Pages
Stay In Touch
More
© 2021 The Somerville Times. All rights reserved.
(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)
By Jack Connolly
Jackconnolly422@gmail.com
Whether you’re new to Davis Square or a lifetime long-timer, it is obvious something is not right. On-street parking on Elm St. gone, restaurant tables and chairs in the street, Dunkin’ Donuts closed, empty storefronts on Elm St., the Somerville Theatre closed, most due to the scourge of the COVID-19 virus.
More obvious to most is the presence of a rude, loud obnoxious, non-mask wearing crew who have taken up residence and established a 24 hour base of operations opposite the Davis Sq. Redline entrance outside of the 7-11 (formerly Tedeschi’s and originally the Store 24).
If you around Davis Sq. at all, you are likely nodding your head now, and know that most of the encamped folks have ‘issues’ such as alcohol and drug abuse, mental health problems, many are homeless, some sleeping on the edge of the walkway From Holland St. T stop entrance between Somerville Theater and Seven Hills Park. Some Davis area residents refer to the crew as the triple D’s, aka the Davis Drunks, & Druggies..
Coping with COVID has been a struggle for our Davis Sq. businesses, and the worry of restaurants keeping open with outside dining And limited takeout as cold weather approaches Is their primary concern. Having customers harassed and heckled approaching or leaving shops on the plaza and throughout the Square is not what they, or what Davis Sq. needs now, or ever.
Where are the cops?
Not wanted there apparently, The Somerville Police budget was cut dramatically by Somerville city councilors, many who prefer to have a City of Somerville health or human service staffer deal with these miscreants, rather than a uniformed police officer who possess weapons.
How well do you think that is working out?
Seems to me that the familiar and effective ‘Somerville Police’s prior ‘park, walk, and talk’ and bike patrol programs have been suspended for the time being. What to do?
Call/text, email, tweet, or post to Somerville Mayor and City Councilors, especially Ward Six Councilor Lance Davis and the Somerville Councilors at Large (see official contact info below)
MAYOR Joseph A. Curtatone 130 Ten Hills Road, 02145 (617) 776-5159 MAYOR@SOMERVILLEMA.GOV
CITY COUNCIL AT LARGE: Wilfred N. Mbah 65 Woods Avenue, 02144 (508) 718-8126 ALDERMANMBAH@GMAIL.COM
AT LARGE: Mary Jo Rossetti, Vice President 80 Electric Avenue, 02144 (617) 623-0092 MJROSSETTI@SOMERVILLEMA.GOV
AT LARGE:Kristen E. Strezo 333 Great River Road #361, 02l45 (617) 209-9915 STREZOATLARGE@GMAIL.COM
AT LARGE: William A. White, Jr. 3 Elm Street #1, 02143 (617) 625-9110 COUNCILORWHITE@GMAIL.COM
WARD 1: Matthew McLaughlin, President 28 Mt. Vernon Street #2, 02145 (617) 999-0924 MATTFORWARD1@GMAIL.COM
WARD 2: Jefferson Thomas (“J.T.”) Scott 269 Washington Street, 02143 (857) 615-1532 JTSCOTT@SOMERVILLEMA.GOV
WARD 3: Ben Ewen-Campen 16 Aldersey Street, 02143 (617) 702-2613 BENFORWARD3@GMAIL.COM
WARD 4: Jesse Clingan 33 Puritan Road, 02145 (617) 290-1904 ALDERMANCLINGAN@GMAIL.COM
WARD 5: Mark Niedergang 29 Conwell Street, 02143 (617) 629-8033 MNIEDERGANG@SOMERVILLEMA.GOV
WARD 6: Lance L. Davis 356 Highland Avenue, 02l44 (857) 261-1909 LANCEDAVISWARD6@GMAIL.COM
WARD 7: Katjana Ballantyne 49 Russell Road, 02144 (857) 928-6852 KATJANA@KATJANA.ORG
Let your elected officials know that something needs to be done about this new encampment to assist Davis sq. area residents, businessowners, merchants, who are already bearing the burden of the Covid-19 restrictions, the infrastructure decay (see DavisNow.org) and the major reduction in foot traffic to Davis Square.
Tell them to help the Davis sq. homeless, enforce the noise and disturbing the peace ordinances, dissuade drinking beer and wine on public property, with whatever City services available: Might be a good idea to include the Somerville Police, who are on-duty 24/7.
I wonder how many health and human service staff are working night and weekends?
Tell your elected officials not to let the decades of work and the never-ending quest of elected officials, dozens of activists, local residents, citizens, and small business owners ( all who joined forces monthly as the Davis Sq. Task Force) and lobbied to plan, build, and open the Davis Redline T stop back in 1984, go to waste. Remember when Davis Sq. was known as ‘the Paris of the Nineties’ ?
