Memo to Michelle: Stop whining.
Someone ought to inform Boston Mayor Michelle Wu that she is going to get nowhere attacking Gov. Charlie Baker over town’s drug-addicted homeless at Mass and Cass. It’s her drawback, not his.
Besides, Baker has poured some $40 million into Boston to take care of the humanitarian disaster, and there may be one other $20 million within the wings. But apparently, it’s not sufficient.
Baker ought to ask for an accounting earlier than doling out one other dime. Where did the $40 million go?
Yet what does Wu need? More. When does she need it? Now.
“We really need the state to step up,” Wu instructed her woke supporters final month on radio.
Miffed that Wu would publicly whine about him not offering extra help for “wraparound” housing for the drug-addicted homeless, Baker mentioned, “At some point, the city has got to deal with those drug dealers that just hang around there and prey on people.”
He added, “I just wanted to set the record straight. Because I have a Legislature that gave me $40 million to spend on this stuff, and we did.”
Wu responded by saying “no one is doing enough.” She instructed the Herald, “The city and state have both invested significant time and money, but the individuals on our waitlist (for housing) need us to take shared ownership of the regional and statewide challenge that exists today.”
Translated that implies that Wu needs extra taxpayer cash to take care of a Boston drawback that has existed since 2014 when then-Mayor Marty Walsh shut down the Long Island Bridge, attributable to security considerations, which led to the island’s 440-drug habit restoration heart. Rather than repairing or changing the bridge, it was demolished a yr later and drug addicts looking for restoration had been left to fend for themselves.
Hence Mass and Cass. It is the world on the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard the place some 200 homeless individuals congregate to purchase, promote and use medicine.
It is a hellhole and has been for years, a spot the place prison exercise — theft, prostitution and violence — are commonplace. Many of the bothered drug addicts want properties and well being. Those offering the medicine additionally want housing, solely in jail.
Reconstruction of the bridge has been opposed by Quincy for years because the visitors to the island from Boston went by the Squantum neighborhood of town over insufficient roads
This has led to a lately launched investigation by U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins on the grounds that the civil rights of the drug-addicted homeless could have b been violated by denying them entry to the island and restoration.
The drawback of getting assist and houses for drug addicts has plagued the Wu administration because the mayor took workplace, simply because it did the Walsh administration.
It is difficult to consider that these days that Boston and the state may have let this drawback simmer and boil over in any case these years whereas on the similar time bragging about all of the wonders which have been created by the rising Seaport District.
This brings us to the smoke and mirrors of the younger Wu administration that may brag about her plan to “Revive and Reimagine” downtown Boston to draw extra companies and residents, or promote her proposed transformation of Boston Common right into a farmer’s market, theme-park paradise, but fail to resolve the true drawback of Mass and Cass.
If that weren’t dangerous sufficient, Wu acts as if it was Baker, a Republican, who demolished the Long Island Bridge, and never her predecessor, a fellow Democrat.
Despite her whining, Wu won’t get one other dime out of Baker, who will probably be leaving workplace in January anyway.
So, the cynical ploy is to arrange Maura Healey, a fellow woke progressive, who many consider would be the subsequent governor, to get thousands and thousands extra in taxpayer cash to squander.
A mix of Wu, woke and whine will go a good distance with Healey.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”