The city reopened its ‘comfort station’ in the area of Mass. and Cass.

With the state-wide lockdown, individuals living unsheltered found public restrooms closed to them and the services they relied on altered or shuttered. As a result, residents of the South End and Roxbury experienced an increase in incidents of human waste and refuse left on private and public property. As the pandemic surged, reports of improperly discarded needles flooded the city’s 3-1-1 system

Now, residents of the neighborhoods are bracing for seeing worsening impacts from the opioid epidemic with the arrival of warmer weather, which in recent years has seen more people navigating substance use disorder, mental health issues, and homelessness arriving in the area to seek help from service providers clustered around “Mass & Cass,” the stretch of city blocks known disparagingly for years as “Methadone Mile.”

BFSNA Gets Update on Proposed IBA Redevelopment Project

The Blackstone/Franklin Square Neighborhood Association was given an update on the status of IBA’s proposed redevelopment project during its virtual meeting on May 18.

Dr. Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, CEO of IBA (Inqui-linos Boricuas en Acción), the Boston nonprofit that purchased the one-time German church at 85 West New-ton St. in the ‘80s and converted it into the Villa Victoria Center for the Arts, told those online for the meeting that they had selected Anne Beta Architects and STU-DIO ENÉE as the architects for the project.

The new facility, said Dr. Calderón-Rosado, would occupy no more than 30,000 gross square feet and tenta-tively be five stories high (although, she said, that re-mains uncertain), with a performing arts center on the first two levels, and office and conference rooms for IBE staff and gallery space on the floors above it.

“The main activity of this building would be arts and cultural space and a multicultural space housing a performing arts space with some type of platform for per-formances to be held within the bigger space,” Dr. Calderón-Rosado said.

40,000 needles collected, destroyed through new buy-back program

40,000 needles collected, destroyed through new buy-back program

It’s one of the opioid crisis’ most dangerous side effects on communities across Boston – discarded needles in every corner of the city.

A new needle buy-back program aims to address the issue using a different strategy.

The three-month pilot program, launched in late December, has already resulted in more than 40,000 needles being collected and destroyed.

Grass-roots company Addiction Disposal Resources LLC is offering 20 cents a syringe for a maximum payout per day of $10.

The company collects needles every morning from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. outside the Engagement Center on Atkinson Street.

An incinerator is used to destroy all of the needles turned in on the spot.

“It’s a small financial incentive for folks to return needles, but it’s not enough money for folks to take advantage of the situation,” said South End resident Jonathan Alves.

Andrew Parthum Remembered at Blackstone/Franklin

It meant the world to Andrew Parthum to be able to help students from the South End annually with a home-grown scholarship effort, and it’s a legacy that he will leave behind for years to come – and a legacy that has paid forward opportunity and impact already in years past.

Parthum, a long-time Southender and member of the Blackstone/Franklin Squares Neighborhood Association (BFSNA), passed away on Dec. 29 after an eight-year battle with brain cancer that accelerated under COVID-19.

On Tuesday night, Jan. 19, BFSNA President Toni Crothall allowed members to use the first half of their online meeting to remember and appreciate Parthum, who had been a former president of the organization, but more importantly was the founder and the force behind the Association’s annual Scholarship fundraiser and disbursement. The scholarship annual awards scholarships to students from the South End headed off to college.



Path of Leash Resistance

Parks Department Director Ryan Woods appeared at the BFSNA meeting on Tuesday and told of an incident recently where a smaller dog was on a leash in the Square. Two larger dogs came after the little dog non-aggressively, but scared it and it got loose from its owner. That dog bolted out of the park, he said, and was chased by the larger dogs. At one point while crossing the Washington Street, the smaller dog was run over and killed.
Woods said the owner of the dog and some witnesses had asked the Parks Department to get involved, which is what sparked the conversation at Tuesday’s meeting – an hour-long conversation that, predictably, got a little testy between dog owners and those that are not dog owners.
“Our goal is not to come in guns blazing and start ticketing and fining and telling people to get their dogs on the leash,” he said. “Our goal is to come in and work with the community to find solutions. You may see some signs going up to ask people to leash their dogs (in Blackstone Square).”
He and BFSNA President Toni Crothall said they would like to revive the dog group in Blackstone and Franklin Squares – two parks where, even though off-leash dogs aren’t allowed – it is tolerated and a community of dog-owners thrives there and has for some years.

Finding Success in the Human Quadrant at Blackstone/ Franklin

First impressions what they are, the fact of the matter is the Blackstone/Franklin Squares Neighborhood Association (BFSNA) and the Parks Department has found great success this pandemic summer with the first official pilot of a Human Quadrant – which comes as a peace agreement between non-dog people and dog owners who all use the two squares.

BFSNA President Toni Crothall said at the September meeting of the Association this year – the first official year of the compromise – has shown great traction as those who wish not to have contact with dogs have their area and those wishing to use the park for leashed and off-leash dog activities have three areas (Both Franklin and Blackstone Squares are arranged in four quadrants divided by large sidewalks).

