Jean Appolon Expressions, the Haitian folkloric and contemporary dance organization, celebrated the grand opening of its new dance center in Roxbury’s Nubian Square on Tuesday, Jan. 27.
The JAE Dance Center, a 2,846-square-foot studio and black box performance space on Washington Street, is the group’s first permanent location. For co-founder and Artistic Director Jean Appolon, “it’s a dream come true.”
The opening marks the completion of “phase one” for JAE. “Phase two” will introduce full theatrical lighting and the ability to use projection art, said Meg McGrath, executive director and company dancer.
JAE focuses on sharing the “liberating power of Haitian-folkloric dance to cultivate hope and healing towards a more expressive and socially just world,” according to the group’s website.
Co-founder and Artistic Director Jean Appolon and Meg McGrath, Executive Director and Company Dancer celebrate the opening of the JAE Dance Center on Tuesday. Kelly Broder photos
The group has centered Haitian folklore, Black expression and immigrant stories through dance since 2013, when Appolon incorporated the organization as a nonprofit to his summer dance institute in Haiti. JAE puts on about 25 shows per year and has grown to include five full-time staff members and 15 part-time dancers and drummers.
As a Haitian immigrant, Appolon said his mission is to represent Haiti’s legacy of hope, resilience and freedom. “The biggest thing for me is to have a home where I can share Haiti with a lot of people. Now it’s happening.”
City Councillor At-Large Ruthzee Louijeune, interim city arts and culture chief Kenny Mascary and Haley House Executive Director Reginald “Reggie” Jean celebrated the new center as a “home” for dancers and Haitians as well as a physical space to practice art as healing.
“What we’re celebrating is more than just a ribbon cutting,” Mascary said. “It’s an invitation to young people to find joy, to find culture, to find a place to call home. History is being erased, history is being retold, but it’s going to take a lot more for Roxbury and the Haitian community to not stand together.”
Live traditional Haitian folkloric drumming, played by Arnaud Lauture and Josil Rebert, and homemade soup greeted the more than 30 attendees before they watched a dance performance.
Appolon said he hopes this new space is used by young people, with whom he hopes to share Haitian culture and history.
“My idea is really for the young kids that always wanted to do something with movement, to know that they have a center where they can come in and experiment,” he said.
The center can be a place for young people to learn how to run lights, build choreography and create art to emerge as artists with the skills to sustain their passion, McGrath said. “This new home is not just for us,” she said. “This is for everyone in Boston. We view this space as an incubation space for JAE.”
JAE members hope the space gives young dancers a new setting where they can freely express themselves.
“This is an opportunity for people that didn’t really have chances like this. Spaces like this, as an artist and a dancer in the city, this is like major,” said Mcebisi “Bisi” Xotyeni, JAE’s artistic manager.
Xotyeni, who has been dancing since 2016, performed at the ribbon-cutting alongside Velouse Joseph in a two-minute excerpt from “Traka,” or “Troubles” in Haitian Kreyòl. The dance premiered at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art in May 2022.
JAE offers a weekly Haitian folkloric dance class with drumming as well as a “Liberation Drumming” class. Prior to the center’s opening, classes were taught at The Dance Complex in Cambridge.
Funders and partners of the new center include the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture, the Barr Foundation, D/R/E/A/M Collaborative, the Klarman Family Foundation, the Mass Cultural Council, New Atlantic Development and the Yawkey Foundation.
“When we invest in our people and we invest in our community, everyone wins,” Reggie Jean said.
Louijeune said Haitian culture is something to be celebrated, not erased or silenced.
“Today,” she said, “let it be marked in history that in Nubian Square, we are affirming that Black expression, that Haitian culture and immigrant communities are essential to Boston’s past, present and future.”
This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism. This story is also posted at our companion site, BostonHaitian.com.
During its annual conference in October, The New England section of the American Water Works Association acclaimed Boston’s tap water as the best tasting in all of New England.
The verdict came after a panel of judges blind-ranked water samples from New England public utility members on a scale of one to five based on clarity, taste, and compliance with federal rules and regulations, said Hillari Wennerstrom, executive director of the association’s New England section.
The nonprofit’s roster encompasses more than 4,300 members who supply about 80 percent of North America’s drinking water.
