MassDOT has also posted answers online to some of the burning questions about the Casey replacement project posed by elected officials and the community since mid-November.

MassDOT Secretary Richard Davey said in a letter sent to state Rep. Liz Malia and U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano earlier this month that a final decision should be reached by the end of the month. MassDOT spokesperson Michael Verseckes confirmed that timeline to the Gazette.

In that same letter, Davey addresses many of the concerns voiced by those legislators and members of the community. A frequently asked questions (FAQ) document, along with an environmental justice study and an air quality study, have been added to the project’s website at massdot.state.ma.us/CaseyOverpass/documents.html.

The FAQ covers travel times and possible traffic delays and back-ups, accounting for future growth in the area and the reliability of the various traffic studies used in the project.

The environmental and air quality studies had been requested often as a means to decide between the bridge or at-grade alternative, especially by members of the Asticou Road area. Those studies were not expected until the planning stage of the final project.

Neither study found a significant difference between the alternatives. The air quality study found that “changes of air pollutions between the existing conditions and both build alternatives were minimal”—that is, neither bridge or at-grade option should cause a big change.

Davey promised to incorporate suggestions provided by Stephen Kaiser and Paula Okunieff, independent traffic engineers suggested by the community.

Kaiser wrote an independent review of the project and gave it to Malia last month.

Davey also committed to conducting a peer review of MassDOT’s traffic analysis by an independent traffic consultant as well as filing an Environmental Notification Form (ENF) before the 25 percent design community meeting.

The future of the Casey Overpass and adjoining Forest Hills area will hinge on whether the soon-to-be retired Casey Overpass will be replaced by a new, smaller bridge, or by surface streets alone.

The decision announcement was originally scheduled for mid-December. It was postponed to mid-January after elected officials, led by state Rep. Liz Malia, requested a delay in the decision amid community controversy. The decision announcement has not yet been rescheduled.

The Casey Overpass is the State Route 203 bridge over Washington Street and Hyde Park Avenue at the Forest Hills T Station. The aging bridge must be demolished in coming years.

Mildred Hailey founded the Bromley-Heath Tenant Management Corporation (TMC) along with Anna Mae Cole 40 years ago. It became a nationwide model for tenant-controlled public housing, with Hailey heading it as a major community leader. But the TMC and Hailey also have had various scandals and a history of BHA takeover disputes.

“Hailey’s retirement ends a historic era in tenant management of public housing,” said BHA Administrator Bill McGonagle in a press release.

Agro did not respond to Gazette questions about why the TMC, which has other staff members, will not continue operating the development. Hailey did not return Gazette phone calls and a BHA press release about her retirement did not quote her. A call to the TMC office was answered by an answering service. Cole declined to comment about the situation.

The BHA takeover appears to have been a surprise to residents as well as to nonprofits that operate within the development.

The BHA indicated that Hailey is retiring voluntarily. The BHA will “work with the community and the TMC Board to determine how best to move forward over the long term,” said the press release.

McGonagle has informed the TMC board that “once the BHA begins direct oversight of the development, the role of TMC will be identical to that of the resident task forces that operate at public housing developments throughout the city,” Agro told the Gazette in an email. That means the TMC will become an advisory group with no management contract or authority.

“The TMC and Mildred have in many instances performed admirably over the years,” McGonagle said in the press release. “However, for everything there is a season. I respect Mildred’s decision to retire. She has earned the opportunity to rest and reflect on her many accomplishments.”

BHA staff will begin transitioning out the TMC staff starting on Feb. 21, with the takeover becoming complete on April 1, Agro said. The TMC board is slated to hold an election in April, and the BHA will provide support for that, Agro said.

Bromley-Heath, a combination of the Bromley Park and Heath housing developments, is home to hundreds of people. It sits between Centre and Heath streets in Jackson Square. The BHA owns it, with TMC operating and managing it under contract.

Two nonprofit agencies in Bromley-Heath told the Gazette that the TMC and the BHA did not inform them about the leadership change.

