Central Square

A two-alarm fire erupted shortly before 7 a.m. in the block housing India Pavilion and Bedworks, Brian D'Amico reports. Sam Hammer reports:

There wasn't apparent fire damage but the glass was shattered in front of Bedworks.

Not like the pugnacious poultry of Brookline. Lorcasaur photographed Swifty the Homeless Turkey with a new friend in Central Square this morning. Susan Zalkind took some video:

UPDATE: Arrest made.

Transit Police report they are looking for a woman who allegedly threatened a man on the outbound side of the Central Square T stop with a knife and then spit on him around 11:10 a.m. on March 7:

The incident was a result of the victim asking the unknown female assailant to be courteous of her fellow MBTA passengers and not talk so loudly on her cell phone.

She's described as white, 50 to 55, 5'10" and about 250 lbs., with long red hair. She wore gray sweatpants and a beige jacket.

If she looks familiar, call Transit Police at 617-222-1050 or by texting 873873.

The T worker in question walks through smokey car. Photo by Christopher J. Ternus.

An inbound Red Line train that left Harvard at 11:54 this morning finally made it to Central at 12:37 p.m. - pushed there by another train - the MBTA reports.

Christian J. Ternus tweets:

Just got off Red Line train that caught fire. Train filled with smoke.

MBTA operator lost her keys and couldn't get into cab to call for help. Operator told passengers not to ride Red Line in bad weather. "MBTA doesn't spend enough to make it safe." Passengers were having asthma & panic attacks. MBTA op described this as "passengers complaining." Train was *On Fire.*

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo says there was no fire on the train, adds:

The train operator did not lose her keys nor make any safety-related announcements on the intercom. The tweet was in reference to another MBTA employee who had boarded the train to investigate the cause of the power problem. The employee attempted to open a door at the end of a Red Line car, but was unable because she did not have a key. This employee made some comments to another employee that were picked up by one or more customers (one of whom then tweeted). Both employees have been identified and both have submitted statements to supervisors. The head of the Red Line is investigating.

MBTA Transit Police report officers on patrol at the Central Square Red Line stop yesterday morning spotted a couple making their way onto the platform without paying. Police report this was the third time the male half, Christopher Reed, 26, of Cambridge, has been caught fare evading. He did, however, get a free ride - in the back of a cruiser to T police headquarters - because, police say, he was also wanted on a Cambridge drug charge. The woman? With no outstanding criminal charges, she was captured and released.

Innocent, etc.

They've been workin' on the railroad at Central. Photo by MBTA.

UPDATE: The T reports service resumed around 2:10 p.m., with, of course, residual delays.

Ruddy S. reports a broken rail. The T says it's now busing between Kendall and Harvard.

Dani B., who took the photo below, tweets:

One lousy bus waiting for us at Kendall #shocker

Red turns yellow at Kendall.

Can you spot the Cambridge/Boston line on the North Point bridge? Photo by Matthew Woolf.

UPDATE: Power began coming back on around 6:20 p.m.

Reports pouring in of power outages from across the city: Kendall, Central and Harvard squares all without lights. Cambridgeport is dark. The Cambridgeside Galleria and the Museum of Science? Powerless. Even the Harvard Business School across the river might be out.

Some people got stuck in an elevator at Harvard. A family with a baby got stuck in an elevator at the River Street Whole Foods.

Cambridge Police report:

ElCantabridgian captured the scene in Central Square this afternoon when a motorcycle cop pulled over a T bus for running a red light. Unlike last week in Kenmore Square, there was no mayhem this time.

After seeing "Car Talk, the Musical" there tonight, Paul Levy has the bruises to prove it. But he says what's worse is the theater's apparent indifference to a problem that can send people just sitting in their seats plummeting to the floor:

[I]nstead of talking with friends about the wonderful show we had seen and the great performance by talented actors and musicians, we found ourselves talking about the unsafe condition at the theater and what we felt was a poor response to harm that had occurred.

Cambridge Day reports on a Cambridge City Council vote yesterday that effectively blocks a proposal to replace the All Asia block into a new building for a biotech company.

