Kenmore Square

Bendo1 gazes upon the remains of Avalon on Lansdowne Street.

The Herald tells us, but basically: Lots.

Brendan downs some newly legalized absinthe at Eastern Standard in Kenmore Square:

... In the end, I didn't see anything. No curious things, no monstrous things, and I didn't cut my ear off. But, to be honest, I wasn't expecting too much in terms of transcendental experience. If you can buy it in a bar, I really doubt its going to turn Commonwealth Avenue into a field of tulips. One thing I did feel was lucid – I definitely walked out of Eastern Standard relaxed, relatively clearheaded, and, paradoxically, pretty wobbly (absinthe can be 58+ proof). While I wasn't about to sit down and write a surrealist novel, the feeling was, on the whole, much more pleasant than anything my usual Guinness and Jack-and-Coke repertoire produces. ...

Rhea Becker tries some vegan ice cream at the soon-to-open Wheeler's on Mass. Ave. near Symphony:

... The flavors were intense, unlike any other ice cream I've ever tried. We tasted: champagne (like a sparkling New Year's party in your mouth), green tea (turning Japanese), pumpkin (sweet but not too sweet), peanut butter and banana (with gigantic, chewy hunks of peanut butter), and chocolate peppermint (just like Girl Scouts Thin Mints but more refreshing). I'm sold on it. ...

Riggs expresses admiration for the way a woman managed to get some college girl to stop hogging a pole on the trolley.

Elisha Boudreau took some photos during yesterday's pantsless T rides.

Caroline Roberts provides a participatory report (she dropped trou):

... One woman had pictures of herself taken with pantsless riders and triumphantly shouted, "I'm putting this on my match.com page!" Another young woman sitting across from pantsless riders who hadn't heard about the event decided that she was going to take her pants off. ...

Thom Dunn reports bringing his bike on the T with no pants on:

... When I was transferring trains at Kenmore, one of the MBTA employees stopped me and wouldn’t let me get on the train-because of my bike. She didn't mention or seem to notice that I wasn't wearing pants. She just kicked me off for my bike. ...

Nick Carlisle reports:

It was fun telling random people that I accidentally left my pants at home. Video shall come soon.

I never thought I'd say this, but props to the MBTA for being so accommodating. The T police were very kind and friendly, and even seemed to be mildly amused at some points. ...

Jack reports:

... It became really awkward on the ride back to Alewife Station on the Red Line when I got separated from my group, and I was the only pantless rider on the train. ...

The Outraged Liberal wonders:

... Why did the MBTA feel the need to place bus shelters on the newly re-opened busway in Kenmore Square? Is it because the $32 million project features a canopy that may (stress may) look nice but is incapable of keeping riders dry when the rain and snow trickles in between the glass plates? ...

Mats Tolander dissects the MBTA's latest explanations for why the Kenmore station reconstruction project is now being delayed even longer.

David Brand, a BU student, recounts an incident early Saturday on Harvard Street that still has him upset - especially since it happened around the same time as Shawn Dow's death above a bloody brawl:

... On Friday night, a group of 3 guys yelled at my friends and I when we passed them on Harvard Street.

"Fags! Hippie fags!"

Big deal. Clearly (though apparently not so clear to me when I was drunk and eager to flex my beer muscles), these kids were looking for a fight. After something, probably a beer can, struck me in the head I turned around and confronted who I thought was the leader.

Bam. Blind-sided by his friend, who unleashed a flurry of punches on my face and skull. After the "fight," we were mercifully pulled away from each other. ...

The next night, a BU student walking in Kenmore Square was robbed at gunpoint by a hoodie-wearing thug on Beacon Street:

The victim said she passed the man as he was pretending to tie his shoelace. She said she then heard him running toward her and turned to face him as he ran up behind her with his gun drawn, demanding she give him her purse.

Via the Tab's Jessica Scarpati.

