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Posts published in “Jamaica Plain People”

Frank Shea Returns Home to Become the Director of Urban Edge

Frank Shea born and raised in St Thomas Aquinas parish is the 4th director of Urban Edge.
Frank Shea, born and raised in St. Thomas Aquinas parish, is the fourth director of Urban Edge.

Frank Shea began work as Urban Edge’s fourth director in its new office space on Columbus Avenue on November 3.

It is the fourth office space for Urban Edge. He is also the first director who did not come out of senior staff at the agency in its 41-year history. Proudly he said, “I am the first director born and raised in Jamaica Plain.”

Born in 1961 as a small boy living in the St. Thomas Aquinas parish on Rosemary Street he saw the razing of large chunks of Forest Hills for I-95.

“There’s really a lot of good people here (in Jamaica Plain),” said Shea. He spent some time talking about his prime emphasis as director. The good people of the Egleston-Jackson crossroads of Columbus Avenue-Washington Street and Columbus Avenue-Centre Street. He wants very much to connect them to each other, to their neighborhood and to the agency.

And Shea knows about how important it is for neighborhood residents to be connected to each other.

Commish Honors Egleston Beat Cop for Arrest of Drive-by Suspect

File photo: Mayor's JP liaison, Jullieanne Doherty, left, and Officer Carlos Martinez greet each other during an August 2015 National Night Out.
File photo: Mayor’s JP liaison, Jullieanne Doherty, left, and Officer Carlos Martinez greet each other during an August 2015 National Night Out.

Boston Police Officer Carlos Martinez, the beat cop assigned to Egleston Square, is well known around the neighborhood. The officer won recognition this week from the city’s top cop for his role in apprehending a man accused of squeezing off gunshots from a car.

Skippy White: 54 Years of Hipping You to the Crossroads of American Music

SKIPPY WHITE. EVANGELIST AND ENTREPRENEUR OF R+ B
SKIPPY WHITE. EVANGELIST AND ENTREPRENEUR OF R&B.

In August of 1964 my entourage and I (OK, there were just two with me), all newly minted  graduates of Framingham High School, went to the EM Lowes Centre Theater at 690 Washington St. downtown to see Bikini Beach with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello (ahhhsigh…Annette!!).

(Reader advisory: Unless you’re over 50, most of the names in this story will seem like a foreign country…so just Google it…)

Meet Tenant Organizer María Christina Blanco

Testifying at a City Council hearing: L-R: Jacqueline Gomez, Marta Franco, Crisanto Rosas, Zenaida Flores, Rita Paul and María Christina Blanco.
Testifying at a City Council hearing: L-R: Jacqueline Gomez, Marta Franco, Crisanto Rosas, Zenaida Flores, Rita Paul and María Christina Blanco.

Tuesday marks the kickoff of a city-sponsored review of what Washington Street should be like from Forest Hills to Jackson Square.

A lot of interests will be in play as residents and officials build that master plan. Expect many of those voices to come from JP-based City Life/Vida Urbana, a tenants’ rights organization.

Jamaica Plain News recently walked Washington Street with María Christina Blanco, a lead organizer with City Life.

Faces of Wake Up The Earth 2015

A scene from the South Street Parade at Wake Up The Earth 2015

A parade participant gets a kiss from, a reader tells us, Rhea the Deerhound. Credit: Heather Goldin.

One of the joys of Wake Up The Earth is seeing Jamaica Plain’s people in all their diverse, goofy and beautiful glory. Here’s a sampling of the faces we photographed during this year’s parade and festival.

Neighborhood Council Member Moves to North Carolina

Daniel Pérez Lacera, center, hugs his children (Lyric, 8; Lanaedjah, 7 and Daniel, 5, at his last JP Neighborhood Council meeting on Dec. 23, 2014.

Daniel Pérez Lacera, center, hugs his children (Lyric, 8; Lanaedjah, 7 and Daniel, 5, at his last JP Neighborhood Council meeting on Dec. 23, 2014. Credit: Chris Helms

Daniel Pérez Lacera, who was serving his second stint on the JP Neighborhood Council, resigned to make his move to North Carolina permanent.