You Said It JP!

2010 in Quotes

“A number of people’s reaction was, ‘This is so not JP.’ JP is about crossing divisions and boundaries. Race, class, whether you are gay or straight, doesn’t matter. People get along.”
—Terry Burke, minister at the First Church in JP, Unitarian Universalist, on the daylight shooting death of Surendra Dangol, a Nepali store clerk at the Tedeschi Food Shop at 783 Centre St. Roslindale resident Edward Corliss, already on parole for second degree murder, was arrested and charged with first degree murder for shooting Dangol.

“I hope [that is] radical enough for you.”
—Centre/South Street Corridor Advisory Group member Michael Halle, proposing that plans to redesign Monument Square include cutting off one of the roadways in the square and turning it into parkland. Boston Transportation Department planners took Halle’s suggestion, and the plan they brought back proved to be controversial.

”Hyde Square is a central location. Any design that comes into Hyde Square should be reflective of that. It needs to be spectacular.”
—Centre/South Street Corridor Advisory Group member David Worrell on how a proposal on how the redesign for Hyde Square should look. The design eventually produced, which includes creating passive park area in the square by widening sidewalks and installing gardens, proved a relatively easy sell for city planners, and will likely be implemented first.

“When you’re dealing with flammable liquids, you don’t want to mess around.”
—Colleen Keller, JP coordinator from the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services, after Mikes Service Center at 626 Centre St. was temporarily shut down for allegedly operating without permits and having abandoned cars, a leaking oil tank and “illegal” propane heaters

“A question, first of all. How many of you are a little nervous since last week?…Good.”
—Governor Deval Patrick, at a house party in JP following Republican US Sen. Scott Brown’s upset electoral victory, and early in Patrick’s reelection campaign

“I think the Green-Rainbow Party has always believed that voters are going to become more and more conscious of the need for real change. So this [election result] is to be expected…The opportunity is there now.”
-Then-City Councilor Chuck Turner, taking an optimistic lesson form US Sen. Scott Brown’s electoral victory

“I’m used to toiling in barren soil.”
—South Street area Republican Party member Edward Wagner, who organizes Republican ward committees in JP’s Wards 11 and 19, on Republican US Senator Scott Brown’s electoral victory

“Standing on the sidewalk or when people have seen me in the window people have stopped to talk and peak in. They have shown a genuine interest. I grew up in a small town in Lebanon, and it basically felt that way. That comfortable feeling is why I want to be in JP. I love that and appreciate it very much.”
—Sami Saba Sr., proprietor of Sami’s Wrap and Roll, on opening a new store in JP’s Centre Street business district

“The die has been fairly well cast. I think it’s all about justifying it now…I think that the fact that the city has failed to renovate the [JP Branch] building and bring it up to [Americans With Disabilities Act] standards is going to count against us a bit.”
—Don Haber, president of the Friends of the Jamaica Plain Branch Library, predicting that the Boston Public Library would choose to close some branches. All three of JP’s branch libraries were eventually spared closure

“…a Melnea Cass Center…a year-round facility…I feel blessed as governor to be able to support this project.”
—Governor Deval Patrick on securing funding to renovate the open-air Melnea Cass rink in Roxbury, near Egleston Square, and turn it into a year-round recreation facility

“The reason we are able to be here today is because of all the people who never gave up. We lost the Kelly and the Cass, but so many of you over so many years never gave up.”
—State Rep. Liz Malia, addressing the crowd at the announcement of state funding for renovating the Cass. The fate of the Cass Rink and JP’s indoor Kelly ice rink, which was torn down and replaced with a “temporary” outdoor ice rink in the 1990s, have long been intertwined. Non-profit developer Urban Edge is seeking to build a new permanent home for the Kelly in Jackson Square, but advocates for the Cass in Roxbury wanted to see resources put to renovating the Cass rink first.

“Living in a global society, not knowing a second language will limit [students’] opportunities in the next generation, if not now.”
—Hyde Square Task Force head and Boston School Committee member Claudio Martinez, who co-chairs a school committee English Language Learners Task Force, on the importance of multilingual education.

“I believe with my heart and soul that our schools and our libraries are a reflection of who we are.”
—Longtime JP Branch Library patron and advocate Sam Sherwood on city plans to close libraries.

“The public will send their message without saying a word.”
—A press release from Friends of the Egleston Square Branch Library announcing the “Great Egleston Read-In” a protest against the potential closure of the Egleston Square Branch Library

“I used to run with my coffee to go, but now I take it in the store and hang out.”
—Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council member Steve Lussier, supporting the Tedeschi Food Shop at 783 Centre St. in the wake of the fatal daylight shooting of Tedeschi store clerk Surendra Dangol.

