First, they stole condoms. Forty-three boxes of Trojans and Durex from the CVS on Market Street. Who knew there was such an off-market for them? Or were the man and woman who lifted the items desperate from desire and lack of cash? Exactly one week later, the pair struck again, this time helping themselves to twelve pregnancy test kits. In case the condoms proved defective?
(Information from Boston Police reports.)
February 13, 2013
Condom thieves think ahead
February 10, 2013
A porch with a view
Charlie Vasiliades, a.k.a. the mayor of Oak Square, took the above photos looking toward Oak Square from his porch. Matt Rocheleau at Boston.com has a story about sledding down Brainerd Road, which brought back memories of doing the same down Bigelow Street. Of course, we didn’t wait for a driving ban. It was all in the timing, and occasionally avoiding a car. Adam at Universal Hub has a series of before and after shots, including these taken locally, here and here, and a really great night view.
February 10, 2013
Originally from Allston
Recently I discovered “Originally from Allston,” a Facebook page devoted to memories of the neighborhood by people who grew up there. Check out the photos.
February 8, 2013
The trolleys that kept trying during the Blizzard of ’78
During the Blizzard of ’78 the MBTA kept running, at least until the snow overwhelmed buses and above-ground lines. Photos here of trolleys on Commonwealth Ave in Allston.
H/T to Adam at Universal Hub.
February 6, 2013
Engineering school move to Allston Harvard’s latest cheating scandal
Harvard will be moving its engineering school to Allston, according to the Crimson, which interviewed president Drew Faust. Until now, the public plans were to use the property now occupied by the Charlesview Apartments as a parking lot. The private plans were clearly quite different from what was submitted to the BRA last fall, and presented to the community. What other surprises are in store?
CORRECTION: The engineering school will relocate to the Western Avenue planned life sciences center site, not the Charlesview location, according to Kevin Galvin of Harvard. Harvard Magazine has an overview of the school’s Allston history.
Not the only cheating scandal going on at the university, eh?
Harvard has been both high-handed and underhanded in its treatment of Allston. Underhanded, with its surreptitious acquisition of acres of property. High-handed, with its shabby behavior. Emptying out the properties it acquired and letting them sit vacant for years, greatly harming the vitality of local business areas. Not to mention lots of vacant building look awful.
How will the BRA react to this? The city’s planning agency can’t plan if a developer deceives it.
February 5, 2013
62 units, plus commercial space proposed for 425 Washington & 10 Parsons site
The developer will present his plans for the property this Thursday night at the BAIA meeting at 7PM. It will include 10,000 square feet of commercial space and 104 parking spaces. A design that preserves the house at 10 Parsons would be great. Full agenda here. Last fall the property owner withdrew his plan to demolish 10 Parsons, pledging to work with the neighborhood. Also on the agenda is a plan for 37 units (with no parking) at the corner of North Beacon and Everett Streets.
UPDATE: Will the 37 Everett proposal have parking or not? It depends. At the BRA meeting, it was no parking. At the Allston Civic, 37 parking spaces materialized. It is absurd to think that no one will have a car. Wonder what the developer will conjure up for Thursday night.
CORRECTION: The proposal is for 44 units, as stated in the original post, link above.
February 4, 2013
Blaze hits Oak Square home
Last night at about 9:40PM a fire broke out at 4 Langley Road near Oak Square. The six residents, three in each apartment, escaped unharmed. According to the Boston Fire Department, the two-family home suffered $300,000 in damage. The flames are believed to have started in a first floor bedroom.
February 3, 2013
The Charles River, day by day
Chris Devers, a Somerville-based photographer, is taking photos of the same spot along the Charles River several times a week. The vantage point is from the Watertown side near Greenough Boulevard and North Beacon Street. This bend of the Charles River is one of the prettiest views in the neighborhood.
Photo used under this Creative Commons license.
February 3, 2013
Bright lights, jail city
Shining your high beams into the car in front of you is annoying. Doing it to a police car is stupid, as two gentlemen cruising along the streets of Allston discovered Friday night. When the driver did not take the hint when to officers behind him put on their rear blue lights, they pulled him over. Driving without a license, and the apparent cocaine in the pocket of his passenger, got them both arrested.
February 2, 2013
Bus hits Soldiers Field Road bridge, mostly minor injuries
A bus carrying 42 passengers hit the Western Avenue underpass on Soldiers Field Road at 7:42PM today. The rescue of occupants took a little more than an hour, according to the Boston Fire Department. The chartered Philadelphia-bound coach had just left Harvard. While most people’s injuries did not appear serious, a few people were removed with back boards.
