It's a good thing I'm moving soon...

...because violent crime is seems to be occurring closer and closer to my house.

J. and I drove by on Forest Hills Street around 4:45pm on Saturday and wondered why there were so many cops and a medium-sized crowd of people gathered on the corner of Rossmore and Forest Hills streets. Not to mention the two or three police cars that were parked in the immediate area. I commented that the films crews I've seen in the area (mainly at Doyle's) did not seem to require nearly as many police officers. Then we spotted the yellow tape - definitely not a film crew.

Sad Truck gone wild

Sad Car, meet Sad Truck
(which, incidentally, is located next door to my second favorite dilapidated car).

Sad Truck reminds of those ships that are sunk to make artificial reefs.

Not exactly Mr. Rogers' neighborhood...

Won't you be my neighbor?
by Fred M. Rogers

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...


These two postings got me thinking a little deeper about the neighborhood that I live in within the larger context of the city of Boston.

I found a decently priced place to live here and my neighbors are all colors and ethnicities and ages and income levels. You'll find a pretty diverse lot waiting for the Orange Line or walking down Centre Street or waiting on line for ice cream at JP Licks. I have the typical 'neighborly' friendships with some of my neighbors - We help each other clean off snowy cars, take in packages for each other, etc. - despite the fact that we don't always speak the same language (English, PSanish, Portugese, Creole...).

I'm not saying that there aren't problems, issues, and/or misunderstandings sometimes. That's life. As neighbors, we have to be able to live around each other, not be best friends.

Baby wars, eh?

Like the South End, it seems that the hipper neighborhoods of Toronto are also teeming with urban assault strollers. Are Canadians really more polite about tots in trendy restaurants? Not always.

"The bartender and all the staff were cool, but we got a mixed reaction from other people—a lot of really dirty looks in that passive-aggressive Toronto way, like they thought we were bad parents. "

"The next day, she woke up to a lengthy rant in her in-box: “I will let you know, as a manager of a high-end retail store in Toronto, that your ‘mommy bubble’ attitude is ruining the independent retail sector in this city."

"a sign in the window: “No SUV-type strollers, please” (the store has since moved to the Danforth, but the sign remains). Every time I saw that sign, I thought about the descriptor “SUV” and how it connotes something specific: space sucking, aggressive and, above all, entitled."

"The entitled parent easily becomes the militant parent, lashing out at the restaurant that doesn’t serve organic milk or the singleton who doesn’t help get the stroller up the streetcar steps."

... or the Starbucks barista who wants you to stop changing your tot's diaper on a table?

Some Canadian complaints sound like what we've heard (read?) about some Boston neighborhoods.

"What emerges in these family-driven downtown neighbourhoods, over a long period of time, is effectively the kind of monoculture that happens instantly in the suburbs when a group of economically similar people buy into a development while it’s being built."

They also apparently have some problems that have developed between 'human parents' and 'doggie parents.' Like what happens when an off-leash dog nearly knocks down your toddler.

“She was definitely afraid,” he says. “And the owners just laugh. They think those dogs are their children, but I tell them, ‘Your dog doesn’t grow up to be a taxpayer. My daughter will, and who do you think will be looking after you when you’re old? My daughter and her taxes.’ ”

"After two years of consultation between dog owners, the dog-less, and parks and recreation officials, the dogs of Jean Sibelius lost their off-leash hours in January. An appeal is under way.... She believes city councillors and judges favour parents, and notes, like a police officer talking about a gang, that parents are “highly organized.” Interestingly, Mills complains that the dog owners are “highly organized,” because they have no kids and far more time to lobby for dog rights; Mills uses the word “entitled” to describe dog owners, and Morton uses it to describe parents."

Not sure if this kind of activism has made it to Boston yet. But I won't be surprised when it does. Parents are parents, I guess.

Rude awakening

Every morning there comes a moment of awareness - I'm awake. [pause] Why am I awake? - sometimes it comes following the annoying buzz of the alarm clock, sometimes it's the dog needing to go out, and sometimes it's your kid is trying to tell you that she had a bad dream. Today I was roused to consciousness thanks to a REALLY LOUD BOOM followed by an eerie envelope of stillness. It was like when there's a huge clap of thunder that almost seems to make your entire house vibrate punctured by the silence that makes you notice that the thunder is gone. I glanced at the clock, which was blank. Confused, I tried to turn on the TV, and when that didn't work I stumbled out to find my cell phone. The time said 6:45am.

