June 10, 2025 • 39 mins
The plan to clean up the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard that was rolled out two years ago hasn’t quite worked out. Residents affected by the Mass. and Cass spillover are begging for more police enforcement as it remains an open-air drug market. Brian McCarter, a South End resident, says drug deals continue at 874 Harrison Ave. despite his 911 calls. McCarter joined Dan to discuss.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WVZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thanks very much, Dan, As we move into the nine
o'clock hour, here, just what everybody in this audience has
heard of the phrase mass and casts Melina Cass Boulevard
and Massachusetts Avenue. It has been known for years as
an open air drug market, and the people who have
(00:30):
to live in that community with the open air drug
market have not seen this go away. And reading a
piece by Gayla Cowley in the Boston Herald this morning,
residents are really concerned that it's been two years since
the mayor rolled out a plan to clean up the
(00:51):
troubled in intersection. But guess what, mass and cast just
doesn't go away there. We've done shows on this, stories
on this over the years, and with us tonight is
a longtime South End resident, Brian McCarter. Brian, I wish
I could give you a solution here. The only thing
(01:13):
I can give you is a great deal of sympathy,
empathy or whatever. I can't imagine how this sort of
an open air drug market would be allowed to continue
in any other community. If this was in the Back Bay,
it would be shut down. If it was in West Roxbury,
(01:34):
it would be shut down. If it was in any suburb,
it would be shut down. But for some reason, I
think the powers that be have decided that hey, out
of mind, out of sight, and let the people of
the South End deal with it. Welcome to Night's Side, Brian.
How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I'm thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, and I want you to know that I'm I've
watched this story evolve over years, and it just seems
it's like a yo yo. It just always comes back.
It just always comes back. You have a long term
perspective there. You've lived in that part of the city
now for nearly fifteen years. What is the city doing?
(02:18):
Are they responding? I assume people must be complaining about it,
because who wants that in your backyard?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
In backyard, front yard, sideyard, your commute to your local
grocery store, do your coffee shop, any part of your
life you are confronted by the open air dark dealing.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Boy. This has to be debilitating. You don't want to
give up in the neighborhood. Clearly you've been there for
fourteen or fifteen years. Have you talked to the mayor,
have you talked to the police, commissioner. Do they just
have they done anything? Have they at least tried.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, I've talked with the mayor, I've talked with the
police captain for the area, community service officers, and they
all say it. You know, they're working on it, and
you know, I believe that they're genuine, but at times
it doesn't seem like it's a huge priority for the city.
And so you know, maybe they say they want to
(03:21):
find a solution and get people into recovery and get
people treatment, but you know, life on the ground doesn't
really change much, and it's just frankly getting worse every week.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
You know, yours is not the only part of the
city that's dealing with crime. The more that I talk
to people around Boston, I talk to people in West Roxbury,
I'm told there's a supermarket in West Roxbury, one of
the nicer sections of the city, where people are literally
walking out the door with baskets full of food and
(03:54):
they have to stop people. It's there's stuff going on
in Boston that that that we're not seeing. Those of
us who no longer live in Boston, who may come
into Boston to do some shopping, but you have to
live with this described to the people who are listening
tonight who live in the safe comfort of suburbia and
(04:17):
who don't have to deal with this, explain what life
is like for you in the South End vis a
vis the drug dealers and the drug users.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Oh, it's it's terrifying. So just imagine if every day
you're trying to come home and you have to check
around a corner to see if you're going to get
assaulted again, and you have to call nineer and one
to clear the way in order to get anywhere. It's
it's nothing else. There's no other place quite like this.
You know, you see examples in San Francisco and some
(04:50):
other cities, but Boston it's it's not as many people
that you know, as these other cities have, so uh,
it's just all concentrated here in that you know, this
part of Boston.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
San Francisco has the Tackleoin. San Francisco has the Tenderloin district,
and it's kind of spread out. Uh, that's that's a
mess in San Francisco. But it almost seems like Boston
did not heed the warnings or the example of San Francisco.
They have tried, have they not down there to do something,
(05:23):
but nothing has worked. They were they were going to
open up a hotel and have a uh what do
they call it? A low threshold hotel where people could
could come and go as they want, use or not
use at whatever their pleasure is. And then they tried
to move people. I think, if I'm not mistaken, they
wanted to to move them to the Shadow Hospital near
(05:48):
the Franklin Park Zoo. But that didn't seem to work.
Everything they've tried hasn't worked. Is it is it that
the the that they're not serious about it? Or do
you think that the solution that have come up with
are not what was needed to be done? Is it
a question of follow through? If you would become the
(06:10):
commissioner of drug enforcement in Boston, there is no such thing,
by the way, as far as I know, what would
you advise? What would you suggest? What could be done?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
So first you got to take into account some of
the things that there's like two sets of plans, so
to speak. There's the harm reduction plans and then there's
the treatment first plans, and so they kind of have
slightly different impacts. The hotel that you're talking about is
the Roundhouse Hotel where It was exactly as you described.
(06:41):
There was a harm reduction war threshold site. People could
come and go as they wanted, and there was no
obligation for them to try to get into treatment and
try to get into detox. They could just you know,
continue to use drugs. That became a disaster in our area,
crime everywhere, and no cost of fortune, and they got
(07:02):
very few people off of drugs. The I guess slightly
more aggressive approach is what's called the treatment first, where
you know you've kind of push people into medically assisted
detox and longer term to have detox programs, and so
that's a different set of plans, Like Senator Collins has
(07:24):
one where we possibly convert a old cruise ship and
then you know, have a three hundred bed detox facility
so that we could possibly in bulk get people off
of drugs and actually make a vent in this problem.
So what we've done in the past hasn't worked for
clearly because we wouldn't be having this conversation, But some
of the ways forward might look a little bit different
(07:44):
than if the city were to get to the kind
of leadership we need to do a plan like this
and actually solve the problem it could be done.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Has the mayor ever said to you, look, Brian, you're
a long time resident of the South End, why don't
we schedule a meeting with some representatives of that area
and let me hear from the from the the residents
of the areas. There are there any meetings like that
that ever occur where she would sit down.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, so I'm talking talk to Meriwu twice and that's caused,
you know, an ongoing conversation that she herself needs to
sit in on some of these meetings with self end
leadership in order to have these conversations, you know, unfiltered,
since that there clearly is a disconnect between what's happening
on the ground and what the leadership is saying is
(08:39):
supposed to be happening. Yeah, so that's been an evolving
conversation for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Okay, let's take a break here, Brian. I want to
invite people to call and join the conversation, whether they're
in South in the South End or they travel through
the South End. This is not fair for one community,
one section of Boston to deal with this as often
you folks are just bearing the brunt of this. Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
And it's yeah, if you had twenty five to forty
people in front of your place every day, you know,
using needles, throwing them everywhere, and you know when people
try to offer to help them, they swear at you,
and you know they don't they don't want treatment. Yeah,
it would be I don't know anyone who would want
to tolerate this for particularly long spans of time.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
No, I totally. I'm totally supportive and concerned. That's why
we're having you on tonight. Let's and want to hear
from as many people in Greater Boston, well in Boston specifically,
but in Greater Boston as well. This is this is
a situation that should not be tolerated by this great
American city. Six one seven, two five four, ten thirty
or a couple of open lines at six one seven,
(09:53):
nine three one ten thirty back on nights Side right
after this, feel free join the conversation, particularly if you
have some ideas. We'll be back on Nightside. It's Nightside
with Dan Ray on.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
My guest is Brian McCarter, longtime South End resident, and
we want to go to phone calls because it is
just not fear that this beautiful section of Boston has
to suffer all of the indignity of mass and Cass
and the residents of Mass and Cass basically having invaded
(10:32):
and set up shop in their neighborhood in what is
an open ear drug market and has been four years.
