City won't move Long Island programs to closed Radius Hospital in Roxbury

You need to read the open letter to Mayor Walsh that "Jason" posted under the previous article on here.. Your opinion would change.

I'm usually very against NIMBY crappola, but Jason makes some very valid points. That neighborhood has enough, and does not want anymore.

Instead of letting my neighbors know about the City's stealth plans, you would rather have had me - the white guy who did not grow up in Roxbury - lecture my black neighbors that they need to be more 'compassionate' to people in recovery??? WOW.

Do my neighbors' investments in this community count for anything? (Financial investments; family investments, time investments, etc.) The neighborhood around Townsend Street and Walnut Ave is coming up, and we have some nice Victorians, but we are not Fort Hill - most neighbors have been here for years and are not gentrifying newcomers.

Guess what? I as initially very torn on the issue and I wrote an open email to the Fort Hill list, and other Roxbury activists & leaders. I'm pretty sure you're a reader of that list. Because I was torn, I deferred to my neighbors and Roxbury LEADERS. I contacted Senator Wilkerson, for example, who has a long record of championing the recovery community in Roxbury. She ended up writing an open email against the city's proposal. Another veteran local elected official, Rep. Gloria Fox, also has a long track record of support for and from the recovery community. She, too, was opposed. I talked to my neighbor next door who has owned for more than 40 years and I talked to another across the park whose been here just as long. And so on.

My beef was more with the City's stealth moves on this. And when I informed and organized neighbors about the city's meeting, the flyer I distributed was this: the City's vague meeting announcement on one side, and the first Banner article on the other. There were no hyperbolic exhortations on the flyer... just the info.!

Meanwhile, at least 2 other contingents of local residents - all African American, but not "upper class" by the way - also organized in the neighborhood for the meeting. 250 signatures against the City's plans were gathered.

Did you even attend the community meeting last week? More than 100 attended. Not one person spoke in favor. At least 2 people self-identified as being in recovery themselves... and OPPOSED the city's plans. Or, how about this resident?:

Even Yvonne Desmond, a senior treatment coordinator for the Boston Division of the Trial Court of Massachusetts — whose job is to find treatment programs for substance abusers in the justice system — spoke against the Radius siting.

“Treatment is important,” she said. “But the programs proposed are not secure facilities. We do not want this in our neighborhood.” - Bay State Banner

I expected my neighbors to oppose the city's plan but I was honestly surprised how strongly they opposed it. There's a long history of community mistrust of the City's dealings in Roxbury... as well as a long history of treatment programs and halfway houses in the community. And, something like 400 people receiving methadone in Dudley Square every day. A long saga. You should talk to more elders and long-time residents in Roxbury.

Anyone else interested in the broad opposition to the Radius plan, read the Banner's article. It gives the full run-down of the meeting...

http://baystatebanner.com/news/2014/dec/10/residents-reject-addiction-pr...

Jed Hresko
103 Townsend Street
(next block from Radius site... where do you live?)

"we get it" post above.