City Hall To Central Wharf?

State Sen. Jack Hart is suggesting a plan to relocate Boston City Hall to Central Wharf, thus displacing the New England Aquarium in favor of another brand new facility in South Boston.

A dramatic land swap giving Boston a new aquarium, moving City Hall to the waterfront and opening up a prime downtown development site is being pitched by a leading South Boston pol as a “win-win” Hub makeover.

Under the bold plan detailed to the Herald by state Sen. Jack Hart, a new City Hall would be built on the current aquarium site on Central Wharf. The four-decade-old aquarium would relocate to a new facility on the Southie waterfront. City Hall Plaza would then become Boston’s hottest property open for development.

“The City Hall downtown is abysmal and it’s prime real estate. And (the aquarium) needs a completely new building,” said Hart, a key figure in the recent transformation of the South Boston waterfront. “It’s an opportunity to build two state-of-the-art facilities. It can be a win-win all around.”

Win-win for who? Menino and his successors gets a new view from their office–big deal. Why should Boston taxpayers and Massachusetts taxpayers foot the bill to replace two buildings that don’t need to be replaced? Particularly, in this time where everyone is doing what they can to save pennies, how does paying for the design, demolition, and construction of two state-of-the-art facilities help us save money? There should be no talks of billion dollar spending ideas. I want to hear how this state is going to save money.

It makes little sense to relocate the aquarium to a less advantageous location so that City Hall can relocate. Can you imagine how many more parking tickets will be unfairly handed out to help cover the costs of this relocation idea?

Yes, Boston City Hall is a grotesquely ugly building–but we shouldn’t be talking about replacing it when times are tight for all of us. We shouldn’t even entertain the idea of relocating the Aquarium, which has enjoyed success in part due to its location. Don’t mess with something that isn’t broken. Fix what is inside City Hall first before you knock down the building, will ya?

Kerry Snubbed By Menino?

There has reportedly been bad blood recently between John Kerry and Mayor Menino, so whether or not there was a snub here, I can’t say.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday insisted his decision to skip the Democratic state convention two weeks ago was not a snub to Sen. John F. Kerry even as one of the mayor’s top operatives said his troops were not rallied to support Kerry there.

“I talked to John Kerry a week before the convention and he knew I wasn’t coming,” Menino said yesterday after an appearance in East Boston.

The Herald yesterday detailed a long-standing feud between the two high-profile pols and reported that Menino didn’t lift a finger to help even as Kerry sought convention backing for his re-election bid.

Kerry had been seeking to keep Democratic primary challenger Ed O’Reilly off the ballot, but O’Reilly got 22 percent of the vote – far more than the 15 percent he needed to force a September primary. It’s the first time Kerry will face a primary opponent since 1984.K

Kerry may easily win the primary, but I’d be insulted if I were him that O’Reilly easily got enough support to get on the ballot.

Menino Not Going To Wisconsin

Mayor Menino was a nominee to be the next chancellor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Apparently, the mayor is not interested in a 260% raise.

I find it hard to believe if anyone had the opportunity to earn an additional $275,000 a year that he or she wouldn’t take it. Could you imagine Mayor Menino in academia?

Menino’s Blame Game

The Boston Herald’s Jessica Van Sack has a front page story today on Menino’s long record of blaming anyone and everyone but himself for things that have gone wrong on his watch as Mayor of Boston.

Yours truly was interviewed for the article:

Mayor Thomas M. Menino knows that ruling the roost in Boston means never having to say you’re sorry – especially when you can point the finger of blame at others over and over again.

The mayor has blamed the governor, the Legislature, the feds, state police, the firefighters union, plowing contractors, the business community, the gun lobby, weather forecasters, Sunday liquor sales, college administrators and the media when things went wrong in the city.

When the crowd got out of control at Copley Plaza at the release of the wildly popular PlayStation 3 last year, Menino blamed Sony.

When traffic gridlock shut down the city during last week’s snowstorm, Menino blamed Gov. Deval Patrick and local businesses for letting state and private sector employees out early – even though he cut city workers loose at the same time.

“He must believe nothing is ever his fault,” said Matt Margolis, a Republican political observer who co-founded HubPolitics.com with his brother. “He’s so insulated from criticism.”

The sad fact is that Menino has little to fear when it comes to his job. He’s handily reelected term after term, despite his lack of leadership or accomplishments. One example I gave was his failed gun buyback program. That was pretty much his “final solution” when it came to fighting the exploding gun violence in Boston, and it didn’t solve the problem or have any impact at all. Kids are still getting killed.

Menino is a failure as a leader. Unlike President Bush, who took responsibility for the federal government’s response (and essentially the Louisiana state government’s response) to Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Menino is point fingers and laying blame elsewhere. Sadly, the voters of Boston fall for it every election cycle.

Free Wi-Fi is Useless If You’re Dead

Yesterday’s BostonNOW talked about the latest news about “Mayor Thomas Menino’s $15 million dream for citywide wireless” in Boston… meanwhile, the residents of Boston are still suffering from Menino’s failed gun buyback program, which did nothing to reduce gun related crime in the city.

I guess it’s nice to know that if you happen to get shot in the city of Boston with your laptop, you’ll soon be able to look up how to treat your gunshot wound.