Hey, there! Log in / Register

South End, Roxbury residents organize to demand city do something about Methadone Mile


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

It's an awful culture that leaves people to die on the street. It's left up to the residents of the South End/Lower Roxbury to deal with. It feels like the city, the state, and all have given up. I am personally overwhelmed and don't know what to do.

up
Voting closed 0

Maybe now that big business is failing Marty will take a better look at this situation. It's not about the money!!!! Show us god bless

up
Voting closed 0

Please...come to the stand out at 6 pm ,.corner of Mass Ave and Washington.... it's a START...my son was the person murdered on July 31...I would love to hear your thoughts on how we can ALL fix this!( I live in Roxbury FYI)
God Bless!!!

up
Voting closed 1

and humanity and dignity. Recovery Matters will be out to support ending this human degradation

up
Voting closed 0

"Supporting" and actually doing something to significantly/radically change the area of Methadone Mile are 2 completely different things.

up
Voting closed 0

See you there my old friend.. ♥️

up
Voting closed 0

Utilize MBTA commuter boats and transport the homeless out to the island where there are existing buildings and a hospital. It would be more humane then the cattle pens they are living in now and much safer than sleeping in the movable shelter known as the MBTA.

up
Voting closed 0

That's not a feasible solution for the kind of numbers we need to see to impact the problem. It's not just the clients who would need regular transportation, but also staff and supplies, plus emergency personnel need access. You would need a helicopter on stand by with cops and EMT's ready to roll. I lived on that island for 3 years, so I have an idea about what it would take to work. It won't work without a new bridge.

up
Voting closed 0

Marty closed the bridge and planned to rebuild it as an assist to his real estate development supporters.

Boston is promoting Long Island as an "Economic Development Zone"..

The Long Island Bridge in Quincy is not about finding a place for drug and alcohol treatment, it is about developing luxury condos, luxury hotels, and offices.

Quincy wisely objected to protect a RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD from being overwhelmed by traffic!

Why doesn't Boston agree to limit development on Long Island to medical and treatment facilities with the remainder turned over to the state for park land.

Because there is no money in that approach for Marty's real interest; Real Estate Developers.

up
Voting closed 0

Remember when Marty ran on establishing better addiction services?

Neither does Marty.

up
Voting closed 0

I love it. The City STILL has no plan, after YEARS of promising to come up with one.

Right now, Boston is providing essential rehabilitation services for drug addiction, which is great. But other cities are not, and more and more people keep coming here. This is not a sustainable solution. We have needles and human feces all throughout the area now. People cannot just be hanging out in the street all day when they're not receiving treatment. It's not helpful for them or for the neighborhood.

Walsh, for someone who understands the pain of drug addiction and seems to care so deeply about helping people, needs to step up. So far, it's been all talk and no action. He needs to stop putting all his eggs in the Long Island basket. That solution is years away at best. We need action NOW!

up
Voting closed 0

Along with Walsh, addiction treatment was a top issue for Gov Baker earlier in his term, IIRC.

I realize COVID has taken over as the top issue-of-the-day, but it seems like Baker and Walsh could partner on this. The downside is probably that for either of them, opening up services anywhere else in the city or the state is a losing move politcally.

Note this is non political.

One person from each party. Equally not helping. Sigh...

up
Voting closed 0

Any action to clean up Methadone Mile must involve far more than just law enforcement, because the cops know that every time they crack down on the lawlessness, the problems just migrate to surrounding neighborhoods, sparking far more complaints than when they keep the activity penned up in Boston's backyard, which is what Methadone Mile is. And with the ongoing pandemic, what resources even exist to attack the problem in a different way? I don't see any short term answers here. It's a multidimensional problem so only a multidimensional solution has any chance at success. And it won't come cheap.

up
Voting closed 0

For one, the Mayor and the Governor need to start pressuring the Mayors of surrounding towns to provide addiction and recovery services in their own cities. Perhaps the state can help facilitate this with resources and funding. 60% of the people seeking treatment in the Mass/Cass area are from out of town.

up
Voting closed 0

It's just not that simple.Treatment is expensive and doesn't work unless the client is motivated, and even then success is spotty. Moreover, it's very unlikely most of the addicts in the Mile would go to treatment voluntarily anyway, except of course the ones who just want get their habits down so getting high becomes less expensive. I went to 20 detoxes, 5 treatment programs, and 5 halfway houses, and nothing worked until Suboxone, and believe me, I was not atypical. It took me 27 years to get off heroin, which was exactly a decade ago. Suboxone works, but you have to work with it. Most addicts in the Mile already get Suboxone, but many sell it to buy heroin or whatever. The fact is there is very little you can do for those unmotivated to change. The idea that you can fix the problem by providing treatment for everyone is just incredibly naive.

up
Voting closed 0

Patients and staff at Boston Medical Center are also having an increasing issue with navigating the neighborhood around the hospital. Some have been accosted and news reports there have been more than one stabbing in that area in the past few months.

