“There is someone coming to this location—a Whole Foods.”
—Former Hi-Lo Foods manager Bill Jordan breaking the news that Whole Foods was coming to Hyde Square.
“Based on what we know now, we are concerned that Whole Foods is not a good fit for Hyde Square. We hope that it will reconsider its decision to move to the neighborhood.”
—From the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council’s March anti-Whole Foods resolution. The resolution passed with a split vote, reflecting intense controversy in the community.
“We are trying to figure out if they are from Philadelphia, Chicago [or] Washington, D.C.”
—Boston Mayor Thomas Menino lightheartedly suggesting that Whole Foods protesters arrested at a meeting in June were outside agitators.
“I have lived here for 30 years. I started three crime watches. I swept the streets. I painted over graffiti. I have gotten in the faces of bad guys—all with my neighbors. It has been so bad for so long. I never thought we could be this lucky.”
—Hyde Square resident Pat Roberts on Whole Foods’ move to the neighborhood.
“I am 67, and I have no history of even committing campaign finance violations. You can’t argue that you are protecting good government by going after me.”
—Former District 7 City Councilor Chuck Turner on being sentenced to three years in prison on corruption charges.
“Where we are politically is a momentous point in American history…We do not have the luxury of becoming cynical. We’ve got a lot of work in front of us.”
—Socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking at the Jamaica Plain Forum.
“I think that the inequality that exists in society is getting dramatically worse. Things are worse than the Gilded Age in the late 1800s.”
—JP resident Geoff Modest explaining why he supported the Occupy Boston encampment in Dewey Square.
“Do you have any idea how bad it was to say, ‘Hope is lost?’”
—Maggie Rosenthal, on an awkward wrinkle in her ultimately successful effort to find her missing pet bird, named Hope. The cockatiel was recovered by Boston Police Officer Bill Willis.
“I’m also by far, far, the best-looking laundromat owner in—forget JP—the whole state. I’m known here.”
—Ramiro Torres, owner of JP’s Clean Getaway Laundry and co-host of Jam’n 94.5’s “The Ramiro & Pebbles Morning Show.”
“It’s all the same things the girls do, but there’s beer and you can swear.”
—JP musician Hilken Mancini on Ladies Rock Camp Boston.
“Don’t they have a site where they could do this where they wouldn’t be alarming people and creating a sandstorm?”
—Local resident Sara Wermiel on U.S. military commandos landing a helicopter on the roof of the shuttered Agassiz Elementary School and practicing raids there.
“He was a lively, positive kid, maybe with a chip on his shoulder that every teen growing up in Hyde Square has to have to survive.”
—Hyde Square Task Force Executive Director Claudio Martinez on Kenny “Black” Soto, a local teen who was stabbed to death in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven at 451 Centre St.
“I am happy I got justice. I cannot say anything else.”
—Kaplana Dangol, on the conviction of Edward Corliss for first degree murder. Corliss shot and killed Dangol’s husband, Surendra Dangol, a store clerk at the Tedeschi’s Food Shop at 783 Centre St. during a 2009 armed robbery.
“We’re very happy about the results and what they mean…I think we’ve been focusing on the right things and making sure economic developments that occur in District 7 benefit the people.”
—District 7 City Councilor Tito Jackson following his second election victory this year.
“You’re trying to tell us that you can put 12 ounces in a 6-ounce cup….If we don’t believe you, we’re bad policy people, against bike riders. I don’t think that’s a good way to conduct the public process.”
—State Rep. Liz Malia, advocating for a new bridge to replace the Casey Overpass.
“I say, ‘What would Olmsted do?’ He’d reconnect the two parks.”
—JP resident Anne Anderson, advocating for an at-grade replacement for the Casey with a reference to Emerald Necklace designer Frederick Law Olmsted.
“They were hands-on leaders and best friends.”
—Former student Blanca Bermudez on the deaths of Rafael Hernandez School two-way bilingual school leaders Ken Larson and Margarita Muñiz The two passed within days of each other.
“The honor was too long in coming.”
—Larson Speaking to the Gazette days before his death, about Boston Public Schools’ plan to name a new two-way bilingual high school after Muñiz.
“The saga continues into its fourteenth year.”
—Henry Allen, head of the Community Planning Committee for the Arborway Yard, on the CPCAY’s unsuccessful efforts to lobby for funding for the redevelopment of the yard.