“We are in the dark, totally,” said Eva Clark, executive director of the Judge Richard L. Banks Community Justice Program, which helps adults released from prison and youths in juvenile detention.

JP APAC, a wide-ranging social service agency and food pantry, also has heard nothing. “The BHA’s a good partner [at other housing developments],” said Michael Vance, the vice president of field operations at ABCD, which runs JP APAC. “We’ll see what happens.”

The BHA informed tenants of the takeover in a letter this week. One Bromley-Heath resident, Candace Keshwar, told the Gazette that there were longstanding rumors that BHA wanted to take over the development, but the decision still “came out of left field” as a surprise.

Keshwar also said that the BHA takeover may be welcomed by newer residents such as herself, saying there is “definitely” a perception of favoritism by TMC on behalf of some long-term residents. She cited cases of three-bedroom units with two residents, while larger families were unable to transfer into such apartments.

“I think it will be fairer…because it isn’t personal,” Keshwar said of BHA management. “I think, for newer residents, it will seem like we’re on an even playing field.”

That reaction reflects the mixed history of the TMC, which ranges from activist triumphs to allegations of mismanagement.

TMC was a product of 1960s tenant activism. One of the first, and now one of the only, tenant-run management organizations, TMC turned Hailey into a national spokesperson on tenant empowerment. In the early years, TMC brought in major social service programs and ran its own security force.

TMC had a large role in planning the Southwest Corridor Park in the 1980s after Bromley-Heath activists were involved in the earlier protests against a highway planned for its location. And in the 1990s, TMC was a partner in the JP Plaza development that brought the Stop & Shop supermarket to JP.

But crisis came in 1998, when two of Hailey’s grandsons were arrested in a massive drug raid at the development. Amid allegations that the TMC failed to evict people convicted of drug-dealing, the BHA deposed Hailey and took over management for a year.

In 1999, one of Hailey’s sons was arrested in her apartment on a homicide charge, and the following year, another of her sons was charged with dealing drugs there. There was no sign that Hailey was aware of any of those alleged crimes, but public scrutiny of TMC increased.

After another big drug raid in 2006, the BHA again proposed taking over Bromley-Heath’s management, but the TMC fought to retain control. In 2010, the BHA again alleged that the TMC was failing to evict tenants who committed crimes. The BHA also investigated claims that TMC’s predominately black leadership discriminated against the growing population of Hispanic and Latino residents. A study found no actual discrimination, but called on TMC to address the widespread perception. TMC issued a plan for doing so last year.

Rebeca Oliveira contributed to this article.

(Courtesy Photo) Roslindale resident Benjamin Geffken is covered in chickens raised by neighbor Steven Gag last year.

Chickens may be legally welcome back in the City of Boston soon, much to the delight of Jamaica Plain chicken-keepers.

JP has a concentration of secret chickens—in back yards, basements and converted lawn furniture—as chicken-keeping is not allowed under the current zoning code.

But the growing interest in urban agriculture has pushed the city to re-evaluate its policies, and a new Urban Agriculture Initiative has started the process to change the code.

According to a 1991 city ordinance, keeping poultry in Boston is not strictly illegal—just a “forbidden use,” which could be allowed if a zoning variance is issued by the zoning Board of Appeals.

However, in the last 12 months, only one person has applied for that variance. It was not granted, Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) Senior Planner Jeff Hampton told the Gazette.

After a citywide meeting on Jan. 30, Boston’s administration is considering the possibility of changing the zoning code to allow for small urban agriculture operations like back yard coops and small farm stands.

A working group has been assembled to advise the administration, BRA spokesperson Melina Schuler told the Gazette. It includes representatives from JP’s City Feed and Supply and the Boston Public Market Association, which is headed by a JP resident. The complete list of its 22 members is available through the BRA.

The advisory group will meet on a regular basis to sculpt zoning, Schuler said.

“After they’ve developed a draft plan, it’ll be shown to the community in the fall,” she said. “There’s quite an extensive community process before any changes are made.”

