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Man found lying on ground in Brighton, unconscious, with head trauma

Boston Police report they are investigating how a man in his early 20s wound up on the ground behind 354 Chestnut Hill Ave. around 2 a.m. on Friday.

The victim, suffering life-threatening head injuries, was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital. Because of the severity of his injuries, the homicide unit is leading the investigation. If you know anything, you can contact detectives at 617-343-4470, or the anonymous tip line by calling 800-494-TIPS or texting TIP to CRIME (27463).

The attack came six days after another man was left with life-threatening injuries after a beating in Brighton.

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Comments

Whenever a business wants to stay open late in Allston-Brighton, the cops always say that it will lead to more crime and point to late night incidents like this.

Well, that attitude completely ignores every shred of logic, common sense and fact (I know, I shouldn't expect those in any quantity from police anywhere). The fact is, active neighborhoods are safe neighborhoods. You look at the neighborhoods with the most crime, and especially the neighborhoods where people are getting shot, and you'll see houses, apartment buildings, parking lots and parks. Maybe there's one convenience store or a laundromat that closes around 8 pm. That means that there aren't many people with eyes on the street and it means that criminals can get up to things. This is well-understood in urban planning fields.

In Allston-Brighton, everything shuts down at 1 am, with the exception of a Tedeschi or two and the Packard's Corner Star Market, because the "Improvement" association and the police are against businesses staying open later. Well, not only does virtually all the crime in the neighborhood happen after the businesses close (and the stuff that does happen before 1 am is usually away from the business districts in places like Ringer Park or in the Chestnut Hill Reservoir), but it tends to be in these parking lots behind buildings (since the "improvement" association insists on two parking spots per residential unit and nobody drives here, there's a lot of space to beat someone without being seen).

The way things are now, if it's 2 am in Allston you run into someone with whom you have some kind of ongoing dispute and things between you are likely to get violent, there's not a lot you can do. You might run away, but where would you go that they don't know about? So you have to get it over with.

Now, imagine if businesses could stay open as late as they want. There are people around, either going to the businesses -- the Star Market is surprisingly busy at 2 am -- or working at them. So you run into your antagonist at 2 and they can't do anything except yell at you because there are too many people around. If they lure you into the parking lot there are people on cigarette breaks or taking out trash or whatever and if they still attack you, someone is likely to see it and call the police before you suffer life-threatening injuries, or you can run into a business, where they will call the cops for you.

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The chicken or the egg? The reason why businesses don't stay open late in these areas is because of the crime. Those that do stay open late have bars and Lexan protecting their employees.

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The reason why businesses don't stay open late in these areas is because of the crime.

It seems odd that you would say this, given that the city seems to be hearing from many other business owners who are interested in staying open much later. Are there any articles or testimony about this from actual business owners?

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I don't know about the areas in the original post (i.e. Allston,) but businesses certainly don't stay open late in areas where crime really IS a problem - in fact, most of the time they simply don't open there in the first place. Why do you think there's so many empty storefronts in Roxbury and certain parts of Dorchester, even though rent is dirt-cheap compared to other parts of the city?

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Have you even been to Roxbury or Dorchester? Next up, republican rant on Bengazi and Obama!

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Yes. Have you?

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a rant on how those knuckle dragging Republicans gratuitously politicize discussions for no logical reason. Sheesh.

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Allston's not much of a high crime-- or, at least, high serious crime-- area.

A lot of businesses would like to stay open later in Allston. Unless things have changed a lot since I left there many years ago, the pushback is usually because of noise and lack of police coverage available.

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FIXED for you.

The reason why businesses don't stay open late in these areas is because Paul Berkeley is a light sleeper.

Also one does not see too many bars or Lexan in Allston's bars, pizza places, Tedescci stores, or other late night businesses. It sounds to me like you are referring only to the Hess stations' cashier kiosks.

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The reason why businesses don't stay open late in these areas is because of the crime. Those that do stay open late have bars and Lexan protecting their employees

Spoken like someone who truly has no idea about the area they're talking about. I live very close to where this happened and your imagery of ghetto convenience stores with clerks behind lexan is pretty absurd. Roggies a stones throw away from BC. Businesses don't stay open late in this area because they aren't allowed to, not because of crime.