Tommyvon recalls going to the Rat on its last day, ten years ago:

... I remember showing up for the show and people were buzzing about the closing. I'd heard the rumors for years but never believed it until that day. I was at the last day show, Aus Rotten and the Stratford Mercenaries headlined (with a memorable speech about the Rat on stage by Bill Toxic ...). That night Gang Green played the last night show, which I didn't go to (at the time I heard that was cancelled too) I'll never forget being frisked on the way out, since everyone was clamoring for Rat memorabilia. ...

More Rat reminiscing.

Mats Tolander discusses the recent closing of Truly Jorg's:

... It's definitely a set-back for the upscale vision of the post-ruffian so-called new Kenmore Square. The main problem for the new square is that is has more or less the same demographics to work with as the old one: Students, Red Sox fans and Lansdowne Street revelers. ...

It doesn't help, he adds, that the square still looks like a giant hole in the ground with metallic whale bones sticking out of it.

TS worked the paramedic detail in Kenmore Square last night. He describes the scene:

... Every so often, we received a report of someone injured. A man was punched in the face. Someone had broken an ankle. An intoxicated student had passed out. For these incidents, we executed a well-choreographed battlefield plan. My partner and I jumped on the back of a "Gator," a six-wheeled tractor modified to carry a lightweight stretcher. There would be no attempt to provide treatment within the chaos. The cops pushed an opening through the crowd, we zoomed in, scooped up the patient, and zoomed back out. Treatment would be provided in the ambulance behind the security line.

Eventually, it was time to clear the area. This was by far the most impressive sight of the evening. POP teams--"Public Order Platoons"--had been staged in secret spots all around Fenway, and when the call came, they moved marched into the area like an army. They looked like Storm Troopers from a Star Wars movie, every officer covered head-to-toe in black Kevlar plates. They marched toward the crowd in perfect formation, executing precision moves along the way that left them marching side by side as they reached the area of disturbance. One step at time, the row in unison, they advanced, shouting rhythmically, Move! Move! Move! With each step, the crowd yielded ground. A couple of dopes threw bottles at them, but the cops, in truly professional manner, ignored this, never breaking ranks. The crowd soon retreated, and within fifteen minutes, the street had been cleared. ...

Later, around 3 a.m., on the way back to the ambulance garage, he tried to help out somebody who wanted to walk the seven miles to the JP police station to bail him out in time for class that morning.

In Kenmore Square last night, of course:

Dave Alpert lives in the Fenway: He reports on trying to get home from Cambridge last night:

... Once I crossed the Mass Ave Bridge, I immediately felt I had enterered a war zone. Police were barring entry to Beacon Street on both sides, and Mass Ave was full of debri and broken glass. There were blue lights and cops in full riot gear on almost every corner until Boylston Street where they'd closed off Mass Ave in front of the Berklee Performance Center. I had to take a left onto Boylston and round the block. I came out on the other side of the BPC and made a left onto Mass. Despite the strong police presence, crazed partiers staggered all down the the middle of the street and popped out from between cars to "high five" my sideview mirror. One kid gently jumped partially across the hood of my car… while it was moving… on Mass Ave… with police everywhere. So, why exactly were the police there? ...

But it got even worse when he approached his street.

Boston Police put Sox fans on notice: Nobody will be let into the area around Fenway Park after the seventh sixth inning tonight:

If you are not already inside an establishment, be it a bar or restaurant, you will not be able to gain access to the area in and around Fenway Park. If you are inside an establishment and choose to exit the establishment in the 6th inning, you will not be able to return.

Plus, count on massive police patrols and video surveillance. Oh, and students? Boston Police want your parents to call you today to remind you how to celebrate responsibly.

Roxbury District Court Judge Edward Redd today ordered seven people arrested on charges related to public disturbances after last night's Red Sox game to write five-page essays detailing what they learned from the experience of getting arrested, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.

The seven were also ordered to provide the court with written verification that their parents are aware that they have been arrested and charged.

Ten other people arrested last night. Six failed to show up in court and now face arrest; the other four had their cases continued for various reasons.

