St Marks Area Civic Association, SMACA, Tuesday, October 26, 2021. In-person meeting.
7:05 – Meeting called to order. Laurie Martinelli presiding. 17 people attending. Stormy night.
New SMACA flyers on seats. Please take more from sign-in desk to share with local neighbors. One new member here tonight from seeing a flyer on Dix Street.
Police Report, C-11 Police Officer Mike Keaney -
Incidents from past month in St Marks area described:
- Last month, Silloway Street, woman rushed from behind by 3 people, hit on head with firearm. Laptops and jewelry stolen. Laptops can give off signals, Detective Craft traced to Broome St., checked whether any Broome residents have ankle bracelets with signals on Silloway St. that night. Resulted in arrest of one person. Other 2 being sought.
- Sept 29, 1pm. Suspect took someone’s blue scooter. Scooter’s owner with head injury. Arrested. Juvenile with previous record.
- October 6, Clementine Park and Dorchester Ave. Drug bag dropped.
- 65 Dix St. Firearm found in home. Woman packing up boyfriend’s belongings to throw him out. Also found firearm with finger prints traced back to him. Smith/ Wesson 5 rounds. Crack.
- Mike F: Fields Corner illegal store. Officer Keaney: Geneva Ave., near T. Several hundred thousand dollars of stolen goods. Arrested 1 person. Still under investigation. (Not in SMACA.) Past arrests for selling stolen phones, Hot items. Nice arrests.
Upcoming Events:
Halloween. Will add extra cars. Volume of calls tends to be higher on Halloween. Some mischief, nothing violent usually. Police visibility. Crazy drivers and lots of kids walking around.
Halloween - no candy handout at station because of COVID. Friday Night, 4-7pm – giving out bags of candy. Some activities.
Christmas – They’ve helped local families for 25 years, usually with a holiday party and gifts for kids. More than 400 kids and 200 adults at their holiday party before COVID. This year no party. Last year helped out 80 families in D11 with toys for kids and will do similar this year. They will accept NEW toys worth over $10 in December. Similar value appreciated. Can drop off there. Doug: Can bring to next meeting. Jim and he will bring to C11.
Local Restaurants and City Programs –
Zia Gianna - Nino Barbalace. Opened almost 4 years ago, with ups and downs, COVID, etc. Past 18 months have been hard, also heart-warming. Support from neighborhood. Beside the money, nice that people cared. 3/15/2020 – Outdoor tables only. Started dinner to go. Lasagna to cook at home. Dessert. Gradually added more tables. Social distancing. Now back with breakfast and lunch. Nino cooking alone. Hearty thanks to City of Boston for support in past 20 months. Made application process easy. Very supportive.
BLocal. Program from City of Boston. Supports small, local businesses. Phone app for small restaurants and services. Customer collects award points for discounts. Accumulate points at any of the subscribing businesses. 20% points for member businesses. Immigrants. Main Streets. Each adds 10% of points. So 40% total points for customers at Zia Gianna. Great program. Zia Gianna, El Barrios, Chill on Park, Modern Dog. Also plumbers, electricians, local, etc. Customer pays full price, gets points credited to phone in next few days. Save up points to spend at one of the participating businesses. Nino will send link with more info about BLocal for SMACA members.
Other newer local Restaurants, Kelley Ready:
Shaking Seafood, corner of Dix Street. Heard good things about them. Tri who had previous restaurant there had struggled a bit, but new restaurant is doing okay.
El Barrio, corner of Shepton Street. Several different owners. Better now than ever. Great Mexican food, beer. Big Takeout business. Outdoor tables now available.
Flames at Peabody Sq, Ashmont. Jamaican food. Buffet will serve you there. Great food. Solid take-out business.
Just Thai, across from BosBurger at Fields Corner.
MikeF: Charlies is now remodeling after the fire. Took a long time.
Elected officials.
Carl Jean-Louis. CJ. From Counselor Campbell’s office. Leaving at end of December for next District 4 councilor. Please plan to vote. MikeF: Thanks CJ.
Writing up memos for next elected to know. Playground. Renovation. $800K. Tuesday. Council hearing about predatory towing practices. Parking on ‘no parking’ days. Some streets people get towed. Others they’re ticketed. (Last) Thursday: MBTA and MassDot. Better bus network. Removing less popular bus routes, adding buses to more popular routes. Serving areas better, allowing buses to circulate more easily.
George Hyynh. From mayor’s office. Please VOTE. Early voting now. Halloween guidance. Be safe. Christmas tree-lighting. Trolley tour. 11/27 > T’giving. Neponset Circle to Peabody Sq. Adams Village tree-lighting first weekend of December. Councilor Baker and Campbell – will notify. 4-6 Ashmont Park. Updated refusal letter. George H will host Monday at 6pm. 4-storey buildings. 10 parking spots. SMACA and Ashmont-Adams would be abutters. Linda and Dale. ? selling their home at 2 Ashmont pk. Taken over by development.
Development and Collaboration with Adjoining Civics, Doug Shaheen -
(This) Monday, Nov 1 reps from several civics to meet at Epiphany School to discuss larger meeting for all civics to get together to discuss local development. Melville Pk, Codman Sq, Fields Corner. Ashmont Adams. Adams Hill, friends of Lorsch park.
Next SMACA Meeting, Nov 30 – Recent local development, lessons learned. How do projects go through without our input. Merry Maids where we had more input. Wants to include George H to help us better understand. Laurie will reach out also to Julie and CJ.
Elections, Tuesday, Nov. 2 –
SMACA doesn’t endorse candidates, but strongly encourages eligible members to vote. Candidates are invited to speak with members after the meeting ends.
District 3: Frank Baker and Stephen McBride. Candidate McBride is here at meeting and happy to talk to people after meeting ends.
District 4: Brian Worrel and Evandro Carvahlo
8:05 pm, Meeting adjourned.
Future Meetings:
November 30
January 25
February 22
March 29
April 26
May 31
June 28
