Mayor supports pool table at South Boston hotel

When the Aloft hotel on D Street opened on Feb. 4, the lobby had one of the pool tables that all Aloft hotels have. And then management had to order it packed up and put it in storage when they learned that Boston requires a license for pool tables in places of public accommodation.

At a hearing before the Boston Licensing Board today, an aide to Mayor Walsh supported granting the hotel a "billiards/sippio" license, after General Manager Michael Jorgensen assured the board that while the pool table - open for free to all hotel guests - starts with P and that rhymes with capital T, the hotel's game with the fifteen numbered balls would not become a devil's tool that might cause young men to start memorizing jokes from Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang.

As proof, Jorgensen said the table would be under constant supervision by whichever manager was on duty at the moment.

Walsh has been trying to get the state legislature to pass a bill that would get Boston out of the business of regulating pool tables.