This weekend continued the scene where hundreds teenagers swarmed the North End streets, waterfront and parks. A concerned resident shares this eyewitness account:
“Every summer we deal with the horrible teenagers running through our neighborhood, but this summer has hit a high! Last night I witnessed hundreds upon hundreds of teenagers run away from police down my street. They are destructive, leave trash and broken glass everywhere. I had to call the police 4 times last night and saw officers drive down my street on motorcycles right past them and didn’t stop to check any one of them. This is unacceptable! We need foot patrols every Friday night on the waterfront, coPP’s hill, charter st and every st leading up from the waterfront. This happens every summer Friday night regardless if there is a feast or not.”
Police presence was high at this weekend’s Madonna Della Cava feast. BPD cars continued efforts to disperse the crowds of teens by flashing lights and having motorcycles patrol both the interior North End and surrounding waterfront along Commercial Street and Atlantic Avenue. Several residents said they are consistently calling 911 with some reports also showing up on 311.
“… the Mayor needs to know what is going on in the North End for the past two weekends. Over 150 teens hanging out and drinking at the Waterfront Park on Commercial St Police did arrive to move the teens along but as soon as the Police presence was gone they were back again this continued until 12:30 this morning. Not only at the park but running through the streets of the North End gangs of them. This is something that is very serious situation and needs to be addressed.” —311 report, 2 Atlantic Ave.
“Why don’t the police do something about the thousand teenagers loitering and drinking underage in the north end tonight? Residents cannot even walk down their own sidewalks. Would this be allowed on the mayor’s block?” — 311 report, intersection of Hanover & Commercial Streets
Reports of underage drinking and fights were also posted on social media. Last weekend, Boston Police and State Troopers formed a human wall and walked along Commercial Street between Causeway St. and the ball fields, toward Battery Street. A State Police helicopter was brought in and flew low over the crowds as dozens of police cars patrolled for several hours.
The Commercial Street areas around the skating rink, ball fields, wharves and Christopher Columbus Park have long been gathering places for teen crowds on feast / summer weekends. The situation continues to develop as the two largest festivals are set to be held starting next week with the 107th Fisherman’s Feast followed by the St. Anthony’s Feast which is the largest Italian festival in New England.
At Puopolo Field and Langone Park, the overhead lights are being left on by the Boston Parks Department with some interior lights on as well to illuminate the back of Steriti Skating Rink.
Police on foot were also seen detaining some groups of the teenagers, including those shown above on Commercial Street across from Sargent’s Wharf.
Boston Police District A-1 Captain Fong addressed a resident group this week and answered questions about what officials are doing in response to the surge. [See District A-1 Boston Police Address Teen Hordes, Homelessness, Feast Coverage and Noise Complaints]
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Just every Friday? It should probably every entire weekend while the feast go on. I live on Endicott St, in addition to being loud and leaving trash/glass on the street, they (and others) linger in Cutillo park out back of my place, drink, and do drugs. Most times there is someone passed out sleeping there. Funny though, there are essentially no lights in park and I’ve never seen any officers patrolling there or Endicott St.
I see the same thing. There’s always a couple of people passed out underneath the children’s jungle gym. I don’t know why but please don’t walk down there and kick. The drug use is absurd. Paraphernalia can be found there underneath the benches every morning –
I don’t understand why they are not being arrested for loitering or creating a disturbance. I know the police said their priority was getting them to leave the area, but start arresting a few of them and see how quickly the word will get out that the North End is not the place to “hang out”.
The State Police needs to round these teenagers up and hold them in the ice rink until their parents come down pick them up. The Boston Police Department has really demonstrated that hey are incapable of handling the situation. Everyone is being given the benefit here except for the residents who actually live in the North End. Mayor? City Counselor? State Representive? Nothing but silence from these three.
In all fairness to our State Rep. …he got married yesterday in NYC and our city councillor was at the wedding.
Joyce S, Thank you for pointing out that our State Rep & City Councilor were out of town yesterday. However, this isn’t the first time this has happened. It has been a long on-going serious problem. They have had ample time to address this issue with their constituents.
Chloe is 100% correct. I’m sure the city has already ordered salt and sand because they anticipate it is going to snow this winter. The same logic should apply to these feasts at this point. North End residents should accept no excuses.
We are all over this
Thank you.
It’s not only weekends, drunken crowds screaming till 2-3 am and we have to get up in the morning to work. It is getting worse every year and city officials are not doing anything to protect residence from this mayhem.
You do all realize this is the North End your talking about feast or not, summer, winter, fall and spring crowds are expected do to all the restaurants, bars bakeries and all other businesses. There is no age limit to be in the North End. Foot traffic is always gonna be there no matter which street your on because it’s not a place you drive in to. It’s also a big tourist attraction. It’s not just a residential district nor will it ever be. It is Boston after all. It maybe a small part but still a big part a that. Teenagers and families live there to as well just like every were else.
There may be no age limit to be on the North End, but there are certainly laws and ordinances that prohibit underage drinking, loitering, littering, vandalism, assault, battery, civil disobedience, public nuisance, disturbing the peace, and these teens are breaking every single one of them. Your comment is totally misinformed.
