Harvard Avenue

Ritual Arts, 153 Harvard Ave., reports:

We were robbed this morning. 2 men and a woman. They beat up Jamie although I don't have all the details yet. It happened very early in the morning. They took a lot of silver jewelry, expensive glass pipes and I believe a large amount of sage bundles.

Harvard and Brighton avenues.

Matthew in Boston has put together a set of photos of Allston scenes back in the day and today.

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Is it possible to be nostalgic for life in an apartment off Brighton Avenue in Allston? Gaby Dunn gives it the old college try, in a reminiscence set in, oh, June, 2008, when the Grecian Yearning caught fire.

"The Grecian is burning," she'd texted me. "Come quick."

I sit beside her. “This can’t be happening,” I say. “Oh man, that guy’s drawings. They’re all gone now.”

"Why couldn't it have been Steve's?" she says, referring to another lesser restaurant down the street. We watch the firefighters try to quell the flames. I think about blueberry muffins.

Later, the Grecian Yearning is boarded up with wood and condemned. The people of Allston start coming with Sharpies and writing their "orders" down.

Via Boston Reddit.

A manhole fire right at Brighton and Harvard avenues has caused power outages in the area. The city is also urging motorists to avoid the area, unless they like sitting in gridlock.

A colonial mile marker that somehow survived being on Harvard Avenue for almost 2 1/2 centuries before being sheared in two last year is no longer surrounded by a fence thanks to efforts by preservationists and the city to repair it, set it back more and install a couple of protective bollards.

Adam Femino posted this video of an SUV whose driver seems to lose control when trying to beat a camper to the turn at Harvard and Cambridge this afternoon and so plows into the front of Stingray BodyArt. Then watch as the camper serenely glides by.

Via Amy.

Via Allston Rat City.

Allston Rat City posts a photo of a flier circulating around Allston (why the marker is fenced in).

Common Ground, 85 Harvard Ave., goes before the Mayor's Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing on Monday for permission to expand its music and dancing hours.

Common Ground wants to be able to offer a DJ and dancing until 2 a.m. seven days a week and to have up to five live performers in the same hours. Its current license only allows a DJ and dancing on Thursdays, Friday and Saturdays and limits it to three live performers and only until 6 p.m.

The hearing starts at 10 a.m. in the office's eighth-floor hearing room at City Hall.

Allison Francis explains her need to punch the stranger after enduring leers and "oooohs" and solicitations on a walk between Comm. Ave. and Brighton with her girlfriend:

I'm not exactly a placid person, but I'd never punched someone before and I believe in the merits of peace over violence. Whatever that guy said wasn't the worst thing that's been said to me by any means. I just snapped. After 23 years as a woman and ~2 years being 'out' in Allston, after having been forced to tolerate my relationships and humanity degraded on a regular basis with no option other than to keep walking, I wasn't going to take it. It's not okay how so many men behave as though they have the right to aggressively address strangers on the street because we're women, and it's not okay that we are expected to take it with a smile.

Via the Phlog.

Softcoeur could hardly believe what was parked on Harvard Ave. in gritty Allston this evening.

'Tis better to receive from the curb than to smash into somebody's car and steal their GPS, especially if it's 4:40 a.m. on Harvard Avenue and there are cops there wondering what you're up to.

Jonathan was among the bicyclists the driver of a gray Civic took aim at during last night's Critical Mass cork-up in Allston. He reports on the incident, notes he has the guy's license-plate number.

BostonTweet captured a little corking or something this evening at Harvard and Brighton in Allston.

Via Allston Rat City, who wonders:

Was anyone there at the corner of Comm and Harvard when some dude in a Honda got pissed off at the people on bikes blocking traffic and literally drove through them?

UPDATE: JC tweets:

Yep, gray Civic plowed right through them. Don't think anyone was seriously hurt.

A Small Boston Kitchen reviews the Middle Eastern hole in the wall on Harvard Ave., can't stop thinking about the food:

[N]ot to be missed is the spicy chicken. A neat pile of delicately slivered meat with spiced up ends makes it hard for you to want to try anything else. But please do.

Wicked Local Allston/Brighton reports on a June 3 incident outside 74 Harvard Ave.

Boston Police report arresting two men for assault with a dangerous weapon following an incident last night at Harvard and Comm. avenues.

According to police, Aram Barseghyan, 28, of Brighton and Aleksandr Yeghiyan, 22, of Watertown, were in a silver BMW when they got into an argument with somebody on the sidewalk around 10:45 p.m.:

During the course of the verbal argument, the victim states that the individual sitting in the front passenger seat produced a firearm, pointed it at him and stated, "Next time. Bang. You're dead."

Officers found the pair not long after. According to police, an officer asked if they had any weapons:

[T]he operator stated, "No. You can check if you like." A search of the car enabled officers to see and take possession of a black firearm found under the front passenger seat. Upon further inspection, it was determined that the black firearm was, in fact, a replica style BB gun.

Innocent, etc.

Brian Smith shot this tonight.

UPDATE: It was "a large brush and trash fire" in the lot next to Blanchard's. See the comments for more.

There was a little snowboard (and ski) hill at the annual Allston Village Street Fair on Harvard Avenue today. The less adventurous could try hula-hooping down the street - or drawing on the road with Sidewalk Sam.

The Boston Licensing Board voted today to let the franchisee of the McDonald's at Harvard and Commonwealth avenues stay open until 2 a.m.

The board overturned its decision five years ago to limit the restaurant to an 11 p.m. closing time after a hearing yesterday at which franchise owner Bob King said he would have to shut the outlet without additional revenue from the extra hours. He also pleaded for fairness because the board had voted last year to let a rival Kelly's open until 2 a.m. in the old Marty's right across the street from his outlet.

The move was opposed by the Allston Civic Association, which does not like bars and restaurants open that late.

The McDonald's at Harvard and Commonwealth avenues has became the latest battleground in a rapidly escalating war over restaurant closing hours in Allston.

Bob King, owner of the franchise, told the Boston Licensing Board today that McDonald's will make him shut the outlet unless he can increase sales - and the only way for him to do that, especially with a competing Kelly's opening up across the street, is to extend the current 11 p.m. closing time to 2 a.m.

The board decides tomorrow whether to grant the request. King originally sought 3 a.m.; over the past year, a number of Allston restaurants have sought board permission to open until 3 a.m.; the board has scaled all back.

Web site might need revising tomorrow.Azama Grill on Harvard Avenue today sought city permission to extend its closing time to 3 a.m., citing the dietary needs of the area's growing Muslim population in general and Muslim cab drivers in particular.

"There are no other halal establishments in the Allston/Brighton area," restaurant lawyer Stephen Greenbaum told the Boston Licensing Board, referring to the kosher-like dietary laws devout Muslims follow.

But board Chairman Daniel Pokaski was having none of it, asking what would stop somebody from coming in next week and demanding a late-night license because "the Italians want to come in and they want a slice of pizza?"

The owner of the Subway franchise at 162 Harvard Ave. goes before the Boston Licensing Board next Wednesday to seek permission to change the shop's closing hours from midnight to 3 a.m.

The shop also wants permission to open at 8 a.m. instead of 10 a.m.

An argument that began at the Kells early Sunday morning spilled onto Brighton Avenue, quickly became physical and ended with the stabbing death of Gregory Phillips of West Roxbury, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.

Boston Licensing Board Chairman Daniel Pokaski said today he would oppose a request to extend the hours of a new Chinese take-out place on Harvard Avenue from midnight to 3 a.m. unless he hears support from nearby residents.