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Needle pickup becomes latest flashpoint in mayoral race after toddler is injured in South Boston
Residents in and around South Boston say the city needs to do much more to clean up the area.
This week, reports surfaced about a young child who was apparently jabbed with a used needle while playing outside in South Boston. The troubling incident follows numerous reports about how drug use and related criminal activity is on the rise in that part of the city.
This appears set to become a major topic in the mayoral race, as Josh Kraft works to make up significant ground in his attempt to unset the popular incumbent, Mayor Michelle Wu.
A South Boston resident recently told The Boston Herald that her 4-year-old son stepped on a needle near the corner of Columbia Road and Mercer Street earlier this month. She described how the boy underwent X-rays and blood testing during a long trip to the emergency room, and how he has been struggling to take medications meant to prevent HIV.
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Boston police representatives did not respond to a request for information about the incident.
Residents have been sounding the alarm for months about what they say is a stark increase in the number of people openly using drugs in the South End and South Boston. In June, a resident began documenting scenes from the area on Instagram, garnering a large following as they regularly post images of people dealing and using drugs outside. The account also documents used needles and other drug paraphernalia, while calling for officials like Wu to do more. Some posts garner hundreds, or even thousands, of likes.
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Kraft has seized on this disorder, making it a major pillar of his campaign. Kraft blames Wu for not sufficiently addressing public health and safety concerns that stem from the area near the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue.
“This is something that no mother, or any 4 year old child, should ever have to endure. As a result of Mayor Wu’s failures to make progress at Mass and Cass, many people have been harmed including an innocent child. She promised to fix Mass and Cass, but instead the problems have spread to other parts of the city,” Kraft said in a statement responding to the Herald report.
Wu’s critics say that her decision to enforce an anti-tent ordinance near Mass. and Cass in 2023 led to spillover effects in other parts of the city, like Beacon Hill and downtown. Wu was moved to act at the time because a significant tent encampment was facilitating a range of criminal activity, and public safety concerns were so bad that outreach workers had to stop going into the area. That encampment was cleared, and the people who had been living there were given access to treatment and housing, the Wu administration has said.
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But residents say that public drug use is as much of a problem as it’s ever been at Mass. and Cass and in the nearby neighborhoods. As they were reporting a recent story on the topic, two Boston Globe journalists were forced to take shelter in a building there after being confronted by men “holding hammer-like tools.”
Wu and officials in her administration acknowledge that actions taken regarding Mass. and Cass have led to new instances of congregate drug use in other parts of the city. But the crisis predates the Wu administration, and the mayor is adamant that she has overseen significant progress there that eluded previous city leaders. When asked about the 4-year-old stepping on a needle Monday, Wu called the situation “unacceptable.”
“As a mom, it’s just not OK. It’s not OK to even have that as a possibility in the back of your mind as something that you have to worry about,” she told reporters at an unrelated event Monday, according to a recording of the remarks shared with Boston.com.
In a follow-up statement, a city spokesperson pointed to the work of the Mobile Sharps Team, which responds to complaints and picks up needles. The city says that the median collection time for the team is 45 minutes. In addition to responding to specific complaints, the team and partner organizations conduct daily sweeps of public spaces to pick up needles.
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Wu told reporters that she is having conversations with other officials about the locations of needle sweeps. The patch of grass where the 4-year-old stepped on a needle was not quite within Moakley Park, meaning that the administration needs to be “more aware” of areas outside the places where regular sweeps occur, she said.
Wu praised the workers who pick up needles and their response times. But she acknowledged that more needs to be done to decrease the number of needles being discarded in the first place.
“We do not accept that those who are trafficking drugs, who are dealing, are going to use the city of Boston as a place to prey on people,” Wu said.
The administration says it is focused on ending outdoor congregate substance use and is ramping up enforcement efforts with additional Boston police staffing in key areas. Officials also point to the city’s partnership with the Gavin Foundation, an organization that helps provide treatment and recovery options in Boston and across the country. Earlier this month, Wu announced that the city secured a $200,000 grant to expand this partnership.
The city maintains a Mass. and Cass dashboard with a variety of statistics related to the area. The number of “BPD incidents” there spiked last summer before decreasing during the colder months. The number of incidents has generally risen again since this spring but has not yet reached the levels seen last year. The number of “EMS incidents,” however, reached levels this summer not seen since 2023.
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Officials say that many of the people who gather near Mass. and Cass do not actually live in Boston. As such, City Council members recently voted in favor of creating a new “intermunicipal fund” that would require nearby communities to make financial contributions toward improving the situation at Mass. and Cass.
Councilor Ed Flynn, a frequent critic of the Wu administration, pushed back on the mayor’s characterization of Boston being the “safest major city in the country.” Wu often deploys that line in interviews and official statements, citing stunning decreases in gun violence that have occurred under her leadership. Flynn is having none of it, writing in a post on X that the administration should declare a public safety emergency in response to the recent concerns.
Kraft also said that Wu should take “emergency measures” to pick up more needles.
“Mass and Cass is a public health emergency, and the large number of discarded needles are a part of this emergency. The city disperses hundreds of thousands of needles every year, which they are happy to promote,” he said in a statement. “It is also their responsibility to pick up discarded needles promptly to keep Bostonians safe – especially our children.”
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