Kenmore Square

The owners of An Tua Nua, 835 Beacon St., say they're giving the bar a mathematical name in the hopes of attracting all the science nerds who now live in the area, but othewise aren't planning any major changes to the watering hole.

The new name, Arc, comes from the geometrical notion of a curve, bar attorney Karen Simao told the Boston Licensing Board today. She added a compass will be part of the bar logo.

Simao said the new name and logo will better help the bar attract the "math, science and engineering students" who have moved into the area since the bar first opened more than a decade ago as an Irish bar - originally under the name Ri Ra.

Kenmore busway a bit crowded this AM. Photo by Nikki.

Downed wires at Copley and the resulting fire around 10 a.m. mean no service and lots of grumpy commuters forced to go upstairs for buses at Kenmore Square, shuttling between there and Arlington.

Scott Lovejoy wonders why more people didn't hop on bikes at the nearby Hubway station.

UPDATE: Power began coming back along Boylston Street and Commonwealth Avenue around 9 a.m.; BPD was maintaining officers in the area just in case.

The Back Bay and parts of the South End and Fenway went dark again overnight in its second major blackout in a little more than a year, when an underground cable feeding the Scotia Street substation failed around 3:15 a.m.

That's the same substation at which a transformer exploded last March. NStar Electric President Craig Hallstrom said one of the transformers was offline for repairs related to that explosion, leaving no back up when the supply to the second unit died, cutting power to 12,000 customers.

Service on the B Line was interrupted briefly around 1:30 p.m. by a family of ducks - and bystanders trying to convince them trolley tracks are not really all they're quacked up to be. MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo reports on the incident on Comm. Ave. near Blanford:

Approaching the tunnel portal, a trolley operator spotted a small group of people chasing some ducks on the Green Line right-of-way. The trolley operator stopped, and notified a Green Line supervisor. Service was interrupted for twelve minutes while the humans and waterfowl were cleared from the right-of-way.

Jamison Kissh adds workers from BU Facilities also joined in the duck hunt.

Michal Skrzypek wonders what the cinnamon raisin d'etre is for the bagelful (and rollful) pickup he spotted this afternoon.

Photographynatalia was in Kenmore Square this afternoon to photograph runners when the bombs went off. A shocked runner reacted to the news of the explosions.

Copyright Photographynatalia. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Hugo Chavez dead.

Michael Patrick Brady wonders:

Will the Citgo sign in Kenmore Square go dark for Hugo Chavez tonight?

At least this time the track problems were at Harvard instead of Central. Meanwhile, shortly after 9 a.m., Meghan M tweeted:

Green line inbound passengers. My train is so 100% stuck between kenmore & hynes. Expect delays. Also send breakfast.

And to top it all off, the electronic signboard at Park Street continues to show White Sox ads.

The Daily Free Press interviews a guy who seeks donations for opening the door at the Kenmore Square 7-Eleven on a proposed city ordinance that would restrict areas open to panhandling - specifically, the middle of the street.

"At least I'm doing something for someone,” Price said. "I'm not robbing or stealing. I'm only asking, and the person I'm asking can say yes or no. I've got no shame in my game."

City officials say they're not out to stop panhandling altogether, but want to address complaints about particularly aggressive panhandlers.

Manhole went ka-boom shortly after 1:30 p.m. outside 590 Commonwealth Ave. In possibly related news, the Boston University computer network is down.

UPDATE: A second Red Line train died at Alewife; another Green Line trolley gave up the ghost, bollxing up outbound C and E service. Commuter rail? You don't want to know.

In this young year, the Red Line is now 2 for 2 in morning-commute delays due to dead trains, this time at JFK/UMass, but today has the extra bonus of delays due to "weather-related issues."

Meghan C. reports it took her 75 minutes to get from Braintree to MGH.

The Green Line was also having problems, due to a recalcitrant train at Kenmore. There was also a dead train on the Blue Line.

It was a different story on the Orange Line. At 7:24, Joe Growhoski tweeted:

Orange line nice warm and smooth ..... So far

Firefighters check out the Kenmore wounded. Photo copyright Brian D'Amico.

A concert by 2 Chainz at the House of Blues was quickly followed by a station-closing brawl on the Green Line platform at Kenmore station.

Mike Moura reports at least three people were injured before MBTA Transit Police gained control of the platform, EMTs removed the wounded and the station was reopened around 10:45. The T reports the three were taken to Mass. General with minor injuries.

Riptor reports:

When Kenmore station was filled with water. By Fourduce1

The Christian Science Monitor interviews Michael Mulhern, who was director of subway operations at the MBTA in 1996 when the unexpectedly mighty Muddy River overflowed its banks, overwhelmed its tunnels and burst into Kenmore station, shutting it completely down for two months:

"When it was finally up and running it was initially far less service than commuters were used to," says Mulhern. "It took us a year to get back to full capacity. I think it will be a long time before New York's services are back to normal."

Photos of flooded New York subway tunnels.

