The Boston Globe - 13.09.2019

Metro

THE BOSTON GLOBE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/METRO

B

After nearly a century,

Fresh Pond Market

in Cambridge to close

Brockton casino plan still a no-go with regulators

Health market premiums to rise 4 percent in 2020

Newbury campus sold for $34m, senior housing eyed

DUBLIN — It was here, in
the city that, as James
Joyce once observed, is vir-
tually impossible to cross
and not pass a pub, that I
learned Doyle’s of Jamaica
Plain is closing.
It was like hearing that a
very good, very old friend
had died.
Like pitchers who can go deep into the
seventh inning, real, authentic neighbor-
hood bars are harder to find these days,
certainly as Boston gets richer and fewer
working-class people can afford to live
there.
PlaceslikeDoyle’sdefinedneighbor-
hoods, and were peopled by characters who
ate and drank there and were the neighbor-
hood. The Eire Pub in Dorchester is like
that. As was The Quencher in South Boston
and Donovan’s in Lower Mills.
At least John Stenson at the Eire and
Jerry Foley at J.J.’s in the South End are
hanging in there.
Alas, Doyle’s is going the way of so many
others.
The Eire is a good place to go to be re-
minded that, even in deeply blue Boston,
there are places where people are conserva-
tive with a small C. The patrons are great
people. The Guinness is good, and cheaper
than here in Dublin, where they brew it.
Doyle’s, 4 miles away from Adams Vil-
lage, has a very different demographic.
Donald Trump definitely pulled some
votes from the Eire. I doubt he got any out
of Doyle’s.
Doyle’s clientele was among the most di-
verse in the city. It looked like Boston. And
it really looked like JP.
You’d walk into the place and in one
booth there were two women, very much in
love, laughing, next to four black guys talk-
ing about the Patriots, next to a couple of
Dominicans, next to a bunch of hipsters,
next to an Irish guy talking rubbish, next to
two social workers saying they like but
don’t love Marty Walsh, next to Cathy Mayo
and her son Delmace, whom she adopted
from Haiti.
Like the Eire, which politicians routinely
used as a prop, a place to polish their regu-
lar-guy cred, Doyle’s attracted politicians
like flies to... well, let’s just say the place
really drew pols.
I was talking to a guy in Dingle, here in
Ireland, a few days before the news on
Doyle’s broke. Like a lot of folks in Kerry, he
lived in Boston during the 1980s and 1990s
before moving back home, and he de-
scribed walking into Doyle’s one day to see
three very recognizable guys sitting in a
booth. He was there when someone took
the iconic photo of former mayor Kevin
White; White’s successor, Mayor Ray Flynn;
and a city councilor named Tom Menino
who would later succeed Flynn. That photo
is on the walls, part of the furniture.
Politics infused the place. Gerry Burke
Sr., who ran it for years with his brothers
Eddie and Billy, and whose son Gerry Jr. is
selling the place he took over from his dad
in 2005, knew more about politics than any
high-priced political consultant.
Except Ed Jesser, Menino’s guy, who
used to regale Gerry and everybody else in
Doyle’s with great stories, and who I regu-
larly met at Doyle’s so he could tell me I
was useless and that the Globe was a shell
of its former self.
“Get in line, Eddie,” I’d tell him.
When he was writing his magnificent bi-
ography of House Speaker John McCor-
mack, Garrison Nelson relied on Gerry
Burke Sr. for stories, especially about Ger-
ry’s great-uncle, Tim Callahan, who served
alongside McCormack.
We held many Christmas lunches at
Doyle’s to remember our pal Dave Nyhan,
the toughest liberal columnist in the world,
who died far too young. Jesser would get
sentimental, which isn’t like him.
At one of those lunches, Jesser turned to
me and said, “I loved David.”
Me, too. And I loved Doyle’s but now
we’ll have to find another place to toast Da-
vid.
I assume Doyle’s will go the way of The
Quencher and become a condo develop-
ment that none of the regulars could afford.
And this they call progress.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can
be reached at [email protected]. Follow
him on Twitter @GlobeCullen.

Fondfarewell

toDoyle’s

Kevin Cullen

Business

PAGES B6-
Forbreakingnews,goto
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business

By Matt Stout

GLOBE STAFF

The state’s transportation secre-

tary raised eyebrows this week

when she revealed a shocking statis-

tic: The vast majority of vehicles us-

ing the car-pool lanes into Boston —

“as much as 80 or 90 percent,” she

said — carry only drivers.

