Speaker 1: From the city of presidents, it’s the all about Quincy podcast. This is your host, John Melley. Join me as we explore the history, hidden gems and highlight the businesses with great stories that I’ll tell the tale why Quincy, Massachusetts is a great place to live. Hey, there is John, how are you I know you have a lot of things competing for your attention. So thanks for spending some time with me today. I really do appreciate it. Welcome to episode two, where we have a very interesting guest Tim Cahill, who is the well, he’s got an Amazing resume.
He’s currently the president of the Quincy chamber of commerce. And Tim has had an amazing career and a lifetime of public service and one observation that I made, and unfortunately it was after we stopped recording. And I said to him, you know, you’re still campaigning. It’s just that rather than you being the candidate, you’ve replaced yourself with this city of Quincy and you’re campaigning for the city of Queensland. He, he liked that analogy. So let’s just dive into my conversation with Tim and I’ll talk to him a little bit at the end.
Speaker 1: As I said, at the top of the show, my guest today is Tim Cahill. Now most of you folks Listening to the program probably know who Tim is, but in case you don’t, we’re going to go through a little bit of a chronology before we have our conversation. so let’s just start at the beginning. First, Tim was Born.
Speaker 3: You will lose them in the first minute. If you go there,
Speaker 2: let’s just start with his professional chronology here. He was the founder and owner of a place called handshakes cafe from 1982 to 94. You own that for 12 years. And during that time, he also served as a counselor at large on the city of Quincy city council for 15 years. He also served as the Norfolk county treasurer from January of 1997, January of 2003, then he became the Massachusetts state treasurer. Tim served as the treasurer and receiver general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2011 and the middle of all that he decided he was going to run for governor, which he did in 2009. He has also been a guest host of WBZ radio’s nightside with Dan Ray. He now serves as the president of the Quincy chamber of commerce and the executive director of the Quincy economic development corporation. So I think we can make a couple of assumptions. You probably know a couple of things about the city of Quincy. I know. Yes, yes. And that’s why we’re excited to have you on as a guest of the, all about Quincy podcast. So thank you very much for taking the time to
Speaker 3: Be here and you missed my first job, which I don’t blame you because it wasn’t listed. But my first job out of college was, well at first, very first job was in the Quincy park department or our mayor’s father ran the park department back then. I was under age 14, but I’m tall. So I made the cut. And, my first real job out of college was as a tour director at the Adams national historic site. So very fun history, a little bit. That’s that’s, that’s my, that was the beginning of my, sort of my historical education about Quincy. So, I can go deep if you want, or we can stay on the, on, on the surface. But, that was my first and one of my favorite jobs of all time,
Speaker 2: I can imagine it would be, I, my dad grew up in Milton and so we would come and visit my grandparents and we would come down the expressway and I would see the signs for the Adams national historic site for years. And it wasn’t until I married my wife and moved to Quincy and, started to poke around the neighborhoods and all of that, that I was like, wait a minute, we have the writer of the Massachusetts state constitution and a writer of the United States, constitution, presidents. And first ladies right
Speaker 3: Here inside of the declaration of independence. I mean, you, I mean, we could go on and that would take up the whole show, but, and I’m happy to do it by that. It is, it’s an amazing city. It’s amazing modern city, but it’s also amazing historical city.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it, it is. My first guest was Annie Dow and she is a lifelong resident of Quincy. my wife is a fourth generation Quincy resident. And one of the things that I said to Annie was that, one thing that I know about people who are from Quincy, they’re passionate about the city of Quincy and very proud of being from Quincy. And we were talking about all the things that Quincy has like with the new restaurants and the history and the different neighborhoods. I’ll walk around with my dogs and I’ll meet people and they’ll say, oh yeah, my parents have lived here and my grandparents have lived here. They’ve been around a hundred years, but then we have a large population of new folks to the city and a revitalization that’s going on in the city. So there’s a lot of stuff. We have an ocean on one side and the blue Hills on the other side and quarries and highway that runs through