List of those arrested.

Toxik53 posts video of police on motorcycles clearing the streets in Kenmore Square last night (BPDNews reports on three arrests during this operation):

Also shot: Crowd urging guy on crossing light to jump; Celebrations in Kenmore Square.

Earlier:
Report from the police cordon.

By the Minor Thirds: "From Kenmore Square, it's a long commute, but I will take this T clear to Saskatchewan and I will not get off until we reach Saskatoon:"

Mr. Butch's death gets Some Assembly Required to pondering the old, scruffier Kenmore Square:

... The hotel has tried to reference the Square's past by designing its street-level retail space with some stores one flight above the street and some one flight below, but it seems like an empty gesture. Maybe the Square is nicer these days, but it feels a lot less vital, and somehow less real. ...

Boston Development discusses the planned 1 Kenmore project, which would mean two towers (one 20 stories, one 17) and three smaller buildings across the turnpike and on what are now parking lots:

... Estimated at around $400 million, the mixed-use development would bring many positives to the surrounding area. Some of the significant benefits are the addition of housing and valuable retail, easier access from Beacon Street to Fenway Park and an overall improvement of the MBTA Yawkey Station. ...

You may recall how Mats Tolander and other Kenmore denizens ran into the streets early one recent morning to help a woman getting attacked on Comm. Ave. Tolander reports on a more typical early-morning incident in the Square, which left him just lying in bed:

... This morning I was roused from my not overly deep sleep by a much a more frequent occurrence: A loud and profane argument between two (presumably) drunk people in the street. The man and the woman went at it for more than 20 minutes, maybe for as long as 30 minutes. It was quite annoying, but it is the kind of thing one would be crazy to run outside to put an end to and cops couldn't care less about stuff like that. ...

Mats Tolander sums up the changed Kenmore Square in three sentences.

Mats Tolander gets up for some reason at 3 this morning, then hears a woman screaming get off of me!

... From our window I saw a white guy running across the street, roughly from Commonwealth Hotel, towards the spot where the woman was still yelling.

I put on clothes and shoes, raced down the stairs and across the street. There I saw a young white woman sitting down, being comforted by, I think, the guy I saw running across the street. Another young woman came out of building and I sensed a couple of more people approaching the scene. The suspect was gone. The guy comforting the woman filled us in on the details: The woman had been mugged by a tall man in his forties, shaved head, homeless looking white man. Me and another guy started running in the general direction in which the suspect had fled. We ran down Kenmore Street to Newbury Street, where the other guy headed left while I made a right towards Brookline Avenue, no suspect in sight. ...

But the story has a good ending.

If you've ever ridden the Green Line, the Outraged Liberal's tale of disrupted service will be nothing new. If you're a highly paid MBTA general manager who doesn't ride the T to work, however, it might make for interesting reading:

... Walking into the lavish [Kenmore] turnstile area (how many years have you been working on that station now?) I was informed there was no outbound service to BC, but there were plenty of buses upstairs.

Yeah, right. Not a one. At 5 p.m. So I start walking in the drizzle, hoping it would stay that way.

Imagine my surprise when I got to Blandford Street and saw a two-car train loading for a trip. Outbound. And of course, no kindly MBTA customer service representative to explain what the blankety-blank was going on. ...

Oh, and for highly paid MBTA general managers who also don't ride commuter rail, this Swampscott story would be a good introduction to the frustrations of riders at one station.

State Police are investigating the 2 a.m. accident, in which the man, possibly homeless, was hit by a car while crossing the westbound side of the road.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office says police have met with the driver in the accident; are continuing to investigate it.

Mats Tolander explains why it might now be Robmore Square and wonders when Boston Police will start doing some community policing in that community.

OK, the two really have nothing to do with each other (or do they?), but Mats Tolander provides proof of both Kenmore happenings. As for Popeye's, he notes:

Don't scoff. Customers piled in from the minute the doors opened.