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