The city of Boston and the MBTA are clashing over the planned closure of a street near South Station during Massachusetts’ FIFA World Cup matches.

According to the Boston Globe, it all started with a letter from the MBTA to Boston city officials last week saying it is “imperative” that a two-block stretch of Summer Street next to South Station be closed for 10-hour stretches during the seven matches in June and July.

But Boston city officials are calling it an “inappropriate use of eminent domain to bypass the permitting process,” in a letter to the MBTA.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to take the train to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough on match days. A closure between Atlantic Avenue to Dorchester Avenue would accommodate queuing crowds, the MBTA said.

Quote by TriSec:
Good Morning.

LONG AGO, Boston hosted the 2004 DNC; featuring the national debut of a rather young Barack Obama.

At the time, Mayor Mennino advised the local population to avoid the city for the duration. We took heed, and were vacationing far from Boston during the week.

The ongoing shitshow that is the World Cup in this city has thrown yet another curveball at the locals....and I almost expect Mayor Wu to channel her predecessor and advise everyone to stay away.

MBTA Wants to close local streets around South Station

The city of Boston and the MBTA are clashing over the planned closure of a street near South Station during Massachusetts’ FIFA World Cup matches.

According to the Boston Globe, it all started with a letter from the MBTA to Boston city officials last week saying it is “imperative” that a two-block stretch of Summer Street next to South Station be closed for 10-hour stretches during the seven matches in June and July.

But Boston city officials are calling it an “inappropriate use of eminent domain to bypass the permitting process,” in a letter to the MBTA.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to take the train to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough on match days. A closure between Atlantic Avenue to Dorchester Avenue would accommodate queuing crowds, the MBTA said.

Look at a map. South Station is the heart of downtown, access to the Seaport, the Financial District, and the tourist district. This will utterly paralyze the city.

A giant mural by conservationist artist Robert Wyland has been painted over in Dallas to make way for a mural promoting FIFA, the international soccer federation.

The destroyed piece was one of 100 “whaling wall” murals that the artist has painted from Osaka to Detroit, and from Sydney to New York. Whaling Wall 1 appears alongside the Pacific Coast Highway and was dedicated in 1981; number 100 was painted outside Wyland’s own studio building in 1996.

The Dallas mural, Ocean Life (1999), is number 82, and it covered two sides of the Texas Utilities Building. The larger portion, measuring 164 by 82 feet, depicted endangered whales and dolphins swimming in the ocean. Crews started painting over that section of the mural last week, and CBS News shot photos of the larger side of the mural, almost completely painted over. A smaller panel on an adjacent side, measuring 50 by 78 feet, remains visible, says CBS.