When Boston Mayor Tom Menino gave his post-hospitalization “Heigh-Ho” and State of the City address at Faneuil Hall this January, you’d have needed a pair of those cartoon-sized shears that he cuts grand-opening ribbons with to slice through the tension…
Category: Opinion
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…
Editorial: No Phoenix, and less power for us all
The abrupt closure of the Boston Phoenix two weeks ago leaves a staggering black hole in the city’s self-understanding and civic power. Journalism is a scrappy business, and like most papers, the Gazette generally doesn’t deign to mention the competition.…
Editorial: Pull the plug on energy database
The Boston City Council should pull the plug on Mayor Menino’s proposed ordinance to force owners of large buildings to report their energy usage and monitor tenants’ utility bills. The idea is big-government meddling that is a solution in search…
Letter: Children’s Hospital’s retreat from community care
In the 1960s and ’70s, community organizations in Boston pressed the major teaching hospitals to use their prodigious resources to improve the health of low-income residents in our neighborhoods, and the hospitals agreed to sponsor health initiatives around the city. Boston…
Letter: JP should oppose Casey Arborway as it did I-95
How disappointing to read in the Gazette elected officials and residents saying Jamaica Plain needs to accept MassDOT’s decision to eliminate the Casey Overpass and embrace the six-lane highway that would replace it. (“Casey opposition gets louder, but doesn’t sway…
Letter: April cleanup one of many ways to tackle JP litter
As co-organizers of the annual Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Cleanup (April 27will be our 28th year), Michael Reiskind and I were somewhat chagrined, but in complete agreement, with the observations which Sara Driscoll and Judy Kolligian expressed in their anti-litter letter…
Letter: BRA exaggerated streetcar extension costs
According to the March 15 Gazette, BRA transportation manager James Fitzgerald would have Gazette readers believe that restoration of streetcar service along S. Huntington Avenue from Heath Street to Perkins Street, a distance of seven-tenths of a mile, “would take…
Letter: Budget should tax the rich, end war
More than a year ago, the Occupy movement arose to express national frustration with high employment, enormous student debt and foreclosures. Occupiers had it right when they highlighted the gap between the 1 percent and the 99 percent. Wealthy individuals…
Editorial: Straight talk on schools
Education is the ultimate purpose of a school system, but schools do lots of other things, too. “Education” can become a euphemism for less attractive aspects of the institutions. Boston Public Schools reform is heading in the right direction, in…