Blue Hill Avenue
The Morton Street panhandler is back
By adamg - 7/29/11 - 1:39 pmRobbie Felder, the omnipresent Mattapan panhandler whose disappearance a few months back sparked rumors he was dead, is back slowly walking up and down Morton Street, quietly asking for money.
On a Facebook page set up to discuss the man who has been a familiar sight for years as he walks from one side of Blue Hill Avenue to the other, people report he is looking better after his time in rehab. However, one person who saw him tweeted he wasn't looking too hot today.
The thing that shut down Blue Hill Avenue
By adamg - 3/16/11 - 8:15 pm
Blue Hill Avenue by Columbia Road was already crawling with fire, police and city inspectors yesterday afternoon, thanks to a contractor trying to drain two old oil tanks into a toilet, when police had to summon the bomb squad to deal with a suspicious object found nearby. Courtney Sacco arrived in time to watch a squad member investigate the device, which turned out to be two plastic bottles attached by the spouts then wrapped in duct tape.
Copyright Courtney Sacco. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
Oily discharge reported in Dorchester
By adamg - 3/15/11 - 5:16 pmThe Boston Fire Department reports a contract removing two old oil tanks from a church basement will be cited for trying to drain them by pouring the oil down the toilet this afternoon.
While crews from BFD, Boston Water and Sewer, the MWRA, police and ISD were dealing with the mess in the basement of 616 Blue Hill Ave., the bomb squad was called in when somebody reported a suspicious package on the sidewalk out front - which led to a brief shutdown of Blue Hill Avenue.
According to the Fire Department, a fire inspector happened to drive by shortly before 2 p.m. as the contractor was removing the two 275-gallon tanks. When he stopped and discovered they had no permit for the work, he took a look around. "Found in the basement was hundreds of gallons of water with oil mixed in being drained into the toilet."
Because of the suspicious-package issue, the hazmat company called in to deal with the mess had to suspend operations. BFD reports it was able to resume work around 7:30 p.m.
The church suffered a five-alarm arson fire in 2009.
Roxbury bar faces more punishment for role in October murder
By adamg - 3/8/11 - 8:03 pmFour months after the city licensing office lambasted the Breezeway on Blue Hill Avenue as a menace to the public, the Boston Licensing Board gets its chance on Thursday.
The licensing board, which oversees liquor licenses, decides then what action, if any, to take against the bar for a double shooting that left one man dead outside its entrance on Oct. 23.
In its own ruling in November, the Mayor's Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing, which oversees entertainment licenses, noted disagreement between the bar and police as to whether the alleged victim had been in the bar before the shooting but said it didn't really matter because the Breezeway has become such a magnet for unruly men spoiling for trouble:
MBTA bus-shelter shovel blitz along Blue Hill Avenue
By adamg - 1/31/11 - 11:47 am
Photo by MBTA.
The MBTA sent 35 workers and 15 trucks to Blue Hill Avenue this morning to clear out bus shelters from Mattapan Square to Grove Hall.
Just in time for the storms that start Tuesday.
Suburbanite's need for speed don't impress her much
By adamg - 12/4/10 - 4:21 pmBoston Police report arresting a 31-year-old Rockland man after they allegedly spotted him speeding and careening down Blue Hill Avenue before he blew out his tires swerving into the median near Castlegate Road in Roxbury shortly after 1 a.m. today:
Officers spoke to the suspect's passenger who told officers that she was on a first date with the suspect and that he had been driving erratically and that there would not be a second date for them.
Getting beyond the quadruple murders along Blue Hill Avenue
By adamg - 10/22/10 - 7:53 amIn the Phoenix, Chris Faraone writes:
The recent murders in Mattapan only hint at the problems that fester on and around Blue Hill Avenue
Still, there are a few bright spots, he writes, starting with bustling Mattapan Square.
'80% of the high-impact crimes happen in about one-and-a-half square miles of our city'
By adamg - 10/6/10 - 7:39 amWBUR interviews Robert Lewis Jr. of the StreetSafe Boston Initiative, a privately funded group trying to cut down on violence along Blue Hill Avenue.
Grove Hall vs. Mattapan on new buses, maybe?
By adamg - 9/14/10 - 6:00 amThe Globe reports riders of the 28 in Mattapan love the new, larger buses the T has put on the route but that people in Grove Hall are, um, disquieted by the buses. The Globe doesn't cite any specific complaints about the specific new vehicles in Grove Hall, but seems to indicate that City Councilor Chuck Turner wanted the buses pulled off the roads after one month because of the legacy of 30 years of the T treating the neighborhood like dirt.
Best costumes of the year
By adamg - 8/28/10 - 7:45 pm
Greg Cook captured the costumes at today's Caribbean Carnival parade.