Let's go to Nicky in Boston. Nicky, welcome, You're next
on Nightside, your first this hour.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Actually, go right ahead, Hi, Dan, how are you?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I'm doing just great? NICKI Are you in the South
End per chance? Or no?
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
I certainly am so. I own a small restaurant in
the corner of Harrison Avenue and it's East Springfield Street,
so it's a blame from mass av I've been there
for seventeen years, so I have quite a few things
to say.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Dan. Before you do that, let's give you a restaurant
a plug, because maybe we could we could get some
nightside listeners to stop by there this weekend. What's the
name of the restaurant if you like?
Speaker 4 (11:17):
So, the name is Blunch. It's breakfast for lunch or
lunch for breakfast.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, Okay, it's great, by the way.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Okay, thank you. This endorsement from Ryan. All right, so
tell us about your experience go ahead.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
So I've been there for seventeen years, almost eighteen actually,
so I've seen the excursions of such. So in the beginning,
it was prostitution in that area. So then when everything
got built up towards like State Street where all the
drug dealing was going on, and all the buildings were
(11:58):
being pushed up, so all of that kind of just
spread our way eventually within that seventeen years. So here
we are seventeen years later, and there's there's nothing being done.
Like there's plans, there's statistics, there's senses, there's all kinds
of everything going on, but there's no plan. There was
(12:19):
a ten year plan that was ten years ago to
help the area. We're saturated with every single city service
in the whole Boston proper. So there's like five almost shelters,
countless areas of social services. But the problem is it's
(12:43):
not only the city's problem anymore. It's the state's problem.
So here we are dealing with all politicians, every politician,
every part three one, one nine to one one. Every day,
needle count I go out every day needle count I
count I get people out of the restaurant. There's people
on top of the restaurant. There's people breaking in constantly.
(13:07):
It's it's it's crazy, it's it's not okay.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
So here I got a question. I got a question
for both you and Brian Nikki, I got a question
for both you and Brian. If this situation mass and
cast we're in one of the wealthier suburban communities. You
can pick the name of the community, whether it's Wellesley
or Westland okay, or or if it was in the
(13:36):
back Bay or.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Square that happened. It's so it spread to back Bay
and Beacon Hill and you know, in the span of
three weeks they they cleared everyone out of Beacon Hill
and Back Bay and sent them back to the South End.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
So is that because the South End doesn't have the
political power, doesn't have the people who can get the
attention to the mayor. I mean, the bike lobby get
the intention of mayor Woo and we have bike lanes everywhere.
I mean, you know she does respond to constituents, is she?
Why is she not responding to.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
The South End?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
She does?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Jeremy under these.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Okay, hold on, go ahead, and problem it's a huge problem.
It's it's so much grander than what she is and
what she can do and what three to one one
can do and what nine to one one can do.
It is what I'm reiterating a state's issue. These people
are not coming, They're not they're not Boston people. These
people are getting busted in from Worcester framing him all
(14:41):
the surrounding areas because we in that small part of
the South End have everything for them. They can get
their drugs, they can go to rehab, they can get
a meal, they can stay at home. All in that
little area we have all of that. That's a state's problem.
It's not the city there will over her head in this.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
So why is she not Why is she not going
to Governor Heally and to the Attorney general, both of.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
We haven't heard from her. Where is she? So I
don't we don't know why she doesn't go to Marrow
Heely and say, you know, go after Boston Public Health,
which you know they're essentially funding to perpetuate this instead
of get people off of drugs.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Okay, well, I think Nicky's point is well taken, But
it would seem to me that, uh that a mayor
of Boston who feels a section of his or her
city is being overwhelmed by anything. I should go to
the state and say, hey, we need your help here.
If the police in Boston kan't, you know, regulate the
(16:02):
activity there, then maybe she needs to ask for some
state police to come in and back up the Boston police.
I think that there are solutions if people want to
focus on the problem. I don't think they're willing to
focus on the problem. Nikki and Briant, No, I'm.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Carry one of the neighborhood leaders asked in like a
week ago to go to Governor Healy and the response.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
I did as well. I did a couple of weeks
ago in a coffee hour. I approached her right up.
She's very receptive, but her hands are tied politically and financially.
So it's time for this state to step up. And
that's my point.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I get it. But it seems to me that that
if her hands are tied as mayor, that her next
option would be to go to the governor and say, look,
I need some help. And whether it's state police, uh,
you know, more police patrols. If you've got to have
some National Guard people there, what's wrong with that? I mean,
(17:02):
if if it's become an open air drug market.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
It is, I mean it it is.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I just think that for Mayor Woo to say, well,
it's just beyond me, Okay, if it's beyond you, what
can you do? I mean, there has to be a
solution for this, it seems to me. And I know
I don't live in the South End, guys, I really don't,
but I can't imagine how frustrated I would be if
I was in your situation. And I can't tell you
(17:30):
how much you know how much I appreciate the fact
that that both of you would take the time to
I have more phone calls, So Nicky, thank you, Thank
you for for being with us tonight. Feel free to
join us any night. But we'll continue to focus on
this problem for the people in the South End. I
(17:50):
know the South End pretty well. I've had I've had
relatives who who lived there. I've had friends who have
lived there. And it's a shame that that part of
the city, which forty years ago was really a wasteland,
has come back. It's been gentrified, it's come back, but
now it has to deal with mass and casts. Anyway,
(18:13):
the big.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Thing Dan It's still a beautiful neighborhood and there's beautiful
people and neighbors that care, and that's that's why we're here.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Well, and that's why I'm doing a show tonight. That's
why I'm doing the.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Show, and I appreciate it. Sir, Thank thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
We'll talk again. Thank you very much, appreciate you. Okay,
Brian and I want you to stay with us. We
have other phone calls from not only in the city,
but also outside the city. Feel free to join this conversation.
One line open at six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty. It just filled back on Nightside right after.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
This Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
We're talking about the mass and cass drug market. The
open air drug market, which is played plagued this section
of the city for years and years and years and
nothing has been done about it. If you want to
maybe there have been efforts made, but no results produced.
Let's go next to Laura in Dorchester. Laura, thanks for
(19:13):
calling Nightside. You're next on Nightside. My guest Brian McCarter.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Hi, I'm on speaker, is that okay?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I'd prefer you to be off speaker because we'll be
able to hear you. I'm sure Rob might have mentioned
that to you if you can. I don't want to
lose you as a caller here, but we'll be able
to understand what you're saying a lot more clearly.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Okay, decades in Dorchester, Okay, it was rough. It's still
as rough. But the latest improvement here in near the
Fields Corner area is since I contacted the newest community office,
which is affiliated with Area Say Police. He's the newest.
(19:56):
He's definitely not the person I spoke to six months ago.
So I called him on our last issue. And everything's
squeaky clean, everything's quiet. I can hear the police during
the night. It's like almost making the rounds, just to
(20:16):
let everybody know that they hear. So this is highly residential.
I know mass and Casts very well, and I know
that's Boston City Hospital, that's healthcare for the homeless. I
can't see any exact residential places, but off you know
there are many in the South End. But cameras have
(20:42):
helped us in the community officer just recently. He must
be new and he doesn't sound like the old one.
