Residents of Boston’s ritziest and best-known neighborhood are fuming at the city’s Democratic mayor – blaming her policies for rampant open-air drug use in the upscale area.
Beacon Hill, known for its preserved early 19th century brownstones and cobblestone roads famously saved from the wrecking ball, is now facing a new crisis: an alarming uptick in drug-related incidents.
Infuriated locals have laid blame squarely with Mayor Michelle Wu, who launched an initiative to hand out free crack pipes, syringes, and other drug paraphernalia to addicts on the streets in 2022.
While Wu’s administration has pitched this controversial policy as ‘harm reduction,’ critics have countered that all she’s done is increase the permissiveness of open-air drug use in Boston.
‘What in God’s name are they doing?’ Michael Flaherty, who then served as Boston’s at-large city councilor and the public safety chair, told the Boston Herald in 2022.
‘This flies in the face of everything we have been trying to do to clean Mass and Cass up.’
The intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Newmarket, known as ‘Mass and Cass,’ is notorious for open-air drug usage.
The mayor has tried to clear out the crime-ridden area dubbed ‘Methadone Mile’ by trying to take down tent encampments.
Beacon Hill (pictured), known for its historic multimillion-dollar brownstones and cobblestone roads, has seen an alarming uptick in drug-related incidents over the passed few years
A Beacon Hill resident shared a photo of a man slumped over, apparently on drugs, in a wheelchair with an umbrella over his shoulders on a street corner (pictured)
But instead of isolating the drug crisis, it has amplified and spread – further plaguing the historic Massachusetts city.
Residents from across Boston have complained that the Mass and Cass crackdown has led to ‘out of control’ spillover into their neighborhoods.
The streets of once-pristine communities have been littered with dangerous needles.
A clean-up crew supported by the Newmarket Business Improvement District has estimated they pick up about 1,000 needles a day across Boston.
Beacon Hill, where the median housing price is $2.8million, is just one of the areas feeling the burn.
‘WOW: Beacon Hill, Boston’s wealthiest neighborhood, now has open-air drug use on full display,’ a fed-up Bostonian wrote on a Facebook community page on Sunday.
He shared a photo sent in by ‘stunned resident’ of a man slumped over, apparently on drugs, in a wheelchair with an umbrella over his shoulders on a street corner.
‘Even Beacon Hill liberals are fed up with Wu,’ the social media user asserted.
Infuriated locals have blamed Mayor Michelle Wu (pictured), who launched an initiative to hand out crack pipes, syringes and other drug paraphernalia to addicts on the street in 2022
The intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Newmarket (pictured), known as ‘Mass and Cass,’ is notorious for open-air drug usage
Towns and neighborhoods across Boston have complained of needles scattered across their once gorgeous streets (pictured: Back Bay)
On social media, people have expressed disbelief with the jaw-dropping photo and pointed to Wu’s lackluster efforts.
‘Truly unbelievable how anyone, regardless of political affiliation, allows this kind of cr*p to happen,’ one man wrote on X.
‘Super sad to see Boston slowly turning into SF or Portland, OR. Let’s hope the wealthy in Beacon Hill raise a stink about it and get rid of Wu.’
‘Her free needle plan is working well; they dump them everywhere, as a free supply Wu’s progressive ways are slowly bringing the city down,’ another chimed in.
While the photo sparked a recent uproar, Beacon Hill residents have been noticing drug-related litter and people shooting up on the streets for years.
Katherine Kennedy, a Beacon Hill mother-of-two, described to the Boston Herald how the area had changed for the worse last September.
‘I pass discarded needles as I walk my five-year-old to her public school every day,’ Kennedy said.
‘Having to keep needles away from my kids as I walk them to preschool is unacceptable.’
Beacon Hill, an area that generally votes blue, has long been considered one of the safest places to live in Boston (pictured: a woman outside her Beacon Hill home)
Beacon Hill, an area that generally votes blue, has long been considered one of the safest places to live in Boston.
But with the rapidly expanding substance abuse epidemic, the well-off Bostonians who live there are concerned for the area’s future.
Boston Public Health Commissioner Bisola Ojikutu, who worked with Wu to launch the original 2022 initiative to address the drug crisis, recently admitted the plan must be reevaluated.
‘It feels as though very little that any of us are doing to combat this drug use epidemic is actually working,’ Ojikutu said at a South End community meeting at the end of June, the Boston Herald reported.
Boston’s South End embodies neighborhoods including Back Bay, Roxbury and Bay Village.
Ojikutu’s remark came in response to a horrifying incident in South Boston, when a four-year-old boy stepped on a hypodermic needle in a city park last month.
Mason Flynn-Bradford, who was pricked by the paraphernalia during a family party.
‘It was a traumatic experience. He didn’t have shoes on. He had socks on. He ran out of the tent and stepped on the needle,’ his mother, Caroline Flynn, told CBS.
Beacon Hill residents have seen an alarming change in their street safety over the past few years (pictured: a homeless woman sitting near a Beacon Hill church)
While Mason is thankfully alright, his story has shone a light on the dire state of Boston’s drug crisis.
‘People out in the street, injecting each other in the neck — I mean, nobody wants this. And I think that we have failed in terms of the drug use epidemic,’ Ojikutu continued.
‘So, if that’s what you want me to say, then I’m admitting that we have failed.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Mayor Wu’s office for comment.