Long Wharf

A good Samaritan jumped into Boston Harbor near Long Wharf shortly after 11 this morning and helped keep somebody foundering in the water afloat until a State Police boat arrived and troopers pulled both out. Boston EMS treated the man at the scene and then transported him to Mass. General for further care, Boston Fire spokesman Steve MacDonald says.

The Herald reports he died not long after his arrival at the hospital and that police are investigating.

NorthEndWaterfront.com quotes President of the Friends of Christopher Columbus Park that the man may have been pushed by somebody he was brawling with.

It may look like a park and have people walk in it like it's a park, but the far end of Long Wharf isn't a park, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled today.

The ruling is a victory for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which wants to turn an open-air kiosk-like structure there into a restaurant.

A group of ten North End residents has fought the idea for years - and won a victory in Suffolk Superior Court, when a judge ruled that end of Long Wharf was a park on which a restaurant could not be built without a two-thirds vote of the state legislature, under a section of the state constitution that pertains to the preservation of parkland and open space.

But the state's highest court ruled today that intent is everything, and that the BRA took over the wharf in 1970 under its authority to revitalize the area and promote real-estate development - as part of an urban-renewal plan dating to 1964 - rather than to put a park in. Therefore, the court concluded, the area is not subject to the constitutional restriction, known as Article 97:

M/Y NamohThe owners of a yacht that rents for $99,500 a week are suing a Long Wharf marina over damage they say was caused by a sunken piling the marina should have done something about before the yacht hit it.

In the lawsuit, filed this week in US District Court in Boston, the owners of the M/Y Namoh say the crew of the 125-foot yacht with twin 2250-horsepower diesel engines was in the process of backing into a slip at the Boston Waterboat Marina on Aug. 30, 2011, when "its hull and propellers struck a submerged object within the slip's berth and its starboard engine immediately shutdown."

Stephanie Giunta practices being a TV reporter at the very end of Long Wharf early this afternoon.

The folks at the Fort Point Pier, meanwhile, watched as Fort Point Channel rose and then began to flow over the seawall (it's hard to tell, but that's Vivien Li of the Boston Harbor Association and Fort Point resident Anne Salemme on the right):

Fort Point Channel resurgent

A concerned citizen reports from our newest Segway racetrack:

On Sunday afternoon, approximately 5:00 to 5:30 PM, a Segway tour group was at the end of Long Wharf. While there, the tourists were encouraged to ride around the area in random circles, often chasing each other about. Toward the end, the guide encouraged the tourists to race each other, even stating "On your mark, get set, go". A few moments after the race started, one of the tourists went head over heels over his Segway, landing on the pavement. While he appeared uninjured, he did require a few minutes to gather himself. Why are the Segway tour operators allowed to use Long Wharf as a race course, especially since that area is also a magnet for many pedestrians. This seems to go well beyond giving a tour of the area and is a hazard to others using the area.

Edmond Hatfield got up before the crack of dawn today for an annual winter occurrence from Long Wharf - the sun coming up over the open water, rather than Logan Airport.

Yesterday, Neil took in last night's spectacular sunset from the Pru, while Saul Blumenthal watched it in Waltham:

The proposed operators of a seafood restaurant in what is now an open shelter on Long Wharf say they're going to try to rehab an abandoned seafood place in South Boston into a neighborhood eatery instead.

Michael Conlon went before the Boston Licensing Board this morning for permission to transfer a liquor license granted in 2007 to Doc's Long Wharf to a planned Paramount restaurant at 667 E. Broadway.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports a Suffolk Superior Court judge has overturned the state's permit for turning the shelter at the end of Long Wharf into a seafood restaurant.

The state Department of Environmental Protection, which has oversight because of the location on the waterfront, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which owns the shelter, want to lease it to restaurant operator Michael Conlon. A group of ten North End residents, however, sued. The next step for DEP and the BRA would be an appeal to the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Given how long appeals can take, Conlon might also have to convince the Boston Licensing Board they should continue to let him hold onto a liquor license he isn't actually using.

I happened to be walking by Long Wharf yesterday when I looked out at the harbor and saw this huge ship heading toward the Tobin. LNG tanker! They're kind of amazing to see, so I started walking at a good pace down Long Wharf. It was moving faster than I was, so about two-thirds of the way down, I stopped and took a couple of photos. Then I got closer to the plaza at the end of the wharf and took a couple more, including this one.

See the police car? When I got to the waterfront, I'd just raised the camera to my face when the cop told me no pictures. He was nice about it, said something about orders from above, told me this wasn't even one of the big tankers, but, no, I didn't press the point, which is probably why I'm typing this at home, rather than from a bench at Boston Municipal Court (about a minute later, he told somebody else to put their camera down).

Yet, obviously, I was able to get pictures without being stopped, just a bit further up the wharf. As could have anybody else in the throngs of tourists enjoying a nice day on the water, some no doubt with way better zoom lenses on their cameras. Meanwhile, on my other side at the end of Long Wharf was a couple closely examining a map on their smartphone. Or were they secretly taking photos? No, probably she really was a local and he really was a visitor and they were just figuring out where to go next.

Obviously, security for giant containers of flammable gas is a good thing, and maybe it does make sense to station officers at every vantage point along the harbor. But is it just security theater when any yutz can just stand a few yards back and do whatever it was they were going to do at the water's edge?

The Boston Licensing Board voted today to give restaurateur Michael Conlon at least two more months to actually start using the liquor license he was granted in 2007 for a restaurant at the end of Long Wharf that has yet to open.

Imagine this with windows and tables and steaming bowls of chowder.

A lawsuit by North End residents has tied up a proposed restaurant at the end of Long Wharf for so long the Boston Licensing Board held a hearing today to help decide whether to revoke the proposed eatery's liquor license.

The board votes Thursday on whether to continue to give the proposed operator of Doc's Long Wharf enough time to await a Suffolk Superior Court decision on the suit and to turn what is now a largely ornamental structure into a restaurant or to rescind his liquor license and award it to somebody else.

Boston Police report they are continuing their search for Eugene Losik, last seen outside of the Marriott Long Wharf early on Feb. 20, after a night out with his girlfriend and friends.

Although police are continuing to ask anybody who might have seen Losik after his disappearance to contact them, they add:

As the investigation continues, Boston Police have been working cooperatively with the Boston Fire and Quincy Police dive teams using thermal imaging technology and side scan sonar to conduct extensive underwater searches of Boston Harbor.

Losik on hotel escalator night of his disappearance.

Find Gene Losik.

Bob took some video of the large stripers in the water between Long Wharf and the Aquarium - and how they beat a frustrated duck to the hunks of bread he threw to them:

Today's best sunrise photo, taken toward Logan from Long Wharf.