I took these pictures at 2pm Monday afternoon. Not only has the 2nd flight in the gassy become a favorite place for drug users to stick needles in their arms but it is also fast becoming an ignored place without any cleanup. There are needles and other stuff all over. The bottom of the gassy had little kids playing all day including my 6 year old. Can we do anything about this? Pic one is a shot of a needle on the ground. Pic two is all the empty booze stuff.
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11 Replies to “Second Flight in Gassy Becoming Home for Drug Use”
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Thank you, Ralph, for continuing to bring what is an ongoing problem into the open again. The neighborhood really needs to look into what to do with these flights. Parks dept cleaners, understandably, won’t clean up needles because it is such a risk. I’ll clean any other part of this neighborhood but the flights are too much of a risk. Needles could be buried in the dirt, embedded everywhere. The other piece is law enforcement. I have seen more police presence over on this side of the neighborhood but it is on motorcycle or in cars. Effective in dispersing groups but only temporarily. Police really need to walk these flights- day and night. There also need to be arrests made/tickets given out so the flights are no longer the best place to party and do drugs in the North End.
Jennifer is right. This will stop when people actually get in trouble for this. If the police continue to just tell people, especially kids, to just “go home”, we will get more of the same. A good portion of young people in Massachusetts now know that you can get drunk and high in the North End and the police won’t do anything to you.
I saw what looked to be the end of a drug deal on Garden Court st at 1 pm today. I have no proof just my instinct when I walked by. Patrols would be great but from what I hear it’s hard enough to get the police to respond in a timely fashion to party noise complaints
go talk to the new big guy in city hall see what he says good luck to u thats what i am going to tell u
From David Marx, NEWNC Public Safety Chair:
I sent Officer Teddy Boyle the recent post in regards to used drug needles being found yet again in The Gassy / Flights area of The North End.
I informed him that this is a long-standing issue that has only been getting worse with time.
I emphasized to him that to say this is a public safety issue would be a gross understatement.
I reminded him that illicit drug use and drug dealing, as well as underage drinking, has been reported to the police at our Public Safety Meetings for years, yet nothing changes…
In response to my request for him to please see to it that we have more walking officers patrolling this area of The North End, especially during weekend nights (in addition to asking him if access to the upper flights could be chained up / locked at night and informing him that poor lighting appears to be an issue there, as well), he promptly responded that he will talk to the sector car to check The Gassy more frequently and will also talk to The Parks Department about locking it up.
Thank you.
-David Marx-
NEWNC Public Safety Committee Chair.
davidsmrx@gmail.com
EVERY SINGLE ISSUE IN THE NO. END IS OVER 20 YEARS OLD, AND DO YOU SEE ANY POLITICAL.
FIGURES TRYING TO CURE OUR PROBLEMS? ABSOLUTELY NOT. WHAT ELSE IS NEW?
ELDERLY ABUSE, DRUNKS WAKING UP THE NEIGHBORHOOD EVERY WEEKEND, URINATION,
DEFECATION, REGURGITATION & FORNICATION. THIS IS NO LONGER A JOB FOR THE CITY,
THIS IS A HUMAN RIGHTS & ELDERLY ABUSE AFFAIR CONCERN. THE CITY IS TOO BUSY COUNTING.
ALL THE MONEY THE NO. END BRINGS IN, THEREFORE, DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH & WAIT FOR.
THEM TO HELP US. THESE ARE FACTS, LIKE IT OR NOT.
so sad,, what needs to be done is have the board of health go there fumigate it.. then unfortunately lock up that section of the gassy somehow..i hung there 43 years ago don’t get me wrong my friends and I were no saints..there were also barrels on every flight and the gassy used to have barrels downstairs..we cleaned up after anything we did.. if we ate we cleaned up…threw our empty bottles away in the barrel..at one time the gassy was not as bad as it is now..but slide park and the prado were..its going to continue easy acess to the north end.. take the t get out at north station.. walk over the bridge (im not saying its people from Charlestown).. as long as their are drug s around the north end will be the place to get high..it might not be all north enders getting high either could be the outer towners..the scary thing is that heroin today is so strong you might drop dead from it..i hope the problem gets rectified..sin..
David Marx I think locking it up might be difficult just giving the layout of the space, and the fact that people do use it as a walk through from the Hertz garage and the top of Snowhill St. Plus Also locking it up will just take away space we NEED in the North End.. There has to be a way we can utilize that space. I don’t know anything about engineering, but can it be leveled off and the walls be reinforced with pillars/ beams so there’s only 1 set of stairs and elimate that middle landing? then that flat area can fenced in and grassed for a dog park.
I hope that people come out in force to the next Public Safety meeting and demand that the new Captain do something about the situation immediately. Years of complaints to previous Captains and Sgts fell on deaf ears. Time to say enough. Bike patrols, walking patrols, car patrols, motorcycle patrols every 20 minutes 24/7 until they get the message that the North End will no longer tolerate this behavior. And none of the usual chase them away nonsense that has been going on for decades. The police are not here to be the friends of these kids. Arrest them for drugs, underage drinking, public drinking, whatever will stick. Crack down on the stores that are selling them alcohol. Arrest the people buying them booze and selling them drugs. Throw them in a paddy wagon and let them stay in lockup until the parents come to the station to collect them. Many of these kids are from places other than the North End. Let them go party in their own towns and neighborhoods.
Again, I vote for the dog park idea for the flights along with some more arrests. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone
David Marx I think locking it up might be difficult just giving the layout of the space, and the fact that people do use it as a walk through from the Hertz garage and the top of Snowhill St. Plus Also locking it up will just take away space we NEED in the North End.. There has to be a way we can utilize that space. I don’t know anything about engineering, but can it be leveled off and the walls be reinforced with pillars/ beams so there’s only 1 set of stairs and elimate that middle landing? then that flat area can fenced in and grassed for a dog park.