At last week’s State of Our Neighborhood Forum, City Councilor Matt O’Malley, state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz and state Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez all expressed their support for updating the zoning code in favor of urban agriculture.

It is unclear why chickens are banned. But neighbors sometimes complain of the noise and possible health hazards like avian flu.

During a JP New Economy Transition (NET) neighborhood potluck last month, a local chicken expert—and JP resident—spoke about the merits and challenges of urban chicken-keeping.

She agreed to speak to the Gazette on the condition that her identity would not be revealed. For the protection of her hens, she will be referred to as “Jane.”

“We ate a lot of eggs and loved the idea of teaching our children a simple lesson in sustainability,” Jane said. Her kids sell surplus eggs to neighbors, a concern also raised by opponents to urban chickens.

When asked how she keeps her chickens without attracting unwelcome attention, Jane replied, “Very carefully.”

“There used to be milk and egg farms all around Boston that delivered fresh products directly to one’s house,” she said. But as the city population grew, regulations on farms increased as mass production of eggs increased, leading to the chicken’s eventual banishment from the city.

JP resident Audra Karp had to send her chickens away after she was busted for raising them within city limits. She told the Gazette that Animal Control had spotted her coop while driving by.

“I think [the zoning code] is outdated. People are getting back into urban agriculture,” she told the Gazette. “It’s really important for people to know where their food comes from and how they can get it themselves.”

Karp used to live in Western Mass., where she raised ducks and chickens. Her chickens are waiting out their exile on Karp’s father’s property in Ashland. She said she was hopeful for eventual change in the zoning code.

“I think it’ll happen. People want it to happen. The officials are supportive of it. It’s a question of when,” she said.

Steven Gag, a Roslindale chicken-keeper, said that keeping hens is “one more piece to add to the puzzle of raising your own food and your living in your back yard.”

He and three home-schooled neighboring children converted a playhouse into a coop and added a chicken run. He is also invested in welcoming back urban chickens.

“This [issue] has popped up all over the country. Many towns around the country have legalized it,” Gag said. “If you’re raising a handful of chickens in your back yard and you’re taking care of them like any other pet, it should not be a problem.”

Melissa Ghareeb, barn manager at the MSPCA’s Nevins Farm facility in Methuen, told the Gazette that “keeping back yard poultry has become a big trend, following locally-sourced foods and so on.”

“Somerville and Cambridge already have ordinances in place” to allow chicken-keeping, she said.

Ghareeb made a point of emphasizing that keeping roosters in a city is a bad idea, as they crow throughout the day, not just early in the morning.

For more information on the BRA’s Urban Agriculture Initiative, see bit.ly/BostonUrbanAgri.

Mildred Hailey fundió Bromley-Heath Tenant Management Corporation (TMC) con su compañera Anna Mae Cole hace 40 años. Llegó a ser un modelo nacional para las viviendas dirigidas por los mismos inquilinos, encabezado por Hailey como una poderosa líder comunitaria. Pero TMC y Hailey también han tenido varios escándalos y comparten una historia de conflictos sobre el mandamiento del BHA.

La jubilación de Hailey acaba con una era de historia en el automanejo de vivienda publica,” dijo BHA administrador Bill McGonagle en un comunicado de prensa.

Agro no respondió a las preguntas del Gazette sobre la razón por la que TMC, que tiene otros miembros, no continuará dirigiendo el complejo. Hailey no devolvió las llamadas del Gazette y un comunicado de prensa de BHA sobre su jubilación tampoco consiguió una cita. Una llamada a la oficina de TMC llegó al buzón de voz. Cole no comentó nada sobre la situación.

La absorción de BHA fue una sorpresa tanto para los residentes como para las organizaciones sin fines de lucro que operan dentro del complejo.

BHA indicó que Hailey se jubila voluntariamente. BHA trabajará con la comunidad y la junta de TMC para averiguar cómo pueden seguir adelante en el largo plazo, dijo en un comunicado de prensa.

