The hotter climate has drawn the crowds again to town’s open-air drug market at Mass and Cass, which one metropolis councilor says is alarming the neighborhood regardless of the mayor’s insistence that the world is way safer since final yr’s tent crackdown.
Metropolis Councilor Ed Flynn mentioned roughly 70–80 individuals have been gathering and overtly utilizing and promoting medicine at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard every day for at the least the previous month.
Flynn mentioned he visited the world on Thursday and noticed an “organized system of drug dealers on Melnea Cass” in Roxbury. He described the scenario as a hazard to individuals within the space, saying that he went on to talk with residents in South Boston, which is a part of his district, who’re “very concerned about the significant escalation of drug dealing and drug use in the neighborhoods.”
“I talked to several Boston police officials today and expressed my concern about the area and requested enhanced police presence in the impacted neighborhoods and to arrest drug dealers,” Flynn advised the Herald Thursday. “It’s a significant issue impacting the quality of life of residents.”
The prison exercise has additionally spilled over into different areas, Flynn mentioned, with extra individuals gathering all through neighborhoods in Roxbury and the South Finish, Andrew Sq. in South Boston, and on the South Bay mall in Dorchester.
The South Bay mall drew consideration final summer time for juvenile mobs committing violent crime, main then-Councilor Frank Baker to partially blame the instance set for youth by the Mass and Cass inhabitants who undergo the shops there to “rob the place blind and shoot up drugs in the sidewalks,” when the matter got here earlier than the Metropolis Council for dialogue final September.
Flynn mentioned that not solely are companies on the South Bay mall involved in regards to the crowds returning at and round Mass and Cass, however these positioned within the Newmarket enterprise district are as properly.
He mentioned individuals are drawn to the Mass and Cass space as a result of public drug use and dealing has lengthy been “tolerated” there by town, however emphasised that shouldn’t be the case, and is looking for metropolis officers to “revisit and redouble our efforts” that started with final fall’s crackdown on tent encampments and crime.
“I don’t believe we should allow people to use drugs openly on the streets of Boston,” Flynn mentioned. “I believe it’s a public health crisis.”
Mayor Michelle Wu carried out a three-pronged plan to deal with crime and homelessness within the space final fall, following Metropolis Council approval of an anti-encampment ordinance that empowered police to take away the tents that officers mentioned have been shielding crime, intercourse trafficking and weapons.
On a Wednesday look on a “Java with Jimmy” podcast, Wu was requested in regards to the uptick in gathering that’s been occurring at Mass and Cass, and the way town deliberate to deal with it.
The mayor spoke to the significance of the ordinance, saying that not having the tents there completely has put town in a “different and better, safer position than we were a year ago this time.” Final summer time, greater than 200 individuals a day have been flocking to the world.
The Herald requested an interview with the mayor on Thursday afternoon, however her workplace declined to make Wu obtainable nor present an announcement, saying in a Friday night e mail that it deferred to her feedback on “Java with Jimmy.”
Wu’s workplace did present statistics shedding extra mild on her remarks round enhanced security within the Mass and Cass zone.
The year-over-year information in contrast Jan. 1 to April 8 of 2023 to the identical time interval in 2024, displaying that robberies have been down 40%, aggravated assault was down 14%, residential housebreaking was down 78%, motorized vehicle theft was down 38%, whole crime was down 22%, and violent crimes total have been “significantly down.”
What stays to be seen, nonetheless, is information capturing the hotter months which have already resulted in bigger crowds within the space.
On her podcast look, Wu spoke to town’s efforts to attach longtime inhabitants of Mass and Cass with shelter, housing, drug therapy and providers.
She additionally talked about town’s long-term aim of rebuilding a bridge out to a future addiction-recovery campus on Lengthy Island, which has confronted staunch opposition from the mayor on the opposite aspect of that bridge, Quincy’s Thomas Koch.
Whereas the mayor says the scenario at Mass and Cass has improved, she mentioned this yr has introduced new challenges, notably the inflow of migrants straining town’s grownup shelter system.
Metropolis Councilor Henry Santana, who chairs the physique’s Public Security and Legal Justice committee, mentioned the brand new challenges there would require new options.
“This has always been an issue of intersecting and evolving crises — housing, opioid addiction and mental health — and now, the increasing influx of migrants,” Santana mentioned in a Thursday assertion.
“Many of the issues of a year ago have improved with actions taken by the city,” he mentioned, “and the people and some of the issues that we’re seeing today are different, and require new solutions in partnership with the state, particularly to address the strains on the state shelter system and resources for mental health.”
