Boston politics in the year ahead

Boston is, in many ways, a small town, where the same question comes up no matter what watering hole you're in. One of those questions is whether the city's longtime mayor will run again in 2013.

Given his rigorous schedule -- and that he announced he was running for reelection in 2009 eight months before the November race -- an answer does not appear to be on the horizon. (That won't stop the vortex of gossip, of course. As we put it in our preview of 2011: "Sometimes, Boston can be seen less as a shining city upon a hill and more as a rumor mill grinding away on top of a landfill.")

So in this week's Reporter, we serve up a list some other storylines to look for in the year ahead, the mayoral question and nationalized campaigns aside.