McGonagle ha dicho a la junta de TMC que tan pronto como BHA comience la administración del complejo, el rol de TMC será igual al rol de los grupos de trabajo que existen en todas las viviendas publicas en Boston, dijo Agro al Gazette por email. Eso significa que TMC se convertirá en un grupo de consejo sin poder administrativo o autoritario.

“TMC y Mildred han generado gran admiración durante los años,” dijo McGonagle en el comunicado de la prensa. “Sin embargo, hay un tiempo señalado para todo. Respeto la decisión de Mildred de jubilarse. Ha ganado la oportunidad de descansar y reflejar en sus abundantes logros.”

Empleados de BHA empezarán a eliminar gradualmente los empleados de TMC comenzando el 21 de febrero, con la absorción acabando el 1 de abril, dijo Agro. TMC tendrá una elección en abril, y BHA ayudará con eso, dijo Agro.

En Bromley-Heath, una combinación de los complejos de apartamentos Bromley Park y Heath, habitan cientos de personas. Se queda entre Centre Street y Heath Street en Jackson Square. BHA es el dueño, y TMC lo dirige bajo contracto.

Dos agencias sin fines de lucro en Bromley-Heath dijeron al Gazette que TMC y BHA no les había informado sobre el cambio en liderazgo.

“Estamos en el oscuro, totalmente,” dijo Eva Clark, directora ejecutiva del Judge Richard L. Banks Community Justice Program, que ayuda a los adultos recién salidos de la cárcel y a los jóvenes en la detención juvenil.

JP APAC, una agencia de servicios comunitarios y despensa de comida, tampoco había escuchado del cambio. “BHA es buen compañero para los otros complejos de apartamentos,” dijo Michael Vance, vicepresidente de operaciones en ABCD, que dirige JP APAC. “A ver que sucede.”

BHA informó a los inquilinos sobre la absorción en una carta esta semana. Una residente de Bromley-Heath, Candace Keshwar, dijo al Gazette que habían rumores que BHA querían asumir el control del complejo, pero la decisión fue muy inesperada.

Keshwar dijo que la absorción podría ser un evento agradable para unos nuevos residentes como ella, que sienten que TMC favorece a algunos residentes desde hace mucho tiempo. Un ejemplo serían los casos en que dos residentes viven en un apartamento con tres cuartos de dormir, mientras familias más grandes se quedaron con espacios más pequeños.

“Será más justo porque no es personal,” dijo Keshwar sobre BHA. “Pienso que, para los residentes nuevos, tendremos igualdad de condiciones.”

Su reacción refleja la historia variada de TMC, que tiene una amplia gama incluso triunfos de activismo y alegaciones sobre mala administración.

TMC fue producto de activismo de inquilinos en los años sesenta. Una de las primeras, y ahora las únicas, organizaciones de automanejo de inquilinos, TMC convirtió a Hailey en una portavoz nacional para los derechos de inquilinos. En los principios años, TMC comenzó una variedad de programas de servicios comunitarios y hasta manejó su propia fuerza de seguridad.

TMC tenía mucha influencia con el planeo del Southwest Corridor Park en los años ochenta, después de que unos activistas de Bromley-Heath protestaran la llegada de una carretera. En los años noventa, TMC fue socio en el desarrollo de JP Plaza que realizó la construcción del Stop & Shop en JP.

Pero llegó una crisis en 1998, cuando dos de los nietos de Hailey fueron detenidos en una redada antidrogas en el complejo. Entre alegaciones que TMC no echaría a la calle a los narcotraficantes, BHA depuso a Hailey y tomó control durante un año.

En 1999, uno de los hijos de Hailey fue detenido en su departamento acusado de homicidio, y el año siguiente, uno de sus hijos fue acusado narcotráfico. No hubo evidencia que Hailey conocía esos crímenes, pero crecía la desconfianza del público.

Tras otra redada antidrogas en 2006, BHA propuso absorber la administración de Bromley-Heath, pero TMC luchó para mantener control. En 2010, BHA volvió a alegar que TMC no estaba desalojando a los criminales. BHA investigaba rumores que los líderes, la mayoría negros, discriminaba hacía la población creciente de los residentes hispanoparlantes y latinos. Un estudio no reveló tal discriminación, pero urgió a TMC a remediar su reputación. TMC hizo público un plan para remediarla en 2011.

