Andrea Campbell proposes ’30-day challenge’ around Methadone Mile
Mayoral candidate Andrea Campbell issued a “30-day challenge” to Acting Mayor Kim Janey to set a course to better improve conditions on Boston’s Methadone Mile as Campbell declared the conditions there to be a top issue in the city.
“This is the task at hand,” Campbell said, after answering “yes” to a reporter’s question of whether the cluster of violence and open-air drug dealing and use in the South End is the most pressing issue in the city.
Campbell said she was issuing a “30-day challenge” to Janey, one of her mayoral rivals, which she said means “30 days for them to develop their own specific plan on how they’re also going to complete the response to this area, including cracking down on those folks who are selling drugs down here, some of the bigger players.”
Just feet away from discarded syringes, Campbell spoke with activists and then the media.
Campbell’s a major proponent of defunding the police, pitching a 10% cut. Asked how she squares that with the call for a stronger police focus on Mass and Cass, she said the budget reduction would add money to services to proactively prevent crime, and they could “restructure the department to provide neighborhoods that need greater coverage the coverage they need.”
Asked for comment, Janey’s office made available Health Chief Marty Martinez, who defended the city’s approach, saying they continue to meet regularly and figure out ways to deal with the increasingly large numbers of people flocking to Mass and Cass, where most of the city’s recovery services are.
“There’s not a silver bullet, there’s no magical plan or platform that someone is going to come up with that’s going to solve these problems,” Martinez said.
State Rep. Jon Santiago, another candidate for mayor, makes his way to the Mile for a Thursday press conference. The Boston Medical Center ER doc who represents the area said in a statement, “People’s lives are on the line and neighborhoods are suffering. We need leadership and action, not rhetoric.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3hFvwmg
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