City Of Quincy Masss Is Public Money Allowed To Invest In The Creation Of Private Enterprises'

BOSTON – In the area around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, known locally as "Mass and Cass," homeless people have gathered and, on some streets, erected tents to live in.

Many are dealing with mental health issues and substance use disorders, drawn to the area between Roxbury and the South End by a nearby cluster of opioid treatment centers, methadone clinics and homeless shelters.

Boston this month declared the situation a public health crisis, banned tents and is setting up a command center to look at where people can be housed or treated for addiction.

Just 9 miles south of the intersection, and about a 20-minute drive through Quincy, sits an island that Boston owns with a campus of buildings that once was able to treat and shelter more than 700 people. For more than three decades it was home to those without housing, but structural problems with its only connector to the mainland – a bridge to Quincy's Squantum neighborhood – forced operations to cease in 2014.

Boston officials have pushed for years to rebuild the $150 million bridge  and reopen Long Island's existing buildings, but there is one thing standing in the way: the City of Quincy.

"I will never agree to a bridge reconstruction," Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch said. "It just has too many adverse (consequences)."

The crisis at Mass and Cass

Last week, dozens of tents and makeshift shelters lined both sides of a section on Southampton Street in Boston, with people walking around the area, popping in and out of tents and some pushing shopping carts full of possessions. Boston considers the situation untenable, and this week began clearing the area of the encampment.

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"Tents are not appropriate for housing, they lack clean water and adequate facilities," acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey said. "We cannot let our most vulnerable residents continue to suffer in these encampments."

The area has long been known for bouts of violence and illicit drug sales. With its clean-up this week, Boston directed those whose tents were taken down toward area homeless shelters and other programs.

Sarah Porter is the executive director of Victory Programs, a nonprofit that partners with the state to house vulnerable people and does outreach work. She said myriad issues led to the current situation at Mass and Cass and that people from the region, not just Boston,  went there to congregate with people like themselves.

"There are many things that have contributed to it: The closure of the bridge, a homeless shelter there ... COVID has increased it. The spike in the use of fentanyl has increased what's happening down here," Porter said. "There are multiple systems that have fractured for people to sort of cause the explosion down here."

7 years of opposition

When the 3,500-foot bridge connecting Long Island to Moon Island closed abruptly in 2014 due to safety concerns, nearly 300 people receiving services there were evacuated. Moon Island, another Boston-owned island, is technically within Quincy city limits.

Then-Boston Mayor Marty Walsh immediately began planning to replace the bridge, but Quincy swiftly fought back in court. Walsh pushed hard for a rebuild, which he said was key in addressing homelessness and substance use in the region. He left his position as mayor to become the U.S. Labor Department secretary earlier this year.

Allison McBride, director of strategic operations at Northeastern University's Health in Justice Laboratory, said many people in the Boston area say they want to help those facing homelessness or struggling with addiction, but that there is also a pervasive "not in my backyard" mentality that finds residents fighting the construction of treatment centers, sober homes or homeless shelters in their neighborhoods.

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Recently, Boston wanted to use a hotel in Revere to house people living at Mass and Cass but faced stiff resistance from the city's mayor. Even in Boston itself, there is resistance to housing homeless people. A plan to use a now-vacant hotel at the corner of Mass and Cass also sparked  opposition from the community.

Residents in the Squantum neighborhood of Quincy have fiercely opposed rebuilding the bridge, citing fear of increased traffic. Friction between officials in Boston and Quincy over Long Island spans decades.

Koch says Quincy is already meeting the needs of its own residents with recovery and homeless services, and that the bridge would be bad for the people who live near it.

"We're not saying, 'Not in my backyard. We don't do these things.' What we're saying is that the bridge will have a negative effect on the residents of my city," Koch said. "It has nothing to do with the use of the island."

Tracy McGrath, who has lived in the area for more than 20 years, said her neighborhood shouldn't shoulder any impact of an influx in people from Boston. She said  a ferry would be a better way to access any treatment centers, something Quincy officials have echoed but Boston says is impractical and even dangerous.

"(Rebuilding the bridge) would create way too much traffic. We would carry the burden and it doesn't help us at all," McGrath said. "If Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket can survive with a ferry, why can't Long Island?"

Mick Struzik, a 40-year-long resident of Squantum, said he never wanted to see a bridge again after living with the one to Long Island for many years.

"I'm not a fan of it," said Dylan Porter, 26, who has lived in Squantum his whole life. "I just think there's a better place for it."

Bob Verney, a 45-year-long Squantum resident, said Boston should find a place closer to the city for services. Like other neighbors, he said he is also worried about the potential for private development on the island if the bridge is rebuilt.

"Mass and Cass is not an excuse to rebuild the bridge," Verney said.

