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Mayor Menino tangles with the press
BY ADAM REILLY
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TUESDAY, July 27, 2004 -- Tom Menino arrived at this afternoon’s City Hall media briefing in a sunny mood, humming loudly as he walked in to meet members of the press and greeting them with a jaunty "Shoot!" As soon as Boston’s mayor told everyone how swimmingly Saturday’s delegate parties had gone, though, Amalia Barreda of WCVB-TV hit him with a toughie: What did he think about some restaurants reporting a 50 percent drop in business? "There are some businesses where business is down at this time," Menino acknowledged. "We knew some inconvenience would develop. But I’ll tell you, some businesses are doing very well." A measured-enough response -- but things went downhill from there. The Globe’s Rick Klein asked Menino if he was prepared to rule out using taxpayer money to cover convention costs. "It seems that way now," the mayor said. So, Klein persisted, would he rule it out? "Rick," Menino replied, looking exasperated. "We’re two days into it. It seems that way right now." Faced with another question about convention-related lulls for local businesses, Menino grew even testier. "Since day one, I said there would be some inconvenience to our lifestyle," he complained. "Nobody quoted me on that, but I said that from day one. Roll your tape back. I said that from day one." Menino went on to say that Chicago mayor Richard Daley and former Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell, both of whose cities recently hosted national political conventions, have assured him the long-term economic benefit for Boston will be great. "We’ll make it up to them when we bring other conventions to the city," he said of businesses currently suffering. Menino also pointed out that late July is a popular vacation time. And he told of two delegation visits to Filene’s Basement -- a favorite mayoral hangout -- that resulted in two men spending $2500 and $2000, respectively, on discount duds. But the damage had been done. Near the end of the briefing, one reporter asked if Menino would host the DNC again. "Oh, I’d love to do it again," he shot back sarcastically. "My God!" Another reporter pressed him: Well, would you? "I’d love to do it all over again, but I want you folks on my committee, so I can have control and make sure you’re writing good headlines," Menino retorted. A few minutes later, Boston’s mayor wrapped things up with these parting words: "Two more days. Then all of you can go on vacation and we won’t see you for weeks."
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