Back Bay

Don't.

Jed Hresko captured the scene down Boylston yesterday. Mike the Mad Biologist has more photos.

Jed Hresko spotted this extra fuzzy thing among the carriages tonight.

Just in time for Patriots Day, the BPL has posted Marathon photos by Leslie Jones, including the immortal Johnny Kelley finishing the race second in 1940 and on the way to his first-place finish in 1945 (on far right; in Natick Center, ye ed thinks):

David Bernstein reports that with Councilor Mike Ross (Mission Hill, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway) running for mayor, Joshua Zakim, now running Joshua Dawson's campaign to replace Marty Walz in the House of Representatives, will be running to replace Ross. Phew. And yes, Zakim is the son of the late Leonard Zakim, as in the bridge.

He'll be running in District 8 against Greg Timilty, whose own father is also well known in these parts: Former City Councilor, State Senator and mayoral candidate Joseph Timilty.

Boston Police report arresting a Revere man and his female companion in a sting involving a car left on Newbury Street with a camera, Kindle and backpack in plain view and unlocked doors.

Police say they'd set up a "bait" car in front of 450 Newbury St. to try to catch whoever was responsible for a recent string of car break-ins in the area. Around 8:50 p.m., police say, a couple pushing a baby stroller caught officers' eyes:

The Boston Fire Department reports the cause of the roof fire that did an estimated $1 million in damage to 182 Beacon St. in the Back Bay yesterday:

Fire Investigators have determined the cause of the roof deck fire at 182 Beacon St. to be careless disposal of a cigarette. Specifically, on the roof deck was a flower pot being used as an ashtray.

Neighbor watched roof fire from above. Via BPD.

UPDATED, 9:10 p.m.

A one-alarm rooftop fire at 182 Beacon St., near Clarendon, did an estimated $1 million in damage after it broke out shortly before 6 p.m., the Boston Fire Department reports. The department says investigators are still trying to pin down the exact cause, but say they have ruled out a barbecue fire.

Matt Karolian spotted these space savers today on Comm. Ave. by Berkeley.

We wandered around the BPL in Copley Square today, and the kidlet got her first ever look at an actual card catalog - and microfiche readers - in the shabbier, lesser known reading room, the one upstairs from the grand Bates Hall reading room, the one with the peeling paint and the, well, card catalog and microfiche readers. She also got her first look at one of the request slips you'd fill out after finding the book you wanted in the card catalog.

But even in the Bates Hall reading room, it seemed like half the people in the place were scanning laptop screens rather than actual printed material, so all those lamps were more for mood lighting than anything else.

An irate citizen complains about this BTD vehicle on Beacon Street in the Back Bay:

BTD has the time to hassle an elderly woman double parked with no traffic trying to get stuff out of a car as she is dropped off, yet has their windshield almost totally obscured with figurines and plush toys!

The Huntington News reports 13 racers will be dressed like hamburgers - and raising money for a charity sponsored by the local B.Good burger chain.

Tristan reports a water-main break shut the main BPL library in Copley Square today.

Firefighters move victim to ambulance. Photo copyright T.S. Miller. More photos.

What seemed like your basic springtime Fens fire this evening took on a more somber tone when firefighters pulled a badly burned man out from the water behind the Fire Department's fire-alarm building.

The Steaming Grate. Photo by Chelsea Hanna Cohen.

Around 3:30 p.m., yesterday, an alert went out over Boston fire and police channels: Car on fire at Clarendon and Newbury. When first responders got there, though, they realized some well meaning 911 caller had been tricked by the Steaming Storm Drain Grate.

Apparently, this thing has been venting steam for years now. TriGen or the city or somebody sends a crew down every so often but never manages to fix whatever the problem is. So when conditions are just right and somebody parks on top of the thing, a passerby could have reason to think that steam is smoke and the car's about to erupt in flames.

J. Goodell jokes:

Sometimes I park there to degrease my undercarriage.

The Boston Licensing Board yesterday ordered a three-day suspension for the Grand Canal on Canal Street due to an incident in December in which bouncer Sidney Phillips was charged with punching a patron in the mouth.

This is on top of a five-day suspension ordered by the Mayor's Office of Consumer Affairs for the same incident. The bar now awaits hearings before the city's two licensing boards for a more recent incident in which Phillips allegedly punched and choked three patrons and stomped a fourth patron's head.

Separately, the board ordered a two-day suspension for the function facility at the Westin Copley Place for a Tufts University undergraduate party that ended with drunk students ferried to local hospitals and urinating in the hotel lobby.

