Twenty-eight years ago, in the first year after its election, the Flynn Administration organized volunteer neighborhood cleanups throughout the city, today known as Boston Shines. Michael Reiskind and I were so impressed with the results and enthusiasm shown by our…
Category: Opinion
JP Observer: JP has dozens of ‘arts centers’
Fifteen years ago, Jamaica Plain’s Multicultural Arts Center had to vacate its large, prominent Centre Street space because it was having trouble paying the rent, causing much upset in the community. But no one is complaining about space for the…
Editorial: The Casey criticism
Bridging Forest Hills, the group opposing the Casey Parkway plan in favor of a new bridge, is engaged in the sort of dubious public process it aims to criticize. Slanted meetings misleadingly advertised as objective ones. Flyers with a casual…
Editorial: What’s in a street name
The roadway that will replace the Casey Overpass has been hastily—too hastily—renamed the “Casey Arborway.” The overpass is a gap in a roadway that already has a name: simply, the Arborway. Indeed, one of the arguments in favor of the…
Op-Ed: On Easter, remembering that light overcomes darkness
By Rev. Ashlee Wiest-Laird, Special to the Gazette Easter always begins in darkness. The women who were with Jesus had seen their friend and teacher tortured and killed. They watched as his lifeless body was placed in the cold tomb;…
Letter: Arizona ethnic studies ban is racist
Regarding the Arizona law banning ethnic studies classes in public schools: Listen, this racism really needs to end. Why do Caucasians get to learn about their history, but people in Arizona don’t get to learn about their histories? OK, that’s…
Letter: Capuano vote could stifle protest
I was very disappointed to see that U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano voted for H.R.347 and continues the ongoing suppression of public protest. In the past decade, I have been appalled to see the suppression of protest by corralling protesting citizens into “free…
Letter: Thanks for a good deed
I was doing the third of my usual three rounds around the pond on Sat., March 10 when my granddaughter phoned. She lives on the West Coast, so the sound of her 6-year-old voice is a precious gift. She had…
Letter: Time to move past the bridge debate
In the ongoing drama surrounding the Casey Overpass replacement project, there is one definitive point of consensus: the current Casey Overpass must go. And to that point of consensus I would like to offer a follow-up: both of the core…
Editorial: The other Casey decisions
The state has made its decision about the Casey Overpass replacement project, and we believe it is the right one. But more important is that the state keep making the right decisions as the planning and construction move forward. The…