The City Council approved by a 12-1 vote on May 23 the Boston Public Schools’ (BPS) controversial school-move plan. The plan calls for several schools to move, including the Mission Hill K-8 School going to the now-vacant Agassiz School building at 20 Child St. in Jamaica Plain. Margarita Muñiz Academy, a new bilingual school,...
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Jackson Sq. project gets cleanup funds
A long-stalled part of the massive Jackson Square redevelopment got a boost last month when the City of Boston secured $400,000 in federal grants to clean up contaminated soil. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleanup funds target the future “Jackson Commons” project, a massive expansion of the current Urban Edge building at 1540-1542 Columbus...
Nonprofit ‘tax’ payment info to come
The City of Boston is poised this week to release the details of a reportedly successful new effort to get large nonprofit institutions to make tax-like payments. The so-called payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, system will have no written agreements with the colleges and hospitals that make the payments, unlike an earlier...
Lesbian wedding study seeks JP couples
A college student is seeking Jamaica Plain participants for a study of lesbian wedding ceremonies. Molly Wexler-Romig, an anthropology student at New York State’s Bard College, recently posted a request for participants in Centre Street’s Purple Cactus restaurant, among other locations. “I know that Jamaica Plain is an epicenter of queer life in the...
City Life receives justice award
The Salem Award Foundation announces that City Life/Vida Urbana, a Jamaica Plain housing rights organization, received the 20th annual Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice on May 11 at a ceremony in Salem. City Life was recognized for helping to save the homes of those who have suffered mortgage abuses in the...
Family Service head wins award
Family Service of Greater Boston (FSGB), based on Heath Street, has received a $40,000 grant from the Aramark corporation, and FSGB CEO Randal Rucker received the company’s Building Community Executive Leadership Award. The award and grant is one of three announced by Aramark last month. “By supporting breakthrough programs that prepare hard-to-employ individuals for...