Police crack down on Common drug dealing; Merger with Municipal Police could help effort by By Suzanne Besser
An increase last year of drug dealing and other criminal activity on the Boston Common worried some residents wanting to walk and enjoy the outdoors and others crossing the park to reach Tremont Street’s movie theaters, restaurants and gyms. But a recent crackdown on dealers by the Boston Police Department has resulted in fewer visible unlawful activities, and the merger of the Boston Municipal Police with the Boston Police Department may help clean up the park even more.
“My concern about crime on the Common is very real,” said city Councilor Michael Ross, who supported the transfer of Municipal Police officers to give the Boston Police Department more men without dramatically increasing the city’s police costs. “The presence of an individual police body may be more effective,” he said. “The municipal police were not as good deterrents to criminal activity because they had diminished power, and [the force of 63 officers] were spread out over 100 city parks as well as schools and other city buildings.”
In recent months, three significant Boston police operations resulted in more than 43 drug arrests, as well as arrests for other criminal behavior, on the Boston Common, according to Area A-1 Police Captain Bernard O’Rourke. The groups of young dealers frequently seen throughout the night and early morning hours near the Park Street and Boylston Street MBTA stations appear to have dispersed. “Working with drug dealers is like playing cat and mouse,” said O’Rourke, and those that populated the Common had been pushed there from Downtown Crossing and Chinatown.
The merger with the Municipal Police should help the police effort to combat crime in the Common, said O’Rourke, who hopes to get three or four of the 32 transferred officers after they complete a 12-week course at the police academy. “Before the merger, we had co-jurisdiction over the Common with the Municipal Police,” said O’Rourke. “We worked together to jointly defeat the problem.” Technically, the 25-year-old force was able to make a citizens arrest for felonies outside their jurisdiction, so officers were able to hold suspects until Boston police arrived at the scene.
Now O’Rourke plans to increase the presence of both undercover and uniformed officers on the Common and bring in some officers from Downtown Crossing on bicycles to help with the problem for the short term. But if and when he is able to absorb several of the transferred patrols into his unit, he plans to assign a couple of bicycle officers on the Common, believing that the full-time presence of uniformed officers will discourage further criminal activity there.
“We’re so tied to our computers that we sort of forget to chat and comfort each other and talk about the big things,” The Reverend Dr. Katharine Black said on a Friday afternoon late in December.
Reverend Black, who began her role as priest-in-charge at St. John the Evangelist on Bowdoin Street two months ago, is reaching out to Hillers while breaking the glass ceiling that has long kept women from holding power in the clergy. Serving as an example that women may serve the church as men have for millennia, Reverend Black is embarking on her goal to transform St. John’s into a meeting place for worship, as well as neighborhood bonding.
A life-long resident of Beacon Hill and mother of five, Reverend Black was an architect for the Boston Redevelopment Authority when she decided on a life of service to the church. She said she received a message from God through a spiritual dream. Although she admitted it sounds “pretty whacked,” she said that dreams can be a powerful means of communication, and she took hers seriously. “I felt called by God to attempt it,” she said. “My friends said, ‘Well, that’s a relief. We wondered when you would figure it out.’”
Growing up on West Cedar Street, Reverend Black attended the Church of the Advent as a child and drew inspiration from the church’s religious leaders. She recalled one preacher, Charles Buck, who was “smart, funny, cynical, and had a PhD in classics with a specialization in Roman comedy,” she said.
Reverend Black grew up to earn a PhD in classics as well, albeit with a specialization in Greek tragedy. After a formal education that spanned the Winsor School, Radcliffe, Boston College, Catholic University, and the Episcopal Divinity School, she became ordained as a deacon in 1988 and as a priest the following year.
She did not, however, anticipate the gender bias she found in the church. The first female clergy had been ordained in 1974, and “I thought the whole thing was old hat by the late 80s,” she said. Priests would say hello to her when she wore street clothes, but did not acknowledge her when she was dressed in her clerical robe. “It doesn’t make sense to go somewhere where people pretend I don’t exist,” she said.
Although the Church of the Advent has a female deacon, the church does not believe that women are validly ordained. Reverend Black turned to St. John the Evangelist, which she said is “gender-blind.” “It’s a come-as-you-are kind of place with a small and passionately devoted congregation,” she said.
Reverend Black became enchanted with St. John’s after reading Thomas Savage’s “A Bargain with God” as a child. Although the church is called St. Mark’s in the novel, “There’s no question it’s this church in every way,” she said. “It’s a romanticized image of what a church ought to be.”
As head of the church’s vestry, Reverend Black’s goal is to integrate the church into the neighborhood and spearhead outreach programs that will draw community groups to St. John’s. The church is unique, she said, because it serves the state house as well as local colleges, which have students with the time and energy for volunteer work. She wants to capitalize on the church’s large and often empty spaces by offering musical concerts, classes teaching the elderly how to use e-mail, and programs to feed the elderly and the homeless.
Feeding the homeless, however, raises a new set of issues. The church has run Neighborhood Action, a program that provides food, clothing, and medical attention for the homeless out of its basement. Reverend Black said that she would like to continue the program under her reign but that the church must figure out “how to articulate the two visions so the tail and the dog stay healthy.”