After an appointment there several months back I was waiting for a bus to connect with the Orange Line and a guy OD'd right next to me. Someone called an ambulance and someone also ran into the hospital to get help. Not sure what happened to him.

Sad situation you can't feel safe getting to routine medical attention.

up
Voting closed 0

It’s amazing the things the city has strategically crackdown on such as undercover cops busting kids having music shows in their basements, ticketing Cyclists running red lights and sending out parking enforcement in the dead of night to nab people

Yet they can’t seem to do much about this open air drug market. Maybe if it was in their own neighborhoods they’d care

up
Voting closed 0

Clearly you must not live here if you think cops and first responders don't help homeless addicts shooting up and passing out on the streets of Boston. Or is that because you're too busy watching for cyclists getting a ticket for not stopping for pedestrians in a crosswalk? Bwaha! Never seen that in my 20+ years living in the city. Maybe you just trip over the homeless and the addicted huddled on the sidewalks on your way to your buddy's house party in the big bad scary city. I've called 911 too many times too count and waited for them to arrive to make sure the strung out guy doesn't: tumble into the Muddy river and drown, run into oncoming traffic on Boylston, isn't actually indeed deceased on Mass. Ave. I call, and cops and/ or EMT's arrive within merr minutes and each time I've watched them care for these poor souls with dignity and care. Sometimes they load them up in an ambulance and sometimes the person refuses services. So kindly go f*ck yourself and your whiny petty suburban attitude that Boston police and emergency responders don't do a damn thing about the homeless and addicted folks living on Boston streets, because: wahhh!! bicycles should be able to blow thru crosswalks and underage brats should be able to party and drink themselves into oblivion at 2am on a Tuesday night!

up
Voting closed 0

There’s a lot to unpack here but since you jumped first to the “you must be from the suburbs” attack I won’t bother.

Let me just say that , there’s no reason why there should be needles in Clifford playground if police were doing their job and not just parked watching people dope up and pass out.
I bet if you moved the entire problem to west Roxbury it would be a different story

up
Voting closed 0

Great. Now they will move it to my neighborhood.

up
Voting closed 0

It's already in your neighborhood. It's your kids, family, loved ones.... nobody escapes addiction in their lives. It's just that they are being left to die on our doorsteps. We harbor the brunt of this in a noncontained, containment zone. We cannot turn away, because it's right in front of us. We watch your loved ones die every day. It's all we can do.

up
Voting closed 0

My SON WHO WAS MURDERED HAD A HUGE TUIRNOUT OF OLD HIGH SCHOOL FRIENDS...HE WAS FROM WESTBOROUGH...AND SEVERAL OF THESE FRIENDS( INCLUDING ME IN 1996) ARE ADDICTS! IT ASSURE YOU.. IT'S ON YOUR DOORSTEP.
*ask your police dept how many people they've dealt with o.d. on any medication

up
Voting closed 0

We have to get politically influential wealthy owners / developers of parcels in the South End, and corporate offices of the shops at South Bay Mall, on our side to send written protests of Methadone Mile to make real action happen.

up
Voting closed 0

Can people please stop calling it "Methadone Mile", stigmatizing patients who are *seeking treatment* for a life-threatening disease?

up
Voting closed 0

Yeah we should call it NIMBY Mile instead: this is where the essential services that literally every other more politically-powerful neighborhood in the region have refused to allow on their turf end up going, because they're essential and must go somewhere. And then they put more of them here, because they're already here, and who would even notice one more clinic or shelter in a neighborhood already bursting with them?

And then when this neighborhood finally tries to stand up for itself and ask other places to maybe, just a little, share some of the burden please? people who live elsewhere accuse us of being NIMBYs, despite our backyard already being full of these services so how could an honest person really accuse us of that with a straight face... etc.

up
Voting closed 0

the folks who call methadone mile home don't want anything more than the medications that are provided from the area clinics?

up
Voting closed 0

Then maybe Quincy won't think a bridge to Long Island is such a bad idea.

up
Voting closed 0

It has been close to 6 years since Marty closed the Long Island bridge and treatment facilities.

Could have had ferries up and running for 5 years it Marty cared at all about the addicted.

Ferries won't create $billions of wealth for real estate developers.

If a bridge is so critial, why won't the COB agree to limit development on the island.

Wake up.

This is all about real estate development. The South End is being abused so that Marty can support his real estate developer supporters.

up
Voting closed 0

To put your comment in perspective, even if Quincy dropped ALL opposition to building the bridge, it would take 3-4 years before the bridge is built, and facilities are brought up to code.

Don't be conned.

up
Voting closed 0