West Roxbury
Democrat Paul Sullivan of West Roxbury said today he is running for the 10th Suffolk seat being vacated by state-Senate hopeful Mike Rush:
As an ADA, I have fought day after day on behalf of victims of violent crime, parents seeking child support and those battling drug addictions. I have served the people of the Commonwealth with the utmost passion and tended to each individual with the proper focus and effort they deserved. I look forward to utilizing my work ethic and hard working attitude that was required of me at the DA's Office into advocating on behalf of the residents here in the Tenth Suffolk District.
Also declared: Kelly Tynan and Matt Benedetti.
The district includes West Roxbury, South Brookline and a small part of Roslindale.
In addition to West Roxbury state Rep. Mike Rush, state Reps. Paul McMurtry of Dedham and John Rogers of Norwood are looking at possible runs, the Herald reports. Wicked Local West Roxbury, though, says McMurtry has already scratched himself from the race.
Republican Brad Williams is also running.
The perpetual candidate writes he's decided against running, although he doesn't say why. Two other Republicans, Keith Lepor and Vernon Harrison, are looking at taking on the incumbent.
Robinson says he commissioned a poll that found Lynch only had a 42% approval rating in the 9th District.
The Boston Licensing Board yesterday voted to grant a beer-and-wine license to Wee Angel, a Scottish bistro proposed for the site of the old Zon's in Hyde Square. The pub is also seeking a license from a separate city board for acoustic music. More on Wee Angel.
Also yesterday, the board granted a beer and wine license to 660 Al-Wadi, a Lebanese restaurant under construction at the site of the old Spring Blossom on VFW Parkway in West Roxbury. The board set a closing time of midnight Sunday through Thursday and 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Owner Ghassan Samaha originally proposed a 2 a.m. closing time on weekends, but the three residents who live right next to the location objected at a hearing on Wednesday.
Won't take on Mike Rush for Marian Walsh's Suffolk and Norfolk state-senate seat, the Jamaica Plain Gazette reports.
Wicked Local Roslindale reports Kelly Tynan, formerly director of West Roxbury Main Streets and now a teacher at the Conley School, is running for the state representative's seat that Rush is vacating to run for Marian Walsh's state Senate seat. Walsh has yet to say if she's seeking re-election.
Also running, Wicked Local reports: Matt Benedetti. Benedetti tried to run in 2008 against Rush but the Secretary of State ruled too many of the signatures on his petitions were invalid.
The Globe interviews Kelly Young, whose Braving the BPS Lottery has been a great resource for parents in the West Zone (Roslindale, West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain) dealing with the issue of school choice for their pre-schoolers and impending kindergarteners.
Bob LeLievre breaks down Coakley's large win in Boston by neighborhood, along with comparisons to 2006 numbers for Deval Patrick. Some interesting numbers: She lost South Boston, barely took West Roxbury, Charlestown and Tom Menino's redoubt of Readville, but got 96% of the vote in Mattapan and 92% in Roxbury.
Ed Coppinger reports; latest sign the West Roxbury state senator won't be seeking re-election this year?
Pizzeria Uno's Uno Chicago Bar and Grill that Used to Just Sell Pizza bankruptcy filing shows the West Roxbury-based chain of not-pizza places owes WFXT $64,000 and Katsiroubas Bros. $54,000. The filing, in New York bankruptcy court also shows the company owes NStar $112,000 and National Grid $95,000.
Although the Chapter 11 filing means the company remains open for business, it is closing outlets in some farflung locations such as Fairhaven and New Hampshire.
Uno's bankruptcy filing.
The Boston Licensing Board holds a hearing on Jan. 27 on a request for a beer and wine license for the Lebanese restaurant going in where Spring Blossom used to be - 1249 VFW Parkway. Owner Ghassan Samaha, who already operates Nicole's in the South End, wants to stay open until 2 a.m., according to his application.
City worker (r) explains law to Brown backer, with clipped sign ties in hand.
Around 12:30 p.m., a worker from the Boston Elections Department showed up at Holy Name School in West Roxbury to begin removing all of the Coakley and Brown signs festooning the wall and fence along West Roxbury Parkway and Centre Street.
The school, which sits on a rise, is traditionally a place where candidates position giant signs - and candidates themselves routinely position themselves right in front of the entrance to the polling station. Mayor Menino himself is a frequent voter accoster on those steps, despite a state law that bans politicking within 150 feet of the entrance to a polling place.
But not today. Even a Brown supporter expressed surprise - he said he figured some Brown person "from the suburbs" dropped a dime and filed a complaint. Even more upset was a Coakley supporter - to whom the election worker was busy handing over signs, one far larger than the supporter herself. The worker said she would either have to do something with the signs or he would just car them away for disposal.
