JPG: Stories: Photo Essay: The Mayor of South Street, Boston MA.

The Mayor of South Street, Boston MA.

By John Colaruotolo

13 Oct 2007

I was walking to South Station in Boston after an evening of work. I've been meaning to take a photo of this alley next to a Japanese restaurant. I stop and take two quick snaps of the alley in the dark.

As I'm thinking of another shot to make, this man comes up to me and says, in a stern but informative manner, "You should put that camera away."

"Ok," I say. "I'm just making some photos of this alley."

He continues. "If I were you, I wouldn't take any more photos." I pause to look at him. He's a little shorter than me, and is looking at me intently. "This here.... this is crack alley. There's a bunch of Puerto Ricans that hang out back there doing crack, and if they see you, they'll come and take your camera, take your wallet, and who knows what else."

"Well is there anyone back there right now?"

"No - they're not here now. But I'm just telling you. You see, I know everything that goes on around here. Everyone knows me. I know everyone, and I can tell you anything about this place. They call me the mayor of South Street." He shakes my hand.

He continues on. Telling me all about the restaurant next door, if I'd like to see the inside. He tells me about the construction site across the street, and how he knew about it a year before they broke ground. He told about the architecture on South Street, and that all new buildings must look like the one around the corner so as to have a consistent look.

Someone walks by and says hi to Mike.

Mike continues.... he goes on and on about everything. I couldn't really determine if he was a crack addict, because he wasn't totally crazy. He was just chatty and homeless.

Someone else walks buy - a business man. "Hey Mike." Mike mutters something to him and starts to follow him for a bit, but then realizes he has an audience with me. I finally decide to ask him if I may take a few photographs of him.

"Oh sure - what the hell do I care. That's fine with me!" He continues with more stories, all the while I'm snapping photos of him. Yet another person walks by us, Mike acknowledges him, and the person says, "hi Mike, how you doin..."

I needed to get going, and he offers to walk to the train station with me. The last thing he said to me before he ran off to talk with a friend on a bench was about an egg sandwich. "You want to know where to get a good egg sandwich? I can show you if you want. This place in the station - for a dollar five, you can get an egg sandwich there. And it's made with a real egg! You can't beat that for a dollar five! Next time you're here, come and see me. Remember homeless Mike told you where you can get a real egg sandwich for a dollar five....."

"Thanks, Mike," I said. "I'll see you next time I'm in town." He was unbelievable. Would not shut up. But that whole time, about 20 minutes of conversation, homeless Mike, the Mayor of South Street, didn't once ask me for a dime.