On June 18, the Zoning Board of Appeals considers a request from Leovofs LLC to turn the derelict Eagles Lodge at Dana and Hyde Park Avenues in Hyde Park into nine apartments and some commercial space and to add a five-car garage.
Via FacebookMBTA Transit Police report Benjy Barlatier, 28, of Hyde Park, died last night when hit head on by a speeding Acela train.
According to the report, Barlatier was hanging with two friends near the benches on the inbound platform when he "unexpectedly" got up and dashed across the tracks nearest the platform onto the center set of tracks:
Barlatier reversed his direction and proceeded back to the platform and was fatally struck while attempting to cross over [the tracks nearest the platform].
The engineer of the inbound train estimated it was doing 120 m.p.h. when it hit Barlatier around 10:30 p.m. Police say the engineer saw Barlatier before the strike and immediately applied the emergency brakes, but at that speed, it took 1.26 miles to stop the train - it came to a halt just past the West Street bridge.
Barlatier's remains were brought to the state medical examiner's office for examination.
Inspectors and police at Hyde Park station, a few feet from tarps covering remains.
UPDATE: Victim identified as Hyde Park man.
An Acela train barreling through Hyde Park station struck and killed somebody around 10:30 p.m. The engineer immediately applied emergency brakes, but it still took several blocks for the train to come to a stop - just on the other side of the West Street bridge, well north of the station.
More than 100 passengers sat on the train for more than two hours beside beside a wall painted with "Welcome to Boston," while outside, police and firefighters also waited, to help transfer passengers to a promised relief train from South Station that never came.
"The train crew haven't announced what happened, but passengers told them we read about what happened on Twitter," Jesse, a passenger on the train reported.
He added that the train "coasted to a stop with a burning electrical smell that I presume was the brakes. AC was off for a few, then kicked back on."
At 12:45 a.m., after an inspector took one last look around the train, the engineer sounded its horn twice and the train took off for Back Bay and South Station.
Meanwhile, back at the Hyde Park commuter-rail stop, investigators continued to examine the tracks and put down evidence cones along the inbound platform. Three white tarps covered remains along the center tracks.
Flashing police and fire lights cast an unusual glow on the stopped Acela train.
Crack is behind firefighter on the right.
The city shut the River Street bridge over the Amtrak and commuter-rail lines for about 90 minutes late this afternoon because of excessive vibrations motorists felt as they drove outbound from Cleary Square.
The bridge was re-opened shortly before 6 p.m. after engineers determined the bridge was safe to drive over and would not come tumbling down on the train tracks underneath. Even after the bridge was re-opened, however, a couple of highway engineers from MassDOT stood guard over the trouble area, a patch roughly three feet wide in which the asphalt had given way and the planks underneath made a clanging sound as vehicles drove over it.
Traffic was backed up on both ends of River Street, Hyde Park Avenue in both directions and on Summer Street, which parallels Hyde Park Avenue. But traffic in Cleary Square itself never reached gridlock as Boston police officers kept the cars moving. Trains along the busy tracks were ordered to slow down as they passed under the bridge.
Looks like somebody finally took off the giant top hat in Cleary Square. RighSedRed snapped the newly naked McMullen Building (who knew it had a name?), which is apparently getting prepared for, um, something.
Like the old Mario's/C.F. Donovan's around the corner, it's been vacant since 2007:
Hyde Park suspectsBoston Police report that Diaga, 1276 Hyde Park Ave. in Cleary Square, was held up around 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 31 by three men.
One of the suspects then asked the clerk about a clothing item in the store and when the victim went to get the article of clothing, one of the suspects pointed a gun at the victim and instructed the victim to open the cash register. The victim opened the cash register and was then instructed to lie on the ground. The suspects took an undetermined amount of money from the cash register and fled the store before the victim could dial 911.
Anybody with information can contact E-18 detectives at 617-343-5607 or the anonymous tip line at 800-494-TIPS.
The Bulletin reports, for roughly the 67 gazillionth time, that the owner of C.F. Donovan's on Hyde Park Avenue says this time, no, really, he plans to open up, possibly as early as this week - but only for catering.
He didn't say when he would actually open the place up for the retail trade. Meanwhile, Donovan's is sitting on a liquor license while other restaurants in the area that are actually open - notably the Upper Crust and Cristelle's in West Roxbury - can't get a liquor license because the city is plum out of them.
Konteki Kitchen isn't the only new establishment that's opened in recent days in Cleary Square. A couple doors down, the Lala Market is busy with its grand opening - right across the street from the Tedeschi and right around the corner from Isamary and Star Food Market (and not all that far away from the other Tedeschi).
There was an older guy standing outside the Tedeschi on River Street this afternoon wearing yellow sandwich boards. In English and Spanish, they read:
I am a shoplifter!
I am a thief!
I steal!
That's not the kind of thing you see too often, so I asked him if he really was a shoplifter. He said he was and that part of his sentence was an unusual form of community service: Stand outside the Tedeschi with the signs after school for 90 days, as a warning to the kids from the nearby Hyde Park High School who frequent the store.
Beats the stocks, I guess.
The Herald reports nobody was injured when suspected drug dealers fired at officers who had just pulled them over at Gordon and River streets around 8:30 p.m. Channel 4 reports four people were arrrested and that an officer got off one round before they were subdued.
The new Dottie's, which has a new owner who plans on actually using its beer and wine license (who knew it had one?), or C.F. Donovan's, which has been under construction for three years now.
Roving reporter Mike Ball noticed that the best-named pizza place in all of Boston - yes, the Piece of Pizza in Cleary Square - is closed for some kind of work.
Channel 4 reports police are looking for four guys who walked into the Cleary Square Papa Gino's just after 11 p.m. on Saturday and held the place up - right around the corner from the Hyde Park police station. All wore white ski masks; two carried sawed-off shotguns:
Store employees, who were all in their teens, and a manager, were ordered to lay face down on the ground, police said. Workers told police one of the employees was pistol whipped
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