Stalled Efforts

Published Apr 07 2008, 02:53 PM by David S. Bernstein

Every so often, to remind the local citizenry of their existence, Boston City Councilors will think up an Idea. Usually it has something to do with spanking or loud ice-cream trucks, and becomes the object of much humor and eye-rolling. But sometimes, it's a Good Idea, and threatens to bring some small amount of admiration and appreciation to the councilor behind it. In those instances, Mayor Tom Menino invariably heads that off by announcing the Idea as his own initiative.

If you're an optimist, you'll see this as a way that good ideas bubble up toward implementation. Cynics, however, wonder whether Menino ever really intends to follow through on these things once he's stolen the thunder and held his press conference.

Score two for the cynics. On Friday, The Globe reported that the citywide WiFi initiative, which Menino swiped from councilor John Tobin a few years back, is "faltering." Faltering in this case means "not happening." Instead of citywide WiFi this year as planned, we'll have, um, "bubbles" of coverage in Grove Hall and unspecified bits of the Fenway and Mission Hill.

On Sunday, the Globe followed with news that the Mayor's citizen-complaint-tracking system is similarly, shall we say, behind schedule. That was originally Michael Flaherty's "CityStat" idea, back in 2005. Menino announced it as his own in '06. In '08, the system remains, so far as I can tell, non-existent.