Dorchester Reporter

04/24/2025

One-time allies in Vietnam War— Charlie Santangelo (right), who fought as an 18-year-old US Marine, and Tan Nhu Pham, a former policeman who was held prisoner for seven years after the fall of Saigon— will join forces again to lead this year's Day Parade https://www.dotnews.com/2025/two-marshals-lead-dot-day-parade-one-time-allies-vietnam-war-join Seth Daniel photo

04/22/2025

A 33-member working group tasked with studying the impacts of last summer’s abrupt closure of Carney Hospital and the re-use of the 12.7-acre Dorchester campus has issued a 61-page report carrying a set of recommendations that affirms the need to restore “direct health care services” on the site, but also leaves the door open to a mix of related uses, including “social services.”

The report — dated April 17— concludes: “Given the size of the hospital campus, the site could accommodate multiple uses, including direct health care services and uses that address longstanding unmet health-related social needs, as well as close gaps in social determinants of health.”

Story: https://www.dotnews.com/2025/working-group-completes-draft-report-next-steps-carney-campus

04/21/2025

Boston Police say a woman was found stabbed to death in a River Street house near Lower Mills early on Sunday morning.

Boston Police say a woman was found stabbed to death in a River Street house near Lower Mills early on Sunday morning. A preliminary report from BPD says officers assigned to District B-3 — and emergency medical responders from Boston ES— were called to an apartment inside a three-decker house a...

04/21/2025

The annual Easter Egg Hunt returned to Dorchester Park on Sat., April 19. The event is sponsored by volunteers from the Dorchester Park Association. About 100 people turned out for the event, which featured an appearance from the Easter Bunny. Photos by Seth Daniel

04/21/2025

Dot Life, a new, weekly podcast produced by Dorchester's Erin Caldwell, debuted this weekend.

Episode one of the DotLife pod features interviews with the Dorchester Reporter's co-publishers Bill Forry and Linda Dorcena Forry and a "tiny Dot" performance by R&B artist Hakim Hakim.

Caldwell, who is a co-founder of the annual music celebration Dorchfest, says that the DotLife podcast is "all about what’s happening in Dorchester."

"We’re shining a light on local events, small businesses, current events, neighborhood landmarks, and the real issues that matter to the people who live here," Caldwell explained on the pod's website. "Whether you’ve been in Dorchester your whole life or you’re just getting to know the area, DotLife helps you stay connected to the stories, voices, and energy that make this community one-of-a-kind."

Read more: https://www.dotlifepod.com/

Watch the first episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N55kwawAPpU

04/18/2025

The BC High community staged their annual Good Friday walk through three Dorchester parishes on Friday morning, with more than 100 participating during the first day of Spring Break for many area schools.
Students led the processions through the Stations of the Cross and began the morning at the BC High Campus. The first stop was St. Christopher’s Church on Columbia Point, then going around Kosciuszko Circle to St. Teresa of Calcutta Church. The final stop will be St. Peter’s Church on Bowdoin Street, then processing back to the BC High campus on Morrissey Boulevard. The entire journey is about 2.5 miles.
The walk has been a BC High tradition for decades.
Seth Daniel photo
More: https://www.dotnews.com/2025/bc-high-stages-good-friday-walk-through-dorchester

04/18/2025

Marathon Weekend kicks off today!

Head into Boston for fun B.A.A events like youth races, the relay challenge & Fan Fest — perfect for Dorchester families looking to join the celebration.

04/17/2025

Dorchester Fieldhouse+ Groundbreaking!

The $70 million Fieldhouse+ project broke ground on Thursday morning to great fanfare, boasting a notable guest list, while also delivering a surprise announcement from Gov. Maura Healey of a new $12 million commitment to the ongoing fundraising effort.

The 75,000 sq. ft. project on a city-owned parcel along Mt. Vernon Street on Columbia Point will combine an expansive indoor athletic facility for young people and community members with a wellness and social-emotional programming space, while also delivering an inclusive environment for those with physical and intellectual disabilities.

It’s the result of a partnership between the Martin Richard Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester (BGCD), and the City of Boston.

“I’m happy to say that our administration is authorizing $12 million in capital funding to support the construction of the Fieldhouse+,” Healey said as hundreds at the event erupted into applause. “I can’t think of a better investment to make than this investment…With all the uncertainty now going on, let’s take a minute and take a break and enjoy something that is awesome and good and shows what we can do when we’re all rowing in the same direction.”

