Citizens of the Fenway vote in 6 elections precincts – Ward 4, Precincts 5, 6, 7, 8; Ward 5, Precinct 2; and Ward 21, Precinct 1. Here are unofficial results from the precincts, gathered by Fenway News volunteers:

Keep Moving Forward
By Mayor and candidate for reelection, Thomas Menino

Diverse, talented and innovative, the people of Boston are the strength of our city. We have all worked hard to make Boston a city that welcomes, protects and empowers all people. From creating jobs to reducing crime, from championing marriage equality to building workforce housing, my administration addresses the priorities of our city.

Despite the economic challenges we face, Boston’s future is bright. Powered by innovation and strengthened through partnerships, we will continue to improve our neighborhoods and bring new opportunities to our residents. I believe in the people of Boston, and I will continue to work to move this city forward and make it a better city for all of our people not just some of our people.

Recognizing that Boston’s strength is in its diversity, we have taken many steps to support the efforts of Boston’s active GLBT community. I am proud of the work that we recently did to open the nation’s largest GLBT health center, the new Fenway Community Health Center, and expand access to quality health care for all of the people. The new health center location also includes housing and commercial services that will bolster West Fenway and help turn that area of Boylston Street into the grand boulevard that the community envisioned in its neighborhood planning process.

Boston’s success also depends on a well educated work force. We were recently named the most improved urban school district in the country by the Broad Foundation; but we need to do more. We will turn around our low performing schools and surround our youth with opportunities from dawn to dusk, from birth to college. That’s why I’m pursuing legislation to create “in-district” charter schools, as we continue to expand K-8 schools, increase early childhood education, and partner with area universities to double college graduation rates for our BPS graduates. I am particularly proud of the Boston Arts Academy in the Fenway, which offers new opportunities for young people in arts and culture.

The innovation that is transforming our schools is also reinvigorating city government. With the newest technology, I want to make government even better at achieving its most essential mission: helping people. Just look at our new iPhone application. It makes it easier for residents to report service requests – from graffiti to potholes –so that we can act on them more quickly. Through continuous innovation, we are bringing government far beyond the doors of City Hall by connecting directly with the people of Boston.

Partnerships and empowerment are also making our neighborhoods safer. Boston has reduced its crime rate each of the last three years. Our community policing strategy puts more officers on regular walking beats to build stronger partnerships within neighborhoods. At the national level, Mayor Bloomberg and I are leading a coalition of 400 mayors pressing for smarter laws that will take more guns off our streets and recently, we were successful in curbing the spread of concealed weapons by rallying congressional opposition to the NRA on this. In addition to the work we have done nationally and across the city, we have also worked closely with Fenway Health Center on hate crimes issues and the Victory Recovery Program.

But a strong city is more than safe; it’s also sustainable. Together, we have worked to make Boston the 3rd greenest city in America. We are moving forward with an array of new initiatives from expanding bike paths to exploring new wind power and solar options to training our residents for new “green” jobs. A few weeks ago we brought single stream recycling to all of Boston’s residents, making our neighborhoods cleaner and greener. This fall, we will start a bike share program and add more bike lanes and racks. We’re also connecting green policies to economic development to create new green jobs and help residents make their homes energy efficient. Whether it’s through recycling, tree planting, or innovative energy solutions – Together we are leading the way to a greener future.

We worked with the community to turn the old Sears Building parking lot into green space and a continuation of Emerald Necklace. We also worked with Fenway Civic Association to create and endow Ramler Park which the ParkMass Audubon heralded as a “Garden of Eden”.

So together, we’ve made our city greener, our streets safer, our schools better and housing more available. We have made great strides in our city over the last few years, but this campaign is about the future of Boston. This is about the citizens of Boston, and I am asking for your help and your vote on September 22nd so that together, we can keep moving Boston forward.

