On Beacon Hill, where politics and politicians reign supreme while men and women with prodigious accomplishments in the private sector are ignored, someone has come up with the tedious idea of naming the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center after the late mayor Thomas Menino.
The Globe reported last week that "tucked into" a $3.6 billion economic development bill is "a proposal to rename the BCEC the Thomas Michael Menino Convention & Exhibition Center," apparently on the grounds that the facility was built during his decade as mayor.
"He had the steadfast desire to kind of get it done, and, I mean, it's not perfect," Representative Aaron Michlewitz, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, told a Boston Herald reporter. But perfect or not, Michlewitz said, the convention center "is remarkable and a testament to [Menino's] vision."
Jim Rooney, the head of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce (and
Menino's onetime chief of staff), announced that slapping the name of the former mayor on the convention center is a "terrific idea," since he was the "driving force" behind its construction.
Here's my judgment: It's a terrible idea.
![]() Why not name the convention center for Leonard Nimoy, a renowned son of Boston's West End? |
As mayor, Menino plastered his name everywhere — on signs, plaques, guideposts, construction sites, even trash barrels. In 2013, the Herald estimated that Menino's name appeared on nearly 2,000 public spaces, from neighborhood welcome signs to illuminated city maps to bike racks. His name still appears in numerous venues around the city. There is a Menino Park in Charlestown, a Menino Arts Center in Hyde Park, a Menino Pavilion at Boston Medical Center, a Menino Community Center in Roslindale, and the Menino Athletic Fields in West Roxbury. The last thing Boston needs is another shrine to the man.
Or, for that matter, to any politician.
In a column 10 years ago I lamented: "You can hardly turn a corner in Boston without coming across a building or bridge or park or roadway named for a politician or a politician's relatives." After listing a couple dozen examples, I pleaded: "Can't we call a halt to this taxpayer-funded ego-stroking of people who are supposed to be public servants, not public deities?"
It was refreshing when two elements of the Big Dig project were named for private citizens who were exemplary figures in their fields — the Leonard Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge honors the civic bridge-builder who for many years led the Boston chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, and the Ted Williams Tunnel honors the greatest hitter in Red Sox history. Similarly inspired is Mark Leibovich's recent proposal to rechristen Logan Airport for Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell.
If the BCEC must be renamed, why not use the occasion to honor another non-political figure from Greater Boston history? There is no shortage of great men and women whose renown was earned outside the public sector — sons and daughters of Boston or Massachusetts who didn't spend a lifetime collecting a government paycheck or pandering to voters.
Name the convention center for Winslow Homer, the great Boston-born painter of landscapes and seascapes. Name it for Samuel Langley, a graduate of Boston Latin School who was one of the leading astronomers and aviation pioneers of his time. Name it for Mary Dyer, a religious dissenter who was martyred in Boston for being loyal to her Quaker faith. Name if for the beloved poet Robert Frost, who died in Boston in 1963. Name it for Leonard Nimoy, the best-known actor — and the only half-Vulcan — to be reared in Boston's West End. Name it for Sophie Tucker, the Ukrainian immigrant who spent her childhood in the North End and went on to become one of the most popular entertainers in America in the decades before World War II. Name it for Helen Hunt Jackson, who became a fierce advocate for Native Americans after hearing a lecture in Boston by the chief of the forcibly displaced Ponca Tribe.
Another monument to Menino's ego is the last thing the city needs. Boston's politicians may imagine that no one is more deserving of honors than they are. Surely the rest of us know better.
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(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe).
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