Handmaid shot the Zakim Saturday morning.
Downtown
Mayor Wu today announced a proposal to open up empty commercial space downtown to residential use by offering 75% off standard residential tax rates for up to 29 years for building owners - and by setting up a new office to speed conversions through the city's normal development approval process. Read more.
Boston Police report teaming up with Transit and State Police to capture an alleged bank robber they say used the Orange Line as his escape route after a Downtown Crossing bank robbery, possibly because in an earlier Boston robbery, he tried using a stolen car, only to be foiled when he crashed the car, ran somebody over and was tackled by a bystander. Read more.
With the Sumner Tunnel now shut for the next two months, the Blue Line is now free, as Donna shows us at Orient Heights. Kind of makes you wonder if freeing the T might be a way for the state to reduce congestion and carbon emissions on Boston-area roads, although that would probably require a fully functional T system.
The bad news is it's flooded, due to water gushing onto the tracks near Haymarket, the MBTA reports, adding riders downtown can, of course, use the Green Line. More distant riders can get on commuter rail at Forest Hills, Ruggles or Malden Center, although the T doesn't say whether you'll have to pay extra.
Matt Conti got a bird's-eye view of last night's Boston Harborfest fireworks over the harbor.
After watching the fireworks towed into place, Matt Frank watched the fireworks from the other side of the Tobin Bridge: Read more.
NBC Boston posts video of "chunks of concrete falling from the ceiling near riders at the Downtown Crossing station on Monday." On a Red Line platform, because that's the line where things fall from above, as opposed to the Orange Line, where things catch on fire.
Tina StGelais Kelly posted some photos from the scene at the State Street Blue Line stop at 5:10 p.m., which make her doubt the Blue Line can possibly handle any of those motorists the state is urging to take the Blue Line when the Sumner shuts on July 5 for repairs: Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that car dealerships that loan out cars to customers awaiting repairs to their own vehicles are in the rental business, and that means they are covered by a federal law that prohibits their financial liability for any problems caused by the cars' drivers - even if they are unlicensed and in a car that wasn't supposed to be taken out of state. Read more.
The Dubliner in Center Plaza downtown won't give up its name without a fight - it filed a countersuit today against an older Dubliner pub in Washington, DC that demands it change its name. Read more.
WBUR reports Boston City Hall, built as a brutalist monument to a new age, is getting old and needs like $80 million in repairs - some due to the fact that its architects failed to plan for repairs or renovations to certain key systems, such as hot-water pipes completely encased in the building's concrete structure.
If you stand on Washington Street at Summer and Winter in Downtown Crossing at look up above the building that houses the Corner Mall, you'll see a lionish gargoyle looking for a particularly plump pedestrian to chow down on. But if you look alllll the way up, at the very top of the building, you'll see a line of screaming gargoyles who have had quite enough of the classical music the Corner insists on loudly playing at the Washington Street entrance.
Who knew it would be the Forest Hills platform on the Orange Line at Downtown Crossing at 10:37 on a Monday morning?