“It will extend the residential character of JP down to where it really hasn’t been before,” said Curtis Kemeny, president and CEO of Boston Residential Group, in an interview this week at the Gazette office.

The Home announced last summer that its Jamaica Plain site, known as the Knight Children’s Center, is relocating to Walpole. Kemeny plans to knock down all three buildings currently on the 3.5-acre site and erect a four- to five-story, all-rental building.

Kemeny is aiming to start construction in about a year. But first, the project requires changing the site’s zoning from institutional to multifamily residential use. It would also require Boston Parks Commission review because the property abuts the Jamaicaway and Olmsted Park. And the Boston Landmarks Commission would review the demolition of the 1920s-era main Home building.

“The Emerald Necklace is a beautiful amenity to us. So what we will want to do is embrace the Emerald Necklace,” said Kemeny. The main building would be on S. Huntington, not the parkway. It would keep existing trees along the parkway and create resident-only pedestrian access there.

The project would include a surface parking lot underneath the building, likely with about 150 spaces under City of Boston guidelines. Kemeny said he would do whatever the City requires, but added that he wants to minimize parking because residents increasingly use alternative transportation. He also would seek to add a Zipcar car-sharing station.

The traffic flow would keep the Home’s configuration of a two-entrance driveway on S. Huntington and would not have any Jamaicaway access, he said.

Most of the units would be studio or one-bedroom apartments, with some two-bedrooms. Kemeny acknowledged that the smaller units are aimed at singles and couples rather than families. He added that his company does not accept undergraduate students as tenants—a major quality-of-life concern in neighboring Mission Hill.

Under Boston Redevelopment Authority guidelines, 13 percent of the units would be rented at affordable rates. The project also would include a fitness center, a patio and a “common room” with a kitchen for use by residents and caterers.

The three existing buildings cannot be reused to their configuration and age, he said.

Kemeny said he has met with two neighboring senior homes, Goddard House and Sherrill House, and with the park advocacy group the Emerald Necklace Conservancy (ENC). All had a “positive” reaction, he said, repeatedly declining to elaborate.

“We did have a positive meeting and we would welcome the development as a new neighbor,” said Dolores Schermer, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the company that operates the Goddard House, in an email to the Gazette.

“I wouldn’t say we had a positive response. We had a ‘thanks for coming’ response,” Sherrill House CEO Patrick Stapleton told the Gazette. He said Sherrill House has no position on the proposal at the moment, adding that Kemeny is doing things “the right way” by meeting with abutters.

ENC President Julie Crockford said Kemeny’s team has been “open and informative,” but that the ENC needs to see traffic, wind and shadow studies before taking a position.

Kemeny’s Boston Residential Group is a large developer and property manager with no other JP projects. Its other buildings include the Back Bay condo building with Best Buy in the lower floors. Under Kemeny’s father, the company 40 years ago built the Church Park development next to Symphony Hall, which includes a Whole Foods Market and other notable businesses.

Kemeny said he considered adding retail space to the Home project, but then noted how close it is to the Hyde Square business district. “We want to support that neighborhood,” he said.

A Home for Little Wanderers spokesperson told the Gazette that the Home cannot talk about the project under the terms of a purchase-and-sale agreement.

A new group, Bridging Forest Hills (BFH), consisting of community members and Working Advisory Group (WAG) members, has formed to “share our opinion that neither option presented thus far is good enough,” WAG and BFH member Liz Wylie told the Gazette.

A flyer BFH representative Jeffrey Ferris handed out during last week’s State of Our Neighborhood Forum has already stirred up controversy as “fear-mongering” for some incorrect facts.

“The intention was to educate people about the depth of issues and raise serious questions about the process,” Wylie said early this week.

The future of the Casey Overpass and adjoining Forest Hills area will hinge on whether the soon-to-be retired Casey Overpass will be replaced by a new, smaller bridge, or by surface streets alone.

