Chinatown

The Wilbur Theater posted a larger version of this photo today along with this caption:

Beaver caught by police on Washington st in Chinatown. In white box.

Can I get a WTF? I bet there's quite a tail here.

WBUR reports.

Joshua Miller reports he picked up a dragon fruit at C-Mart today.

Boston Police report arresting two men they say showed up at Felt on Washington Street with a loaded gun - then headed over to Chinatown for an early morning bite.

Police say officers were monitoring Felt at closing time today due to online chatter indicating a potential for violence:

Orange Line outside Chinatown, not the set of the Taking of Pelham 1-2-3. Photo by BFD.

UPDATE, 3:20 p.m.: BFD reports no more fire, but that there's still smoke from smoldering grease and trash on the tracks under the train as firefighters continue to evacuate 225 passengers. The train itself was not on fire.

An inbound train about 100 feet from Chinatown station appears to be on fire. Passengers are being escorted off the train; Chinatown station is being evacuated.

Daniel Adams reports:

Was waiting on SB Chinatown platform. 3 loud thunks, horrible chemical smoke. Fire near wheels of NB train.

Boston Police report they are looking for a brown Toyota Corolla, Mass. plates 58K E18, stolen this morning at 628 Washington St., by somebody who punched the driver in the face, then took off.

Kennedy famously made sure Rupert Murdoch had to choose between keeping Channel 25 and the Herald (a couple decades after the feds stripped the Herald-Traveler of its TV license) and now the Federal Highway Administration thinks the state should make Herald owner Pat Purcell take down the billboard atop the (eventually to be former) Herald plant next to the Expressway.

The FHA also expresses ire over the giant banner on the Fenway Community Health Center building on Boylston Street in the Fenway, which is right next to, um, er, hey, what highway is it next to again?

Gourmet Dumpling House on Beach Street in Chinatown feels you have a right to know.

Press Pass Tv is a nonprofit organization that engages youth in advocacy journalism to tell the stories of communities working for change. Jean Grae performed at the 3rd Eye open 11th Hip Hop Festival. Press PassTv was able to catch Jean before her performance. She discussed her record sales and her old school flavor. Jean described how she maintained her own identity and how we all have a responsibilty to ourselves to follow our bliss. Jean advises young and up coming artists to not "worry about what the industry or society thinks or dictates, be yourself and stick to it and it will pay off in the end." Click here to watch the video Press Pass TV Interview with Jean Grae

Cure Lounge today signed a consent settlement that ends a state investigation into the way it shut a post-Game party by black Harvard graduates in November, the state Attorney General's office announced.

The consent settlement requires the club to pay a $30,000 fine, send its workers to anti-discrimination workshops and issue this statement:

Boston Police report arresting a Lynnfield man inside the East Ocean City Restaurant on Beach Street around 5 this morning, where he had allegedly dropped on a table to flop like a fish:

Upon entering the building, officers located a white male, who appeared to be extremely intoxicated, lying on a table inside the establishment. When asked to explain why he was inside the restaurant, the suspect was unable to.

According to witnesses, the suspect was seen kicking the glass door before shattering it. Witnesses further state, once inside, the suspect was seen with a fish net in hand attempting to snag fish out of the fish tank.

A floundering Brian McBride, 27, now faces a date with the scales of justice tomorrow in Boston Municipal Court, where he will have to listen to prosecutors recite his alleged tale of breaking and entering.

Innocent, etc.

Greg Cook took in the celebrations of the Year of the Hare in Chinatown yesterday .

The Small Boston Kitchen reports on a Chinese New Year celebration last night at the newly re-opened Dumpling Cafe on Washington Street downtown:

The steamed dumplings were so soft and tender, each bite packed with the flavors of fresh vegetables and various meats.

Archstone evacuation. Photo by Courtney Sacco. More photos.

A burst pipe in a stairwell of the 28-story Archstone building at 660 Washington St. forced all its residents into the chill night air as firefighters tried to stop the flow. This morning, workers have to try to repair extensive damage, especially to the building's electrical system and lighting fixtures; many walls are now waterlogged as well.