Alan MacKinnon at the Gardens at Gethsemane cemetery reports he flies out of Logan at 6 a.m. on Sunday:
Got together with the Organization of Former Members of Mahanaim, met them at Temple Salem Seventh Day Advent Church. They have a place for me to stay in Haiti and will provide volunteers to help with my efforts to document the burial process and locations of their friends and loved ones.
Ed Coppinger posts a photo of a late-model Accord on Dwinell Street in West Roxbury that somebody jacked up last night so they could steal all four tires. The car was left balancing on milk crates.
Boston Police say a man who shows gas-station clerks a red gas can and tells them his car has run out of gas before he holds them up is suspected in at least three armed holdups this month - in East Boston, Dorchester and West Roxbury.
Police say he's between 5'11" and 6'1" - and that he pulled the gas-can stunt at Shell stations at 154 Morissey Blvd. in Dorchester on Jan. 2 and 510 VFW Parkway in West Roxbury on Jan. 1. Yesterday, police say, he held up the Neptune Convenience Store, 3 Neptune Circle, in East Boston, around 10:15 p.m. He fled in a brown Impala. In addition to dressing warmly, he also has a preference for Newport cirgarettes, police say.
Anyone with information can call detectives at 617-343-4234 or the anonymous tip line at 800-494-TIPS (also reachable by texting TIP to CRIME).
More photos of Gas Can Guy.
David Ertischek at Wicked Local West Roxbury discovers that state Rep. Mike Rush already has a his state Senate campaign site up (you may recall he said he'd be running this year no matter what incumbent Marian Walsh does). Eagle-eyed Ertischek also notices the phone number on the site's contribution page is Rush's current State House office number, which may just violate the state law that prohibits the use of state property for campaigning.
Rush has been a state rep since 2002, so you'd think he'd know these things by now. Read more
Geeky Mama uses BPS stats to figure out that last year, there were, at best, between 0.76 and 0.81 seats per applicant available for KI (pre-school) classes in West Roxbury, Roslindale and Jamaica Plain:
... The message to BPS – please add more K1 seats, soon.
Wicked Local West Roxbury has the latest on the strife-torn pride of the Parkway, which has now run up $9,000 in legal bills trying get back in the good graces of the national Little League.
Earlier:
Not your father's T-ball: West Roxbury Little League riven by controversy that would make Bud Selig blush.
Boston Police tweet the Shell station at 510 VFW Parkway was stuck up tonight.
Greg Reibman tweets he was in Sugar in West Roxbury while a Globe reporter was doing a man-in-the-street interview about what people think about Menino (because, apparently, last month's results weren't enough):
I decided to be nice and passed.
Which is probably just as well, since a) Reibman lives in Newton and b) He's publisher of GateHouse Media New England's Boston-area newspapers.
Wicked Local West Roxbury reports that, in addition to state Rep. Mike Rush, Brad Williams, chairman of the Ward 20 Republican Ward Committee, is running for the seat Marian Walsh has yet to say whether she'll try to retain next year. Read more
West Roxbury state Rep. Mike Rush plans to run for Marian Walsh's Senate seat next year even if she decides to seek re-election, State House News Service reports.
Why? Rush thinks she's running on fumes; pointing to her acceptance, then rejection of a good paying job with the Patrick administration earlier this year. There was also her rumored, then never-happened judicial appointment last year, which led to a secret meeting between handlers for Rush and sometimes Westie rival, City Councilor John Tobin, over who would run for her seat.
In recent years, Rush and Walsh have not exactly gotten along. He's represented the 10th Suffolk District since 2002. Read more
Last eggs: How much could I get for them on Craigslist?
By 5:20 p.m., it was so bad people were desperately grabbing at cartons of Egg Beaters. The store still had plenty of bread and milk.
Right next door to where the Panera Bread is going in on Spring Street, somebody is building a women's fitness club. So, do you go to the health club to work off that brownie you just ate, or go to the Panera as a reward for those laps on the treadmill?
It was so crowded at the Roche Bros. in West Roxbury this morning that some people just gave up trying to find a parking space and fled to the Shaw's down the road on Spring Street - and even there parking was tight (God, people were parking as far away as the Finagle-a-Bagel).
"I made three loops around the parking lot before I gave up," one refugee exclaimed in the Shaw's check-out line.
In addition to the usual French Toast fixins, people at both stores seemed to be stocking up on paper towels - shoppers were emerging from both locations with those giant packages filled with enough towels to normally last a month or so.
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