Dorchester Reporter “The News and Values Around the Neighborhood” Volume 31 Issue 31 Thursday, July 31, 2014 50¢ My walk in the park took a dangerous turn By eD forry forestall some of the downside effects I tried to say “I can’t breathe,” but the It was not my usual walk in the park. of aging. grip was so strong, I couldn’t make a There I was, late on a Sunday Suddenly, and without any sort of sound to call out for help. For a second afternoon in July, making my way in warning, I felt an arm reach around or two, my mind focused: Was this an broad and sunny daylight through the my neck from behind. It seemed at first assault by some external force, or was beautiful 27-acre park near my home to be maybe a friend, horse-playing as it “The Big One,” that sudden, fatal in Lower Mills. guys can do, with a sneak-up surprise. heart attack the old man on “Sanford As usual, my thoughts were off in a But the grip was very strong, and it and Son” used to worry about. quiet reverie – as I approach my 70th was squeezing the air out of my lungs In the light of hindsight, I now birthday, I no longer move swiftly, yet and the blood out of my head. This was understand that someone I never I remain committed to regular walks to no friend. (Continued on page 20) Ed Forry Bill Forry photo Almont Park ready for football; baseball is next By BiLL forry to begin this fall. The eDitor baseball diamond will be It’s been ten years added to a corner of the coming, but an am- park that is now used bitious, $4.2 million mainly for cricket— and reconstruction project it will give Mattapan at Mattapan’s largest a chance to start-up a city-owned park is now youth baseball league well underway. Almont next spring. Park’s marquee addi- The mayor— who tion, a newly-installed coached little league football field, will open baseball in his home this week— just in time neighborhood of Savin for the neighborhood’s Hill for years— said he Pop Warner program was dismayed to hear to start practices on that Mattapan did not August 1. have a little league pro- This week, Mayor gram of its own. During Martin Walsh added a coffee hour at the park, another new element to held earlier this summer, Rev. Richard “Doc” Conway at home in St. Peter’s Church on Meetinghouse Hill. Tom Kates Photography the build-out at Almont: Walsh said he toured the Heeding calls from resi- park and decided that it dents, Walsh has ordered could— and would— ac- ‘Doc’ is on call in Bowdoin/Geneva the project to add a little commodate a baseball league baseball field to field. Rev. Conway, BPD’s Baston push safety on streets the next phase of the “I said, ‘Why can’t we construction, expected (Continued on page 9) By tom muLvoy making it ten?” one of the For Reverend Richard Hill, a gathering place associate eDitor players said to an older “Doc” Conway, BC High, looking out over Boston The young guys were man who was standing Class of 1955, the invita- Harbor that is rich in finished with their nearby looking on. “Not tion to join in a hoops historical fetch extend- Transfer station warm-ups on the bas- me,’ said the observer, scrimmage with young ing back to the founding ketball court at Ronan whose thin, lanky frame men from the neighbor- of Dorchester by the dispute erupts at Park in Dorchester and suggested that he might hood was an affirmation Puritans in 1630. getting ready to choose be able to do a few runs that his Roman collar A bastion of three- sides for a game. Small up and down the court. didn’t set him apart decker Roman Catholi- South Boston line problem: They only had “But thanks; you’re just from the street life of cism over most of the This summer, busi- nine players on hand. going to have to make the parish he served, St. 20th century that has By Lauren Dezenski nesses and neighborhood “Hey, Pops, how about do with what you have.” Peter’s on Meetinghouse (Continued on page 4) reporter staff An embattled pro- groups in Dorchester, posed recycling facility South Boston, and Rox- located in the bend along bury banded together to Cape Verdean teens Interstate 93 in South form a “Don’t Dump on Boston has many people Us” task force out of fear take community pulse pointing fingers. that the proposed facility The proposed $10 (Continued on page 13) By Jeanette origeL of Cape Verdean Com- million, state-of-the-art speciaL to the reporter munity UNIDO (CVC Celtic Recycling project Cape Verdean youth UNIDO), was founded would process 1,500 based out of the Catholic by St. Peter’s director, tons of construction and Charities Teen Center at Paulo Debarros. demolition