Police expecting a rough summer ahead, in the city. (Boston: elementary school, rail)

[msRB311]

What is up with all the weed advertisements? They seem tacky. I had to go to Springfield a few months ago and I couldn't believe the amount of billboards on the highway and driving through the area for weed. Does it need to be that heavily advertised?

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by msRB311

What is up with all the weed advertisements? They seem tacky. I had to go to Springfield a few months ago and I couldn't believe the amount of billboards on the highway and driving through the area for weed. Does it need to be that heavily advertised?

Well yes, it does. The state has done a lot to impede the businesses from growing naturally at every turn- so they advertise aggressively. Go to California and you'll see fewer advertisements than MA. Mass is or like Nevada with it.

The idea/hope was to stamp out the illegal market which hasn't happened yet due to price/lack of places to smoke legally/purchase limits/quality and taste issues due to overly stringent testing. If you know weed and the industry then the reasons for what you've stated are plain. The weed is still pretty expensive and sterile (but effective) so you have to convince people to buy it. Large swaths of the state still don't have convenient access to stores or even delivery. Mainly the Neponset Valley Part of the state (Milton Randolph Canton Walpole Wrentham Stoughton) and North Central MA as far as I can tell.

[id77]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

hmmm was there the day before. Everywhere I went during my trip, bad youths were there the next day making the news.

My observations from being up in Boston last week.

• More graffiti and murals than I remember.
• Certainly more homeless
• Worse Road Conditions
• Downtown wasn't its old self but getting close to it, I did notice vacant storefronts
• More white people in Roxbury. I saw ~5 during my 4 days there, which is a lot for Roxbury but nothing like a Harlem...
• Speed bumps in some of the 'inner city' areas
• Nightlife seems to have recovered very quickly. I went to Good Life Bar and it was more packed than it was during my peak club days circa 2016/2017. All three rooms.
• Lack of Gas Stations, every gas station is closing/being converted.
• Tons of weed advertisements and talk, but maybe because I was up there on 4/20
• Tourists are avoiding Downtown Crossing that's easy to see.
• Newbury/Back Bay remains unchanged
• Forest Hills Area doesn't feel vastly improved despite the removal of the Casey and the completion of all the New apartments
• Apart from Seaport/Southie on Dot Ave and Egleston Square its visible that construction has slowed significantly over the last few years.

The Ink Block area along Harrison has also had significant amounts of new construction in the last 5 years. It's practically Seaport 2.0.

[WestieWhitie]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

hmmm was there the day before. Everywhere I went during my trip, bad youths were there the next day making the news.

My observations from being up in Boston last week.

• More graffiti and murals than I remember.
• Certainly more homeless
• Worse Road Conditions
• Downtown wasn't its old self but getting close to it, I did notice vacant storefronts
• More white people in Roxbury. I saw ~5 during my 4 days there, which is a lot for Roxbury but nothing like a Harlem...
• Speed bumps in some of the 'inner city' areas
• Nightlife seems to have recovered very quickly. I went to Good Life Bar and it was more packed than it was during my peak club days circa 2016/2017. All three rooms.
• Lack of Gas Stations, every gas station is closing/being converted.
• Tons of weed advertisements and talk, but maybe because I was up there on 4/20
• Tourists are avoiding Downtown Crossing that's easy to see.
• Newbury/Back Bay remains unchanged
• Forest Hills Area doesn't feel vastly improved despite the removal of the Casey and the completion of all the New apartments
• Apart from Seaport/Southie on Dot Ave and Egleston Square its visible that construction has slowed significantly over the last few years.

Construction typically stops when you have a bunch of anti-business maoists running the show. Also, white people typically gentrify hamsterdams and glocksburies once they’re out of other places to gentrify when construction stops due to maoists running the show.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by id77

The Ink Block area along Harrison has also had significant amounts of new construction in the last 5 years. It's practically Seaport 2.0.

But that started nearly a decade ago. Broke ground March 2013, a year after the Herald site closed ...so that's an ongoing project. By 2017 it was already pretty filled out.

[id77]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

But that started nearly a decade ago. Broke ground March 2013, a year after the Herald site closed ...so that's an ongoing project. By 2017 it was already pretty filled out.

And it's been going steady since (much like Seaport). It's only starting to slow now because they're running out of parcels to develop.

It's a bit of an enigma how the parcels with Ming's (and it's parking lot) and the used car dealership at Washington/Berkeley haven't been sucked up and developed into midrises. I have to assume the owners are refusing to sell.

[WestieWhitie]

Originally Posted by id77

And it's been going steady since (much like Seaport). It's only starting to slow now because they're running out of parcels to develop.

It's a bit of an enigma how the parcels with Ming's (and it's parking lot) and the used car dealership at Washington/Berkeley haven't been sucked up and developed into midrises. I have to assume the owners are refusing to sell.

Probably holding out for a nine figure offer because eight figures just doesn’t cut it nowadays. Either that or they’re getting no offers because our councilcritters want at least 50% of new units given away for free and needless to say developers are in the business of making money, not losing money.

[id77]

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

Probably holding out for a nine figure offer because eight figures just doesn’t cut it nowadays. Either that or they’re getting no offers because our councilcritters want at least 50% of new units given away for free and needless to say developers are in the business of making money, not losing money.

I just looked into this now that I got curious. The big parking lot there is owned by Tufts, which explains why it's not moving. The dealership and other parking lot are both owned by an individual LLC which owns about half the block between Shawmut and Washington. Maybe he's holding out to buy the parts between his holdings to do his own development, though the parcel splitting his holdings is owned by the MBTA, so ... maybe not.

[bostongymjunkie]

Some of the people who own property in the South End go back generations to when it was a mixed socioeconomic area. They have more money than they know what to do with and in some cases would rather preserve the local businesses. Some may also be leaving it as inheritance for their heirs.

[massnative71]

Boston Police increasing Mass and Cass patrols after 5 stabbed in 3 days


https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/04...bed-in-3-days/


"Police are increasing patrols in the still-troubled Mass and Cass area after a spate of stabbings, including at the Boston Public Health Commission-run Engagement Center, that again has roiled the South End neighborhood.
Five different apparent non-life-threatening stabbings took place in the area over just the past few days, according to police reports.
The seeming unrelated slashings in and around the open-air drug market in the South End area started just before 5:30 p.m. Sunday, when someone stabbed a man “over thirty dollars,” the victim eventually told police after originally claiming the gash on his thigh came from falling off a guardrail on a nearby bridge. The stabee at 290 Southampton St. — which is actually several blocks away from the concentrated heart of the area up around Atkinson Street — originally gave a fake name and wouldn’t talk, but after paramedics said his wound seemed to be from a stabbing, he parted with the small amount of information.
Monday then saw two stabbings in the BPHC-run Engagement Center on Atkinston Street.

Cops were called around 2:21 p.m. for reports of a stabbing in the smoking area. Police arrested John Hammersley on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and drug possession after, according to the police report, he went looking for “his gram” of drugs he’d hidden near the trash can of the center, realized it wasn’t there, and then knifed the man who he suspected of swiping it.
According to the report, he said he’d just punched the man who stole his stash.
As cops were at the Engagement Center for that call, they were told there actually had been another stabbing there earlier in the same smoking area a couple of hours earlier. There was scant information available about that.
Mayor Michelle Wu’s office said in a statement that the “safety of Engagement Center clients and staff is our top priority.”
“The Boston Public Health Commission is working closely with the Boston Police Department to enhance safety procedures,” a Wu spokeswoman said. “We continuously monitor and evaluate our safety and security protocols to ensure they meet our current needs.”"