In honor of the late former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, a Boston resident launched a petition on Oct. 31 to rename the city’s Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park.
The petition’s developer, Michael Cohen, was inspired to create “Rename Christopher Columbus Park as Tom Menino Park” after a walk through the park on the day Menino died, he said. Menino died Oct. 30 after several health complications in the past year.
“As I walked through the park on that Thursday afternoon, I turned and had a clear view of the Innovation District that Mayor Menino worked so hard to build up,” he said. “I could see the skyline of the city he dedicated himself to, and as I turned to my right, I was four minutes from his office at City Hall.”
Since the petition’s launch, Cohen has created tommeninopark.org and said the petition has garnered over 1,400 signatures, as of Thursday. His goal is to reach 10,000 signatures.
Cohen said a statue would not be the way to commemorate Menino because the former mayor should be down with the people, instead of put on a pedestal as a statue.
“One of the things that was so wonderful about Mayor Menino was that he not only helped the people that needed helping, but he helped the people who were harder to help,” he said. “He was concerned about people at the community level.”
If the tribute plans were to come to fruition, Cohen said no other changes would be made to the waterfront location, which contains a playground, fountain, green space and a trellis within a relatively small area.
“City of Boston residents and so many others mourn the passing of Tom Menino, who did so much for the city and will surely be remembered as one of our very best mayors,” according to the petition. “It seems that there could be no more fitting tribute than the renaming of this prominent park that anchors the Greenway that is such a symbol of the city he worked tirelessly to reshape.”
Supporters of the petition have left notes with their signatures, indicating their strong support of this change in name. “This is so fitting!”; “Mayor Menino deserves this park”; “This would be a fitting tribute to Mayor Menino.”; and “I’m actually surprised this hasn’t happened sooner” are a few quotes from the petition’s signers.
Several residents said they had mixed feelings about the possibility of the park being named after their late former mayor.
Carol-Ann Farkas, 45, of Jamaica Plain, said she felt that Menino, having done so much for the city, deserved to be memorialized in this way.
“I’m a cyclist, and he did so much to improve the cycling infrastructure and open the dialogue between bikers and the rest of the city,” she said. “I’ve been to the park, and it’s really beautiful and right by the harbor. I know his efforts to improve the harbor were very important.”
Anthony Raymond, 44, of the South End, said although Menino certainly deserves to be commemorated, changing the name might prove to be more trouble than it would be worth.
“I can tell you right now that if you tried to get rid of the name Christopher Columbus, you would get uproar from the adjacent North End,” he said. “Christopher Columbus was Italian, and if you tried to change the name, you’d certainly get an adverse reaction.”
Cheyenne Johnson, 18, of Dorchester, said although it is a good idea to name a park after Menino, he deserves his own, new space.
“Mayor Menino should have his own memorial, instead of them taking someone else’s park and renaming it,” she said. “After all, who’s to stop that from happening with Thomas Menino Park in a few years?”
