Ya know, we haven't had a good horrifying rat story recently. Chris Faraone to the rescue, with a look at Boston's rat rampage, from the North End to Allston/Brighton. With bonus fun fact on how male rates mate with up to 20 other rats a day.

Parkvale Avenue tonight, by Nathanael Hevelone.

UPDATE: Arrest made; see in the comments.

Nathanael Hevelone reports on Allston City Limits that he came home to Parkvale Avenue tonight to see a woman crying outside his place. She told him a guy with a knife had jumped her while she was walking her dog. After he called 911 and police arrived, he followed them up Parkvale, where another woman was also attacked, although he may not have pulled out his knife.

Photo posted under this Creative Commons photo.

The Globe reports EMS wasn't saying much about the incident, which happened around 10:40 p.m.

So, there we were at the Westin Waterfront hearing Adam on the Rail-Volution panel telling truth about the power and/or impotence of blogs. When is Adam going to blog about blogging?

Location

Wicked Local Allston/Brighton reports Kelly's Roast Beef wants to turn the old Marty's Liquors into a roast-beef emporium open until 2 a.m. - just down Harvard Ave. from Redneck's, which has long been open until 3 a.m.

"It is often noted that Harvard plans decades or even a century into the future," writes the broadsheet in a mind-blowing editorial this morning. "Allston residents, however, aren’t in a position to look that far down the pike." And just think of the terrible consequences for Harvard of its predilection for thinking of the future - if only it had chosen instead to think of the short-term, it might never have been afflicted with its huge endowment or national preeminence. Making plans with an eye toward their long-term costs and benefits isn't some effete Ivy League quirk. It's just common sense.

There's actually a good argument buried in the editorial. Harvard does indeed have an obligation to sign short-term leases for its vacant storefronts, and to think more creatively and proactively about maintaining and improving the neighborhood. The problems with Harvard's Allston development have been amply and ably documented on this blog. Harvard's ambitious plans were derailed by the slumping economy, and it is now mothballing its properties, with devastating consequences for the local community. But this editorial elevates the popular sport of Harvard-bashing to newly self-destructive heights.

Wicked Local Allston/Brighton reports a woman from Syracuse, NY ended a dispute over a friend's tab at the Kells on Oct. 18 by throwing a stool at the bartender and then returning in her GMC Denali and threatening to use her "toolie" to shoot the place up.

Floon finally realizes there are better backdrops for press conferences than City Hall, travels to the Brighton Mills Shopping Center this morning to denounce the way the BRA "steamrolls" neighborhoods.

Harry Mattison, who posted copies of BRA correspondence about the Charlesview project he got under a public-records request, notes today's Globe story about those records, and reads an interesting sentence in that story:

Elsbree said BRA staff had reviewed the project's finances to ensure that it can be completed.

See, in his public-records request, Mattison specifically requested "all financial documents" related to Charlesview, and yet the CD he got from City Hall had no financial documents in it. What do you say, Brighton resident and Secretary of State Bill Galvin?

Mattison also explains how Mayor Menino, who controls the BRA, has mishandled the Charlesview process.

Ed. note: Naturally, the Globe doesn't link to Mattison's collection of e-mails. Click on the first link in this post for them. UPDATE: They added a link.

Wicked Local Allston/Brighton reports a feces-covered homeless guy waving a machete last Friday so disturbed some Head of the Charles Regatta spectators that they attempted to flee by running into rush-hour traffic on the Soldiers Field Road bridge. Nobody was injured; homeless guy was arrested.