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Citizen complaint of the day: Who made Methadone Mile a landmark?
By adamg on Fri, 10/25/2019 - 11:31am
An outraged citizen discovers that "Methadone Mile" is now a searchable "landmark" on some mapping services and files a 311 complaint to get that changed:
This is NOT a landmark. It's disgusting the city would glorify someone's misfortune.
Ed. note: The images above are from Apple Maps and show the results when you start typing "Methadone," at least if you're in Massachusetts.
If you search "Methadone Mile Boston MA" on Google Maps, you get a pointer atop the Boston Health Care for the Homeless program on Albany Street, near Massachusetts Avenue, but nothing on the map that says "Methadone Mile," let alone an indication that it's a "landmark."
On Bing Maps, you don't get anything close to the area for "Methadone Mile." If you search on "Methadone Mile Boston MA," you just get a map of the entire city of Boston. Mapquest just provides a list of methadone clinics across the country.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
Use to be the incinerator
Use to be the incinerator district , junkyards and rubbish yards all over the place!
You can also blame National
You can also blame National Geographic. I was watching Drugs, Inc. one night when they were filming Boston. All of a sudden, of course, they started showing it and calling it "Methadone Mile" . That was several years ago. However, sorry, but I have to disagree with you. The truth should be exposed, not hidden. It's not Shangrila. It's a stretch of methadone clinics, shelters, open drug dealing, South Bay jail, BMC, drug paraphernalia litter, human excrement, etc. I volunteer at the Red Cross across from 1010 Mass Ave and take the bus from Mass Ave stop on Saturdays, then walk. Yeah, it's real tourist attraction.
I’d prefer that tourists know
I’d prefer that tourists know to stay away from those zombies. Ignoring it helps no one. Label it on every map.
Dare I suggest
This is not something the City has control over.
I mean, sure, the City could go all zero tolerance on the area, but that's not what I mean. It is the companies that produce the maps that are the ones to talk to about this. Were it an official city map, yes, that gotta come down.
The Globe's on board
I note that they have mostly or entirely stopped using that term. When they have a relevant story it will say "Mass and Cass" or some other non-drug name.
There's a news segment from
There's a news segment from 2016 on You Tube saying the mayor wanted to start calling it "Recovery Road" . HA
The projects
Some new-fangled labels that people want to push are not a big deal until you actually say them out loud, and then want to kick your own ass.
"I am going to take rapid transit to work today"
and the absolute worst.... "Could I have sprinkles on that?"
Streisand Effect?
n/t
City employees openly call it
City employees openly call it Methodone Mile something needs to be done.
Like what?
Like what?
If I knew I would propose it.
If I knew I would propose it. Sorry I am not the expert, but the city needs to figure something out. It is a negative "nickname" for the area that we shouldn't encourage the use of.
“The city” cannot change The
“The city” cannot change The “nickname” of an area. The area has been called methadone mile for years, since patients of the near by methadone clinics would “hang around” the area. Unless that changes, the name will continue. How do you police the language of city employees when the “nickname” for this area is so widely used?
It's inaccurate, right?
Methadone isn't the problem down there, is it? I though it was more the heroin, pills and fentanyl.
Like this
City employees need to secretly call it Methadone Mile.
Maybe
They could use American Sign Language?
Excellent idea
First, add a specific gesture to ASL for "Methadone mile".
Maybe
They could use American Sign Language?
Narcanistan?
Narcanistan?
Mousey Park near MGH
The small bit of "park" land at the corner of North Anderson and Cambridge St near MGH shows up on google maps.
On bing (via duckduckgo) puts you in Salem
mapquest just shows all the places in the US named Boston
openstreetmap just says it don't know.
The park isn't long for this world anyway. Name came from the homeless people that hang out there (not used to describe them, the name they use to describe the park).
OpenStreetMap
Anyone can submit any landmark, good or bad, and it gets propagated to the thousands of systems which use OSM data.
There's nothing the city can do. They can't control private data entry.
Someone could remove it
Sounds like OSM is kind of like Wikipedia. Surely they could remove the MM designation, but that wouldn't stop someone from putting it back up. They must have some oversight. If I submitted the name "Penis Park" I bet that wouldn't go live.
Au Contraire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haesindang_Park
Touché
I shall hereafter research my hypothetical examples more thoroughly.
It's like Glassdoor employee reviews
They rarely budge ...
Am I missing something?
Did the State Legislature make it illegal to say Methadone Mile!
Yup
They sure did, bitch!
Magoo Sez
Mama Cass Boulevard. Magoo.
Uh ...
doesn't everyone call it Mama Cass Boulevard?
Notmagoo.
Everything was perfectly healthy and normal here in Denial Land
SJW's should be careful of banning the terminology "Methadone Mile" lest it take the focus and impact off the massive problems there. Out of sight, out of mind, etc. Making the name verboten won't make the problems go away, only hide them from all except those who must traverse the area.
A better plan would be a more serious effort to minimize the problems there until the name and associated bad activities become obsolete, a la "Combat Zone," "Scollay Square" etc.
Funny to see a Trump voter
Funny to see a Trump voter talk about denial. How many thousands of lies has he been caught in now? It’s in the thousands. No exaggeration needed.
Visitors
Visiting persons w substance use issues need to know where to go to get their food, bruv!
Lighten up Francis
It's a searchable landmark, not one that automatically shows up when you open the map.
And I'd rather the City focus on addressing the problems and issues that led to the nickname being given to the neighborhood in the first place.
Would they prefer Hamsterdam?
Would they prefer Hamsterdam?
Methadone mile has spread into local neighborhoods
Thanks to the mayor’s plan offering locations for the milers to stop in for clean stuff outside of the area They are spreading out impacting broader area with drug dealing overdoses and neighboring fears. Guess making it larger didn’t fix it
I Did!
I’m pretty sure that I made that up. If not, I’m going to tell everyone I did anyway. It’s a good one. Dead-on accurate.
Other Names
Here are some other names I toyed with before deciding on Methadone Mile:
Crime Court
Syringe Street
Assault Avenue
Suboxone Circle (the S and C didn’t seem to work on paper)
Bum Boulevard
Robbery Road
Heroin Highway
Pill Park
If people call it that, then
If people call it that, then a map should reflect it. This is like the old debate over language. Maps should be descriptivist of what actually is there, not prescriptivist of what some group of people want it to be.