Where does Boston’s water come from?
Most of the city’s tap water is sourced from the Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs in western and central Massachusetts that are managed by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and patrolled by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Rain and snow flow through a constantly expanding network of hundreds of thousands of acres of protected land around the reservoirs, which eventually stream and fill the reservoirs.
Boston’s winter weather allows for a stockpile of snow and ice to build, which slowly melts and helps regenerate a depleted water system, said MWRA Executive Director Fred Laskey.
“If it stopped raining right now, it would take almost six years for the reservoir to drain out,” Laskey said. “That’s a sharp contrast to some of our peers around the country, who, in any kind of warm weather, drop down into a watch zone.”
How is the water treated?
Water from the Quabbin and the Wachusett is transported through aqueducts and tunnels, where it is tested and treated with ozone, chlorine, ultraviolet light, and fluoride, according to federal regulations, and then stored in covered tanks and transported to distribution mains and smaller community pipes, Laskey said.
Ozone disinfects the water and kills bacteria, improving clarity and taste. UV light renders any pathogens non-infectious. A chlorine and ammonia compound serves as a mild, long-lasting disinfectant. Fluoride is added for dental health. Water is tested throughout the distribution process for lead and contamination.
How does the water get to Boston clients?
The MWRA’s largest partner, the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, handles and distributes water from the reservoirs as soon as it hits Boston’s border, said spokesperson Stephen Mulloney.
The BWSC operates 1,100 miles of water pipe and 1,100 miles of sewer pipe, serving around 87,000 accounts and more than a million people throughout the city, Mulloney said. Thousands of miles of storm drains handle rain and runoff.
The commission maintains pipes, addresses main breaks, and resolves quality issues – such as cloudy water from sediment– among other things, like general customer service.
“There are pipes under Boston that date back to the mid-1800s,” Mulloney said. “We’re very attentive to that…and since 1977 we have replaced hundreds of miles of water pipe.
What is the “Best Taste” award?
The New England “Best Taste” award is a regional precursor to the American Water Works Association’s annual “Best of the Best” taste and “People’s Choice” awards, which involve public water utilities from the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Mulloney said the sample used in the NEAWWA taste test was taken from the home of one of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission’s engineers, which, considering its success, may be used again during the national conference in Washington, D.C., next June.
The city won its first national “Best of the Best” taste test award in 2014, and has since won more than 20 regional and national awards for taste, customer satisfaction, and engineering excellence.
“People can rest assured that the water that comes out of the tap is
of the finest quality,” Mulloney said. “We feel that any tap in Boston would match that taste test champion.”
What determines the tastiest water?
It’s difficult to determine what exactly makes one water source seem to taste better than another. Laskey said that pure reservoirs and a combination of ozone and ultraviolet light make for a good taste. Mulloney agreed that a protected source and less intensive industrial treatment make Boston’s water the best.
“There’s a lot that goes into producing quality drinking water,” Wennerstrom said. “It’s not just a matter of pumping water out of the ground. For all intents and purposes, it’s kind of bragging rights.”
This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
Four MBTA bus routes serving Dorchester are among the 10 slowest and the 10 most bunched in Greater Boston, according to an analysis by the advocacy group TransitMatters.
The group’s annual Pokey and Schleppie Awards – which measure bus speed and “bunching,” when buses show up back-to-back after an extended wait — found that Routes 19, 22, 23, and 28 performed among the worst in the network.
“I try to leave the house two hours before work because I know these buses are slow,” said Xavier Walker, 21, who rides the 28 almost every day from his Dorchester home to his security job at the Museum of Fine Arts.
Riders stood shoulder-to-shoulder on a packed 28 bus at around noon a recent Wednesday. The 28 had the second-highest ridership in the MBTA system as of Jan. 2025, according to TransitMatters data.
“I’m about to be late again,” Walker said. “It’s frustrating, especially in security, when they expect you to be on time. You can’t be guarding very expensive stuff and be fog-minded because of what happened on the bus.”
TransitMatters ranked the Route 23 bus as the most bunched in Greater Boston, placing it first on the Schleppie list with a bunching rate of 19.3 percent, meaning nearly one in five trips arrived too close together to provide regular service. Route 22 ranked seventh for bunching, with a rate of 14.6 percent, and Route 28 ranked ninth at 14.2 percent.