The decision announcement was originally scheduled for mid-December. It was postponed to mid-January after elected officials, led by state Rep. Liz Malia, requested a delay in the decision amid community controversy. The decision announcement has not yet been rescheduled.

Also during last week’s State of Our Neighborhood Forum, City Councilor Matt O’Malley addressed City Hall’s lack of a stated position on the project.

“The position is, there is no official position” favoring either pro-bridge or pro-surface streets, O’Malley said. “It’s a state project, not a city project,” he said, even though it will severely alter city streets.

A Gazette call to the Boston Transportation Department was not returned.

“It’s kind of crazy our elected officials haven’t taken a stance on this,” Ferris said.

Other neighborhood groups, including the Stonybrook Neighborhood Association, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Walk Boston and Boston Police JP Traffic and Parking Committee have expressed their desire for traffic calming measures during the project’s construction in a letter to Boston Transportation Department Commissioner Thomas Tinlin.

The Jamaica Plain Business and Professional Association (JP BAPA) was considering voting on an official position—pro-bridge or pre-at-grade—after the Gazette’s deadline this week.

During the State of Our Neighborhood Forum, Ferris handed out flyers promoting bridgingforesthills.com. The data mentioned on that flyer was already causing concern by the evening’s end, with WAG member Sarah Freeman calling it “fear-mongering.”

The flyer says that 165,000 people live in the Forest Hills area, “25 percent of Boston’s population.” It also says that 700 new units of housing are expected to be built in the area. But neither claim is true.

Boston has 617,594 residents, according to the last census. JP has 37,468. According to a BRA fact sheet presented to the community on May 18, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is expecting 310 to 390 new housing units by be built in the Forest Hills area by 2035.

The Gazette asked Ferris about these numbers this week. He said BFH put the flyer together as a group and he did not personally know the source of those numbers. He did say that the 165,000-resident figure was a mistake.

“No one’s trying to pass that over on anybody. That [mistake] got missed,” he said. What the group meant to say was that 165,000 people pass through the Forest Hills area, Ferris said this week.

“Whether it’s 300 or 700 [new housing units], in my mind, is irrelevant. It needs to work for the people who live there,” Ferris said. “Making transit work optimally was not [the state’s] ultimate goal. We need better than OK at Forest Hills.”

Other points stated on BFH’s flyer have also been contested.

It lists concerns over “three times the traffic and congestion” to New Washington Street. The figure refers to the 24,000 vehicles that travel over the Casey daily, which are expected to join the 12,000 that travel over New Washington Street if the at-grade option is chosen.

Aaron Naparstek, a transportation activist and blogger said at a January event organized by the Boston Cyclists Union, JP Bikes and LivableStreets Alliance at the Connolly Library that he does not expect traffic to increase as much as MassDOT predicts, offsetting concerns over higher levels of car exhaust.

“If there are 24,000 cars using that overpass, I’ll gnaw off my own arm if 24,000 cars move to the surface street,” he said, referring to a theory that postulates that traffic moves away from surface streets with lower speed limits toward other higher-speed alternatives.

The flyer also says that “backroom MassDOT traffic models predict gridlock.”

There have been no traffic models that have not already been presented to the WAG and the community, MassDOT spokesperson Michael Verseckes told the Gazette.

MassDOT and its design team have repeatedly said that either alternative will handle 2035 levels of traffic better than the current street plan does now.

“It should be an attractive place to live. Living in the middle of a traffic jam is not attractive,” Ferris said.

“Change is scary. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like with no bridge,” Freeman said.

The Casey Overpass is the State Route 203 bridge over Washington Street and Hyde Park Avenue at the Forest Hills T Station. The aging bridge must be demolished in coming years.

The state Casey Overpass project website is at massdot.state.ma.us/caseyoverpass.

The tactics varied, but the response from over 150 people was the same: a rejection of the MBTA’s proposed fare increases and service cuts, which were presented at a Feb. 1 meeting at the Hennigan Elementary School on Heath Street.