“This church has tried one thing for a number of years and it needs to reconnect,” she said. “By feeding the homeless, we have bound them to us when we are trying to free them.”
Reverend Black looked toward the ceiling. “Those are not easy questions,” she said.
Leashed dog owners get a chance to bark by By Suzanne Besser
Neighborhood dog owners, miffed because the Boston Parks and Recreation Department announced the temporary closing of Boston Common’s off-leash dog area without providing another site, will have their voices heard after all. And they’re getting a head start thinking about what they’ll say.
About 75 dog owners from Beacon Hill and adjacent neighborhoods attended a meeting Thursday night at the Firehouse that was organized by Beacon Hill’s go-to person on dog issues, Jenna Blum of Phillips Street, and dog walker Alain Ferry, who reconstituted the Boston DOG (Dog Owners Group) that disbanded two years ago after successfully persuading the city to allow the off-leash hours on the Parade Grounds early mornings and late afternoons.
This time, the DOG group wants the city to immediately designate a place to replace that dog recreational space while its turf is being restored and it cycles through a full growing season.
“The city has put us, as well as our dogs, on a leash,” said Blum, who owns a very active 2-year-old black Lab. “We’re here because everyone deserves a place to play.”
Blum and Ferry have a meeting set with city officials in mid-January, and the Parks Department set a meeting with interested groups and organizations to discuss events, the off-leash dog area and related issues at 7 p.m. on January 23 at Hill House. That meeting was organized in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services, the Beacon Hill Civic Association and Council Michael Ross’s office.
Blum asked the dog owners to help distribute petitions and to offer their thoughts on how to approach the city. The group of enthusiastic and often angry owners tossed many ideas around: Most wanted a permanent, fenced-in dog recreational space that would be safer for their dogs as well as more respectful to non-dog owners. “Remember, not everyone loves dogs,” said one owner.
But, Beacon Street resident Greg Lander, a former community organizer, urged the group to stay focused at first and ask the city for just one thing. “Agree on an immediate objective but do not take away the victory by requesting a permanent solution now,” he said. “Ask for a temporary solution so [the city doesn’t need to] establish a study group.”
The parks department said in a notice distributed at the meeting that it had moved ahead the date the area would be fenced off until April, pending finalization of the awarding of publicly bid contracts. The missive also stated that at the January 23 meeting “all efforts will be made to address concerns resulting from this necessary improvement project, including creating temporary uses, relocating to different locations on the Common or in the park system, and looking at all reasonable requests or ideas offered for the Department’s consideration.”
“I am incredibly encouraged but not surprised that so many dog owners came to our meeting to indicate the importance of finding an immediate safe place for the dogs,” said Blum after the meeting.
It is a relief to have the Suffolk dorm fight over.
Five hundred-plus 18- and 19-year-olds will not move into 20 Somerset Street, and Suffolk will embark on a serious planning effort that will enlist neighbors and the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s support in its expansion.
Concerns remain, however. The first is that even though the dorm has gone away, rowdy young people remain on some parts of the Hill, many of whom have no affiliation with Suffolk. Police reports show that the rowdiest are not students at all but “young professionals,” who, now that they have jobs, apparently can afford the rents and the booze and, without exams the next morning, have the time and inclination to destroy property, act uppity and party all night.
If that is the case, the extra squad cars that have patrolled all fall must be maintained, and given that Suffolk students are only a small part of that problem, it doesn’t seem fair that Suffolk should forever foot the bill for this service. Then who should? What else might be done to curb irresponsible behavior among our neighbors?
Another question is without the dorm, it is estimated that the population of students from the city’s universities has doubled in the past year. Should this be of concern? Is students renting apartments going to be worse than having them corralled in a nearby dorm?
Next, what will happen now to the old MDC building? Suffolk still has a purchase and sale agreement, but there is no assurance now that the university will take title to it. We can imagine some uses that might be even less attractive than a dormitory.
Another problem is scale. When Suffolk first proposed the dorm, which in its beginnings had about 800 students, our first thought was that we wouldn’t want 800 of any age group moving to the Hill all at one time. Is there an economical way to house students that doesn’t involve building or using such a large space?
It’s not that we oppose density. In fact, density is what makes a city livable and convenient.
Dense Beacon Hill is a good example of how scale can be broken up into smaller units but still achieve numbers. Compare the West End to Beacon Hill: The land area in the West End is about two-thirds of the land area of Beacon Hill. But despite the fact that Beacon Hill’s population is about three times that of the West End, Beacon Hill does not feel crowded. Its sidewalks are pleasantly full of people. It feels animated compared to the West End. And it is Beacon Hill that is the more desirable neighborhood to most observers. The analogy isn’t perfect, but the idea that there might be more ways than one to house students is one that should be explored.
Finally, there is the question: Can Beacon Hill residents behave better even in a fight? It is fine to express anger and to press a point as far as possible. But, as reporters, we often cringed at the rude remarks, cursing, imputations and frequently obnoxious behavior on the part of some residents. The apocalyptic predictions were sometimes laughable. We ended up embarrassed and feeling sorry for the Suffolk representatives who had to endure insults from people who ought to have better manners. Those tossing the insults and acting badly alienated observers. Next time, residents might get the same results using sugar rather than vinegar.
Although the dénouement still has to be played out, we’re glad this chapter is over. We are eager to get on to other matters.
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