Couldn’t agree more with Truth. Listen, I was an awful teen. I held parties at my house as a teen…but I never disturbed the public or vandalized public places. The difference here is that they are throwing their beer bottles against the brick walls, breaking the playgrounds, getting into fights. One of the magical thing about the north end is seeing the neighborhood kids in our parks and playgrounds with minimal supervision…because it’s a close knit community. This is a safety issue, not just an annoyance. If they were peacefully drinking, I wouldn’t care so much, but they are distructive. A-1 also is notorious for just not showing up to disturbance calls. We are the an after thought to BPD.
why don’t they have consequences for their actions?
Once a bad teen, you didn’t specify where you grew up as “Once a bad teen”.If you grew up in the North End of my era & did this you would get your head cracked & it wouldn’t be from the BPD.
I agree! As I have stated I have lived in the North End/Waterfront for 40 years. This type of thing didn’t occur in the 80’s or 90′, people were more civilized, thoughtful and considerate. That isn’t the case now. It has slowly ramped up since 2001. I have my own conclusions as to why this has happened, but really that isn’t important. WE HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM THAT HAS TO BE DEALT WITH. This is having an enormously negative impact on our quality of life, our safety and our peace of mind.
Lucky, We do realize this is the North End, WE “RESIDENTS” LIVE HERE!! WE GREW UP HERE!! These restaurants and bakeries are not open after 11. These are not kids who come in with their families for dinner. If you’re only familiar with our neighborhood because you passed through or lived here for a half hour, you don’t have a clue. You also seem to try to make it a point (after stating….not a residential neighborhood) that teenagers and families live here too. Yes but they’re NOT the teenagers from these stories of photo’s
These kids are not going to the bakeries nor are they part of the usual foot traffic. They are punks from the burbs who contact people via social media and come here to drink and party in our parks. Why? Because the Boston cops and the State Police have not gotten it through their heads that flashing their lights and a short burst if their sirens does not do anything to deter them. The kids know they won’t be detained or arrested. Why is anyone surprised they keep coming back?
Why are they not being arrested because they don’t want the mother and fathers threatening to sue them among other things. These are white privileged teenagers, if it was group of black kids-there would of been multiple arrest and possibly causalities. For those who think “it’s not about race” it is. It’s so much about race and nobody wants to admit cause you rather not deal with the truth. The more you don’t say anything about it doesn’t mean it’s not happening or it will go away.
I hate to admit this (because I am white and not a racist) but I think you are 100% right!
I am white & not a racist as well but bringing race into this isn’t helpful.I’ve said this a hundred times that the North End is the goose that lays the golden egg & the City officials could care less about the residents here.
Much improved police presence along Commercial Street last night. Police on bicycles, motorcycles, cars and even a paddy wagon. Kids saw cops approaching and bolted up Battery Street.
This weekend as I watched the hundred of kids walk by my home, I struck up a conversation with a few of them. I asked them a few questions . First of all the average age was 15, maybe 16. They were polite and gladly talked to me. They were from Revere, Saugus and Winthrop. Of course its all set up through social media. I asked what they were doing and they said they were there to just meet friends. I asked if there parents knew they were there and yes they did, but weren’t concerned because they knew they wouldn’t cause trouble. They told me that yes there are some kids who will drink and cause trouble but most were just there to be with their friends and to meet others…..Since I had a front row seat it was clear to me that yes most were just teenagers doing what teenagers do….the problem is that there were hundreds and hundreds of them and it is inevitable that when you have that many kids coming together “something” will happen. It was clear that the majority of these kids weren’t violent or looking for trouble but with those numbers combined with some kids drinking and smoking pot and hormones raging there needs to be a police presence. Shame on the parents of these kids to think its acceptable to just drop off these kids into a neighborhood and not stay and monitor what they are doing . Imagine if we went into these towns and urinated in there driveways and damaged their cars when we finished! Everyone is welcome to the Feasts but these parents need to take some responsibility for their children and be better parents !
Revere Beach might have been a better hangout for them, but I’ll bet they are better prepared to handle them there. Plus, there would be no fooling around
Also, this was an informative comment. Thank you.
There used to be a lot more to do as a teenager. Now there’s the streets of the North End. They must be bored stiff.
As a community we live here… This has been going on forever. I now see it’s much worse since the Greenway has been added and it’s an free access for anyone to walk into our neighborhood.
Can’t fix that!
There’s only one way to deal with this and that is to have police presence during these events to prevent the outrageous gathering of kids.
Positively we need to hold dear to our culture and not let outsiders ruin our festivals. They rules kerp changing for us.
Now protect our homes property cars ….etc…
Maybe there should be a curfew that can be enforced for the parks ? for people under 18?
Katlloyd: I agree with your comment. A few bad apples can ruin it for everyone else. As you say, the kids were okay — the ones with whom you spoke. One thing, however, I doubt that parents dropped them off here. High school kids are much freer and go ‘wherever’ on the T, etc.
Heather, funny I did ask how they got here and they said they were dropped off. I also saw many parents doing the same. I’m sure some also took the T….apparently their parents “trust” them as I was told. Sadly some parents don’t care to know what their children are doing and turn a blind eye. Hopefully the police presence in the future will help.
Sounds like we could use some MOUNTED POLICE!!! How very impressive!!
This will certainly make these insignificant creeps drop to their knees.
Cops on Motorcycles could also help.
We need God so badly. We need to pray harder.