debris daily, St. Peter’s on Bowdoin The group has been as well as single stream Street are surveying active for the past three recycling of cardboard, local neighborhoods this summers, providing newspapers, cans, and summer to collect data on summer jobs for teens bottles within a 55,000 Cesar Monteiro, 19, spoke with a resident of North All contents copyright residents’ concerns. The while advocating for square-foot former blast © 2014 Boston Avenue in Roxbury as he collected survey responses project, run by the Youth freezing facility. this week. Photo courtesy CVC UNIDO (Continued on page 17) Neighborhood News, Inc. Big bank services without big bank fees. Mobile Banking Remote Deposit Online Banking eStatements Bill Pay Full range of deposit and lending products 2250 Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester, MA 02124 · 617-298-2250 4238 Washington Street, Roslindale, MA 02131 · 617-942-8500 Member FDIC Mortgage Line 617-322-3100 · meetinghousebank.com Member SIF MB Bank Services Ad 10x2 4c.indd 1 1/17/14 10:20 AM Page 2 THE REPoRTER July 31, 2014 Adams Corner’s DOT BY THE DAY ‘Sonny’ Elia is dead at 88 July 31 – Aug. 7, 2014 Alexander J. “Sonny” A snapshot look at key upcoming events in and Elia, who owned and around the neighborhood for your weekly planner. operated the eponymous Adams Corner bar and restaurant for close to Thursday (31st) – Soul City Band performs six decades, died this live in concert at Dorchester Park at 7 p.m. The week at age 88 after a free show starts at 7 p.m. The stage will be located brief illness. on the Adams Street side of the park in the “bowl” Mr. Elia was a fixture baseball field. Soul City Band bills itself as “Boston’s in Dorchester beginning premiere soul cover band” with a song list heavy with in 1968 when he bought Motown classics. Call 617-635-4505 for more info. an Adams Street bar then known as Amaru’s • Ashmont Hill Chamber Music will present Café. Prior to that, Elia the second of its 2014 concerts at the First Parish and his extended family Unitarian Universalist Church, 535 Canton Ave. ran a popular luncheon- in Milton, 6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. concert. The ette in the South End program will include Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet called The Colonial. In a for the End of Time. The night concludes with a 1999 interview with the post-concert reception. Tickets are $21 and can be Reporter, Sonny recalled bought at the door, by calling 617-680-7542, or by that the Adams Corner visiting ahchambermusic.org. business proved so chal- lenging that he initially Monday (4th) – regretted the decision to Aidan’s Barber Shops buy it and attempted to in Lower Mills and A bus shelter on Talbot Avenue sportsplantings and a solar panel in place sell it back to the Amaru Adams Corner host a on its roof. family. “buzz-off” to support “But within two or Tommy Kelly, age 4, three years I could see who has been bat- Bus shelter roofs targeted it progressing, because tling a tough cancer of what I put out of diagnosis since June. here,” Mr. Elia told the Florian Hall, 7:30 for “green” treatment Reporter. The business a.m.- 5p.m. Dona- expanded in the 1970s, tions go to support taking over space left a foundation being along Fairmount corridor vacant when Glynn formed in Tommy’s By Lauren Dezenski during hot summer keep up the maintenance Cleaners re-located name. Check out Aidan’s Facebook page or their reporter staff months. of the roofs themselves.” across the street. Sonny website, aidansbarbershop.com. Something leafy and “Today we are cel- The Codman Square later sold the business green is growing on top of ebrating a local initiative Neighborhood Develop- to his son, Richard, who • The Parks Department hosts a meeting this three bus shelters along in the City of Boston to ment Corporation hopes still runs the popular evening at 6:30 at William Devine Golf Clubhouse, the Fairmont Line–and bring green infrastruc- the initiative is success- bar and restaurant that 1 Circuit Dr., Dorchester to discuss the results of that’s the plan. The ture to eye level, educate ful to allow more green bears his dad’s name. its Open Space Plan survey. With this information $15,000 pilot project is urban travelers, beautify bus shelter roofs to be “I just love the area the Parks Department is developing a multi-year aimed at showing com- Boston bus stops and installed throughout the and the neighborhood integrated plan for open space protection and devel- munity members how soak up the rain,” Curt Talbot Norfolk Triangle.