Porter Square
The Accidental Fiddler reports somebody didn't like her selections as she played at Porter station:
I was busking at Porter, playing "Sunrise, Sunset", when a guy came up and told me...not asked me, told me...to play something happier. So I switched to "To Life", which wasn't happy enough for him. I think I then switched to "Devil's Dream", at which point he said something like, "See? People like HAPPY music!" ...
Well, even snailier than it already is, to allow for emergency repairs at Porter Square where, the Globe reports, a water-weakened wall is in danger of collapsing.
Via Danielle Ouellette, who says it just bolsters her belief she should have just stayed in bed this morning.
Ben Jackson: Today the role of the Green Line will be played by the Red Line.
Patrice Morris says the role of the Green Line today was also played by the Green Line: GD trolley! GD Redline, GD getting to work early!
Etana tweets:
The Red Line stopped tween Davis & Porter: suddenly a dragon was heard puffing and snorting. Oh mighty mbta, standing off until it fled!
On Friday, look for some unusual goings on at the southeast corner of Mass. Ave. and Beech Street near Porter Square, where some folks will convert a vehicle space into a play space. Angie explains on this Facebook page:
A creative exploration of how urban public space is allocated and used. In this space, you will find brightly decorated hula hoops. Please grab one and spin with us! Bonus: try some home-made soda. ... More than 70% of most cities' outdoor urban space is dedicated to private vehicles, with only a fraction of that land allocated for open spaces for people. We're taking a single parking space to see how easily that real estate can be transformed to benefit people. ...
Brian Whalley tweets there are five firetrucks at the Red Line stop, things pretty much shut down.
The T reports a Red Line train crawled into Porter Square and died this evening.
That's on top of all the Green Line trolleys that gave up the ghost today. Mel Du, who's apparently been keeping count, tweets that makes ten DOA trains today.
Wicked Local Cambridge reports a guy ended a dispute over a Mass. Ave. parking space last night by shooting the other guy in the ass. The victim is expected to survive; police are now looking for a Masshole with a gun.
Channel 4 reports, and tweets the man is dead.
Riders are being put on buses between Harvard and Alewife.
Carol O., at Porter at the time, tweets:
Was waiting for the subway when there was a commotion & the train stopped short. It seems like someone jumped/fell in front.
She adds:
Upset but impressed w/the response. Mass ave partially blocked, 6 fire trucks, 7 ambulances, a helicopter & tons of police in 10min
Facebook group set up to try to work to convince Lesley to stop kicking all the stores out of the building, such as Kotobukiya.
Tufts researchers used ethnographic research methods to document the impact of the recession on small businesses in the area; one student focused on bakeries and cafes in Harvard, Porter and Davis squares, Tufts Daily reports:
... "Going into the project, based on what the media was originally projecting, I had assumed that these small businesses would really be hurt by the recession; however, I could almost immediately see that this was not the case as I began to spend time in these locations. They were all bustling," Kuross said in an e-mail to the Daily.
Kuross explained that the primary customer bases sustaining the squares' cafés consist mainly of students, already on constricted budgets and therefore "insulated," and upper-middle-class local residents, securely employed and financially stable. ...
Via Wicked Local Somerville.
Ethan Danahy happened to have his camera going on the Red Line between Porter and Davis today when sparks flew, smoke started coming into the car and then somebody threw the brakes (the jolt at the end of the video). He reports, however, a happy ending, in the sense that everybody got out OK.
Blackout, Leonnea tweets.
Cambridge Police report that a man with a gun held up Rosie's Bakery, 1796 Mass. Ave., as an employee was opening the store around 7 a.m. yesterday.
The suspect was described as 5'8", dressed in a light blue sweat suit with hooded sweatshirt, wearing a mask and gloves, of unknown race.
Police also report arresting a Newton man for breaking into an apartment near Centre Street around 1 a.m. yesterday:
Upon being sighted, the male climbed over his couch and back outside his side window and fled on foot. The resident exited the building and discovered the male in an alley abutting the building.
Some Assembly Required reports he was stopped for a light on Mass. Ave. this evening when a guy crossed in front holding two old-style boomboxes, both playing an old Nirvana song:
... [T]hey were probably tuned to the same radio station. Or given the hardware, who knows? Maybe he'd copied the music onto cassettes and pushed play on both decks at the same time. Rock on, my friend, rock on.
NewEnglanda reports on what might be a dying dialect: English as spoken in North Cambridge and West Somerville, north of Porter Square within three to four blocks on either side of Mass Ave.
Mad crush at Davis Square after Red Line traffic halted by disabled train at Porter Square this afternoon.
That would be the entrance to the Porter Square T stop. Brendan Cavalier marvels - and wonders:
Saturday morning I was walking through the Porter Square T-Station and had to work my way through a crowd of Asian tourists. I had never seen a tour group in out-of-the-way Porter before, so I stopped to try and figure out what was going on. The entire group was standing at the top of the escalators and the tour guide was talking and gesturing towards the escalators (in a language I didn't understand).
I assumed she was taking her group on the subway and was explaining how to get through the turnstiles, pay, etc. But then she finished talking and the group turned and left. While all this was very strange, it got weirder when one woman turned and took a picture of the escalators.
What is so siginificant about the street-entrance to Porter Sqaure station that an entire tour group would stop there and take photos?!
From the T:
Route 83 is being diverted due to gas leak in Porter Square. buses will be unable to service stops at Porter Sq or Sommerville Ave & Elm Sts.
Anybody know anything more about this?
What with the fire near Porter forcing passengers onto buses and all?
Gary McGath provides the photographic proof.
Josh Ourisman has had enough of "emergency" no-parking signs for street painting:
... Last night we walked into Porter Square for dinner and passed no fewer than two different 'emergencies': 'Emergency! We're painting lines on the street! Please file calmly, but quickly to the nearest exit!', 'Emergency! We've torn up the sidewalk! Please ... walk around it!'. ...
Sushiesque photographs some Cambridge street furniture.
Jon Milkman limns the BostonNow hawker at Porter Square who clearly takes pride in his work, even to the point of coming up with a catchphrase:
... [T]o me as i bolted through the porter T entrance late to work and aimed myself at the escalator: "alright, on the run, here we go!!!" (holding out a paper to me like he was passing off a baton in a relay race)
he's kind of awesome.
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