Old magazine cover of Menino, the "Urban Mechanic"
Hi BostInnovators — I will be live blogging from The Ad Club’s Edge Conference today at the Westin on Boston’s waterfront. Kicking things off is Mike Sheehan, CEO of Hill Holiday, who is introducing, “the best Mayor in America,” Mayor Thomas Menino.
Update 8:50 am:
Mayor Menino talking about the Innovation District’s 1000 acres of land. We are the only city in the country with this type of available land for such an ambitious project.
- The city has plans to expand the Convention center “in the next year or so.”
- The Mayor wants to focus on the “proximity of ideas.” Menino says “face-to-face encounters matter more than ever, especially in green, biotech and healthcare… knowledge workers need different types of housing,” and the Mayor’s office will be testing new live-work ideas for researchers.
- The Mayor is very optimistic about wind power and is planning on building turbines on some of the islands in Boston Harbor.
Its election day here in Mass and the whole nation is watching (and Tweeting, posting to Facebook, flickr, YouTube, etc.) who the voters in our great state will be sending to Capitol Hill to fill the late Senator Kennedy’s seat. Here at BostInno, we stay out of the political games, but would like to share some of the exciting activity we are watching unfold on the Internet surrounding the election. The Internet, specifically social media, has revolutionized the political process by making it possible for any citizen to become a broadcaster and enabling us to openly and freely exchange information of importance. While this at times can appear to be messy and chaotic, we believe the pros from such freedom of expression far outweigh any of the cons, no matter what side of the aisle you choose to sit on. 