Hall mess. BFD photo.The building has more than 1,000 residents in 420 apartments; all were ordered out after the pipe broke around 10:20 p.m., the Boston Fire Department reports. The MBTA supplied several buses for residents to sit in on the coldest day of the year; by 3 a.m., residents without other places to go were brought to an emergency shelter set up at the Quincy School.

The department says the flooding began when an elbow in a pipe feeding sprinklers in a stairwell on the ninth floor burst, sending water flowing down stairs and into hallways and apartments.

In a series of tweets, the department described the damage: "Water throughout in light fixtures, elevator shafts, stairwells, the lobby and apartment floors 1-9."

Top photo copyright Courtney Sacco. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Suzanne LeeSuzanne Lee, former principal at the Josiah Quincy School, said today she's running for the District 2 council seat held by Bill Linehan:

I've dedicated my entire adult life to making things better for the community, by bringing people together to solve problems. As City Councilor I aim to bring my passion for activism, my commitment to public education, and my ability to solve problems to make Boston a place where all working families can have affordable housing, decent jobs, and thriving neighborhoods.

Earlier this year, Lee helped organize an effort to restore a branch library to Chinatown.

The daughter of immigrants, Lee grew up in Grove Hall, went to Girl's Latin (now Boston Latin Academy) and became the first person in her family to attend college. She spent 35 years as an educator in the Boston school system.

Lee said she's already raised $24,000 for her bid to unseat Linehan for the right to represent South Boston, the South End and Chinatown.

For the second day in a row, Orange Line service was interrupted by a trash fire on the tracks at a station, this time at Chinatown. Boston Fireman reports the fire started shortly before 3 p.m. on the inbound side and that firefighters made short work of it.

Yesterday's trash-in-the-pit fire was at Downtown Crossing. Today's fire was Chinatown's first in more than four days. Tom Bruno suggests:

The MBTA needs a sign at each station: "No fires in ___ days"

Where to begin? Oh, yeah, with the fire at Chinatown on the Orange Line that stopped service. Then there's the downed wire at Wood Island, leading to premature termination of the Blue Line at Maverick. The Red Line had a recalcitrant switch at Alewife. And the Green Line has turned into the Snail Line.

On a positive note, no delays reported on the Mattapan Line.

Kat Monaghan noticed something a little different on Bennet Street behind Tufts Medical Center. Wonder if he's friends with the invisible panhandler.

Copyright Kat Monaghan. Posted with permission.

Paul Villanova, a graduate film student at BU who produced and directed the short, says he's "very interested in shooting the parts of the city you rarely see in local student films (i.e., anything that isn't the B Line)."

For whatever reasons, today's storm caught us unawares. Courtney Sacco photographed a three-car crash that shut the Forest Hills overpass.

Jack Gately got stuck on the Zakim Bridge:

It wasn't all doom and gloom. Julie C captured a quiet scene in Chinatown:

Photos copyright Courtney Sacco, Julie C. and Jack Gately, respectively.

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The city licensing office has ordered an 11-day suspension of the entertainment license for Venu, following a November melee at the Warrenton Street club that took cops from across the city - and repeated shots of pepper spray - to break up.

The Boston Licensing Board - a separate state agency - could add even more time to the punishment following its own hearing today. Acting board Chairman Michael Connolly noted similar problems at Rumor, which shares the same building and owners with Venu, and said he's worried what would happen if two of the four large clubs in the area have violent outbursts at the same time, because Boston Police might not have the resources to quickly put down a multi-club disturbance.

"Boy, oh, boy, I'm more concerned than I've ever been, and I've been on this board for ten years, that this thing is just going to explode one night," Connolly told club officials. "Structurally, the concern goes well beyond any one establishment. A potential tinderbox exists there. This thing could just blow sky high ... if things get out of hand on any one night."

The Herald reports.

Managers at Rumor, 100 Warrenton St., say they immediately began using metal detectors after a bouncer was stabbed during a brawl in the club this past July, with a knife one patron apparently smuggled in under his junk.

The Harvard Crimson gets the Cure Lounge's version of events at that post-Game black alumni event from PRmeister George Regan: Basically, there were troublemaking gang bangers trying to get in, and it's the alumni group's fault for not getting party-goers to bring Harvard or Yale IDs.

Regan says the club has good reason to avoid trouble - it got into a lot of it under its old name: Aria.