Dorchester Reporter “The News and Values Around the Neighborhood”

Dorchester Reporter “The News and Values Around the Neighborhood” Volume 30 Issue 1 Thursday, January 3, 2013 50¢ Sweet Life fills village niche Coakley’s office asks Vietnamese non-profit to file overdue reports Civil penalties in the offing By Gintautas Dumcius public charities to file their news eDitor annual accountings with the Attorney General Martha attorney general. Coakley’s office has told Representatives of the orga- a Dorchester-based Viet- nization were not immediately namese-American non-profit available for comment over group that it faces the prospect the holiday weekend. The of civil penalties if it does not in address for the non-profit is the next few weeks file a series a residence on Washington of overdue annual reports with Street in Lower Mills and its the state. head is listed as Binh Thanh In a letter sent to the Nguyen. head of the New Vietnamese “As a result of the orga- American Community of nization’s failure to file as Massachusetts, Inc., a compli- required, the Division is ance officer with Coakley’s authorized to bring an action nonprofit and public charities to restrain the organization division, requested the group’s from transacting business in annual report filings for 2008 the Commonwealth,” Amy Kristin Ahern worked a graphic designer and photographer before she discovered a passion through 2011. State law Bryson, the compliance officer, for baking. She now co-owns and manages Sweet Life in Lower Mills, which opened last Au- requires all non-profits and (Continued on page 17) gust. The restaurant and bakery serves breakfast and lunch. Photo by Bill Forry By Bill Forry Sweet Life’s predecessor manaGinG eDitor People who made a — which closed abruptly in On Hendry Street, Dorchester’s newest eatery difference in 2012 2011— had its adherents. and listening post — Sweet It featured lovely, hand- Life— is really a few differ- Page 4 crafted woodwork, wonderful residents say they’ve ent places in one. At the far Turn right, and grab a stool freshly made breads and jams end, near the entrance, it’s a at the 15-seat lunch counter. served by men and women turned the corner Or keep walking up the in hair buns, all to a looping bakery, with an assortment Bay Economic Development gently rising ramp— past the soundtrack of fiddle music. It By tayla Holman of pasties and pies and muf- Corporation, which owns the fins and breads and cakes newly-hung collages of Baker was a peculiar, fascinating reporter corresponDent Residents from one of property at 31 Hendry St. and squared off and stacked high Loft artist April Clay— to the place that — with just a Bowdoin-Geneva’s most well- has controlled and sold several and gleaming in the bright dining room, where a mix of smidgen of imagination— known addresses— Hendry others on the street in recent windows facing Dorchester high-top and low-rise tables could transport diners to the Street— gathered last Friday years. The event drew about 60 Avenue. In this corner, Sweet accommodate couples and set of a Peter Jackson film. evening for a holiday party people, many of them residents Life baristas serve up coffee families alike. Two sit directly Or Appalachia. Or some that was billed as a celebra- from Hendry Street or nearby. and teas behind a single in front of a spectacular stone hybrid of the two. That same tion, in part, to mark what Most said they had gathered register counter and custom- hearth, perhaps the sole curious feature, however, neighbors say have been to celebrate how far they had ers tip their own dairy and remnant from the space’s made the Common Ground marked improvements in their come and to look forward to sweeteners into to-go cups by previous occupant, Common oddly detached from its actual quality of life since a troubled what still needed to be done. the door. Ground. (Continued on page 13) property was condemned last A recent five-part Bos- year and cleared of criminal ton Globe series titled “68 elements. Blocks” that focused on the Looking ahead for 2013: Changes The party at the Pasciucco Bowdoin-Geneva section House on Bowdoin Street was zeroed in on Hendry Street in the schools, maybe at City Hall organized in part by Dorchester (Continued on page 17) By Gintautas Dumcius ambling about, if with some seat, the 13 City Council seats news eDitor difficulty. Thomas Menino are on the docket as are policy INSIDE Stephen Murphy, a city hasn’t said if he’s running issues ranging from transpor- councillor since 1997, and for another four years at City tation financing to the budget president the last two years, Hall; he’s focused instead on that will