And I got from the desk officer at the police
station his direct number. And for some reason, things are
taking care of very quickly and it's very quiet. That
(21:07):
might be one option. Now in Dorchester and the Dorchester Reporter,
there's a list of communities that once a month they
have meetings and since COVID they've been on zoom usually.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
So, Laura, this is interesting. But we've gone two minutes
and twenty seconds here. How does this apply to the
problem we're talking about Mass and cass Fields Corner is
pretty good distance from Mass and Cass.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Well, you have the same problem. We're right on the
train station, We're right on the red line we had.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
So you have an opening drug market there.
Speaker 5 (21:46):
Well, I wasn't exactly sure about the open drug market.
I know that healthcare for the homeless medicates the homeless people.
And now what I'm.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Trying to get at, Laura, and I think you probably
have some valuable information. What can you tell my guest,
Brian McCarter, What advice could you give him?
Speaker 5 (22:08):
That the drug addicts and the people who were drugged
were on our steps, we couldn't get into our homes.
So is that an open drug market?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
But what advice would you give to my guest? I've
asked you the question three times. You're giving me a
lot of interesting information. About Field's Corner. I know Field's
Corner very well, played a lot of baseball games.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
I went local police station. Okay, let's make get me
the contact information of the community officer, so I would
go to his local police station.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Okay, have you tried. Let's see if he's done that yet, Brian,
have you have you reached out to the local police station.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
So, uh yeah, many times I've got the direct emails
of the police captain, the community service officer, and the
supervisor above the police captain. So that is an avenue
when we try to be partners with the police, since
you know, it's an ever present part of our life here,
and so we are in constant engagement with police leadership.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
So I had no results. You wouldn't believe the other
issue that was going on here with the homeless holding
cas hostage and demanding money from them, and what I
got from the previous community office that was, well, we
can't do anything about panhandless. When I took the pitches
(23:38):
of the people holding the cas hostage for seven months
and demanding they give them twelve dollars eighteen dollars father drugs,
I took it. We got a new community officer so
obviously the previous community officer.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Well maybe yeah. I think you've been very lucky with
the new community officer, and hopefully Brian, with this information
you can find out who your community officer is. Laura,
I appreciate your experience and I hope that it has
really an effective application in the South End. I appreciate you,
Carl Waura, thank you very much. Let me keep rolling here,
going to go next to We're gonna go Mike in Norwood. Mike,
(24:23):
you're next on Nightside. Go right ahead. You're on with
my guest, Brian McCarter. He lives in the South End.
They're trying to deal with the mass and cast open
air drug market. They're not getting much help out of
the mayor's office, and I think we just he dropped off.
So if Mike, who probably had us on speakerphone as well,
and we lost him in the meantime, we're gonna go
(24:43):
to another caller. Let me go to Patty in Wellesley.
Patty you are well. You are next on Nightside. Welcome Patty.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
Hi, Dan, I'm Brian.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
How are you.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
We're great?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Dan.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
I will actually, Bryan, can I just say one thing?
Do you think that Dan would be a great mayor
of Boston.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Oh I don't know them well enough. I'd love that
can heine to have this conversation. It'd be an interesting
I never thought, never thought about it, so I'd have
to circle back.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Well, I hadn't live in Boston, so I'm ineligible. I
used to live in Boston. But I'll tell you what,
if I was the mayor of Boston, that open had
drug market would be out of business period.
Speaker 6 (25:31):
That's exactly why I called okay, because I think you
should get together with whoever and help them, because they
need you to help them with that. Yes, and I
think it would all go away and everyone will be
happy ever after.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Well, I think you need the mayor to reach out
to the governor, and the governor, if necessary, has to
say to the state police get in there and help
the bo If the Boston Police can't handle it, get
the state beliee or maybe the National Guard in there.
This is this is a disaster area for people who
like who like Brian, are trying to live in a
(26:11):
community that they have invested in. And uh, Patty, I
appreciate your support. When I run for president, Patty, you're
going to be my campaign manager. Right, you know that.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
Right, I'm going to get the biggest megaphone and I
will like scream from the chipstop okay, and I will
be in your ringside.
Speaker 7 (26:28):
Yes, thank you, that's an honor.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Thanks, Patty, you have the best.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Thanks. Why next time we walk Mason Cast as a community? Uh,
when we all get together and do that once a month,
you should come?
Speaker 6 (26:45):
Is it on the night side? Website this information? Because
I I'm always the last to hear what's happening, Brian.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
What I will do is the next time, Patty, what
I'll do is the next time they have a an event,
I will make sure that we get it up and
posted and talked about. Brian will have to get me
that information and we will circulate it. Okay, but I
don't want you to go there alone. I want you
to make sure that you have somebody with you. If
it's going to have to be me, it's going to
(27:15):
be me. Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Oh, I will have a producer reach out and I'll
email the information. I have it somewhere in my in box.
Speaker 6 (27:23):
Okay, I'm serious, you guys. We need to do this
because those people of math Casts are going to make
more people and there's going to be.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
It's just going to grow.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
And it's going to be an epidemic and it's going
to be terrible. So I think we've got to take
a bite out of it, like sooner than later, don't
you agree?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I think the next one's on the eighteen at seven
pm inspection of math av and Albany Street. One of
the one of the few bright spots in the city
is a Combined Response Team. There's a five person team
that's been doing miracles with only five people. So they
show up about once a month walk the area with
the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah. The problem for me, that's a Wednesday. That's a
Wednesday night, Patty, So I can't go that night because
I have to do my show. But we'll we'll get
something going.
Speaker 6 (28:11):
Okay, Yes, thank you, John, you're my mind.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Don right back at you, Patty, Thank you much. Patty's
a loyal listener and a great friend. Let me go
to Lenny rather Larry. Excuse me. Larry is down on
Old k Cod. Larry, I know that the problem is
not just in the South End or a masson cast.
But say hi to Brian McCarter. He's fighting it on
the front.
Speaker 7 (28:36):
Yeah, down there I'm familiar with the area. He used
to live down there Madapan Square. But I used to
take my daughter to the Reggie Lewis Center. All the
state track meets for there. My son is on the
Boston Police Department for twenty years. He started up in
B two down in Roxbury. This is what he feels.
The problem is all the sudden. The original the original
(28:58):
attraction down there was all the social services, the methadone
clinics there would go get drugged up. He was on
the vehicular homicide unit. They'd get drugged up, walk across
the street, get run over by a car. The state
closed up all of the hospitals number there used to
be one down on Morton Street. They're all over the place.
(29:19):
Whoever is running for governor needs to open up those
places again and find places to take these people. I
think once in a while the DPW goes down and
clears out the tents that they don't enforce it, and
they just keep it going. But whoever's running for governor
should get on this bandwagon and use this as one
of their things that they're running on.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I think that's a great suggestion. Larry. And this, you know,
when you have a democratic mayor, Democratic governor, Democratic attorney
general and nothing has happened. You might as well drive
the other party. You never know.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, whoever viable eventually handed it go ahead?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Please, Brian, I missed you've stepped on you.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Well, you say, whoever solves it would be a viable
presidential candidate. You know, this is not an easy problem,
and if you can solve it, I think they'd have
a very long and prosperous career.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah. Well, they've actually made some progress on this stuff
in New York, believe it or not. Mayor Adams has
a Democrats has made some progress in New York. But
for some reason, as long as it kind of stays
out of the public eye. And that's why I'm doing
the show tonight with you, Brian, and I will come
back and do it again with you at some point
(30:36):
as well. I'm not going to leave you on this.
