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14-year old shot to death in Mattapan
By adamg on Fri, 12/22/2006 - 9:28pm
Two teens shot around 6:05 p.m. at 631 Cummins Highway. Emmanuel Santil, 14, was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center from a gunshot wound to the chest; the other teen is recuperating there. Police are looking for a black man wearing a gold or yellow hooded jacket.
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Comments
Or is it Roslindale?
That's what BPDNews, the Globe, and the Herald call it.
Paging Charles Swift!
I'm not dissing the BPD, because in the greater scheme of things, this doesn't matter (what does matter is that some poor kid got shot in the chest and died), but I don't trust its neighborhood designations, because they're based on its police districts, which don't strictly adhere to traditional neighborhood boundaries.
The media accounts are based on the BPD press release, so I'm more inclined to go with a) What I know of Cummins Highway from personal experience, b) Google Maps, which so far seems to be pretty good with this stuff somehow and c) the Born Again Church, which lists its address as 631 Cummins Highway, Mattapan.
It Is Mattapan
Man, I need a bat signal or something for these requests. Conversely, an email would suffice.
631 Cummins Highway is in Mattapan. Harvard Street, which runs along the boundary of Mt. Hope and Calvary Cemeteries, was the historic dividing line between West Roxbury and Mattapan as near as I can tell, at least from a road system standpoint. Cummins Highway is the combination of two streets--Ashland, which ran from Roslindale Square to Harvard Street, and Oakland, which ran from Harvard Street towards Blue Hill Avenue. Ashland Street was part of the old Norfolk and Bristol (or Dedham) turnpike.
The subneighborhood of Mattapan, according to my 1899 map, is called Rugby. Incidentally, this address is about one street over from the historic Hyde Park/Mattapan border.
There's also the city website
http://www.cityofboston.gov/myneighborhood will tell you what neighborhood the city considers an address to be in.
It says Hyde Park for 631 Cummins Highway.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
The city should really hire Charles Swift
That site says our house is in Hyde Park, and it isn't, and even if you can't trust all the people who told us it's in Roslindale and you think all the neighbors just find Rozzie a more prestigious address than, um, Hydie (what does one call Hyde Park, anyway), there's the cold hard fact that we're on the Rozzie side of the boundary between West and Poplar streets, which marked the line between Boston (i.e., Roslindale) and Hyde Park until 1912.
In other words, beware whoami!
Yes, the City Should Hire Charles Swift
I've always been surprised Boston doesn't have a City Historian. Next time you see your city councillor, tell them to hire me. I'm serious.
Eeka: The city website is
Eeka:
The city website is incorrect. How do I know? Because my 1899 map, which was produced for the City of Boston, shows where Cummins Highway runs, while no streets are shown at all for Hyde Park (it is a big white void) because Hyde Park wasn't part of Boston until 1912.
But...
...isn't it really up to the city to decide where each neighborhood's boundaries are? And we definitely know that some boundaries have moved, even years after the various annexations. If the city (and I mean the assessing page or neighborhood page, not the police dept...) says a property is in a neighborhood, doesn't that make it in the neighborhood? More so than an old map, or the post office?
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
the city can be wrong
For instance, it says that the Hynes Convention Center, 900 Boylston Street, is in the South End. Are you likely to meet anyone who agrees with that?
ironic
Davis Funeral Home is just a couple doors down.
I was last there for this funeral.
Vague Boundaries
Interesting. The entire time I lived in Dorchester, the USPS made a point out of telling me I lived in Mattapan. Any time someone sent me a missive with "Dorchester" in the address, they'd cross it out and write in "Mattapan". They based this on serving my address from the Mattapan P.O. and because my zip was 02126. However, I lived in Dorchester. It was very near the border, but still...
D'oh!
