Downtown's city councilor calls for end of all events on the Common, says area no longer safe

Go away Flynn.

Maybe instead of clutching your pearls, take action and maybe get with BPD to fix the issues in the area that you feel so strongly about.

Banning events isn't the way to go. Ever hear of safety in numbers? Large crowds of people will keep this stuff at a bay.

And of course, more police presence would help too. And I mean real beat walking, not sitting in your car or standing around in a circle jerking their gherkins talking to each other. Like actually do patrols and walk around.

If no one is there, can't have any crime. Makes total sense. /s

Does he not want anything to happen ever? No events in DTX or the Common. St. Patrick's Day moved out of Southie. Apparently, his approach to all societal problems in his district is just to keep everyone out.

If his only solution to scattered criminal activity downtown is to keep people away, he does not belong in his position as representative of the people of Boston. He should go write for Fox News or something

..and someone needs to run against him to kick him out of office next year.

Crime is too dangerous, so we citizens should leave and let lawlessness overtake the common?

Andrew Station should also be closed and the St Patty's parade canceled forever?

… with the dangers of motor vehicles and secondhand smoke in his district before anything else. But that would be too much work for him so everyone stay home and give him a break.

and I intend to be there, if rain doesn't postpone or cancel it.

Tito Puente Jr. with Edwin Pabon

This guy Flynn becomes mayor, Boston is done.

Said "If we don't (blank), the terrorists win" after 9/11.

What an embarrassing coward. Anyone who votes for him again is a schmuck.

Any word on whether the poor fellow was stabbed with a bicycle, or is Ed still investigating?

Is there a generalized threat?

One of the ways that you reclaim public space for common good, is by using spaces for common good. When there are public events in areas where crime has occured, it discourages the use of those spaces for nefarious purposes.

In the 1980s, the Dudley Square Neighborhood Initiative came together to address a number of community issues that were contributing to rapid urban decay in the greater Dudley (now Nubian) square area. Amongst several issues, there was a growing issue with drug use, sex work, and associated crime in local parks, particularly at night. This group began to work on solutions (without much assistance from the city proper because it was a poor black neighborhood) that were realistic and achievable with limited funding and minimal engagement outside of the neighborhood.

They began to hold community events that occupied the parks during the evening, had volunteer patrols at night whose presence served to discourage use by drug dealers, gang members, and others who would otherwise hold the spaces hostages and frighten regular people from using them. Over time, these types of interventions served to both discourage unwanted use while encouraging community friendly use.

The irony in all of this is that the mayor who worked collaboratively with the DSNI was none other than Ed Flynn's father, Ray Flynn.

Perhaps Ed should have learned a little bit more from his dad.

Another example of this is more recently in Codman Square, addressing ongoing drug use and crime in Codman Square park. Friends of the Park lead by a mixture of citizens, community leaders, and representatives from local organizations, convened to host ongoing family-friendly events in the park, and worked to develop a revitalization project that was in part designed by a local artist, Destiny Palmer, to improve the park and make it more welcoming for a variety of uses.https://codmansquarecouncil.org/friends-of-the-codman-square-park/

That project remains ongoing and is an example of community based participatory interventions that find unique solutions to complicated social problems.

As Cynthia Loesch of the Codman Square Neighborhood Council and of the group, Friends of the Park, opens each meeting: "We need to know our history in order to know where we're going".