I'm a firm believer that there is a quote unquote
quote of public opinion, and that's where we're practicing right
now and making people aware that if it can happen
to your neighborhood, it can happen to any neighborhood, and
it's just not it's just not fear. Larry, I appreciate
the perspective and tell your son to stay safe.
Speaker 8 (30:57):
Okay, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
January. Okay, Brian, I gotta take one final commercial break,
and I have a bunch of callers we're going to
get to. The only lines that are open are six one,
seven nine. But I got Matt and Franklin, Bob and
Cambridge and John in the South End. We'll get them
all in. I promise all those three will be getting in,
and if we get a couple more in six one,
(31:19):
seven ninety. Coming back on Nightside. You're on night Side
with Dan Ray on w b Z, Boston's news radio.
Back to the phones, we go, going to go to
Matt in Franklin, Massachusetts. Matt, you're on with Brian McCarter
of the South End talking about mass and cast. Go ahead, Matt.
Speaker 8 (31:38):
Yeah, I'm gonna say that Mayor WU cleaned up city
hall plods over the past year or two. They used
to be scattered all over the by the train station
in the shade there, and they're no longer there, well.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Out of sight, out out of sight, out of mind, Matt, exactly.
Speaker 8 (31:55):
And it's like you go to Boston Common and they
have signs up saying don't feed the animals. But meanwhile
you have all these cockroaches hanging out there panhandling, and
that's okay, yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
That's the problem. It's don't give them money. Uh tell
them you'll take him and buy him a sandwich, or
buy them a cup of coffee, or buy them a
dunkin Donuts, and most of them will walk away from you.
Speaker 8 (32:17):
They're like acting in this like fantasy lamb where it's
like like these people that didn't make many years of
bad decisions end up the way they are. It's like
you don't just underage drinks, smoke a couple of doobies
and then become some fiend. It's like they they and
then they just revive them. It's like you can't get
rid of them, like they're indestructible, like cockroaches. You got
to like fee well, I.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Don't want to call I don't want to call them matt.
I don't want to use the word cockroaches. I've had
friends of mine who have been severely addicted to uh,
you know, to to heroin, to you know, so some
pretty heavy duty drugs, and they have beaten it and
whether you're an alcoholic or a drug addict, to get
that monkey off your back and beat it, you have
(32:58):
to have a lot of guts and courage, and a
lot of these people eventually get themselves squared away.
Speaker 8 (33:03):
But yeah, but no, yeah, of course you do.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
You have to look at yourself in the mirror some
morning and say I'm not doing this anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (33:12):
No, absolutely glad to be an indestructible heroin addict. It's
like you're just remain a heroin addict until the EMT
doesn't find.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
You one day.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Exactly exactly. We'll let Matt. I appreciate you call, Thank
you much. It's interesting. I thought you made an interesting
point that that maybe City Hall plaza uh now is
if these fakes folks have left, but they're still uh
in in Brian's neighborhood. And Brian says that that sometimes
he will see he'll see them walking around naked. I mean,
(33:41):
this is it's it's a blight on the community in
many many ways. Thanks, thanks, Matt, appreciate it. I gotta
get going here a little bit. I'm gonna pick the
pace up round and get to get a few more in.
Let me get John in the South End. John, you
were next on night Side with your neighbor Brian McCarter.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Hey, Dan, Yeah, Ont and Alves from the South End.
Great to be there. I know Brian well. Unfortunately or
fortunately we've gotten to know each other because of this crisis.
And the president of the Blackstone Frequent Square Neighbored Association,
I also sit on some boards. I've been in the
South End for ten years. I have a sixteen month
(34:19):
old daughter now, and I've been intimately involved in trying
to push our elected officials, both at the city and
state level to come up with solutions, as well as
work with the police. And I would say, is that
and this is for everybody. I mean, this affects everybody
in the state. Even though the problem is concentrated in Boston,
in particular the South End, the conditions of mass and
(34:42):
casts remain inhumane and out of control for everyone. That's
the people with needles on their arms, rotting on the street,
that's for the residents, and that's for the businesses. And
you know what's been done and this goes back to
the wallsh administration has not been effective. And I like
(35:05):
a Nikki who runs Blunch, I know her. I know
the restaurant wells at great Place. We do believe that
the capacity of the city to handle this alone is
matched out, and we need the governor, we need the state.
It's a support. I remember a few years ago with
Governor Baker when they declared vaping a public health emergency
(35:30):
and almost overnight, several hundred businesses closed while they investigated
the effects of vaping. That shows you the power of
the governor's office when something needs to be addressed on
a public health level. Well, if vathing is the public
health emergency, then what would you call the people injecting
and doing drugs out in public, defecating on people's properties,
(35:54):
leaving hazardous needles around the city. If that's not a
public health eergency, I don't know what it is. You know,
the issue, even though it might be concentrated in the
city of Boston, actually affects the entire state because, as
Brian noted, sixty or seventy percent of the people that
are coming to the Math and Cast area are actually
(36:14):
not from the city of Boston. They're from all over
the state.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
So we might question. My question to you, John would
be why has the mayor, who is also the mayor
of the South End not recognize that this problem is
beyond her control, and why not then seek some support
from the state from a democratic She's a democratic mayor,
(36:40):
a democratic governor. It seems to me that the stars
should be aligned.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
It would, it would appear, so I think. I think,
based on my conversations with the administration, I think they
do recognize it, but I think that they are fighting
some forces that may be well intentioned, like the Boston
Public Health Commision, and who are potentially counterintuitive to the solution.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
You know, there's been a policy mandate and this again
goes back to the really the Walsh administration.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Who will points the Boston Health Commission, John.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
I believe that's actually from the state. I think their
funding comes from the state.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Who points the members of the Boston Public I guarantee
it's the mayor who appoints the members of the Boston
Public Health CAI.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Yeah, and I think they're I think they're funding might
come from the state. But yeah, point being, you've got
different agencies competing, and I think the intentions are good,
but well, what's what's happening clearly isn't working, and many
of us are pushing for really what's what's been considered
to be mandated treatment protocols, which would empower the police
(37:49):
to engage with folks to leverage the court system, UH
to push people into treatment. And you know, this policy
of meet people where they are is really really not
working because you can't meet people where they are if
they don't know where they are.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Well, then you're going to have to win that battle
in court because you're gonna have the A C. O.
You going and representing the drug addicts and saying that
we're somehow interfering with their pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
Trust me on that one.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Okay, Oh, I agree with you. We've we've seen that
those lawsuits and.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Right and those lawyers and those those lawyers who are
doing that don't live in the South End because if
they lived in the South End they would look at
it quite differently.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
They don't, You're you're absolutely right, a lot of them don't.
And you know the sad thing is is that again,
enabling people to exist in this capacity on the street
in this fashion is inhumane.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Hey, John, you know, here's John, here's my problem. You've
been a great call, not a good call, but a
great call. Brian, you have been a great guest. I'm
out of time. What I'm going to do is I'm
going to carry this subject into the next hour. So
Mick and Austin, Bob and Cambridge. I'm in Fitzburg and
Bill in Boston. Stay there. We'll pick this up on
(39:03):
the other side of the ten Brian, do you want
to stick with me or are you done for the night?
You tell me your choice.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
I stick around.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Good, you stick around. John. Your call was an excellent call,
but I'm flat out of time. Please continue to listen
to this program on this or any topic.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Okay, well, thank you Dan for bringing attention to the issue.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Thank you very welcome. Brian. You stay right there. We
got a five minute break for news. Walk around, stretch
your legs all you call or stay there. We got
one line. This is an important enough issue for me
to do more than one hour. It's as simple as that.
