The auditorium at English High School on McBride Street here buzzed with excitement on the evening of June 2 as nearly all the seats were filled with artists and art supporters from around the city. The “Boston Creates Town Hall”…
Author: Sandra Storey
JP Observer: Construction back-up beepers need to be changed
It’s spring. We can hear the big trucks chirping outside. (Oh, yes, and birds, too, if we listen closely enough.) With so much construction already going on in the streets and lots of JP and just starting big-time in Forest…
JP Observer: Like buying locally? Support the state business aid budget
Bella Luna, The Blue Nile, Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo, Mike’s Fitness, El Oriental de Cuba, City Feed and Supply, Xposure by Noél and the Tony Williams Dance Center (home to BalletRox, which produces the Urban Nutcracker)… These are just some…
JP Observer: Thaw reveals more work to be done
A new exercise program is being launched here this spring. Jamaica Plain resident Vivienne Frachtenberg called me last week to ask if I want to participate. She said it’s called “Walk and Bend,” and she started the program several days…
JP Observer: How to really deal with winter’s roof and T troubles
Ice dam solutions Fill women’s pantyhose with calcium chloride (ice melt) and place them on your roof so they overhang the gutters. Or do the same with men’s discarded socks. You will need either a low roof and a good…
JP Observer: Tree removal needs regulation
In what is just the latest in several tree massacres in Jamaica Plain in the past decade, the MBTA cleared the proposed Southwest Corridor Park Greenway Extension near Washington Street of most of its trees last month without informing or…
JP Observer: New law removes barriers to substance abuse treatment
At a time when it seems government has been erecting more barriers to services for people in need, the Massachusetts legislature voted unanimously earlier this year to tear down some serious roadblocks to care for people with substance abuse problems.…
JP Observer: Two for T: JP needs better service from The Ride and 38 bus
The Ride less taken A local woman noticed that the driver of a familiar looking car labeled “The Ride” had been honking for awhile this past August, so she went out that afternoon to check. The Ride, according to its…
A journalist’s view from the Menino beat
I knew and covered Tom Menino, first when he was the District 5 city councilor from Readville/Hyde Park, and later when he was mayor—28 years. The first time I interviewed him, I asked him, a councilor, what he thought about…
JP Observer: New ‘reforms’ could reduce families getting state aid
Most of us like to think we have government programs and funding in place to help poor and disabled people and their children in Massachusetts. We do, to some extent, but the state, under the well-worn label of “reform,” appears…