A limping return, but strong on change

A brace on his left leg concealed under a dark suit, Mayor Thomas M. Menino was not moving yesterday like the glad-handing, eager politician that Bostonians have come to know over his 16 years in office.

But as he made his way onto a public stage for the first time since severing a tendon in his left leg a month ago, the 66-year-old mayor declared himself a new man, ready to tackle the challenges of his unprecedented fifth four-year term, and to embrace unspecified bold ideas he has previously shot down.

“There’s a new sheriff in town, and that sheriff is going to double-talk some things he said in the past,’’ Menino said, drawing laughs and applause at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast. “I look at things with a whole new pair of eyeglasses.’’

The mayor touched on a few issues in his 15-minute remarks, which he delivered while seated at a table. He asked the gathered business leaders for help on two fronts: by suggesting ideas to replace the hole in Downtown Crossing where Filene’s flagship department store once stood and by urging the Legislature to approve a measure that would allow for city-controlled charter schools in Boston. He also announced the hiring of a new chief of staff.

But the focus of the morning was the mayor himself. Although he granted interviews to the news media last week, he had not been seen in public since he severed the tendon that connects his thigh muscles to the top of his left kneecap while walking up the stairs at his son’s house on Nov. 8, five days after he won reelection. Since that time, the city’s longest-serving mayor, famous for his nonstop schedule of neighborhood events, has been confined to hospitals and his Hyde Park home, undergoing physical and occupational therapy. He returned home after the speech yesterday and said he is not sure when he will return to City Hall.

“This is great to be outside,’’ the mayor told the gathering at the InterContinental Hotel on Boston’s waterfront. “There’s a real world outside your house. Gosh. You ever stay home and watch TV? Sorry to you folks in TV land: It’s terrible.’’

Menino has previously used his annual speech to the Chamber of Commerce to unveil bold new proposals, many of which went nowhere. Last year, for example, he proposed attempting to squeeze more money in lieu of tax payments out of tax-exempt universities and hospitals. In 2006, he proposed selling City Hall and the surrounding plaza and moving the municipal offices to the South Boston waterfront.

Yesterday, however, the mayor merely reiterated several major goals he had outlined during his reelection campaign this fall. He spoke only briefly, and then asked three of his Cabinet members - School Superintendent Carol R. Johnson, Boston Redevelopment Authority director John F. Palmieri, and budget chief Lisa C. Signori - to update the business audience on their work.

The mayor said he wants to revitalize Downtown Crossing, and he urged the chamber’s members to support his longstanding proposal for a Business Improvement District, under which businesses would pay more taxes to support street-level amenities like decorative planters and regular power-washings.

He also urged the business community to help him drum up new ideas for the former Filene’s site, now a hole in the heart of Downtown Crossing that was often cited as an example of the mayor’s failings by his campaign rival, Councilor at Large Michael F. Flaherty Jr.

“Let’s think about the future,’’ he said. “What can that be? Can that be financial services? Can it be health care? Can it be some other type of building?’’

The mayor also stressed the importance of improving education, a perennial concern of Boston residents and civic leaders. He asked business leaders to support state legislation he has filed that would allow the city to bypass union approval and transform low-performing schools into “in-district’’ charter schools controlled by the Boston School Committee. The House has indicated it plans to take up the issue next month.

“This bill is extremely important, and we cannot afford to be left behind,’’ Johnson said.

Menino also announced one change in his inner circle. Mitchell B. Weiss, 33, a Harvard Business School graduate who was a fellow in City Hall in 2004 and 2005, will replace Judith Kurland as the mayor’s chief of staff, Menino said.

Weiss - who is executive director of the Tobin Project, a nonprofit education organization in Cambridge - had previously worked at Merrill Lynch, focusing on mergers and acquisitions.

Kurland will take a new role as the mayor’s chief of programs and partnerships, Menino said.

During the chamber breakfast, there was much joking about and concern expressed for the mayor’s knee.

Paul Guzzi, the chamber’s president, declared to applause: “He’s back! He’s back!’’ And Guzzi said he had recently undergone his own ordeal after having knee-replacement surgery.

“I can tell you, this is not easy,’’ Guzzi told the mayor. “But it will get better.’’

Robert E. Gallery, the president of Bank of America’s Massachusetts operations, praised the mayor’s wife, who was in the audience, for enduring her husband’s long recuperation.

“Angela, there are a lot of things you signed up for, but having him home for a month? I’m not so sure about that,’’ Gallery said to laughter.

After the speech, Menino greeted business executives who lined up to shake his hand. The mayor remained seated; he has said it is painful for him to stand longer than 20 minutes. He is scheduled to be reevaluated by his doctor Dec. 19, and his aides hope at that point they will have a better sense when he will be able to return to work full time; his inauguration to his fifth term is scheduled for Jan. 4.

“This is a serious wound,’’ Menino told reporters after using the crutches to rise to his feet. “And you’ve just got to deal with it. And I’m dealing with it.’’

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.