Now is the time to get going, pull together, and do whatever necessary to prevent what may be known as the Davis Sq. Disaster.
Editors’ note: Jack Connolly is a native Somervillian, a Davis Sq. resident and insurance agent: He is also a former Somerville Ward Six and At Large Alderman (known now as City Councilor).
If you found this article of interest, please consider sharing it.
Jack,
I agree with your assessment of the decline of Davis Sq. Thank you for shining a light on this situation. As a close neighbor to the square, I feel impacted by these conditions.
Ellen McPherson
I’m sorry to hear that people made homeless by gentrification in the Davis area make you upset.
Maybe when the police clear these poor people out we can get back to raising rents, turning things into condos (Johnny Ds) and replacing local businesses with expensive trendy franchisees.
Fascist. I’ll take them over you any day.
Maybe if Davis Square offered anything for the average citizen to go there for, it wouldn’t be declining. It has become nothing but expensive restaurants, bars, and a movie theater. I can’t remember the last time I went to Davis Square, but it would have been for McKinnon’s. It’s like Alston, but more expensive. Be careful what you wish for.
@Jad Doke these are felons, junkies and drunks and not people “forced out by gentrification”
you know this tho.
Recently ate ice cream on that plaza with my small children. Everything is peaceful and fine. The small group of people who are down on their luck sit and socialize among themselves. If you’re scared of them, that says more about you than about them. And they’ve been there since long before the pandemic or any changes to police budgets.
Unless the police are handing out free apartments, the best they can do is force these people to sit somewhere else. Police don’t solve homelessness and that’s not their job, so bringing police budgets into this topic is disingenuous.
Seems to me that many of you are looking at a group of homeless people, seeing their presence as a problem, and blaming them on their pet theory on what’s wrong with America.
I passed that group while jogging a couple of days ago. They barely registered on my radar. As Edward said, they are minding their own business. Can’t speak to how long they’ve been there.
Perhaps this article should have said: “There are homeless people chilling in Davis square. Does anyone know if they’ve been a problem, and what brought them there?”
Maybe someone should ask them.
And I wouldn’t put “mentally ill” on your list of “miscreants” — one out of four people have been affected by this– I worked for 37 years at a psych hospital–this is a problem that should be addressed in our health care system and sensitively–not with name calling…
Jack, your tone deaf piece lacks compassion of any kind. You acknowledge that these people are struggling, but pay no mind to the struggles they are facing. Police and “bike cops” are not the answer for a more welcoming, more inclusive Davis square. Institutions that help the homeless, help the addicted, and help the struggling are. The effort to defund the police was specifically intended to help fund those types of organizations. Now that change isn’t going to happen overnight like you would seem to like it to. But your thoughtless article contributes absolutely nothing by simply dismissing these people as “druggies”. These are your neighbors wether you like it or not. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes for a change. Show maybe an ounce of compassion.
Consistent with all your prior statements and platforms, Jack.
As a Davis Sq resident I do not share your views, nor do I think that additional policing (or police funding) is a remotely appropriate response. These people need support, not a weaponized response.
I will continue to not vote for you should you run for any city position again. Your opinions are not what will help Davis move forward as an inclusive place to live.
This is the most neoliberal crock I’ve ever heard. The cops would just move these people elsewhere to be someone else’s problem. You ooze disdain for these individuals, yet have no apparent contempt for those who are directly responsible for the situation by doing absolutely NOTHING to prevent or address it. Keep on passing the buck, see what happens. You might end up on that curb someday and some rich arsehole will spit on you instead.
“I want people who are not harming me in any way to be driven out of here by armed gunmen under the threat of deadly violence because I find them unpleasant to look at”
“Not wanted there apparently, The Somerville Police budget was cut dramatically by Somerville city councilors, many who prefer to have a City of Somerville health or human service staffer deal with these miscreants, rather than a uniformed police officer who possess weapons.”
Great ideas Jack. Let’s arm the cops to the teeth and shoot the bastards. Seriously, are you that delusional? Makes me wonder about all your decisions now when you held office at city hall.
Seems to me reading this that Jack is trying to get help for these people with whatever services are available. Maybe he could have stated it better. But that is how I read it. Somerville has lacked in help for the homeless for years. It’s about time they stepped up and did something instead of ignoring it. I have seen many chances for this city to do something and yet they ignore the problem. We have homeless children going to school here, senior homelessness is rising all the time. People of circumstances beyond there control. Many reasons.This should take priority over many of the things they waste their money on in this city. Many cities around the country have done great things with this and maybe we should model a program after the ones that worked well. These are people and at the very least they could have shelter for sleeping and a hot meal. This city needs to step up!