“You have retail on one side [of Columbus Avenue] and [affordable] housing on the other…You are running a railroad track between the two, essentially.”
—Jackson Square CAC member Rodney Singleton on Jackson Square Partners’s redevelopment plans for the area.

“It won’t be a railroad track. It will be a beautiful planted median.”
—Noah Maslan, a staffer at Urban Edge—one of the non-profit developers involved in the redevelopment—in response to Singleton.

“…blatant, cruel, reefer mad misrepresentation…kick that bum—Sánchez—out of office ASAP.”
—Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition Director Bill Downing on local state Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez’s opposition to a bill that would have legalized medicinal marijuana. Downing encouraged pro-medicinal marijuana candidate Jeffrey Herman to run against Sánchez this year for the Fifteenth Suffolk state rep. seat.

“I had always believed the theory, but it was nice to see it working.”
—Ken Ward, who with Andree Zaleska, renovated a Woodbourne house as a “passive house,” sealed with super thick insulation so it only requires the body heat of inhabitants to stay warm in the winter months.

“That’s absurd!”
—Centre/South Street Corridor Advisory Group member John Iappini when he saw an option for redesigning Monument Square—presented as a proposal for the Centre/South Transportation and Streetscape Action Plan—that involved closing Centre Street between the monument and the First Church of Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist, and turning it into a pedestrian oriented “carriageway.”

“It’s like I had to learn two different languages.”
—Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick talking to students at English High School about having to drop “street talk” in written and spoken English when he was in high school.

“Oh, my God! We say that all the time!”
—A student, in response to Patrick.

“…a real plan that will give people the opportunity to come to our libraries and use them.”
—Boston Mayor Thomas Menino defending plans to close branch libraries. At different points through the summer it appeared that JP’s three branch libraries were in danger of being closed, but they were all spared, and the closures of four other libraries in the city were delayed. They are now scheduled for this year.

“I just don’t see that as an option. There are just too many [potential partners] that are committed.”
—Boston Centers For Youth and Families head Daphne Griffin discussing the possibility that non-profit partners would not be found to take over eight of the 48 city-run community centers—including at English High School and the Agassiz Elementary School in JP—by July 1. To date, no partners have been identified for the JP community centers, and transition plans have been delayed, pending the reopening of the city’s Curtis Hall community Center, which is closed for repairs. The Agassiz School is now scheduled for closure by Boston Public Schools.

“…making these decisions arbitrarily, apparently arbitrarily, without input and still with no details.”
—Local state Rep. Liz Malia on the city’s community center closure/transition process

“This is a landmark moment for JP as a neighborhood.”
—Boston Transportation Department Senior Planner Vineet Gupta on the installation of bike lanes on Centre St.

“We are serving haggis.”
—Jason Waddleton, proprietor of the new Scottish Pub, The Haven, in Hyde Square

“His grandmother was his sunshine, his moon and his stars. If he knew that she had a hard day at work, when she came home, she didn’t have to worry because Jaewon would have cooked or maybe made her a cake to surprise her.”
—Ruby Steele-Morris, aunt of 14-year-old honors student Jaewon Martin, who was gunned down at a basket ball court in Jackson Square in an alleged case of mistaken identity related to an ongoing feud between members of the local Heath Street gang and members of the Roxbury-based H-Block gang

“I know the libraries and community centers have gone through very difficult processes…In a sense, the community owns the schools. We will work with the community in a way that values and appreciates the sense of that.”
—Boston Public Schools superintendent Carol Johnson discussing how the community process would work around school closures and redrawing BPS school zones

“You may as well hold them at midnight.”
—Former City Councilor John Tobin on BPS plans to run those community processes over the summer. Those plans were later modified

“You can be drunk and environmentally responsible at the same time.”
—A JP resident on the proposed installation of recycling bins on a small grass patch next to the former Fitzgerald Parking Lot—now owned by LAZ Parking—near the Forest Hills T Station. The patch is know by local residents as the “field of nips,” a reference to small, single serving, bottles of alcohol

“This is just Jamaica Plain. This is unbelievable…I do this [work] every day and I’m so close to it, but having a local newspaper like yours say there were 70 cases in your neighborhood—it’s just unbelievable.”
—Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents victims of clerical sex abuse, on Gazette findings about the number of acknowledged cases of sex abuse by clergy in Jamaica Plain

