West Roxbury

The Boston Public Health Commission reports a mosquito sample from West Roxbury has tested positive for West Nile Virus, a couple weeks after Roslindale won this year's honors for first infected neighborhood.

There have been no confirmed human cases of the infection, but health officials say the sampling means it could only be a matter of time. They urge people to wear long sleeves and pants when outdoors and use insect repellent from dusk to dawn. Also, check those screens, turn over those unused flower pots and garbage cans, haul away those old tires and cover those kiddie and swimming pools when not in use.

Looks like the old Payless Show store is going to become a convenience store (there's a Marino's on the VFW Parkway, next to Al Wadi). It'll join the 7-Eleven near the police station in serving the neighborhood's convenience needs.

The view from Millennium Park around 6 p.m.

The grass is always cooler on the other side of the street in West Roxbury.

AlertNewEngland reports utility poles caught on fire on Grove Street and over the line in Dedham last night and parts of West Roxbury went dark. As of 5 this morning, about 1,000 customers in West Roxbury and Chestnut Hill were still without power, WBZ tweeted.

State Police are investigation a collision at the West Roxbury/Dedham line around 7:15 p.m. that left a motorcyclist pinned under a pickup truck before he was extricated and transported to Beth Israel Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Stephen Walsh, who took this photo of the motorcycle, reports the motorcyclist has died.

Updated following City Council vote.

The City Council will ask the legislature to relax its limits on liquor licenses in Boston so that the Irish Social Club in Boston can regularly serve alcohol to guests again.

The move, which comes even as the council readies for a hearing on ways to convince the legislature to give Boston a lot more liquor licenses, is needed to help preserve "the legacy of Irish and Irish-American culture in Boston" that the club promotes, city councilors Matt O'Malley (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain) and Steve Murphy (at large) say.

Sweetz reports a deer was foraging this morning in a yard on Woodley Avenue near Stony Brook Reservation - where deer have been spotted before.

Thought it was fake at first until it moved.

A skyrocketing burglary rate across Roslindale and West Roxbury has police asking residents to watch out for their neighbors' homes during the day.

District E-5 reports a series of mostly daytime residential break-ins across the two neighborhoods dating back to January, one in which somebody apparently used a crowbar to break open the front door.

Residences on Cornell Street in Roslindale and Temple, Salman and Bellevue streets in West Roxbury are among those hit, police say. Although most have been during the day, police say some have occurred in the evening when residents were not at home.

Latest stats from BPD show a 112% increase in break-ins in E-5 so far this year, compared to the same period last year - from 43 to 91 through May 21.

Police are urging residents who are at home during the day to watch out for their neighbors' homes and report anybody who doesn't seem to belong, for example, people going from door to door or looking into cars or houses.

Spotted on the West Roxbury Parkway in West Roxbury today.

Not long after the City of Boston Credit Union on Spring Street was held up, the Hess station on Washington was held up at gunpoint, allegedly by a guy who didn't get far before being arrested. And soon after that, police began swarming the area of Bellevue Hill and Washington Street into Roslindale after a house on Bellevue Street was broken into.

Boston Police tweet the City of Boston Credit Union, 75 Spring St., was held up this afternoon by a guy in a gray sweatshirt and blue scrubs and with a face mask on.

Roche Bros. is now selling five-liter kegs of root beer - just the thing to go with the three-gallon tubs of ice cream that's the smallest size you can get at Puritan Ice Cream in Roslindale.

Van B. Tang goes before the Boston Licensing Board next week for permission to open a Vietnamese sandwich shop in a stretch of Centre Street that has become a culinary mecca for the neighborhood.

Tang's proposed Banh Mi Ngon would open at 1759 Centre St., next to Christo's and down the street from Thai Spice, Los Amigos, Red-Eyed Pig, Himalayan Bistro, West on Centre and the Upper Crust.

Banh Mi Ngon would be open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to its license request.

The board's hearings start at 10 a.m. on Wednesday in its eighth-floor hearing room at City Hall.

This evening, an angry drunk was walking down Centre Street in West Roxbury, yelling at everybody he passed: "I hope you die of high cholesterol!"

For the first time in several years, crime rates are increasing in the police districts that cover West Roxbury, Roslindale and Jamaica Plain, led mainly be dramatic increases in the numbers of burglaries and larcenies, according to statistics released yesterday by Boston Police.

Although districts E-5 (West Roxbury and Roslindale) and E-13 (Jamaica Plain) remain among the safest in the city, the increases for the period between Jan. 1 and April 17 when compared to last year are striking. In E-5, the total number of burglaries and attempted burglaries jumped from 26 to 64; the number of larcenies from 96 to 129. In E-13, burglaries and attempted burglaries increased from 46 to 57 and the number of larcenies from 170 to 210. Also in E-13, the number of robberies is up, from 29 to 38 (in E-5, they increased from 14 to 17).

District C-6 (South Boston and Columbia Point) also saw a dramatic jump in burglaries and attempted burglaries, from 43 to 65, but a decrease in larcenies (319 to 254).

District E-5 reports incidents on Hackensack Road and on Stratford Street involving a couple of guys in a BMW. In one case, a resident called 911 after noticing one of the two ringing doorbells:

Responding officers immediately located the suspect and asked him what he was doing in the neighborhood. The suspect stated that he was just seeing if people wanted their cars washed. As officers were speaking with the suspect, his father pulled up in a black BMW. He stated he was also driving around the neighborhood and that they were looking for work. He further stated that they were in the area to paint houses.

Police did not say if the two were legit, but said residents should always call 911 in such cases.

City Councilor Matt O'Malley (Jamaica Plain/West Roxbury) ran the Marathon today - and turned on the video on his phone for the last 200 yards.

Compare to then Mayor Ray Flynn in the 1984 Marathon.

Stephen Walsh tweets a woman was robbed of a night-deposit bag this morning by a guy in a hoodie who motioned as if he had a gun at the Hancock Village mall on VFW Parkway.

David Bernstein breaks the news that Bart Timility is running to replace his sister, Kelly, who died while serving as a governor's councilor in January.

The council, a colonial holdover, approves judicial nominees, pardons and payments for state spending.

Temple Street in West Roxbury today once again hosted the annual Shamrock Shootout, which has grown from a small neighborhood block party to an event large enough to feature a sitting US senator dropping the ceremonial first puck (well, yellow plastic ball, actually).

Managers at certain Boston restaurants and bars make frequent trips to the Boston Licensing Board to answer police citations for liquor-law violations. The Corrib Pub in West Roxbury is not one of them. Today, however, Corrib manager Tony Bligh had to explain why police on a routine inspection found two 20-year-old women with Coors Lites in front of them on Jan. 5.

Bligh offered no excuses - in fact, he read a statement that started, "I am embarrassed to be in front of this board."

Brian D'Amico and Dan Adams report a guy was hit by a train around 8:30 p.m. on the Needham Line tracks between Home Depot and the West Roxbury Education Complex.

Are those snow clouds moving in over the Great Blue Hill this morning? The scene from the top of Millennium Park in West Roxbury.

read more at bluemassgroup