On the speed side, Route 19 appeared on the Pokey list as the region’s fourth-slowest route, with an average speed of 6.49 miles per hour. Route 28 also made that list, ranking tenth slowest at 6.70 miles per hour.
Systemwide, TransitMatters reported, average speeds on the MBTA’s 10 slowest routes slipped again this year, falling from 6.83 miles per hour to 6.52 miles per hour. Bunching across the network also increased, rising from 14.1 percent to nearly 15.8 percent.
TransitMatters leaders said the four Dorchester routes illustrate how congestion, limited bus-priority infrastructure, and long-term underinvestment combine to slow service in neighborhoods that rely on transit the most.
A 23 bus departed Ashmont station on a recent weekday less than a minute after another one left, an example of the clustering that made the route the most bunched in the MBTA system this year. Nathan Metcalf photos
“There’s definitely a disinvestment in the infrastructure like bus lanes and transit signal priority,” said Caitlin Allen-Connelly, the group’s executive director. “Slow speeds and bunching are disproportionately harming some of the system’s most transit-dependent riders, who tend to be low-income and primarily from Black and Brown communities in Dorchester and Roxbury. Riders are losing hours.”
Her colleague Cole Lewis, a co-lead on TransitMatters’ NextGen Bus team, which analyzes bus performance and advocates for faster, more reliable services, said those delays accumulate into a measurable barrier to opportunity.
“It’s a lack of access,” Lewis said. “That extra 15 minutes waiting or riding can decide whether someone looks at a job, gets to healthcare, or reaches the parts of the city others take for granted.”
In a statement, the MBTA said it is working to improve speed and reliability and expand priority infrastructure across the city.
“Improving the speed and reliability of our bus service is one of our top priorities,” the statement said. “The MBTA will continue to do its part while collaborating with our municipal and state roadway owners and stakeholders to expand bus priority infrastructure and increase Bus Lane and Bus Stop Enforcement to achieve improved service for our riders.”
The MBTA said its major Blue Hill Avenue bus-priority project is nearly 30 percent designed, with plans for center-running bus lanes, transit-signal priority, and safer crossings. Similar upgrades are planned for Warren Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, while Tremont Street would see an extension of the Columbus Avenue center-running busway.
Additionally, a redesign of Nubian Square would improve bus circulation and boarding. Construction on Blue Hill Avenue — used heavily by the 23 and 28 — is unlikely to begin before 2027, pending federal funding.
TransitMatters said the timeline is further complicated by the federal grant that the Blue Hill Avenue project is depending on. Grant approvals have stalled under the Trump administration and left cities unsure when funding will arrive.
Taneja Williams (above), 22, of Dorchester, recently started a cleaning business and uses the 28 to reach clients. “I was late today,” she said. “Luckily, since it’s my business, I can communicate with my clients. But if I had a 9-to-5, there’s just no wiggle room, you gotta be clocked in at eight.” Nathan Metcalf photo
Williams said the delays are hardest on younger riders. “The main frustrating thing is when kids are going to school and they have to wait out in the cold,” she said. “They’re way more susceptible to dangers and weather.”
Gwendolyn Henry, 54, also of Dorchester, said, “I’ve been late to appointments because of the 28. They told me I was too late and had to reschedule, and I had to go back home. It made me so angry.”
Dorchester resident Tyquan Lamar, 30, said he has used the 22 for most of his life and is back on it after recently returning home from incarceration and losing his car. “I don’t mind taking the bus. I’m a trooper,” he said. “I grew up taking the bus everywhere, taking the bus by myself every day starting at 11.”
But even after a lifetime on the bus, the delays take a toll. “I hate when the bus is late,” he said. “Your boss don’t care. You gotta be to work, you gotta be to work.”
Jocelyn Henry (no relation to Gwendolyn), 20, of Dorchester, takes the 22 to her job in Central Square on days when she doesn’t have to pick up her child. She said the route’s slow, unreliable service reflects deeper inequities between neighborhoods.
“Mattapan and Dorchester are definitely underfunded compared to places like the South End or Back Bay, and that’s because of the people here,” she said. “There are more people of color in this neighborhood, and we don’t get the same buses or the same resources.”