Except that may not be true.

When Stephanie Pollack made

the comment, she was basing it not

on any hard data, offering an “anec-

dotal reference,” state officials ac-

knowledged Thursday.

A recent report on the state’s

high occupancy vehicle lanes said

scofflaws make up far fewer of the

drivers using them — roughly 18

percent — than Pollack had de-

scribed.

The discrepancy comes as state

officials wrestle with how to address

the growing congestion that’s chok-

ing Greater Boston’s highways, be it

through the addition of “managed

lanes” or by creating a new network

of travel lanes and parking lots to

encourage more carpooling.

Currently,thereareHOV lanes

on Interstate 93 south and north of

Boston. But as a sweeping conges-

tion study the Baker administration

HOV LANE, Page B

HOV lanes full of scofflaws? Unlikely

Transportation secretary appears to have ignored the hard data

By Brian MacQuarrie and Milton Valencia

GLOBE STAFF

L

AWRENCE — The devastating gas explosions that tore

through the Merrimack Valley a year ago Friday remain

fresh for thousands of the evacuated and displaced, for the

owners of recovering businesses, and for the family of a

Lawrence teenager who was killed in the disaster.

Its memories return with the whirring sound of a heli-

copter’s blades, with a glimpse of out-of-place pavement

where new gas lines have been laid, and with shrunken balance sheets at

once-shuttered stores that are trying to woo back customers.

On Thursday, the lingering sense of unease was compounded with

news that Columbia Gas of Massachusetts will need to reinspect 700 of

4,900 service lines that the company abandoned and replaced after the ex-

LAWRENCE, Page B

By Milton J. Valencia

and Tim Logan

GLOBE STAFF

The former city official at the

center of a widening City Hall brib-

ery scandal pleaded guilty Thursday

afternoon in federal court in Bos-

ton.

John M. Lynch, 66, admitted to

accepting a $50,000 bribe from a

Boston real estate developer to lob-

by a member of the Zoning Board of

Appeal in May 2017 to help get a

condo project in South Boston ap-

proved.

Assistant US Attorney Dustin

Chao told Judge Patti B. Saris dur-

ing the hearing that Lynch “acted

corruptly” and knew that he was

taking a bribe.

The developer “paid $50,000 in

the course of installments to Mr.

LYNCH, Page B

Guiltyplea

forformer

officialin

briberycase

John Lynch admits

to $50,000 payoff

By Andrea Estes, Matt Rocheleau,

and Danny McDonald

GLOBE STAFF

The embattled former president of the

Massachusetts State Police union was in-

dicted Thursday on a host of federal charg-

es — including racketeering and conspira-

cy — that could land him in federal prison

for decades.

Dana A. Pullman, the once powerful

head of the State Police Association of Mas-

sachusetts from 2012 until September

2018, was arrested last month and accused

of taking kickbacks from the union’s for-

mer lobbyist and using union money for

personal expenses including meals, travel,

flowers, and gifts for a girlfriend.

The lobbyist, Anne M. Lynch, was also

arrested, accused of paying Pullman, 57, of

Worcester, thousands of dollars in kick-

backs for steering business to her firm.

A federal grand jury Thursday broad-

ened the charges, adding new tax fraud

counts and a third alleged kickback

scheme. Lynch, 68, of Hull, allegedly paid

two checks totalling $11,250 to Pullman’s

wife, allegedly for his help connecting a

State Police Association of Massachusetts

lawyer with Lynch. The lawyer, who is not

named in the indictment, was seeking a

marijuana dispensary license.

“As a law enforcement officer and the

president of SPAM, Pullman owed a... du-

ty of honest services to SPAM, the mem-

bership, and the Commonwealth to per-

form his job and official duties free from

fraud, deceit, and self-enrichment and to

refrain from accepting, or agreeing to ac-

cept bribes and kickbacks,” the indictment

said.

Pullman and Lynch were also charged

with attempting to obstruct the grand

PULLMAN, Page B

Ex-policeunionhead,lobbyistindicted

Both face federal

charges in alleged

kickback scheme

PHOTO BY JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF/FILE

Dana Pullman,

leaving the

Moakley

courthouse in

August, faces

charges

including

racketeering

and conspiracy.

STILLSHAKEN

A year later, Merrimack Valley hasn’t fully recovered from explosions

PHOTOS BY LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF

Rosemary Smedile. a North Andover selectwoman, has yet to move back into her house, which was nearly destroyed.

April Vitulli made dinner at a Lawrence soup kitchen.