Bastards. But neighborhood designations aren't necessarily the same thing as acceptable PO designations. For any address in the city of Boston, "Boston MA" is acceptable by the PO, and many addresses have another acceptable PO designation that may or may not be the neighborhood designation that the city uses. If you go to the ZIP code locator on their site, you can find the (sometimes several) acceptable ones for your address. Mine lists "Boston MA" and "Roxbury Crossing MA," but not "Roxbury MA." There are some other neighborhood designations that aren't acceptable. For instance, in the parts of Brighton that the post office calls Chestnut Hill, they'll accept "Chestnut Hill MA" or "Boston MA" but not "Brighton MA." It doesn't mean the post office necessarily thinks that the address isn't in the Brighton neighborhood -- just that it's not an acceptable PO designation for that address.
Just like how you can't use "Downtown, MA" for addresses in the Boston neighborhood of Downtown... :o)
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Did you not read the heading????
Fellow citizens-- I mean no offense at all, but to read the responses to "14 year old boy shot in Mattapan", it struck me how indicative this very blog is of the state of affairs in our society at large. Has anyone any thoughts at all about this now dead 14 year old boy? Would it be different if he were of an entirely different demograpic and zip code? Would you feel more connected to it?
My only connection to this is that it literally hit close to home and the details given by an eyewitness are extremely disturbing. I grew up in Boston and suburbs and now live in New York City; I had just driven to my aunt's home where I was to spend Christmas- approx 1 mile from where the shootings happened. As the family was catching up etc., my aunt's neighbor and good friend, a hospital administrator returning from work, came over-- she appeared very shaken and as we inquired, began crying and telling us the story:
- between 7 and 8pm on cummings hway, busy traffic time, late rush hour/holiday rush multiple cars stopped at lights, including the neighbor
- 3 little pip-squeak boys appearing to range in age from 12-14, walking down the side of road (or sidewalk)
- in the near distance, approaching them, 4 other little teenage boys
- once the 2 groups are within 6 or so feet of one another, one of the boys in the group of four raises an arm.
- Neighbor, who is watching from her car window, hears several popping sounds
-One little boy in the group of three stumbles, another falls to the ground.
- Boys in group of four drag fallen little boy, who is still moving, to the doorway of that church
-in full view of all of the stopped car-witnesses
- neighbor sees same arm raise again, and hears more popping sounds
-little boy is still
- red traffic lights are surely green now but most stunned cars aren't yet moving, neighbor included
-others speed away in fright and flight
- police and ambulance come soon
- neighbor comes home.
The event put somewhat of a damper on our holiday, yet spawned quite a bit of discussion at the home- from sadness to anger to cliched but nonetheless omnipresent comments and themes such as " they had better be caught and punished", "what the hell is happening?", "these kids need community-based healing and therapy", "broken, young single parent homes", "hopeless, desperate", "unaware of opportunities to get out", "maybe these violent movies do have more of an influence tha we think", "forgotten", "satistics", "another black teen" , "there absolutey needs to be gun control... who needs to hunt anymore?", "young folks don't have a true sene of the meaning of mortality- that's why they are so heavily recruited and so readily go to fight wars"
I don't have any answers as of yet. Thought I would post a response to the headline.
As I never lived in that part of Boston, I could't engage in any useful discourse on the topic of neighborhood designations in the area. Perhaps I could invite you to a Brooklyn-based blog to engage in a discussion of the ever-changing neighborhood designations here. I would understand if you don't feel connected enough to take me up on my offer. Cheers.
Thanks
For bringing the discussion back to the real issue.
Debating Boston neighborhood boundaries is an interesting, even enjoyable, pastime, but, yes, a kid is dead, shot in the chest.
Mea culpa
As the person who started the off-topic side discussion, I apologize.
I hope your friend eventually filed a police report, as it may be very helpful in the investigation. From the BPDNews page:
"Homicide Detectives are urging people that were in the area, or riding on an M.B.T.A. bus, at the time of the shooting, and have any information about a black male wearing a gold or yellow hooded jacket, to contact them at 617-343-4470 or remain anonymous by calling the Crime Stoppers tip line at 800-494-TIPS. "
Boundaries Are Important
Dilon:
As someone who is very in tune to boundaries (and who wrote a post "Why Boundaries Matter" last April because of a similar incident in Roxbury) I believe boundaries are very important. The link is to my blog post about boundaries.