The grim scenario at Mass and Cass continues to deteriorate whereas the Boston City Council and Mayor Michelle Wu dither and delay about what to do.
Wu’s proposed ordinance to scrub up the tent encampments and get folks into shelter has been delay for an additional week and has now gone two months with none motion.
Wu can and will cease deferring to the do-nothing council and ship police and social companies in now to revive order and security to the blighted, drug-infested Mass and Cass neighborhood – earlier than it will get any colder.
Can anybody think about the late Tom Menino or Ray Flynn ready on the City Council to behave on an necessary problem? They considered the council largely as rubber stamps or inconsequential and dominated from a powerful mayoral place.
Wu, a former council president, does must cope with the council now on budgetary issues however not on the subject of a vital public security emergency like Mass and Cass. She has the correct to deploy police in a disaster.
The newest disturbing information, that authorities discovered a toddler wandering across the blighted and harmful space, ought to solely prod Wu to behave much more swiftly to ship in police. City Council President Ed Flynn – who has been proactive on Mass and Cass – has referred to as for an investigation into the two-year-old boy discovered with a girl on Southampton Street final week.
But a number of councilors have been impediments to Wu’s plan for Mass and Cass, elevating questions concerning the ordinance’s legality in an eight hour debate final month. One councilor, Frank Baker, questioned why the ordinance was wanted, saying it was “wasting our time” to debate it.
The newest excuse from the council to not act on Wu’s ordinance is that lame duck Councilor Ricardo Arroyo has Covid. We want him effectively however that shouldn’t cease a majority of the council from voting.
Arroyo, who was defeated within the preliminary election and is on his strategy to the dreaded non-public sector, has been a roadblock for months and clearly has no intention of approving Wu’s proposal.
But Wu nonetheless has allies on the council and will try to ram by way of her ordinance. If she will’t, she nonetheless has the ability to take motion.
Wu endorsed Arroyo’s opponent within the preliminary and ever since then the Hyde Park councilor appears bent on getting even with the mayor by slowing down her agenda.
The scenario at Mass and Cass calls for an “emergency” response – not sit round ready for a petulant councilor to get revenge.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”