For local fans of Liverpool FC, it was the chance of a lifetime: To watch their soccer heroes in a match at Fenway Park. Unfortunately for An Tua Nua, a march of Liverpool supporters from Kenmore Square to Fenway on July 25 proved far more successful than its organizers had hoped, leading a BPD detective to write the place up and landing it before the Boston Licensing Board earlier this week.

Go ahead, find a scalper in Kenmore Square tonight and point at him and laugh hysterically. Just be sure you can run fast; he might not appreciate the humor of the situation.

How bad is it? Scott Thorn tweets:

I've had an ad up on Craigslist all morning for 3 tix to Thursday night's Sox-Yanks game at face value. Not one email so far.

Tickets of Boston adds:

We're selling seats 2 for 1 ($45 for $94 loge seats) for the Yankees, unheard of.

Boston University Police report that sometime between 9:45 and 10:15 p.m. on July 21, a patron at the Island Creek Oyster Bar in the Hotel Commonwealth in Kenmore Square discovered that her $9,000 Louis Vuitton purse was missing.

Police have identified three women as "persons of interest" and report that two of them used one of the credit card's in the victims purse that same night to buy some essentials at the South Bay Stop & Shop. Click on the link for a number of photos of the three.

Lataria Milton is the MBTA driver charged with getting angry and running her bus into a meter maid and several cars. Latarian Milton is the then-7-year-old charged with getting angry and crashing his grandmother's SUV into a curb and several cars.

WBZ reports our Milton was released on personal recognizance at her arraignment in Roxbury District Court today - and that the T has started the process of firing her. Her lawyer says the bus lurched forward by itself.

Innocent, etc.

An MBTA bus driver is scheduled for arraignment in Roxbury District Court tomorrow on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after she allegedly ran down a Boston parking supervisor trying to give her a parking ticket in Kenmore Square this morning.

Lataria Milton, 34, eating breakfast at the time, at first responded to a request by a BTD supervisor that she move her bus out of a no-standing zone in Kenmore Square by ignoring her, officials say. When the supervisor began writing a ticket, Milton stepped on the bus's accelerator, hitting the supervisor and causing a chain-reaction crash that left four cars damaged.

WCVB reports Milton has a lengthy record of driving infractions in her off hours.

Innocent, etc.

Crash aftermath. Note cluster of meter maids on right. Photo by Susan Zalkind.

A city transportation worker is in the hospital this morning following a confrontation with an MBTA bus driver in Kenmore Square that ended with the driver plowing into the worker - and several parked cars - WBZ reports.

The collisions, which happened around 8:30 a.m., started as an incident in which a BTD supervisor told the driver - eating breakfast - to move her bus out of a left-turn lane and the driver refused, WBZ says.

Kenmore Square quickly became a giant parking lot as emergency vehicles and police flooded the area.

Nancy Chen at WHDH reports the driver was noshing on a bagel and drinking coffee when she was asked to move.

Another photo of the scene.

UPDATE: An overhead wire became an underfoot wire on the Riverside line around 9:30 p.m., leading to busing, passengers being forced to evacuate trolleys to walk back to stations, etc.

Maybe the trains just couldn't bear all the weight of soccer fans heading to Fenway. Or the anguished ghosts of riders past were reaching up and grabbing the wheels of the trains. Whatever, Perry reports:

Wow! It took 3 green line trains and 90 minutes from govt ctr to kenmore! Way to suck, MBTA.

Officials at Govt Ctr tell you to go to Park to catch a D train and the 1st D train is packed from Govt Ctr.

Megan Mix adds:

At Kenmore, have been trying to make my way home from park st for over an hour. Get your act together MBTA or I'm finding a new city.

Updated with new information from the DA's office.

An economics consultant from Maryland was arraigned today on charges of indecent assault and battery for an incident on the Green Line near Kenmore Square in 2004, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Prosecutors charge Timothy Day spurted on a woman's pants and pocketbook on a crowded B trolley between Copley and Kenmore Square on June 22, 2004.

Prosecutors initially indicted an unknown individual linked to a specific DNA sequence, extracted from the remains of the material on the woman's purse, retrieved from the trash after she threw it away in disgust.

UPDATE, 12:45 p.m.: Power started coming back on.

The same substation where a transformer exploded in March shorted out today, darkening stores, offices and homes across the Back Bay again and causing traffic havoc as signals went dead.

The Popeyes in Kenmore Square: Keeping Red Sox pitchers fed since 2011. Photo by Greg Schrank.

NStar reports it'll be shutting off power to 8,000 customers (and remember, each "customer" could represent several people) starting around 3 a.m. to reconnect them to the power grid:

Beacon to Boylston between Kenmore & Copley.

A man who allegedly pulled out a knife on B trolley in Allston tonight was arrested after passengers fled at BU Central, the MBTA reports.

Ronald McNally, Jr., 53, was arrested by BU Police around 6:45 p.m. after he also got off the train and witnesses IDed him, the T says. There was no fight or injuries aboard the trolley, the T says.

Innocent, etc.