“…(T)hese Marines I put in a tree were great guys…These are warriors, but on the other hand, they’re really young.”
—JP resident Andrew Joslin, a self-described “ardent anti-war pacifist,” on teaching a group of Marines tree-climbing techniques in Franklin Park during “Marine Week”

”I doubt it. They just put [close to] $1 million in for the windows. And I think they see it as part of their K-8 strategy.”
—Former City Councilor Chuck Turner, on whether failure to include funds in the Fiscal Year 2010 budget for proposed fixes to the ailing Louis Agassiz Elementary School building suggested that the city might be planning to close the school. The Boston School Committee voted later last year to close the Agassiz

“It is very, very expensive to develop a drug.”
—David Sherris, discussing his JP-based “virtual” company Paloma Pharmaceuticals

“We would not have put it on the playgrounds if we thought it was toxic…It can have an odor.”
—State Department of Conservationa and Recreation spokeperson Wendy Fox on tire mulch controversially installed at playgrounds on the Southwest Corridor Park

“[Edward Kelly] said, ‘We’ll be at your house by 9’…We sat around my kitchen table for around three hours. That’s when Eddie decided he was going to make concessions.”
—Former City Councilor John Tobin on negotiations with former firefighters union head Edward Kelly that led to a successful compromise between the city and the union. Tobin was watching his children, so the negotiations took place in his kitchen

“We are committed to work on a more consumer-friendly, user-friendly way to issue 2010 data reports.”
—Boston Redevelopment Authority spokesperson and JP resident Susan Elsbree. Beginning in 2010, the BRA is considering following the boundaries of the 23 Boston neighborhoods the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services (ONS) uses as just one of many ways it may sort and disseminate census data to the public

“This is very important. Urban Edge is committed to doing this well…We are really looking at how the whole organization is structured…We are paying a lot of attention to working with funders. We are paying a lot of attention at the staff level. This is going to be done well.”
—Ann McKinnon, former chair of local community development corporation Urban Edge’s board of directors, discussing Urban Edge president Mossik Hacobian’s impending departure from the CDC. Chrystal Kornegay took over leadership of the CDC this year.

“It was a good thing we had already started when the financial crisis hit.”
—Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation Executive Director Richard Thal on the provident timing of the CDC Innovation Forum, a formal conversation between CDCs in the state about increasing efficiency and effectiveness through collaboration.

“…represents the development of suburbia in Boston”
—Boston Redevelopment Authority Senior architect on the rationale for designating Jamaica Hills as a historic district

“In terms of appearance, it’s largely a large parking lot,”
—MBTA director Rich Davey, describing the MBTA’s current Artborway Yard “temporary” bus facility, which has operated for a half-decade. Plans for the redevelopment of the yard were approved this year, though it is unclear when funding will be available.

“Three for-profit developers have built on three sides…I am convinced density and economic diversity in our neighborhood are key to making it work.”
—Sumner Hill resident, and Jamaica Plain Business and Professional Association president Carlos Icaza on the long-term impact of housing for the formerly homeless at the former Bowditch School on Green Street

“This district, more than any other, pays attention.”
—Former District 7 City Councilor John Tobin, praising JP s he announced his resignation from City Council. Tobin took a job with Northeastern University

“They’ll miss him if the right guy doesn’t get in.”
—Tobin aid David Isberg

“…dream job.”
—Matt O’Malley, who was endorsed by and would later be elected to replace Tobin, announcing his candidacy for City Council, less than 12 hours after Tobin announced his resignation

“You will see us in the upcoming months and years…This never, ever ends, our hunt for the beetle.”
—Clint McFarland an Asian Longhorn beetle eradication expert with the US Department of Agriculture, after evidence of an ALB infestation was discovered on the Faulkner Hospital campus

“Using the information and instructions that Corliss allegedly provided to the inmate, Boston Police set up a post office box with a phony name and began corresponding with Corliss. In the weeks and months that followed, Corliss allegedly sent a series of letters that included apparently coded references to ‘the work that needs to be done.’”
—The US Attorney’s Office on an alleged plot by Edward Corliss, in jail awaiting trial for the murder of Tedeschi store clerk Surendra Dangol, to have four witnesses in the case killed, including his wife, who later died of natural causes

“…never-ending perfect storm of craziness.”
—Kerry Costello, chairperson of Jamaica Plain Community Centers (JPCC), on the implimentation of plans Boston Centers For Youth and Families to have non-profits take over the operations at some City of Boston community centers. After months of uncertainty, plans for JP community centers were put on hold because Curtis Hall, which the city plans to continue running, was closed for long-term renovations this year

“The solution to homelessness is not to build miserable spaces.”
—Landscape architect Michael Radner, on community concerns about a proposal to redesign Monument Square

“I think the hundred thousand trees is kind of off the plate.”
—Christine Poff, executive director of the Franklin Park Coalition, on the city’s apparently abandoned Grow Boston Greener Initiative, an effort to plant 100,000 new trees in the city by 2020.