UPDATE: One person has life-threatening injuries, according to Boston EMS’s Twitter feed. The bus was removed early this morning. More here.
Photo courtesy of BFD Twitter feed.
February 1, 2013
Rich university, poor university
Harvard University, with an endowment of $32 billion the nation’s richest school, also heads the list of debtors, with $6 billion owed. The school recently unloaded the Arsenal office complex in Watertown for $168.5 million, which it purchased for $162.6 million in 2001. The school was on a buying binge, and clearly had no plans for the property. Lots of money, but no vision, no plan.
February 1, 2013
St. E’s, bigger and bigger
The pile of masonry that houses St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center continues to grow. The steel frame of the latest addition, three stories on top of the recently added three story emergency room, was recently completed. The new construction was part of an agreement that the owners of the for-profit facility, Steward Health Care a.k.a Cerebus Capital Management, agreed to when they bought the hospital. The Attorney General’s office, which oversees implementation of the agreement, has released a report stating that first year goals were met. Financially, the chain is losing money on its Boston area operations.
January 30, 2013
Gunpoint robbery at local market
The Boston Police are seeking the public’s help in apprehending two men who were involved in an armed robbery at the Neighborhood Market in Allston yesterday evening. More info here. Hat tip Adam at UH.
January 28, 2013
Governor’s transit plan misses the bus
Reading through the 1.1 billion-a-year transportation plan, I was struck how little mention there is of buses. Bus ridership accounts for 30% of trips on the MBTA, yet the only funds allocated are to speed up plans to replace the current fleet. No mention of creating dedicated bus lanes. How about creating temporary bus lanes by eliminating parking during rush hour on more congested streets? This is already done on some streets downtown, Arlington Street for example, but any vehicle can travel in it. A lane dedicated to buses would help address one of the biggest reasons for poor bus service: the bus is sitting in traffic.
Lots of attention gets paid to bicycle lanes and making it easier to commute on two wheels. The topic lights up blogs and the comments sections of newspapers. But this very heavily used form of transit gets relatively little attention.
January 24, 2013
The latest from Harvard
Harvard’s plans continued to be met with skepticism at last night’s Harvard-Allston Task Force meeting. Residents voiced again their concerns about relocating storage and maintenance facilities to Travis Street, as well as the school’s overall approach, citing a lack transparency as to what their plans are.
The architect originally hired to design the new science complex on Western Avenue is being wooed to rejoin the project, which was put on hold in 2009.
The next meeting of the task force is Wednesday, February 6, at 6PM in Cumnock Hall Room 102, at Harvard Business School.
January 24, 2013
Your elected officials will be all ears
The Allston Brighton State House delegation will be available Thursday, January 31 to speak about and take your questions regarding the upcoming legislative session. The meeting will be at 6:15PM at the Brighton Branch Library. If you have concerns about the governor’s recently unveiled plans for transportation, education and the increased taxes to pay for it, this is an excellent opportunity to voice them. The event is sponsored by the Ward 21 Democratic Committee.
January 23, 2013
How green was my Allston?
The compulsion of real estate developers to create new “districts” has come to Allston. The Mount Vernon Company has dubbed several blocks between Commonwealth Avenue and the Brookline line as the “Green District”. It has announced plans to build an environmentally friendly, 108 unit apartment building at the corner of Brainerd Road and Redford Street, adding to projects completed this summer or now underway. All of this adds to the urgency of improving service on the Boston College line.
January 23, 2013
Police crack down on parties, public drinking
Recent crimes in the Ashford Street area of Allston, along with continuing complaints about parties from residents, has prompted increased patrol in the area, including enforcement of the open container law. Some of the parties had as many as 100 students in attendance. Not far from that area there were three robberies the evening of Saturday, January 18.
The owners of the properties ought take a bit more interest in what happens there. How can you not know when a bar and dj booth are installed?
January 19, 2013
When will that train arrive?
Will Brownsberger has a good summary of the suggestions that were made at a meeting to talk about Green Line Improvements. The MBTA stated that the starting in 2015, there will be real time tracking on the Green line, as there is on the other lines. The Walking Bostonian website also has a map of which parts of the city have the highest and lowest rates of car ownership.
January 17, 2013
Too tall, too dense
A developer is proposing a five-story, 44 apartment building at the corner of Everett and North Beacon Streets just outside Union Square in Allston. This is too tall and too dense for the site, which sits at constantly congested intersection. Something more akin to the Brian Honan apartments around the corner on Everett Street would be more appropriate. The BRA has scheduled a community meeting on Thursday, January 31 at 6:30PM at the Jackson-Mann School.