City Councilor Erin Murphy’s double-barreled strategy to tackling the “public health crisis” at Boston’s Mass and Cass was praised for giving companies there a break, however knocked for assertions that road cleansing gear was spreading ailments.
Murphy’s proposal got here within the type of two listening to orders, each of which had been mentioned at a Wednesday City Council assembly.
One listening to would look into offering a property tax abatement to Newmarket-area companies adversely affected by the open-air drug dealing and violence occurring round Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue.
“We know they’re struggling through none of their own doing, and we’ve failed them in not providing a safe environment,” Murphy mentioned. “Many have been adversely impacted by the deteriorating conditions of the neighborhood that aren’t accurately reflected in their property tax valuation.”
Sixty-five enterprise homeowners from the 200-member Newmarket Business Association have collectively spent $3.9 million in safety prices to handle the squalor, and incurred $1.9 million in damages in 2021 alone, Murphy mentioned.
The value has elevated “tremendously” up to now two years, Murphy mentioned, noting that Newmarket enterprise homeowners spent $500,000 on safety measures, together with cameras, to attempt to curb the crime occurring close to their Mass and Cass workplaces.
Offering a property tax abatement is a strategy to compensate these homeowners for the elevated value of doing enterprise within the space, Murphy mentioned.
City Councilor Michael Flaherty, agreed, saying that he thinks “a call for an abatement is fair,” given the “millions” residents and companies pay for cleanup, safety and repairs for his or her workplaces and private property.
“It’s reasonable and it would be a practical solution for this body to work with the administration to bring some much-needed tax relief to the folks that have endured more than anyone could ever imagine,” Flaherty mentioned.
City Councilor Julia Mejia additionally spoke favorably of the proposal, saying that immigrant-owned companies just like the pizza outlets there need to pay “out of pocket” every time their home windows are damaged.
Eleven councilors signed onto Murphy’s listening to order. The solely councilor to not was Frank Baker, who was absent.
The widespread help stood in stark distinction to what Murphy obtained for her different request, for a listening to to look into whether or not road cleansing gear used within the Mass and Cass space is spreading infectious ailments to different elements of Boston.
Using the identical road sweepers all through town creates the potential for contamination touring from Mass and Cass to these different neighborhoods, Murphy mentioned. She cited issues with untreated stormwater runoff from the realm’s catch basins polluting the Boston Harbor by way of the Fort Point Channel.
Councilors Ruthzee Louijeune and Gabriela Coletta each slammed Murphy’s listening to order, saying that it was inflicting pointless alarm, politicizing public well being issues, and pitting sure elements of town towards one another.
Louijeune in contrast the request for separate cleansing gear to what occurred throughout the HIV disaster of the Nineteen Eighties, when the Haitian neighborhood “was very much targeted in ways that were dehumanizing.” This included requires them to be stored separate from different individuals, she mentioned.
Coletta cited information from the Boston Public Health Commission, which “placed the spread of infectious diseases by public works vehicles as low to negligible.” There was the next danger of inter-neighborhood unfold by way of the direct use of needles, she mentioned.
“I don’t take issue with my colleague looking to elevate and call for accountability as it relates to the situation happening at Mass and Cass,” Coletta mentioned. “I do take issue with the framing, whether intentional or unintentional, that pushes a narrative where the public is made to feel fear, unwarranted fear, for their health without due diligence done by the people they should trust most.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”