The Thursday evening "standout" protests at the intersection of Mass. Ave. and Washington Streets calling for more city and state help for both the homeless, drug-dependent and mentally ill people who come to the Mass/Cass area for services and for residents weary and frustrated with the negative activities spreading to surrounding neighborhoods have continued every week, rain or shine, since they began on September 3.
Organized by South End Roxbury Community Partnerships 2.0, the protests demand that Mayor Walsh and Governor Baker visit the beleaguered area and listen to residents, declare a public health crisis at the Mass/Cass area, and decentralize treatment and services across the city and state, including re-opening facilities on Long Island and converting Shattuck Hospital to a recovery campus. The chant "Where's Charlie?" is heard every week, and the group has begun calling the area nicknamed Methadone Mile "Marty's Mile."
Longtime East Springfield Street resident Greg Jackson has attended the standouts every week. "I've lived here 40 years and it's become...unbearable!" he said, the frustration in his voice palpable. Jackson and his husband own the building that houses Blunch. He recounted someone defecating on his stoop the week before and finding two people sleeping on the roof of the café, leaving drug paraphernalia behind when they left. Jackson said, "People keep asking me, 'Why don't you leave?' I'm not leaving! Why don't they leave?"
Jackson blames the Suffolk County district attorney for the increase in negative activity in the area that is now being called Marty's Mile. "The problem is Rachael Rollins. She has given a no arrest order to the police, so people come here every day; new people come here every day because they know they can shoot up and deal drugs and the police aren't going to arrest them."
The Worcester Square Area Neighborhood Association (WSANA), located in the corner of the South End nearest Mass/Cass, has witnessed the increasingly shocking conditions at Mass/Cass and the increasing spillover of public drug use and dealing, discarded needles, theft, break-ins, human waste, and other negative behaviors since the Long Island Bridge closed in 2014, and looking for solutions and help from above has been a frequent agenda item at WSANA monthly meetings.
At the group's September 22 Zoom meeting, Kim Thai, the mayor's special assistant for the Melnea Cass/Mass. Ave. 2.0 plan, said that the Boston Police Department (BPD) is creating a dedicated staff of trained recovery coaches to respond to non-emergency calls at Mass and Cass. South End Forum chairman Steve Fox suggested approaching hospitals including Boston Medical Center, Tufts Medical Center and the Longwood-area hospitals for help. "We in the South End are looking at this as a crisis, and what we are hearing is that a request for proposals [for the renovation of the Shattuck Hospital campus] will be issued in January or February. For a lot of people in the South End, that is not a timely response from the state."
South End Roxbury Community Partnerships 2.0 founder Yahaira Lopez vows that the weekly protests will continue as long as the situation persists. For more information on the weekly standouts and other actions by the group, please visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/seroxburycommunitypartnership/.