Bill Richard, co-founder of the Martin Richard Foundation and father of the late Martin Richard – who died at the age of 8 in the terrorist attack on the 2013 Boston Marathon—was so overcome with excitement at Healey’s announcement that he sprinted to the stage and gave the governor a high-five.

Story, photos by Seth Daniel:
https://www.dotnews.com/2025/emotional-ceremony-partners-break-ground-dorchesters-fieldhouse

04/17/2025

This week's Dorchester Reporter is in circulation around the neighborhood! Work begins on Dot's next generation facility for kids and teens: Fieldhouse+ - https://mailchi.mp/dotnews.com/work-begins-on-dots-next-generation-facility-for-kids-and-teens-fieldhouse

04/16/2025

YVONNE GREALISH’S LEGACY: Her spirit hovers over slate of memorial bouts at Florian Hall

No matter the place, no matter the time, Yvonne Grealish was always ringside. A native of England who moved to Boston as a young woman and raised a family in Dorchester with her husband, Martin Grealish, she died in February 2022 at age 69. But the members of the Grealish Boxing Club that she co-founded with Martin keep on punching as they work at training new generations in the sport made famous by names like Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, and Ali.

On Sun., April 6, hundreds of people gathered in Dorchester’s Florian Hall for an afternoon of bouts in the introduction of the Yvonne Grealish Memorial Fights.

“She’s front row upstairs. She wouldn’t miss a fight,” said Yvonne and Martin’s daughter, Nicola (Grealish) Dillon.

Full story by The Reporter's Cassidy McNeeley: https://www.dotnews.com/2025/yvonne-grealish-s-legacy-her-spirit-hovers-over-slate-memorial-bouts

04/16/2025

A six-story mixed-use building with 42 units, a small grocery and fitness studio on the ground level is expected to open next month at 500 Talbot Ave. a few blocks from Ashmont station on the former site of a Lutheran church.

https://www.dotnews.com/2025/viv-500-talbot-set-open-may-daily-market-fitness-studio-tap-site

04/16/2025

In today's Reporter, Bill Walczak writes about the new iHeart Radio podcast “Divine Intervention,” which opens with an explanation of the community of Dorchester, a place with “a long history of apartments full of activists.”

"The podcast describes a time “50 years ago, (when) radical nuns in combat boots and wild haired priests became cat burglars in order to sabotage the draft… and started trading blows with J. Edgar Hoover.”

"The story involves Paulist priests and Catholic nuns and their supporters who, during the war, learned how to break into draft board centers and destroy records. This followed their discovery that the draft boards didn’t have copies of draft records, so a destroyed record meant that the person whose record vanished didn’t get drafted. It involves the Dorchester resident and draft resister who asked for sanctuary at the Paulist Center Church downtown (the first time in 400 years that a Catholic church was used for sanctuary) and tells the love story of Brendan’s parents: A highly charismatic Paulist priest, the founder of the Walk for Hunger, leaves the priesthood to marry a remarkable young Dorchester activist.

"Dorchester references abound, and the fun part is that many of the characters in these stories are still in our midst."

Full story:

https://www.dotnews.com/2025/podcast-brings-us-back-antiwar-catholic-dorchester-circa-1972

04/15/2025

The Fieldhouse+ project on Columbia Point has been a dream drawn on paper for seven years now, but the facility was brought into three-dimensional view on Monday in the form of a model revealed to project partners just ahead of a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday morning that will kick off the start of construction.

RODE Architects principal Kevin Deabler and his team hosted Bill Richard, co-founder of the Martin Richard Foundation, and Bob Scannell, president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester (BGCD), at a viewing of the full-scale model of the $70 million, 75,000-square-foot facility that will rise on Mt. Vernon Street starting this spring.

The project is a collaboration between BGCD, the Martin Richard Foundation, and the City of Boston.

A groundbreaking will take place at the site of the project on Thursday morning, April 17.

Story: https://www.dotnews.com/2025/fieldhouse-springs-life-3-d-model

Photos by Seth Daniel

04/15/2025

Moving forward with purpose and remembering the past with much love. 4.15 Boston 💙

04/15/2025

04/12/2025

City health inspectors ordered the temporary closure of Family Dollar store on Blue Hill Ave after a series of violations were found on Thursday

More: https://www.dotnews.com/2025/city-health-inspectors-shut-down-family-dollar-blue-hill-ave

04/12/2025

City health inspectors order temporary closure of Family Dollar store on Blue Hill Avenue

https://www.dotnews.com/2025/city-health-inspectors-shut-down-family-dollar-blue-hill-ave