Forest Hills Upper Busway On Washington Street Razed Over The Weekend

Barletta Heavy Division Inc. brought in the enormous tracked demolition claws and jackhammers at 2 a.m. Saturday. By 5 a.m., the first canopy sections crumpled, and by the end of the day, the upper busway on Washington Street opposite Asticou Road was down. By Sunday afternoon, the surface busway was open again for passengers, but this will only be used for about a year. A new busway is being built where the old MBTA parking lot used to be, set on a platform that will extend over the Hyde Park Avenue parking lot. The changes are part of the massive Casey Arborway project that is changing the face of Forest Hills and Jamaica Plain.

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Residents Discuss a Future Plan of the Jamaica Plain and Roxbury Washington Street Corridor

More than 150 people from across Jamaica Plain gathered at English High School Wednesday evening to look into their crystal ball to see what Jamaica Plain - specifically the 257 acres from Forest Hills to Jackson Square would look like in the next five to  10 years. The workshop was the first one in the process called Plan JP/Rox Washington Street. "This is long range planning. We got a lot of feedback [since the July 28th open house]; over 850 comments. Our staff looked at every one and out of those we formed four themes: Community resiliency.

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Celebration and Jubilation as Walsh Officially Opens Jackson Commons in Jackson Square

"This neighborhood deserves nothing but the best," said Mayor Marty Walsh at the opening ceremony Wednesday for Jackson Commons, a 37-unit residence at 1542 Columbus Ave. directly opposite the Jackson Square MBTA station. "Jackson Commons is 37 new homes," said Walsh. "OK, that's [only] 37 new homes. But that's 37 new homes we didn't have six months ago.

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Photos: Fourth-Annual Agricultural Fair at the Loring-Greenough House

For the past four years, Bill Perkins of Agricultural Hall, 245 Amory St. at the Brewery complex, has hosted an old-fashioned New England agricultural fair in Jamaica Plain. The last three have been held on the grounds of the Loring-Greenough House - itself originally the hub of an 80-acre farm - and were co-sponsored by the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club. The Jamaica Plain News wandered over on a beautiful crisp fall Sunday morning to see what the harvest was like.

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Advisory Group Formed for ‘Plan JP/Rox’

"You're the ambassadors with us"  is how Lara Merida, Deputy Director for Community Planning at the BRA, described the Plan JP/ROX Washington St Advisory Group convened Thursday night at Brookside Neighborhood Health Center community room. Twenty five people from one end of Jamaica Plain to the other: Bromley Heath to Forest Hills; Walnut Avenue to West Walnut Park have been selected to do nothing less than "plan for the future of a neighborhood", said Marie Mercurio,  Senior BRA planner for Jamaica Plain. " Where do you want  [his area] to be in 5 - 10 years?" Julieanne Doherty representing Mayor Walsh, as the neighborhood services liaison for Jamaica Plain,  set the tone immediately by standing at the door and greeting everyone who arrived. " On behalf of the mayor", she said after the meeting opened " a huge warm welcome.

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The Ever-Changing Forest Hills Station

To paraphrase Mark Twain's comment on New England weather if you don't like Forest Hills Station just wait at a while...in this case 25 years. The top photograph was taken on Oct. 19, 1987, five months after the new Forest Hills Orange Line terminal opened. The switching tracks and old station were razed in the next year. The elevated track bed was replaced by the surface parking lot and the lower Hyde Park Avenue busway replaced the old elevated station.

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What Redlining Looks Like: City Life/Vida Urbana Takes to the Streets to Outline Housing Discrimination

Part performance art, part public education, the Arts Committee of City Life/Vida Urbana literally drew a line down Washington Street Saturday afternoon to show what housing discrimination looks like. Drawing on the 1934 policy of the Federal Housing Administration not to underwrite mortgages in areas they determined were poor risks, CL/VU recreated the red line that the FHA drew in residential areas marking the boundaries of where they would not grant housing mortgages. In the words of Lawrence J. Vale in his book From the Puritans to the Projects, ( 2000) the FHA "gave federal sanction to a long history of housing prejudice [in which] it enforced the homogeneity of neighborhoods exclusive of [what it described as] undeserved people." Charles Abrams in his 1955 book Forbidden Neighbors stated that as of 1952, "98% of the 3 million home mortgages issued by the FHA went only to white homeowners". This policy created the pattern of urban and suburban life for three generations.

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Surprise! Upper Busway Canopy Work Began Saturday

To the surprise of many, the upper busway opposite the Arnold Arboretum began being taken apart on Saturday. Riders had to look for their bus in the temporary lot further down Washington Street. T personnel were on hand to direct riders transferring off the Orange Line. MassDot notified the community Friday that demolition would begin over the weekend of Oct. 3-5, but contractors are taking down panels two weeks earlier.

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Forest Hills Busway Canopy to be Razed Beginning Oct. 3

MassDOT  announced that beginning 1 am Sat Oct 3 through 5 am Monday Oct 5 working around the clock , Barletta Heavy Construction will remove the canopy over the upper busway (opposite the Arboretum). All buses will be diverted to the Hyde Park Avenue busway during that week end. The upper canopy was designed as an integral part of Forest Hills Station by  Cambridge Seven Associates. It  opened in 1987.  

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Buoyed by Support from Mayor and O’Malley, 3200 Washington St. Cruises Through Final Hurdle

It was high noon for the 3200 Washington St. LLC development team on Tuesday. At exactly noon the Zoning Board of Appeals opened testimony that lasted over an hour for and against the largest development in the history of Egleston Square, estimated to cost $23 million: Three buildings from 5 to 6 stories high with 73 rental apartments and three for-sale townhouses on a sloping 3/4 acre site at Washington St and Montebello Road. At 1:15 pm the ZBA voted to grant the requested variances 6-1. ZBA member Bruce Bickerstaff voted no.

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