“All the kids that first came here when we first opened are in college now. There’s a whole new round of children coming in. The best part of the whole thing is kids being here and watching them grow. It’s creating memories in their lives.”
—Elaine Hackney on selling Boing! JP’s Toy Store AT 667 Centre St.

“…three votes, consistently, against casinos.”
—State Rep. Liz Malia on her, state Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez and state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz position on legalizing casino gambling in Massachusetts

“Next year we are going over a cliff…I don’t think anyone has a plan for what to do.”
—State Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz on the outlook for the Fiscal Year 2011 state budget.

“I can guess it will have something to do with drunkenness and rock & roll.”
—World-traveling Itinerant Poetry Librarian Sara Wingate Gray on the likely theme of the books of poetry she would bring along when she set up shop at the Brendan Behan Pub in Hyde Square

“Mossik’s dedication will be sorely missed. Mossik creates affordable housing. He just makes it happen—even in difficult times.”
—Boston Mayor Thomas Menino on Urban Edge President Mossik Hacobian on the occasion of Hacobian’s retirement

“I will not stand for excuses anymore. We are going to do everything we can. We will throw the book at them.”
—Mayor Thomas Menino, vowing to take action if the Stamatos family did not get moving on renovating their retail and office building at 615-619 Centre St., which has been vacant since a 2006 firebombing

“…you pray to the weather gods.”
—Hyde Square Task Force staffer Yi-Chin Chen on the stresses of planning the expensive and complicated JP World’s Fair, an effort organizers decided to forego this year after the weather gods were less than accommodating last year

“A women’s right and a child’s right should be equal rights. I am not going to allow someone to put me in a pigeon-hole box and say, ‘He’s for this, and he’s against that’…These are conversations, that need to be had on a much broader scale than just in this room, about really how do we tackle this to make sure that we are valuing everybody in the process.”
—Hassan Williams who ran unsuccessfully for the Second Suffolk State Senate seat held by Sonia Chang-Diaz

“I don’t want to raise anyone’s taxes. But is it better than decimating the social safety net? Yes it is.”
—Sonia Chang-Diaz, campaigning for reelection

“I don’t believe in encouraging people to have an abortion who do not want an abortion.”
—Jeffrey Herman, who challenged State Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez for the Fifteenth Suffolk state rep. seat

“We took on three huge issues people had not taken on in a long time relative to ethics—pension reform, campaign finance reform—and the [reorganization of] transportation infrastructure. Those alone are an indication that things have changed in the state. Does there need to be more? Absolutely. But in terms of what we’ve done so far, I think we’ve validated ourselves as a state in change. The new normal for government is what we are building right now.”
—State Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, campaigning for reelection

“We want to see a lot of energy.”
—DND staffer John Feuerbach on city plans to run a contest challenging builders to develop proposals for a super-green house on a city-owned lot on the corner of Catherine and Florian streets

“You might say ‘positive energy.’”
—Boston Redevelopment Authority staffer John Dalzell, making a joke about the house potentially being a “net positive” green energy producing structure

“Since coming to JP in the 1970s, Betsaida has been a leader in many community struggles to break down racial barriers, to build housing and create jobs for low-income people and immigrants, to improve our schools, and to provide better services to our seniors.”
—Richard Thal, executive director of Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, on the JPNDC’s decision to name one of the new residential developments at the former Blessed Sacrament Church campus the Doña Betsaida Gutiérrez Cooperative

“[Boston is an] authoritarian state…We have one branch of government and that one branch of government is accountable to nobody…Democracies are supposed to have different branches of government and those different branches are supposed to be co-equal.”
—District 6 City Council Candidate Kosta Demos critiquing Boston’s “strong mayor” system of government.

“There has not been a lot of truck movement to bring a toddler to see.”
—Jackson Square Citizens Advisory Committee member Jen Spencer, complaining that the underwhelming spectacle provided by public infrastructure work in the square. Developers contend the work will get more exciting next year

“We feel bad and want to warn people. We even told people as we were leaving to stay away from those rocks.”
–Katherine Ingraham, who called the Gazette after her family encountered a hornets’ nest at Jamaica Pond.

