Where did the 700 recovering addicts and homeless rendered without beds and treatment by the sudden closing of the Long Island bridge and all the shelters and programs on Long Island go? They became displaced persons, internal refugees in Boston proper – this story is worth a signal boost as part of requesting the Massachusetts government power structure to replace these treatment beds and to own up to the harm they have done. I admit I sometimes become irritated by the Boston Globe’s decisions as to what to cover and what to ignore. This story though – does them proud and focuses on a total failure by Boston City Government and the so-called “Democratic” establishment.
This time, in covering where the 700 vulnerable human beings tumbled after being stripped of the programs where many were finding recovery and rehabilitation, the Boston Globe got it right.
If I could figure out how to share photos on this current platform, I would share some of the Globe’s. Go look.
All that protected Marty Walsh and the government of the City of Boston from outcry after they threw these folks on the street due to zero pre-planning is the short attention span of the American voter and the media.
So, I say “Well done Boston Globe” because we, you and I and every homeless struggling person thrown on the street by the City of Boston are really members of the same family. There but for the grace of God go you and I.
AmberPaw says
https://apps.bostonglobe.com/graphics/2016/07/methadone-mile/?p1=BGMenu_Article
SomervilleTom says
I authored a front-paged diary here shortly after the shameful event took place. In the thread-starter, I opined that the then-shuttered Suffolk Downs site was a suitable replacement. It was accessible by the Blue Line and was well on its way to becoming an eyesore.
Instead, under the “leadership” of Bob DeLeo, racing at Suffolk Downs has resumed:
To make this already shameful situation even worse, the Globe reported earlier this year that the track is receiving $2.4M in public funds to reopen (sorry about the annoying Boston Globe paywall).
Our “Democratic” priorities are clear. ALL the major players in this shameful tragedy are Democrats.
We should be ashamed.
AmberPaw says
I lost count of the number of times Long Island refugees popped up, were mentioned, or seen suffering in the Globe article. I will say it again – the measure of the moral health of a society is how the most vulnerable are cared for, not how much richer the rich become, or how many millionaires are created, or how many luxury apartments are built – or how many college presidents receive $500k to a million or more.
Andrei Radulescu-Banu says
I’ve sent a long email to one of my town’s political mailing lists about this… Hopefully this Globe long-form report will get sufficient coverage to focus minds to this problem.
My town is at the ‘other end’ of Mass Ave, which ends not far from the Battle Road by the Minuteman National Historical Park.
Reflecting more about this, what the state ought to do is, simply put, (a) work to provide more seats in the post-detox programs that are currently swamped, (b) improve availability of half way houses, (c) fund training programs for staff as needed, (d) move more police & monitoring resources to get drug dealers out of the area – why not add monitoring cameras, (e) efforts are needed to curb drive-by prescription of painkillers, which creates a whole new class of addicted patients, (f) reform state Medicaid as needed to provide adequate addition coverage while keeping costs reasonable – which requires restoring funding that was recently cut into data collection and research into effectiveness of treatment.
SomervilleTom says
In my view, the FIRST thing the state ought to do is replace the 700 beds lost by the sudden closing in 2014.