Dorchester Reporter “The News and Values Around the Neighborhood” Volume 29 Issue 9 Thursday, March 1, 2012 50¢ City wrestles with policing its jobs policy By melissa taBeek thresholds, according to and females – in work percent of all workers meet when they are in the policy. special to the reporter a Reporter analysis of being done with public on a job site are Boston composing their work- But, there are reper- Most companies that city reports. The Boston money. residents, 25 percent are force, but over the years, cussions for companies win contracts for publicly Residents Job Policy The policy sets out minority citizens, and 10 city officials have been that do not make a make funded building projects (BRJP), a city ordinance, specific targets: City- percent are female. careful to avoid using a “good-faith effort” to in Boston continue to fall is aimed at ensuring hired contractors are The policy – in place it as a cudgel to force try, well short of city-man- diversity – of Boston resi- directed to make sure since the 1980s— gives companies to meet the In a story last week, the dated minimum-hiring dents, minority groups, that, at minimum, 50 contractors a goal to exact minimums laid out (Continued on page 5) St. Mark’s Area group supports single-ward vote on Hub casino By Gintautas Dumcius news eDitor The St. Mark’s Area Civic Association met on Tuesday night and voted 11-5 to keep a referendum on a Boston casino confined to the ward in which the gambling facility would be located. The vote followed a discussion among members and a presentation from City Councillor At-Large Ayanna Pressley on the 2011 law allowing the establishment of casinos in the Bay State. Suffolk Downs, an East Boston race track, is put- ting a together a proposal for a casino in conjunction with Caesars. While the City Council is split on whether there should be a city-wide vote, Mayor Thomas Menino supports a vote in the ward where the casino would be located. According to the Menino administration, a city-wide referendum on the casino proposal could only occur with the approval of both the mayor and the City Council. Otherwise, a referendum would More than 1,200 students from in and around Boston gathered downtown last Thursday to march with be restricted to an East Boston ward. the Youth Jobs Coalition, a Dorchester-based organization that advocates for statewide youth employ- Supporters of a ward-only vote said East Boston ment. Story, page 4. Photo by Travis Watson would feel the negative impact that accompanies a casino. “They’re the ones who should make that decision,” said Camilla Duffy, age 69. The president City takes action in Five Star oil case, of the civic group’s board of directors, Luis Jimenez, and one of the vice presidents, Douglass Hurley, said they voted for a ward-only referendum. rids property of company’s vehicles But supporters of a city-wide vote say the cost of By Gintautas Dumcius the company, Michael Gargano, in see them come back,” he said public safety will affect the entire city. “The negative news eDitor December. It ordered the company Tuesday as a group of officials impacts aren’t just in their ward,” said Greg Thole, The saga of City Hall vs. the to remove the vehicles, including from various city agencies and age 30. Five Star Oil Company may have an oil truck and an 18-wheeler, several university students who State Rep. Marty Walsh, a Dorchester Democrat reached a turning point. that were stored illegally on the are focused on urban planning and a longtime backer of casinos, attended the City officials said this week that property and called a fire hazard. took a walk-through of the meeting, which was held in the lower hall of St. an abatement order is in effect, Last Thursday night, city Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood. Mark’s church, and noted that a casino will bring preventing the company from officials saw that the 18-wheeler The heavy-duty vehicles at 2,000 jobs and stem the loss of revenue that Mas- parking heavy duty vehicles on had returned. It was ticketed the Star Five Oil site, located sachusetts gamblers who head to Foxwoods bring its property, located at the corner and towed, and the company was at 303 Bowdoin St., have been a to Connecticut. of Bowdoin Street and Geneva hit with $800 in fines, according headache to community members (Continued on page 4) Avenue and long considered an to Darryl Smith, an assistant and city officials, who have eyesore by local residents. commissioner with the city’s In- frequently fought over the parking The abatement order was hand- spectional Services Department. situation there. The dispute has INSIDE THIS WEEK delivered to one of the owners of “I don’t think you’re going to (Continued on page 4) Peter Skipper, 21, is a mover and shaker on