In late 2012, the Gazette staff decided to create this annual special section of stories about JP’s first responders—the police officers, firefighters and EMTs who keep us safe, yet often work unnoticed and un-thanked. Since then, the months just before…
Category: Opinion
Editorial: Another BRIC in the wall
The latest revelations about Boston Police spying in Jamaica Plain are many, but they can be summed up easily: daily, even hourly, violations of the Constitution by a spy center with more tax money than sense. It’s easy to laugh…
Editorial: Thanks to longtime leaders
Two of JP’s great neighborhood leaders will retire this month. Both are the sorts of leaders whose name you may never have heard, but whose work has touched your JP life. Laura Foner, the children’s librarian at Hyde Square’s Connolly…
Letter: Join Hyde Square’s 5K run/walk
Our teens defy the odds. While obesity and diabetes rates skyrocket in Latino and African-American populations, the Hyde Square Task Force Rookie Runners, ninth-graders in Boston Public Schools, lace up their running sneakers and hit the pavement to promote healthy…
JP Observer: Join JP activists to expand the Bottle Bill
The Massachusetts legislature failed to pass the “Updated Bottle Bill” by May 7. According to the rules, advocates now have just over a month to collect 12,000 valid signatures (or 22,000 total, to be safe) to put the issue on…
Editorial: NACA’s home
The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America’s post-eviction move to another JP location is good news for the local nonprofit sector, for the Jackson Square redevelopment, and for the stability of a nationally important organization that called out predatory lending before…
Editorial: Arborway Yard detour
We’ve said before that the Community Planning Committee for the Arborway Yard should focus on shedding light on the existing bus yard plan and mysterious work underway regarding it. That goes double as its recent public meeting found it distracted…
Editorial: Remember the living, too
Memorial Day is a time to remember the incredible sacrifice and loss of war. It is also a time to reflect on how it is part of what made our neighborhood, our city and our country what it is today.…
Editorial: Updating Hyde and Monument Squares
The Boston Transportation Department’s revival of plans to improve the Hyde Square rotary is good news. The general idea of tightening car lanes and expanding public space will make Hyde Square much safer for pedestrians and create elbow room for…
Editorial: Commemorating marriage equality
May 17, 2004 is one of those dates that civil rights activists will remember 100 years from now: the day legal same-sex marriage licenses became available in Massachusetts and for the first time anywhere in the U.S. So it is…