Charting a New Course for Boston
By At-Large City Councilor and candidate for Mayor, Michael F. Flaherty

Open your doors and roll out the red carpet. That’s what the Fenway neighborhood does every year for the millions of people traveling from all over the world to visit one of your academic institutions, museums, gardens, restaurants, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and of course, Fenway Park. All of your neighborhood attractions serve as important contributors to the entire city’s economy and cultural diversity. And yet, I’m not sure we’ve always rolled out the red carpet to you. I’m not convinced we’ve genuinely opened the doors of government to you in the way I know we can. In the way that is required to make our city more inclusive and responsive to your needs and priorities, whether it be a mounted police unit, an empowered health center or more quality public school choices. This September and November, I hope Fenway residents will trust me to re-open the doors of City Hall and usher in a new kind of Mayoral leadership that capitalizes on the strengths of each of our neighborhoods and redefines city government’s capabilities.

For almost two years, I have sat at the kitchen tables of resident families, activists, business CEOs, clergy, young entrepreneurs and experienced educators. While each of these conversations has generated a variety of opinions, they generally have reached the same conclusions: Boston lacks the leadership required for survival – and prosperity – in the twenty-first century. We approach today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions and we lack the foresight, vision and energy we need to remain global leaders in innovation, public education and economic development. The current administration’s lackluster approach to city government has resulted in a chronically underperforming public school system, a mismanaged city budget, and unaccountable city services and departments. Equally regrettable, residents have lost faith in their government, a loss I take personally as I have served many years in the public sector trying to better the only city that I have ever called home.

I began my career in public office as an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County during the 1990s when our city’s crime-fighting strategies garnered national acclaim. Under Ralph Martin’s leadership, I learned a tremendous amount about our legal system, which afforded me a unique perspective to combat crime as a City Councilor.

And in my prosecuting role, I also learned a painful amount about our broken public schools systems, and how they have failed so many kids who turned to crime because they didn’t have the support they needed to make better decisions, both in the classrooms and on the streets. These were the learning experiences that compelled me to continue my role as a public servant for Boston and run for City Council in 1995. I actually lost that race. And I lost a race the next year when I ran for State Senate. Nevertheless, I remained a student of Boston, intent on learning what residents wanted from their local leaders.

I will never forget the day in 1999 when my commitment to understanding resident issues paid off and I won an At-Large seat on the City Council. More importantly, I will never forget my previous defeats, as they remind me daily that we must work tirelessly to earn the trust and respect of voters in order to earn the right to lead.

The last eight years on the Council have given me a front-seat view of the dysfunctions and shortcomings of this administration. While many of the observations I have made as a Councilor have been disappointing, they have also served as a challenge to me to take on a larger role to make Boston work for all of today’s residents and businesses, as well as any prospective residents and businesses.

Sometimes, incumbents have genuinely not served long enough to affect positive change. However, this Mayor has had sixteen years to bring real reform to our public schools, tackle youth and gang violence and create an accountable, transparent, and efficient city government. I stepped into the race for Mayor because I believe if we haven’t seen growth in these areas in the last sixteen years, we will be hard-pressed to see such achievement in the next four years. As a lifelong Boston resident, parent and elected official, I believe we must view this Mayoral race as an important opportunity to chart a new course for Boston that is led by a new Mayor.

By many accounts, Boston has not failed me. However, it has failed many others and I intend to reverse that trend as your next Mayor. I cannot get their without your help. I need your ideas, your support and your guidance to ensure victory for Boston. Join me now so that together we can lead this great city forward in November. I ask you for your vote September 22, 2009.

Why I am Running
By candidate for Mayor, Kevin McCrea

I come to this candidacy not as a politician, not as an academic, not even as a business owner (which I am). I’m running as a citizen, an ordinary member of the community, and representing what I’ve heard community people talk about all over the city. I’m running, first and foremost, to restore honest, open government, and to show what can be accomplished for our community if we made truly fair and efficient use of our public powers and resources. And I’m running now, and for the highest office in the city, because we are facing a particularly dangerous time for the economy and for the environment, and informed and courageous leadership will make the difference in how we deal with these challenges. We can’t get by on “business as usual.”

