The Boston Licensing Board voted yesterday to revoke the food-serving license for New York Fried Chicken, 1251 River St., because listed owner Riaz Ali Shah hid the real owner of the take-out place and because he's agreed to plead guilty to federal tax and immigration fraud charges. Read more.
Roxbury Prep will move its high school from Jamaica Plain into the Most Precious Blood school building on Hyde Park Avenue being vacated by Boston Prep - which is moving into a new building at the other end of Hyde Park, on the Mattapan line. Read more.
The Boston Licensing Board decides Thursday whether to give the listed owner of New York Fried Chicken on River Street in Cleary Square a couple of months to get his affairs in order and sell the take-out place or whether he has to shut down immediately because he's agreed to plead guilty to federal tax-evasion and immigration fraud charges. Read more.
The Board of Appeal today approved plans to replace a three-family house at 7 Dana Ave. with a townhouse project of 12, two-bedroom units, one set aside as affordable.
The board unanimously approved the proposal, although board Chairwoman Christine Araujo asked for some plantings to screen what she said would otherwise look like "a very suburban, motel-looking structure."
Updated with correct location.
A man robbed the Metro PCS store at 1266 River St in Cleary Square around 6:20 p.m. by pointing a taser at a clerk, then jumped on a scooter and rode away - only to be captured not long after by police officers at Cummins Highway and Rosewood Street in Mattapan after a slow-speed chase.
The Bulletin reports the Hyde Park Board of Trade is looking to attract new businesses from Cleary Square to Logan Square and that sporting-goods shops, sit-down restaurants and bakeries top the list. Also, with Roslindale now filling up with people priced out of JP, the board wonders when Hyde Park will fill up with people priced out of Roslindale.
A manhole that burst into flames around 4 p.m. in Cleary Square knocked out power up down River Street and Fairmount Avenue. Eversource estimates the power will be back by 9.
Boston Restaurant Talk reports the Briar Rose on Hyde Park Avenue has wilted.
It's the latest restaurant to close (or to never even open) at that spot. It was also Kevin Twohig's second go at a restaurant on Hyde Park Avenue, after Maggie Mae's up at Canterbury Street in Roslindale (where Delicias Dominicanas is now).
Architect's rendering.
The Boston Preparatory Charter Public School has filed plans with the BRA to move from rented space at Most Precious Blood in Cleary Square to a new building at 875 River St., across from the PriceRite supermarket.
The school says the 2.2-acre parcel, now home to a parking lot and some trees, would let it build a state-of-the-art 48,000-square-foot school for its 400 students in grade 6-12. The proposal calls for 56 parking spaces for staff.
A building across from the Hyde Park police station that has never had any tenants since it was rebuilt in 2011 will finally be occupied - by a dentist's office.
Dr. Guimy Cesar, who currently has an office on Washington Street in Roslindale, got a building permit last week to adapt the empty shell of a building at 1250 Hyde Park Ave. into dental offices.
Hyde and seek.
Joseph Garufi, owner of Sophia's Grotto in Roslindale Square, has a building permit to turn the shuttered The Hyde on Fairmount Avenue into a new Italian restaurant.
Tyler reports the new restaurant will be called Antonio's Baccaro - and that Garufi will seek a full liquor license. The building permit says Garufi will be extending the kitchen into the dining area, ditching a drop ceiling and adding new finishes to what old-timers still remember as Dotty's.
Hyde Park Avenue just south of River Street was shut around 1:20 p.m. so the bomb squad could investigate a suspicious package near the charter school.
Jacob Sconyers was in the Hyde Park Shaw's around 3:15 p.m. when the lights went out. He reports the cash registers were on some sort of backup, so the store could keep ringing up customers.
The power outage apparently wasn't confined to the store. Around 3:30 p.m., when firefighters lined the street outside the store parking lot, axes in hand, traffic in nearby Cleary Square quickly devolved into gridlock.
It's faded over the years, but you can still make out the election ad painted on the side of Ron's Gourmet Ice Cream and 20th Century Bowling on Hyde Park Avenue. Anybody know when F. Alvin Ricci ran for state rep? And did he make it?
Another historical curiosity of the wall is this old placard for a long gone telephone:
Shortly after 8 p.m., at Hyde Park Avenue and Greenwood Street, according to Jimmy Cawley and Ruddy S.
On June 18, the Zoning Board of Appeals considers a request from Leovofs LLC to turn the derelict Eagles Lodge at Dana and Hyde Park Avenues in Hyde Park into nine apartments and some commercial space and to add a five-car garage.
Via FacebookMBTA Transit Police report Benjy Barlatier, 28, of Hyde Park, died last night when hit head on by a speeding Acela train.
According to the report, Barlatier was hanging with two friends near the benches on the inbound platform when he "unexpectedly" got up and dashed across the tracks nearest the platform onto the center set of tracks:
Barlatier reversed his direction and proceeded back to the platform and was fatally struck while attempting to cross over [the tracks nearest the platform].
The engineer of the inbound train estimated it was doing 120 m.p.h. when it hit Barlatier around 10:30 p.m. Police say the engineer saw Barlatier before the strike and immediately applied the emergency brakes, but at that speed, it took 1.26 miles to stop the train - it came to a halt just past the West Street bridge.
Barlatier's remains were brought to the state medical examiner's office for examination.
Inspectors and police at Hyde Park station, a few feet from tarps covering remains.
UPDATE: Victim identified as Hyde Park man.
An Acela train barreling through Hyde Park station struck and killed somebody around 10:30 p.m. The engineer immediately applied emergency brakes, but it still took several blocks for the train to come to a stop - just on the other side of the West Street bridge, well north of the station.
More than 100 passengers sat on the train for more than two hours beside beside a wall painted with "Welcome to Boston," while outside, police and firefighters also waited, to help transfer passengers to a promised relief train from South Station that never came.
"The train crew haven't announced what happened, but passengers told them we read about what happened on Twitter," Jesse, a passenger on the train reported.
He added that the train "coasted to a stop with a burning electrical smell that I presume was the brakes. AC was off for a few, then kicked back on."
At 12:45 a.m., after an inspector took one last look around the train, the engineer sounded its horn twice and the train took off for Back Bay and South Station.
Meanwhile, back at the Hyde Park commuter-rail stop, investigators continued to examine the tracks and put down evidence cones along the inbound platform. Three white tarps covered remains along the center tracks.
Flashing police and fire lights cast an unusual glow on the stopped Acela train.
Crack is behind firefighter on the right.
The city shut the River Street bridge over the Amtrak and commuter-rail lines for about 90 minutes late this afternoon because of excessive vibrations motorists felt as they drove outbound from Cleary Square.
The bridge was re-opened shortly before 6 p.m. after engineers determined the bridge was safe to drive over and would not come tumbling down on the train tracks underneath. Even after the bridge was re-opened, however, a couple of highway engineers from MassDOT stood guard over the trouble area, a patch roughly three feet wide in which the asphalt had given way and the planks underneath made a clanging sound as vehicles drove over it.
Traffic was backed up on both ends of River Street, Hyde Park Avenue in both directions and on Summer Street, which parallels Hyde Park Avenue. But traffic in Cleary Square itself never reached gridlock as Boston police officers kept the cars moving. Trains along the busy tracks were ordered to slow down as they passed under the bridge.
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