Menino’s JP years

Before Thomas Menino was mayor, he was a Hyde Park city councilor whose district long included a large chunk of Jamaica Plain.

Councilor Menino’s district included Woodbourne, Forest Hills and the Stonybrook area along Washington Street. Gazette stories from the early 1990s show he had a reputation as a straight-talking, sometimes blunt, politically moderate elected official.

In the 1993 mayoral race Menino eventually won, JP at first preferred the more liberal City Councilor Rosaria Salerno, who lost in the preliminary election. In the final, JP greatly preferred Menino to his opponent, state Rep. James Brett.

Menino appeared at various JP candidate forums in the 1993 race. His positions included: banning handguns in the city; keeping community centers open seven days a week; seeking the right for the City to create its own taxes; reforming the payment in lieu of taxes system; and restoring the Arborway Green Line streetcar through central JP, which he later opposed.

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