Lucas: Boston’s hellhole

Memo to Michelle: Cease whining.

Somebody ought to inform Boston Mayor Michelle Wu that she is going to get nowhere attacking Gov. Charlie Baker over the town’s drug-addicted homeless at Mass and Cass. It’s her drawback, not his.

Apart from, Baker has poured some $40 million into Boston to cope with the humanitarian disaster, and there’s one other $20 million within the wings. However apparently, it isn’t sufficient.

Baker ought to ask for an accounting earlier than doling out one other dime. The place did the $40 million go?

But what does Wu need? Extra. When does she need it? Now.

“We actually want 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 assist for “wraparound” housing for the drug-addicted homeless, Baker stated, “In some unspecified time in the future, the town has acquired to cope with these drug sellers that simply grasp round there and prey on individuals.”

He added, “I simply wished to set the file straight. As a result of I’ve a Legislature that gave me $40 million to spend on these items, and we did.”

Wu responded by saying “nobody is doing sufficient.”  She instructed the Herald, “The town and state have each invested vital money and time, however the people on our waitlist (for housing) want us to take shared possession of the regional and statewide problem that exists right this moment.”

Translated that implies that Wu desires extra taxpayer cash to cope with a Boston drawback that has existed since 2014 when then-Mayor Marty Walsh shut down the Lengthy Island Bridge, resulting from security issues, which led to the island’s 440-drug habit restoration middle. Slightly 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.

Therefore Mass and Cass. It’s the space on the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard the place some 200 homeless individuals congregate to purchase, promote and use medication.

It’s a hellhole and has been for years, a spot the place prison exercise — theft, prostitution and violence — are commonplace. Most of the drug addicts want houses and well being. These offering the medication additionally want housing, solely in jail.

Reconstruction of the bridge has been opposed by Quincy for years for the reason that site visitors to the island from Boston went by means of the Squantum neighborhood of the town over insufficient roads

This has led to a just lately launched investigation by U.S. Lawyer Rachael Rollins on the grounds that the civil rights of the drug-addicted homeless might have b been violated by denying them entry to the island and restoration.

The issue of getting assist and houses for drug addicts has plagued the Wu administration for the reason that mayor took workplace, simply because it did the Walsh administration.

It’s onerous to consider that this present day that Boston and the state might have let this drawback simmer and boil over in spite of everything these years whereas on the identical 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 Frequent right into a farmer’s market, theme-park paradise, but fail to unravel the true drawback of Mass and Cass.

If that weren’t unhealthy sufficient, Wu acts as if it was Baker, a Republican, who demolished the  Lengthy Island Bridge, and never her predecessor, a fellow Democrat.

Regardless of her whining, Wu is not going to get one other dime out of Baker, who might 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 hundreds of 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.