The Boston Fire Department reports investigators are looking at what exactly caused a small and quickly extinguished fire on the roof of 518 Tremont St. around 1 p.m. The roof has a number of solar panels on it; three of them may have malfunctioned.
South End
Don Akin, who started Medieval Manor 43 years ago in the basement of the Eliot Hotel, says the reason he's shutting down what had become a Boston institution for a fairly simple reason: "We were not able to keep up with the rising cost of business." Read more.
Update: Interview with owner Don Akin.
E-mail from Medieval Manor on E. Berkeley Street went out yesterday: The middle-ages dinner show is closing forever on Dec. 31: Read more.
A gagging citizen complains about this truck doing a little coal rolling on Mass. Ave. in Newmarket Square today:
Large truck traveling on mass ave near Proctor st spewing thick clouds of black smoke followed by white smoke.
The Globe reports on the bitterness involved in the running of the SoWa open market and how there will be two of them next year.
When James Witkowski, 42, was sentenced to 18 months in jail last summer for violating the terms of an assault-and-battery conviction - following earlier convictions that included drug distribution - he had to supply a DNA sample.
The sample matched DNA found on the body of Lena Bruce after she was raped and suffocated in her South End apartment on July 12, 1992. Read more.
The Hingham Institution for Savings, 540 Tremont St., around 2:10 p.m.
The suspects were white, about 5'7" and wearing sunglasses, in hoodies, one gray, one black.
Beth went to Boston Calling and saw Chromeo.
Earlier in the day, Mike Ball took in the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival, including a performance by Felix Peikli and the Royal Flush Quintet: Read more.
Colleagues, friends and family members are mourning the loss of Paul Andrade, 49, who died in a crash with a taxi while riding his motorcycle on Albany Street Wednesday afternoon. Read more.
The BRA board last night approved a refinancing plan for the Crosstown Center Hampton Inn on Mass. Ave. in which holders of the project's debt will simply write off a good chunk of the money it owes them. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today a couple suing Boston Medical Center for negligence will get their day in court.
A Suffolk Superior Court judge had dismissed their case against BMC before it could go to trial after agreeing with the hospital that it had no way to know the interpreter, who had a clean criminal record, might disregard hospital rules against being in a room with a patient alone and instead sneak in and sexually assault the Guatemalan immigrant. Read more.
Our own John Keith reports that National Development, which developed the Ink Block project atop the spectral remains of the Boston Herald printing press, has purchased a small parcel on Albany Street - a small parcel that is now pretty much surrounded by the Ink Block.
A sodden citizen complains about a building on Tremont at Dwight:
Someone from one of the condos with a front balcony is dumping water on people. My partner and I walked by this morning at about 8:40 and had water poured on us. It was not from watering plants and it was not a drip. We went back and saw someone in the penthouse unit out on the terrace looking down at the sidewalk.
Police have shut off traffic on Mass. Ave. between Huntington and Columbus due to a suspicious package at St. Botolph St. Fire crews and EMS on the way, just in case.
UPDATE, 5:45 p.m. Roads being reopened. Patty reports it appeared to be a pink and blue suitcase.
A concerned citizen gets cranky on seeing the current state of the Land Wave statue-ish thing in Peters Park in the South End:
It's a nightmare. Tiles are chipped off, water pipes are exposed, the grass is overgrown. Let's be real. It should be taken down. The strip lighting on top worked for like a day and it has been a blight ever since it was installed. Who designs a perfectly climbable installation next to a little league field and then expects no one to climb it. Ridiculous waste of money. Let's cut our losses and dispose of this dumb thing. It makes the park look sad and uncared for.
A South End citizen pleads with the city for help with raccoons at Shawmut Avenue and Haven Street:
Family of raccoons living in our neighbor's garden, our fire escape, and our upstairs neighbor's roof deck.
The BRA board today approved a 200-room Marriott boutique hotel for the Ink Block development at the old Boston Herald site.