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Mass and Cass cleared of tents tonight, but people still congregating there
By adamg on Wed, 01/12/2022 - 11:43pm
The South End-Roxbury Community Partnership posted this photo tonight of Southampton Street, home to a city shelter and a key congregating point for people at Mass and Cass.
There is heavy Boston Police presence in the location, we suspect is to ensure tents are not rebuilt and help facilitate outreach. A lot of outreach workers offering HELP, but many folks still in the location.
But, as you can see, there are still people there. At a press conference on Monday, Mayor Wu acknowledged that removing the tents and getting their occupants into at least temporary housing with medical and other assistance was only the first step in a process that also needs to include people who routinely congregate along Methadone Mile but who weren't actually living there, or who had not been living there for long periods of time.
WBUR reports on the move out, says "there were dozens of people still living on the streets Wednesday."
Some 30 tents and structures are being destroyed at the Newmarket st encampment near mass and cass @GBHNews pic.twitter.com/JKXzyRdnoL
— Tori Bedford (@Tori_Bedford) January 12, 2022
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Comments
That Heavy Police Presence
must be asleep in their squad cars.
'cause it looks to me like the tents are gone but the market is most definitely open for business.
3 Day Weekend Coming On
Tents will be back Saturday when the police presence lowers.
Willie Sutton said he robbed banks "because that's where the money is". That applies here.
A determined junkie will get their smack and this is where the smack is.
Cold turkey is not an option for a lot of these people and if past is prologue not everyone wants to be clean. There have been options left right and center for cleaning up. T'aint working fully because some people just like getting high.
One thing which is funny, a lot of the people who screaming bloody murder at Marty Walsh when Operation Clean Sweep was done a few years back are now quiet as church mice that Mayor Wu is doing the exact same thing. Nice job partisan hacks.
John, three questions about your last paragraph
Was Operation Clean Sweep announced nearly a month in advance?
Was Operation Clean Sweep paired with efforts to get the inhabitants into transitional housing?
What about any comparison between Walsh and Wu would be "partisan"? Last time I checked, they were both public office holding members of the Democratic Party.
I Will Take Your Last Line
And dry it out for fertilizer for my roses in the spring.
There has always been efforts to offer help to the people congregating here. Always. Don't think transitional housing started on Jan. 1. There has been outreach here for years.
The Wu administration just did it with a smiley face on.
Possessions were destroyed and City Hall tried to keep the media at first more than 50 feet away! If that isn't Potemkin, I don't know what is.
So
you aren't going to answer any of the questions? You aren't under any obligation to do so, I was just hoping for some elaboration on how you see the situation.
As for your last point, that was absurd, unenforceable and embarrassing.
You Are A Fool
All that has been done in the past few days is repackaged 2018.
If you can’t see that you are even dumber than I first thought.
Well, you are certainly entitled to your opinion.
But I'm not even trying to argue against you, I'm only asking you to support your own arguments.
On a pedantic note, Operation Clean Sweep was April of 2019, not 2018.
he’s dumb
but you haven’t answered any of his questions. make it make sense
No, you don't know what "Potemkin" is.
Seriously, John.
Take a walk, man.
Partisan does not have to
Partisan does not have to mean Democrat or Republican. Those are just useful vessels for that sort of activity.
I am not sure if I see Michelle Wu and Marty Walsh as being in two different enough camps for their to be two distinct movements though.
Gillette stadium parking lots
Gillette stadium parking lots would be an ideal area for transitional housing.
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink"
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink"
This further proves this saying to be true. Its the same here.
You could offer a road to recovery, a new condo on Comm Ave, and 10k in cash to start a new life upon completion and you'd still not be able to get some people off the street. When people want to use, they'll use, and when they want to clean up, they'll clean up. Its as simple as that.
The only way this area will improve is by forcing people to go. See a new person, pick'em up and send'em there. No questions, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. Straight to treatment. Of course, this would never happen because we don't do these things nor does forcing people help them clean up (most relapse anyways). So what do we do now?
The help's always been there folks, people just do not want to go.
Ill say it again.. People need to get it thru their skulls that not everyone wants treatment. And we need to accept and deal with that. Having beds & out reach alone isn't going to do it. We need a better plan than this.
yup...And the supply exists
yup...And the supply exists because of the demand. Not the other way around. People do drugs cause they're fun, not cause some drug dealer preyed on them and forced them to take it.
Two parts to this...
City is telling people here that tenting and camping will not be tolerated. Boston (and WU) see what has happened in the West (CA, OR, WA, CO) and how enforcing any type of camping ordinance is way too late there. Make the rules here clear. Housing and Treatment programs from the City isn't ever going to be perfect but the effort is there.
As for forcing people to go, that might be the only way to do it, but it is a big no-no among the harm reduction crowd.
Day job
You’re not someone who regularly works with unhoused or substance abuse populations, are you? Or correct me, share your credentials and regale us with tales from the field.
