Hundreds Gather to Discuss the "State of Jamaica Plain"

More than 250 people attended the second annual "State of Jamaica Plain" at last Thursday.

The event brought together residents and politicians, with an aim of strengthening neighbors' ties to one another in terms of working on problems facing the neighborhood. The main organizer was the JP New Economy Transition, and it was co-sponsored by a slew of JP organizations, including JP Patch.

In introducing the event, organizer Orion Kriegman said one of the challenges facing JP is homogenization.

"Boston as a whole is getting more diverse, but JP is getting more white," he said.

The 2010 Census showed that JP has .

The format led off with focused statements from the politicians who represent and live in JP. That was followed by break-out groups working on specific subjects like "local business," "jobs in JP" and "urban agriculture." Check the JP New Economy Transition Web site for follow-up and specific actions to take on the subjects addressed.

Local politicians who spoke were limited to certain topics. A brief overview of what each one said is provided below:

State Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez (Health)

"By 2020, Massachusetts will be spending 50 percent of state revenues on health care costs."

State Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz (Education)

"A statistic that blew my hair back is 80 percent of our jailed prison population is made up of people who dropped out of school."

State Rep. Liz Malia (Egleston Square)

She spoke of the turnaround the area has enjoyed, thanks to hard work by a wide range of people. "For those of us who've been around awhile, it's nothing short of a miracle."

City Councilor Matt O'Malley (Infrastructure)

O'Malley said his top three infrastructure priorities were: 1) Education, such as shoring up budgets at schools like the ; 2) Getting funding for a renovation of the ; 3) Getting funding to redevelop the .

Felix Arroyo (Youth issues)

Arroyo stressed the importance of summer jobs for young people. He also spoke about his "Invest in Boston" initiative, which would rate banks on, as Arroyo put it in his constituent newsletter "their small businesses lending, qualified home buyer lending, foreclosure prevention, and lending to development projects in our communities." The banks that scored best would be the ones in which the city of Boston would invest its more than $1 billion. After the politicians spoke, there was a breakout group called "Move Your Money" that picked up on similar issues.

The panel of politicians also took questions from the audience. In addressing the issue of health food for JP residents, O'Malley drew the only hissing of the night when he praised Whole Foods for its funding of a salad bar at the Curley School and providing turkey dogs for a longstanding summer barbecue series at the South Street Apartments.

JP Patch plans to post the questions from the night, including ones that were not asked during the forum, once they are made available from JP New Economy Transition.

[Editor's note: Since the original posting, I've added details about Arroyo's presentation.]