JEFF BOWEN 781-201-9488 | SANDRA CASTILLO 617-780-6988 BOSTONJEFF.COM [email protected] Boston Harbor Real •Estate | 188 Sumner Street | East Boston THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019 FREE charlestown PATRIOT-BRIDGE Townie Santa MAYOR’S FUNDRAISER Different Clientele to return for Neighborhood Council split on support the holidays for new Bunker Hill packie license this season By Adam Swift Holmes, representing Sanchez Market owner Angel Acosta. “This By Seth Daniel The owner of Sanchez Market is a Spanish-based food store that at 160 Bunker Hill St. is looking to has been selling beer and wine An age-old, but forgotten, expand from beer and wine sales without incident for five years.” Charlestown tradition will be to a full liquor license. Holmes said the owner is seek- returning for the holidays this At last week’s meeting of the ing the all-alcohol license in part year, and it’s likely to brighten the Charlestown Neighborhood to increase his income and support faces of several homebound elder- Council, opinion was split on if his family, as well as to better serve ly and veterans. Bunker Hill Street needs another the Spanish-speaking residents in A conglomeration of volunteers liquor store. the area. from the Bunker Hill Associations, Some residents and council “It’s easy to say no more liquor the Golden Age Senior Center, 100 Photo by Marianne Salza members spoke in favor of the stores in Charlestown, but this is Ferrin St., Mayor Martin Walsh, Edward Wellington, Mayor Martin Walsh, Elaine McCarthy, and Boston request, citing the desire to sup- part of an effort to raise his kids,” the Age Strong Commission, Corporate Counsel (and former State Representative) Gene O’Flaherty port a local business by allowing said Holmes. “This is a prominent Crystal Galvin at the Kennedy during Mayor Walsh’s fundraiser on Weds., Nov. 6, at the Charlestown the market to better serve its pri- store for the Spanish-speaking Center and Tiara Murphy at Knights of Columbus Hall. See Pages 6 and 7 for more photos. marily Spanish-speaking clientele. people in the neighborhood, and Boston Housing are uniting to But others, including the own- he is working there seven days per bring back Townie Santa for the ers of two nearby liquor stores, week.” season. State hopes changes at Rutherford, spoke against allowing another The approval to allow the “We’re bringing back Townie full package-store license in the full-liquor license comes down to Santa this year for the holidays,” Cambridge will help Gilmore Bridge neighborhood, noting that the area a hearing before and approval of said Kim Mahoney, of the Bunker is already well served and warning the City’s License Board. As of Hill Associates and the Warren against going back to the bad last week’s Neighborhood Council By Seth Daniel During the Oct. 29 Rutherford Tavern. “Charlestown shines meeting, Tera Lally of the old days when Charlestown was meeting, Holmes said a date has when we do things like this It’s One of the most frustrating Charlestown Neighborhood known for having more bars and not been set for that hearing. the way the community comes pinch-points for local traffic in Council made the point that package stories per capita than any Holmes also noted that Mayor together – everyone rolling up the Town has become the Gilmore the Gilmore has become a very place else in the country. Martin Walsh is planning on add- their sleeves and working for the Bridge – a much more critical important route for Charlestown, “This is a completely differ- same goal. That’s the fabric of the corridor these days as more res- but one that is getting worse and ent clientele,” said attorney Scott (PACKIE Pg. 4) community.” idents look to travel to work in not better. Townie Santa was a staple of Cambridge. “From 7:30 to 10: 30 a.m. it’s the holidays in the 1980s and That commute, while just min- backed up from Whole Foods to VETERANS BANQUET 1990s when the Conway family, utes without traffic, can last an Cambridge,” she said. “Coming former Charlestown Patriot news- eternity coming into the Town and back, you can wait seven light paper owners, would organize a getting out of it – and also interfer- cycles as people try to turn right Photo by Derek Kouyoumjian massive effort to deliver a hot ing with those simply trying to get onto Rutherford.” Veteran Ed Cottier served on the meal and goodie bag to elderly by the daily congestion. State transportation officials USS Saratoga, and was given the home-bound seniors in the Town. The frustrations with the noted that they have a robust royal treatment at the seventh As time went on, and people Gilmore have often surfaced plan to repair and maintain the annual Veterans Banquet on moved on, the effort fizzled