This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
Dorchester’s only bookstore, justBook-ish, celebrated its first anniversary on Sat., Nov. 22, after 12 months of offering educational programming, author talks, and other events for the community.
Minutes from the Fields Corner MBTA station, the bookstore cafe was created to serve as a literary “gathering space” for the neighborhood. While justBook-ish operates as a for-profit retailer, it is owned by the nonprofit Words as Worlds, which connects community members with local and national artists and writers through programming such as open mics, story hours, and author talks.
Dr. Kim Parker, who serves as board chair for Words as Worlds, hosts monthly literacy workshops that are aimed at K-12 children and their caregivers and modeled after her book, “Literacy Is Liberation: Working Toward Justice Through Culturally Relevant Teaching.”
Parker has been an educator for more than 20 years, with teaching positions at Codman Academy, New Mission High School, and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. She serves as the director of Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy, a three-year college access program for public high school students.
The Reporter spoke with her about justBook-ish and her upcoming literacy events at the store. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. With justBook-ish the only bookstore in Dorchester, what would you say it means for the community and its residents to have this space?
A. I think that we completely undervalue particular communities and their reading experiences and rights to literacy. The fact that it’s taken so long is interesting and unacceptable. The work now is to keep it here. Your beliefs are on display when you have an actual bookstore, and you believe that people have a right to practice all of their literacies in this space. There’s never been a better time to be reading.
Q. What is the “Literacy Is Liberation” workshop series?
A. “Literacy Is Liberation” is a four-part series of literacy workshops intended for children in grades K-12 and their caregivers. Each one has a different focus, but the goal is that they’re action-oriented. They give attendees an overview of the [literacy] landscape through culturally relevant and sensitive research, and then what they can do about it. They usually start with some storytelling. We might have some time to practice, and then folks leave with resources, so they can go out and do this work with their own children.
The first one was “Is My Child Reading on Grade Level?” A lot of families think their children are reading at grade level, but we can’t wait on Boston to teach kids to read, because historically, it hasn’t. The other workshop was about picture books.
My collaborator, Nicholl Montgomery, and I seek to be in community with folks to help them ask the hard questions, advocate for their children, insist that their children be reading at grade level, and then be part of a community.
Q. How does your identity and your history as a researcher influence how you curate these events?
A. We are researchers, we are scholar practitioners, and we have our own children who we are deeply concerned about. Nicholl and I have been teaching for years, and we’ve had a lot of success with particular populations that people want to disparage: boys, Black boys, Brown boys, kids who might have [Individualized Education Programs], all the kids who people say don’t have a right to have strong reading lives. It’s always been personal for me. We’re invested in making sure the kids have the literacy lives they deserve.
Q. Why are these workshops so important for this particular age group and specific racial and gender demographics?
A. In terms of literacy instruction, particularly in city schools, if it’s focusing on kids at all, it’s for remedial instruction, or it’s for K-3. A lot of the instruction teachers are using is not current, it’s not research-backed, and it’s not appropriate for kids. If we want to complain about why boys can’t read, and we do nothing, then that’s the problem. We can do so much.
What we’re hoping to do in these workshops is at least give people actionable steps that will enable them to do something different. If the district has failed them, which they have continued to do, then that’s what we’re working with. We believe our work is for people who want their children to be strong readers, and we know that they’re out there.
Q. Could you tell me about the upcoming Family Reading time and Black and Latino Boys Middle Grade and High School Readers events?
A. The event coming up [Sat., Dec. 13] is about boys. How do we engage Black, Latino and other boys around literacy? Then the last one on [Sat., Jan. 10] is about family literacy. How do we create practices so families can routinely practice all of their literacies in ways that are empowering and get kids to love reading?
We will have translation services, but people need to sign up in advance. There is strong encouragement to RSVP. It’s okay if people want to attend one or the other — they’re not all built on each other.
This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
Dozens of families and young adults have crowded South Bay Center in recent weeks to take part in a new active gaming experience.
Activate Games, a Canadian company, marked the grand opening of its first New England location – it has 38 locations in the United States and more than 20 worldwide – three weeks ago with free admission for its first weekend in operation.
The Boston location may be just the beginning of a bigger expansion into the New England market, said Brett Wilkins, an Activate Games training specialist from Lexington, Kentucky.
