Roslindale

ParkwayBoston posts this photo of some slavering, fanged beast crossing Weld Street by the Arboretum last weekend and wonders if it's a coyote (no stranger to these parts) or a chicken-ripping wolf:

I am not sure what it is but it is definitely not a dog.

I dunno, looks like a rare albino bear cub to me.

If you have a baby in Boston and want to send him or her to a public school, you eventually come up against The Lottery - the game that decides which school your kid goes to. And veterans will tell you that finding the right numbers, um, schools, to play in The Lottery is no easy task.

Geeky Mama lives in Roslindale and has a toddler. On Braving the BPS Lottery, she's posting her reports on her visits to schools in the West Zone (basically, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale and West Roxbury), along with news related to public schools in Boston.

Word reaches us up here in the mountain fastnesses that the Washington Street Rite Aid is closing. This Wednesday.

Cops don't like hearing bass speakers set to 11 any more than we do, but they can do something about it: When officers in a cruiser felt the vibrations from the car next to them at Mt. Hope Street and American Legion Highway on the Roslindale/Mattapan line yesterday evening, they followed the car for a bit, then signaled the driver to pull over.

Boston Police report that they wound up arresting the driver on charges of operating with a suspended license and, bonus, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Police say it wasn't just the nine plastic bags of marijuana they found on him at the stop, but the digital scale flecked with pot and the grinder they found on him while he was being booked that convinced them the marijuana was for more than just personal use.

Innocent, etc.

Andrew Watson reports on a meeting this morning between Boston School Superintendent Carol Johnson and Roslindale parents who want more K-8 options in the neighborhood.

The Roslindale Square Jax took down some of its "CLOSING FOREVER!" signs this week to help inspire all who pass by with new signs about Barack Obama's election. Apparently, we no longer have to fear that Jax is going out of business, more than a year after putting up its first "LIQUIDATING TO THE BARE WALLS!" signs, and now we can once again hope to get 50% off scrubs at Jax all the time.

And so Roslindale's dining transformation will be complete. Adam Rosi-Kessel reports Himalayan Bistro of West Roxbury will be opening a second location in the Washington Street space now occupied by NuVo. No more long, wearying trips all the way up to Centre Street for momos!

Also: Emack and Bolio's is now owned by the owner of the Blue Star, who will be renaming it Select Cafe. If they know what's good for them, they will keep the frappes and couches - they don't want to face the wrath of the kidlet, who loves sipping a frappe while all comfy on one of the couches.

Hurry over to the Taft Hill municipal parking lot off South Street in Roslindale Square today to see this view for yourself.

Boston Police report arresting Albert Arroyo on charges he kept harassing a Roslindale woman who had taken out a restraining order against him.

Arroyo, himself a Roslindale resident, was arrested at 7:51 p.m. yesterday in the emergency room at Faulkner Hospital, where he was being treated for an unspecified ailment. Because of his condition, officers spent the night with Arroyo rather than transporting him to the lockup at the West Roxbury police station. He remains in the hospital this morning, police say.

According to police, the woman got a restraining order against Arroyo on Oct. 28, but told police he continued to call her repeatedly and:

Victim further stated that suspect continuously comes to her home by car and hides behind hall door. Victim states that she is very scared of suspect.

Innocent, etc.

Sushiesque peered at a skull patch in Davis Square.

Jef Taylor reports that among the kids visiting his house in Brookline was a kid made up like the Zakim Bridge - "a complicated affair that he had to gingerly maneuver around the other kids." Read more

As BostonMaggie reminds us, today is the anniversary of the 1991 death of Jeremiah Hurley, killed while trying to defuse a bomb left under a car in Roslindale.

Earlier this year, a federal appeals court upheld the double life sentence for Albert Trenkler for his role in Hurley's death (some argue Trenkler is innocent). Thomas Shay, also convicted for the murder, had his original sentence overturned, was up for retrial, then pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was set free in 2002.

