Copyright The Boston Herald
The open-air drug use, dealing and crime that’s spilled over into the South End has deteriorated conditions in that neighborhood to the point where residents are saying the only way they see themselves feeling safe again is to move out. Dozens of South End residents met in the Cathedral High School gymnasium last Thursday to trade war stories and plead with city and state elected officials and police in attendance to crack down on the “rampant” public drug use and related violence they say is ruining their quality of life in an otherwise ritzy neighborhood. What matters more, one father recalled asking Boston Public Health Commissioner Bisola Ojikutu at the outset of the meeting: “The right of my children to grow up safely in their neighborhood” or the right of other people to buy and use drugs? Ojikutu, who said at a September City Council meeting that the city distributes more than 80,000 needles per month to drug users, did not have an answer for that question, the man told his neighbors. The “rampant drug use and criminality” in the South End, he said, had him calling 911 “almost daily” until September. He lives near Boston Medical Center, which he said is effectively hosting a public drug market on its front lawn. “This is frankly not an acceptable environment in which to raise a family,” the man said. “The city has failed to provide consistent law and order.” The man was joined by a number of other South End residents in swapping war stories about the horrors they said are taking place daily in their backyard. The open-air drug market and related crime that’s spilled over from the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard into surrounding neighborhoods has worsened over the past couple of years, the gathered South End residents agreed. Mayor Michelle Wu implemented a plan to clean up the troubled intersection, commonly known as Mass and Cass, in November 2023, beginning with the clearing of a long-standing homeless encampment. But city officials have acknowledged of late that the drug use and crime has since spilled over into nearby neighborhoods, particularly the South End, which has been deemed a hot-spot area by the city and targeted for greater police enforcement. Arrests were up 163% in the South End this summer, from May 1 to Aug. 24, compared to that time period last year, according to Boston Police data. Longtime residents of the South End said they love their neighborhood, but current conditions have many of them contemplating a move elsewhere. Many spoke openly about their experiences on the condition that the invited media members did not record the meeting, or use their names without permission. Women spoke of being fearful to walk by themselves after a certain time in their neighborhood, and shared that they’ve questioned whether they should take their young children to the park, where human feces on playground equipment and discarded needles scattered on the ground pose a health and safety risk. One woman in her 30s cried as she recalled an intoxicated man shouting a violent sexual threat at her and her seven-month-old baby. A man said he’s had to Narcan his dog who was overdosing from a discarded needle with drug residue, and advised others to carry the life-saving overdose drug when walking their own pets in the South End. A father spoke of how his young sons ran out of the house with excitement one night to cheer on firefighters after hearing sirens. The boys instead witnessed a man bleeding from a knife wound on the ground. The man had tried to stop another man from following a woman into her home with the weapon, the father said. “We all recognize that Boston is a compassionate city, but compassion cannot come at the expense of public safety,” the father said. “These families should not feel that the only way to stay safe is to leave.” Another man said his wife encountered a half-naked man masturbating while she was simply walking around their neighborhood. The indecent act occurred near a bus station, in full view of the public, he said. Anyone else in the room would expect to be arrested for behaving in such an indecent way in public, the man said. “The fact that the bar has become so low is incredibly disappointing and we need to raise it,” the man said. “I think everybody in Boston would agree — we’re better than this.”
