East Boston
Coast Guard escorting an LNG tanker last summer.
Dan Hill, who lives near Boston Harbor and is running for state senate in a district that includes Chelsea and Everett, says the state should do everything it can to try to keep LNG tankers out of Boston Harbor - especially Yemeni ones - and phase out the Distrigas natural-gas terminal in Everett in favor of a new facility in Naragansett Bay:
Hill noted that for new LNG ports the Coast Guard requires "security zones" restricting movement within 1,000 yards on either side of an LNG tanker, a standard that could not possibly be met in Boston Harbor. "I find it disturbing that safety requirements for new facilities apparently do not need to be met for existing facilities."
Boston Police report arresting three East Boston youths after a melee outside the White Hen Pantry on Byron Street Saturday night. Read more
Adam Balsam says Tom Menino and Sal LaMattina should stop their posturing, listen to the Coast Guard and admit giant LNG tankers are safe.
Matt Conti, who lives in the North End, acknowledges the risk of a neighborhood-consuming fireball is low, but notes all the precautions the Coast Guard takes and says Boston shouldn't have to be the only city in the US where giant LNG tankers are allowed in a densely populated area.
An East Boston convenience store that wants to sell beer and wine will have a tough job convincing city officials to overturn a longstanding, if informal, policy of limiting licenses to full-fledged packies and a few grandfathered establishments. Read more
Over the objections of city officials, who don't want the risk of ships from a terrorist haven, the Globe reports.
Ladder 29 tweets investigators are looking at "a large grass fire" that also involved two Dumpsters between Vallar Road and Faywood Avenue in East Boston tonight.
On Jan. 25, fire crews knocked down a basement fire nearby at 15 Crestway Rd.
Students and teachers at the Umana Middle School have launched a historical society to chronicle the neighborhood's rich past (such as the soon-to-be-demolished Immigration Intake Building through which one in six Americans can trace an ancestor - who knew?).
Local 718 tweets crews quickly knocked down a heavy fire at 15 Crestway Rd. tonight.
Boston Police report three teens - two 14, one 16, were held up by a kid with a knife who threatened one of them by saying "If you tell your mommy I will kill you." Read more
State Transportation Secretary Jeff Mullan last week told the state Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs it can stop studying the long planned Urban Ring bus network because the state has no money to build it and what money it does have it needs to use to fix up existing transit lines.
However, in a letter to the department, Mullan said his staff will continue to look at ways to deal with cross-town transit in coming decades, because otherwise, by 2030, both the Red and Green lines will be seriously over-capacity at rush hour. Read more
Boston Police report arresting one guy who allegedly got off five rounds in Dorchester without hitting anybody and finding the detritus of another guy in East Boston who fired a gun four times without hitting anybody. Read more
District A-7 reports a man who met a young woman on Bennington Street late Monday night made the mistake of heading over to London Court for some face action with her - she had a little surprise for him:
The victim was then struck in the back of the head by unknown suspect(s) who then fled down London Street towards Porter Street. The suspects made off with the victims wallet containing $200.00 in US currency, drivers license and credit/debit cards. The victim was not injured; the officers searched the area for the suspects yielding negative results.
The siren is described as "a teenage white female with long brown hair."
Jenn Martinelli, late of Beacon Hill and Fenway, is learning to love her new digs in East Boston:
... In the Fenway and Beacon Hill there were always ambulances and police cars and fire engines screaming past. We're in a quiet residential neighborhood now and have heard no such thing.
UPDATE: The T says buses will run instead of trains between Airport and Suffolk Downs at least through this evening as workers replace the downed power lines.
Local 718 tweets the train stopped 500 feet short of the station when the power went out this morning; firefighters were called in to help passengers get to the station.
MBTA Transit Police tweet the overhead power lines fell down between Orient Heights and Suffolk Downs.
The T replaced trains north of Maverick with shuttle buses, although Leah McCoy tweets some of the bus drivers were a bit unclear on the concept:
Epic fail. Blue line busing from wonderland to maverick. Except no one tells the bus driver, he kicks us off at orient heights.
Jim introduces us to Ernani DeAraujo, now repping Tom Menino in place of that guy who got in a spot of trouble.
Boston Police say a man who shows gas-station clerks a red gas can and tells them his car has run out of gas before he holds them up is suspected in at least three armed holdups this month - in East Boston, Dorchester and West Roxbury.
Police say he's between 5'11" and 6'1" - and that he pulled the gas-can stunt at Shell stations at 154 Morissey Blvd. in Dorchester on Jan. 2 and 510 VFW Parkway in West Roxbury on Jan. 1. Yesterday, police say, he held up the Neptune Convenience Store, 3 Neptune Circle, in East Boston, around 10:15 p.m. He fled in a brown Impala. In addition to dressing warmly, he also has a preference for Newport cirgarettes, police say.
Anyone with information can call detectives at 617-343-4234 or the anonymous tip line at 800-494-TIPS (also reachable by texting TIP to CRIME).
More photos of Gas Can Guy.
The Boston Fire Department reports a basement short circuit sparked a four-alarm fire that did $500,000 in damage to two buildings and displaced 20 people. Read more
Channel 7 reports Suffolk Superior Court officials refuse to believe Sal Esposito of East Boston is really just a cat and so have refused to give the feline a pass on jury duty.
District A-7 reports that when Verizon workers asked some jamoke what the hell he was doing in one of their bucket trucks at Crestway Road and Waldemar Avenue in East Boston Wednesday morning, he claimed he was doing work for Comcast. After they chased him off, the workers discovered he had stolen roughly $55,000 worth of copper cable.
He's described as white, about 35 and unshaven.
District A-7 reports a man standing in the doorway of 55 Chelsea St. was robbed by a guy who flashed "a small dull looking badge" and said he was a cop, around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 4. Read more
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