Why East Boston's coronavirus rate is so much higher than the rest of the city

You have 6 people living in a 2 bedroom apartment, and another 4 people living in an illegal basement, multiply that by a couple of hundred, I certainly place the blame on housing inspectors for turning a blind eye, and local city councilors and at large councilors who represent the neighborhood for not enforcing the housing law , that’s the real problem. And everyone knows it!!!

That's the scenario for too many.

Also, the 116 and 117 continue to be absolute shitshows. The bunching is worse than I've ever seen before and I've regularly been on buses that look like the Green Line at rush hour (except it's noon) and I swear we have no room for people. Even though the buses are pretty well ventilated and people pop open windows, it's still somewhat anxiety inducing. Shame on the MBTA.

This is ecologically sad. Parks and rec said they've been working at this for how many months!

Then they get complaints of dead animals floating around there.

Then parks and recs response.

The article make it seem like Parks and recreation we're proactive, when it seems they didn't take action into dozens of 311 calls came in.

Does everything have to be politically manipulated.

I do fully agree with this statement.

I also believe that many people in the red zones where Covid is worst in the state right now are not obeying the rules away from the main streets. I walk around and see masks everywhere but then at night I see yards packed for parties. I see lots of people on porches all crammed in. There seems to be this sense that since people work all day with the public that it is ok to let their hair down at night with friends. A situation I fully understand but all this does is take high exposure people with access to a lot of people and mash them all into one spot. Then repeat the next day.

I might also add, as a longtime East Boston resident, that when walking the 8-10 blocks from where I live to Shaw's I see about maybe 60% or less of the people wearing masks. And of those, many have them hanging off their faces and not covering their noses. For a while two or three months ago I'd say it was a lot less than 60%. Not to mention a lot of people are huddling lose in front of convenience stores scratching tickets like they haven't got a care in the world. I hope this doesn't raise a chorus of "blaming the victim", because in this case I am the victim of the people not wearing masks.

Roxbury, Dorchester, and Hyde Park all have significantly lower positivity rates than Eastie, and higher than Southie or the BB/Beacon Hill. Is Eastie that much of an outlier on percentage of essential workers? Maybe, but it does seem like there’s something going on to the north with flare-ups in Lynn, Chelsea, and Everett too.

But I went into a packie in Maverick Sq. two weekends ago, and it was literally the worst display of COVID abandon that I’ve seen since March. Many, many people crowded inside without masks. (Not having removed their masks, but rather entirely without them.)

At the risk of painting with a broad brush, many of the folks inside did not strike one as public-health conscious. Many appeared intoxicated, some may have been spending most of their time on the street. Though there was a plate glass barrier at the register, I don’t recall the clerks wearing PPE either.

Wowza, do I regret going in there.