As Autumn settles cooly upon our fair city, so too does Boston’s mayoral race starting first with the preliminary election being held today until 8pm. While voters make their way to various polling stations to find a viable replacement for Mayor Thomas Menino, few may realize that this is the first preliminary election of its kind to sweep the blustery streets of Boston since 1993– when Bill Clinton occupied the Oval Office, Jurassic Park reigned at the box office, and the Buffalo Bills lost their third of four consecutive Super Bowl appearances.

This is an important time for Boston and every single citizen who resides within its city limits, for this is the first time for many that Mayor Menino will not be a candidate for the highest position in municipal government. And while uncertainty can be uncomfortable or even unnerving especially when it comes to who will take up the torch as the de facto leader of our humble metropolis, I put it to you, Boston populous, that this is one of the most exciting times in the annals of one the country’s most historically significant cities.

In 1993 then-Mayor Ray Flynn, with 9.5 years at the helm of Boston already under his belt, was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the position of Ambassador to the Holy See leaving his office in Boston City Hall vacant for a notorious but beloved mumbling, bumbling, says-what-he-means speaker to swoop in.

This empty seat prompted a new lineup of candidates to emerge in hopes of stoically leading the city through both prosperity and and stagnation. A young Thomas Menino, interim mayor during Flynn’s absence and Chairman of the Boston City Council Ways and Means Committee, was among the pack relaying to the Christian Science Monitor a sentiment that resounds just as clearly in the contemporary election as it did 20 years ago.

“I think it’s a new direction for the city,” he said in a phone interview. “I think the person who gets elected has to be familiar with how the city finances are run and how to get more from less.”

And though finances aren’t the sole deciding factor, Menino played up his experience to the benefit of his local political career, something that each of today’s candidates have done, and two more will continue to do.

That’s right, just two.

The preliminary election today is a method employed to narrow the sprawling field of hopefuls from 12 to 2. On November 5, the general election will take place where civilians cast their vote for Boston’s next mayor, one who upholds the duties and respect the position entails for what could be another twenty years.

The Mayor of Boston is limited to serve four-years per term but those number of terms are unlimited. Flynn was the final leg of a mayoral era that saw but three executives in a span of 33 years. Menino himself served five terms. James Michael Curly, for example, served four nonconsecutive terms.

If anything, Bostonians need to take away from today’s proceedings that not only will the next mayor set the immediate course of Boston–the Athens of America, the city on a hill– but the framework for the city’s future extending years, even decades, down the road. So go out and exercise your freedom to vote, but do it conscientiously, because the person elected to vie in the general election could be the one who wins the position and brings Boston to a new level of prominence and prestige.