This saying…
About the horse is a cliche.
Marty is a white guy from the Unions.
Irish too.
Is this also a cliche?
But what's the proportion?
Is your understanding that this is just a very small percentage of the Sacklerville crowd, or a substantial fraction?
If they can get *most* people into treatment by offering humane and respectful options, and there are just a handful of people left who legit just want to live on the sidewalk and are OK with periodically having their tents taken away, I'm not sure what the remaining problem actually is. Used needles?
You are outted
On the basis of use of the term “Sacklerville.”
Everyone knows that’s actually at Tufts.
I suppose
that Tufts Medical *is* actually pretty close by there, isn't it.
This seems simplistic
This seems simplistic, but maybe you have data to back your statement. My understanding is that there aren't treatment slots available for everyone who wants them, and/or there are barriers to obtaining treatment that are prohibitive to some. Theoretical access is trumped by effective barriers, every time.
That is so the case. For a
That is so the case. For a family member that wanted to get into treatment for alcohol could not get a detox bed near Boston. He found one all way out in Worcester. He lives on the south shore.
And?
I know people from south of Boston who had to go to RI and Central NH for treatment.
So what if treatment is not convenient to shops and the waterfront. Too bad. You are there to get clean, not go to a lecture on astronomy.
Universal affirmatives can only be partially converted
All impossible things are inconvenient.
Not all inconvenient things are impossible.
If people don't have the resources to do something, it isn't inconvenient. It is impossible.
Then They Don't Want The Help
Sorry, not sorry. I know from experience. Go back to your fake world, the rest of us who live in the real world have things to do.
so what the hell are you proposing
you all keep talking about how all these measures aren’t enough bla bla but you have no proposals. do you want Wu to just drop a bomb over the McDonalds and call it a night? i really don’t get it!
Your Grammar and Punctuation....
Has been really poor today.
For a person that has an accredited school and the disclosure of graduation from said school as their username, what is going on on that part of Mass. Ave?
Were there books or just pot and thoughts on what Miles Davis would be doing if he was still around?
Face facts. Not everyone wants to be clean. However, if you want it, treatment can be found. There are NA / AA meetings everywhere. There are programs that will get you treatment, but if you think that treatment is not for you and you just want to see what the white pony does to you, see ya. Have a day.
shut the fuck up about grammar
and answer the question. your little diatribes are as insufferable as they are nonsensical. it’s increasingly clear that you have precisely 0 substance to add to this conversation despite the best efforts of generous engagement by several users on this message board.
OK Potty Mouth
Don't do drugs.
How's that?
Last time I checked no one was forcing anyone to do heroin.
Would you please throw up a live feed of yourself so we can see you typing furiously into your phone? It is high comedy watching the results.
joking about heroin addiction
is somehow better than my having written "fuck". my god, you are a sad lonely little man.
I Wasn't Joking About Heroin Addiction
I was joking about you.
Somehow your poor grammar also shows poor reading comprehension.
Loosah.
Berk
Bring on the froth! It’s Costello!!!! Jeez. Like a Stripe Bass jumping top water over a chunk of bologna!
In my real world...
...I have plenty of experience with addicted people.
Go back to YOUR fake world. Your unrelenting, ignorant viciousness helps no one.
Treatment only accessible by
Treatment only accessible by car, for drug use. Should have some obvious problems attached.
There are even less beds for
There are even less beds for women...
Memo to Mayor Wu
Good job declare victory and get the hell out of Mass and Cass and concentrate on making the T free and enforcing the mask mandate.
Eagerly awaiting another of
Eagerly awaiting another of those signature UHub posts titled "The mayor gets a wake-up call"
Eagerly?
.
"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."
As true as the above-quoted phrase is, all too often, street drug users, especially those who use and are addicted to heroin, present a real danger to the public at large. Because heroin is extremely expensive and can only be obtained through the Black Marker (inotherwords, illegally), heroin addicts all too often resort to stealing and violence just to get money for a fix, and innocent people end up getting it in the neck, if one gets the drift.
Extremely expensive? Heroin sells for $5-6 a twist.
Or so the Globe tells me. They steal to support their habit when they have no money coming in at all, on account of their addiction. Do you honestly think the base problem here is that heroin is too expensive?
You can lead a horticulture
but you can't make her think.
Heroin is actually pretty
Heroin is actually pretty cheap which is why so many opioid addicts go for it.
The status quo had to go
Is this operation perfect? No.
Is it a big step in the right direction? Yes.
There was zero upside to having people living on the street, openly buying and using drugs, and generally being a nuisance to the people who are trying to work in that area. If there are less people living in that area and some of the people who were moved are being helped, then it's all good.
Moving Day...
Hopefully the city won't just move these folks to another part of Roxbury...oh wait...that is exactly what they did. Roxbury gets dumped on again.
You can take people out of
You can take people out of Mass and Cass, but you can't take the Mass and Cass out of the people.