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Boston, Quincy gird for court battle over bridge to Long Island

Martinez answers Flaherty as Streets and Transportation Chief Chris Osgood listens.

Boston officials say they plan to go to court - and to state environmental officials - to try to overturn a decision by the Quincy Conservation Commission to reject plans for construction of a new bridge to Long Island, where Boston wants to build a new addiction treatment campus.

Boston health and construction officials, meanwhile, are racing to firm up plans for just what sort of facilities to put on Long Island to help grapple with a still growing opioid crisis in which they said Boston is now being flooded by residents of surrounding communities and states because Boston is where the services - and the drugs - are.

City officials spoke at a hearing chaired today by at-large Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George on the bridge.

They got only support from city councilors for Mayor Walsh's plans to spend an estimated $90 million replacing the bridge, shut four years ago, to connect to a new state-of-the-art treatment campus that could ultimately include everything from short-term drug detox programs to long-term residential treatment to help people not just kick their habits but get ready for life on the outside again.

City officials have set what they called an "aggressive" schedule to replace the bridge over two years - starting with bid solicitation next year and using most of the support piers that still remain from the old bridge.

The new bridge would have one lane in each direction, along with sidewalks and a system to treat rain runoff before it goes into the harbor. After Quincy vowed to ban trucks on the road leading to where the bridge used to be, Boston said portions of the 3,300-foot span would instead be built onshore and floated on barges to the site for construction.

But City Councilor Michael Flaherty criticized officials for not yet having specifics on what sort of services and buildings the island would have, how many people they would treat or, really, much of anything having to do with the island itself, rather than the bridge - save for an announcement to not use the island for a homeless shelter again.

"We're in a fight with Quincy," Flaherty said. "We're going to look pretty stupid if we can't even answer basic questions. ... We're just going to go 'hummina, hummina, hummina."

City Councilor Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan) said his counterparts in Quincy are looking at allocating $250,000 to fight the bridge, atop whatever they've already spent on legal bills.

Marty Martinez, Walsh's health and human services chief, acknowledged Flaherty's criticisms, but said he would rather spend the time to figure out a long-term plan that will truly help addicts become healthy. And designing that sort of complex, he said, is simply going to take some time, even with what he said was an "all hands on deck" approach in Boston city government to the problem - which he said has claimed he said 1,000 lives since 2013.

He said the city tomorrow will also Boston neighborhood associations and residents to submit their advice and concerns. And he said the city needs to be careful to design a center that can handle whatever future drug epidemics might hit us.

Boston Public Facilities Director Trisha Lyons said she hopes to have a study done by the end of this year on the state of the current buildings and facilities on the island - to see which ones can be re-used and which need to be bulldozed.

Martinez agreed to a request from Flaherty to try to gauge just how many people who now congregate at "Mass and Cass" - the methadone mile centered on the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard - come from which specific suburban towns. Martinez said he knows that more than half the addicts there now come from outside Boston, but Flaherty said he specifically wants to know how many come from Quincy and more specifically from Squantum and Hough's Neck, the two Quincy neighborhoods through which the road to the old Long Island Bridge goes.

Even as they talked about the ideas of creating a new model for addiction treatment, officials kept having to return to the issue of Quincy's opposition to the bridge - and possible ways to convince surrounding communities and even employers to help kick in for what is a regional problem.

Sue Sullivan, director of a business association in Newmarket Square, which has been particularly hard hit by the epidemic, said lived for seven years in Quincy on the road to the bridge when it was open and said there was absolutely no impact on her or her neighbors.

"It's sort of NIMBYism at its worse," especially because Boston is now paying to care for so many addicts from elsewhere, City Councilor Matt O'Malley (Jamaica Plain/West Roxbury) said.

City Councilor Frank Baker (Dorchester) suggested an education campaign to show surrounding communities that a new regional center on Long Island would help their residents as much as Bostonians - because it's not just Bostonians flocking to Mass and Cass.

Martinez added that existing programs that continue to operate on the island - Camp Harborview and a b.Good farm - would remain. In response to a query from at-large Councilor Michelle Wu, he said city officials, at least right now, are not looking at any private development on the island.


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Facebook deletes fake accounts backing senate candidate

Buzzfeed News reports on the bogus accounts - one named Donna Trumper, another Vinnie Boombatz - backing independent Shiva Ayyadurai and attacking incumbent Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Geoff Diehl. Ayyardurai called the reporter a racist before hanging up on her.


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BPL to loan out WiFi hotspots

The Boston Public Library said today it's making hotspot kits - which will let borrowers share an Internet connection with up to 15 other users - available for 21-day loans at all of its branches and the central library in Copley Square.

The devices connect to T-Mobile's Boston network. Anybody with a BPL card can borrow one of the gizmos.

More info.


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Angry barflies knocking downtown bar workers to the ground

A worker at JM Curley on Temple Place got punched to the ground in June by an angry customer who accused the bar of stealing his wallet, while a bouncer at Hennessy's of Boston found himself tumbled in a heap of people after he tried to escort a vaping customer out in August, police and bar managers told the Boston Licensing Board today. Read more.

