New student's Civic vs. Geek Squad truck. Andrew reports crying.

Newbury Line is all about new stuff on Newbury Street:

... The purpose of this blog is to keep the public updated with the latest news from The Newbury Line, its retailers, and Newbury Street in general. Despite the belief of The Boston Globe, the death of Newbury Street has been greatly exaggerated. Our retailers will use this blog to present offers only available to blog readers. ...

Don't worry, though, the blog is not afraid to take a stand: They are staunchly opposed to more nail salons on Newbury Street:

... To the owner's of 170 Newbury Street (Everyone say this together) WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? ...

Via Beantown Bloggery.

Boloco CEO John Pepper tweets:

Just in - our landlord wants to raise Newbury St rent 25% to $122/sq ft. Speechless. Who will break the news to him that 2007 is gone?

The vacant storefronts of Newbury Street.

Mats Tolander goes for a stroll with a camera and an eye for the "for lease" signs.

Dave Alpert introduces us to the guys selling "art" out of the back of "a newish Audi with Connecticut plates" (so don't confuse them with the dude out by JP Licks or the cheap-prints guy at Dartmouth Street):

... The scene was so AWESOME! Nothing makes street art seem more appealing than when it is sold out of the trunk of a 75 thousand dollar car. ...

Natural Bean is no more, Liza reports:

... I don't know how, why, and when this all transpired, but I was devastated. The tragedy was first of three that day, and while MJ's death put up a good fight (Farrah's not so much), the termination of Natural Bean affected me more deeply than I ever could have anticipated. So there I stood, crestfallen, forcing my feet to turn in the direction of Starbucks, cursing The Man all the while. As I sat at my desk painstakingly taking mouthfuls of my mouthful-of-a-coffee-to-pronounce caramel macchiato from Starbucks, I wondered why the good things in life never last. RIP Michael. RIP Farah. RIP Natural Bean.

Via MenuPages Boston.

Kevin McCrea senses a certain inefficiency in a Boston DPW that lets a major commercial thoroughfare be torn up every single year for different utility work, rather than requiring it all get done at once:

... I went to Johnson Paint on Newbury Street to pick up some paint for a job. They were repaving Newbury Street which seems to happen often.

I went inside and said to the guys "this repaving isn't good for business, how often do they do this?" The guys exclaimed, "this is the FOURTH year in a row they have repaved the street, and it is terrible for business." I asked if they really have repaved it four years in a row and they insisted it had, and explained how 3 years ago they replaced gas lines, then the next year they opened up the street for water lines in the same place, and now they are redoing it again.

Also see today's Globe piece on the mayoral candidates and the efficiency of city agencies (and the city's efficiency in tracking their efficiency).

Sure, City Weekly is gone and the Globe newsroom is getting sliced in a million different ways and the whole paper could go poof next week, but none of that matters: Sarah Schweitzer is back on the Lifestyles of the Rich beat!

Today, she reports that the recession is even hitting people who shop on Newbury Street!

Tamer tastes can be glimpsed up and down Newbury Street. At Ralph Lauren, men are shying away from orange-patterned dress shirts and favoring blue gingham ones, opting for charcoal pinstripe over glen plaid suits.

Oh, Sarah, we've missed you so. But dammit, I'm not giving up my orange-patterned dress shirt no matter what sort of looks people give me. It just too much a part of who I am.

But, yes, even a hard-hearted blogger in his underwear like me had to shed a tear on reading of the sheer generosity in the Back Bay these days: Why, one "wealthy Bostonian, who asked that he not be named, so as not to appear to be flaunting," said he gave up his yellow Ferrari because his neighbors were all losing their jobs. The black Maserati he traded it in for is just so much more understated.

The Outraged Liberal writes that if the Globe goes under, Schweitzer could probably get a job churning out a new reality show: Survivor: Newbury Street:

... The Running of the Scarves at Burberry. Getting a table at Stephanie's. Looking for close-outs at Louis. ...

140 Newbury St., fire coming through the roof, reported around 10 p.m., Boston_Fireman tweets.

As if Newbury Street didn't already have enough problems.