This whoel thing has been so over analyzed that I am losing all interest in the process and feel the JPNC and now the JPA owes the developer for grossly unfairly holding their perfectly valid proposal up from progress. Most importantly, I am appalled that J P thinks it is even our issue when the property is CLEARLY Mission Hill and THEY want it. But the lords in JP feel that they know better than 'lowly' Mission Hill. To me this is a power grab by OVER-enfranchised
J Pers who think they are the great paternal fathers over anything they see.

With all due respect Rich, the property is not CLEARLY Mission Hill. Certainly you have lived here long enough to know that community boundaries are not well defined. This stretch of Huntington Ave has been thought of as JP by everyone I know forever. I don't think your interpretation of one community lording over another is fair, regardless of everything else that is going on with this project.

To add to the confusion, the VA Hospital is known as the Jamaica Plain campus and uses the zip code 02130. The Home for Little Wanderers listed its address simply as Boston and used the zip code 02115!
The BRA thinks JP extends all the way to Brigham Circle. I don't think there's many who would agree with that.

Maura, thanks for your reply and sense of perspective. I still feel that there are boundaries and JP power grabs all the time and it is wearing on the nerves ... to say the least. Especially when the neighborhood { Mission Hill ] , that many would say this belongs to, WANTS the improvements. I would like to see JP's response to a few Mission Hill activists blocking something the JP majority wanted - IN J P - ... because it didn't 'fit' with the Mission Hill activist's view of a utopian society.

Of course there are boundaries. It's just not clear what they are. Most folks I know consider that JP extends to Heath St and that Mission Hill starts with the back of the hill. The Hennigan School is considered in JP, for example. So what you see as power grabbing others see as speaking up for their neighborhood. I'm not saying I agree with the specifics of this particular issue, just that I think you are painting the people of JP with a pretty broad brush.

It's tough not to paint them with a broad brush when the group with the megaphone claims to be the voice of JP. I know a lot of people in JP who don't agree with the JPNC or the JPA. Unfortunately these groups are creating a bad name for the community as a whole. It's time JP stands up for itself away from these organizations. They are doing nothing good for the community and pitting communities against each other.

Bob - THIS is exactly what has turned me off from our 'organized' spokespeople. They make every effort to either limit or overshout the calm minds in the middle. "Community" forums to 'discuss' issues are nothing more than environments to scream conservative* anti progress screeds that scare - yes literally - scare people, so they do not attend such 'open' forums. When the J P Gazette - one of the most left leaning publications, questions the legitimacy of the JPNC calling for, among other things, the chairperson [ Ben Day ] to step down - then we sure know that the 'voice' of our community is WAAAAAY out of touch. I DO hope people here who support the JPNC are fully aware of the Gazette's criticisms which really say it all. * yes conservative . Conservative means conserving the status quo. Afraid of change. J P activists who think they are 'liberal' are in fact quite conservative - conserving a status quo that very few want 'conserved' The people they claim to speak for (but never actually ask) do not want to be spoken for, nor even agree with what the 'liberals' are saying 'for' them. In this case Mission Hill does not want to be spoken for AND does not agree with how they are being spoken for. RE: Whole foods, Claudio Martinez of the Hyde SQ task force was furious with the 'liberal' voice speaking for the Hispanic community. He said at an open forum "Do not speak for us. Who are you to say the Hispanic community is not good enough to have a whole foods?"

it's rather ironic .. typically I would say that republicans are out of touch ... and that is frustrating to say the least .. but the fringe left is even more out of touch and oblivious to what the silent majority wants for society. Not sure I would say it a matter of degree, I think both fringe republicans and fringe democrats are equally oblivious to the cold hard scientific data that clearly illustrates what the pragmatic middle wants. Neither is open minded enough to engage the unbiased services of a legitimate polling organizations such as Harris, Gallup etc.

Bob, your point is well taken. When a small loud group says that it is representing the masses, they can come to stand for an entire community when they do not. It's a shame that the project at 161 wasn't handled better from the start by the city. There are some real issues that should be addressed but in an entirely different way than what is going on now (which is an abomination!)