By Emma Platoff, Globe Staff
At Boston’s southeastern edge, along the gray Neponset River, sits one of the city’s whitest and most conservative pockets.
Dorchester’s Ward 16, Precinct 12 is home to Florian Hall, where an enormous red-tiled mural announces the home base of the firefighters union, and where on Tuesday, hundreds will show up to vote. Local 718, the firefighters union, has backed Essaibi George, the race’s underdog and its more moderate candidate. In all likelihood, these voters overwhelmingly will, too.
On the hilly streets, lined with modest single- or two-family homes bordered by chain-link fences, hot pink lawn signs backing Essaibi George are almost as common as the Halloween spiderwebs, skeletons, and blow-up figures. American flags are ubiquitous; less common, but visible, are their cousins with thin blue or thin red lines, cheering the work of police officers and firefighters.
The lawn signs tell the story: White, Irish candidates are well-represented; one sign for Wu sits lonely at the front of a yard. Donald Trump almost defeated Joe Biden here last year, in his best showing anywhere in the city.
In a changing city, here is a place that clings to its traditions, where families tend to own their homes and stay in them, and where the demographics change little over time. It remains the Irish-American enclave many imagine Boston to be, even as much of the city has shed that identity. Many residents are government workers and first responders, police officers or firefighters or city staff who keep up with Boston politics in part because of its impact on their lives.
Hundreds will show up to vote on Tuesday at Florian Hall. Local 718, the firefighters union housed at the venue, has backed Annissa Essaibi George. PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF
“In Dorchester in general, politics is sport, and mayoral elections are our Super Bowl,” said state Representative Dan Hunt, who chairs the Ward 16 Democratic Committee that includes the area. “So people are involved. People are informed.”
It’s “a neighborhood-oriented neighborhood” — the kind of place where folks genuinely care about each other, where they shop locally and are quick to recommend each other’s businesses, said Nancy Flynn, who owns Dorchester Door and Window, which has been a neighbor to Florian Hall for more than three decades.
They come together on Election Days, too. It’s consistently one of the highest-turnout precincts in the city. In September, it saw the highest participation of any precinct in Boston, at 62 percent — more than double the city average. And residents often vote cohesively. Essaibi George won four of every five votes cast in this precinct during the preliminary, her strongest showing anywhere in the city — and the best showing of any candidate in any precinct in the city.
“Our membership tends to be very civically engaged,” said Steve Bickerton, president of the Cedar Grove Civic Association, which includes a number of Dorchester precincts.
One key to that voting pattern: The Keystone Apartments, a hulking brick building home to hundreds of seniors and disabled residents. From its sprawling parking lot, it’s an easy five-minute walk up Hallet Street (or a shorter ride, often offered by campaign staff) to Florian Hall — and on the first Tuesday in November, it feels, Hunt said, more like a social gathering than an errand or obligation.
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