Long Island has been declared an economic "opportunity zone" for Boston, qualifying private investment on the island for a federally funded tax incentive. Walsh vowed not to allow further residential or commercial development if the bridge is rebuilt, but Quincy officials have long said they're not convinced.

Ward 6 City Councilor Bill Harris cited several reasons the bridge should not be rebuilt, including potential for increased traffic and negative environmental impacts. Those same concerns have been echoed by residents and other city officials in the years since Walsh first proposed rebuilding.

"It's not feasible now, it wasn't feasible back then," said Harris, who represents Squantum. "I oppose it for many different reasons."

A lingering court battle

Quincy and its conservation committee are suing the state Department of Environmental Protection and Boston's public works department over a decision that said Quincy had no standing to object to the bridge. That decision was meant to put an end to litigation, which has cost Quincy more than $500,000 so far. The case is winding its way through Suffolk County Superior Court.

Advocates say they still see the campus, which treated people from all over the region, as a potential source of relief. Sarah Porter, the Victory Programs director whose nonprofit ran a 47-bed residential recovery program for women on Long Island, said the city lost three-quarters of its beds for women overnight when the bridge closed. That number has slowly rebounded in the years since.

"I spend so much time trying to figure out where to put things. Can I make this neighborhood work? Can I get this cited here? Am I able to go in without a huge fight?" Porter said. "The fact that the city not only owns that island, but that there's the shell of infrastructure to be able to support either front-end or long-term services for people in need, it's heartbreaking."

In a statement, state Attorney General Maura Healey, who has been involved in the crisis, said there is potential for a Long Island bridge to help.

"All options need to be considered and discussed when it comes to long-term treatment, recovery and care," Healey said. "Our office continues to engage with stakeholders about rebuilding the Long Island Bridge and reestablishing services that meet the needs of our communities."

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McBride, the Northeastern official, said it would be important to keep the services in the Mass and Cass area if the bridge reopened. She said it would still be helpful to have another location with wrap-around services meeting all the steps of recovery to help carry the load.

"I do think the bridge would be nice. If they have all the facilities, that would be ideal," McBride said. "The money's going to be spent anyway, piped into Mass and Cass."

Gov. Charlie Baker's office did not respond to a request for comment.

A ferry option

The idea of ferry service has been supported by Quincy politicians, including Mayor Thomas Koch and the Quincy City Council. The council passed a resolution earlier this year offering to split the cost of a ferry service with Boston if the city drops its push to rebuild the bridge.

"Why can't they do a robust ferry service that was being talked about for the future  anyway?" Koch said. "There's a (private camp) out there, they've been ferrying those kids for years now without a bridge. So it's safe for the kids to do it, but not safe for others?"

Several studies by the City of Boston have called a ferry service not feasible without also building a fully working hospital on the island. State regulators would not permit detox or residential programs without an adequate emergency medical services plan in place, the city says.

In 2013, a year before the bridge closed, ambulances were sent to Long Island via the bridge more than 500 times, Boston officials say.

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A study commissioned by Janey, the acting Boston mayor, earlier this year said ferry service would cost in excess of $300 million, while a bridge would cost an estimated $150 million.

The study, done by Boston's Public Facilities Department, also said a bridge could be completed by 2023 – as opposed to 2027 or later for a ferry service – and have a smaller environmental impact.

An unpredictable future

In a matter of days, Boston will have a new mayor and it remains to be seen how they will handle a potential Long Island Bridge. The crisis at Mass and Cass became a major campaign issue for mayoral candidates Annissa Essaibi George and Michelle Wu, both Boston city councilors.

Wu said she prefers a ferry option to a bridge. She said a bridge is too expensive and would take too long to build when solutions are needed now, and in a debate Monday said she would drop efforts to rebuild the bridge if elected.

Essaibi George said investing in the Long Island facilities would be a priority capital investment under her administration. In Monday's debate, she said she "is not going to walk away from a fight with Quincy," and would push to build the bridge as quickly as possible. She said it made her "wildly crazy" that Quincy is fighting construction and delaying help to people who need it.

But as long as the Koch administration has a say, the bridge won't be going up without a fight.

"I'm not afraid of tackling this issue; we've done that in Quincy," Koch said. "But, just like Boston says, 'Why are we the depository for these issues?', I say, 'Why should Quincy shoulder the traffic burden for all of this?' Quite frankly, I'm the mayor of Quincy and these are the people I represent. I don't care about helping Boston."

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Patriot Ledger reporter Mary Whitfill contributed to this report. Joe Difazio can be reached at jdifazio@patriotledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @jldifazio.

City Of Quincy Masss Is Public Money Allowed To Invest In The Creation Of Private Enterprises'

Source: https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/2021/10/28/quincy-vows-keep-fighting-plan-rebuilt-bridge-long-island-addiction-recovery-center/8521021002/

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