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bdeeney098 t1_j0uoflo wrote

Downvotes me all you want but this is a terrible location for this kind of project. I'll start by saying that I have personally experienced homelessness as well as substance abuse and coexisting mental health issues and am very sympathetic to these people's struggles. I've also lived in Dorchester my entire life and am very familiar with the hotel and area they are talking about. It is literally directly across the street from a school (Murphy) as well as 2 blocks from another school (St. Ann's) , it's a 1 minute walk from a newly renovated baseball field/park/playground (Garvey), an ice hockey rink where kids play and practice everyday, and Tinean beach. Not to mention the residential neighborhoods that this hotel is right in the middle of. Call me a NIMBY all you want and on this issue I will take that hit because this is not the type of location that a program like this needs to be operating in. I'd like to think that something like this will lead to those housed here becoming contributing members of society who will help boost the local economy and all that but that's just idealistic, wishful thinking and frankly it's pretty ignorant. What will happen is the property and the surrounding area will be trashed with people getting high, crime increasing and turn into a micro Mass and Cass. I wish it wasn't true but it absolutely is and if you think otherwise then you're delusional! Something like this should be somewhere that isn't right in the middle of a beautiful residential neighborhood that will only be negatively impacted by it.

Bring on the hate....

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BlaineTog t1_j0us0n6 wrote

So the issue is, everywhere is next to kids. If we use NIMBY arguments, then there's literally nowhere we can put unhoused people. Everywhere with any kind of infrastructure is going to have other people living somewhat nearby, and that means families, and that means children. The simple fact that there might be a child within 5 miles cannot be used to prevent adding an apartment building for formally unhoused or lower-income people, because that would mean that such housing simply can't exist and the problem remains unsolvable. If we want to solve homelessness, we need to modify the criteria for housing them, and NIMBYs never propose reasonable criteria.

> What will happen is the property and the surrounding area will be trashed with people getting high, crime increasing and turn into a micro Mass and Cass. I wish it wasn't true but it absolutely is and if you think otherwise then you're delusional!

Housing-first solutions are evidence-based and proven to work better than treatment-first solutions. Seriously, google it and you'll find mountains of evidence. Giving someone a home doesn't magically make all their problems go away on its own, but it does make some of their problems go away, and it makes many of their remaining problems dramatically easier to address.

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bdeeney098 t1_j0uvlbn wrote

I'm all for housing first, I think it's the right way to go, I just think there are better locations for it..The Newmarket Sq. area down by Mass and Cass is mostly industrial and is within walking distance of a lot of the services that are needed. Ideally they could build new apartments or use some kind of modular housing to get people housed and back on their feet. There's also a hotel right at the South Bay Center that is away from residential neighborhoods enough where they wiukdnt be impacted. it. There are other areas within greater Boston that would make much more sense and wouldn't have such an impact on existing communities.

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BlaineTog t1_j0uy6hx wrote

> mostly industrial

Ah but see, it's not entirely industrial! There's Clifford Playground right across the street, plus there's still some residential housing in the area. Someone would object and say that there must be a better place.

> There's also a hotel right at the South Bay Center that is away from residential neighborhoods enough where they wiukdnt be impacted.

I would bet good money that if you proposed sticking this new building there, some people in those neighborhoods would still claim to be impacted. Plus it looks like there are a number of schools within a few blocks of the South Bay Center anyway, so that automatically disqualifies the location by NIMBY standards.

There are better and worse places to put low-income housing, but requirements this strict just means that such housing will never be built.

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bdeeney098 t1_j0v2ffy wrote

I understand your argument and of course there is nowhere that is a perfect fit for this but some areas are better than others. This comfort inn is as poor of a choice than most areas in an around the city. There aren't even mbta options close by! There are no train stations within reasonable walking distance and there isn't even a bus route that goes down Morrissey Blvd!! Come on now.

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biddily t1_j0w3bp6 wrote

I live in the neighborhood. The T here sucks ass. Almost all of here have cars it sucks ass so bad. It's been an ongoing issue. We've been at war for years.

