City Councilor John Tobin said today he wants a meeting with city transportation officials to look at installing parking meters in the West Roxbury business district along Centre Street.

Tobin said he's hearing from a growing number of merchants who want meters as a way of increasing turnover in spaces. In addition to on-street spaces, the city has two small lots off Centre Street, one behind the post office, the other across from the Dapper O'Neil mural,

Boston city councilors said today that Gov. Patrick's plan to cut the amount of money available to companies that make movies in Massachusetts would harm a nascent industry in the state.

City Councilor John Tobin (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain), who submitted a call for a hearing on the financial impact of the change, compared moviemaking to the Red Sox. Sure, David Ortiz and other players make "an obscene amount of money," but they're also responsible for hiring large numbers of local residents.

The tax credit "puts men and women from the city of Boston, and from around the Commonwealth, to work," Tobin said.

City Councilor John Tobin today called for a statewide law to ban texting while driving.

At a hearing at City Hall this morning, Tobin admitted he's a recovering texter: "I have done this, I've texted while driving many, many times. And I've been trying to reform myself. I never even gave it a second thought."

Tobin said he realized he needed help in August when a local allergist sent him a link to a graphic YouTube video from the United Kingdom showing a recreation of a texting-related crash.

The Boston City Council agreed today to look at ways of making it harder for the nosy to see how you're voting.

Councilor John Tobin (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain), said the current system, in which people vote at little triangular platforms that look like they belong in a bank, makes it too easy for people standing at the same cluster to see how somebody's voted. And then there's the walk to the scanner box, which offers further opportunity to figure out a person's ballot, he said.

Tobin said some cities use a system in which voters sit at a table and a privacy curtain surrounds them.

Tobin's resolution.

City Councilor John Tobin (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain), will ask the council tomorrow to look at making like the MBTA and ban texting while driving.

A ban would require approval of the state Legislature to go into effect.

Tobin, who has paid for "Slow Down, Boston" signs for his constituents' lawns, says that while texting is a wonderful thing - he admits to sending dozens of text messages a day - texters are a menace to themselves and others behind the wheel:

Texting while driving severely impedes a driver’s ability to operate a motor vehicle safely. Distracted drivers make the roads more dangerous for everyone. It's time for us to take the necessary steps to protect motorists and pedestrians while they are traveling in the city’s neighborhoods.

The Herald reports that City Councilor John Tobin (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain), wants to change the city charter to keep Tom Menino from getting re-elected, engineering the elevation of the current Hyde Park city councilor to city council president, then stepping down, making the councilor the next mayor, not that Menino has ever in a million years said he would ever do something like that, mind you.

You may recall this was how Menino first became mayor, although without the engineering part, when Ray Flynn headed off to the Vatican. Menino is close with the current Hyde Park councilor, Rob Consalvo.

To replace the current system, Tobin would make the city clerk (currently, former Councilor Rosario Salerno) interim mayor until a special election.

The Herald also reports that while some (presumably on a vacation day) city workers spent yesterday collecting signatures for Menino, off-duty firefighters were out in force doing the same for their best bud, Michael Flaherty.

The Dorchester Reporter reports councilors Sam Yoon and John Tobin hold an emergency hearing tomorrow afternoon on the fate of workers at pre-school and after-school programs at city community centers, who could lose funding for their jobs under Mayor Tom Menino's current budget plans.