Haymarket

The heart of Downtown Crossing at 9:50 a.m. Photo by Gary Waldeck. Note plucky banana vendor in lower right.

Deserted Haymarket. Photo by David Schachner.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Via BPD.The MBTA is closed. Boston residents get emergency robo-calls from police warning them to stay inside. People in Watertown, Waltham, Newton, Belmont, Cambridge also told to "shelter in place." Courts in Cambridge, Brighton, Newton and Waltham are closed. Businesses are urged to not open. Amtrak stopped service to and from Boston.

Also shut this morning: The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth: "UMass Dartmouth has learned that a person being sought in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing has been identified as a student registered at UMass Dartmouth."

Logan Airport, however, remains open. Also on the job: Cambridge garbage men. Also, their counterparts in Boston. Around 10 a.m., Boston Police let taxis resume service. Dunkin' Donuts, of course, remained open, even in Watertown, because we do have our limits.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports the state has chosen two finalists for Parcel 9 - next to Haymarket, one focused on out-of-towners, the other on apartments, both with restaurants and food-market space.

Red Line riders wait for a train, because what other choice do they have? Photo by Robby.

A dead train at Haymarket, you say? The Red Line attempts to trump that with a dead train of its own at Park Street AND another one at Harvard. How can Orange answer?

Meanwhile, speaking of competition, Landon Kolsky proposes an MBTA Olympics:

Events include high evasion jumping, baby stroller hurdles, 100 meter dash to the Red Line, and Curling.

Only problem, he adds:

The opening and closing ceremonies will be delayed due to a signal problem, they will apologize for any inconvenience.

Joe Pesaturo at the MBTA reports:

At 12:17 p.m. today, an intoxicated man stumbled and fell beneath a Green Line trolley that had just made a stop at Haymarket Station. Preventing a tragedy, customers on the platform alerted the trolley operator of the situation before the train started to move. The MBTA would like to express its gratitude to the customers who "Saw Something, and Said Something" before it was too late. The man was not injured.

Like Durgin-Park, Haymarket has softened over the years - most of the vendors no longer yell at customers daring to turn fruit over. Bob Skole reviews the changes and how the proposed public market nearby could make Haymarket even better.

Karen Cord Taylor considers competing proposals for Parcel 9, next to Haymarket, which include a museum about Boston, a bunch of apartments and a hotel.

NorthEndWaterfront.com rounds up the latest offerings, all of which would include space for Haymarket vendors and three of which the state previously rejected.

Yep, just when you thought nothing else could cause problems on the T. Channel 4 reports hazmat crews are in the busway with a truck, licensed to carry radioactive materials, with readings showing a possible leak.

UPDATE: Crews began clearing scene shortly after noon, when readings showed acceptable levels.

Mike Ball notes that the waitresses at Durgin-Park haven't been grumpy for a long time. And now, he reports, even most of the hawkers at Haymarket are no longer grimacing screamers:

Honestly, some of the predictable drama is gone, contemporary with the nasty old elevated Interstate that went with the Big Dig. I guess after over 40 years of that, I can’t say I need to relive it every week. The thrill is gone.

MBTA Transit Police report this guy snatched an iPhone away from an Orange Line rider easy-peasey on Oct. 23:

Victim was on a Northbound train and when the doors opened at Haymarket Station the suspect grabbed the victim's iPhone from his hand and fled out of the station.

Guy look familiar? Contact Transit Police at 617-222-1069.

AlertNewEngland tweets officials have shut the station because of a powerful stench.

Shawnna Imani reports that after getting dumped out of one Orange Line train taken out of service at Ruggles, she finally got to Haymarket and was on her way up the escalator when it just stopped, throwing her and others down and giving her a set of fresh puncture wounds on her arm (only click if you want to see somebody's arm with bits of skin missing). She adds that a T employee apologized and gave her a six-month CharlieCard.

UPDATE: MBTA says no fires.

Boston Police are tweeting there are fires in the Chinatown AND State Street stations on the Orange Line. Local 718 tweets firefighters are trying to determine the source of smoke on the Orange Line at Downtown Crossing.

