Dudley Square

Jeff Daniels acknowledges he walked out of his father's liquor store in Dudley Square holding an open bottle of beer on Aug. 12. But, he said, he was only going outside to dispose of the bottle - opened inside the store, he says, by a customer from whom he immediately grabbed the bottle and ordered out of the store.

Unfortunately for Daniels, two police officers on bikes happened to be riding by at that moment and they stopped to arrest him on a charge of drinking in public - and issue a citation to Daniels's father, Richard, longtime owner of Giant Liquors at 2371 Washington St.

Wal-Mart hasn't even said yet it's moving to Dudley Square, but the fight has already started, Chris Faraone reports:

On one side of the battle are residents who are anxious for both work and bargains. In the opposition, there's Mayor Tom Menino, along with a number of lawmakers and a small army of activists. They claim that Dudley is already en route to recovery, and that the area's fragile economic ecosystem would crumble in the shadow of the world's biggest retailer.

And then there's the beast itself. In response to declining revenues at its suburban Supercenters, Walmart has increasingly targeted the urban poor in places like Chicago. Accustomed to getting what it wants, in this case the company hired Nicholas Mitropoulos, an old pal of the mayor, as an advisor, and donated fat sums to local nonprofits — including one headed by a politically influential member of the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee.

On Saturday, Derequito went on a tour of the old bus garage at Barlett Yard, a shuttered MBTA facility in Dudley Square that's supposed to be converted into commercial and residential space over the next five years.

Earlier:
Inside the Roslindale substation.

Photo copyright Derequito. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Boston Police report arresting the teen and a guy old enough to be his father on drug charges early this morning after a traffic stop just outside Dudley Square.