Speaker 3: The middle of it really has everything. I was just selling our city to some out some folks who were looking to do some business in the year. And the conversation was exactly what you just said. We got the water a mile from where I am in Quincy center. We got the blue Hills about a mile from rain in west side, of Quincy center, beautiful historic district and a great urban, but not to, or even talent field, you know, I mean city, but you still feel like you’re in the suburbs. You got a patch of land. Most of us have driveways. They all work and stop. So I’ll start or something. I don’t think there’s a better place in America, in the United States of America. And I don’t think there’s a better country than the United States. So in my mind, Netflix, Quincy, top of the list in the entire world,
Speaker 2: Well, there you go. You’re an advocate for the city, aside from all the wonderful things that you just mentioned, what is it about Quincy that really, in your opinion, you have a lot more experience in the city than I do, but what do you think it is that drives that hometown pride spirit that people in Quincy have
Speaker 3: Geez, that one’s, it’s tough to put into a sentence, cause it’s a feel and it’s a hard one to articulate, but I think there’s a sense of genuineness and Quincy that you don’t find everywhere else, even for newcomers, for, for people who’ve been here forever. I mean, it does say take some time, like you said, a fourth generation, Quincy resident is still a newcomer to some folks here, but at the same time, you know, we’ve got first-generation immigrants, especially Asian, Chinese, Chinese, right. It means. And I feel honestly that they’re as welcome and they feel as welcome to this community as my grandparents, Irish immigrants, that my wife’s Italian immigrant grandparents felt maybe even more so, cause I think we’re a little bit more, I for legal, more open to new customers now than we were back then, but they all settled here and it might take a generation to become sort of part of Quincy, but I’ll tell you someone who’s seen tremendous highs and also some pretty deep lows in his life.
Speaker 3: People in Quincy will stick with it, no matter what they don’t care about your pedigree, they don’t care about your title. if you’re a good person, they’ll stay standby here, no matter what kind of issues you get into. And and that’s what makes it special. And it’s different than some of the other communities on the south and north shore and, and elsewhere, again, it’s hard to put in a sentence, but I think there’s a genuineness year in a, in a willingness to reach out that you don’t just find everywhere. Especially in the city of a hundred thousand people, it’s like a small town, you know, very D kind of small town, but yet it’s a city of over a hundred thousand people, each generational multiethnic, and yet people still want to come here and once they come here and they want to stay,
Speaker 2: Right, what do you think And I know you have to be because of your position, but what’s, what are some of the favorite things that you like about Quincy, aside from what you just talked about I mean, for example, Annie, our guest last time. So you said she loved the parks department because of the summer summer camp program that they had when she was growing up. And so those are some of the things that she likes. What do you have as memories from your childhood that you remember about Quincy that made it special for you
Speaker 3: Well, I agree with Annie, I lived at Kinkaid park in, Southwest Quincy, growing up, playing whatever sport was in season. And you had a great youth program back then played football for the Elks for Dean football. And then interesting. When, when I had one of my statewide campaigns as an, with four young daughters, we couldn’t go on vacation one summer because I was too busy campaigning. So my wife, we stayed home. You know, we stayed in the city and they took advantage of the recreational opportunities. So they learned to sail at Black’s Creek. Oh, cool. Thanks. Sports. And sailing is something that we never would’ve been exposed to. So there was so much to do I, my favorite past time in the city of Quincy, outside of coming to work and trying to help in ways that I can here at the chambers is walking.
Speaker 3: my dad was, a big Walker. He was known as a Walker. He would put in 10, 50 miles a day and I had a driver’s license. I was walked to work. And even when he retired, he just kept walking. So not to sound silly, but I’m following in his footsteps in some way. just sort of finding paths. And I think the pandemic really opened my eyes because there wasn’t much to do. You couldn’t go to the gym. Work was not, everything was closed. It was, to me, it was a really interesting time to be able to enjoy the city without the traffic, without the congestion, without things that were bothering us prior. I mean, I’d be, I walked literally in the middle of the street, there was not a car coming in, either direction for the whole walk and finding some parts and some trails outside of the blue Hills, just through the neighborhoods.