"As pandemic wears on, despair at epicenter of addiction crisis deepens"

The corridor around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard at the edge of Roxbury and the South End — one of Boston’s roughest areas, known widely as Methadone Mile — has deteriorated during the pandemic. It has become more crowded with people who are homeless and those suffering from addiction; also more violent, grimy, and forbidding, a procession of despair and disability, a place where too many live, suffer, and die.

While city life has largely receded over the past six months, the crisis here has only worsened, a fact city officials attribute to the virus.

Since March, many daytime services and places for those with addiction to receive treatment have closed, as have many public buildings and businesses where homeless people previously could spend their days or use the bathrooms. The virus has led to an increase in releases from jails and prisons, with many former inmates having nowhere to go. It has also produced a surge in people living on the streets, with many homeless people choosing to avoid the cramped quarters of shelters, where, in some cases, more a third of the guests tested positive for the virus last spring.

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Boston Globe

Sept. 12, 2020

"How COVID-19 has exacerbated the opioid epidemic and its impacts on Boston neighborhoods"

The impacts related to substance use and homelessness in the area known as “Methadone Mile,” the stretch of city blocks surrounding Mass. Ave. and Melnea Cass Boulevard where shelters and services offer support to those struggling with substance use disorders, are not new. 

But both neighborhood residents and city officials say there is no question that the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the already raging epidemic. 

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"Franklin Square’s oldest tree may be gone from the park, but parts of it are staying in the neighborhood."

The oldest tree in Franklin Square has fallen victim to Dutch Elm disease.

At the behest of the city arborist, work crews cut down the largest of Franklin Square’s three remaining elms recently. The nearly two century old tree had been ravaged by Dutch Elm disease, a highly contagious fungus spread by beetles that has decimated the city’s elm population. While the tree’s removal was necessary to prevent the spread of disease, park caretakers expressed sadness at the loss of a generations-old neighborhood landmark.

“We counted the rings, and this tree was 184 years old,” said Matt Mues of the Blackstone/Franklin Square Neighborhood Association (BFSNA). “So, this tree dates back before the civil war.”

Indeed, the elm predates both Blackstone and Franklin Squares, created by the famed Charles Bullfinch in 1849 and 1855, respectively. Experts say it is likely the tree began growing elsewhere then was replanted in Franklin Square as part of the park’s original landscaping.

BFSNA supports public safety camera plan

An expanded network of police cameras is coming to the Blackstone/Franklin Square area.

The new cameras, which would add to the existing Boston Police Department (BPD) video system in the neighborhood, are being financed by the community benefits package from the former Harrison Albany Block Project on Albany Street, now known as The Smith. While the developer’s agreement with the Boston Planning and Development Agency mandates that $20,000 go towards installing cameras at two or three sites around Franklin Square Park, the Blackstone/Franklin Square Neighborhood Association (BFSNA) has approved a plan that will place dozens of new cameras throughout the area.

Two BFSNA members concerned other municipalities relying too much on Boston to provide services for what's a statewide opioid crisis

Boston tends to be on the front of the curve for solving many issues when it comes to social problems, and with the release of the comprehensive new plan to battle the opioid epidemic at Mass/Cass, some are worrying that the City might be too good.

BFSNA coordinates with woodworker to give Franklin Square elms new life

here’s no replacement for the majesty of a 175-year-old Elm tree canopy, but if there is a second life for such beauty – lost to Dutch Elm Disease – and Carpenter Austin Vyas thinks it can be accomplished in his woodshop. Vyas was one of the reclaimed woodworkers that took away the first crop of diseased American Elm trees cut down – sadly – in Franklin Square last March out of necessity. Since that time, in his garage woodworking shop in Milton, he’s milled one of those trees (the one cut down closest to the perimeter fence) into slabs and made several unique items out of the rare, hard-to-find wood.

BFSNA member speaks about rise in unsheltered homelessness and public drug use in neighborhood

The contrasts of urban life were on display on a recent sunny afternoon in the South End’s Franklin Square, an oasis of greenery crisscrossed by diagonal paths that converge at a fountain. While a man played fetch with his dog, another nearby screamed expletives from his bicycle. Among those strolling in the shade were two disheveled people pushing carts piled with their belongings. Then a police van pulled up. Three officers hopped out, approached a couple sprawled under blankets, and told them to leave. The couple packed up a large black duffel bag and trudged off. An officer picked up a discarded syringe nearby. “Imagine if this was your neighborhood,” he remarked to no one in particular. South End residents don’t need to imagine it; they’re living it every day. Many of them say the neighborhood has undergone a troubling transformation in recent months, as the homeless people and drug users they used to pass by on their way home are now greeting them on their front stoops.

BFSNA member speaks at public meeting on homelessness and addiction issues following "Operation Clean Sweep"

A public community meeting at the South End Branch Library was so packed that it had to be moved outside. On Aug. 1, Boston police cleared needles and garbage from Methadone Mile, and arrested dozens of people. "Operation Clean Sweep" came just hours after a corrections officer was assaulted as he was walking into work.