Carlyn Hutchins reports that Emack & Bolio's is ending its longstanding open-mike night, which she ran, effective immediately:

... So, I will be taking some time to try and decide if I should find another venue. It's clear that an open mike at an ice cream shop is not going to work year round, and I'm tired of owners yanking me (and you) around. I think it's also clear that in these tough economic times, sometimes tough decisions have to be made, and I think we just fell victim to that, nothing more, nothing less. ...

No, not Forever Closing Jax, but the old gas station across from Adams Park. The Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services is holding a meeting on Oct. 27 at 6:30 p.m. at the Roslindale Community Center to discuss a proposal to finally do away with the gas station, last used more than a decade ago as a residence by the station owner when he lost his house, at least, until ISD kicked him out (old timers may recall how he originally wanted to build a hotel on the property, after neighbors successfully kept him from building a Wendy's there).

Meanwhile, the BRA will hold its own hearing on Nov. 11, also at 6:30 p.m. at the community center, to let people hear from three developers who want to buy and do something with the old trolley substation that's been moldering in the Square for 50 or so years now.

Via the Roslindale Neighborhood Strategic Plan.

The folks at Pet Cabaret in Roslindale report they had to break the news to a caller yesterday that they don't carry ants:

... "Ants?" I say, "Why, no...you can get them outside..."

"Oh." came the reply and a polite "Thank you" followed. ...

This comes about a month after somebody called the store to ask if they sold piranhas (answer: no).

OK, more like art on a box: ParkwayBoston.com photographs some of the newly decorated utility boxes in West Roxbury and Roslindale.

Daniel Mitchell, 7, a second-grader at the Bates School, shows Gov. Patrick and Mayor Menino where his apartment is.

Gov. Patrick came to the Washington-Beech housing project in Roslindale today to sign legislation that will result in the 1952 project replaced by a series of low- and moderate-income townhomes and apartments by 2012.

Trinity Boston, a private developer, will replace the current dormitory-style buildings on the 7.6-acre project with townhomes and a 72-unit apartment building at the corner of Washington and Beech streets, which will mainly house elderly residents. The project will cost $90 million; earlier this year the Boston Housing Authority won a $20-million federal grant to help pay for the work.

Artist's rendering of the new Washington-Beech. You're looking south on Washington, past Beech. Read more

Cleary Squared goes to the new Staples in Roslindale Square, reports that if it wants to retain any customers on the weekends, it's going to have to instill some pride in the sullen, put-upon teens apparently running the place on Saturdays and Sundays.

Dan Miller reports he only goes to the School Street Starbucks because he needs his morning coffee, not because he enjoys "being held hostage by the designated drink maker, who thinks he's Tom Cruise in 'Cocktail.'"

Today was the Roslindale Day Parade, and we set up camp at our usual location, at Belgrade and Walworth Street. It was a nice parade, if a bit odd in that there wasn't a single fire truck (unless you count the ancient one used by the New Liberty Jazz Band). Seems the firetrucks ran about 15 minutes before the rest of the parade. And there seemed to be a lot fewer armed-forces/Junior ROTC/veterans groups.

More photos, natch: Read more

Wayne Wilson doesn't think the parade (this Sunday) is green enough, so he's going to stand at the corner of South and Birch streets and, um, I'm not sure, not watch the parade?

Rowe Street protest doesn't stop police. Couple had signed up for a mortgage worth as much as their monthly income; then they couldn't find somebody to pay as much as they'd thought they could get in rent and they fell behind.

The Parkway Transcript reports on three cases: Around 8 a.m. on Sept. 18, a teen walking to school on Spring Street was attacked by five guys in ski masks who threw her to the ground, kicked her and took $7 out of her backpack (the report doesn't say where on Spring Street).

The next night, a party on Glenellen Street got out of hand when a couple of girls called up some friends spoiling for a fight; they arrived and promptly beat somebody up with skateboard wheels.

A man whose June Street dining room faces the Washington-Beech project on Washington Street had bullets shot into his house; he said he considers himself lucky he had just taken his kids outside to play.