By adamg on Fri., 4/28/2017 - 12:55 pm
CommonWealth reviews the progress Boston has made to replace the bridge to the one-time substance-abuse and homeless programs on the island, finds there is none; the bridge is no longer even on a city list of upcoming capital projects.
Mayor Walsh vowed to replace the bridge after it was shut in October, 2014, after decades of neglect.
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Boats may be out
By tachometer
Sat, 04/29/2017 - 7:49am
If I recall correctly from when the bridge was condemned it's not that they can't use boats for transportation, it is the issue of emergency medical services and the inability to get ambulances there that prevents depending on ferry service.
Why is that not a problem for the other islands?
By Ron Newman
Sat, 04/29/2017 - 6:25pm
Any tourist could have a heart attack or a life-threatening fall, or start drowning off the beach of George's Island, Spectacle Island, or any of the other harbor islands. Surely there is a contingency plan involving speedboats for such an eventuality?
Make it a state park
By Ron Newman
Fri, 04/28/2017 - 4:58pm
Add it to Georges, Spectacle, Peddocks, etc. islands and serve it with ferries.
Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park
By aek
Fri, 04/28/2017 - 7:06pm
includes Long and Moon Islands. Long is owned by Boston, but it's managed as a part of the park under multiple agency partnership direction. Meetings are open to the public.
Pearl clutchers fein outrage whatever the outcome.
By bulgingbuick
Fri, 04/28/2017 - 6:01pm
Some prefer not seeing heroin addicts and homeless from their condo or black BMW. Some claim they want the city to spend 100 million on a bridge and shelter infrastructure thus providing the opportunity to attack Walsh for not spending those monies on the "children".
Whatever the outcome
By Chris Lynch
Fri, 04/28/2017 - 8:28pm
Whatever the outcome we'll claim the people criticizing Marty always criticize no matter what. That's what Walsh does no matter what, dismiss criticism.
Doesn't matter the Mayor. Walsh, Menino, Tito Jackson,
By bulgingbuick
Sat, 04/29/2017 - 12:27pm
(Doug Bennett), James Michael Curley or John Phillips. The argument that spending over 100 million on a bridge and building construction to hide heroin addicts on Long Island is specious at best and budgetary incompetence at worst.
Homeless won't be back on Long Island
By anon
Sat, 04/29/2017 - 12:57am
The real estate is simply too valuable.
I take the ferry past it every day and have been thinking about this quite a bit.
You can practically throw a rock from South Boston to Long. 15 minutes max for ferry ride to the financial district. Probably 10 minutes to Seaport. The views are stunning. Sunsets over Boston skyline. It's a gold mine.
I see the City of Boston selling part of it to allow for luxury development and keeping part of it as parkland with limited access. The geography favors this.
Private ferries will be run, for the residents but also to allow for park access. A bridge will be built but access will be limited to residents/ development access. No overnight parking allowed and one or 2 parking spaces per condo would drastically limit traffic thru Squantum.
No busses, no homeless, but resident and services/emergency access. Quincy will get paid off to allow this. And they'll reap all the tax benefits they currently don't.
Raw deal for the needy but what else is new.
BTW, some people don't realize that while LI is wholly owned by the City of Boston the property is in fact in the city of Quincy. Quincy isn't just fighting the rebuilding of the bridge.
They want a say in what uses the land is put to. In this regard the Quincy pols are responding to their constituents. Can't really fault them there, they weren't elected to advocate for Boston's or anyone else's homeless or needy. They also have their own homeless problem.
There is no upside for Quincy to have vans and busses full of homeless driving thru their community. Now getting millions and millions in payments from developers and taxes? They'll go for allowing limited access on a bridge. Squantum residents won't like it but they don't have enough juice to stop it.
Long Island is Boston territory
By Waquiot
Sat, 04/29/2017 - 9:18am
You're thinking about Moon Island, which is in Quincy but is wholly owned by the City of Boston. That's where BPD does firearms training and BFD does fire suppression training. Therefore, if Long Island were redeveloped as you think it will, that's tax money for Boston.
Right you are, Waquiot
By anon
Sat, 04/29/2017 - 9:41am
I was indeed thinking of Moon Island. The perils of 1am posting. Thanks for the clarification.
Walsh says city still investigating way to replace bridge
By downtown-anon
Sat, 04/29/2017 - 7:50am
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/politics/boston-s...
Our own version of Donald Trump?
By anon
Sat, 04/29/2017 - 11:02am
Says what he thinks people want to hear, doesn't follow through, little grasp of the complexities of politics? Check. Touted experience in a relatively narrow area (unions) as though it qualified him to govern? Check. Talks like a "regular" guy? Ignores facts that contradict his world view? Got endorsements/got elected mainly because so many people despised his more-qualified opponent? Check, check and check.
Gee, if only we had a newspaper or two in town that could actually hold this guy accountable! Thank goodness for Commonwealth Magazine.
Yeah, there's some degree of
By Rob
Sat, 04/29/2017 - 8:45pm
Yeah, there's some degree of problem with not having all the facilities that used to be available and handy in one place on Long Island.
The bigger problem is the mindset that said "let's gather up all our 'problem' cases and sweep them into an out-of-sight corner of the city like an island" in the first place.
Island containment has/had its uses in immigration processing and medical quarantine (physical contagions) scenarios. Not addiction. Not homelessness.
It's proved by the fact the island ceased to become useful for this purpose once it became an island again. So, all that time it was in operation it was really just an impractical way to get the clients as far away as possible while still in city limits.
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