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...
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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...
JP Observer: The Arborway Yard: When ‘temporary’ has lasted too long
The MBTA placed a legal notice in the Boston Herald in 1998 looking for bids on construction of a transportation facility on 17 acres in Forest Hills. Local elected officials and the community members were shocked to see their plans showed a monolithic building covering the entire area with a garage for 186 buses,...
Sen. Brown rallies JP supporters
HYDE SQ.—U.S. Sen. Scott Brown drew over 100 supporters–as well as Democratic Party opponents–to the grand opening of the new Republican Party campaign office at 370 Centre St. on Oct. 15. The GOP has drawn attention for its decision to open the office in generally liberal Jamaica Plain and in Hyde Square, one of...