North End

Boston Restaurant Talk reports.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports on an argument that ended with one man being transported to Mass. General with a split-open forehead late on June 4.

AlertNewEngland reports somebody was stabbed tonight at Salem and Cooper streets.

Attack bird lurks, awaits next victim.

From Citizens Connect:

A very aggressive bird (bluejay maybe) attacks anything, human or dog, that comes through this part of the Harborwalk between 40 Battery and Union Wharf. Can animal control do something about it?

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports district A-1's printed up cards asking the high-volume set to be more courteous to the people who live in the neighborhood:

Residents complain that loud groups of people "disturb the peace" when talking (or screaming) on the streets late at night. The density of North End / Waterfront buildings tends to amplify voices in the street. Police intend to target visitors gathering in groups or walking to their cars (or the T) after a night out in the neighborhood.

The Boston Fire Department reports a careless smoker sparked a fire this afternoon on the roof deck of 16 Parmenter St. that spread inside the building.

The fire caused an estimated $250,000 in damage.

The fire was only a few blocks from where another smoker destroyed a waterfront law office through careless disposal of a cigarette earlier this month.

How did they get there? Nobody knows, NorthEndWaterfront.com reports, adding somebody took one home tonight for dinner.

NorthEndWaterfront.com gets briefed on what's in a consultant's report on re-routing of trucks along Atlantic and Commercial avenues. In fact, the report goes further - urging all hazmat trucks to stay out of the city altogether and stick to 95 and 128 unless they're making deliveries to local businesses.

The city had banned hazardous cargoes from the North End, but the feds overruled the city last year. Truckers want the right to detour through the city around I-93, from which they're now banned because much of the highway is in a tunnel, from which trucks carrying potentially explosive materials are banned.

Imagine City Hall or the Hynes covered in vines.

If Nate Swain has his way, it could happen. For the past couple of years, he's been covering eyesores in the North End with vinyl canvases covered with high-resolution photos. See if you can spot his work in the photo above.

His first project was in a building facing Salem and Prince streets in 2009. He photographed and then printed scenes such as a cat on a windowsill with flowers in pots; a goldfish swimming in a bowl, printed them onto a mesh vinyl back, then installed them over the windows. The idea is to create a sort of an "idyllic" concept, as he calls it.

Imagine this with windows and tables and steaming bowls of chowder.

A lawsuit by North End residents has tied up a proposed restaurant at the end of Long Wharf for so long the Boston Licensing Board held a hearing today to help decide whether to revoke the proposed eatery's liquor license.

The board votes Thursday on whether to continue to give the proposed operator of Doc's Long Wharf enough time to await a Suffolk Superior Court decision on the suit and to turn what is now a largely ornamental structure into a restaurant or to rescind his liquor license and award it to somebody else.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports on proposed "hybrid" bike lanes along Commercial Street and Atlantic Avenue that would swap the normal positions of car-parking and bike lanes on one side of the streets. Also, Segways would be allowed.

Minutemen, members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co. a few politicians and some bystanders marched from City Hall to the North End today to commemorate the rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes. The procession stopped at Dawes's grave at King's Chapel Cemetery and at Revere's grave at the Granary Burying Ground, to present a wreath and play taps, before continuing down Bromfield, Washington and Congress streets and then down Hanover into the North End, where a modern-day Paul Revere waited on a horse so that he could take off towards Lexington to warn the colonials.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports parents at the North End's only elementary school are planning a phone campaign tomorrow to try to convince city and school officials to expand the school.

But where would students go? The North Bennet Street School is looking at a possible swap in which it would move into the old city printing press and North Street police station and in exchange give the city its current four buildings.

Yes, Ronnie from "General Hospital" visited the North End today.

NorthEndWaterfront.com posts a copy of a petition from parents at the Eliot School asking the city to expand what is the downtown area's only public elementary school:

The recent Boston Public School lottery assignments left many of our families with no placements in the system. These displaced North End families are now facing very difficult decisions regarding their ability to raise their children here.

We are proposing to expand the Eliot School so it can accommodate the growing families of the North End as well as the surrounding neighborhoods it already serves - West End, Beacon Hill, Charlestown, East Boston, etc. Expanding the Eliot would not only benefit the North End families, but also families all over the city who have hopes to send their children to the Eliot. We sincerely request that the expansion be completed for the 2011-2012 school year.

Meanwhile, Open Media Boston posts a video of BPS students protesting planned school closures and consolidations.

NorthEndWaterfront.com posts some photos of printing presses being moved out of the old city print shop on North Street yesterday.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports on a proposal to stock neighborhood trash barrels with free brooms, in the hopes people will use them to sweep up a little bit of the neighborhood. The project is called Spazzare, which is Italian for "to sweep," and which, of course, needs an appropriate theme song, maybe something like:

Spazzare, oh oh
Cantare, oh oh oh oh
Let's sweep way up to the clouds
Away from the slobbering crowds
We can sing in the glow of a broom that I know of
Where lovers enjoy peace of mind
Let us leave the gross dirt and all filthy vermin behind
Just like birds of a feather, a clean street together we'll find

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports the North End Waterfront Residents' Association voted to support the Living Room's request for a DJ license so it can play tracks from iPods, but said it can't support its bid to extend its closing time from 1 to 2 a.m.

Ned Batchelder attended, reports on last week's auction of the remains of the Boston city printing office:

The two Linotype machines went for $10 each, precisely because they were so unwieldy. Everyone was relieved that they were bought by The Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation, rather than to a scrapper who considered them only so many pounds of metal and would have melted them down.

Lot 400 was finally sold to a mysterious individual who frankly looked a lot like Locke from Lost. He paid $9750 for all the type and cases in the room, and as soon as he did, he was swarmed by a dozen people asking how they could get part of it.

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

The Boston Fire Department reports a fire broke out around 7 a.m. in an apartment on the sixth floor of Casa Maria, 130 Endicott St.

Sprinklers activated and doused the flames, but one resident was taken to Mass. General with smoke inhalation and burns, the department says, adding a city electrical inspector was requested to determine whether water cascading all the way to the first floor damaged the building's wiring.

The department blames "careless disposal of a cigarette," estimates damage at $10,000.

The Boston Licensing Board today approved a Mexican restaurant in the heart of the North End.

Ali Yagcioglu needed board permission to open his El Triunfo take-out restaurant at 69 Prince St.

He already operates an El Triunfo on E. Berkeley Street in the South End, serving up Mexican and Central American dishes.

Fire inspectors are trying to figure out the cause of a basement fire that erupted around 4 a.m. in the basement of Goody Glover's, 48-50 Salem St., the Boston Fire Department reports. Food and electrical inspectors will be on scene this morning as well.

Kinda smallish signs in front of Commercial Wharf West, where a number of people have gotten towed, according to NorthEndWaterfront.com.

Bostonians don't let 60-degree weather stop them from saving their spaces, as Scott Williams discovered in the North End yesterday.

Copyright Scott Williams Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.