“It’s been packed,” he said. “We’ve consistently had over 70 people in the building at any time.”
Activate Games isn’t a typical arcade. Instead of air hockey and claw machines, players dodge giant laser grids, navigate glowing floor tiles, and test their puzzle-solving and teamwork skills. The center is open daily until 10 or 11 p.m. most nights. Weekday admissions range from $25 to $30, weekends are $35 to $40, and a party room is available for birthdays and corporate events.
Wilkins said the “replayability” aspect of the center may be its most appealing feature. There are 11 “micro-arenas,” each of which has 3 to 10 games, with each game having about 10 levels. Games are fast-paced and last about two minutes.
The most popular arenas are the “Mega Grid” and “Mega Laser,” he said.
Stylisha Johnson, a special education teacher from Dorchester, went to the center to book a party and was offered a walk-through of the building. With a group of 6- to 15-year-old gamers to cater to, Johnson said she thought all ages could enjoy the games.
“There is tons of space, so you’re not bumping into anyone,” she said. “There are signs everywhere and instructions for each room, so you’re not confused.”
Sherina McKinley, an entrepreneurship manager from Dorchester, said anyone can enjoy the experience, and prices are fair for a family outing or even date night. “We already booked to come back,” she said.
Roommates Sophia Westfall, Marlyn Desire, and Nathania Brachanow came from Somerville to take advantage of the opening weekend’s free admission.
“We all just moved in together, so this was great for team bonding,” said Brachnow, a medical student.
Desire, a non-profit recruiter, said the experience is a great way for young people to get out of the house and be active. While the experience was free this time, she said she would come back and pay for it in the future, comparing the experience to a night out at the movies.
Westfall, a veterinarian, said the “Mega Grid” was her favorite room. “There were a lot of moments of us just laughing out loud,” she said. “It’s easy enough for anyone to comprehend.”
This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
A Dorchester health center says it is owed nearly $35,000 in back property-tax reimbursements from T-Mobile for a rooftop antenna on its building. It’sa dispute that real estate attorneys and telecommunications specialists say reflects a broader, largely hidden problem affecting hundreds of small landlords, nonprofits, and churches across Boston.
The Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center hosts T-Mobile equipment on its roof on Blue Hill Avenue,earning about $2,000 per month in rent. Under the terms of the lease, the wireless carrier is also required to reimburse the landlord for property taxes attributable to the site of the placement.
But the health center has paid those taxes itself for four years without reimbursement, according to AirWave Lease Insights, a Lincoln company that analyzes wireless leases and, for a fee, helps property owners fight for their claims.
Harvard Street president and CEO Charles “Charley” Murphy said he was “surprised that cell tower companies conduct themselves this way.” He emphasized that the center simply wants the carrier to meet its obligations. “If they owe the money, they should pay it,” he said.
Neither T-Mobile nor its attorneys responded to The Reporter’s repeated requests to discuss the matter.
“Our role is to serve the underserved with medical services,” Murphy said. “We have family medicine, primary care, dental services, behavioral health services, a veterans center, a food bank — and we serve over 10,000 people, probably 12,000 or 13,000 a year.”
While Harvard Street is still waiting on a response, the experience of another Dorchester institution — a house of worship — shows what it can take for a small property owner to get its reimbursements.
Global Ministries Church on Washington Street near Codman Square.
A near foreclosure
Global Ministries Christian Church, at Washington Street and Welles Avenue, leased space inside its steeple to T-Mobile beginning in 2003. In 2008, the church sold the future rent stream to a company called Ulysses for a one-time payment of $216,660, meaning it no longer collected monthly rent from the carrier. For years, the arrangement appeared uneventful.
At some point — the exact date is unclear from court filings — the city reclassified the steeple as a separate taxable parcel and began assessing real estate taxes on the income value created by the antenna. Under the lease, those taxes were the responsibility of T-Mobile, not the church.
But the church didn’t know the bills existed. The city was mailing them to an address the church had never used, and postal records show they were repeatedly returned as undeliverable. As the years passed, interest and penalties quietly accumulated. By 2024 the antenna had been removed.
According to Steve Kropper, the CEO of AirWaveLease Insights, T-Mobile “removed their gear… once the problem became visible — we think, to evade paying the tax.” By the time of the removal, the outstanding balance had grown to nearly $188,000, prompting the city to place a lien on the church property and raising the risk of foreclosure.