We all know, really, that the city’s government is not working as it should. I’ve been struck, when I tell people I’m running for office, how many just turn away, saying, “All politicians are crooks.” The periodic articles revealing shameless abuses of the public trust and negligent incompetence just confirm what many of us have experienced: it’s not working well. It’s not working well, unless you happen to be one the connected.

And – this is very important — it’s not because of a shortage of money. We have lots of money; for example we have the largest school district in the State and we are in the top 10 percent in terms of dollars spent per student. Our taxes and expenditures have increased at twice the cost of living under Menino. The Mayor and City Council simply burn up the excess through “soft” graft and corruption – what I refer to as “waste, fraud and abuse.”

I’ve been demanding information from City Hall, breaking open back-door meetings, and talking to people inside and outside government for years, and I’ve learned about the specific ways that our laws and our money are being taken away from us by the very people we elect to protect us. I’ve been an activist for a while, blogging, speaking up at community meetings, even successfully suing the City Council for violating the Open Meeting Law through a series of secret closed-door meetings. I’m going to bring information to people so they can elect better officials, demand more of them, and hold them accountable.

But in the end, even if we know all the facts, how can those officials be held accountable if there are just no alternatives to replace them? We can’t vote for “none of the above.” We need candidates who will force a public conversation, bring out information, and give people choices. Entrenched incumbents do their best to prevent this threat to their seats, and shamelessly manipulate the electoral process to avoid accountability at the voting booth. We have to reform a fundamentally broken process, and this is just not going to be done by people who have been part of it and whose career path depends on it. We have to make politics a hopeful public activity again, and public office an honorable profession. Really, if we want to improve things, we have no choice: democracy is messy, but, to paraphrase Churchill, it sure beats the alternatives.

So my purpose is to provide that alternative for a discouraged and, in fact, essentially disenfranchised electorate. Like most people, “I’m mad as hell, and I won’t take it any more.” And we don’t have to. I have specific ideas to make it better, as outlined in my literature and my website www.KevinMccrea.com.

The Case for Change
By City Councilor At-Large and candidate for Mayor, Sam Yoon

Our country is moving forward. Under the leadership of an exciting new president, we’re restoring our standing in the world and charting a path for a new economy, for a new generation. Finally, we have a federal government that wants to invest in cities. But Boston is being left behind – because we are in stuck in old politics and an old way of doing business.

Tom Menino has been mayor for sixteen years and is now asking for another four-year term. It’s time for a change.

Our city, so rich in resources and talent, should be an example of new and innovative ways of governing. Instead, we are falling behind – while others enjoy the benefits that come with fresh, new leadership. Boston has resources like no other city. Our research universities and technology companies should make City Hall a laboratory for innovation. It’s time we reinvent government to tap into the extraordinary talent and creativity of our city.

Before serving as a city councilor, I spent ten years working in community-based non-profits, as an affordable housing developer and a community organizer. I’m running for mayor because I know city government could be a powerful instrument of change – if you have people on the inside who believe in collaboration and bottom-up thinking.

We could wait for Mayor Menino to retire on his own terms – but the people of Boston can’t wait another four years to catch up.

There is a sixth grader in the Boston Public School system who, in four years, is either going drop out – or get on track to go to college. That sixth grader cannot wait another four years. There is a generation of young people dying on our streets, when they should be developing leadership skills that will prepare them for a new economy. Those young people cannot wait another four years.

We need to convert to a green economy and lead the way in developing green-collar jobs. We need to start using 21st Century technology that is commonplace in every other city – like 311 and performance-based management. Boston is already behind – we can’t fall behind another four years.

I hope that everyone will be part of the bottom-up change that would rebuild a our city. Together, we can unlock our potential and create a bright future for Boston – for this generation and the next.