After 20 years as mayor, Thomas Menino’s name is on official signs and notices all over Mission Hill and the rest of Boston. But new Mayor Martin Walsh has indicated he has no plans to update the signs anytime soon.
Festooned on traffic light boxes, neighborhood welcome signs, illuminated maps, murals, trash barrels and most of all, City Hall, Menino’s name is ubiquitous all over the city.
In Jamaica Plain alone, his name is found on Hubway bicycle parking, park signs and notices, and most prominently, on large blue “welcome” signs displayed in Hyde Square and Egleston Square. His name is even painted into every City-sponsored street mural.
The potential change has been discussed in the Boston Herald and in “The Atlantic Cities,” where Walsh said that, beyond updating two signs in City Hall, putting his name on the rest on the city’s 1,800-plus signs would not be a priority.
“As we replace [the signs] down the road, we will put my name on them,” Walsh told the Herald last month.
Repeated Gazette requests for comment from Walsh spokesperson Kate Norton were not returned.
Menino’s name is on the Parkman Playground sign on Wachusett Street. (Gazette Photo by Rebeca Oliveira)
Menino’s name is painted into a mural on a traffic control box at Centre and Eliot streets. (Gazette Photo by Rebeca Oliveira)
The “Welcome to Hyde Square” sign at Centre Street and S. Huntington Avenue still bears Mayor Menino’s name. (Gazette Photo by Rebeca Oliveira)