Be right back on night Side.
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WVZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thanks very much, Dan, As we move into the nine
o'clock hour, here, just what everybody in this audience has
heard of the phrase mass and casts Melina Cass Boulevard
and Massachusetts Avenue. It has been known for years as
an open air drug market, and the people who have
(00:30):
to live in that community with the open air drug
market have not seen this go away. And reading a
piece by Gayla Cowley in the Boston Herald this morning,
residents are really concerned that it's been two years since
the mayor rolled out a plan to clean up the
(00:51):
troubled in intersection. But guess what, mass and cast just
doesn't go away there. We've done shows on this, stories
on this over the years, and with us tonight is
a longtime South End resident, Brian McCarter. Brian, I wish
I could give you a solution here. The only thing
(01:13):
I can give you is a great deal of sympathy,
empathy or whatever. I can't imagine how this sort of
an open air drug market would be allowed to continue
in any other community. If this was in the Back Bay,
it would be shut down. If it was in West Roxbury,
(01:34):
it would be shut down. If it was in any suburb,
it would be shut down. But for some reason, I
think the powers that be have decided that hey, out
of mind, out of sight, and let the people of
the South End deal with it. Welcome to Night's Side, Brian.
How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I'm thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, and I want you to know that I'm I've
watched this story evolve over years, and it just seems
it's like a yo yo. It just always comes back.
It just always comes back. You have a long term
perspective there. You've lived in that part of the city
now for nearly fifteen years. What is the city doing?
(02:18):
Are they responding? I assume people must be complaining about it,
because who wants that in your backyard?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
In backyard, front yard, sideyard, your commute to your local
grocery store, do your coffee shop, any part of your
life you are confronted by the open air dark dealing.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Boy. This has to be debilitating. You don't want to
give up in the neighborhood. Clearly you've been there for
fourteen or fifteen years. Have you talked to the mayor,
have you talked to the police, commissioner. Do they just
have they done anything? Have they at least tried.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, I've talked with the mayor, I've talked with the
police captain for the area, community service officers, and they
all say it. You know, they're working on it, and
you know, I believe that they're genuine, but at times
it doesn't seem like it's a huge priority for the city.
And so you know, maybe they say they want to
(03:21):
find a solution and get people into recovery and get
people treatment, but you know, life on the ground doesn't
really change much, and it's just frankly getting worse every week.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
You know, yours is not the only part of the
city that's dealing with crime. The more that I talk
to people around Boston, I talk to people in West Roxbury,
I'm told there's a supermarket in West Roxbury, one of
the nicer sections of the city, where people are literally
walking out the door with baskets full of food and
(03:54):
they have to stop people. It's there's stuff going on
in Boston that that that we're not seeing. Those of
us who no longer live in Boston, who may come
into Boston to do some shopping, but you have to
live with this described to the people who are listening
tonight who live in the safe comfort of suburbia and
(04:17):
who don't have to deal with this, explain what life
is like for you in the South End vis a
vis the drug dealers and the drug users.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Oh, it's it's terrifying. So just imagine if every day
you're trying to come home and you have to check
around a corner to see if you're going to get
assaulted again, and you have to call nineer and one
to clear the way in order to get anywhere. It's
it's nothing else. There's no other place quite like this.
You know, you see examples in San Francisco and some
(04:50):
other cities, but Boston it's it's not as many people
that you know, as these other cities have, so uh,
it's just all concentrated here in that you know, this
part of Boston.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
San Francisco has the Tackleoin. San Francisco has the Tenderloin district,
and it's kind of spread out. Uh, that's that's a
mess in San Francisco. But it almost seems like Boston
did not heed the warnings or the example of San Francisco.
They have tried, have they not down there to do something,
(05:23):
but nothing has worked. They were they were going to
open up a hotel and have a uh what do
they call it? A low threshold hotel where people could
could come and go as they want, use or not
use at whatever their pleasure is. And then they tried
to move people. I think, if I'm not mistaken, they
wanted to to move them to the Shadow Hospital near
(05:48):
the Franklin Park Zoo. But that didn't seem to work.
Everything they've tried hasn't worked. Is it is it that
the the that they're not serious about it? Or do
you think that the solution that have come up with
are not what was needed to be done? Is it
a question of follow through? If you would become the
(06:10):
commissioner of drug enforcement in Boston, there is no such thing,
by the way, as far as I know, what would
you advise? What would you suggest? What could be done?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
So first you got to take into account some of
the things that there's like two sets of plans, so
to speak. There's the harm reduction plans and then there's
the treatment first plans, and so they kind of have
slightly different impacts. The hotel that you're talking about is
the Roundhouse Hotel where It was exactly as you described.
(06:41):
There was a harm reduction war threshold site. People could
come and go as they wanted, and there was no
obligation for them to try to get into treatment and
try to get into detox. They could just you know,
continue to use drugs. That became a disaster in our area,
crime everywhere, and no cost of fortune, and they got
(07:02):
very few people off of drugs. The I guess slightly
more aggressive approach is what's called the treatment first, where
you know you've kind of push people into medically assisted
detox and longer term to have detox programs, and so
that's a different set of plans, Like Senator Collins has
(07:24):
one where we possibly convert a old cruise ship and
then you know, have a three hundred bed detox facility
so that we could possibly in bulk get people off
of drugs and actually make a vent in this problem.
So what we've done in the past hasn't worked for
clearly because we wouldn't be having this conversation, But some
of the ways forward might look a little bit different
(07:44):
than if the city were to get to the kind
of leadership we need to do a plan like this
and actually solve the problem it could be done.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Has the mayor ever said to you, look, Brian, you're
a long time resident of the South End, why don't
we schedule a meeting with some representatives of that area
and let me hear from the from the the residents
of the areas. There are there any meetings like that
that ever occur where she would sit down.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, so I'm talking talk to Meriwu twice and that's caused,
you know, an ongoing conversation that she herself needs to
sit in on some of these meetings with self end
leadership in order to have these conversations, you know, unfiltered,
since that there clearly is a disconnect between what's happening
on the ground and what the leadership is saying is
(08:39):
supposed to be happening. Yeah, so that's been an evolving
conversation for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Okay, let's take a break here, Brian. I want to
invite people to call and join the conversation, whether they're
in South in the South End or they travel through
the South End. This is not fair for one community,
one section of Boston to deal with this as often
you folks are just bearing the brunt of this. Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
And it's yeah, if you had twenty five to forty
people in front of your place every day, you know,
using needles, throwing them everywhere, and you know when people
try to offer to help them, they swear at you,
and you know they don't they don't want treatment. Yeah,
it would be I don't know anyone who would want
to tolerate this for particularly long spans of time.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
No, I totally. I'm totally supportive and concerned. That's why
we're having you on tonight. Let's and want to hear
from as many people in Greater Boston, well in Boston specifically,
but in Greater Boston as well. This is this is
a situation that should not be tolerated by this great
American city. Six one seven, two five four, ten thirty
or a couple of open lines at six one seven,
(09:53):
nine three one ten thirty back on nights Side right
after this, feel free join the conversation, particularly if you
have some ideas. We'll be back on Nightside. It's Nightside
with Dan Ray on.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
My guest is Brian McCarter, longtime South End resident, and
we want to go to phone calls because it is
just not fear that this beautiful section of Boston has
to suffer all of the indignity of mass and Cass
and the residents of Mass and Cass basically having invaded
(10:32):
and set up shop in their neighborhood in what is
an open ear drug market and has been four years.