“While no significant evidence of discrimination based on race or ethnicity was unearthed, the perception of disparate treatment is very real to a substantial group of people, even beyond those who believe they are victims. As a professional property management entity, TMC should not and cannot ignore such a reality.”
–Reported findings by CVR Associates after the consultants investigated Bromley-Heath housing development residents’ allegations that the Bromley Heath Tenant Management Corporation engaged in discriminatory practices.

“…developing an exciting new vision of the Bromley–Heath community that alters misperceptions of Bromley-Heath and the TMC.”
–An excerpt from a letter from TMC executive director Mildred Hailey and TMC board chair Millie Coaston to the Boston Housing Authority in response to the reports’ findings.

“It’s hard to imagine a use of this property that would be less impactful.”
—Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council Chair David Baron on a proposal by the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation to develop housing for the formerly homeless and a homeless respite care program at 461 Walnut St. in Egleston Square—the former site of BHCHP’s Barbara McGinnis House, which provides housing for the formerly homeless.

“…[a] groundbreakingly fantastic project.”
—Community Planning Committee for the Arborway Yard member Allan Ihrer’s perhaps wishful description of approved redevelopment plans for the Arborway Yard bus facility. The CPCAY had been negotiating with the MBTA about the site redevelopment since 1998. The over $200 million it is estimated the redevelopment would take has not yet been secured.

“Ask [O’Malley], has he given out any turkeys?”
—District 6 City Council hopeful Jim Hennigan III, contrasting his own record of community service with what he described as challenger Matt O’Malley’s career as a “political insider”

“Being called an insider by a Hennigan is like me trying to criticize someone for having red hair.”
—Matt O’Malley responding to Hennigan, whose family has been involved in state politics for generations. Hennigan’s sister, Maura Hennigan, formerly held the District 6 City Council seat.

“Owning a car is expensive, but driving [a car you own] is cheap, so it creates an incentive to drive more…The economic cost attached to [hourly rental] reduces the number of miles people drive per year.”
—Boris Mordkovich, marketing director for the car-sharing company Relay Rides—which set up an operation last year in JP—on why car-sharing benefits the environment by creating a disincentive to drive.

“The violence this weekend, though incredibly sad, does not mean that the community isn’t moving forward and making progress. It just means that there’s much more to be done.”
—Egleston Square Main Streets director Betsy Cowan on the Oct. 23 fatal shooting of Luis “Tito” Torres on Boylston Street.

“The only thing I can say is I am innocent. The jury had a different perspective, but that does not detract from my reality.”
—Then District 7 City Councilor Chuck Turner on his conviction in federal court on felony public corruption charges

“JP is Patrick territory.”
—JP resident and former ward 19 Democratic Party chair Howard Leibowitz on Governor Deval Patrick’s decisive victory in the JP polls when he was reelected in November. Patrick took 95 percent of the vote in one JP precinct

“I am honored to have the faith and trust of so many people, and I can’t wait to get started serving the neighborhood.”
—Newly minted District 6 City Councilor Matt O’Malley after winning a special election to replace former City Councilor John Tobin.

“I never thought I would spend so much time on grass.”
—State Rep. Jeffery Sánchez, following the passage of a nonbinding ballot initiative instructing him to vote in favor of legislation legalizing medical marijuana. The Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition-sponsored initiative passed with 66 percent of the vote in JP.

“If it has to come down, it has to come down…It’s going to be tough.”
—JP resident Bernie Doherty on state plans to demolish and, possibly, replace the beleaguered Casey Overpass in the coming years

“We’re thrilled that DCR listened to the community and did the right thing. Now everyone can enjoy these playgrounds, including those of us with asthma, latex allergies, chemical sensitivities and everyone who just wants to limit their children’s exposure to environmental toxins.”
—Audrey White, a member of the group JP Moms, on the state Department of Conservation and Recreation’s decision to remove recycled tire “mulch”—groundcover made from recycled tires—from three playgrounds on the Southwest Corridor Park.

