By Jim O'Sullivan

Kai Harrison-Tang was ignoring the mayor. He turned his back to him, rolled his eyes when the mayor spoke, even interrupted him.

The sometimes pugnacious Mayor Thomas M. Menino tolerated the rebukes.

"Leave the kids here; I'm used to that," Menino said, when the 17-month-old's mother and father stood to take him outside the Phillips Old Colony House's Somerset Room, where Menino addressed a crowd of new homeowners on September 24. "That child makes more sense than I do probably most of the time."

Menino's constituents counted on the mayor being wrong about that at the Wednesday night meeting, one in a series of similar nights around the city. It's a briefing, an informational how-do-you-do.

"It's about getting them familiar with the city," Menino told the Reporter. "People moving into a new city need to be familiar with the city government, basic services, what the community issues are, cultural opportunities in the city."

Kai's parents, Rhonda and Yixin, aren't new to the city, only to Dorchester; both biochemists, she got a graduate degree from Boston University, he from Tufts, and they met at MIT. Looking to settle in the area, they decided on an Ashmont Hill home shortly before Kai was born.

"We love the neighborhood and the street," Yixin said, but they have their gripes. Rhonda lived in Brighton for eight years, and said city services there, like street sweeping, are far superior.

"It would never be this dirty in Brighton," Rhonda said.

Cleaner streets were a hot topic at the Old Colony House. Jacquie Bishop lives on Dix St. in Fields Corner, and gave Menino an earful about trash near the T station there.

"That's one of my biggest hang-ups in life, is dirty streets," Menino replied. "We're not there yet in this city. It's a very real problem, and it seems to be increasingly worse."

Talk of cleaner streets led to pleas for more trashcans, fines for businesses who don't keep their storefront sidewalks tidy, and questions about street sweeping.

Michael Kineavy, director of Neighborhood Services, said the city is planning on distributing fliers encouraging car owners to move their cars during scheduled sweep times - stopping short of imposing tickets, instead asking for "volunteer" cooperation.

The information flowed both ways; behind Menino stood Molly Dunford, the Neighborhood Services coordinator who shares Dorchester responsibilities with Mila Monteiro, also in attendance, and Freda Brasfield. Dunford jotted notes that one day may take the form of a new trashcan or even a converted Menino admirer who might show his or her appreciation at the ballot box.

Bishop said that her frustration with the dirty streets doesn't outmuscle her admiration for the way the city is run.

"Dorchester's a very big neighborhood, and parts of it have been neglected over time and there seems to be some movement to fix them, and I understand that takes time," she said. "I've actually found [Menino] to be responsive. It's something that I really respect about him. He appears to be a really hands-on mayor, and he's surrounded himself with good, responsible people."

But neither the Phillips hors d'oeuvres selection nor the mayor's boasts of a city that works could keep everybody happy.

There was one more complaint from the Ashmont Hill family of three.

"He didn't actually kiss him," Rhonda said. "He's supposed to kiss babies, but he only gave us a high five."