Hyde Park

A look at the ramifications of the upgrade of the Fairmount Line, which will include four new stations. Skip to 1:30 unless you want to count up all the government buzzwords.

Via the Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition.

Updated Monday afternoon.

Boston Police report two men got into a gunfight around 7 p.m. on Pierce Street near West Street.

The first man shot managed to throw his gun into the street, but witnesses quickly pointed out the gun and him to police. The other alleged gunsel got a few doors down the street before collapsing, police say.

Police say they recovered both guns used in the exchange. Both men will be charged with assault with intent to murder and various weapons charges once released from the hospital, police say, adding both are expected to survive. AlertNewEngland reports one victim was shot in the leg, the other in the back.

It was a busy night along River Street in Mattapan and Hyde Park. Around 2:30 a.m., firefighters beat down a fire in an abandoned building at 797 River St., across from the Public Storage building. Chris Tucker, Independent News Service, took these photos.

That was about 90 minutes after Boston Police required all hands on deck to break up a large party further down the road in Hyde Park, by Reservation Road.

The front of the building.

A Suffolk County Superior Court jury today convicted Ruben Sanchez, 20, of second-degree murder for the death of Paula Castillo in a Hillis Road apartment on Sept. 19, 2009.

Two of Sanchez's pals, Miguel Vazquez and Andres Brea, were convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm and carrying a loaded firearm.

Prosecutors said the three were kicked out of the party for arguing with the hostess, but as they exited, continued to yell:

They walked out to Brea's red Honda Civic and Sanchez pulled out a gun; at the same time, Castillo was leaning out of the second-floor window.

Sanchez pointed the gun at the Hyde Park home and fired several shots, in what Hickman described as Sanchez’s way of "sending a message" to the people inside.

Castillo was struck in the neck and died a short time later after collapsing on the kitchen floor of the apartment.

The three will be sentenced on July 6.

An ex-Stop & Shop barely remains on Truman Parkway. Last week, it looked like they'd fill the lot behind the Jersey barriers with construction equipment and never get to tearing down the not-so-supermarket, liquor store, bank and pharmacy.

Two workdays later, there's not much left. An empty brick shell may be gone this week. We're figuring to see the big-assed version of grocery and drugstore within six months. Walgreen's is now a trailer pharmacy.

When Americans get into deconstruction, they get serious.

The Boston Licensing Board this week approved a Truman Parkway coffeehouse/ice-cream place that will include a seasonal outdoor patio.

Tom Papadopoulos is opening Bean & Cream a couple doors down from his Cappy's Pizza, at the intersection of Truman and Fairmount Avenue.

At a hearing on Wednesday, City Councilor Rob Consalvo said he can't wait for the grand opening and that it represents an extension of the dining renaissance over the tracks around Logan Square. He praised Papadopoulos for his community work. Nobody opposed ice cream.

Boston Police report arresting a Hyde Park man on drunk-driving charges - and that his two daughters delivered him to the police station for booking.

Our own John Keith writes about a charter school that used state funds to help buy a Bay Village building, sell it at a tidy profit and then use not just that money but more state aid to move to a rehabbed building in Hyde Park.

An SUV driver and a passenger on an MBTA bus were taken to the hospital when the two vehicles collided on Hyde Park Avenue around 5:30 p.m. - the driver with a cut left arm, the passenger with a hand injury, the MBTA says. Two more passengers were taken to the hospital for observation.

According to the MBTA, the SUV pulled out of a driveway in front of the inbound 32 bus, at 1715 Hyde Park Avenue. The left front of the SUV struck the right front of the window. The SUV careened through a chain-link fence and down a two-foot drop near an old factory building; the bus's right front window shattered. T police are continuing to investigate.

State and Boston Police sealed off Hyde Park Avenue on either side of the collision until after the last of the passengers was taken away in an ambulance.

NOTE: Post updated with information from Boston Police.

Boston Police report a man was shot in the shoulder around 4:10 p.m. at 135 Windham Rd. He was treated and released at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

AlertNewEngland reports police fled in a black Chrysler with Connecticut plates. Police say the vehicle was later recovered in Mattapan - and that one suspect was arrested.

The scene is not far from Arborfield Road in Roslindale, where a house was shot up in February, possible as part of a war between gangs in Hyde Park and Roslindale.

Boston Police tweet the Sovereign Bank branch at 860 River St. was held up around 2 p.m. The robber did not show a gun.

The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to let Tony's Pizzeria on Fairmount Avenue stay open until 2 a.m. and to give the owner of the planned Drifters Restaurant on Hyde Park serve food until 1 a.m.

City officials, however, opposed the late hours at both establishments.

The Norfolk County District Attorney's office reports it recently dropped charges of armed assault with intent to murder against three men because the alleged victim and the main witness - his sister - refused to testify.