out during meetings about the recon- Gilmore Bridge, and that has Thursday, Nov. 7. In addition and seniors have not benefitted struction of Rutherford Avenue, played out over the last two sum- to honoring veterans from the from the program for years. even though that adjacent bridge mers as repairs have gone on so Town, the Abraham Lincoln Post Mahoney and Golden Age is not in any way part of the the bridge can be safe. However, a 11 GAR gave out more than $5,000 in scholarships to local Director Meghan Murray said Rutherford project. That said, it spokeswoman for MassDOT said students. See Page 5 for more they believe it is just the right time plays a great role in the traffic congestion on the Bridge is related photos. to bring it all back, and to add congestion that figures into the to traffic on the roads surrounding Rutherford corridor – and a piece (SANTA Pg. 9) (BRIDGE Pg. 4) that few have been able to address. 2 PAGE 2 THE CHARLESTOWN PATRIOT BRIDGE NOVEMBER 14, 2019 editorial THE CLIMATE SCIENTISTS HAVE BEEN WRONG ALL ALONG For the better part of three decades, the vast majority of scientists -- including those hired by the petroleum industry -- have warned the world that climate change is occurring principally because of carbon emissions from our addiction to fossil fuels for our automobiles, coal power plants, industry, and agricultural production. They have measured the effects in any number of ways, most especial- ly the shrinkage of the ice sheets at the polar regions that eventually will result, they have said, in a rise in sea levels around the globe. The also have told us that a warming planet will bring about an increase in ocean temperatures, which in turn will have devastating con- sequences both for marine life, which cannot exist in warmer waters, and for ourselves, who will feel the impact of ever-more devastating storms. They have warned that unless we take steps within the next decade to curb the so-called greenhouse gas emissions, the Earth could become irreversibly changed by the end of this century. However, the scientists have been wrong. Very wrong. It turns out that the time frame the climate scientists predicted for the dramatic effects of climate change to occur has been grossly underesti- mated because their models did not take into account the effect of the feedback loops created by our warming planet. We aren’t scientists, but even we understand what is happening right in front of our eyes. The ice sheets at the poles are melting faster than even the direst of models had predicted. The extraordinary heat wave across Europe this past summer (U.S. women’s soccer fans will recall the high temperatures in France during the World Cup) resulted in temperatures reaching the 80s in the Arctic Circle -- an unheard-of phenomenon. GUEST OP-ED Environment Canada, the country’s national weather agency, con- firmed that Alert, Nunavut, the most-northerly, permanently-inhabited spot on Earth, hit 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) on July Encouraging lifelong learning by eliminating late fees for 14, the highest temperature ever recorded there. youth at our public libraries As the ice at the poles shrinks, instead of sunlight being reflected (by the ice) back into outer space, it is absorbed by the earth. When that By Mayor Martin J. Walsh to check out additional materials, eral other improvement projects happens, the permafrost at the Arctic Circle starts to thaw out, releasing they will no longer face fines for throughout our neighborhoods. carbon dioxide that has been trapped in it for millennia into our atmo- In the City of Boston, we late returns. We believe this will We’re installing new technologies, sphere, thereby warming our planet at an even faster rate. believe every child deserves an encourage more young people to public artwork, and creating more It now is clear that scientists’ predictions that the effects of climate equal opportunity to succeed. take advantage of the educational spaces where communities can change were a distant prospect, for which we still had time to take appro- We’re investing more than ever resources our libraries provide. gather. priate action, have been vastly underestimated -- by a factor of decades. in our public schools, building Many young people might The Boston Public Library is Climate change is happening today. The devastating succession of out universal pre-kindergarten, struggle to pay off their overdue the oldest free city library in the hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and droughts of the past few years have providing free community college, balance and feel ashamed return- United States. Our city has a long wiped the earth clean of civilization wherever they have struck.