The T itself is only reporting a disabled inbound train at Haymarket.

Boston Museum couldn't raise enough money; developer could, the Herald reports.

A small trash fire on the Green Line tracks was extinguished by a Green Line driver late tonight, but there might be something else going on at Haymarket. Around 11 p.m., Boston_Fireman tweeted to expect delays on both Green and Orange lines. Green Line service in both directions was stopped, while power on the Orange Line between Haymarket and State Street was turned off. However, the T was given the OK to restore service on both lines around 11:40 p.m.

Some enterprising MBTA worker figured out he could use some stacks of Metros to sop up leaks on the Orange Line inbound platform at Haymarket. I took this photo today, but the leak wasn't due to today's downpours - the T has been using Metros for months now to sop up the same leak at the same location, probably because it's a lot cheaper than trying to fix the problem.

Michael Ratty provides the proof, with a photo from Haymarket station.

Eric Kilby reports:

I was given a hard time last night by an inspector at the Haymarket bus platform, as I was trying to get a shot of the Government Center garage. The light was interesting. He said that he was instructed to tell people to get a permit or go away. I told him that there was a memo, but I didn't have a copy, and he said he hadn't heard of it. I thanked him for looking out for our safety and left, because it really wasn't worth the trouble to argue. He said it would be ok if I took like 5 steps back so I was on the public sidewalk and not the MBTA sidewalk (the texture was different), which seems kind of odd.

This comes a couple days after another T worker harassed some poor tourist for daring to take a photo inside Back Bay station.

If the T has suddenly changed its photo policy, you'd think they'd update the online version, no? Oh, wait, this is an agency that's only now updating 40-year-old maps ...

Tony tweets:

Just saw an MBTA employee dump the metro paper recycling bin into a trash can at Oak Grove. Why do they pretend to recycle? Ugh.

The T does a better job of recycling old Metros at the inbound platform on the Orange Line at Haymarket: They use bundles of Metros to sop up all the water that keeps draining into the station - and to prop up an orange cone atop the slippery spot the water creates.

This week's Friday-afternoon issue: Disabled Green Line train at Haymarket.

Also heavy delays reported on the bus rapid transit line due to traffic on Washington Street.

Transit Police report arresting a Quincy man on charges he used a column at the Haymarket Orange Line stop to help pleasure himself last night as a woman watched on in horror from the other side of the tracks.

Police say they were called to the station around 9:45 p.m. after the woman, on the northbound side, allegedly spotted Richard Mullaney, 41, first exposing himself, then using a silver support column on the southbound platform for more than just support:

The Globe reports:

The market would be opened in a vacant building that occupies a full city block near Haymarket, an area of old cobblestone alleys where city officials want to create an expansive year-round shopping district with dozens of local growers, bakers, seafood merchants, and other businesses.

Imagine Haymarket open every day and selling stuff fresh from the dock or farm and without, as the Globe says, merchants yelling at people who spend too long staring at tomatoes. In other words, what Quincy Market was originally built to be.

Interesting series of Twitter posts - all from different people - during last night's rush hour:

5:21 p.m.: MBTA is experiencing delays on green line due to disabled train at Haymarket

5:38 p.m.: Looks like major problems at Park Street outbound on the MBTA. All trains loading from one platform.

6:09 p.m.: just spent 45 minutes underground waiting for a d train. ...

6:49 p.m.: ... Six green line trains at Park St., but none of them C Line? Fail. Again!

John Keith reports a developer is proposing to build two office buildings atop the Haymarket MBTA station (now occupied by a parking garage) - one 52 stories high, the other 42 stories - and would also throw in several, shorter, residential buildings.

After eight years in Boston, G reports on his first shopping expedition to Haymarket and shows off what he got for $18:

... it was packed, but awesome - not only were the bargain prices enough to make you want to take up arms the next time you're poking around the priced-up pallid produce piles at the neighborhood supermarket, but the experience of being amongst the crowd, buying uberfresh yums from the hard-working crew was fabulous - i'd much rather leave my $ there. ...