared from their front steps - and youth violence is a thing of the past.

These are tall orders in any environment, especially as we work through this recession.  But marathoners have crossed the finish line; bats are cracking at Fenway Park; and the Bruins and Celtics are in the playoffs.  These are signs – sure as any – that it's spring time in Boston.  They are signs that we've come to a time of renewal and, yes that we stand at the doorstep of a new campaign.

This summer and into the fall, I will seek the confidence of the people who make our city the best on earth.  I will run again to be your mayor.  I will wage a campaign, with your help, that draws on the best of a history of innovation.

To the 300 thousand residents I have met, and to the 300 thousand I have yet to meet, I will renew the promise I make every morning when the sun rises over Hyde Park.  I will work tirelessly for you and the special place we all call home.

I thank you, my wife Angela and my entire family, and all the residents of Boston for putting your trust in me.  It's a privilege to work for you.

I look forward to working for your vote, and debating our city's future.  Thank you, and God bless the great city of Boston.