The rubber meets the road
Residents want dirt bike problems fixed; Wu wants community programs
When it comes to the growing threat of illegal dirt bikes, it’s a tale of two cities, and two mayors.
In Springfield, Mayor Domenic Sarno and city police are making arrests and actively seizing these dangerous bikes to get them off the streets — and want to eventually crush them.
“Our brave and dedicated men and women in Blue will continue to actively enforce this quality of life issue,” Sarno said in a statement. “I’d love to be the first to personally destroy one!”
In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu has taken a decidedly different approach that right now doesn’t involve more police details.
“I continue to be in close communication with our Boston police and all of the organizations in that space of public health and public safety so that we can make sure we are prepared and we are ready for the summer,” she said, according to WHDH-TV.
That generic response may not satisfy community members motorists who have come face to face with these ATVs and dirt bikes, which by law are not allowed on roads.
Wu’s proposed solution? More community programs — including those involving housing and food security. Yes, food security. That should get those dangerous dirt bikers off the roads.
Wu was responding to the latest scary dirt bike incident, this one at a McDonald’s on Gallilvan Boulevard last weekend. Witnesses and police described riders on mopeds and dirt bikes weaving in and out of traffic, and even throwing rocks at one car and dragging two people out of the car.
No arrests have been made yet.
The scene is becoming all too familiar on Boston streets, especially now that spring is here and summer is approaching. In fact these menacing dirt bikes have been a problem for years — way before Wu became mayor.
Frightened residents and business owners are demanding a crackdown on the bikes, and Boston police in some cases have taken action.
In February, police seized some 50 dirt bikes and allterrain vehicles from a Roslindale storage unit — part of an ongoing investigation that came after a pack of off-roaders attacked an 82-year-old Brookline man, landing him in the hospital over Thanksgiving.
Residents have been calling the city’s 311 line to report off-road vehicles swerving in and out of traffic, including in one case right outside the Statehouse.
“This has gone on for too long,” one frustrated Roslindale resident said, according to one report uncovered by the Herald. “The police have consistently looked the other way. No more. Please stop the madness.”
The illegal off-road vehicles are going to be a major test for Wu this summer as more and more residents are demanding action.
Will she order police to actually start making arrests and confiscating their vehicles? Or just stand by and let it happen?