Entrepreneurs

ONEin3 Council Member Bessie King Reflects on her experience with Mayor Menino and her desire to continue his legacy of bettering our city.

My family arrived in Massachusetts during Mayor Menino’s second term and Boston was not quite the attractive city it is today. We lived in the suburbs and it wasn’t until the time came for me to go to college in the city that I truly got to know Boston.

In my first two years, I learnt of our restrictive T-curfew and refused to photograph our infamous City Hall when friends came to visit from other schools. I was not impressed. By my last two years of college I became aware of the reputation shift certain parts of the city had, understood why retaining a younger demographic was integral to the city’s development and even got to enjoy the introduction of city-funded programs like bike-sharing. Boston changed, in my mind and in reality, within the ten years that I arrived, attended college and was beginning my master’s.

I became proud of being a Bostonian and grew a collection of sports teams, United Way or Paul Revere-circa the 2004 DNC, t-shirts that I still sport on weekends or vacations. What I had not realized until two years ago is that all this change happened thanks to our Mayor. For the past two years my family has been searching for space to relocate our food business due to redevelopment in the building we were located in. We searched for help everywhere, women’s groups, business associations, banks, real-estate agencies, far and wide across the city. We found a place but, unfortunately, our surrounding community did not feel comfortable with its location inside of a neighborhood block.

We were ready to give up until we met Mayor Menino at a non-profit event we catered. My mom, a direct and uninhibited Mexican woman, asked him pointedly if he could help her save our business during his greeting. He said, “Will I get free food?” and made her laugh. After taking out his business card and scribbling down his secretary’s name on it, he assured us he’d try his best to help us. That, he has.

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