Biz group’s plan looks to improve conditions at Mass and Cass
The Newmarket Business Association has submitted a “business improvement district” proposal for the troubled Mass and Cass area, looking to create a mechanism through which they can hire security, clean the streets and shuttle workers to their jobs.
The NBA handed in the hundreds of pages of the proposal to the city clerk on Friday. It now goes to the city council for final approval, which would happen after a public hearing.
“The goal is to improve the quality of life for those who are working and living here,” Sue Sullivan, head of the Newmarket Business Association, told the Herald.
In Business Improvement Districts, or BIDs, the local property owners essentially agree to have the city levy an extra property tax on them — but then they get to decide what to do with it through a nonprofit organization. The city already has two, one around Downtown Crossing and the other at the Greenway.
This one, which would start with an estimated budget of about $3.5 million, is in the struggling portion of the South End known as Methadone Mile or Mass and Cass, a haven of open-air drug use and violence that’s gotten steadily worse over the past few years. Now, what some locals have described as a “tent city” of people living on the needle-lined streets has formed, as the number of people — and the number of violent incidents — has increased particularly this year.
The area’s called Mass and Cass because of its proximity to the busy intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue, but the worst of it has moved to the side streets, particularly Atkinson Street. The 400 acres covered by the Newmarket BID stretches south, toward an old industrial area that still has about 20,000 workers and involves the distribution and processing of much of the food in the city.
Sullivan said the plans include several different routes through which the BID would spend the money. One that’s sure to be among the most high profile is an armed security force of two or three cars containing guards. Many businesses already have their own private security already, Sullivan said, and these guards would travel beats around the area and be able to quickly respond to crimes on private property, where they could detain people until the cops showed up.
Sullivan said they’d be likely armed because of “the level of violence and armed individuals we see in the area today.”
The BID would also look to spend money on street cleaning, as the downtown BID does, with vacuums and street workers. Other plans include shuttle buses for workers, and programs to connect people on the street with jobs.
The BID, which has the blessing of Acting Mayor Kim Janey, per a press release, has been in the works for several years, and ultimately ended up with the support of the owners of 65% of the land in the area and 85% of the land value.
“Unfortunately it’s got to the point where it’s an embarrassment to the city,” John Fish, head of Suffolk Construction, which is headquartered in the BID, told the Herald about the conditions on the Mile. Supporting the BID, he said, “We need to be aligned in our focus and our strategy.”