Fri, 06/29/2018 - 01:47
Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 


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It's no longer Prohibition, so bouncers aren't supposed to alert everybody to cheese it when coppers show up

A Brookline Avenue bar say it's fired its security firm after an April incident in which two plainclothes Boston police detectives showed up for a snap inspection and one of the security workers got on the radio to announce a "Code Blue."

Joe Devlin, attorney for the Yard House, told the Boston Licensing Board this morning that the bar didn't know the company had a policy to broadcast the presence of police until then. He said the bar is still looking for a new firm that can both handle security for the sort of large crowds the Yard House can get - the old firm is largely made of up ex-military - and be sensitive to hospitality concerns, not to mention local laws, which prohibit such broadcasts.

Sgt. Det. Robert Mulvey said he was surprised when he arrived on April 25 for the unscheduled inspection, announced himself to a bouncer at the door and the guy got on his walkie-talkie to let everybody in the joint know the law was present - which defeats the purpose of a surprise inspection and is a violation of Boston licensing rules. Devlin agreed although he said the purpose of the call was to get workers ready to find copies of licenses and other paperwork the detectives might have needed.

Mulvey said he was told this is how the company does things down in Providence. "Well, this isn't Providence," Mulvey said.

The board decides Thursday whether the infraction merits any sort of punishment.


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Woman in critical condition after rescue from Mattapan fire

Interior of the house. Photo by BFD.

The Boston Fire Department reports a woman rescued from a fire at 7-9 Ranier Rd. in Mattapan tonight was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.

The department says a total of four residents were made homeless by the fire, to which firefighters responded at 9:44 p.m.

The department says the fire was confined to the first floor and that the cause is under investigation.

Mon, 10/01/2018 - 21:44


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MS-13 member gets 35 years for helping to slaughter teenager on an East Boston beach

A federal judge today sentenced Carlos "Chuchito" Melara, 21 and a Salvadoran national, to 35 years in prison for fatally and repeatedly stabbing a 15-year-old on Constitution Beach in East Boston in 2015 - along with three other gang members - the US Attorney's office reports.

Melara had pleaded guilty in April to his role in the murder of Wilson Martinez on Sept. 7, 2015.

According to the US Attorney's office, Melara and the others got Martinez to agree to go to the beach by pretending to be a girl on Facebook:

On the day of the murder, Melara picked up the victim on a scooter pretending to be a friend of the girl that the victim was planning to meet for a date. Melara drove the victim to Constitution Beach, where the other MS-13 members were waiting to kill him. Melara and the three other MS-13 members took turns attacking and stabbing the victim. While Melara was stabbing the boy, the knife Melara was using snapped and broke in the victim’s chest. Melara and the others left the victim bleeding to death with approximately 33 sharp force injuries and numerous blunt force injuries where the assailants had punched, kicked, and struck the victim with rocks. Following the murder, Melara, Gonzalez, and the juvenile were promoted to “homeboy,” or full members of MS-13, as a reward for their participation in the murder.

Melara was one of 61 alleged MS-13 members arrested in raids in 2016. Most have since either pleaded or been found guilty.


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Steve the Squirrel seems to have gotten tired of all the tourists in the Public Garden

Maureen O'Hara reports that Steve the Blond Squirrel seems to have said nuts to the Public Garden and moved on down to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall between Berkeley and Clarendon.

Last year:
Steve in the Public Garden.


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Trouble at the skate park: Two arrested last night in Cambridge

State Police give their side of the story:

Per DCR rules, the skate park closes at dusk, as noted on a sign hanging in the park. The Trooper issued 6 to 8 requests from his cruiser's PA system and in person after exiting the cruiser, instructing the skaters to leave.

The Trooper observed one person continuing to skate despite the repeated requests to leave. The Trooper began a conversation with that person, later identified as DEREK HANLON, 27, of Boston, and again informed him numerous times to leave the park. HANLON continued to refuse to leave, leaving the Trooper no choice but to arrest him. As the Trooper attempted to place HANLON into custody, the defendant continually resisted while approximately 30 other skaters began to move closer. The Trooper then took necessary action to overcome the defendant's resistance and make the arrest quickly before the situation escalated further. Fortunately, neither the Trooper, nor the defendant, nor any bystanders were injured by the defendant’s refusal to comply with the Trooper’s directive. HANLON was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest.

The Trooper subsequently observed a second man, identified as ASKIA BURNS, 24, of Boston, walking back toward the park and stating that he would continue skating as soon as police left. BURNS was arrested and charged with trespassing.

Innocent, etc.


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Driver involved in Cambridge crash was a real dick, police say

Cambridge Police report on what happened after a driver plowed into the back of another vehicle at Mass. Ave. and Pleasant Street last Thursday night:

When the two parties stopped in traffic after the crash, the operator of the suspect vehicle exited his vehicle and exposed himself to the victim before getting back into his vehicle and fleeing the scene.


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