Might not be safe despite what the Globe tells you:
"Many T riders favor late-night service" by Martine Powers | Globe Staff, March 22, 2013
The MBTA wanted to know what its riders thought about starting late-night service and whether they would wait longer and shell out more cash for a postmidnight lift. They figured that maybe 500 would answer an online survey. Instead, nearly 26,000 did, almost all in favor of extended subway and bus hours.
Desire, however, does not always translate into results, especially for the perennially cash-starved transit agency. But the survey’s creators hope the flood of responses will provide a road map for night-owl service if legislators choose to pay for it.
More than 85 percent of those who answered the survey said they would be willing to wait at least 10 to 19 minutes for a late-night bus or train. More than half said they would be willing to pay at least double the normal fare for night-owl subway service.
Their desperation was evident....
From 2001 to 2005, the T tried an after-hours bus service that ran along the most popular bus routes and traced subway lines. The service, which ran from 1 to 2:30 a.m. weekend nights, was canceled because of scant use and budget constraints.
Transportation Secretary Richard A. Davey said in January that he expects night-owl bus service would be more popular now because of smartphone apps that provide real-time data on bus locations.
The lack of late-night mass transit and Boston’s propensity to shut down early have often been cited as proof of the city’s stodginess, something that makes it inhospitable for young professionals.
More than 75 percent of people who answered the survey said they would be willing to use buses for their late-night needs.
Admittedly, oversight committee members said, the survey, which was publicized on Facebook and Twitter, was unscientific. But they were stunned when they received 25,791 responses.
Some results were unsurprising: Late-night service on Friday and Saturday proved most popular, and nearly all of the respondents said they would use the service to enjoy local nightlife....
Some students said extended T hours would allow them to stay later at the library, while others relayed horror stories of missing the last T service at night. One person talked about sleeping overnight in an ATM vestibule to wait for the next morning’s first train instead of paying cab fare. A few urged T officials to make sure that the agency takes special measures to ensure safety on buses late at night....
--more--"
"Homicides decrease in Boston for third straight year" by Matt Carroll | Globe Staff, January 01, 2013
Homicides in Boston are on track to fall for the third straight year, driven downward by solid police work, an aging population, and better trauma care, according to law enforcement officials and specialists....
It was good start to the year -- or so they thought.
Jack Levin, professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University, credited the drop in homicides in Boston to police work, a high number of immigrants, and a population that is aging.
When the number of killings peaked in Boston in 1990 at 152, the city began employing new methods that helped cut into the homicide rate, Levin said.
For instance, summer job programs and afterschool programs helped with teenagers.
The city is also growing older demographically, he said. “There are simply a larger number of older people who have matured out of the crime-prone age group,” which he characterized as between 18 and 24 years old.
About one-quarter of the city is made up of immigrants. “They tend to obey the law,” Levin said, noting that it takes a special kind of people to leave their home country and their relatives to seek new opportunities in a new country.
Honestly, I'm tired of elitist insults from AmeriKan ejewkators.
You should take offense, too, 'murkn!
Killings have been falling steadily in Boston and the nation since the 1990s, according to FBI crime statistics.
Yeah, whatever. The narrative is always shifting depending whether the tyranny needs to be advanced or whether the public needs its dick yanked.
Yup, AmeriKan law enforcement doing a great job!
Dr. Jonathan Gates, director of the trauma center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said improved hospital care has played a role in reducing deaths as well.
In particular, he said, medical personnel in the field have become much better at controlling bleeding, while resuscitation efforts in the operating room have improved.
“There’s been a lot of improvement, even in the last 10 years because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has translated to the civilian population,” he said.
Sounds like a Springfield success story!
--more--"
Related: Good Lord
I'm praying you get home safely.
"Police commissioner ‘certain’ suspect involved in brutal death" by Maria Cramer | Globe Staff, August 01, 2013
After an anguished week of intense investigation, authorities said Thursday that Edwin J. Alemany will be charged in the death of Amy Lord, 24, whose kidnapping and stabbing horrified her South Boston neighborhood and led to scrutiny of Boston police for failing to stop her alleged attacker earlier in his long criminal career.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said he had authorized a warrant charging the 28-year-old former busboy with Lord’s July 23 murder.
“The investigation reached a tipping point in the last 24 hours with witness statements, results from forensic testing, and surveillance imagery, but we still have a great deal of work to do,” Conley said. “This is an extraordinarily complex case.”
He declined to specify what evidence police had collected, but said that the case against Alemany became “clear and stronger each and every day.”
Officials have said that Lord was attacked as she left her Dorchester Street apartment early in the morning, was dragged back into the vestibule and viciously beaten, and was then driven to five ATMs to withdraw cash. She was found stabbed to death at Stony Brook Reservation in Hyde Park.
For days, Alemany had been called a person of interest in Lord’s killing, and he had already been charged with assaulting two other women in South Boston in a 24-hour span around the time of Lord’s death. But police, who were waiting on DNA evidence linking him to the crime, were unable to call him an official suspect in the slaying until the results of the DNA test were in. It is unclear when police received that evidence, but they maintained that the case will not depend on forensic evidence alone.
“We are very happy and hopeful as this case proceeds that we can bring justice to the Lord family,” said Commissioner Edward F. Davis, who stood alongside Conley at a press conference. “We’re happy we’ve taken the time to be certain, and today we are certain.”
James Greenberg, a lawyer who is representing Alemany on the assault charges, declined to comment.
Alemany, who has a long record of assaults and car thefts, was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital last week for a psychiatric evaluation after he told a clinician he was suicidal.
The warrant for his arrest on the homicide charge will be served at the hospital, officials said. A grand jury will soon begin hearing evidence in the case, Conley said.
In South Boston, where women began taking self-defense classes after Lord’s death, many said they were relieved to hear of the arrest. But they also expressed a loss of confidence and a feeling of insecurity, especially since Lord’s actions the morning she was kidnapped were frighteningly mundane: She had risen early in the morning to head to the gym before work....
Liz Sheehan, 18, said her sense of safety has been “dented,” leaving her to wonder who else on the street is a potential attacker....
Maybe you better just stay home and shelter in place.
--more--"
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Detective demoted: Scrutinize superiors, too
Police report details how Amy Lord died
