The Boston Fire Department ordered power shut on the Orange Line between State Street and Downtown Crossing shortly after 10 p.m. when smoke appeared in the State Street station. Power was restored not long after when firefighters discovered the smoke was coming from one particular train, not another track fire, according to Boston Fireman and Local 718.

He was holding a guitar, but in the short time I listened to him at Downtown Crossing, Fester didn't actually play. Instead, he sang "Yesterday" to a karaoke CD.

In the "kids today" department, as I was walking up to the Forest Hills side from the Oak Grove side, these two teen girls in front of me were talking about Halloween, when one blurted out, "I wanna be a WHORE!" You go, girl!

Boston Fire tweets there was a small track fire on the Red Line outbound at Downtown Crossing shortly after midnight. No injuries.

Back in September:
Meltdown on the Red and Orange lines.

Yes, George Wendt at the Downtown Crossing Borders!

What? Somebody else was in town, too? Oh, yeah, that would explain the sniper on the roof of the Westin.

Wait, what's that? That's not a Christo installation? It's just the developers trying to mollify an outraged city and protect what's left of the old Filene's buildings after more than a year of leaving them exposed to the elements at the giant hole in the middle of Downtown Crossing?

Oh, never mind.

Somehow I missed this account of what happened when some kid stole Ben Franklin's hat in Downtown Crossing last week:

... Ben Franklin catches up and starts whacking the thief with his cane, so the cop starts yelling, "Easy with the cane! Easy with the cane!" ...

I bet it's the Faneuil Hall Ben Franklin who gets mad if you take his picture without paying him.

Via Bostonist.

Matthew I shows there's still some life in the old retail district.

Copyright Matthew I. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Panhandler this afternoon on Summer Street in Downtown Crossing:

Could you give me some money for absolutely no reason at all? I've run out of excuses.

Orange Line operator on the PA this evening as the train pulled into Forest Hills:

I hope you had a good time on the Orange Line! Please remember to take all your belongings. See you again!

The Globe reports on how badly developer John Hynes feels about the empty swimmin' hole on Washington Street, says that if he doesn't get financing by October to start building there, he'll fill the hole in. No word on whether he'll also cover up what's left of the Filene's buildings, or simply leave them to rot so that when he finally does get financing, he can tell the city they're too far gone to save and simply knock them down.

NOTE: I'd originally linked to stats on a new MBTA Transit Police site. That site is now dead and looks like they are no longer linking to stats from their old site. Feh. The information below was from the new site before it got taken down/fell apart. Channel 4 reports overall crime on the T system is down. Oy.

The latest crime stats from Transit Police show a dramatic increase in crimes at busy Downtown Crossing over last year.

As of June 30, 143 criminal incidents were reported at Downtown Crossing, compared to 61 for all of last year. Although all types of crime are up, it seems that Downtown Crossing visitors are quicker to spoil for a fight this year - there have already been 56 reported assaults, compared to just 16 for all of last year.