Plans released by Boston 2024 show most of the Common and a significant portion of the Public Garden - including the Make Way for Ducklings statues - off limits to the public during the Olympics. Construction of a 16,000-seat beach-volleyball stadium and related structures, meanwhile, would shut the ball fields and other parts of the Common for months before the games.

Barely a month after Todd English's Figs on Charles Street closed for repairs and then re-opened, it's shut again.

Sara snapped this photo of the window this evening, featuring a prominent apology for being "temporarily" closed. The restaurant is one of the just three outposts left in English's rapidly shrinking Boston empire, the others being the other Figs in Charlestown and Bonfire at Logan Airport.

She adds:

Boston Restaurant Talk reports Figs on Charles Street is closed "for renovations."

City Councilor Josh Zakim says he doesn't hate lawyers - he's one himself - but he says he concerned that too many professionals are taking over street-level storefronts on Charles Street and the Beacon Hill side of Cambridge Street and wants to try to slow the process.

Zakim, who represents most of Beacon Hill, wants to make professional offices a "conditional" use on the two streets. The proposal would still let the agents and brokers move in, but only after a hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Sarah Connors surveyed the scene on Charles Street this afternoon, after the wind detached some tree limbs and gravity brought them crashing to the ground - except where cars where in the way.

Ari Ofsevit photographed a woman who might very well be a member of the Beacon Hill Historical Commission pondering whether the tree might have been on the ground long enough to qualify for historic protection (or maybe not):

Boston Police report a woman, 80, died of head trauma after being hit by a car at Stuart and Charles streets around 6:20 a.m. on Sunday.

The driver said he did not see the woman.

At present, the cause of the accident is still under investigation and no violations have been issued at this time.

City Councilor Mike Ross (Beacon Hill, Back Bay) wants to make it tougher for banks to open along Beacon Hill's main shopping street.

An incensed Beacon Hill resident or visitor complains:

Huge sandwich board sign on Charles Street. There are almost 2 dozen from Charles Circle to Beacon Street. I believe they are against Boston Sign Code. Now as one store owner sets one up, they are proliferating down the street. Please warn owners. Thank you.

Both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald are reporting that an electrical short circuit spark was the cause of the July 8th basement fire at DeLuca's Market on Beacon Hill.

“It is known that there was an electrical problem earlier that morning that resulted in an electrician being called and then doing work in the basement,” Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said.