Speaker 3: Lindsey is my favorite pastime outside of spending time with my family or being at work in that. And it’s interesting what you find walking, what you discover walking, if you don’t discover a dragon. Oh, sure. Yeah. Little houses, little businesses, parks that, and then just open space. There’s plenty of it in Quincy. I mean, tons of it and the city’s done a great job in this modern era of really maintaining those products, adding to them, making, creating new parks and new walking paths and stuff. And we’re working on an, on a, really exciting, program with the city called the presidents trail, which comes from my interest in history, my interest in walking and the fact that we’ve got all this history, that’s just got a city here. I know chamber and the city have gotten together and we’re putting together what’s called the president’s trail that will connect.
Speaker 3: It’s a walking trail and urban walking trail that will connect all of these significant historic sites in Quincy with really beautiful historic signage, a map, an app that you can follow along with self-directed self, you know, self guided. And, you are literally walking in the footsteps of John Adams, John Quincy, Adams, Abigail, John Hancock, cause all the signs was signified. What was going on at this site at the time, usually in, mostly in their words in quotes that came from John Adams diary or Abigail’s diary, as you said at the outset, there is no other place in America that is the birthplace and the resting place of two presidents, two signers of the declaration of independence. I mean it’s unique and that history, and I think this is another thing that makes Queens unique is history is still important, but it doesn’t overshadow the progress in the future. You know, we’re kind of going in two different directions in this presence trail is a way to capture that history and allow people to walk through new Quincy while experiencing full Quincy. And we’re really excited about that. Hopefully we’ll be kicking it off sometime.
Speaker 2: That’s very cool. That’s very cool. I’ve often, I’ve often wondered this may sound kind of geeky, but I’ll say it anyway. I’ve often wondered if John Adams or John Quincy Adams and Abigail Adams, if they all came back now, what would they think
Speaker 3: You know, approximately might be horrified because their farm is much smaller than it was when they, when they left. I, I, you know, I, you know, it’s funny. It is G and I, but I can identify, cause I think about a lot, you know, what would it be What would it be like if you came back 200 years from now, what would you see What would you recognize and what wouldn’t, you obviously there’s so much that it’s changed, but that church where they used to worship that is still there. Yeah. The graveyard where his father was buried and his ancestors are buried is still there and the birthplaces and the birthplace.
Speaker 3: And so I think he’d be honored because to know John Adams know that he lived in a turbulent times and when he died, I don’t think he realized, I don’t think he ever thought he would be remembered, certainly not a month. The grapes like Jefferson and Washington soft spot in his, in his personality that he’d been overlooked. And we have David McCullough mostly for that resurrection of John’s reputation because he did a marvelous job of uncovering and then promoting how important John Adams was an Abigail. Both of them were to the founding of this country. Oh, definitely. Yeah. That inspires me. And it’s really brought a lot of, I think it brings a lot of pride to those of us who live here to know that again, we walk in their footsteps.
Speaker 2: Yeah. What excites you the most about the future of Quincy You have a kind of a bird’s-eye view of greater sense of the opportunities that are coming to Quincy, stuff that you can talk about. What, what excites you the most about the future of Queens Well,
Speaker 3: I liked the development that’s taking place, and I know that isn’t universally loved by everyone in Quincy, because change is hard, but change is important in a city, in anything, in a person in the city and the entity and a business. If you don’t change that, if you don’t keep growing, you shrink. And so I’m very excited with the way we’ve been able in the city. The mayor has been able to incorporate the new with the old, and I like the fact that there is also open space being added, even though the buildings are getting bigger than they were in the past is always based around those buildings. They don’t feel quite as big and it’s not a clunk, it’s not a concrete jungle. And as they look out the window of my office, it never will be there’s trees everywhere and green space.
Speaker 3: And I think that’s, that’s why I think Quincy has boys too, to accelerate and grow even more so in the 21st century, because we’re not stuck in the past, we honor our past, but we’re not stuck in it. And I think that’s, you know, I, I work in a beautiful art deco building. It was built in 1929 Quincy’s first skyscraper, granite Trussville. Yep. And I can imagine back when the opera was king was building it, how on what used to be a church ground How waterfight people probably were that this huge building with an elevator was going in and now it’s an historic building or building other buildings sometimes bigger. So, you know, that’s, again, that’s why Quincy is different and why it’s cool and why I think it will always be a great place because there’s always a turnover in, in sort of the, the population, as I told you, as you know, the quarries and stone covers brought the Irish, the Swedes, the Italians, all, all looking to make it in America.
