Mayor’s Courtesy Call Is Felt in Town

When the mayor of the middle-class Boston suburb of Melrose gave his inaugural address, it wasn’t a call for a tax cut or a promise to reduce crime that caught the attention of constituents. He asked everybody to be nicer to one another, and it appears they listened. In the weeks since Pat Guerriero formed the “Responding with Respect” committee, teenagers’ table manners have improved, parents have volunteered to paint classrooms, and politicians have held their tongues during debates at City Hall. Although Melrose has not become a Garden of Eden, many say the mood in town has improved and credit the campaign for creating a sense of fellowship that they hope will endure. “Maybe it doesn’t transform the community overnight, but I think it opens the door and it points the way,” said the Rev. Tracy Frink, pastor of the First Baptist Church.