Chinatown

Chinatown building evacuated for structural problems

adamg — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:09:18 +0000

Boston firefighters and building inspectors are at 25 Harrison Ave., where firefighters responding to a fire alarm around 3:25 p.m. found a five-story building that seemed a little unsteady on its feet. An MBTA bus was brought in for 25-30 evacuated residents.

Enter the year of the dragon

adamg — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:57:59 +0000

Photos from the Chinese New Year festivities in Chinatown today.

Retired BPD detective seeks new career as club manager

adamg — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:06:43 +0000

The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to let Miller Thomas, Jr. become manager of Cure, 246 Tremont St.

Thomas told the board today he spent 33 years on the police force, more than 25 of them as a detective. If approved, Thomas would join another former BPD detective as a Theater District manager - Thomas Montgomery, who now runs Venu and Rumor on Warrenton Street.

An alternate plan to reshape city-council districts

adamg — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:32:20 +0000

The Dorchester Reporter reports several voting-rights groups have drawn up a proposed redistricting plan that would see Mike Ross having to run against Tito Jackson - if he doesn't move to Newton to run for Congress - and create an incumbent-less district covering the Chinatown, the South End, and the Fenway:

This reconfigured District 8 would become an incumbent-free, racially-mixed district with common interests and anchored by a growing Asian-American population, creating significant opportunities for historically under-represented communities.

State wants to build more parks in area where it already ignores the park it has

adamg — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:09:06 +0000

They could rename it Pigsty Park.

The Globe today reports the state Department of Transportation has some ambitious plans for the land and air around the turnpike/93 interchange in Chinatown, which it hopes will eventually become a new gateway to the city, featuring new development and parks.

Parks, huh? The photo above is the latest on file with the city's Citizen Connect service from Mary Soo Hoo Park, the little plaza at the pedestrian gateway to Chinatown that is owned by the state Department of Transportation - or at least, that's what the city and the Greenway Conservancy keep telling residents in explaining why their crews can't pick up the trash that keeps getting left there. A couple of weeks ago, the city actually did dispatch a DPW crew to remove trash, but this latest complaint is marked "closed:"

Case Referred to External Agency. Mass dot jurisdiction. details forwarded.

Woman dies in fall from Stuart Street garage

adamg — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:45:00 +0000

BPDLive reports the woman fell from about the third floor of the garage at 200 Stuart St. around 2:30 a.m.

Citizen complaint of the day: Wretched refuse continues to plague Greenway park

adamg — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:20:39 +0000

UPDATE: A Chinatown resident did something revolutionary: Actually used a telephone for its original purpose today and called up Justin Holmes, head of constituent services for the city. Within 45 minutes, a city crew swung by and cleaned up the park.

We're talking actual refuse. An increasingly disgusted citizen follows up last week's report about festering Mary Soo Hoo Park, for which the city apparently couldn't spare a single bulldozer or garbage truck, even though, like Dewey Square, it doesn't own the land either. In fact, it seems like nobody wants to claim ownership:

We spoke to Greenway who says they have no authority here and MassDOT is responsible. Trash keeps piling up-can the city step in, take charge and see this gets done? Chinatown residents would be grateful to have Mary Soo Hoo Park back for our kids to play in. The trash has not been emptied since the park opened. Thanks.

Citizen complaint of the day: Why doesn't the Greenway do anything about trash-strewn park?

adamg — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:06:09 +0000

Right, not Dewey Square but Mary Soo Hoo Park in Chinatown, where a fed-up citizen complains:

Trash is not being collected by Public Works nor Greenway in the new Mary Soo [Hoo] Park. Has not been collected since the park opened. Trash is spreading all over sidewalk and plantings. Might be a misunderstanding about the maintenance agreement btw different agencies. Either way, the neighborhood needs help here.

Lap dance bites Combat Zone club in the ass

adamg — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:14:28 +0000

The Boston Licensing Board today ordered the Glass Slipper to shut down for two days as penance for the horizontal lap dance a police detective found a dancer giving a customer early on Oct. 27.

The club, one of two strip clubs left in the Combat Zone, gets to pick when it wants to shut down.

At a hearing on Tuesday, a club manager said he was as surprised as anyone to discover the customer was lying on a couch pawing the dancer as she ground on top of him, in direct violation of a city ordinances against customer/dancer contact in general and butt grabbing in particular. The customer paid $300 for the performance in one of the club's third-floor private-party rooms; the dancer lost her job over the extra work.

Theater District club: Don't blame us for patron who shot four people outside at closing

adamg — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:35:21 +0000

Venu manager Tom Montgomery with map showing distance between shooter and club.

UPDATE: Board agrees with club; issues no penalty.

The Boston Licensing Board decides Thursday whether to order a rollback in hours for Venu, a Warrenton Street club that already had a long list of complaints against it when a man police say was a patron got a gun and started blasting away at two gang rivals down the street.

Slipper stripper loses job over $300 lap dance

adamg — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:53:05 +0000

A stripper caught by Boston Police detectives as she writhed on top of a patron at the Glass Slipper on LaGrange Street no longer works at the club, a manager told the Boston Licensing Board today.

Det. William Gallagher told the board that during a routine inspection around 1 a.m. on Oct. 27, he and another detective found a male patron lying on a couch on the club's third floor, a dancer on top of him, his hands gripping her buttocks. That violated state and city regulations, including Adult Entertainment regulation 1C, which specifically forbids customers from being allowed to grab a dancer's buttocks. Gallagher said the customer had paid $300 for the dance.

Glass Slipper manager Nicholas Germano did not dispute Gallagher's account of the $300 "private party" in a room set up for private parties.

Germano said dancers are told of the relevant regulations. Normally, a first violation results in a warning, but in this case, "it was so flagrant that we dismissed her immediately" after the club got a copy of Gallagher's report, he said.

Last year, club managers accepted similar responsibility for a similar lap dance.

The board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take about the infraction.

One of the last nails in the coffin of the Combat Zone?

adamg — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:54:47 +0000

Construction has finally begun on a luxury tower at Washington and LaGrange streets. Once it's completed, how long do you think Centerfolds and the Glass Slipper - the Combat Zone's last two strip clubs - can hold out before their buildings are torn down for a high rise?

Man charged with quadruple shooting outside Theater District nightclub

adamg — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 04:50:41 +0000

Boston Police report arresting Samuel Higginbottom, 23, for four shootings outside Venu on Warrenton Street early on Nov. 18.

Police say officers arrested Higginbottom without incident in Union Square in Allston today and charged him with four counts of assault with intent to murder. His four allged victims, aged 23-33, were not fatally struck, police say.

Innocent, etc.

Linehan remains a city councilor

adamg — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 01:57:49 +0000

The Globe reports a recount showed Bill Linehan really did beat Suzanne Lee - and that a council redistricting plan he authored would shift two precincts where he did really poorly out of his district.

Lee seeks recount in narrow loss to Linehan

adamg — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:01:29 +0000

South End Patch reports Suzanne Lee will formally ask the city elections department to recount votes in District 2, where officials said she lost to incumbent Councilor Bill Linehan by just 87 votes.