Speaker 3: And then, yeah. Then what was the last two, you know, 20 or 30 years the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Koreans have come Indian American Indians from the country have come and, kind of invigorated. They are the new shopkeepers. They are the new restaurant owners. They had a new dry cleaners. They had the new sort of American dreamers. I think that really, that’s the other thing about Quincy, it’s an economic city in addition to being a historic city, where the birthplace of Dunkin donuts, the birthplace of Howard, Johnson’s the birthplace of the Grossman companies, all businesses that were instrumental in the 20th century country to where it is today. And to me, that’s exciting. I mean, we’ve got a company in Quincy right down the street from me in Quincy center called IntelyCare – a health company. That’s created an app, that allows nurses and people in healthcare to sort of create their own jobs and go where the jobs are.
Speaker 3: And then now the fastest growing private company, one of the fastest growing private companies in the entire state and one of the top fastest growing companies in the country. And again started here probably in the last five or six years. And it’s sort of a, you under the radar Quincy company that could become the next Uber. Wow. Because that’s what they’ve created. An app based technology that allows people who are qualified to be nurses, get picked the jobs that they want to pick when they want to work and stuff. It really is. It’s a great healthcare tool, but it’s also a great freedom tool for people who have the skillset and want to, you know, work nights, work, weekends, work around their families and stuff. And that’s just one, I there’s another company called dive technologies that is building the next generation of underwater, autonomous underwater vehicles submarines. Wow. They building them on Willard street using a 3d printer.
Speaker 2: Sure. No kidding. That’s fascinating.
Speaker 3: And, and, and those, those are two companies we’re associated with that I know of. And I guarantee there’s a, there’s a dozen or more that I don’t even know yet, but they will. And they were born with a small group, you know, a couple of guys, a couple of friends who decided, Hey, this is what we’re going to do. And they’ve done it here in Quincy. So that’s, that’s the thing that gives me a lot of hope going forward. And as you said earlier, I was an entrepreneur at the beginning of my career. And I get to work with entrepreneurs now at the end of my career. So I’m blessed in that sense. And those are the people. Again, they, they motivate me, they motivate me and they inspire me because they’re doing what I did when I was in my twenties, hopefully doing it better and more successfully than I did. So, so it’s a great place for people to either live, work or play. And, you can do it all here in Queensland. and we, we love the creators and, this is a great place to, to do that.
Speaker 2: That’s great. Yeah. You mentioned Howard Johnson. I was just telling a friend of mine that my grandfather knew Howard Johnson. It’s, it’s fun to hear all those names and you don’t realize that these are started local, but became national chains. I mean, Dunkin
Speaker 3: Donuts, the flow of the world, and they started the Southern artery. And that first story is still there and rock the donuts and pouring the coffee.
Speaker 2: The funny story about that real quick household hazardous waste collection day, the city holds it twice a year. My wife and I pulled up and got in line with some paint or something like that. And we’re sitting there and it was the summer date and we had the windows open and we’re parked in front, across the street from the Dunkin donuts. And the pan mass challenge was going by and there every other group of bicyclists they’re going, Hey, that’s the original Dunkin donuts. No, Hey, that’s the original Dunkin donuts for 20 minutes. And just basically everybody riding by going, Hey, that’s the original Dunkin donuts. I said, I should call up the sales rep at the radio station and say, I’m going to set up a camera on a tripod and just record this and they can use it for a commercial.
