Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch for our weekly City hall update. How are you today?
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Mayor Doing well. I noticed the Canadian haze this morning and last night as well, actually.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
For folks who have respiratory issues, it can be a little difficult. So take it easy.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: For sure. Absolutely.
Those Canadian forest fires are so much different than ours.
I mean, they are 90, 100 foot trees, they're lush, they're, you know, big forests. I mean, California, we see those on tv. But not nearly as thick as these.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: Oh, right, exactly. Yes. I read a statistic the other day where so far in Canada 6 million acres have burned this year.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Incredible.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: It's hard to even fathom that. Yeah.
And that's like 2,000 miles away and here it is affecting us.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Right? Right.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Astounding for sure.
Speaking of weather, it was just picture perfect for the concerts last weekend.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Mayor well, you know, the only thing we couldn't control was the weather and we couldn't ask for better days. It was absolutely incredible.
It was a great weekend. When we started playing this a year and a half ago, whatever it was, and of course, all the fine tuning the months following.
So many people worked so hard on this. My staff, the volunteers, the park department, police and fire, making sure everything was safe.
Jay Calpro, who's from Squantum, Jim, did an incredible job with all the stage set up.
It was a first class concert both days. And I was pleasantly surprised.
With John Fogarty Being 80 or 81 years old, my expectations were low on his voice, but he was phenomenal. He really was incredible.
Costeri's record, we had about 8,000 at the Fogarty, we had about 7,000 and not one incident. A couple of minor medicals that were handled, but no incidents at all, I'm told, from a number of business people. The restaurants did very well over the weekend and the bar rooms did very well. Restaurants before the show, bar rooms after the show, show, as I was told, which is incredible, which is awesome. That's all part of it.
But ran into people from Quincy I haven't seen in 20 years, 10 years, people, some still live here, but some have moved to Braintree or some other parts of the South Shore.
You just don't see them. So it was like this giant reunion. In some ways it reminded me a little bit of 50 years ago, going to the Thanksgiving game and the groups of walking to the game and then walking home. And we saw a ton of that groups walking to the stadium from all different neighborhoods, from their homes. And so the whole traffic and parking situation worked out because so many people didn't attempt to park in the area, they made plans. They walked or they parked at Kilroy's or somewhere else and made the trek down. So it worked out so well.
And of course, everybody I ran into had nothing but good to say about it and said, we got to do this again.
If they only knew what's involved.
But we're going to look at it.
Perhaps it becomes an annual thing, but we're going to do some post mortem, some analysis and figure out the entire cost.
And if we did it again, we couldn't have the ticket price as low as they were.
This was a special year, obviously, and we wanted to make it very affordable. Obviously we want it. If we do it again, we want it affordable. But I don't think we can do as low as we did.
The only complaint I heard, honestly, was the lines are too long for the beer on Saturday night. Joe, I'll take that.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: I understand that Darius Rucker even got into a round of golf either before or after the show. I think.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Before. Yeah, before. I guess that's a typical thing for him. Wherever he goes, he tries to get around to golfing before he plays. He's a scratch golfer and Granite Links is not an easy place to golf. But they said he was unbelievable.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: Maybe he'll come back. Who knows?
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah, who knows? At least for golf.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: But I think, I mean, the weather just couldn't have been more perfect. And I think that really contributed to just the nice weekend for folks.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Oh, big time. Absolutely. Yeah. It's a whole different ball game if you got some rain or something, you know. Absolutely. It was perfect.
I mean, that's the risk, as we know.
How many outdoor events have we had that have been interrupted by weather? And it just. That's the risk you take. But, you know, there's nowhere else in Quincy you can put seven or 8,000 people. So I'm so grateful to so many people that work so hard on it, really, these things. I know the public shows up, you know, whether it's a Flag Day parade, whether it's this event that show up and think these things just happen.
They don't just happen. There's a ton of work that goes involved in it. But we talked about doing some big things for Quincy 400 and that was one of the big things.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: It was awesome, I would say. Yeah, it's not done yet. Right. There's more to come.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: More to come. Absolutely.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: I think a hot air balloon is next up on the agenda.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: That's correct.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: So look for that. And quincy400.com has all the details.
