Blue Hill Avenue

The Morton Street panhandler is back

adamg — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:39:55 +0000

Robbie 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

adamg — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:15:49 +0000

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

adamg — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:16:39 +0000

The 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

adamg — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 01:03:31 +0000

Four 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

adamg — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:47:12 +0000

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

adamg — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 21:21:06 +0000

Boston 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

adamg — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:53:31 +0000

In 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'

adamg — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:39:41 +0000

WBUR 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?

adamg — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:00:49 +0000

The 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

adamg — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:45:03 +0000

Greg Cook captured the costumes at today's Caribbean Carnival parade.

Roxbury bar ordered shut for two weeks over closing-time brawl that took 25 cops to break up

adamg — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:41:03 +0000

The Boston Licensing Board voted yesterday to suspend the liquor license of the Breezeway, 153 Blue Hill Ave., for two weeks for an April 4 mini-riot that left two cops surrounded by an angry mob before reinforcements could arrive.

Roxbury bar could have license suspended for all-out brawl that required an entire police district to break up

adamg — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:14:57 +0000

A closing-time fight that left two cops surrounded by a couple dozen brawlers outside the Breezeway on April 4 could be the final straw for the bar, which has now had three hearings in three weeks on various incidents before the Boston Licensing Board.

"Why does your licensed premise deserve to have basically every officer in that district policing your premise when it closes?" board Chairman Daniel Pokaski asked owner Christ Stamatos at a hearing this morning. "You can't control your crowd, it's as simple as that. You can't do it."

Behaviorial assessment: The guy in the middle of Morton Street

adamg — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:11:24 +0000

Anybody who's ever driven down Morton Street in Mattapan knows the white-bearded guy who shuffles up and down the middle of the street by Blue Hill Avenue. Our own eeka reports that for some continuing-ed class, she did "a functional behavioral assessment" on him:

... The function of waving seems to be attract positive attention from other individuals. The purpose might also be to avoid the negative interactions that are often aimed toward people who are perceived as not having a job; it does seem that everyone in the area knows of this person and many seem to find him charming – while at the same time feeling a bit exasperated that he is behaving unsafely. This latter perception might in fact be a product of his waving, and the fact that people find him friendly might mean that they are more likely to avoid him and wish him well rather than finding him annoying and trying to run him off the road. It seems to be an adaptive response that he responds in a friendly/apologetic manner to cars honking at him, rather than a reactive manner that is more likely to start an altercation. ...

Police: Efforts to curb violence at Roxbury bar may have led to increased violence elsewhere

adamg — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:12:14 +0000

The Boston Licensing Board today considered incidents outside bars in Roxbury and Fort Point Channel that police said may be linked to the board's decision last year to reduce the hours at Packy Connors on Blue Hill Avenue.

Officers testifying in hearings on a bottle-smashing brawl outside the Breezeway on Blue Hill Avenue on Nov. 15 and a "Western-style shootout" in the parking lot next to the Blue Wave on Congress Street on Oct. 4 said the sort of troublemakers who used to hang out at Packy Connors when it closed at 2 a.m. simply moved to other locations with late hours after the board rolled Packy Connors' closing time back to midnight, in response to a series of violent incidents at or near that bar.

Jack Frost forces seasonal end to Blue Hill Avenue tradition

adamg — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:35:55 +0000

Whalehead King reports the prostitutes have fled the street for warmer climes:

... At 4:00 this morning no one was walking the streets, male or female, business person or common pedestrian. It's just too damned cold. If the last two years are any guide, vice will not be visible to insomniacs for the next few months. At least it won't be obviously available to innocents such as myself.