Chinatown

Boston Police tweet the Sovereign Bank branch at 43 Kneeland St. was held up this afternoon by a skinny black guy, about 5'10", with a scruffy goatee and wearing a Yankees cap. He fled on foot.

The branch was last robbed Jan. 11 - by somebody not wearing a Yankees cap.

Boston Police report arresting a Dorchester man who was being chased by the two guys he alleged stabbed when officers arrived.

UPDATE: Arrest made.

Boston Police report a woman was "indecently assaulted" in the fifth-floor hallway of the Doubletree Hotel, 821 Washington St., on May 9.

The suspect is described as a dark-skinned black man with a shaved head, about 5'11" with a medium build. He appeared to be between 35 and 45 and had an accent; may have been wearing blue jeans and carrying a backpack.

This is at least the second incident involving a woman in trouble at the hotel this spring. On March 3, police arrived to investigate an incident involving a pantsless woman in the lobby who wound up in the hospital.

Imagine the bidding war between the makers of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra for this sign near the end of the turnpike:

Boston Police report a cop working a detail at the Chow Chow Restaurant, 83 Essex St. around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, heard a loud thump and looked down to see a silver gun by the feet of a guy waiting in line to place an order.

Police say Elis Brea, 25, of Roxbury, asked the officer if he could get a do-over and put the gun back in his car. "No," the officer replied. Brea was then arrested for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition - police say the gun was loaded with six rounds.

Innocent, etc.

Mike Gauthier recorded the scene outside his apartment on Hudson Street in Chinatown this afternoon, shortly after this conversation:

Me: do you smell something?
Cat: Meow

Local 718 reports the fire, first reported around 12:45, quickly went to two alarms. Residents were evacuated and Animal Control was called to deal with "a large dog" found inside.

The Boston Fire Department reports the fire did $1 million in damage and injured two firefighters - one got cuts on his face, the other suffered smoke inhalation. The cause of the fire: A short circuit in the ceiling of the front entrance.

Officials from the Doubletree Hotel on Washington Street told the Boston Licensing Board yesterday they are retraining staff following a March 3 incident in which a woman naked from the waist down sitting on a lobby couch around 2:30 a.m. was allowed to be hustled into a car outside without a call to police.

Hotel officials said this was not the first time they've had to deal with pantsless people in the lobby, which they said is to be expected at a hotel in the middle of a big city, that in the past they have tried to deal with the situation on their own and that police probably wouldn't respond, anyway. One Boston police officer and two detectives who did investigate this case attended yesterday's hearing.

But if an incident at the Glass Slipper on LaGrange Street is any proof, they need to do a better job screening the help.

The strip club, one of the few remaining in Boston, was before the Licensing Board today on a charge of serving alcohol to a minor after police discovered a drunken, drugged up and "unresponsive" stripper was under 21.

Club Manager Michael Bennett told the board the woman was a temp hired from a local agency and that she apparently arrived for duty the night of Nov. 30 already drunk. A police officer said the woman told him she'd consumed half a bottle of vodka.

Bennett said she was in such bad shape when he was called to the basement dressing room, he refused to let her perform and told her and a friend to leave immediately. He went back to the club, then discovered half an hour later they were still downstairs. One of the two told him they had nowhere to go, he took mercy on them, let them stay for a bit on condition they not go upstairs. An hour later, he said, he went back down and one of them was now passed out. Her friend said they'd also taken some pills. "As soon as I heard that, I got on the phone and called 911," he told the board.

Bennett said the club allows dancers as young as 18 - and that other staffers, including bartenders, are given clear instructions to keep them away from the booze.

Board Chairman Daniel Pokaski suggested Bennett do a better job at interviewing temporary strippers at the door. The board will decide Thursday what action to take, if any.

Chinatown Blogger recalls Ngau Ming, or, in English, Crazy Ming, probably one of the neighborhood's top kung-fu fighters - who didn't mind getting into fights at the local bars:

... When I met him I realized more clearly why it was easy for him to get into a fight. He had a crazy stare that just looked off and made you nervous even if you were his friend. Whether he was born like that or became like that over a lifetime or a combination of both is unknown to me. ...

