Forest Hills

Joshua Rodriguez, familiar to visitors at Faneuil Hall for playing what he calls "junkyard jazz" on old buckets, will face charges for allegedly punching a man out at the Orange Line station on June 16.

Rodriguez, 21, was arrested by State Police on an unrelated charge elsewhere. If there is time left after he is arraigned for that, he will be transported to West Roxbury District Court for arraignment on the Forest Hills charge, an MBTA spokesman said today.

In the video, posted earlier this year, Rodriguez said he only works Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at the tourist destination. The rest of the week, he said, "I just sit at home, I play video games and I smoke a lot of weed." Rodriguez, who said he's been drumming outside since sixth grade, said he makes enough he could buy a BMW his freshman year in high school.

Innocent, etc.

MBTA Transit Police report they are looking for a guy who knocked a man into unconsciousness at the Orange Line station and his alleged toady:

On Saturday, June 16, 2012, a 55-year-old male was the victim of an Aggravated Assault and Battery at Forest Hills Station. The victim was approached by a male, who stated he was going to steal his girlfriend. The suspect then punched the victim above his right eye, causing him to lose consciousness. The suspect then fled the station through the lower bus way toward Washington Street, accompanied by another male.

More details and police contact info on the wanted poster.

Meg Fowler Tripp reports from the Orange Line terminus:

All but 2 ticket machines & 2 gates not broken @ Forest Hills + rude T staff + seeing 1/2 people get on bus free = bah, fare increase.

No, not the guy with the pencil 'stache?

One of the ladies: "Like it's my @$&%! problem the machines don't work." -- after an older person got the "See Agent" message.

The MSPCA reports Mace the pomeranian mix is now short a couple of toes, which had to be amputated after getting mangled at the top of an escalator at the Forest Hills T stop:

The doctors concluded that Mace's foot was so damaged that surgery was scheduled the following day to remove two of his toes. Doctors at Angell expect Mace will make a full recovery and will even learn to walk just as well as before on his now slightly altered hind leg.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports Hizzona hates the plan to tear down the overpass in Forest Hills, but says, hey, it's not his project, so blame the state when the work turns the neighborhood into a living hell.

A Dorchester teen just weeks from graduation was ordered held without bail today on charges he murdered a Forest Hills man who had arranged to sell him a pound of pot.

Charles Reddicks, 18, was already out on $5,000 bail for a Dec. 11 drive-by shooting, in which he allegedly fired a bullet into the arm of another teen at Columbus Avenue and Douglas Park from the passenger seat of a moving car to settle an earlier beef, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

"Cookbooks for sale," this sign at Forest Hills probably says.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette has the latest on the plans for a post-overpass world, including the reconstruction of the rotary by Franklin Park into a standard intersection, with a name change from Shea Circle to Shea Square.

Jason, who blogs about rides on the T, reviews the 30 bus, which runs between Mattapan Square and Forest Hills via Roslindale Square:

In contrast to the 28 and 31, the 30 route itself is quite tranquil serving a mainly residential slice of western Mattapan and northern Roslindale, the parts of Boston no typical tourist would think could exist within Boston city limits. It also may be the only MBTA bus route that gets to cut through a cemetery which when coupled with the High Speed Line creates a double play of cemetery-cutting. ... The 30 keeps quiet and does its job and tries to not let delays get in its way.

UPDATE: Arrest made.

There was a fatal shooting at 132 Hyde Park Ave. around 6:30 p.m. at 132 Hyde Park Avenue, near Walk Hill, Scott Eisen reports.

Police shut Hyde Park Avenue as they began their investigation, but the road is now re-opened to traffic.

Casey, who lives a few doors down, reports from the scene:

That was horrible. People crying in the street. Traffic's a disaster. I heard from a neighbor someone was shot in the head. There are A LOT of cops. Neighbor told me they got there super fast.

Liam considers the future of the area around the Forest Hills T stop after the Casey Overhulk comes down:

There's a great illogic to having so much space dedicated to people driving to public transit rather than developing that space around the public transit options. Imagine the little villages that could be built near Boston at Riverside Station in Newton, Route 128 Station in Westwood, or the Anderson Regional Transportation Center in Woburn. More relevant to Forest Hills is the sea of parking that dominates both sides of Washington St./Hyde Park Avenue near the T station. These parking lots and the Arborway bus yard, already slated for redevelopment, could be turned into a beautiful transit-oriented village where people live, shop, and eat.