Let's go to Nicky in Boston. Nicky, welcome, You're next
on Nightside, your first this hour.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Actually, go right ahead, Hi, Dan, how are you?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I'm doing just great? NICKI Are you in the South
End per chance? Or no?
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
I certainly am so. I own a small restaurant in
the corner of Harrison Avenue and it's East Springfield Street,
so it's a blame from mass av I've been there
for seventeen years, so I have quite a few things
to say.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Dan. Before you do that, let's give you a restaurant
a plug, because maybe we could we could get some
nightside listeners to stop by there this weekend. What's the
name of the restaurant if you like?
Speaker 4 (11:17):
So, the name is Blunch. It's breakfast for lunch or
lunch for breakfast.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, Okay, it's great, by the way.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Okay, thank you. This endorsement from Ryan. All right, so
tell us about your experience go ahead.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
So I've been there for seventeen years, almost eighteen actually,
so I've seen the excursions of such. So in the beginning,
it was prostitution in that area. So then when everything
got built up towards like State Street where all the
drug dealing was going on, and all the buildings were
(11:58):
being pushed up, so all of that kind of just
spread our way eventually within that seventeen years. So here
we are seventeen years later, and there's there's nothing being done.
Like there's plans, there's statistics, there's senses, there's all kinds
of everything going on, but there's no plan. There was
(12:19):
a ten year plan that was ten years ago to
help the area. We're saturated with every single city service
in the whole Boston proper. So there's like five almost shelters,
countless areas of social services. But the problem is it's
(12:43):
not only the city's problem anymore. It's the state's problem.
So here we are dealing with all politicians, every politician,
every part three one, one nine to one one. Every day,
needle count I go out every day needle count I
count I get people out of the restaurant. There's people
on top of the restaurant. There's people breaking in constantly.
(13:07):
It's it's it's crazy, it's it's not okay.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
So here I got a question. I got a question
for both you and Brian Nikki, I got a question
for both you and Brian. If this situation mass and
cast we're in one of the wealthier suburban communities. You
can pick the name of the community, whether it's Wellesley
or Westland okay, or or if it was in the
(13:36):
back Bay or.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Square that happened. It's so it spread to back Bay
and Beacon Hill and you know, in the span of
three weeks they they cleared everyone out of Beacon Hill
and Back Bay and sent them back to the South End.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
So is that because the South End doesn't have the
political power, doesn't have the people who can get the
attention to the mayor. I mean, the bike lobby get
the intention of mayor Woo and we have bike lanes everywhere.
I mean, you know she does respond to constituents, is she?
Why is she not responding to.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
The South End?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
She does?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Jeremy under these.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Okay, hold on, go ahead, and problem it's a huge problem.
It's it's so much grander than what she is and
what she can do and what three to one one
can do and what nine to one one can do.
It is what I'm reiterating a state's issue. These people
are not coming, They're not they're not Boston people. These
people are getting busted in from Worcester framing him all
(14:41):
the surrounding areas because we in that small part of
the South End have everything for them. They can get
their drugs, they can go to rehab, they can get
a meal, they can stay at home. All in that
little area we have all of that. That's a state's problem.
It's not the city there will over her head in this.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
So why is she not Why is she not going
to Governor Heally and to the Attorney general, both of.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
We haven't heard from her. Where is she? So I
don't we don't know why she doesn't go to Marrow
Heely and say, you know, go after Boston Public Health,
which you know they're essentially funding to perpetuate this instead
of get people off of drugs.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Okay, well, I think Nicky's point is well taken, But
it would seem to me that, uh that a mayor
of Boston who feels a section of his or her
city is being overwhelmed by anything. I should go to
the state and say, hey, we need your help here.
If the police in Boston kan't, you know, regulate the
(16:02):
activity there, then maybe she needs to ask for some
state police to come in and back up the Boston police.
I think that there are solutions if people want to
focus on the problem. I don't think they're willing to
focus on the problem. Nikki and Briant, No, I'm.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Carry one of the neighborhood leaders asked in like a
week ago to go to Governor Healy and the response.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
I did as well. I did a couple of weeks
ago in a coffee hour. I approached her right up.
She's very receptive, but her hands are tied politically and financially.
So it's time for this state to step up. And
that's my point.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I get it. But it seems to me that that
if her hands are tied as mayor, that her next
option would be to go to the governor and say, look,
I need some help. And whether it's state police, uh,
you know, more police patrols. If you've got to have
some National Guard people there, what's wrong with that? I mean,
(17:02):
if if it's become an open air drug market.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
It is, I mean it it is.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I just think that for Mayor Woo to say, well,
it's just beyond me, Okay, if it's beyond you, what
can you do? I mean, there has to be a
solution for this, it seems to me. And I know
I don't live in the South End, guys, I really don't,
but I can't imagine how frustrated I would be if
I was in your situation. And I can't tell you
(17:30):
how much you know how much I appreciate the fact
that that both of you would take the time to
I have more phone calls, So Nicky, thank you, Thank
you for for being with us tonight. Feel free to
join us any night. But we'll continue to focus on
this problem for the people in the South End. I
(17:50):
know the South End pretty well. I've had I've had
relatives who who lived there. I've had friends who have
lived there. And it's a shame that that part of
the city, which forty years ago was really a wasteland,
has come back. It's been gentrified, it's come back, but
now it has to deal with mass and casts. Anyway,
(18:13):
the big.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Thing Dan It's still a beautiful neighborhood and there's beautiful
people and neighbors that care, and that's that's why we're here.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Well, and that's why I'm doing a show tonight. That's
why I'm doing the.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Show, and I appreciate it. Sir, Thank thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
We'll talk again. Thank you very much, appreciate you. Okay,
Brian and I want you to stay with us. We
have other phone calls from not only in the city,
but also outside the city. Feel free to join this conversation.
One line open at six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty. It just filled back on Nightside right after.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
This Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
We're talking about the mass and cass drug market. The
open air drug market, which is played plagued this section
of the city for years and years and years and
nothing has been done about it. If you want to
maybe there have been efforts made, but no results produced.
Let's go next to Laura in Dorchester. Laura, thanks for
(19:13):
calling Nightside. You're next on Nightside. My guest Brian McCarter.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Hi, I'm on speaker, is that okay?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I'd prefer you to be off speaker because we'll be
able to hear you. I'm sure Rob might have mentioned
that to you if you can. I don't want to
lose you as a caller here, but we'll be able
to understand what you're saying a lot more clearly.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Okay, decades in Dorchester, Okay, it was rough. It's still
as rough. But the latest improvement here in near the
Fields Corner area is since I contacted the newest community office,
which is affiliated with Area Say Police. He's the newest.
(19:56):
He's definitely not the person I spoke to six months ago.
So I called him on our last issue. And everything's
squeaky clean, everything's quiet. I can hear the police during
the night. It's like almost making the rounds, just to
(20:16):
let everybody know that they hear. So this is highly residential.
I know mass and Casts very well, and I know
that's Boston City Hospital, that's healthcare for the homeless. I
can't see any exact residential places, but off you know
there are many in the South End. But cameras have
(20:42):
helped us in the community officer just recently. He must
be new and he doesn't sound like the old one.
