WSANA residents report their concerns to South End Liaison

Several Worcester Square-area residents toured their turf with the Mayor's South End Liaison, Jordan Deasy, to air issues and discuss possible remedies on Friday, October 24. The tone of the conversation veered between banter and lament, and topics ranged from the poor condition of the sidewalks to collateral damage from drug use. While one participant was disappointed at the small turnout for the walk, another pointed out that many people are still at work at the 4:00 start time.

West Springfield Street resident Helaine Simmonds called numerous gaps, broken bricks and uneven spots in the sidewalks to Deasy's attention. Deasy carefully photographed and made notes of the locations on her tablet. Simmonds asked why the brick sidewalks had been patched with tar rather than with brick. Deasy said, "It's an immediate public safety fix. It's better to have this than to have holes, especially with winter coming. I know that the patching is frustrating for folks. It's one of the complaints I hear a lot on these walks. The utility company pays into a fund, and they patch it as an immediate fix." Simmonds asked whether brick repair will follow, and Deasy said it will, but that it could take some time to get bricks put in due to demand for brick work around the city. When someone asked whether the brick sidewalks would be replaced, Deasy explained, "It would cost $550 million to replace all the sidewalks and they would have to take all the trees out." On a related safety note, the group spotted a number of downspouts that spill water onto the sidewalk, creating ice patches in the winter, and wondered about their legality. Deasy offered to check whether that is a code violation.

Drug use and trade in the neighborhood was a topic of heated discussion during the walk. A 34-year homeowner said, "I think the drug dealing is a very serious problem. I moved to the neighborhood in 1980 and the drug dealing has just gotten worse and worse. It has really escalated in the past five years." Deasy asked, "Do you call the police?" To which he replied, "No, it happens too often. It's constant. Officer Provenzano said, 'There's nothing permanent we can do, because they'll just move to another neighborhood and then they'll come back'." When the exasperated longtime neighbor likened the WSANA area to Christianstad, a district in Copenhagen, Denmark that has no drug laws, and wondered whether the police view the Worcester Square area the same way, Deasy took issue. "I disagree with you as respectfully as possible. There are 18 neighborhood associations in the South End and I go to every single meeting. I am constantly in the neighborhood helping people to resolve issues. The South End has a lot of issues because of the social services. We just started a South End Task Force on Homelessness and Recovery Services to talk about how we can better accommodate residents and social services in the same neighborhood. We are working on a needle cleanup proposal. There is a lot happening here," Deasy maintained. She also encouraged residents to attend District 4's police panel meetings on the last Monday of each month. The longtime neighbor remained unswayed. "If this were the Pilot Block, Union Park or the Eight Streets, the police would do something about it." Artist and Massachusetts Avenue resident Christos Hamawi chimed in, "The new administration has been fantastic and responsive. I've been going to the meetings, and I see a lot of results happening. The drug problem is a major issue, I completely agree. That's something they are working on. We need to have a regular BPHC (Boston Public Health Commission) police presence here if we are going to have these services here."

Hamawi expressed concern about the public safety hazard of used needles left behind on the street by drug users and suggested, "It would be nice if there were a local number we could call when we see people shooting up and we know they are going to be done by the time the police come, but we don't want to call 911 because the fire truck and the ambulance will show up. It would be nice if we could call and say, 'there will be needles left behind. Could someone come get them immediately?'" Deasy said, "We are working on a better system for cleaning up the needles."

Trees were a prominent topic of discussion on the tour. While walking on East Springfield Street, Hamawi said, "I would love to see more trees on Mass. Ave. If you look at the other streets, there is twice as much density. There's one every 50 feet over there, not one every 20 or 30 feet like here." Deasy replied, "I know when I did [a walk on] Mass. Ave. I put in your tree request. I don't know if they canceled it out because it's a state road. I'll have to look into it." On East Springfield Street, the group brought to Deasy's attention a tree stump that remains after a dead tree was cut down four months ago, and elsewhere, Deasy made note of a number of trees that were dying or dead and were leaning precariously.

Simmonds led the group down an alley between Worcester Square and East Concord Street where there is no snow plow service and a lack of lighting. Deasy explained that because it is a private alley, the city does not provide those services, and said that if the neighbors wanted to have the alley made public, every neighbor would have to sign on as part of a complex and expensive process. Simmonds also told Deasy that there are not enough street lights in front of Boston Medical Center on Harrison Avenue and it is unsafe for elderly pedestrians. She requested the acorn style lights to be consistent with existing streetlights.

Just as it was at the beginning of the 75 minute walk, by the end, no one's opinion seemed to have changed, and the participants' outlooks ran the gamut. The frustrated longtime homeowner said, "You can quote me as saying this is a complete waste of time, because none of this will ever get done." Pointing to a spot where the sidewalk was patched, Deasy responded, "Sir, that patchwork that they did there is from the last walk that I did. They've patched it in the two weeks it's been since I reported it, so there is progress being made." Hamawi, on the other hand, was optimistic. "I like what [Mayor Walsh] has been doing. I think he's been doing great so far," he said.