I was not the only one awake - I ran into a neighbor in the hallway who was coming inside with his young son (where were they coming from at 6:45 in the morning?). He said that he'd heard it too and noted that the building's 'power off' alarm was beeping and that the emergency lights were on in the hallway. Still confused and barely awake, I went back inside and called the local police station to ask what tha what the what had happened to my electricity. The person who anserwed their phone patched me through to 911, despite my sleepy protests that I didn't think it was an emergency, I just wanted to know what was going on. The 911 operator asked me what happened, I said I wasn't sure that this classified as an emergency, but was patched through by the police. I told her that I had been awakened by a VERY LOUD BOOM at around 6:45am and I had no idea what it was, but that my apartment complex seemed to be without power. Confirming that it was not a weekday and I wouldn't oversleep and be late to work, I fell back asleep.

I still don't know what happened to create such a cacophony. But by the time I woke up again around 10:30am, the power was back on. Weird way to start the week.

Aftermath of violence

The Wake Up the Earth Festival took place today in the same park where a young man was killed recently. The basketball court where he died has become some sort of shrine to him.










More pictures can be found here.

Reflections on violence

What a wonderful thing to come back to after a trip to NY to visit the family - there was a shooting near my house on Monday.

In a park that I often drive or walk by. A park that tends to be filled with children – on the playground, playing baseball, shooting hoops, etc.

I realize that I live in a city and that shit happens.

But it just seems kind of ballsy and brazen to shoot someone during the daytime in a park filled with people. JP isn’t perfect, but the areas between the Green Street and Stony Brook T stops tends to be a quieter, feel a little safer… until Monday.

What's so bad about Bicon?

More trouble is brewing about the Bicon building in JP. It's right near my neighborhood, so I pass it frequently.

let me be honest in the beginning, my opinion is not unbiased, since I'm also a patient there. I've spent a decent amount of time there in the recent past. The staff at Bicon has been nothing but helpful since I set foot in the controversial building for some emergency oral surgery in February. As far as surgeons go, the docs there are conventionality situated (for me at least) and provide important services for those of us who suffer from rotten teeth that often need to be extracted and replaced with dental implants. (My mouth is full of bling... just not the kind that you see on MTV.) Bicon also offers parking in a small lot. (Think that's overrated? You try walking home after having oral surgery during which you were sedated.)

I understand the desire to keep Boston's neighborhoods leafy and keep them from getting overrun by rampant, soulless development. Let's be realistic here - it's not in a park in the proper sense - it's not surrounded by parkland in the traditional sense (ex: Tavern on the Green in Central Park). It's on a high-traffic rotary that isn't too attractive itself, save for the leafy entrance to Franklin Park.

I'll be the first to admit that the building itself isn't the most attractive, but it's already built. What does the opposition plan to do - tear it down?

The Globe explores my 'hood

A nice job capturing some of the flavor of JP.

One suggestion for the whoever edits these videos at the Globe - just because JP is quirky, does not mean that you have to add annoyingly quirky background music.

Compromise on Jamaicaway?

Have the owner of the Jamaicaway light show and the city councilor reached a compromise?

The neighborhood superstar

Should I be pissed that one of my teenage neighbors and his friends think they're rap stars or DJ's or something and like to let everyone in the apartment complex know by hanging out on a porch playing music so loud that I heard it over my vacuum cleaner? Or should I just be happy that he's not out dealing drugs, underage drinking, or something like that?

I fear that I'm beginning to sound like a crotchety old person at age 28, but when I come home from a long day at work I don't wish to hear someone rehearse for their American Idol audition. (Especially when I'm probably being way kinder about their lack of talents than Simon Cowell would be.)

Arborway Castle draws spectators (including me)

I ran into one of the Arborway Castle's neighbors while taking these. He said that his kitchen looks right out onto the holiday light show. Didn't seem too perturbed, but he was diplomatic and polite about the whole display, which I thought was very neighborly of him.

Gay discrimination in JP

Yes, it even happens in JP.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette has an article about an incident that I haven't seen covered anywhere else. It seems a lesbian couple was refused service in a JP convenience store, which, in addition to being bad customer service, is apparently violates the state's anti-discrimnation law.

"... Rodrigues said she was standing in line behind Perez, with her hands on Perez’s hips, while the latter swayed to the music playing on the Tedeschi’s sound system.

.... told the couple they were acting like they were in a “videotape pornography film” and said he would not serve them, according to Rodrigues."

I guess not all men like seeing real life lesbians. And how did he know what lesbians 'act' like in porno tapes anyway?