Harbinger of impending K-Mart?

Having no particular place to go, I stopped in Central Square yesterday to talk to a "Want to help elect Obama?" guy; I think his name was Greg. It went something like this:

The Conversation

Me: Are you with the campaign, or just a signature-gathering company?

Greg: The campaign!

Me: Good, so you can feed opinions back to the campaign. I have two words: Telecom Immunity.

Greg: What's that?

Sure, it's basically just an overgrown traffic island, but Cronin Park just wants to be loved and what's the harm in that?

That would be the entrance to the Porter Square T stop. Brendan Cavalier marvels - and wonders:

Saturday morning I was walking through the Porter Square T-Station and had to work my way through a crowd of Asian tourists. I had never seen a tour group in out-of-the-way Porter before, so I stopped to try and figure out what was going on. The entire group was standing at the top of the escalators and the tour guide was talking and gesturing towards the escalators (in a language I didn't understand).

I assumed she was taking her group on the subway and was explaining how to get through the turnstiles, pay, etc. But then she finished talking and the group turned and left. While all this was very strange, it got weirder when one woman turned and took a picture of the escalators.

What is so siginificant about the street-entrance to Porter Sqaure station that an entire tour group would stop there and take photos?!

Jim posts video from last night's Cambridge Dance Party, in which Mass. Ave. in front of City Hall was turned into an outdoor disco.

Overmatter posts some photos:

... My friend N. noted that the D.J. was aiming to cater to everyone in the crowd, starting with the 60s soul music, then to Latin dance music, then to hipster hip-hop, then to Latin hip-hop, then to gay dance party music. We left a little early, and assume we missed the Latin gay disco hip-hop-folk-soul music. ...

Could you imagine something like this on Newbury Street?

A brand-new press release from the DCR:

DCR CLOSES INSIDE LANES OF LONGFELLOW BRIDGE TO ALL TRAFFIC

Agency also bans large trucks from the bridge

Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) officials today announced that effective Saturday morning, June 28, the inside lanes in both directions on the Longfellow Bridge will be closed to all traffic.

Also, all large trucks will be prohibited from the Longfellow, and will be detoured to other bridges across the Charles River. Cars, buses, and light trucks will continue traveling on the outside lanes of the bridge.

The Cambridge Chronicle headline sums it up: Red Line trains briefly halted as cops search for bank robber with 'skin problem'.

But that was yesterday, so probably not related to tonight's Red Line "signal problems" ...

Steven Raftery, 42, 211 Elm St. last night.

Fenix posts photos of repair work on our favorite troubled bridge, the Longfellow - from nighttime T work to replace ties to a crew inspecting the bridge from below.

Pomsmith spies the world's narrowest fire lane, at the Garment District in Cambridge.