UN acknowledges role in triggering cholera outbreak; vows to help

PORT-AU-PRINCE— A U.N. acknowledgement that it played a role in introducing cholera to Haiti and vows to aid victims were welcomed this week in the Caribbean nation, which has experienced the worst outbreak of the disease in recent history.

While the number of cholera cases has been significantly reduced from the initial outbreak in 2010, the fact that the preventable disease is still routinely sickening and killing Haitians is galling to many.

Preservation tax is on Nov. ballot for Boston voters

City Councillor Andrea Campbell last week pitched Mattapan community members on a November ballot question that would institute a city tax surcharge that would provide funds for historic preservation, parks, and housing.

Boston city councillors voted, 12-1, in May to put the Community Preservation Act (CPA) on the ballot. Mayor Martin Walsh then signed off, bringing the issue to the voters on Nov. 8.

Aristide joins rally to urge voters to back Narcisse in Oct. election

PORT-AU-PRINCE— Twice-ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide has made a rare public appearance at a street rally to support the candidate of the political faction he founded decades ago.

A growing crowd of Fanmi Lavalas party backers chanted and waved pictures of the ex-president Monday as they jogged alongside a convoy.

Aristide and Lavalas leader Maryse Narcisse waved from a car as they headed to the district of Petionville.

Candidate for state rep was fired from BPD; claims he was wrongfully terminated

Jovan Lacet, who is challenging incumbent state representative Dan Cullinane for the 12th Suffolk State Representative seat in the Sept. 8 primary election, points to his experience as a US Marine veteran and a former Boston Police officer in his campaign materials.

What is not mentioned in that dossier is Lacet’s termination from his job as a Boston Police officer in 2004 in the aftermath of a murder investigation and prosecution in which his brother was the chief suspect and defendant in a fatal 1998 shooting in Mattapan. His brother was found not guilty.

This week, a Boston Police spokesman told the Reporter that Lacet was terminated because he “committed perjury.”

Neighborhood Homes Initiative brings small development to city’s vacant lots

Some of the city-owned parcels speckling Boston have stood vacant for decades, unused and frequently described as “missing teeth” in the face of a neighborhood. New hope for those properties is on hand, the Walsh administration says, through a program geared toward building one- and two-family housing.

Mattapan Station development moves forward with MBTA nod

The MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board today approved the ground lease at Mattapan Station to the partnership of Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation and the Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc. (POAH). Nuestra and POAH will be developing a mixed-used project, including affordable housing and commercial space, in the long-underutilized River Street parking lot next to the station.

In Mattapan, new-and-improved Almont Park gets security camera

Mattapan’s Almont Park has another new amenity this summer— a security camera aimed at helping the already vastly-improved city park become even more of a safe haven. The park— home to the Mattapan Patriots Pop Warner program, which kicks off its season this weekend— has seen more than $4 million in renovations over the last five years, capped off with a well-kept football and soccer field.

Dorchester, Mattapan tenants have had it with landlord who lets them live in squalor

Mice, cockroaches, mold, shut-off heat, no electricity, jammed doors, open gasoline canisters. This is what we live with, said the tenants of several dilapidated Dorchester and Mattapan properties as they loudly protested on Monday evening week against the ownership of a notably negligent landlord, Uwa Lawrence.

“One, two, three, four. No more constables at our door. Five, six, seven, eight. Don’t evict, negotiate,” they chanted outside Lawrence’s property at 91-101 Waldeck St. amidst an array of colorful signs emblazoned with the words “People Before Profit” and “Stand Up! Fight Back.”

Punishing strike by resident doctors grinds on in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE— Empty halls buzz with flies. Rats scamper through the wards at night. The emergency room is empty except for four shackled prisoners, watched over by relatives and missionaries rather than medical personnel.

The Hospital of the State University of Haiti, the largest and most important public medical facility in this troubled country, is at the epicenter of the most punishing strike by Haitian medical workers in memory.

US official arrives in Haiti to press for end to impasse

PORT-AU-PRINCE— The U.S. State Department's special coordinator for Haiti has arrived in the troubled Caribbean country to talk with officials amid a lengthy political impasse.

Kenneth Merten is meeting with members of the Provisional Electoral Council and other officials to "discuss the urgent need for elected representatives at all levels of government." He arrived Thursday.

Boston Haitian Reporter

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