Geraldo Lerouge, 20, of Hyde Park, Ricardo Clermont, 21, of Quincy and Milor Nerette, 18, of Randolph, had all been charged for the attack, in which the victim was allegedly jumped and sliced with a box cutter while coming out of a chocolate shop on Feb. 17.

A spokesman for the district attorney's office said prosecutors were unable to persuade the victim and witness to show up in court; without them, there was not enough evidence to proceed.

Police say the three are part of the Wood Avenue Eagles, a Hyde Park gang whose members wear the colors of the Philadelphia football team.

The Boston Fire Department reports Boston Trinity Academy on Hale Street was evacuated and two teachers taken to the hospital as a precaution after "several ounces" of ammonia spilled from a 24-ounce bottle in a closet around 12:30 p.m.

The school's 210 students were sent home for the day as a BFD hazmat team cleaned up the spill.

Ralph Appolon, 30, formerly of Watertown, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for his part in a mortgage-flipping scheme that netted participants $10.6 million, the US Attorney's Office in Boston reports.

Boston Police report arresting a Hyde Park man after he "approached an underage woman and attempted to talk to her about engaging in a dating/sexual relationship" and then, when she spurned him, made comments about her sexual orientation.

At first, police say, officers called by the teen's family around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at 1045 River St. just wanted to get his side of the story. But then they noticed the large bulge in his pocket:

Mike Ball is astonished to read in the New York Times that "the increasingly rare New England cottontail rabbit" can only be glimpsed in tangled thickets. Astonished because a family of cottontails are regular visitors to his front yard in Hyde Park's Fairmount Hill:

A family of them has an odd attraction to our newspapers. When I got out a 5:30 or 6 a.m., I sometimes see one or two or three of them nosing about our papers. So far, they haven't opened the plastic bags or shown us their favorite sections. I assume the oddity of two or three of the parcels tossed at the base of the sidewalk that attracts them. Perhaps they wonder if there is food involved.

Regardless, when I trot the 50 or so feet, they do notice me and hop slowly out of reach. They aren't in any hurry though.

Well ...

Our resident wildlife expert, Jef Taylor, explains:

Boston bunnies are almost all Eastern Cottontails. NE cottontails are different species, found out in the sticks.

The Portsmouth Herald reports two Wood Avenue residents have been arrested on charges they forced a 16-year-old girl into prostitution in a Portsmouth hotel.

Charlie Redd, late of the South End's Coda, reports his Redd's in Rozzie at what used to be Geoffrey's on Washington Street, is now open.

So far, dinner hours only (1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday). Full bar, he reports. The Boston Licensing Board tomorrow considers his request to buy the liquor license from Beth McNichols, who owns the building and who ran Salute before leasing it to Geoffrey's and then, briefly, Adams Park, before teaming up with Redd.

Meanwhile, looks like somebody is getting ready to open an ice-cream place on Truman Parkway at Fairmount Avenue, next to Cappy's Pizza. Although it's called Bean & Cream, and has a coffee-cup in its logo, Hyde Park denizen Mike Ball informs us (see the comments), it'll be run as an ice-cream place, not a coffee house.

The rear entrance to Brennan's on River Street in Cleary Square, Hyde Park.

http://westroxbury.patch.com/articles/irish-social-club-closes-abruptly

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/west_roxbury/2011/04/after_65_years_irish_social_cl.html

The last dance was this past Sunday, no notice about the closing or about the financial situation was given to members. If the building does need to be sold couldn't there be some match up with the YMCA or Roche Center. It seems hard to believe that area Irish Step Dancing schools wouldn't have been interesting in renting the space for classes.

AlertNewEngland reports two gunmen relieved somebody of $8,000 at 94 Clare Ave. in Hyde Park this afternoon, then fled toward Canterbury Street in a light blue Ford Focus or Fusion.

The city announced today that River Street will be torn up and rebuilt this spring and summer, from Fairmount Avenue in Hyde Park to Cummins Highway in Mattapan Square.

The project is part of a $20-million road-repair project that will also mean repairs to Walnut Avenue in Roxbury and various roads in the Frederick Douglass areas of the South End and Roxbury. Also:

For the first time ever, the campaign includes an extensive effort to notify residents of work that will be done to nearby streets.

Boston Police tweet the Hyde Park Market, 853 River St., was held up at noontime by a black male wearing a white shirt and a North Face hoodie who ran toward Wood Avenue. No injuries.

Channel 4 reports a woman burned out of her River Street home last month recently returned to the property to look for belongings - and promptly heard scratching noises being made by her pet, Lola the long-haired dachshund. Lola had somehow survived not only the two-alarm fire but being locked inside the remains of the building for a month.