dominate Beacon Hill knows something about tim- returning to full strength after as Gov. Deval Patrick enters lengthy end-of-the-year stays his last two years on the job at Brigham and Women’s and and state Sen. Therese Mur- News Analysis Spaulding Rehabilitation ray, a Dorchester native and Hospital. Plymouth Democrat, comes ing. He once compared the Potential contenders – those closer to her term limit – 2015 contest for the presidency to who are interested in running – as Senate president. a Bugs Bunny cartoon. only if Menino doesn’t – are Back at City Hall, the fol- The shivering set takes “The first person that sticks rumored to be making phone lowing is a glance at a few of to the waters of Tenean their head out of their rabbit calls about an open race. But the dynamics and issues that hole gets blasted,” he re- publicly, they are keeping will likely crop up over the Beach for an icy plunge to marked to the Boston Phoenix their heads below the political next 12 months. mark the new year’s dawn- in 2001. parapet. School assignment: In ing. For more on the Brian The same goes this coming Even if Menino runs again, the immediate future, plenty Leahy Memorial Polar the year promises excitement: of eyes will be on how the year for a possible race for the Bear Plunge, see Page 3. All contents copyright mayor’s office if its current In addition to the special elec- mayor handles the radical Jackie Gentile photo © 2012 Boston five-term occupant is still tion for US Sen. John Kerry’s (Continued on page 9) Neighborhood News, Inc. Page 2 THE REPoRTER January 3, 2013 Reporter’s Notebook On The Record Offense quick off mark Storm Survivor for Markey senate bid By Gintautas Dumcius will likely occur this summer. Gov. news eDitor Deval Patrick will pick an interim First John Kerry. Then Vicki senator to sit in the seat during the Kennedy. And then the head of the campaign, and he has expressed a Democratic Senatorial Campaign preference for the pick not to be a Committee. In quick succession on a candidate for the full term. Friday afternoon, all three lined up Other politicians said to be mull- behind Congressman Ed Markey’s ing a bid include Congressmen bid for Kerry’s Senate seat. Michael Capuano (D-Somerville) “While I began last week to formally and Stephen Lynch (D-South step out of politics, and it’s very impor- Boston), and state Sen. Ben Downing tant that I respect the apolitical nature (D-Pittsfield). of the post I hope to soon occupy, as Outgoing Sen. Scott Brown, a Massachusetts’s senior senator today Wrentham Republican who was and as a colleague of Ed Markey’s for defeated by consumer advocate 28 years, I’m excited to learn of and Elizabeth Warren in November, has support his decision to run for the not publicly indicated whether he will United States Senate,” said Kerry, jump into the fray and attempt a return who is expected to become President to the Senate. obama’s chief diplomat next month. In a fundraising e-mail that hit Kerry pointed to Markey’s lengthy in-boxes before the spate of statements time in office: “He’s gutsy and tough, backing Markey, Lynch touted his smart and sharp, a workhorse in reelection to the district that includes Congress who has never forgotten Dorchester’s coast. “Because of your where he came from or who sent him hard work, we received the highest vote to Washington,” Kerry said. totals of any congressional campaign The DSCC circulated Kerry’s com- in Massachusetts and came in 6th in ments, and then quickly e-mailed out the nation!” the email said. a statement from its chair, Colorado The statements from Kerry and Sen. Michael Bennet. “At a time when others drew a sharp response from the country needs real leadership Capuano, who echoed some of the that looks out for the middle class, anti-establishment bent of his Con- Ed Markey always remembers where gressional campaign in 1998. “It he came from and will continue the seems that the big names of our party hard work needed to turn our economy are trying to choose our nominee for around,” Bennet said. “He is exactly us,” he said in his own statement to the kind of leader Massachusetts needs reporters, according to WBUR 90.9. in the US Senate.” “When I became mayor of Somerville, This hearty craft has survived on Carson Beach since Hurricane Sandy tore Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the the establishment wasn’t with me. through the Northeast on october 30 and 31. Ed Forry photo late US Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, When I became a member of Congress, issued her own statement of support for the establishment wasn’t with me.

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