The attorney and former Boston City Councillor Larry DiCara, who has practiced real estate law for decades and has long known the church’s pastor, Rev. Bruce Wall, said the situation illustrates how easily small nonprofits can be blindsided.
“Most people don’t even know the concept,” he said. “Life is complicated enough without having to worry about stuff like this. He’s a preacher — he’s in the job of saving souls, not trying to figure out reimbursements for real property taxes.”
The church received its first tax bill in May 2023 and soon turned to AirWave Lease Insights for help. The firm prepared a detailed claim package showing that, under the lease and standard industry practice, T-Mobile was required to reimburse the church for those taxes, and sent it to T-Mobile. When T-Mobile did not make the payment, the church filed a lawsuit alleging unfair and deceptive practices and breach of the reimbursement clause.
“T-Mobile is notorious for failing and refusing to pay taxes accrued as a result of the installation of its telecommunications equipment upon leased properties throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and beyond, resulting in oppressive tax debts crippling small businesses and charitable organizations,” the lawsuit states.
After months of negotiations, the church and T-Mobile reached a settlement in July of this year, with the company agreeing to pay the full balance to the city. A recent tax statement reviewed by The Reporter shows the account now listed at zero.
“These are what we were taught as kids were ‘sins of omission,’” DiCara said of the broader issue. “I don’t see a bunch of people… sitting around in fancy clothes, drinking champagne, laughing about this, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. They have a moral obligation, if not a legal obligation, to be more forthcoming about these things.”
A hidden, citywide problem
AirWave’s Kropper said cases like Global Ministries’ and Harvard Street’s are far from isolated.
According to AirWave research, some 400 Boston properties have rooftop antennas, generating an estimated real estate tax number of $7 million per year. About 75 percent of leases require reimbursement by the wireless carriers — but AirWave estimates 95 percent of owners never file claims that amount to millions of unrecovered dollars.
The Reporter contacted the city of Boston several times over a two-week period in an effort to independently verify these figures. City officials responded but ultimately did not provide the information requested.
Kropper said many property owners have no idea the tax even exists. Boston doesn’t tax the equipment itself; it taxes the income value created by the antenna in place — and the charge never appears as its own line item. Instead, he said, it’s folded into the overall property assessment, “there’s no line that says ‘cell tax,’” which makes it easy to miss.
For landlords who signed leases a decade or more ago, the reimbursement clause covering those taxes can be just a short sentence buried inside a 40-page lease, further obscuring the obligation.
In the church’s case, the city’s misaddressed mail compounded the problem. In Harvard Street’s case, the health center became aware of the tax only after AirWave alerted it.
The reimbursement gap persists because many carriers pay only when pressed, Kropper said.
“T-Mobile’s approach has basically been: Don’t ask, won’t pay,” he said. “If you don’t know to claim the tax, they’re not going to volunteer it.”
Furthermore, he said, carriers invariably deny reimbursement even when requests are filed. “One hundred percent of the time when we [AirWave Insights] file a claim, it gets rejected the first time around,” he said.
Harvard Street’s ongoing battle
The reimbursement Harvard Street is claiming — $34,945 across four years — is modest compared with Global Ministries’ near-foreclosure. But Murphy said the principle is the same. The health center serves one of Boston’s lowest-income neighborhoods; even small funding gaps matter.
Wireless Asset Slice, an affiliated claims entity of AirWave, filed a 15-page reimbursement request with T-Mobile for the health center in February of this year. The package included tax bills, lease provisions, and calculations showing that the health center had paid taxes attributable to T-Mobile’s antenna.
T-Mobile, through its attorneys, argued in a June letter that the company was not obligated to pay, raising three defenses: that the claim had not been filed in a timely manner; that T-Mobile reserved the right to challenge assessments; and that reimbursing the tax would constitute “double taxation” because the company already pays personal property tax on its equipment.
Kropper called those arguments “specious.” He said the leading precedent — a 2013 New York case, T-Mobile Northeast LLC v. DeBellis — rejected the double-taxation claim and held that personal-property taxes on equipment and real-property taxes on income value are legally distinct.