“…DCR appreciates the community’s concerns regarding the safety of the mulch, but continues to believe it is appropriate for these playgrounds based on Environmental Protection Agency data and the agency’s own testing.”
—DCR Commissioner Rick Sullivan on the decision to remove the tire mulch

“I am pleased that the newspapers, whose doors opened 20 years ago this month, are now part of a larger but also local enterprise…I look forward to working with Stephen and his team, as well as the JP and Mission Hill communities, to ensure a smooth transition.”
—Sandra Storey, publisher and editor of the Jamaica Plain Gazette and Mission Hill Gazette on the sale of Gazette Publications to the Independent News Group

“We are thrilled to take on such wonderful neighborhood newspapers as the Jamaica Plain and Mission Hill Gazettes and look forward to working with the community to produce the best newspapers we can in the coming years.”
—Independent News Group President Stephen Quigley, on purchasing Gazette Publications

“A thorough review of Ms. Salinger’s claim determined that the collapse was not due to City negligence, but due to the deteriorating conditions of the wall.”
—Public Works Department commissioner Joanne Massaro on the collapse of a retaining wall at 66 Bourne St

“It doesn’t take a structural engineer to know that the crack in the sidewalk allowed water to get in under the sidewalk and cause the wall to collapse.”
—Concerned 66 Bourne St. neighbor Harry Smith, suggesting that ‘city negligence’ following the shoddy installation of a utility pole by energy company NStar, may have caused the wall to collapse

“What I am saying to you is the conviction was rotten…You know the reality of who I have been with you. There has never been an accusation that I am an inside player. They call me a crazy radical.”
—Former City Councilor Chuck Turner, defending himself at a Dec. 2 City Council hearing to consider his ouster in the wake of his felony conviction on public corruption charges. Turner became the first City Councilor in the body’s history to be voted out of office by the City Council.

“The facts are the facts, and Councilor Turner was indeed convicted of the worst crime a public official can be convicted of.”
—At-Large City Councilor Felix Arroyo, a JP resident, on his decision to vote for Turner’s ouster. Arroyo, who once worked as an aid in Turner’s City Council office, also tearfully described the District 7 councilor as a mentor in a speech before the council prior to the vote.

“Councilor Turner really gave his life to representing the people of this area…My objective will be to not skip a beat. He has been a very effective leader in our community.”
—District 7 City Council Candidate Tito Jackson, on the legacy of former District 7 City Councilor Chuck Turner

“We are getting phone calls from people saying, ‘I was three seats away. I ducked. I hid. I have not been able to get my life back together.’”
—Boston Public Health Commission trauma services director Courtney Grey on trauma response in the wake of the Nov. 21 triple-murder in a crowded Same Old Place restaurant on Centre Street

“When I got the phone call…and [the commanding officer on the scene] told me the address, I had to ask him if he was making a mistake.”
—E-13 Police Captain John Greland on his surprise when he got the call reporting the triple-murder in JP Center

“(E)very single one came to work….I am blessed. None of my help got hurt. None of my customers got hurt. I can fix the rest.”
—Same Old Place proprietor Fred Ciampa, saying he had offered his staff the week off in the wake of the slaying

“These are strong families, but there is something else out there…We have some of the strongest social service programs in the city, programs that are recognized locally and nationally…Nobody knows what’s out there.”
—State Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez, grappling with the question of what motivates youth violence

“Shame on you.” “Sell outs.” “Class warfare.” “Liars.” “Where’s the Mayor?”
—Shouts from the audience after the Boston School Committee voted to close nine schools, including the Agassiz Elememtary School in JP

“…feels like the reasoning [for closing the school] is wrong…The regular education kids are doing really well, young teachers are really gung-ho. There’s an excitement about learning here [at the Agassiz].”
—Rebekah Kas, a physical therapist at the Agassiz, before the closure vote

“Consensus happens in people’s living rooms.”
—Michael Halle, a member of the Centre/South Street Corridor Citizens Advisory Committee, on the need for continued dialogue about controversial plans for the redesign of Monument Square

“We want kids to get crayon on paper and tell us what they want.”
—Lois Lee, medical director of the pediatric injury prevention program at Children’s Hospital, on developing designs for a new playground behind the Jackson Square T Station on the Southwest Corridor Park

“I will really miss the community and the many friends I have made through the store, but won’t miss the stress of small business ownership.”
—Cat Thomson, owner of Petal and Leaf flower shop at 48 South St., on closing the store after a decade in business.

“In addition to the obvious pain lost hours and layoffs [could] cause low-wage workers during the worst economic crisis in living memory, CVS’s shift to self-scan checkouts may also lead workers to pick up welfare benefits in the form of government-subsidized health insurance coverage and food stamps.”
—JP resident Jeremy Thompson on the possible effects of replacing CVS Pharmacy cashiers with automated self-checkout machines. CVS officials claim the changes will not lead to layoffs

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