Ed Flynn started his week with boots on the ground at the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue, making good on his pledge to address the squalid conditions there during his 10-day stint as Boston’s acting mayor.
Flynn initiated the 90-minute tour, which was held at 6 a.m. on Monday, allowing him the opportunity to observe what the area looks like before the city has a chance to clean it up.
He was joined by members of the Boston Police Department, including Larry Calderone, who heads the city’s largest police union.
“I think it was important for me to see for myself the deteriorating conditions at Mass and Cass,” Flynn said, later adding, “It was worse than I expected.”
He pointed to the “squalor” and “rampant drug abuse in public” he saw in the area long known for its open-air drug dealing and homeless encampments, adding that the mental health challenges of almost everyone he encountered there was not something he was expecting.
“The mental health aspect of it is critical,” Flynn said. “Making sure that people not only get into drug treatment, but also get the mental health counseling that they need and deserve.”
Flynn said he has been working with Wu and city officials on building a bridge that would connect Quincy to a future addiction-recovery center at Boston’s Long Island. The effort has stalled due to opposition from Quincy officials. He has recommended the establishment of a ferry service that would go there as well.
The city council president took over as acting mayor when Michelle Wu left Boston for a 10-day family vacation last Thursday. Wu returns Saturday, and “continues to be available to make any major decisions that need to be made,” in the interim period, her spokesperson told the Herald.
While Flynn outlined several ways he plans to address Mass and Cass, both as council president and acting mayor, Wu “has not authorized him to take any action” on the matter, her spokesperson said.
Flynn signed onto an Aug. 1 letter to Boston and State Police leadership, calling for a warrant sweep in the area. He declined to say whether police have responded. Neither agency responded to an inquiry from the Herald on Monday.
He has also called for the declaration of a public health emergency, and would like to see the tents removed from the area.
The city charter designates the council president as acting mayor during a mayor’s absence from the city, but limits the position’s power to taking action “only in matters not admitting of delay,” a convoluted way of referring to matters that have to be dealt with right now.
Wu’s spokesperson, when asked whether the mayor was aware of Flynn’s visit to Mass and Cass, said she “is receiving briefings on major occurrences each day as usual.”
According to a source, Flynn is working out of his city council office this week, and was not allowed to move into the mayor’s office.
Before leaving for vacation, Wu teased a “major step” the city plans to take to address the deteriorating conditions at Mass and Cass, which according to an administration official, includes more of a focus on criminal activity.
Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, said he’s happy that Wu is listening to the union’s concerns about increased violence in the area. While he’s not been privy to her plans to address the matter, Calderone said it’s clear the city’s current approach is not working.
More than 22 tents were set up along Southampton Street during Monday’s tour, a “good 50% increase” than what is typical for the area, Calderone said, despite the Wu administration’s order to ban the encampments in May. Further, he said the increase in “knives and homemade weapons” inside the tents is “tremendous.”
“When you have more weapons, violence very quickly follows,” Calderone said, noting that three firearms, a machete and hatchet were removed from one of the tents two weeks ago. “So my people are very worried about it.”
EMS personnel are complaining “just as loud as us that they have to go to Tent City” to remove “victims” from the area, Calderone said, adding that the amount of drug use happening there clearly classifies a mental health condition that requires treatment.
“We’re not pushing incarceration from a law enforcement perspective,” he said. “We’re trying to motivate the city to do something about the area, more than they’ve been doing because the process and the plan that they have been employing, just by handing out clean needles and having people on site to offer a place for them to clean and use the restroom at times — that’s just not working.”
Flynn, when asked whether the current approach was working, said he was “not going to point fingers.”
“My job as city council president is to work closely with the mayor (and) the mayor’s administration,” Flynn said. “I think placing the blame on anyone is not helpful, and I’m not going to do that. I’m going to provide positive leadership the best I can.”