There's 3 schools. He forgot neighborhood charter school.

The it's not that there Are kids on the hill. It's the QUANTITY of kids on the hill every day. 3 schools worth. The traffic of dropping off and picking up 3 schools worth of kids. Walking home in a neighborhoods with 3 schools. Sharing the mbta bus stop with the school kids. It's a thought. It's a lot of kids and a large quantity of unknown people who don't interact with society normally.

There's some bridges over Morrissey blvd there. The walking bridge and the train Bridge, it's dark walking under the bridges, no light, and there's always been concern about how dangerous it is there. No one will take responsibility for the area under the train bridge. The DCR owns the road, but they say the MBTA own it. The MBTA says lol no. We've talked to the city, we've talked to the owners of the comfort/boston bowl. The sidewalk is a mess, it's dark, it's Dangerous to walk thru there. The mess that is Tenean, under the highway, the homeless that live up under there. That lobserts and mobsters trolley tour bus that drives straight by, stops at tenean, and talks about the murder beach. We are a cheerful bunch.

The walking overpass has issues. The stairs like to become unsafe. When it snows it turn to ice. We never know if it's going to be shoveled. Then people walk across Morrissey without walking down to the light, and THAT'S a death trap.

I legit just drive from one side of Morrissey to the other cause I can't be bothered to deal with it all. I drive to north Quincy station, park there, and take the T downtown cause the bus on Neponset is so bad. I drive to the Shaws at jfk cause the stop and shop on the hill is atrocious.

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bdeeney098 t1_j0wcpi6 wrote

I did forget the charter school, all tucked up there on its own, my mistake!! You make some valid points! Soooo many kids in that area it definitely becomes a shit show in the afternoons, not to mention the morning. I wasn't even considering Boston bowl but that would be a problem especially on weekend nights with potential robberies and fights. Tenean isn't too bad I don't think. They've cleaned it up a bit over the years but this would ruin any progress already made there which would be unfortunate. I grew up on the hill behind St Ann's (Arbroth St) and given how expensive the homes are these days I sadly will probably never be able to own my own around there. Actually, maybe this will drive down the price of homes??!!! I still vote no....

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biddily t1_j0wddvr wrote

Im on the corner of Popes Hill and Neponset. Right smack dab in the middle of the shit show.

Tenean is better than it had been, but its still got issues, and it could backslide so easily. And being right around the corner from the comfort, its an ideal place for people staying there to go to get away if they wanted to do something away from oversight. There or the path behind the murphy.

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bdeeney098 t1_j0wegk4 wrote

Yup (I used to hang on that path back in the day) and I forgot to even mention victory road park! It's crazy for them to want to put a program like this here! I know it's hard to find reasonable places for housing but this is just such a true neighborhood and community there's no reason to even rub such a risk. There are much, much more appropriate places for then to do it.

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BlaineTog t1_j0v61on wrote

Now access to public transportation is a good reason to consider another location. You're not treating these people as if they're smelly human garbage but instead taking their needs into account.

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bdeeney098 t1_j0vm40f wrote

Don't patronize me bro I've been homeless and struggle with mental health as substance issues myself I'm not some yuppie who doesn't want to deal with the homeless I just don't think that this location is a good one for the program.

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AboyNamedBort t1_j0utqvr wrote

Name one place in Boston not near a school or park? That is a dumb argument. They put a similar project across from a playground in Franklin Park in JP and guess what? Everything is fine.

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throwaway72646w t1_j0wdg7d wrote

No hate. My gripe is that it's only here in Dorchester and not anywhere else. Everyone calling us NIMBYs are the same ones who live in the white areas who don't want it there and push it here. It's not in any other area and we're just tired of it at this point.

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warlocc_ t1_j0v67bj wrote

I worked security in one of these hotels for a while. You can't tell they're even there at all unless you tried to get into any of their rooms and ran into the signs.

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bdeeney098 t1_j0vjbmq wrote

Well that's good to hear unfortunately it's not my experience with one of them. I hope where ever they do set people up it works out the way you're saying though.

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