Jamaica Plain

Workers from a nearby auto service center heard her cries, captured Carl Pettijohn, 51, of Mattapan.

62 Montebello Rd.

More info.

Chris, who lives in Jamaica Plain, agrees with the author of that Globe Magazine piece on JP that its retail core is dysfunctional:

... It simply doesn't function like a proper city neighborhood, which should be a microcosm of basic needs (think of any New York City block). Groceries are thin on the ground, there's no newsstand, and even convenience stores lack items beyond the needs of motorists. In their place you have a preponderance of novelty shops and vanity business. (Five bakeries!) And realtors. ...

But Chris continues that doesn't mean JP's future is in big-box national chains swooping in - he points to Wellesley as an example of a non-shabby, mostly locally owned retail district.

PlasticBoy reads a Globe Magazine profile of JP and wonders why the author seems so insistent the neighborhood just won't be complete without a Starbucks and a Gap:

Ugh.

Woman getting off T bus reports she was robbed by man with silver handgun.

Huntington Ave. and Barbara St.

More info.

Two suspects wanted for robbing the Boylston Fruit Market with a gun. One took the cash register.

Egleston St.

More info.

Riccardo Knight, 19, of Roxbury, arrested after gunshot heard. Charged with: trespassing, resisting arrest, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, and possession of a firearm with obliterated serial numbers.

279 Centre St.

More info.

I found out about the JP Christmas Caroling Mob from the JP Neighbors for Neighbors group. I went last night, had a GRAND time, and took lots of pictures. Thanks to Joel Sindelar of the Loose Canon Chorale for setting up this event.

Steve discusses a meeting last week on how to improve Centre Street and posts photos from the idea lists that people at the meeting came up with.

Part of a mural on Hyde Park Avenue, across from the Forest Hills T stop.

You can almost feel the rain about to come.

Abbyladybug takes photos of artists and their abodes.

Perspicax reports that after he got on the train yesterday afternoon, it took 70 minutes to get from Forest Hills to Back Bay.

I wonder how long it would have taken to just walk?

Adam and family take in the fair (he posts some pics). He adds:

... Toward the end, I saw a dreadlocked Jamaican Rastafarian driving a big van who needed to get past a road block into the pedestrian area. A crew-cut Boston cop approached the van, and I was bracing myself for racial profiling and intense scrutiny. I was pleasantly surprised when the cop just waved the guy on after he indicated where he was headed.

This is what I like so much about Jamaica Plain — it's as progressive as any of the more lefty areas of the country (Ann Arbor, Madison, Berkeley), but quite racially and socioeconomically diverse.

Abbyladybug posts some World's Fair photos, too, as well as some other JP snaps.

Susannah takes a picture of a pigeon on the T:

He walked on at Forest Hills and walked off at Green Street. Like it's a perfectly normal trip he takes every day.

Earlier: Pigeons on the glass, alas.

Steve took the above photo at the Cindy Sheehan vigil in JP tonight. He has more photos.

A couple friends of mine, one of whom is a teacher in Boston and lives in JP, are down in Arizona working on a film dealing with the migrant issues that have been in the news lately. They're calling it John Doe Mexican. The stories are moving, the pictures are incredible, and the plight of many of these people that my friends have been witness too is just incredible.

They have been blogging about it, and it's turning out to be an amazing journey for both of them:

"I was standing in the desert, staring at a dead man. To be more accurate, I was staring at the viewfinder of my video camera, which was aimed at the dead man."

Nervda visits his grandparents' graves at Forest Hills:

... My mother's mother raised my brother and sister and I, while my parents were working 12 hour days. I can hardly believe that she's been gone for 7 years now. While we were at her grave, this dragonfly kept landing right next to where we were setting up. The dragonfly kept touching down on a flower that had lost all of its petals, like its wings were a peculiar bloom. ...

John is sad to read that El Oriental de Cuba was firebombed:

... Let's hope they can rebuild and get back to business soon.

There's no coming together of the local minds on the guy who allegedly spent seven years vandalizing neighbors' cars for supposed parking infractions.

Miki: Who the hell is THIS guy to take things into his own hands and "enforce " city parking rules vigilante-style?

Tim doesn't condone his actions but says he can't help but sympathize:

... I do believe people need to know that their selfishness while on the road, and while parked, affects other people.

He links to a site where you can buy stickers to place on the windows of obnoxious parkers, and says he doesn't like using the word "Nazi" in connection with the guy.

Jay: Keys and screwdrivers, bad. We know that.

But how about throwing/placing/smearing rotten tomatoes on cars that are illegally parked?

Carpundit: Don't do it:

They are acidic, and can cause permanent harm to a car by damaging the paint. By causing damage to the car, as opposed to one of its discrete parts, you are probably committing a felony because it is unlikely that the repair can be accomplished for less than the $250 threshold (See M.G.L. c. 266, § 127). ...

He suggests contacting the authorities to deal with parking scalawags. But failing that, well, just let the air out of the tires.

City Councilor John Tobin, who represents JP, praised the police for apprehending the guy:

Finally, the elusive Jamaica Plain parking bandit has been caught! Our office over the years has received complaints from residents whose vehicles were vandalized by the alleged perpetrator. ...

We give the final word (for now!) to John Van Horn, founder, editor and publisher of Parking Today Magazine, who, like Tim, deplores the methods but appreciates the thought behind them:

... Here are people who are breaking the law complaining that someone has done something about it. Now I do agree that keying the cars and covering them with dog doo might be a bit out of line, but the chocolate syrup has a certain poetic justice. ...

Hot off the video camera and straight onto the internet: Video from tonight's NStar community meeting.

You'll read about it in tomorrow's newspaper and you won't see it on the TV news.

JP in the Dark
NStar blackouts in Jamaica Plain:
What Should be done?

A community meeting with NStar
March 31, 2005

80 Blackouts in 21 months

NStar is in the middle of a program to upgrade Jamaica Plain

Steve's posted several photos of the First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain after yesterday's fire.

Neal reports:

The First Baptist Church on Centre St is being consumed by a five alarm fire. I can see it in the distance from my window, I counted six helicopters hovering above my neighborhood until a few minutes ago.

The church is the large stucco landmark on Centre St next to JP licks with the big tower. Last time I was over there, I noticed that they had a huge temporary trailer on the front lawn, big enough to hold services in so I assume it was undergoing renovations. Its always sad when we lose these old buildings.