Speaker 3: Well, interesting fact is that we, we started a hall of fame business hall of fame a couple of years ago here at the chamber, right before the pandemic in 2019 and Duncan, we inducted Duncan as the first member of that hall of fame. Sure. We want to honor the businesses that have come before us and, and really stepped up this year. We’re going to be honoring a company. Queensland company called granite city electric started was started by an Italian immigrant in 1923. And they, one of the biggest electrical distributors in the, in England right now. So like I said, we, we, we honor the, the founders and the people who got it started and we were excited to follow and maybe create the next generation or at least be part of the next generation. So somebody can drive down the street someday and say, that’s where in Telecare was started. That was the first one, or that was, you know, the first something else. But, you know, like I said, there’s, there very few dull moments in Quincy that’s for sure, because you can always drive down some street and someone will point something out that you had no idea it was there. And when you think about it, you said, Jesus, it’s pretty special place.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to thank you for taking time out of your schedule, to be on the show and share your insights and your knowledge. Is there anything that you’d like to share with the audience before we sign off
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, there’s, you know, as you said at the beginning, I’m the president of the Quincy chamber of commerce and, w I think we play a valuable role in promoting Quincy, as you can tell, I’m a promoter, I guess, at heart, and, and it’s easy to sell something when you really love it strongly about it. So, we, we just think that there, there is not a better place to do business if you’re lucky enough to find a place to live and raise your children as my wife and I did here in Quincy, like I said, it’s just, we feel blessed. We feel blessed to be here. and I think it was David McCullough that might’ve said it or someone else. I read it. You know, you, you, you need to appreciate not just where you were born, but where you are in life and in the world and stuff. I mean, we could have been born in a country, a third world country that where we struggled and we didn’t have, we, we, we often shouldn’t take for granted what we have complete Erica being born at this period of time. And we know there’s a lot of challenges out there and struggles, but overall there’s no better place in the world. And no other time, I think as much as I sometimes reminisce or romanticize, what would it be like growing up in the revolutionary war period I don’t think I could have hacked it back then.
Speaker 3: Tougher w when I read history, I said, geez, that’s, you know, I like having, you know, cooking in an oven as opposed to an open flame, you know, into a, into a plumbing and things that we take for granted that the rest of the world doesn’t have. Right. And so, you know, and I think we have a duty. I certainly feel that way too, to make sure that you send that message out there, whether it was in politics in business, or now in the chamber, I just want to, I’m not selling anything. I just want to really promote what the good things that, that take place in, in Quincy and in this world, because we should be appreciative more so than we are so greatest country in the world. I felt that way for a long time. I still feel that way. And we just happen to be in the best city of the greatest country in the world. So w w w lucky, and I want to spread that message as much as you do
Speaker 2: Well, that’s good. I completely agree with everything you just said. And, I want to help you spread that message. So thank you for being here and that with us and your insights and for sharing your time with us today.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much. And, and how do we catch this, podcast And we subscribe to it. What’s the best way to
Speaker 2: I listen to it. it’s on apple podcast, it’s on Amazon, it’s on Stitcher. And if that doesn’t work for you, you can go to all about Quincy podcast.com and you can stream it there. Thanks,
Speaker 3: Tim. Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, John, have a great show going forward and, I’ll be back anytime you want.
Speaker 1: Wasn’t that a cool interview I thought so, man, he’s just got so Much knowledge and passion for the city of Queensland. It was great to have him on as a guest. I want to let you know that next week is pollinator week and whether you know it or not, I have honeybee hives. So my guest for next week’s episode is a beekeeper from the company that takes care of my hives. It’s a fascinating interview, and I encourage you to listen to the next episode coincide with the events of pollinator week. And if you’ll indulge me for a moment, I have a little bit of a rant to go on. as a dog owner walking around, I know it’s not the most pleasant task, but if your canine companion does, Cukor pick it up. Plastic baggies, there are barrels in the parks, toss it out. It’s not healthy.
Speaker 1: And quite frankly, it’s disgusting. If you just leave your, your, your pooches poop is Laying in the park or on the sidewalk. I mean, if it’s your dog, it’s your responsibility to pick up after them. And most folks are great about that, but I walk around and I see enough of it to go, listen, we’re all trying to live here together. Just pick it up and toss it in the barrel, please, for all of our sakes. Anyway. End of rant. Thanks for listening tune in next week for my episode, with the beekeepers pollinator week and the all about Quincy podcast. If you know someone who would be a great guest for the alibi Quincy podcast, we want to know about it. Business leaders, historians, unsung heroes, just go to the [email protected]. Fill out the contact form, tell us who you think would be a great guest and why, and we will try to make that happen. So until next week, thanks for listening.
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