For the past decade, Boston History Company has led tours on the Freedom Trail, with groups starting at the Boston Common before making their way through some of the city’s most iconic streets.

The route could change sooner than later as the company is grappling with safety concerns as open drug usage and violence are expanding on the Common more than ever, said Daniel Berger-Jones, the company’s CEO and president.

In a phone interview on Saturday, Berger-Jones told the Herald that while none of his 24 tour guides have left, he’s considering starting his tours somewhere else, maybe from the North End working backward, potentially ending before the Common.

“That feels like a tragedy,” Berger-Jones said. “Boston Common should be the center of Boston, it is the center of Boston. In the center of a large metropolitan city, I think there’s going to be sort of a large contingent that makes us feel like outsiders.”

Earlier on Saturday, as the sun shone over the Common and met with a gentle breeze, activity burst across America’s oldest public park. People from and outside of Boston suntanned on the grass, families with children swam at the Frog Pond, and guides led large groups on tours.

Despite the mostly calm, peaceful scene, cigarette butts, and other trash littered the grounds. Some people were seen exhibiting signs of drug usage – one slumped over while standing and another passed out with one shoe on and the other off in the middle of a field and no one else around.

Recent violence in Downtown Crossing and at the Common prompted City Councilor Ed Flynn to call for a pause on public events in the area last week, a request that some people see as a step too far and one Mayor Michelle Wu says she’s not taking seriously.

Jamaica Plain resident Rob Crean has given tours for 15 years, and while he said he’s seen “some pretty crazy stuff” over time, most of the activity playing out now is “more minor like people yelling at you.”

“There are a lot more people struggling out here, they are having a hard time,” Crean told the Herald while he waited to give a tour Saturday afternoon. “You kind of just try as much as you can insulate your group from it.”

Crean added that he doesn’t believe canceling events is the “answer.”

“It’s just the way it is,” he said. “Unless you want to fund mental health facilities, we’re going to have to deal with this stuff.”

Flynn made his pitch publicly on social media Wednesday, hours after a man barely survived a stabbing that morning in Downtown Crossing — a popular shopping area that Boston Police statistics show is the second-most dangerous district in the city.

“Residents, workers and tourists continue to tell me that they no longer feel safe in Downtown Crossing and Boston Common,” Flynn posted. “With several permitted events already scheduled in Boston Common, I’m recommending these events not take place.”

Downtown Crossing’s 140 violent crimes a year are second only to Roxbury, which has a 5-year average of 205 such incidents, according to the latest data from the Boston Regional Intelligence Center.

There has been one reported homicide in the neighborhood this year, two less than last year and one less than the average. There have been 12 domestic aggravated assaults, five less than in 2023, and 149 non-domestic assaults, larger than the 140 on average and the 127 seen last year.

In response to Flynn’s plea, Councilor At-Large Henry Santana posted on X that he believes the police stats paint Downtown as a safe neighborhood though it is “experiencing public safety concerns that are more pronounced than we’ve seen in recent years.”

Santana calls for the city to find “balanced and comprehensive solutions that address the root causes” of the challenges.

“I believe public events on Boston Common and in Downtown Crossing are part of the solution, not the problem,” he said. “These events bring positive energy and much-needed activity to Downtown and our city, supporting local businesses and bolstering our tourism industry.”

Also within the last week, a Boston Municipal Court judge ordered a 25-year-old man locked up for sending a Transit Police officer to the hospital with a “serious bite wound” and attacking another after he woke up on the floor of a Red Line train at Park Street, Universal Hub reported.

In late spring, a shooting broke out at the Park Street T stop on the Common, with the gunshot victim found seriously injured near the Brewer Fountain – a spot heavily visited by tourists. That came days before a group of people reportedly trying to intervene in a road rage incident were stabbed and beaten on the Common.

Boston History Company met near the Visitors Information Center before shifting to behind the Shaw Memorial, near the corner of Beacon and Park Streets and the State House.

Safety concerns historically felt outside Park Street station have spilled over throughout the 50-acre park, Berger-Jones said. Last week, a female guide told him the Common is the “worst than she’s ever seen it” after she kicked a cup full of used needles while talking with tourists.

“The crowd of tourists had to step carefully over those,” Berger-Jones said. “It just feels like a bad impression of Boston, and it makes me sad because we have the oldest public park in the United States of America.”

“I’m not sure who to call to enforce anything,” he added. “If you call the parks services, there’s not a ton that they can do. If you call the police, they are already a little overtaxed.”

Flynn has also said he wants to see a heavier police presence on the Common and ensure that when a permit is issued for a public event, there is a security plan in place with enough officers to “ensure the safety of all people” in the area.

Michael Nichols, president of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, which coordinates happenings at Downtown Crossing, told the Herald he has no plans to cancel any events.

While Nichols said he agrees with the councilor that more police resources would be helpful in the area and that there is a problem worth addressing, he wasn’t convinced that the downtown has become more unsafe in recent years.

Thousands took in the sounds and sights of the 14th-annual African Festival on Saturday, listening to music from a stage and treating themselves to food vendors, arts and crafts, clothes, and dancing.

City resident Jealaike Shadari, a community organizer behind the festival, said she feels safe at the Common and the weekend festival being allowed to take place is “saying something.”

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“If the city of Boston wants to shut it down,” she said, “I guess that’s into their own hands and we have to respect their wishes, but where we are right now we are so comfortable with it and we are doing great.”

Berger-Jones said the number of tours his company has given this year has dropped about 10% from last year, meaning less revenue, making it hard to sustain business.

“The idea of being in a city and being in the midst of this sort of crush of people, and some of the less pleasant things that happen in human society are on full display,” he said. “A lot of people seem to be traveling away from that entirely this year.”