People who respond to polls usually do so to dissent the main topic or to lob darts. But when we polled our readership three separate times in recent years on Menino-related issues, the responses we got were off the charts in his favor.

In August 2012, we asked readers if they thought Menino had amassed too much power over his 20 years in office. Ninety-nine percent of respondents answered “no, he’s been duly elected five times for a reason; he’s effective.” That’s 99 percent of a total of 16,340 responses.

In December of that year, we asked readers how the local economy would fare if Menino opted not to run for a sixth term. Again, 99 percent of the responses said yes to the comment, “Let’s hope he’s re-elected and we don’t find out.” Survey total was 15,376 responses.

In October 2013, we asked if readers thought Menino’s plan for an additional 30,000 housing units by 2020 was feasible. “Not only feasible, but necessary,” took 86.5 percent of 4,527 total votes.

Menino clearly captured the hearts and minds of many for his rough charm, and  their admiration for his effectiveness. He always had some extra mojo, for good and for ill. He put a premium on loyalty, and was recognized as a holder of grudges when he thought someone was getting in the way of his ability to be effective. Toward that end he was a master mechanic who knew exactly which gear made the machine work – and also in which gear to throw the monkey wrench.

In the spring of 2010, construction of a $700-million mixed-use development on the site of the old Filene’s building in Downtown Crossing had been stalled for two recession-fraught years (and with Menino taking the heat for having green-lighted the project), Steven Roth, head of Vornado, the then-developer, said in a Columbia University lecture that he’d deliberately let the site of the former Alexander’s department store in New York City lie idle in the 1990s to increase the chance that local government would be more motivated to invest more to remediate the blight. Oh, and that he was waiting for the price to go up. (Vornado never did receive public funds for that project, but it eventually did get rebuilt.)

Menino pounced on Roth’s comment like a shark on chum. Roth apologized to Menino, who accepted the apology but told The Wall Street Journal he would not “let developers hold the city hostage.” Patient capital was no match for lost job opportunities in Menino’s city.

Let’s revisit those B&T surveys for a moment. Look at that 99 percent who didn’t even want to think about anyone else getting elected, and the 13.4 percent response on the housing plan for 2020 – “Absolutely not, and he won’t be there to make it happen” – the last phrase of which implies the distinct possibility that had he lived and stayed in office, he just might have been able to pull it off.

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