No wonder Jamaica Plain residents speak and act as though they can have some control of what happens in the neighborhood. Starting 49 years ago, local people along the Southwest Corridor banded together to stop a highway from splitting the neighborhood. Then they persuaded government to move the elevated Orange Line from over Washington...
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JP Observer: The secret of a beautiful parking lot
It took me a while to realize why going to Stop & Shop in Jackson Square put me in a good mood almost every Saturday. Finally, it occurred to me that it’s good to get groceries, but it’s the parking lot the supermarket shares with Martha Eliot Health Center that makes the experience remarkably...
JP Observer: Health policy advocate turns focus to mental illness
Attorney Steve Rosenfeld has had an incredible career spanning decades practicing law; working at the top levels of the executive branch of Massachusetts government; creating and working with ground-breaking nonprofit legal efforts and teaching law. The Massachusetts native and Harvard Law School graduate was chief legal counsel to Gov. Michael Dukakis and his chief...
JP Observer: Keeping business district clean requires group effort
Trash in public spaces has, no doubt, been an issue since cave-dwellers met in clearings to exchange goods and news. The issue of litter still exists in every business area in the world today. Discussion about what to do about dirt and litter can easily deteriorate to finger-pointing. After all, every member of the...
JP Observer: Popular history walks reveal marvels in many areas
Jamaica Plain has a rich and varied past, and people here seemed more fascinated with local history than residents of other places. For the past 17 years, local interest has been evidenced every spring by the appearance, not just of flowers and leaves on the trees, but of small crowds of people walking and...
JP Observer: Pond view in danger until the public owns it
The natural area that forms the backdrop of Jamaica Pond on its western side appears eternal. It’s true that Hellenic Hill’s history reaches back to the time when Native American Kuchamakin, Jamaica Plain’s namesake, ruled the area—even back to when the bowls that formed the pond were dug out by glaciers. The natural area...
JP Observer: My month with Wowl the owl
When I got up from my desk and turned around, I saw a face staring at me through the window a few feet away. I was especially startled because I live on the third floor of a Jamaica Plain three-decker. I felt like screaming, but something told me to run out of the room...
JP Observer: Newtown shooting hits home
A wave of reflection, as well as mourning, has swept over the country following the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14. The shootings were done by a troubled young man who had shot his mother and went on to kill himself. This...
JP Observer: After 26 years, time to build on Brookley lot
By Sandra Storey/Special to the Gazette A huge lot at 101 Brookley Road in the Stonybrook neighborhood has been unoccupied for at least the past 26 years. The ill-fated site, formerly a nursing home, has been the focus of numerous development plans, community meetings, negotiation sessions and impassioned controversies, as chronicled in 16...
JP Observer: Homeless families put in danger by the state
All the candidates for election this year, no matter their party, seemed to agree on one value: families. Here in Massachusetts, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican, and Democratic challenger, now Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren, argued fiercely on many topics. But they were both always for families. Scott Brown’s biography at his U.S. Senate web...