Harry Mattison reports:

... Construction workers on Western Ave... have found several granite lion statues buried at the [Harvard] Science Complex site ...

Evan recounts an interesting discussion at his Fenway laundromat last night - involving some old timers who allowed as how the neighborhood used to be a hellhole but became safer as it gentrified, but:

... Despite the negative attitudes these long-timers have for the earlier days of this neighborhood, they still bemoan the ongoing development projects in the immediate area. "It's just gotten too modern," says the proprietor of my laundromat.

To buy four properties for $90.5 million.

The South End News reports the moneyless developers of Columbus Center will do some "minimal work" at their hole in the ground to keep the hole "in play" should they suddenly find a winning Red Sox scratch ticket or otherwise find the money to actually turn the hole into a development.

John Keith posts an aerial view and a couple of maps of the 23-acre Seaport Square project next to and around the federal courthouse.

$4 million package to keep JP Morgan in the city - by consolidating its local operations in a waterfront building, using city and state programs intended to help blighted areas. As the Globe notes:

... The tax breaks come as the city is struggling to fund its school system and Mayor Thomas M. Menino has proposed increasing parking fines to raise money. ...

However, the tax deal would run through 2022, with the estimated $4 million in breaks spread out over that period, so it's not like the city will have to close a school or two next month to pay for it.

A mall developer wants to turn the old Bay State Paper mill on River Street into a mall with room for at least three "big box" retailers, the Hyde Park Bulletin reports. But first they have to come up with a name, since 892 River St. isn't all that exciting.

John Keith reports on a neighborhood meeting last night on the 6.5-million square foot Seaport Square project near the federal courthouse: I'm thinking he and Vivien Li of the Boston Harbor Association won't be sitting down for coffee anytime soon.

Seems there's a rumor going around Dedham that when Roslindale's Washington-Beech housing project is torn down for renovations, the tenants would be moved en masse to that fair town, and you know what that means.

Didn't seem logical to me (why would Boston residents be forced to move to another town, wouldn't they then stop being Boston residents?), but I asked Lydia Agro, communications director for the Boston Housing Authority, which is coordinating the $100-million rehab. Her basic answer: No. Her longer answer follows:

City attorneys are rooting around Inspectional Services Department documents to see if the department went too far in approving expansion at the Bicon building off the Emerald Necklace, the Jamaica Plain Gazette reports.

Lyss, who is both a Bicon patient and a nearby resident, doesn't get the root cause of opposition to the building:

I understand the desire to keep Boston's neighborhoods leafy and keep them from getting overrun by rampant, soulless development. Let's be realistic here - it's not in a park in the proper sense - it's not surrounded by parkland in the traditional sense (ex: Tavern on the Green in Central Park). It's on a high-traffic rotary that isn't too attractive itself, save for the leafy entrance to Franklin Park.