Contact Cambridge Police, who report a spate of housebreaks in the neighborhood of late. The suspects are described as "one dark-skinned, skinny, tall, black male" and another guy of unknown race, both about 16, both riding on bikes and both with a preference for laptops, video game systems, cell phones and wallets, which they reportedly take on after-school burglary runs.

NewEnglanda reports on what might be a dying dialect: English as spoken in North Cambridge and West Somerville, north of Porter Square within three to four blocks on either side of Mass Ave.

Cambridge Police report a man was shot around 1:30 this morning on Montgomery Street; taken to a Boston hospital for treatment and is expected to live. Police say they are still investigating conflicting stories about what happened.

Via Davis Square LiveJournal comes news of a police community meeting Friday, Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Peabody School auditorium:

... Most of you know that there have been a few shootings in North Cambridge in the past couple of weeks (it doesn't appear that anyone got shot), but there have also been assaults and at least one high-speed car chase that wound up with an arrest in a Pemberton Street backyard.

North Cambridge is still a very safe place, statistically, but there is some understandable angst about recent crime, as well as unanswered questions about past crime such as the shooting at Parnell's a few months ago or the Pemberton Street shooting around the same time. ...

Marc follows the saga of the new Hess station planned for Mass. Ave. and what it says about how planning and zoning work in Cambridge.