Kropper disputed the “timely notice” argument, saying the lease contains no filing deadline and that the health center submitted its request “as soon as [it] became aware” of the tax.”
“We take as guidance the statute of limitations in Massachusetts providing for six years’ worth of reimbursement. That’s the relevant law here,” he said. “They raise these points hoping landlords don’t know the history. And often they don’t.”
A call for transparency
The issue reflects a power imbalance between providers and property owners, DiCara said. “The city collects what it’s owed, owners should recover what they are owed, and carriers should shoulder their fair share,” he said. “Problems like this shouldn’t be swept under the rug.”
To that point, Murphy said the episode makes clear how unprepared most nonprofits are for the reimbursement process. “I didn’t know this existed,” he said. “Once it was brought to our attention, we wanted to pursue it, because it’s owed to the community.” As of this week, Harvard Street had not received the reimbursement.
AirWave believes that the more than 400 Boston property owners cited above may be missing out on similar payments. Kropper said that reality helps explain why carriers resist even small claims. Carriers routinely push back on them, he argued, because widespread reimbursement could expose them to millions in overdue payments across Boston.
“That’s the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
Two years ago, Richard O’Mara closed Cedar Grove Gardens after running the floral and gift shop at 911 Adams St. for more than 44 years. He wanted something less demanding and transitioned to a floral studio, where he made floral arrangements for customers but without a storefront.
But something was awry. He didn’t have a street presence, and the studio was isolating. “I missed my retail customers,” O’Mara said in an interview.
“I didn’t realize that I was a people person until I didn’t have the people.”
On Nov. 11, Cedar Grove @ Ashmont opened for business at 1973 Dorchester Ave., across from Ashmont Station. It was 45 years to the day after he established the floral shop in 1980. There was a small fire in 1984, the store reopened on Nov. 11 that year, so it made sense to open on the 11th this year, even though the store wasn’t exactly ready, O’Mara said.
Richard O’Mara behind the counter of his new store Cedar Grove @ Ashmont, which is located in a ground-level space in Dorchester Avenue’s Treadmark building. Seth Daniel photos
It was a quiet opening, mainly because he didn’t publicize it. However, he will hold a holiday open house next Sunday, a post-Thanksgiving that O’Mara said is a tradition carried over from the old store.
He plans to have food, wine, and cider, and will show customers how florists make centerpieces for the holidays.
The Dot Ave. location gives the shop street presence in an area that has undergone tremendous growth with housing, O’Mara said. He talked about the area in the 1960s, when it was bustling, but in a very different way, than now. The neighborhood has grown to be much more urban but still somewhat gentrified, he said.
As for business, O’Mara said about 10 to 15 people come by per day. With the holiday season on tap, he will be keeping the store open longer.
Vicki Rugo, who lives in Dorchester, said she has been buying from O’Mara for 45 years. He did the flowers for both of her daughters’ weddings, she noted, and he’s the “go-to source” for holiday centerpieces.
“He is a neighbor, and the people who worked in his shop, many of them were familiar faces,” Rugo said. “You got to know people. It felt like a very personal experience.”
Another longtime customer, Joannie Jaxtimer, said there was a “grieving in the community” when O’Mara closed his shop on Adams Street.
“It was the go-to place. You’d always see people you know and like,” she said. “I’m really happy for him that he’s found space that suits his needs and that will be open to all of us.”
O’Mara grew up in Mattapan and said he has always identified himself as being from Lower Mills. His interest in gardening started when he was a kid, when, with no place near him to practice, he had to travel to Needham or West Roxbury to do so. So, he said, he knew that Dorchester would be “an ideal place to open a garden center.”
He went to Boston Latin School and then the University of Massachusetts in Amherst with thoughts of becoming a politician or lawyer. That all changed when, taking his gardening hobby to another level, he switching into UMass’s College of Food and Natural Resources.
Looking back, O’Mara said he’s had more than 470 people work with him at the old store over the course of 44 years. Today, in Ashmont, he is working with three part-time and a couple of contract employees to help out with the holidays.
“I want to bring a little bit of the flavor of the old store in, but also to progress to the next step, and be a little bit more selective,” he said. “And considering how tight the arrangement was in terms of space, this is bound to be a lot better, and more reminiscent of the old store.”
This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
