Boston Common needs to be made safer if the city is going to spend $28 million rehabbing it, city councilors say — though some reject the idea of running a version of the Methadone Mile’s “Operation Clean Sweep” in the nation’s oldest public park.
“The Boston Common is a mess. … It’s become a safe haven for drug dealing and for sex offenders,” At-Large City Councilor Michael Flaherty told the Herald. “It’s not fair to the residents that live around the Common that they always have to worry about getting pricked by a needle, or smelling pot while out for a run, or taking a walk with their children or dogs.”
Mayor Martin Walsh in January announced that the city would use $28 million from the sale of the Winthrop Square Garage to overhaul the old park downtown.
Some residents have reported avoiding the park because of the homeless people and drug addicts who camp out there.
The city’s 311 hotline has more than 2,000 complaints on file for the Boston Common, including from “drug addict camps” to drunks “harassing” passersby.
The mayor’s office, when asked on Tuesday how he’ll address those complaints, cited his administration’s various homelessness and addiction initiatives including the plans to rebuild the Long Island Bridge and put a large addiction recovery campus out there.
Josh Zakim, the district councilor who represents the park, said he himself has called the cops while walking across the Common — but insisted that overall the area is safe and cops shouldn’t broom out the people causing trouble.
“Certainly there is an issue,” Zakim said, but he said the way of fixing it is by adding more services.
Flaherty said the city’s $28 million plan to spruce up the Common should include programming for homeless and drug addicts — but he said it should be a “balanced approach” with law enforcement on criminal activity.
The city is now seeking public input on how to spend $28 million on the 50-acre park. The city is proposing general maintenance, upgrading playing fields, improving drainage, fixing paths, sprucing up the popular Frog Pond and taking care of the park’s old trees.
“Everybody housed or unhoused are welcome in our park,” said Elizabeth Vizza of the Friends of the Public Garden. “But illicit activity like drug dealing and drug use is not supported. It’s a challenge that all urban parks face.”
Many advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, slammed the city’s recent “Operation Clean Sweep” of Methadone Mile. The ACLU, when asked how the city should address drug use and homelessness on the Common, rereleased its Clean Sweep statement, saying, “Law-abiding individuals, whether living in poverty or not, have a right to be on our public sidewalks without being threatened with arrest for loitering.”
Barry Bock of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program said, “Doing yet another ‘clean sweep’ may temporarily make people less visible on the Common, but until we have enough of the right addiction services and housing in place, we will just be temporarily moving the problem to another neighborhood.”