Williams College campus. Lynch backs Obama on contraception Page 7. By Gintautas Dumcius issue through dueling radio ads. promise position,” Lynch, a con- news eDitor The Obama administration said servative Democrat who opposes U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D- in January that employee health abortion, told the Reporter on South Boston), who criticized coverage through religious groups Thursday. “I was one of those who President Obama’s initial con- and organizations must include thought the initial policy, which traception rule, is backing the contraception, before backtrack- required the Catholic Church to White House’s compromise as U.S. ing and saying they can be exempt provide contraceptives, was an with insurance companies picking overreach. I think the president’s Sen. Scott Brown and Elizabeth All contents copyright Warren, a Democratic candidate up the tab. compromise was a good one. I real- © 2012 Boston for Senate, Warren battle over the “I’m comfortable with the com- (Continued on page 9) Neighborhood News, Inc. Page 2 THE REPoRTER March 1, 2012 Reporter’s Notebook On The Record Yancey move on crime bills raises some senatorial ire Fire scorches By Gintautas Dumcius Senate bills, saying the language is riverside marshes news eDitor too broad, and that the proposals will A pair of state senators have lit into lead to overcrowding and increased City Councillor Charles Yancey’s costs from the hiring of parole officers. resolution calling for a slowdown in Beacon Hill deliberations on the Weighing of revamped proposed three strikes and habitual Council districts continues offender bills. Sen. Steven Baddour, Councillors on the committee a Methuen Democrat who is vice charged with redrawing the city’s nine chair of the budget-writing Ways and Council districts inched closer to a final Means Committee, and Bruce Tarr, map this week, as they weighed moving a Gloucester Republican who serves as voting precincts from one district to the minority leader, accused Yancey’s another. resolution of spreading “inaccuracies The political boundaries of state and and misconceptions” about the Senate’s local districts must be redrawn every habitual offender proposal. ten years because of population shifts. Due to a scheduling conflict, the pair State lawmakers finished redrawing did not attend a City Council hearing Congressional, state Senate, and state on a resolution, but they sent an aide House districts last year, while the City from Tarr’s office to read a letter to Council has been working on putting City Councillor Michael Ross, who together a map that equalizes popula- chairs the Public Safety Committee, tions in the nine districts because of and his colleagues. growth in some neighborhoods and Baddour and Tarr wrote that the Sen- population losses in others. ate bill, which passed overwhelmingly, Per the open meeting law, councillors applies to a narrow group of individuals are hashing out the issue in public, and and crimes. “One need only review the meeting roughly once a week. list of applicable felonies to determine District 4 Councillor Yancey on Firefighters had to lay several hundred feet of hose last Wednesday night to that the Senate bill most certainly Monday released his own map, battle a brush fire along the Neponset River in Lower Mills. The blaze, reported would not ‘ensnare the non-violent, linking Latinos in District 1 to Asian around 7:15 p.m., consumed brush behind Ventura Park and took firefighters the petty criminal, the drug dependent, voters in Chinatown, while chucking from six engine companies, two ladder companies and two specialized brush- and the mentally ill,’ as the resolution Charlestown from the district and into fire units, the Boston Fire Department reports. Fire Department spokesman proposed by Councillor Yancey states,” District 8. A map featuring that move Steve MacDonald reports firefighters found it “unreal” to be fighting a brush they noted. is unlikely to garner support from the fire in February. “I am not a meteorologist but I would think the lack of snow current District 1 city councillor, Sal cannot be good for the water supply or our landscape,” he said. LaMattina. District 3 would remain largely the same under Yancey’s Map, while FBI seeks fugitive in child rape cases District 7, which includes some of The FBI has launched a campaign Dorchester, would extend into Mission to find John J. Hartin, a Dorchester Hill and the Fens. man who fled the area after being Yancey said his map creates six charged with five counts of statutory districts with majority-minority rape in 1993. The FBI says there’s a population and maintained that the $25,000 reward for whoever provides changes would lead to more people of information leading to Hartin’s color on the City Council.