No, don't worry, the Casey Overpass still stands. Late yesterday, Christian Scott forwarded this report about the old Tollgate bridge:

In the early hours of this morning the MBTA or AMTRAK or somebody removed the pedestrian bridge you posted about last month. I saw it being craned onto a flatbed this morning inside the lumber yard.

Earlier:
The phantom Tollgate.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports opponents of the state's plan to replace the Casey Overpass with a new system of surface roads may try to delay and block the project until the light dawns over MassDOT and the state decides to replace the overpass with a new overpass, preferably one that is "Olmsted inspired."

The Jamaica Plain Gazette has the latest on plans to replace the overpass with enlarged and reconfigured surface roads and park land.

Boston Restaurant Talk reports the owner of the planned Napper Tandy's pub across from the Forest Hills T stop has decided to call it Eugene O'Neill's instead.

But fans of the 18th-century revolutionary need not despair: Boston Restaurant Talk adds that John Jacobs, who already runs one Napper Tandy's in Norwood, is still planning to apply the name to the pub he plans to open in Roslindale, where Robyn's used to be.

MBTA Transit Police report arresting a Mattapan man Tuesday morning on charges he sold pot to teenagers at the Forest Hills T stop.

Police say Enrico Joseph, 23, would prepare his daily inventory of pot in plastic bags while sitting in his wheelchair on the 6:15 a.m. 30 bus between the Sunoco station on Cummins Highway in Mattapan and the Forest Hills busway. Two plainclothes officers boarded the bus at a stop before his on Tuesday after T police received a number of anonymous complaints from annoyed passengers and at least one bus driver:

The Boston Cyclists Union is throwing a shindig tonight at JJ Foley's Fireside Tavern in Forest Hills to celebrate the state's decision on the Casey Overpass. Starts at 6 p.m., with free appetizers.

The state's decision was to replace the crumbling structure with expanded and reconfigured surface roads, but the union is hoping folks who wanted to see a new overpass will come as well:

We invite you to turn the page with us toward a new future for Forest Hills that will help small businesses, make a more inviting area for walkers and bicyclists, and reconnect this gap in the Emerald Necklace. This is a great opportunity also for people on both sides of the debate we all just came through to shake hands and strategize about how we can make this a project all of us will be proud of for the decades to come.

The owners of two pubs across from the Forest Hills T stop today assured the Boston Licensing Board their openings are imminent.

You look at the Best Buy vending machine in Forest Hills and you wonder when they're going to take off the sheet metal and get it back into operation. In fact, as I learned today from one of the guys at the newsstand next to it, you can already buy stuff from it. But this time, they've hidden all the merch well away from prying eyes, given what happened last time to their supposedly impregnable glass-fronted vend-o-matic. So now you have to know that, in fact, the touch screen works and you can buy stuff just as if you were on your laptop, only the stuff is dispensed immediately upon payment.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports MassDOT has decided to go with a wider New Washington Street and reconfigured intersections rather than a new overpass when it tears down the current crumbling Casey Overpass in a $52-million redo.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports the state Department of Transportation failed to announce what it plans to do about the Casey Overpass by its own deadline this week and now says it doesn't know when it will.

The state is looking at two main proposals: Replace the hulking overpass - built when the Orange Line was still elevated - with another overpass or tear it down permanently and replace it with reconfigured surface roads.

Take the 34 bus up Washington Street to Forest Hills and it always announces Tollgate Way. Nobody ever gets off there, though. Except maybe the ghosts.

Across the train tracks, on Hyde Park Avenue, a street sign also announces Tollgate Way:

But there's nothing there, except a small, dilapidated cemetery. Look up, across the cemetery, and you'll see an abandoned pedestrian bridge across the Amtrak and commuter-rail tracks: A bridge to nowhere - there are no longer any stairs leading up to the span.

The people who want to keep the Casey Overpass say the space under a new overpass could become a marvelous cultural gathering spot instead of remaining the dreary collection of parking spaces and muggers' hiding spots that it has been for the last 50 years.

Via Boston Daily.

In response to a citizen complaint about a neighbor constantly using a traffic cone to claim a space on Weld Hill Street in Forest Hills, a city DPW inspector reports:

I sent an inspector to this location, they reported back that the cones are not there now. We will keep patroling the area periodically so we can try and confiscate the cones.

Don't try riding your bike up the escalator while holding a cup in one hand. SC reports watching in amazement today as a guy rode his bike down the Orange Line platform at Forest Hills, then tried to ride it up the escalator:

He got stuck at the bottom & spilled his coffee everywhere. ... Got one wheel on and lost control while still on the seat.

Wonder if he's the same guy spotted riding his bike down the Orange Line platform at Back Bay last month.