Huge parking lot set to be auctioned
By David Taber February 5, 2010
City has long anticipated redevelopment
FOREST HILLS—The nearly 2-acre Fitzgerald parking lot across from the Forest Hills Orange Line T Station is scheduled to be put out to bid in a foreclosure auction March 3.
JP’s GOP fired up by Brown win
By John Ruch February 5, 2010
Photo by Nick Shabanoff
US Sen. Scott Brown (left) helps co-owner Gerry Burke Jr. work the bar at Doyle's Cafe on Dec. 23. Burke, a Democrat, said he wore a Brown sticker to be polite,but was impressed by Brown's bartending skills. Patron Nick Shabanoff, a Jamaica Plain resident, snapped the photo as Brown worked for an hour.
Republican groups forming
The surprise win by Republican Scott Brown in last month’s US Senate election has lit a fire under conservative voters across the country—and even in liberal Jamaica Plain. While fewer than 4 percent of the neighborhood’s registered voters are GOP members, local Republican ward committees are forming for the first time in at least a decade, the Gazette has learned.
City approves public way plans
By David Taber February 5, 2010
Work set to begin in spring
JACKSON SQ.—Much of the first phase of the Jackson Square redevelopment’s public-way improvements received final city approval early last month and work is set to begin on the area’s roadways and sidewalks this coming spring.
‘Radical’ designs for squares unveiled
By John Ruch February 5, 2010
“Radical” redesigns of Jamaica Plain’s key Hyde and Monument Squares were presented by planners at the Jan. 28 meeting of the city’s JP Centre/South Action Plan citizens advisory group.
New J’way crossing coming this summer
By John Ruch February 5, 2010
PONDSIDE—A new pedestrian crossing and traffic light is coming to the Jamaicaway at Eliot Street this summer, officials from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DRC) announced at a Jan. 27 meeting at Arnold Arboretum.
UMN staffer stuck in Haiti
By David Taber February 5, 2010
Repeatedly denied re-entry into US
While plenty of non-profits and aid organizations have been spurred to action by the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, one campaign being undertaken by Jamaica Plain’s Union of Minority Neighborhoods (UMN) is intensely personal.
Local councilors to head committees
February 5, 2010
Newly elected citywide City Councilor Felix Arroyo, a Jamaica Plain resident, and local City Councilor John Tobin, who has represented JP and West Roxbury since 2001, were named to head important council committees by council President Mike Ross on Jan. 27.
Tobin not running for Senate
By John Ruch February 5, 2010
City Councilor John Tobin will not run for the West Roxbury-area state Senate seat that Marian Walsh will leave after this term, Tobin told the Gazette.
JP man killed in Mattapan
By John Ruch February 5, 2010
A Jamaica Plain man was shot to death on a Mattapan street on Jan. 24, according to the Boston Police Department (BPD).
Yoga to Yoga
By Sandra Storey February 5, 2010
Health center looks to expand community programs and space
Minding Our Own Business
JP CENTER—Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center (SJPHC) on the corner of Centre and Green streets was crunched for space. Dahn Yoga, just feet away on Green Street, closed last spring, leaving a vacant storefront.