And I got from the desk officer at the police
station his direct number. And for some reason, things are
taking care of very quickly and it's very quiet. That
(21:07):
might be one option. Now in Dorchester and the Dorchester Reporter,
there's a list of communities that once a month they
have meetings and since COVID they've been on zoom usually.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
So, Laura, this is interesting. But we've gone two minutes
and twenty seconds here. How does this apply to the
problem we're talking about Mass and cass Fields Corner is
pretty good distance from Mass and Cass.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Well, you have the same problem. We're right on the
train station, We're right on the red line we had.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
So you have an opening drug market there.
Speaker 5 (21:46):
Well, I wasn't exactly sure about the open drug market.
I know that healthcare for the homeless medicates the homeless people.
And now what I'm.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Trying to get at, Laura, and I think you probably
have some valuable information. What can you tell my guest,
Brian McCarter, What advice could you give him?
Speaker 5 (22:08):
That the drug addicts and the people who were drugged
were on our steps, we couldn't get into our homes.
So is that an open drug market?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
But what advice would you give to my guest? I've
asked you the question three times. You're giving me a
lot of interesting information. About Field's Corner. I know Field's
Corner very well, played a lot of baseball games.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
I went local police station. Okay, let's make get me
the contact information of the community officer, so I would
go to his local police station.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Okay, have you tried. Let's see if he's done that yet, Brian,
have you have you reached out to the local police station.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
So, uh yeah, many times I've got the direct emails
of the police captain, the community service officer, and the
supervisor above the police captain. So that is an avenue
when we try to be partners with the police, since
you know, it's an ever present part of our life here,
and so we are in constant engagement with police leadership.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
So I had no results. You wouldn't believe the other
issue that was going on here with the homeless holding
cas hostage and demanding money from them, and what I
got from the previous community office that was, well, we
can't do anything about panhandless. When I took the pitches
(23:38):
of the people holding the cas hostage for seven months
and demanding they give them twelve dollars eighteen dollars father drugs,
I took it. We got a new community officer so
obviously the previous community officer.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Well maybe yeah. I think you've been very lucky with
the new community officer, and hopefully Brian, with this information
you can find out who your community officer is. Laura,
I appreciate your experience and I hope that it has
really an effective application in the South End. I appreciate you,
Carl Waura, thank you very much. Let me keep rolling here,
going to go next to We're gonna go Mike in Norwood. Mike,
(24:23):
you're next on Nightside. Go right ahead. You're on with
my guest, Brian McCarter. He lives in the South End.
They're trying to deal with the mass and cast open
air drug market. They're not getting much help out of
the mayor's office, and I think we just he dropped off.
So if Mike, who probably had us on speakerphone as well,
and we lost him in the meantime, we're gonna go
(24:43):
to another caller. Let me go to Patty in Wellesley.
Patty you are well. You are next on Nightside. Welcome Patty.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
Hi, Dan, I'm Brian.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
How are you.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
We're great?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Dan.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
I will actually, Bryan, can I just say one thing?
Do you think that Dan would be a great mayor
of Boston.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Oh I don't know them well enough. I'd love that
can heine to have this conversation. It'd be an interesting
I never thought, never thought about it, so I'd have
to circle back.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Well, I hadn't live in Boston, so I'm ineligible. I
used to live in Boston. But I'll tell you what,
if I was the mayor of Boston, that open had
drug market would be out of business period.
Speaker 6 (25:31):
That's exactly why I called okay, because I think you
should get together with whoever and help them, because they
need you to help them with that. Yes, and I
think it would all go away and everyone will be
happy ever after.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Well, I think you need the mayor to reach out
to the governor, and the governor, if necessary, has to
say to the state police get in there and help
the bo If the Boston Police can't handle it, get
the state beliee or maybe the National Guard in there.
This is this is a disaster area for people who
like who like Brian, are trying to live in a
(26:11):
community that they have invested in. And uh, Patty, I
appreciate your support. When I run for president, Patty, you're
going to be my campaign manager. Right, you know that.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
Right, I'm going to get the biggest megaphone and I
will like scream from the chipstop okay, and I will
be in your ringside.
Speaker 7 (26:28):
Yes, thank you, that's an honor.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Thanks, Patty, you have the best.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Thanks. Why next time we walk Mason Cast as a community? Uh,
when we all get together and do that once a month,
you should come?
Speaker 6 (26:45):
Is it on the night side? Website this information? Because
I I'm always the last to hear what's happening, Brian.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
What I will do is the next time, Patty, what
I'll do is the next time they have a an event,
I will make sure that we get it up and
posted and talked about. Brian will have to get me
that information and we will circulate it. Okay, but I
don't want you to go there alone. I want you
to make sure that you have somebody with you. If
it's going to have to be me, it's going to
(27:15):
be me. Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Oh, I will have a producer reach out and I'll
email the information. I have it somewhere in my in box.
Speaker 6 (27:23):
Okay, I'm serious, you guys. We need to do this
because those people of math Casts are going to make
more people and there's going to be.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
It's just going to grow.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
And it's going to be an epidemic and it's going
to be terrible. So I think we've got to take
a bite out of it, like sooner than later, don't
you agree?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I think the next one's on the eighteen at seven
pm inspection of math av and Albany Street. One of
the one of the few bright spots in the city
is a Combined Response Team. There's a five person team
that's been doing miracles with only five people. So they
show up about once a month walk the area with
the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah. The problem for me, that's a Wednesday. That's a
Wednesday night, Patty, So I can't go that night because
I have to do my show. But we'll we'll get
something going.
Speaker 6 (28:11):
Okay, Yes, thank you, John, you're my mind.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Don right back at you, Patty, Thank you much. Patty's
a loyal listener and a great friend. Let me go
to Lenny rather Larry. Excuse me. Larry is down on
Old k Cod. Larry, I know that the problem is
not just in the South End or a masson cast.
But say hi to Brian McCarter. He's fighting it on
the front.
Speaker 7 (28:36):
Yeah, down there I'm familiar with the area. He used
to live down there Madapan Square. But I used to
take my daughter to the Reggie Lewis Center. All the
state track meets for there. My son is on the
Boston Police Department for twenty years. He started up in
B two down in Roxbury. This is what he feels.
The problem is all the sudden. The original the original
(28:58):
attraction down there was all the social services, the methadone
clinics there would go get drugged up. He was on
the vehicular homicide unit. They'd get drugged up, walk across
the street, get run over by a car. The state
closed up all of the hospitals number there used to
be one down on Morton Street. They're all over the place.
(29:19):
Whoever is running for governor needs to open up those
places again and find places to take these people. I
think once in a while the DPW goes down and
clears out the tents that they don't enforce it, and
they just keep it going. But whoever's running for governor
should get on this bandwagon and use this as one
of their things that they're running on.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I think that's a great suggestion. Larry. And this, you know,
when you have a democratic mayor, Democratic governor, Democratic attorney
general and nothing has happened. You might as well drive
the other party. You never know.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, whoever viable eventually handed it go ahead?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Please, Brian, I missed you've stepped on you.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Well, you say, whoever solves it would be a viable
presidential candidate. You know, this is not an easy problem,
and if you can solve it, I think they'd have
a very long and prosperous career.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah. Well, they've actually made some progress on this stuff
in New York, believe it or not. Mayor Adams has
a Democrats has made some progress in New York. But
for some reason, as long as it kind of stays
out of the public eye. And that's why I'm doing
the show tonight with you, Brian, and I will come
back and do it again with you at some point
(30:36):
as well. I'm not going to leave you on this.
I'm a firm believer that there is a quote unquote
quote of public opinion, and that's where we're practicing right
now and making people aware that if it can happen
to your neighborhood, it can happen to any neighborhood, and
it's just not it's just not fear. Larry, I appreciate
the perspective and tell your son to stay safe.