Crippled by funding problems and debt, and facing a $161 million deficit this year alone, the MBTA is proposing a brutal budget that the agency itself clearly does not like.

In Jamaica Plain, the cuts would include killing the Green Line subway/streetcar service on weekends and cutting back the Route 38 “JP Loop” bus that serves many seniors. The Needham Line commuter trains would not run on weekends or late nights, and several other bus routes would be cut back as well.

The fare hikes would be either 35 or 43 percent on standard trips, and up to 500 percent on the RIDE, which serves people with disabilities.

Residents speaking against the plan included commuters who would not be able to get to work and disabled people who might not be able to go anywhere at all.

State legislators are working on a funding fix, but said it is difficult in tight economic times and with little support from suburban and rural colleagues whose constituents may not ride the T. There was much talk of raising the gas tax, but that will be politically difficult and probably would only be a piece of the funding puzzle.

Jay Gonzalez, the chief budget-writer for Gov. Deval Patrick, attended the meeting, though he did not speak.

Residents had many funding ideas of their own, including that the MBTA crack down on rampant fare evaders. But some of the ideas were based on misinformation.

Several speakers claimed that the MBTA’s debt is owed to giant banks that got federal bailout money and should forgive the debt in return. But the debt did not come from bank loans. It is in the form of state bonds that are publicly traded and may be owned by individual people, mutual funds, insurance companies, banks and any other kind of investor.

“In short, there is no large concentration of bonds at one institution,” the MBTA said in a written statement to the Gazette.

Many officials and residents urged the MBTA to drop its proposal and instead join in lobbying the state to fix the budget problems. Officials also urged people to get friends who live in suburban and rural areas to pressure their legislators.

“I think everyone in the Commonwealth should be concerned” about the cuts, MBTA Acting General Manager Jonathan Davis said at the meeting in response to one commenter. He noted the cuts would reduce transportation options, create “more congestion on the roads” and have some “detrimental impact on air quality.”

The MBTA’s full plan can be viewed at mbta.com. It is accepting comments at fareproposal@mbta.com or Fare Proposal, 10 Park Plaza, Suite 3910, Boston, MA 02116.

But some of those Western Mass. officials actually support a gas tax boost—as long as it directly benefits their own flimsy public transit service. A similar plan was suggested in a little-noticed think tank study last fall co-written by a JP resident.

The Gazette spoke with two officials in the Berkshires—state Sen. Benjamin Downing and state Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli—to get the other side of the gas tax story.

“If you come out to the Berkshires, we don’t have what I call legitimate public transit,” Pignatelli said of the limited bus service there. A gas tax boost would be a regressive burden on the poor and working-class people who must drive and “can’t buy the Prius” to keep gas costs down, he said.

Downing said it isn’t fair to greatly boost the MBTA fares—but also isn’t fair to boost the gas tax on Western residents “for something in Boston they don’t see any benefit from.”

“There’s absolutely a need for more revenue for our transportation”—both the MBTA and the lesser-known Regional Transit Authorities, Downing said. The political difference is only about “how you do it, not if you do it,” he said.

But Downing and Pignatelli both said a gas tax increase could work if most or all of the revenue is dedicated to funding public transit within the region where it was raised. Greater Bostonians could fund the MBTA, and regions like the Berkshires finally could see some transit improvements as well.

The same idea was proposed last fall in “Moving Forward with Funding,” a report by the think tank MassINC, which called it both fairer and the only politically feasible way to get MBTA gas tax funding. JP resident Benjamin Forman, one of the report’s authors, told the Gazette that it received only scant and sensationalized media coverage at the time, but now is drawing more serious political attention as the MBTA budget crisis unfolds.

Low-income rural residents face big transit challenges. Downing noted that of the 48 communities he represents, only 11 have regular public transit buses. They only run six days a week on very limited routes and stop service around 6 p.m. With state social services branch offices being closed, people sometimes have to travel 30 miles or more for things like unemployment filing—essentially a full work day by bus.