Speaking of walking, I mean, John Adams is famous for walking all over the city, so it's a tradition that continues.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Very true. Yep.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Today, Mayor, can we talk a little bit about the project going on at Pine Hill Cemetery over in West Quincy? How's it coming along?
[00:05:35] Speaker B: It's a little behind schedule, but it's wrapping up. I mean, the big stuff is all done.
If you're looking at the veterans section, there's a pretty big wall that was put in to hold back retention wall, but made beautiful with a stone veneer behind the veterans section that has to be finished up.
I don't know if all the final paving is finished.
You know, the touch up here and there, but you know, the vast majority of the work is done for sure. And again, I heard nothing but positive comments from people. You know, Pine Hill was okay at best before its condition, its look, the aesthetics, the greenery. It was just okay. And the roads were in bad shape, a lot of dying trees. So what a different look. I mean, I've heard from people that hadn't been there in a couple of years to visit a loved one and they were blown away by the change. So, you know, I think it's important we honor.
We honor those that went before us. And of course, in this project, we picked up several thousand new graves which over time will more than pay for itself, the project itself.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: And those are being pre sold, is that right? Those are available?
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Yes, they are available, Yep. Absolutely.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: And there is a. Is there like a welcoming chapel or folks?
[00:06:55] Speaker B: No, we talked about one of the master plan and we just put it aside for now because the.
Just the cost, I think that's something we'll revisit later. And that would be really for. If the weather was really crazy snow or bad rain, you could gather in the chapel for the final goodbye, final blessing, if you will, rather than go to the gravesite.
So it would be a nice thing to have. It's not necessary, but it would be a nice thing to have.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Last week we talked about the new projects underway along Hancock street. And this week there's another project on the docket on Chestnut Street.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Yes.
Continues to be a robust time for the planning department for sure.
I know that many years ago when Quincy Mutual funded the east of Chestnut project by the 1400 block, which was a big success. It was the first actually project to go to get in the ground, if you will, in the downtown, as you recall, we had to fire street works and there was a lot of.
Well, they had written my political obituary for the most part.
And, you know, everyone thought that downtown was dead, nothing would ever happen. But the locals stepped up, Quincy Mutual being one of them, and that was the first project. And of course we saw the Peter o' Connell Project, the Galvin Project, and now we're on the ground for the Beth Israel project, the Trader Joe's Project. So it's really coming together beautifully. But as part of that master plan, they also had envisioned a west of Chestnut project where the old Sullys and that stretch, the back part, if you will, of the Quincy Mutual property. And they have been. They've gone through several iterations and they're being very careful and deliberate. And I understand that that's their headquarters for the last 150 years. They want to get it right.
So I think it's a. What I saw, what's being presented is it's really a beautiful building. It's not a high rise.
It's got a lot of brick in it. It really looks Quincy.
So in the corner by Maple street, they've kept that wide landscape purposes to match the JQ Adams park and that stretch. So really been well thought out and certainly want to thank Quincy Mutual and particularly Doug and Steve Briggs for the great work they're doing on that. And there'll be apartments, but there'll be larger ones. I think there'll be a different clientele.
So it's looking forward to it. Yeah.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: There'll be a presentation tomorrow night, actually six o' clock before the planning board, the folks.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: And we're preserving the Sully sign.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Oh, you are?
[00:09:37] Speaker B: We are.
We got some plans.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Can you tell us about them?
[00:09:43] Speaker B: Well, we're looking at taking some of the old Quincy signs and in one of the walls in Quincy center somewhere to put them and be kind of nostalgic and kind of cool. So we're working on a plan for that.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Oh, okay. What other signs does the city have?
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Well, some that we may have and the Historical Society has in hand or we may recreate some, you know, remix.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Bargain Center.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Correct. Exactly.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: More to come on that, I'm sure.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Excellent. Thanks so much, Mayor. Always great to talk to you.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Enjoy the haze.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Yes, you too.
Quincy Mayer. Thomas Cook, our weekly City hall update here on AEM Quincy.