Speaker 8 (30:57):
Okay, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
January. Okay, Brian, I gotta take one final commercial break,
and I have a bunch of callers we're going to
get to. The only lines that are open are six one,
seven nine. But I got Matt and Franklin, Bob and
Cambridge and John in the South End. We'll get them
all in. I promise all those three will be getting in,
and if we get a couple more in six one,
(31:19):
seven ninety. Coming back on Nightside. You're on night Side
with Dan Ray on w b Z, Boston's news radio.
Back to the phones, we go, going to go to
Matt in Franklin, Massachusetts. Matt, you're on with Brian McCarter
of the South End talking about mass and cast. Go ahead, Matt.
Speaker 8 (31:38):
Yeah, I'm gonna say that Mayor WU cleaned up city
hall plods over the past year or two. They used
to be scattered all over the by the train station
in the shade there, and they're no longer there, well.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Out of sight, out out of sight, out of mind, Matt, exactly.
Speaker 8 (31:55):
And it's like you go to Boston Common and they
have signs up saying don't feed the animals. But meanwhile
you have all these cockroaches hanging out there panhandling, and
that's okay, yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
That's the problem. It's don't give them money. Uh tell
them you'll take him and buy him a sandwich, or
buy them a cup of coffee, or buy them a
dunkin Donuts, and most of them will walk away from you.
Speaker 8 (32:17):
They're like acting in this like fantasy lamb where it's
like like these people that didn't make many years of
bad decisions end up the way they are. It's like
you don't just underage drinks, smoke a couple of doobies
and then become some fiend. It's like they they and
then they just revive them. It's like you can't get
rid of them, like they're indestructible, like cockroaches. You got
to like fee well, I.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Don't want to call I don't want to call them matt.
I don't want to use the word cockroaches. I've had
friends of mine who have been severely addicted to uh,
you know, to to heroin, to you know, so some
pretty heavy duty drugs, and they have beaten it and
whether you're an alcoholic or a drug addict, to get
that monkey off your back and beat it, you have
(32:58):
to have a lot of guts and courage, and a
lot of these people eventually get themselves squared away.
Speaker 8 (33:03):
But yeah, but no, yeah, of course you do.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
You have to look at yourself in the mirror some
morning and say I'm not doing this anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (33:12):
No, absolutely glad to be an indestructible heroin addict. It's
like you're just remain a heroin addict until the EMT
doesn't find.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
You one day.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Exactly exactly. We'll let Matt. I appreciate you call, Thank
you much. It's interesting. I thought you made an interesting
point that that maybe City Hall plaza uh now is
if these fakes folks have left, but they're still uh
in in Brian's neighborhood. And Brian says that that sometimes
he will see he'll see them walking around naked. I mean,
(33:41):
this is it's it's a blight on the community in
many many ways. Thanks, thanks, Matt, appreciate it. I gotta
get going here a little bit. I'm gonna pick the
pace up round and get to get a few more in.
Let me get John in the South End. John, you
were next on night Side with your neighbor Brian McCarter.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Hey, Dan, Yeah, Ont and Alves from the South End.
Great to be there. I know Brian well. Unfortunately or
fortunately we've gotten to know each other because of this crisis.
And the president of the Blackstone Frequent Square Neighbored Association,
I also sit on some boards. I've been in the
South End for ten years. I have a sixteen month
(34:19):
old daughter now, and I've been intimately involved in trying
to push our elected officials, both at the city and
state level to come up with solutions, as well as
work with the police. And I would say, is that
and this is for everybody. I mean, this affects everybody
in the state. Even though the problem is concentrated in Boston,
in particular the South End, the conditions of mass and
(34:42):
casts remain inhumane and out of control for everyone. That's
the people with needles on their arms, rotting on the street,
that's for the residents, and that's for the businesses. And
you know what's been done and this goes back to
the wallsh administration has not been effective. And I like
(35:05):
a Nikki who runs Blunch, I know her. I know
the restaurant wells at great Place. We do believe that
the capacity of the city to handle this alone is
matched out, and we need the governor, we need the state.
It's a support. I remember a few years ago with
Governor Baker when they declared vaping a public health emergency
(35:30):
and almost overnight, several hundred businesses closed while they investigated
the effects of vaping. That shows you the power of
the governor's office when something needs to be addressed on
a public health level. Well, if vathing is the public
health emergency, then what would you call the people injecting
and doing drugs out in public, defecating on people's properties,
(35:54):
leaving hazardous needles around the city. If that's not a
public health eergency, I don't know what it is. You know,
the issue, even though it might be concentrated in the
city of Boston, actually affects the entire state because, as
Brian noted, sixty or seventy percent of the people that
are coming to the Math and Cast area are actually
(36:14):
not from the city of Boston. They're from all over
the state.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
So we might question. My question to you, John would
be why has the mayor, who is also the mayor
of the South End not recognize that this problem is
beyond her control, and why not then seek some support
from the state from a democratic She's a democratic mayor,
(36:40):
a democratic governor. It seems to me that the stars
should be aligned.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
It would, it would appear, so I think. I think,
based on my conversations with the administration, I think they
do recognize it, but I think that they are fighting
some forces that may be well intentioned, like the Boston
Public Health Commision, and who are potentially counterintuitive to the solution.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
You know, there's been a policy mandate and this again
goes back to the really the Walsh administration.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Who will points the Boston Health Commission, John.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
I believe that's actually from the state. I think their
funding comes from the state.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Who points the members of the Boston Public I guarantee
it's the mayor who appoints the members of the Boston
Public Health CAI.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Yeah, and I think they're I think they're funding might
come from the state. But yeah, point being, you've got
different agencies competing, and I think the intentions are good,
but well, what's what's happening clearly isn't working, and many
of us are pushing for really what's what's been considered
to be mandated treatment protocols, which would empower the police
(37:49):
to engage with folks to leverage the court system, UH
to push people into treatment. And you know, this policy
of meet people where they are is really really not
working because you can't meet people where they are if
they don't know where they are.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Well, then you're going to have to win that battle
in court because you're gonna have the A C. O.
You going and representing the drug addicts and saying that
we're somehow interfering with their pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
Trust me on that one.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Okay, Oh, I agree with you. We've we've seen that
those lawsuits and.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Right and those lawyers and those those lawyers who are
doing that don't live in the South End because if
they lived in the South End they would look at
it quite differently.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
They don't, You're you're absolutely right, a lot of them don't.
And you know the sad thing is is that again,
enabling people to exist in this capacity on the street
in this fashion is inhumane.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Hey, John, you know, here's John, here's my problem. You've
been a great call, not a good call, but a
great call. Brian, you have been a great guest. I'm
out of time. What I'm going to do is I'm
going to carry this subject into the next hour. So
Mick and Austin, Bob and Cambridge. I'm in Fitzburg and
Bill in Boston. Stay there. We'll pick this up on
(39:03):
the other side of the ten Brian, do you want
to stick with me or are you done for the night?
You tell me your choice.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
I stick around.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Good, you stick around. John. Your call was an excellent call,
but I'm flat out of time. Please continue to listen
to this program on this or any topic.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Okay, well, thank you Dan for bringing attention to the issue.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Thank you very welcome. Brian. You stay right there. We
got a five minute break for news. Walk around, stretch
your legs all you call or stay there. We got
one line. This is an important enough issue for me
to do more than one hour. It's as simple as that.
Be right back on night Side.
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