A man Plymouth County prosecutors once said was the head of a large Oxycodone ring was arrested at Back Bay station last night after he allegedly sold some Oxycodone tablets to an undercover Transit Police officer.

Transit Police report Eric Simmons, 53, of Weymouth, was nabbed as part of an effort to crack down on drug sales at the commuter rail and Orange Line station.

Simmons is scheduled for arraignment today in Boston Municipal Court on charges of distribution of a class B substance and possession with intent to distribute a class B substance. He will then be shipped to Plymouth County to face drug charges there, police say.

Innocent, etc.

UPDATE: The DA's office reports the victim was a 33-year-old Brighton man and that his death was declared "a non-homicide" after an autopsy and investigation.

State Police report recovering a man's body from the Charles River, between the Hatch Shell and the Harvard Bridge this morning.

Although the man's exact identity remains unknown, the body was probably not that of missing Brown student Sunil Tripathi, because it appears to have been in the water longer than he has been missing, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports, adding an autopsy is planned to determine the cause of his death.

The DA's office adds the body was discovered around 8 a.m. by a Boston University rowing team.

Officials at the Westin Copley Place say that drunken Tufts students who left the hotel lobby filled with empty nips and urine in February have forced it to increase security for all future college events. Well, except for the Tufts Winter Bash, which they said they will never allow back, even if the university decides to rescind its decision to cancel it permanently.

The officials made their comments at a hearing by the Boston Licensing Board on citations issued by police for the now infamous Feb. 1 soiree, which ended with EMTs trying to deal with upwards of 20 students drunk enough to require a trip to the hospital.

Because I apparently had my camera with me today, I took this shot in front of St. Cecilia's, a church on Belvidere Street in the Back Bay. There were about a dozen Boston Department of Public Works workers shoveling and plowing snow from the sidewalks and street around the church.

I stopped to watch. I asked one of the drivers what he was doing and he replied, "Plowing out the church." I asked him if the city did it for all churches, to which he replied, "I guess the ones that have pull?"

Further down the street, another DPW truck was blocking the road off. I asked him the same question, does the city do this for all churches? His response, "Yes, sir; all of them."

That's a lot of churches. I assume the city must then also do it for all synagogues and mosques?

If you're cynical like I am, you assume someone of significance either died or is getting married and called in a favor ...

Or, perhaps this is much ado about nothing?

The Beacon Street bar is now gone.

Farewell to the Crossroads Irish Pub.

UPDATE: Around 7:15, a Needham train inched through Back Bay while other trains got re-routed through Dorchester.

A switch just past Back Bay apparently decided to show MBTA officials what it thought of their idea to delay needed maintenance this evening, so now commuters get to enjoy the culinary offerings of South Station, or the two Dunkin' Donuts at Back Bay.

As commuters sat on unmoving trains, the T was endearing itself to the ones on Twitter with:

#MBTA GM Scott addresses @WalkBoston's Annual Celebration on growing all modes of transit together #choosegrowth

Perez (l) and LeylandThere once was a man from Pawtucket
With fake hundreds he tried his lucket
But sharp bartender saw
The bills had a bad flaw
Now he's in jail going "fuck it!"

Dana Leyland, 29, of Pawtucket, and Felix Perez, 23, of Providence, were both arraigned today on charges of possessing counterfeit notes and uttering counterfeit currency after an alert bartender at the Charlesmark Hotel noticed the $100 bills they and a still missing accomplice allegedly used to buy two Coronas and a Hennessy were fake - and followed them across the street to Solas at the Lenox Hotel, where they were arrested, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

The Globe reports Restoration Hardware may have been a bit premature with its grand-opening party.

A body of a man pulled out of the Charles River yesterday is that of a 32-year-old South End man whose apparent jump into the river on Jan. 1 sparked a massive search that came up empty at the time, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports, adds:

The investigation during the intervening months into that man's death has not developed any indication of foul play. Because the case is not believed to be criminal in nature, his name is not being released.

The Proper Bostonian writes she could deal with a Frye boot store replacing one of her favorite restaurants - Charley's at Newbury and Gloucester. But she will not abide by the arboreal destruction she says Frye committed outside the location - eight trees chopped to bits:

Besides the kousa dogwoods there was a white birch, and other trees. It's a grim scene and a great loss to our neighborhood. ... Since I love boots and live in them, I was looking forward to buying some Fryes from the new store. I know they make spectacular bags, too. Now I think - no, I know - I can never own a pair of Fryes or a bag. At least not until there are twinkling lights on some tall kousa dogwood trees on that corner again. I will miss the trees far more than I will miss the boots or the bag. I'll bet I'm not the only customer they lose over this.