CentralSquare.com reports the Harvest Coop on Mass. Ave. will be replaced with an H Mart, which specializes in Asian foods. Renovations will take about six months.

The Harvest is moving into smaller quarters across the street.

The MBTA says a Florida man walked off the southbound Red Line platform shortly before 5 p.m. yesterday, possibly because he just couldn't stop while trying to get to a train pulling out of the station - a train going the opposite direction from the one he wanted. He plunges into the pit starting around 1:00 on the video; look down the platform, past the guy who walks all the way down, seems to be right there when the guy goes over the edge, then just turns around and walks away.

At 4:52 pm yesterday, a 56-year old Florida man walked off the southbound Red Line platform, and dropped into the pit at Central Station in Cambridge. Within seconds, he was assisted out of the pit by his wife and others. He did not make contact with the third rail, but he was transported to Mt. Auburn Hospital for elbow and back pain. The man said he fell into pit when he attempted to reach the northbound train (on the opposite track). He said he mistakenly believed the Alewife-bound train was the one he wanted.

Cambridge Day reports the Harvest Coop and the Clear Conscience Cafe lose their Mass. Ave. leases at the end of August. The Coop is moving across the street to the old Jax - half the size of the current coop - but the cafe may be gone for good.

Pop Bop Shop finds both good and meh at Patricia Yeo's Moksa in Cambridge:

Overall, I found Moksa to be confusing. Does it want to be an Asian restaurant or a night club? How can it have dishes that are incredible as well as dishes that taste like nothing? Why was our waiter attentive for the first hour and then he vanished?

H_Boston spotted this plaintive request in Cambridge's Central Square the other day.

Copyright H_Boston. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Truck Stop Tea Party spent some time at Cheapo Records in Central Square yesterday.

Copyright Truck Stop Tea Party. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

The Herald reports the Together music festival will take place in Central Square this year, but City Councilor Tito Jackson vows to get it back across the river. Until then, the festival might want to change its URL and official name.

Alleged evasion starts around 0:35.

MBTA Transit Police report a man spotted piggybacking another passenger through the fare gates at Central Square yesterday turned out to be wanted in Boston, Lynn, Malden and Cambridge on a variety of warrants.

Christopher Coates, 27, of Cambridge was initially stopped by a pair of plainclothes T cops around noon after, police say, they watched him evade his fare. They took him in after discovering he was wanted for everything from assault and battery and drug possession to operating without a license and being in possession of a stolen car.

Innocent, etc.

CentralSquare.com has posted reports from several committees looking at the future of the Cambridge business district, with ideas ranging from creation of a full-service visitor information center, new plantings and better lighting. Some merchants want to create a "business improvement district," like the one in Downtown Crossing that would include hiring "ambassadors" to greet visitors - and broom panhandlers from the area (one landowner proposed removing all the benches in the square as a way to discourage the loitering classes).

One committee dealt with Central Square's "messaging" and came up with an elevator pitch:

Central Square is the pulse of Cambridge; an eclectic urban neighborhood where cultures mix, mingle and create. Day or night, Central Square is a vibrant destination for dance, theater, music, and global cuisine.

Steve captured the people waiting in line this morning for the opening of the new Dick Blick art-supplies store in Central Square.

Shaun Engstrom reports this morning:

BREAKING NEWS: Coraline stop motion ad between Harvard & Central Sq replaced w/ Blue Man Group. It's been 2 years, praise the MBTA gods.

Cambridge Day reports the art-supply chain is opening an outlet on Mass. Ave.

John Pouliot captured the scene around noon today at Mass. Ave. and Essex Street in Central Square. He reports:

Moving but being put on a stretcher. Witness-"Why bike lanes don't work."

The Crimson reports Cambridge officials want to use some money from MIT to study ways to turn Kendall Square into a nighttime destination. The Tech has more, says the study area will actually stretch from Kendall Square to Central Square.

CentralSquare.com reports the AIDS Action Committee is opening one of its Boomerangs used-stuff stores at 563 Mass. Ave., to join the existing outlets in Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury.