Menino, convention get favorable reviews

Despite cost overruns, labor strife, and road closures, last month's Democratic National Convention was a political boon to Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who is earning plaudits for boosting Boston's civic pride without inconveniencing many of its residents, according to a Boston Globe poll conducted last week.

Sixty-three percent of Bostonians polled say Menino did an excellent or a good job overseeing the convention, and 23 percent have a higher opinion of the mayor now than they did before the event, the poll indicated. Only 11 percent said they had a less favorable view of Menino because of the convention.

"He did all the right things -- security, giving people the right to speak but in certain areas," said Jeremiah McCarthy, a 56-year-old retired airline worker from Hyde Park, Menino's neighborhood. "The mayor, the police, they all did a good job."

Menino's overall favorability rating is 70 percent, down from 77 percent in 2000 but still robust for a politician in the middle of his third full term. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents said he is doing an excellent or a good job as mayor.

Not everybody was thrilled with the mayor's drive to bring the convention to Boston. Janine Cimino, a 47-year-old homemaker, said she now "thinks a little bit less of him."

"I live in East Boston, and we're really rich on Menino, but recently I don't think his decisions are so great. I wouldn't vote for him again, I'll tell you that," Cimino said. "Where was the benefit? What, for those people having a party in there? That's who was benefiting -- it wasn't benefiting anybody else."

However, 57 percent of poll participants said the convention was a success, and only 22 percent said it was a failure. The remainder said the event was "somewhere in between."

Despite a recent report that described the convention's economic benefits as negligible, 54 percent of those polled said Boston would benefit in the long run.

"It gave a lot of people a chance to see the very interesting historic and cultural things in Boston. That might make them want to get back or recommend it to friends," said 82-year-old Jean Wassell, who lives near the FleetCenter. "It was an achievement for the mayor to get it here."

The telephone poll of 400 Boston residents, conducted for the Globe by KRC Communications Research on Aug. 15, 16, and 17, has a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.

Many Bostonians liked the convention because they did not have to deal with it, judging from the poll.

Eighty-two percent said they did not participate in any civic or cultural events connected to the convention, and 48 percent said it had very little impact on their lives.

Thirty-eight percent of participants said the convention had a positive impact on their lives, compared with only 9 percent who said it had a negative impact.

"There was no traffic, it was sort of like a ghost town," said Ellen Graf, a 58-year-old Roslindale resident. "It was a breeze to get in and out of town."

Anecdotal evidence suggests many residents of Boston's suburbs, who rely more heavily on the roads that were closed than city residents do, would have answered that question differently.

Last month's convention, the first since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, prompted an unprecedented security effort by city, state, and federal officials. Wassell described the security as "extremely overdone."

"I was absolutely appalled at the militarism of the whole thing," she said. "The insult was that cage. I guess protesters pretty well boycotted it, and well they should have."

But Wassell's was the minority view: Sixty-eight percent of respondents said the increased police presence was necessary, compared with 28 percent who said it was not. Fifty-five percent said the convention security overall was "about right," and 35 percent said it was "too much."

Forty-six percent of respondents said the convention security detracted from anticrime efforts around the city, while 33 percent said it did not.

"It ended up being too much, but that's in hindsight. Beforehand, people felt like some terrorist act might happen, and everybody was prepared for it," Graf said.

Menino, who has acknowledged having doubts as he was hounded by critics in the months leading up to the convention, said that he was not surprised by the findings.

"There was a lot of civic pride in Boston about the convention. I had a sense of it being around in the neighborhoods," the mayor said. "Every place I went, people congratulated me on it, and said 'Thank you for bringing it to Boston.' It was a great week for our city."

Scott S. Greenberger can be reached at greenberger@globe.com.