Dorchester Reporter

When they hear that I’m from Dorchester, new acquaintances tell me they know they are in my neighborhood when they see the painted gas tank as they drive along the Southeast Expressway. This shallow impression of Dorchester feels nearly as much of an insult as the frequency of crime news in Dorchester even when the address identified is clearly in Roxbury or the South End. But when life gives me lemons, I know how to make lemonade. So let’s jump into the SUV and view Dorchester history from the landmarks along the Expressway.

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The FBI reports a man robbed the Mt. Washington Bank branch at 305 Talbot Ave. on Monday.

The FBI describes him as a white male, clad in a green sweatshirt and blue jeans. He is charged with giving a teller a note demanding money, after which he fled on foot.

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Area C-11 observes National Night Out with an Open House, Saturday, August 7, 5-8 p.m. at the C-11 station house on Gibson Street.
For more information on this event, contact Carolyn MacNeil at 617-594-9117 or visit www.bostoncrimewatch.com.

Boston Natural Areas Network will kick off its unique community garden concert series, Sounds of the Garden, with Lloyd Thayer, master of the blues guitar, at Shangri-La Community Garden at Almont Park in Mattapan at 6:30 p.m. The free concert series, now in its eighth season, is generously funded and produced by Ellen Schmidt and Jake Kensinger. For more information call 617-542-7696.

Much -- doubtless too much -- has been written and said about George Steinbrenner since the mighty fellow finally ran out of rage and bombast after an extraordinary 80-year run full of sound and fury signifying much.

Like him or loathe him, as you may please. But don’t ever deny what mattered most to him, and that was the sheer immensity of his own transcendent importance. Sure, he was a bully and a walking paradox of fierce and infuriating contradictions. But you may further say this for him. He never denied it.

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Career Fair

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After a disturbing incident on July 4 that left one boy hospitalized, Boston and State Police, in collaboration with state and local officials, have set a “no tolerance” policy for criminal activity along the Dorchester and South Boston waterfront.

All public beaches from Castle Island to the mouth of the Neponset River will close at 11 p.m. According to a letter signed by city and elected officials announcing the increase in law enforcement supervision, anyone on the beaches or in closed parking lots after that hour will be considered trespassers.

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Institutions perform poorly because they are composed of human beings. That observation should not come as a surprise to anyone older than 30; yet we are frequently shocked when it happens.

Knowing human beings are flawed, we should expect that collectively they will display weaknesses that we all demonstrate individually. Thus the need for laws, checks and balances, regulations, standards, and enforcement to identify and minimize the adverse consequences of our behavior.

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The movies series formerly known as the Roxbury Film Festival is back for the 12th year with revised nomenclature. Its tweaked name — the Roxbury International Film Festival (RIFF) —and its new slogan —“Local Ties, Global Reach”— signal an expanded focus anchored by fidelity to roots.

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Silky smooth on the cymbals, perfect timing, and immeasurable humor. All describe the late great Jake Hanna, the Adams Corner-born jazz-drummer who passed away earlier this year. Consistently lauded by all who have played with him or just simply listened, Mr. Hanna’s death left a wound in the jazz music community, one that friends say can only be healed with music.

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Coach Jim CotterJames E. Cotter, a beloved teacher, coach, guidance counselor, athletic director and administrator at Boston College High School whose 50-year tenure helped to shape the lives of thousands of the school’s students, died Tuesday after a long and public struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He was 73 and died peacefully in his Quincy home with his family around him.

Mr. Cotter’s forthright battle with ALS, the disease named after the New York Yankee legend Lou Gehrig, who succumbed to it in 1941, served as an inspiration to the BC High community and to his many friends and fans across the region.

A native of Dorchester’s Savin Hill neighborhood, Mr. Cotter attended BC High from 1951-1955, beginning an association that would define his life and make him a role model and father figure for generations of students.

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Community activists, residents, lawmakers and transit officials celebrated the groundbreaking of the Four Corners/Geneva MBTA commuter rail station project last Friday, finally surmounting a 20-year process to bring a train station to the area.

“It’s a very emotional moment to see that we have started this fight, and have won it,” said Rupert Moore, president of the Greater Four Corners Action Coalition. The group has been a prominent organization pushing for an MBTA station since 1991.

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It’s apparently never too late to start running for re-election. Particularly when you’re a city councillor, and re-election is a scant sixteen months away.

Seven months into his first term, City Councillor At-Large Felix Arroyo’s re-election campaign is hitting back at coverage of him and the City Council’s boycott of Arizona, saying he is “under attack from the right wing media.” The boycott came in response to Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

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Two of them are third generation South Bostonians who have ties to City Hall and the State House. A third candidate once volunteered for UNICEF and an international service group that provided HIV/AIDS education to rural villages in Tanzania. A fourth is a recent transplant and local attorney. And a fifth is a Republican, hoping to repeat U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s electoral success in the area.

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At a time when the nation faces severe financial depression, bank failures, and high unemployment, it should come as something of a consolation to recall that over the course of some 350 years New England has demonstrated an uncanny ability to adapt well to all kinds of economic changes. Certainly one contributing factor for this story of change and adaptation would have to be the spirit of Yankee enterprise.

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I broke Babe Ruth’s home run record before Roger Maris did.

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Boston Police report a 23-year-old man found with a gunshot wound at Adams and Robinson streets shortly before 11 p.m. on Tuesday was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

Boston Police are warning women to "remain vigilant" after a reported sexual assault took place yesterday morning (Thursday, July 15) in the Florida Corridor. The 2 a.m. assault happened "in the area of Florida and King Streets". The victim told police that her assailant grabbed her from behind, pulled her into a yard and "robbed and sexually assaulted her."
The suspect is described as a black male, in his mid twenties, with short, scruffy hair, a heavy, muscular build, weighing approximately 200 lbs, wearing a black hoodie, black jeans and sneakers.
Anyone with information is urged to call (617) 343-4400.

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I am constantly amazed by the foolish behavior that people continually exhibit, putting themselves in avoidable situations and eventual custody. The following short story will prove my theory that there are people all around who are either starving for attention, lacking in brain cells, or both.

May 16, 7:30 a.m.

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You steal away for a fortnight or so in the middle of what used to be the lazy, hazy end of June and beginning of July and it’s as if you’ve taken a snooze worthy of Rip Van Winkle. The contemporary sporting agenda rolls over us in ever mightier waves, unfolding not in cycles but revolutions.

Consider just some of what’s happened since last we gathered around this figurative water cooler:

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