When the Missus and her husband (Mister Missus?) are drifting off to sleep, what usually wakes them up is gunshots, loud music, loud talkers or "people screaming to other people that they are 'deadbeat dads." So she reports that the firecrackers the people in the next street over were setting off around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday were a nice little diversion:

I guess the party doesn't ever stop in the South End.

FortHillRox enjoyed the post-storm sunset over the South End yesterday.

Ryan Barrett agrees you can find all types of people from all sorts of ethnic and racial groups in the South End, but says the longer she lives there, the more she realizes the different groups aren't really mixing:

... I often wonder whether the South End set-up is an optimal first step towards a more diverse Boston. Perhaps the answer is yes. After all, how can we learn more about each other without co-existing? But I also fear that smashing groups of people together who share no common lifestyle threads might create and/or deepen racial stereotypes, prejudices and anger. Like the "I wish those Project kids would quit it with the freaking firecrackers!" or "Why do these Chinese people always cut the bus line!" anger, which has sneaked up on me from time to time. ...

The Urban Paramedic is back from basic training and blogging again. And with his Boston job not resuming for another week, he has time to work up a head of steam over Yvonne Abraham tearing into the current president of the Upton Street Neighborhood Association in the South End for daring to call the Pine Street Inn "a very, very nasty place." The UP, who has been there, explains, in some detail that the Inn really is a very, very natsty place:

... The whole facility stinks of urine and body odor. The belongings of the residents are filthy. In fact, most of the residents are filthy.

Night is the worst time. The snoring of 400 people in varying degrees of health makes an incredible racket. Arguments break out. Residents sneak into the rest rooms to shoot up heroin. Others get drunk. They steal from one another. Violence is not unusual.

The staff is extremely dedicated. I give them a world of credit, because they try extremely hard to set rules that will give the homeless a decent place to sleep. But it's an uphill battle. Residents sneak needles and syringes into the shelter. And bottles of booze. And occasionally knives. ...

A photo walk through the neighborhood.

Following the fabulous and fun South End unveiling and silent auction event last Thursday, the extremely stylish 100% cotton T shirts are now available for purchase on the CitySquares website!!!!

These hip student designed t-shirts are available in two styles and various sizes and can be yours for the low price of $20 +shipping and handling. The beauty of that $20 dollars in that 100% of it goes to the CommuniTee Art Project. If you are not sure at this point what in the world CommuniTee is here’s the cliff notes version for your reading enjoyment…

The South End News reports an Andover woman who is seven months pregnant was arrested on prostitution charges when she offered oral sex to an undercover officer at Tremont and Appleton streets on June 6 - for $40.

The paper also reports a 75-year-old man was robbed at gunpoint not long after on Shawmut Avenue near East Berkeley Street.

Boston Police report arresting two protesters yesterday outside the BU deadly-germ lab under construction on Albany Street:

... On arrival, officers observed several females milling about on the sidewalk in front of the bio-lab. Officers further observed that one of the females had white makeup on her face, with red makeup mixed in to look as if she had blood on her face. The female with the makeup on her face then lay down on the sidewalk. While she was on the ground, a second female drew a chalk outline of her body on the sidewalk. As this was going on, both pedestrians and cars began slowing down to witness what was going on. In short time, traffic began to back up. At this point, officers asked the females if they were in possession of a permit allowing them to occupy the sidewalk. ...

Mary Collela, 21, of Cambridge and Leeanne McHugh, 22, of Dorchester were then arrested and charged with disturbing the peace and damage to property (graffiti).

You may recall the last time Boston Police arrested somebody for failing to have a sidewalk occupancy permit, the Suffolk County DA's office dropped the charges because the guy's actions "did not rise to the level of criminal misconduct." However, in that case, the protester wasn't drawing chalk outlines on the sidewalk.

Ryan Barrett and some friends were at an Irish bar in the South End last night watching the Celtics game when two older white guys started getting louder and louder:

... We chose to ignore the guys ... until we heard this: "C'mon, make the shot you f*cking spook."

Our table began bouncing questions off of each other - "Did he really just say that?" "I think he just called Paul Pierce a spook!" "WTF?!?!"

The guy overheard our table talk and started rambling to himself about how we didn't understand his life and how everyone called Black basketball players "spooks" in Roxbury in the 60's. ...

The Missus posts a map showing all her favorite places in her neighborhood.

Hmm, that could be an interesting idea - personal maps of Boston neighborhoods. There's this Google Maps module for Drupal (the software in place here) I've just started playing with at work. Could be cool to try out.