Fishwrap recounts the story of Axel Andre Bjorklund, a Swedish immigrant who wanted to do something for poor kids at Christmas time and so set up a free hot-dog stand at Blackstone and Hanover streets in the North End in 1921. Read more.
J.L. Bell introduces us to the cherubs of Old North Church - and alerts us to a talk next Wednesday by the conservator who is leading the effort to restore all those cute little cheeks you'll just want to pinch, only you shouldn't.
The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by Richard and Adriana Travaglione to turn a small vacant building at 204 Hanover St., near Cross Street, in the North End into a new seafood restaurant and four studio apartments. Read more.
Rendering by Anthony Pisani.
The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by serial North End restaurant owner Frank DePasquale to add a second floor to the vacant strip of storefronts on Cross Street between Hanover and Salem street so he can open a series of businesses keyed to Italian culture - including a cooking school to be run with an existing culinary institute in Italy, aimed at both people looking at restaurant careers and residents and even elementary-school students who just want to learn more about Italian cooking. Read more.
Mayor Wu announced today the city is renaming the North Washington Street bridge after Celtics great and civil-rights activist Bill Russell. Read more.
Carla Gomes, who owns two Italian restaurants in the North End, today made the case why she should get two of the four all-alcohol licenses - worth an instant $600,000 or so to whoever gets them - that the Boston Licensing Board will give out over the next year, although she said she's not greedy and would be happy with just one. Read more.
A roving UHub photographer notes the post office on Hanover Street in the North End has a sign on the door saying it would be opening late, at 10:30 a.m., but that they still weren't open when she swung by at 2 p.m.
Earlier:
Letters, we get letters - just not through the Postal Service.
Hodor on the left. See it larger.
Eric Bender, who covers the waterfront, couldn't help but notice the Lonian docked at Commercial Wharf today, because the thing is enormous: It's a 285-foot-long superyacht. Read more.
GBH uncorks the news that City Hall is considering several "open container districts" where people could buy something adult at a local restaurant and then just walk around sipping like we're a common New Orleans or Las Vegas. Read more.
Eric Bender shows us the Eagle, docked at the North End Coast Guard base and open for touring until 7 p.m.
Patrick Mendoza, the now former owner of Monica's Trattoria on Prince Street in the North End, today pleaded guilty to charges that he tried murdering a guy with whom he had beef in front of Modern Pastry on Hanover Street last July 12, Oscar Margáin reports from Suffolk Superior Court. Read more.
A Boston Police officer was knocked to the ground when hit by a truck at North Washington and Thacher streets around 12:45 p.m.
The driver stayed at the scene.
Wednesday night, BPS notified parents of kids at Snowden International High School, the Josiah Quincy (both lower and upper schools) and the Eliot School (all three schools) that the last day of classes for the year is today, because there was no way to get kids to school and have a Celtics championship parade, NorthEnd.page reports, adding that state officials signed off on the move which "left parents scrambling to find childcare and reschedule end-of-year activities."
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the court order that required Boston to desegregate its schools, WBUR looks at the Eliot School in the North End, which went from having racial parity to becoming mostly white once again - in a school district that is mostly Black and Hispanic.
A Suffolk Superior Court judge today ordered Patrick Mendoza, the now former owner of Monica's Trattoria on Prince Street, held without bail until at least Sept. 11 - with no date yet set for his trial on charges he shot at somebody outside Modern Pastry on Hanover Street last July, according to court records. Read more.
Update: Mendoza ordered back to jail, at least pending a pre-trial conference turned bail hearing tomorrow, per court records.
The Globe reports that Patrick Mendoza was arrested Saturday for cutting off his court-ordered ankle bracelet and allegedly told BPD officers he was tired of wearing the ankle bracelet and was thinking it was time to try to kill somebody else. Read more.
A really aggravated citizen filed a 311 complaint about two holes somebody dug in the lawn at Christopher Columbus Park, to the point of gathering three fellow citizens by one of them to point at it, just in case Parks workers doubt them or something: Read more.
anybody else upset at the t-n-t coverage of tonites cavs @ celtics game where the announcers continentally mentioned live in downtown boston ... between commercials.
The annual Big Day Boston bird watch in Boston Proper on Saturday ended with 66 species of birds spotted from the Public Garden to Boston Harbor, including one bald eagle competing with Hitchcockian numbers of gulls to gulp down some herring.
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