Dear Mr. Connolly,
Like you, I am a life-long resident of Somerville who remembers the transformation of Davis Square in the 80s and 90s. And, like you, I am concerned about the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the small businesses and restaurants of Somerville. However, it seems like that is where the similarities end.
I strongly disagree that the police are the appropriate service to deal with the situation you describe in Davis. You describe Davis Square as being in distress, but in fact, it seems like these individuals are also in distress, and that health and humans services is exactly what they need. It is important to point out that homelessness is NOT a crime; mental illness is NOT a crime; and addiction is NOT a crime, although we often criminalize the circumstances and behaviors associated with them.
As a former librarian and current LIS educator, I know full well that front-line and public services workers are often instructed to call the police for situations like the ones you describe, not because the police are the best or most appropriate responders, but because they are the only responders that have been made available. This practice is especially problematic because oftentimes folks experiencing the issues described here are also part of other marginalized communities, including those who are routinely profiled and targeted by law enforcement. In fact, I find your implication that folks who are homeless, mentally ill, or suffering from addiction are best handled by “uniformed police officer who possess weapons” deeply troubling. I would have fervently hoped that after all of the attention brought to this issue by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others, we would be so much more careful about advocating for the use of force by police, never mind suggesting that having weapons is equated with greater safety.
Folks who are homeless, mentally ill, or suffering from addiction need compassion, support, and resources best delivered by people who are trained in these areas. And to that end, I am also deeply troubled by your question of “how many health and human service staff are working nights and weekends?” I have a close family member who works for Boston Health Care for the Homeless, as well as many friends and family who work in public health, social services, etc. and I can assure you that they do, indeed, work nights, weekends, and really all hours of the day, every day of the year—including, for one small example, taking a census of homeless people in Boston overnight during the month of January. If health and human services are not available in this city all of the days and hours we need them, it is only for lack of funding… which, I suppose brings us to the central argument. You suggest that cuts to the police budget will worsen the problems you describe. I believe that restructuring funding to bolster health and human services will improve that situation far more than increased police presence. Somerville today is a much richer and better-positioned city than it was when I was growing up. I would like to think it is also a more compassionate one. I cannot believe that we can’t have both public safety and public health.
Jack Connolly as a resident of Somerville I disagree with your opinion and articles like this are one of the many reasons I declined to vote for you the last election you ran for in Somerville and I will not support you if you decide to run again in the future.
Very well said, Laura. Disheartening views expressed by Mr. Connolly. I will continue to not vote for him if and when he makes another run for City Council.
So glad you’re not in office anymore. They’re human beings, Jack.
Mr. Connolly’s many votes as an Alderman led to this situation. He is a bum-kissing fraud who always aligned himself with the wrong people and policies. Goodbye and good riddance to him and others like him.
Bravo Jack,
This thread is a disturbing reminder of entiled hecklers from Our Revolution that never was…. they claim to be so concerned about the homeless camping out in Davis Square, but what have they done to solve the problem? How many have invited a person of color to their home for dinner? The city administration has failed miserably. Gentrification has dug its fangs in with the help of the same hypercrites who pretend to care. Obviously, many are ignorant of the fact that some of the homeless maybe carriers of covid, hepatitis C, HIV, AIDS, etc. Others suffer from mental illness and drug addiction this city has ignored for over 2 decades and longer. The idiots have no clue what it’s like to deal with a city that continues to abuse its local families who made this city a great place, in spite of its issues as other towns that hide it better. Why doesn’t this city have a recovery center, one that would arrest dealers who get drugs while some addicts are trying to recover! Of course our police are better equipped to handle situations within the homeless population. Unfortunately, for those suffering have no real support because the entitled crowd have no idea about harsh realities within our society. Homelessness being one of the most misunderstood. Now they demonize the police. Hopefully, they will never need one to save their sorry ass.
Hmm…the previous poster seems to think that the civic leaders of practically all American cities are – as she deems them – idiots. After all, practically every one of them has their own homeless population issues. In some cases, they have been brutalized and driven from the streets, only to land in other parts of their respective cities because they simply have nowhere else to go. There are so many right wing bromides in this pointless diatribe it’s laughable. And I have not yet found one single instance in this thread of any poster demonizing the police, who are absolutely the last people on earth I’d want to see handling this issue for humanitarian reasons. Even though she herself demonizes the “idiots” who have to deal with the city’s safety and wellbeing. It’s blatantly transparent politics. It’s the same crowd that blames the local politicians for gentrification, even though it’s the market – not local politics – that drives up the prices of homes in the city. There’s too much here to unpack in one go, so I’ll just leave it here. Except to merely say bravo Jack. A disturbing reminder indeed.