The New Center for Arts and Culture is the latest in a string of institutions to pull out of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the Globe reports. Apparently, backers were able to raise just a quarter of the $80 million in projected costs. It joins the Horticultural Society's Garden under the Glass and the first proposal for the Boston Museum on the scrapheap. The second bid from the Boston Museum backers, which would require $120 million, and the proposed new YMCA are officially alive, but have shown no apparent ability to raise the necessary funds.

Perhaps this would be a good moment for the city to step back, take a deep breath, and rethink the entire Greenway scheme.

Boston Police report a woman sitting in her car at Hudson and Tai Tung streets around 7:20 a.m. on Feb. 18 was ordered to hand over her purse by two black men. When she refused, they punched her in the face and grabbed her purse.

Boston Police report a woman was pulled from her car, punched in the face and robbed, around 2:49 p.m. on Feb. 16 at Beach Street and Harrison Avenue.

Boston Police report a man getting into his van at 21 Edinboro St. was approached by two men who demanded money around 5:50 a.m. on Jan. 27, then punched him in the face, took his wallet and drove away in his van. Suspects described as one black male and one man who might be white.

Boston Police report an elderly woman was robbed of $100 by a black man, about 6'1", who grabbed her by the neck and pushed her to the ground as she was trying to get into the elevator at 15 Oxford St.

The Chinatown Blog relays a police report on three carjackings and two street robberies since Jan. 17. In four cases, victims were punched in the face; in the fifth, the victim was grabbed by the neck and shoved to the ground. Police are looking for a pair of mugggers - one black, the other one possibly white.

The Boston Public Health Commission reports a double-digit decline in salmonella cases among Bostonians of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, which it credits to a public-awarness campaign aimed at Chinatown residents.

According to the commission:

In 2007 Asian/Pacific Islanders in Boston accounted for 23 percent of the 175 salmonella cases, though they made up just 8 percent of the city's population. By 2009 they represented only 8 percent of the 135 reported salmonella cases, a 65 percent decrease. Similarly, in 2007, Asian/Pacific Islanders were 41 percent of all salmonella cases in children under age 10, compared to 15 percent in 2009.

In 2008, in response to high rates, the city began a "Chill, Clean, Separate, and Cook" food-safety campaign focused on showing residents how to more safely cook food.

Tom O'Keefe takes in the Chinese New Year festivities in Chinatown:

Mike Ball took photos and shows us the littlest lion:

Blecch

On Sunday, the Globe Magazine posited that Bostonians who object to City Hall, the JFK Building and that mental-health building with the staircases to nowhere are simply stupid, plebian dunderheads unable to grasp the magnificence and brilliance of these 1960s and 1970s edifices and their role in restoring Boston's luster after decades of decline. Or as writer Sarah Schweitzer (of course), put it:

Boston Police report a woman sitting in her car at 25 Beach St. was approached by a black man, about 5'10", who opened her car door and attempted to snatch her purse. She resisted, he punched her in the face, then got her out of her car and drove away.

The FBI reports the Sovereign Bank branch at 43 Kneeland St. was robbed around 3:50 p.m. on Monday by a guy who showed a note and motioned as if he had a gun.

Look familiar? Call the FBI Bank Robbery and Violent Crimes Task force at 617-223-6408.

David Schachner wandered around downtown last night, taking photos, including this one.

Copyright David Schachner. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Channel 4 reports the 7-year-old student at the Quincy School in Chinatown was rushed to nearby Tufts Medical Center this afternoon. The Herald reports he was revived by two school nurses.

And now the Orange Line has ground to a halt.

So the Fire Department puts out a $100,000 fire in a prominent Chinatown restaurant and uncovers illegal living quarters and possibly a gambling den in the seven floors above it. The Herald has the story. The Globe doesn't.

A Chinatown restaurant's decision to seat two separate parties at the same table early one May morning led to a mugging and beating that left one man with permanent brain damage, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office and Boston Police charge, announcing the arrest of three men and a teenager for the attack.