Washington Street

Acting on complaints from neighboring residents about unregistered cars on their streets, city inspectors and Boston Police last week swarmed Boston Best Auto, 3575 Washington St., Capt. John Greland at District E-13 reports.

Greland said that when inspectors arrived last Wednesday, they found numerous unregistered cars being advertised for sale to the public. And one, he wrote, was leaking oil into a catch basin:

A test conducted by the Boston Fire Department’s Hazmat Team showed oil in the catch basin. As a result, the business was ordered closed until the damage could be addressed and remedied.

The Inspectional Services Department will set up a hearing for the owner of the business where violations found on the property will be further discussed and addressed.

In 2008, the state erected a sign on Centre St. just before the VFW Parkway that sure seemed to indicate Rte. 1 was just around the bend. Now a brand-new "Rte. 1 Jct" sign has gone up on Washington Street southbound in Dedham, just by the mall and just before the rotary with what was once Rte. 1, before the state decided it was very important that Rte. 1 smush with Rte. 128 instead of ambling along the Riverway, Jamaicaway and VFW Parkway.

Boston Police report finding a 20-year-old with a gunshot wound at 3106 Washington St. around 9:30 p.m., on Saturday.

He was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital and is expected to recover, police say.

BTD is seeking the public's help in finding traffic lights obscured by ice, such as these puppies on Washington Street at the West Roxbury Parkway, where southbound motorists, being Bostonians, are just barreling through the intersection rather than stopping to see if maybe motorists on the parkway (or the opposite direction on Washington) have the light. Call 617-635-4500 to request a deicing crew.

The article by David Boeri and Andrea Shea is ostensibly about how the three revived theaters on Washington Street could lead a revival of the Hole-infested street, but is really an interesting walk back into the time when it was home to the city's large number of daily newspapers:

The printing presses for the Post were buried like a coal mine seven stories below ground level. They worked next to the subway tunnel, and at street level you could feel both of them.

"The presses and the subway train would vie to make the building vibrate," Wysocki laughs.

WBUR gives us a peek at the renovated theatre, next to the also renovated Paramount.

Proposed location next to Paramount Theatre.

The Boston Licensing Board this week deferred action on a license request for a proposed Italian restaurant at 550 Washington St. that would stay open until 2 a.m. because the city currently has no liquor licenses left to give out.

The proposed Salvatore's would feature a 34-seat bar designed for people who are alone but want to get a bite to eat, such as people whose spouses work a different schedule, owner Sal Lupoli told the board at a hearing on Tuesday. In addition to students - a new Suffolk dorm is opening atop the old Modern Theatre next month - downtown has a growing number of professional residents.

Lupoli's proposed closing time had the support of both the Midtown Park Plaza Neighborhood Association and Emerson Colllege - which would be Salvatore's landlord.

The restaurant's menu would be similar to that at the first Salvatore's, on Northern Avenue.

State law limits the number of liquor licenses Boston can give out.

To try to help somebody out, I wanted to see which bus lines go from Forest Hills to the Dedham Mall and when (yeah, I know, the 34 and 34E go there, but when?). So on the handy little form right on the MBTA home page, I typed in "forest hills" as my starting point and "dedham mall" as my destination, and got back this:

Really, MBTA Trip Planner? Come on.

Marjorie Arons-Barron reports on the renovated Washington Street theater's re-opening yesterday:

... The art deco style is drop-dead gorgeous; the sparkling lights on the marquee, a wondrous beckoning. ...

UPDATE: File this under: Yeesh. Contrary to what BPD tweeted, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo reports: "A motor vehicle pushed another motor vehicle into a bus that was parked at a stop. No injuries aboard the bus and very little, if any, damage to the bus."

Santa made his annual visit to Grove and Washington streets in West Roxbury this morning, where he was serenaded by the Beethoven/Ohrenberger School chorus. Afterwards, kids enjoyed pizza, cookies and hot chocolate.

Channel 7 reports on an incident Friday night at Hatoff's, 3440 Washington St. The worker was bound, thrown in the trunk of a car and dumped on River Street in Mattapan.

Before (10/5) and after (today).

When the city released plans for the new Washington-Beech project, the renderings showed builders would keep a huge tree right at the corner of Washington and Beech streets. And, for a while, it looked like that really was the plan - workers even surrounded it with a protective wooden "hula skirt." But for some reason, they tore down the tree today and carted away its remains.

This is what the neighborhood was promised:

Mass. High Tech reports the city's won a $1.3-million federal stimulus grant to build a solar-powered fuel station for emergency vehicles and "solar-powered street lights, traffic lights, video cameras and message boards" along Washington Street (apparently, the one through Roxbury, JP, Roslindale and West Roxbury), because, when the Big One hits, we might not be able to rely on normal power supplies for such things.

More from the city.

Guira y Tambora, 4014 Washington St. (where Yucatan Mexican Grill used to be), goes before the Boston Licensing Board on Sept. 23 to ask permission to serve alcoholic beverages with its meals.

Unlike a couple of other nearby restaurants - the Upper Crust and Cristelle's in West Roxbury - which were seeking new licenses, of which the city has none, Guira y Tambora would buy an existing license, from Rudi's at Rowes Wharf, if the board approves.

The hearing starts at 10 a.m. in City Hall, Room 809A.

Police have blocked off Washington St in Brighton Center between Market/Chestnut Hill and Cambridge St. There were fire engines out near the front of Porter Belly's or about that distance down the street.

Anyone know more?

Workers building the frame of the new senior-citizen apartment building that is the first phase of replacing the old Washington-Beech housing project in Roslindale.

Channel 4 reports two gunmen got away with $200 after one of them stuck a gun in the face of a clerk at the Petrol station at Washington Street and Metropolitan Avenue Monday afternoon.

Earlier:
The last time a Washington Street gas station was held up.

They're giving away some cool stuff, free.

Mark reports on days of yore, when Washington Street in Jamaica Plain was a toll road to Dedham - and people's cows sometimes wandered off near the tollgate.

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

Mel Gibson continues effort to inconvenience every single person in greater Boston.

Earlier:
Silver Line riders, Mass Pike drivers, who's next?

Tammy posts a photo from an accident on Washington Street by the Dedham Mall that shut half the road tonight.

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.

Aaron Donovan snaps old and new at the old Filene's in Downtown Crossing.