Arlington Street

MBTA Transit Police report the first arrest of the year for a smartphone theft, off a woman on a Green Line trolley at Arlington Street station yesterday afternoon.

According to a Transit Police report, Emmanuel Castro, 17, of Roxbury, grabbed an iPhone right out of a woman's hands when their inbound trolley stopped at Arlington around 2 p.m. Police say the woman chased after him from the train and then up the stairs to the street, where where she lost him. But an unidentified man, spotting the two running, figured out what was going on and began chasing Castro himself, calling police as they ran all the way to Fairfield and Beacon streets.

Police say they caught up with Castro at Fairfield and Comm. Ave. where, on a pat frisk, an officer felt something hard and pulled an Apple iPhone 4G in Castro's right front pocket. The officer then called one of the numbers on the phone and was, police say, connected to the woman's aunt.

Castro was charged with unarmed robbery.

Innocent, etc.

Boston Fire Department is on scene for a trolley fire on the outbound side. Pantograph fire is out, the train is dead, expect delays.

What a pigeon flying high over the Public Garden would see.

Developer Ron Druker has hired a new architect, who's made changes to the exterior design of his proposed nine-story, $120-million building at Boylston and Arlington streets, but the structure still has the same basic dimensions and doesn't really look all that much different, so it doesn't need to go through a new city review process, members of the Boston Civic Design Commission told nearby residents and preservationists tonight.

Was in Arlington station this weekend and saw the T work continuing. One phase of lighting is in place - the suspended lighting that runs above the "yellow line" close to the track. I was surprised to see this lighting uses yellow light bulbs. While yellow may be fine for your home, they make still-under-construction station look old and dingy before the work is even done. (Add to this the fact that lighting is going up, and the ceiling remains unrepaired, so, like Kenmore, looks like they'll just paint over the cracks and holes in the old ceiling. nice...)