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TownOnline.com - Local News: One routine is spinning back to normal
One routine is spinning back to normal
By David L. Harris/ Staff Writer
Thursday, May 11, 2006
While the constant hum of washing machines and dryers sounded in the background at Leisure Laundries, Baby D Reid waited for her clothes to finish drying.
It was the first time the 13-year-old, who lives at Roslindale's Washington-Beech housing project across the street, could actually do her laundry in five months at this particular Laundromat, a hotspot for people at the project, High Point Village and nearby Georgetown.
For that time, Reid had to take a bus or walk to the Big Spin farther down Washington Street with her laundry basket in tow.
"I missed it," said Reid, whose family has a washer and a broken dryer in their apartment. The Boston Housing Authority's official policy states that they aren't allowed in one-bedroom apartments, although they are in other units. The project also doesn't provide any onsite Laundromat for its tenants.
So people like Reid usually walk across the street to Leisure Laundries, where a quarter will get you 10 minutes of drying time. But on Nov. 22, their routines were altered when a fire in a nearby eatery, Bani Restaurant, suffered a fire. The adjacent businesses, including Leisure and Dajajo's Market, were forced to close because of smoke damage.
The constant flow of regular customers suddenly ceased.
"I'd see them carrying laundry on their backs or on the buses," said Amy Fielding, who along with her husband, Dave, owns Leisure Laundries and lives in Roslindale.
"It's so convenient for our customers," said Dave. "You're trying to help people out and have a business."
The Fieldings had decided to buy the 9-year-old Laundromat at 4549 Washington St. last summer after Dave, who works in the finance department of biotech company ViaCell, was accepted into Harvard Business School.
"This was a cool way to start the entrepreneurship," said Amy. And because Dave, 29, will be leaving his job this summer, it was an easy way to keep revenues coming in.
"The idea was we could manage this," said Dave, who wants to eventually learn the operational side of how businesses work.
Dave's father owns two Laundromats himself in Manchester, N.H., and Lowell, so it was a natural progression for the younger Fielding.
Last July, the Fieldings, who have two children, bought the business and kept the three employees: one full-timer, Alejendrina DeLarosa, and two part-timers. Almost five months later, the fire forced the Laundromat to shutter its doors.
The 28 dryers and 16 washers couldn't be used in the interim. The Pac Man video game in the back couldn't be played. And the 60 mailboxes for rent couldn't be accessed. [continue]
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