Somebody shot on Huntington Avenue in the Fenway

I worked at that Y long ago: at 4:30, it would be filled with teens and children in the afterschool program, as well as families who lived in the family shelter upstairs. Many of the families who came to that facility traveled from other areas of the city- ones serviced by other Ys- because they felt it was a safer place for their children.

A shooting anywhere in the city is sad. A shooting during the day in an area filled with children that's generally safe is uniquely sad.

I was a student at NU who lived in the Y dorms. They used it for transfer students. I came as a sophomore and was placed there. We had our own elevator and a work-study student who required our IDs before we entered. We were on two floors (men on one, women on the other) and our elevator on those floors as well as our staircase between Y and NU floors were separated by one of those cage doors. We could open it in case of emergency and it would set off an alarm, but as soon as it was opened it would not re-lock behind you. It had to be reset.

One day a male student saw a man chasing a woman into the elevator (from what was cruelly dubbed the "addict side" of the building). He had scissors and was trying to attack her. The student opened the emergency door thinking he could get the woman to safety. He didn't know that the door wouldn't lock once opened. The man followed the woman into the elevator and while she didn't sustain life threatening injuries, her blood was all over the elevator. Parents were enraged. To my knowledge, that was the last year of co-ed living at the Y. The next year it was men only and the next there were no more students.

Well maybe the colleges should stop importing their naive students into my city just to make a buck. Then maybe they would stop land grabbing. I'd prefer this type of facility that helps people over more housing for what are entitled adult sized babies (ie college students aren't real people).