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I admit that I haven't been into RednecksCafe Mitti's in quite some time, but last time I was there, it was just a counter top, no lexan, no bars. It's in the dead center of late-night apocalyptic post-bar drunken Allston.

Oh, look, Google Maps will even let you go inside...

https://www.google.com/maps?q=cafe+mittis+boston&ll=42.352756,-71.131797...

Clearest lexan shielding I've ever seen!

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With Brighton and Allston having among the lowest crime rates around, while having more liquor licenses than any other neighborhood, it sounds like the Boston Police are correct. Later licensed premise closing hours will attract more crime and disorder. Every time I read about a particular violent assault it appears fueled by alcohol in the area of these licensed premises. Most of the owners advocating the later hours don't live near their businesses and could careless about the long term success that is invested by property owners, living there. I suggest the persons posting and advocating for later hours pickup the medical, legal and police costs for this one incident--probably over $250,000.00 when all is said and done.

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I've been going to meetings of the "improvement" association for several months and I've yet to see a single bar or pub want longer hours. Moreover, what does it matter if they do? If fights are breaking out on their property than they should lose their licenses.

If there's anyone who doesn't care it's the darn property owners, who want everyone to live in a detatched single-family home in a car-oriented suburb despite being mere yards from the Green Line and arrogate to themselves the right to demand the City enforce that standard and make Hell of the lives of people just because they came to this neighborhood after them.

And again: the concept of eyes on the street is well-established among urban planning circles and supported by empirical evidence, not the biases of homeowners whose idea of a good neighborhood is one of deathy conformity or cops who prefer their beauty sleep to doing any policing.

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BC Law is no longer at the end of the Green Line. BC had grown despite kicking and screaming from the city and the neighborhood had had enough. Families send their kids to BC to get a suburban atmosphere. Back in Wayland or Scarsdale the bars aren't open at 4 AM either. Look at the demographics.Kids like to party but when you involve the person writing the checks at BC or BU, the decision gets a little different. BU has a city vibe, BC doesn't. Doesn't make one bettr than the other, just different. At BC, you can pick up that vibe and put it down. At BU, you're in the city, period.

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There's at least two 24-hour diners in White Plains. One is a mile from the Scarsdale line.

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Whoops, spoke too soon. There's a 24-hour diner in Scarsdale itself.

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Their house was broken into a few times and when my Mom came home from her prom after midnight in '71 or '72 my grandfather answered the door with a revolver in hand. She told him off for thinking that a burglar would ring the doorbell.

Meanwhile the worst thing that's ever happened to me in a city is when I tripped on the bridge over the McGrath Highway in Winter Hill and cut my knee open.

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Allston used to have a handful of late night/all night cheap food joints. If crime incidentally increased, which I dunno about, it wasn't notable. No one died from eating $2 eggs & hash at Deli King, at least not due to criminal causes

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I'm a bit puzzled why all these comments are about Allston. The incident in question occurred deep in Brighton on a relatively desolate stretch of Chestnut Hill Ave. The previous incident occurred on a quiet corner between Allston and Brighton on a part of Comm Ave with no shops or other life at night, near a park that is well known to have problems because of its isolated geography and many hiding spots.

Matt R is right that quiet, desolate streets are dangerous in urban settings. And he's right that police here don't understand that. They are mostly cops imported from the suburbs. Many are good people, but they don't understand the difference between their suburban home and the city.

Things are changing, but as ever, slowly.

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If I'm not mistaken, it happened behind Roggie's, a BC hangout bar that seems to do pretty good business. It's all part of the same Mary Ann's, Cityside, etc. bar scene in there.

The other one was a block from where Kanagala Seshadri Rao was killed, but is it because of Ringer Park punks or because of the same atmosphere that led to 2 people being shot dead in a Kelton St apartment 2 blocks away back in 2006 related to drug trafficking/purchasing.

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I saw that, but since it happened at (after?) 2 a.m. it means that Roggie's is closed and everything else on that block is either closed, a parking lot, or a stone wall.

Not exactly what I had in mind when I think of "urban vitality".

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