PUBLISHED by The Cambridge Chronicle
Cambridge —Jim Shannon was 22 years old when he first moved to the Central House at the YMCA, and now, at 71, he is known to some as the house weatherman, the mayor of Central Square and the longest resident there.
Shannon has lived at the housing facility at the Central Square YMCA for 50 years. The Cambridge City Council celebrated his anniversary at the meeting on Monday, though the official date was on Sunday.
“We’re known as transitional housing,” said Derek Kilduf, Central House resident services coordinator. “We have just a few [residents] like Jim.”
Shannon said he was living with his uncle in Canton until his uncle decided to retire to Florida and brought him to Central House. The rent was only $9 per week then, and Shannon was working as an oil serviceman in Kendall Square, he said. The rent now? $510 per month.
Since then, Shannon has befriended almost the whole community, including the YMCA residents and staff, local politicians and homeless people on the street.
After his usual morning visit to the Cambridge Senior Center next door to the Y, Shannon might buy a meal from Mass Chicken and share the leftovers with the homeless, who call him “the mayor.” Shannon said he also likes to help the owner of the new restaurant advertise by sitting outside and telling everyone to buy the rotisserie.
Shannon checks the paper every day for City Council, Zoning Board and Historical Committee meetings held at the Senior Center. He said because the politicians like him, they sometimes treat him like a committee member, asking for his opinion and allowing him to stay after the official meeting is adjourned.
“He’s very active in the community,” said Kilduf. “He’s probably on a first-name basis with the mayor.”
Shannon used to come to the Community Development Planning Board meetings when they were held at the Senior Center five years ago, said Liza Paden, associate planner forCambridge Community Development. When the meetings moved to 344 Broadway, Shannon said it was too far for him to walk because some meetings are late at night.
“He was always very interested in what was happening,” said Paden. “He liked and enjoyed the process.”
Toni LaRosa, Central House property manager, said Shannon is the only resident to give a donation to the Y every Christmas. He also always includes a note to LaRosa with his rent, counting down the days until warm weather, she said.
Shannon said he chose to stay at the Central House while he worked various jobs because it was convenient and affordable. He worked for the employee kitchen at New England Mutual Life Insurance for 30 years, ordering the food supplies needed each week. After serving 1,800 people in an hour and a half, Shannon just needed a room to come back to and relax, he said.
When Shannon retired in 1992, rents were high because they were no longer controlled by the city, so he never considered moving, he said.
Before Shannon’s problems with arthritis and diabetes slowed him down, he liked to travel around the country, fishing and taking photographs in places such as Martha’s Vineyard, Canada and Virginia.
His room at the Central House looks like a museum, with many framed photographs adorning the walls. Some are even hanging on the hallways of the other floors.
Photography had to take a backseat when Shannon injured his shoulder at his job a year before he retired, when he fell near the truck loading docks, he said.
Though Shannon has attended physical therapy at two different rehabilitation centers, he continues to take care of his own health and chooses not to enter a nursing home.
“I was thinking about going to a nursing home, but I changed my mind because you’re not doing anything. It’s the end of your life,” he said. “I can’t go on vacations like I used to, but maybe soon I can go on the day trips with the seniors, if I can get on the bus again.”
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