Word: jakes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Ever since Harvard University began drilling in Allston, there has been a rat problem in his neighborhood, but Jake Carman, a ferociously eloquent community leader from North Brighton, still lives on the same street where his great-grandmother lived when she emigrated from Lithuania. The area has always been an entry point for immigrants from around the world, and Jake’s neighbors hail from Brazil and Guatemala, among other places...
...Recently, Jake and his neighbors have watched helplessly as their community is changed by outside forces, as Harvard expands into Allston-Brighton. Although the university promises visions of a refurbished neighborhood, residents must suffer through the 50-year process of producing an unafforable, gentrified neighborhood...
...cost of construction is a part of the FAS budget, and thus the four omnipresent cranes that tower over the new Allston science complex will remain idle for the indefinite future. They are behemoths hanging over residents and a constant reminder of the project there, which, for residents like Jake, has recently taken a particularly insulting turn. Not only did Harvard rush through the approval process to build the center, but the university also blasted a huge hole into the ground, displacing the rat population of the entire area...
...Jake has too much on his plate to spend a lot of time worrying about insults. Instead, he passes me a flier that offers information to residents of Allston-Brighton on dealing with the escalating rat population. “There used to be bunny rabbits in our neighborhood,” Jake remembered wistfully. Now there are rats that rummage through the trash and spread disease...
...many ways, as I sit here with Jake, I have to consider him one of the lucky ones. His neighborhood is eerily empty, there are rats where bunnies once thrived, and the future promises extreme gentrification, but Jake still has a job and home and is fighting the good fight...