Hyde Park

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.

Darryl Houston reports Albert Winestein on Fairmount Avenue seems to have bitten the cork and closed up for good.

An alert motorist forwards this photo of smoke billowing out of the chimney at the Boston Police Academy in Hyde Park late yesterday afternoon. He reports it's the second time he's seen thick black smoke like that, wonders if the recruits have gotten into the pope-selecting business or if not, what they're burning to create such nasty-looking smoke.

Boston Police are looking for two guys who held up the Stop & Shop on Truman Parkway shortly after 3 p.m., then fled toward the Neponset Valley Parkway in a U-Haul truck. One of the men motioned as if he had a gun, but did not actually display one.

Both suspects are black. One is about 5'8" and was wearing a Patriots cap. The other is about 6'.

What kind of coverage do you think the local media outlets would give to the following story?

Two alleged members of the Wood Avenue Eagles gang were arraigned yesterday on charges they stabbed an alleged Roslindale gang member in the South Shore Plaza in Braintree on Feb. 17.

Boston Police, meanwhile, are investigating whether gunfire four hours later on Arborfield Road in Roslindale was intended as a warning to a witness to the stabbing, a source says. The source adds, however, that the gunman fired at the wrong house - taking out an innocent woman's window and leaving her with a bullet lodged in her refrigerator.

We'd just turned onto River Street from, um, River Street when, blam, beautiful sunset. And it only seemed to last for a couple of minutes. "Nice shot! Nice shot!" this guy yelled when I pulled over by the Bank of America to take some photos.

Press Pass Tv is a nonprofit organization that engages youth in advocacy journalism to tell the stories of communities working for change. Jean Grae performed at the 3rd Eye open 11th Hip Hop Festival. Press PassTv was able to catch Jean before her performance. She discussed her record sales and her old school flavor. Jean described how she maintained her own identity and how we all have a responsibilty to ourselves to follow our bliss. Jean advises young and up coming artists to not "worry about what the industry or society thinks or dictates, be yourself and stick to it and it will pay off in the end." Click here to watch the video Press Pass TV Interview with Jean Grae

Readville fire. Photo by BFD (more photos).

The Boston Fire Department reports a fire called in around 1:45 a.m. at 1825 River St. did roughly $350,000 in damage and required one resident to be taken to a local hospital.

Investigators are now attempting to determine the cause of the blaze in the two-family house.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury today found Kevin Louis not guilty for the murder of a Hyde Park teenager in a shootout, but found him guilty of several gun charges, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Prosecutors did not allege Louis fired the fatal bullets that killed Roniel Marc - police continue to hunt for the shooter - but tried him for murder under the "joint venture" doctrine under which somebody can be charged with murder if their actions contributed to the victim's death.

Prosecutors charged that Louis and two other men showed up at a July 4th cookout on Wood Avenue to settle a beef with Marc and that Louis and the actual shooter chased him through several yards before engaging in a shootout with him at Wood and Edwardson Street.

The jury found Louis guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and unlawfully carrying a loaded firearm. He will be sentenced on those charges Thursday morning, the DA's office says.

Way up on lofty Fairmount Hill in Hyde Park, Mike Ball shakes an angry fist at the plow guy who kept pushing snow onto his hard-won shoveled-out driveway.

The evil plowman returned three times after his initial run, each time undoing considerable of my work, replacing open spaces at two points on our 50 feet of sidewalk as well as the wide driveway. I even waved him off twice, to no response. I have no doubt he was hanging around the neighborhood and reworking dry streets just to keep his hourly rate in play. He is an imp of no breeding and low morality.

Pro tip: If you're not going anywhere for the day, don't shovel all the way out to the street. The wall you leave behind will act like a dam and keep some of the plowman's handiwork out.

Alex Jones spotted this display today at the Walgreens - just in time for tonight's storm.