Mass and Cass

As I started reading the story concerning the upcoming mayoral election (“Bridging Difference,” Boston Herald, April 8), I read two different strategies for dealing with the aftermath of the Long Island Bridge closing for good in 2014 due to unsafe structural concerns. The aftermath being, how would the City of Boston be able to deal with all those homeless individuals who had been living in that island shelter in Boston Harbor.

What was that homeless population going to go? It didn’t take long to find out. Many of the homeless, some violent and many on drugs, ended up by Mass and Cass where those buses used to pick them up for the trip to Long Island.

Then, they started showing up in vast numbers, at first lining the area around Boston Medical Center and Mass and Cass. They came in the daylight hours, then it was overnights and eventually it was a tent city. The encampment just metastasized.

Then the politicians came in with their four-point plans and all kinds of strategies to improve the lives of those with no place to go. However, things pretty much remained static and unsolvable. This crisis is now into its third mayor.

Unfortunately, Mayor Wu seems to not completely understand what truly needs done. She is still pushing for the building of a new bridge out to that island shelter. She then imagines Long Island infrastructure getting rehabbed and beginning to serve the needs of these lost souls living in limbo today.

I was a police officer for 28 years in the Boston Metro DMH Area and I often escorted clients out to the island for either treatment or a bed. The ride over the bridge was scary. I was always glad the whole thing didn’t collapse into the water below. All the buildings out there looked liked they needed to be demolished. I can only imagine after over 11 years of non-use how much worse those buildings must look today. The whole campus would have to be rebuilt from top to bottom before any kind of services would be available for those needing services or housing.

Josh Kraft’s ideas seem much more hopeful. Stop talking about a new bridge down the road and start talking about creating the environment here and now for those looking and needing services to stay alive today.

Kraft is correct when he says, “Mass and Cass is a human tragedy and it’s a public safety threat that the mayor does not want to talk about, because she doesn’t know how to fix it.”

Mass and Cass is metaphorically waiting at a bus stop for a “big picture, long-term planning” bus nowhere in sight. I certainly hope that with two strong candidates running for mayor, we the voters will have a chance to add our input into Boston’s future. Let’s hope Wu and Kraft keep their eyes and ears open to what best works in Boston, especially in the area of chronic homelessness. We elect people to fix things, like Mass and Cass. The status quo isn’t work and doing nothing means more of the same.

Sal Giarratani

East Boston