By Brian Denitzio
Reporter Staff

It's a busy Tuesday morning in the corner office. While his staff fields phone calls from constituents, and peruses a Herald editorial about their boss, City Council President Michael Flaherty is busy in his office, huddling occasionally with his chief of staff. Soon he emerges, gives a hello to his staff, and takes his next appointment. Shortly after noon is an event in City Hall Plaza, after which he's away from the office for the remainder of the day. His nights are full too, making the rounds to various civic functions and meetings throughout Boston's neighborhoods.

The city of Boston that first elected Flaherty in 1999 is not the city he campaigns in this summer. Flaherty cites an influx of new residents &endash; new voters with new concerns &endash; as the chief reasons why he's not taking it easy this summer, and why his work on the council remains challenging.

"There's a lot of new people coming into the community that don't know you," says Flaherty.

To introduce himself, Flaherty says he follows the same metrics that brought him to office six years ago.

"It's the same approach. You're out there early, you're at the train station, you're at the coffee shop, you're doorknocking," says Flaherty.

"I'm doing the same thing …that I did when I first ran for city council in 1995."

While some incumbents face questions about whether or not they will hang on to their seat, Flaherty's sizable campaign war chest and strong citywide operation have him well-positioned for the fall. The pertinent questions surrounding his campaign are in a different category all together. Will he again be the leading vote getter in the field, as he was in 2003?

Flaherty isn't interested in trying to answer those kinds of questions.

"You can never predict what people are going to do, you can only go out there and ask to be considered for one of their four votes," says Flaherty.

As for what a finish out of the top spot would mean, Flaherty isn't biting on that either.

"It's not my style to try to handicap a race, I'm just going to put my blinders on and just work hard for the issues and positions that I care about the most," says Flaherty.

A lot of the issues he and his wife are concerned about as a young working family, Flaherty says, are the same issues that are echoed by residents as he criss-crosses the city.

"The increase in property taxes has really soured a lot of folks," says Flaherty. He points to a near 20 percent vacancy rate in commercial space in the downtown area. That empty space means lower tax revenues, shifting the burden for funding basic and vital city services on to the homeowners.

Flaherty says that he wants to encourage new businesses to invest in that office space, and for existing businesses to expand their commitments - moves that would help alleviate the burden on the residential taxpayer.

Another important issue is education. As he travels the city, Flaherty says he hears parents voicing a strong desire for more choices in where they send their children to school, and more specifically the choice to send their child to the school closest to their home.

Flaherty calls for a community based approach, allowing parents to send their children to school in their own neighborhood. Parents can work together with teachers and residents to build the kind of support system Flaherty says is necessary for schools to succeed.

"Some of our greatest success stories are all community based…but when it comes to assigning our school children, we abandon any model of being community based," says Flaherty.

Work remains on these and a number of other issues that are important to him, Flaherty says. And while he stands by his record of service, it's the work going forward that Flaherty places his focus on.

"It's an ongoing process you can't just sit back and rest on those accomplishments," says Flaherty.

And so the work continues, taking nothing for granted, reaching out to new residents and longtime constituents alike

"At the end of the day, I've always tried to go back to the fact that if you live in the city of Boston, I work for you," says Flaherty.