“To ask those people to pay more for a gas tax is difficult,” Downing said.

Those residents are already paying for the MBTA because one penny of the state sales tax is dedicated to it. And there is still resentment over how Boston’s Big Dig project sucked up state road money from the rest of the state.

Politically, that creates “anxiety and sometimes animosity” toward Boston, Pignatelli said. He described a general attitude in the Berkshires as, “We’ve already paid our fair share. Enough already. Tax your own people.”

Even if a localized gas tax boost is approved, that is only part of a “patchwork quilt” solution to the MBTA’s huge problems, Pignatelli said. He suggested restoring tolls on the Mass. Turnpike’s Western exits, which are little-used by locals, and called for serious discussions about MBTA employee benefit costs.

Downing noted that much of New York City’s public transit system is funded by a local payroll tax.

The MBTA’s universally hated plan would kill the 326 express bus from Medford that Davis rides daily, he told the Gazette in a hallway interview at the Hennigan School meeting.

“As a rider, it doesn’t make me feel very good, because I use it to get to work every day,” Davis said of his agency’s own plan to boost fares and cut service.

Davis was quick to add that, unlike many T riders, he has other transportation options. That includes the Orange Line subway and, according to MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo, a car that Davis shares with his wife but typically does not use. Davis responded to many questions at that meeting and another last month in Roxbury, but never mentioned the plan’s impact on himself.

Davis and Pesaturo also traveled to the meeting by public transit–namely, the Green Line E branch streetcar/trolley that the MBTA’s plan would controversially stop running on the weekends.

“It was great,” Davis said of his E Line ride. “I think we run a great service.”

But the MBTA is proposing to slash that service, among many others, in an effort to close a $161 million budget gap this year alone. Low tax revenues, enormous debt and a legal requirement for a balanced budget are forcing the MBTA’s hand.

“We’re transit people. We don’t like making these recommendations,” Davis said.

The concept is relatively new. The verb “gentrify” (from the noun “gentry”) first came into use between 1975 and 1980, according to Merriam-Webster. At that time, it meant the replacement of poor people living in rundown housing in urban areas with higher-income people who renovated. Later, gentrification also came to mean displacement of minorities by white people.

Based on income and racial/ethnic census numbers, does JP’s reputation as a diverse neighborhood need to be changed?

With at least 24 percent of housing here permanently subsidized, according to a UMass study in the 1990s, the danger of poor people getting pushed out seems slim. Market rents in JP’s 02130 ZIP code, where the cost of living is generally high, average $1,332 per unit compared to $1,103 for Massachusetts and $950 nationally in 2010, according to CLRsearch.com, a national real estate database.

Incomes in 02130 continue to range. About 20 percent of households make below $25,000. (The federal poverty line was $22,050.) An equal percentage makes more than $125,000.

Occupy Wall Street and its local affiliates would be interested to know that JP is home to “the 99.25 percent.” About 0.75 percent of our residents make the national top 1 percent earnings of $506,000 or more per year.

It appears that JP’s middle has shrunk. In 2000, roughly 64 percent of households in 02130 made between $25,000 and $125,000. Now it’s about 59 percent.

The white population seems to have been shifting between 50 and 53 percent over the past 10-15 years, with no major changes in racial/ethnic mix from the 2010 census count of the actual JP neighborhood at 53 percent white, 25 percent Latino, 13 percent black, 4 percent Asian and 2 percent multi or other.

Compared to most places, JP is very diverse, based on the map showing JP to be slightly bigger than 02130 and including Egleston Square. The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) is for the first time using that realistic neighborhood map as it presents 2010 data.

Getting the numbers right can be tricky. The new American Community Survey extrapolates from samples of the population. And because various maps have been used by the BRA and others when compiling JP census data over time, one has to be careful to use the same maps when comparing numbers.

So far, based mostly on ZIP code data for 02130, it seems JP isn’t close to being gentrified.

One thing remains certain over the years. Properly describing the population of JP requires looking at and quoting real numbers from defined neighborhood maps. It should not be done based on impressions.