Dorchester

The University of Massachusetts has chosen a developer to build on the former Bayside Expo Center property in Dorchester, the board of trustees announced Thursday.

The city of Boston’s population has continued to grow and become more diverse over the past seven years, according to a report by the Boston Planning and Development Agency released last month.

Developers of one of the largest residential complexes planned for Dorchester squared off against affordable housing activists at a meeting Monday, defending the Dot Block project against charges that it will drive up rents in the area and force longtime residents out of the city.

Approximately 30 people gathered on the second floor of the All Saints’ Church on Ashmont Street in Dorchester Oct. 2 to learn about a project proposal that would revamp 500 Talbot Ave. into a mixed-use building including retail, residential, and church space.

More than 60 area residents attended a community meeting in Dorchester’s Strand Theater Monday night, 184 feet away from the storefront that was once Cataloni’s Bar, now the proposed new home for a recreational marijuana shop.

The Fairmount Innovation Lab celebrated the grand re-opening of their newly expanded co-working space last Wednesday evening in Uphams Corner.

Carney Hospital has announced Tom Sands as the new President of the Dorchester-based hospital. Formerly the interim president at Carney, Sands has been officially appointed president effective July 2018.

While bubble tea shops abound in Boston, the fare Eric Ly and Somath Om now serve at Coco Leaf Dessert Café, which they opened in January of 2017, includes a wide range of traditional Vietnamese desserts, including Italian custards, French-style flan, mochi doughnuts, smoothies, sweet crepes and Vietnamese coffee. That last item is slow-brewed.

Because many sober homes are not registered, nobody knows how many are operating in Boston. But of those registered with the Massachusetts Alliance for Sober Housing, all but two are in Dorchester and Roxbury. Many residents say they’ve had enough.

General contractor Vivian Girard is planning to construct a 14-unit building on a lot he owns near the corner of Westville Street and Geneva Avenue, with units as small as 260 square feet and rents as low as $650 a month.

For the better part of the last 22 years, Linda Dorcena Forry has seen the Dorchester Day parade from the front, where the politicians march. First she marched as an aide to former state Rep. Charlotte Golar Richie. Then as 12th Suffolk District representative and finally 1st Suffolk District senator.

Codman Square’s Juice and Jazz Cafe is approaching its one-year anniversary of serving freshly made sandwiches, salads, juices, coffee and smoothies in the neighborhood.