Josh Kraft slams Boston Mayor Wu’s Mass and Cass plan: ‘A clear failure’

Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft hammered Mayor Michelle Wu over worsening conditions in neighborhoods taxed by Mass and Cass spillover, saying that the problem has gotten so out of control that her own staff is admitting failure.

Kraft, citing an admission made by Boston Public Health Commissioner Bisola Ojikutu last week that the city’s plan to tackle the open-air drug market at the so-called ‘Methadone Mile’ area has “failed,” said Tuesday that it was time for the mayor to reverse course and adopt the plan he pitched two months ago to address the crisis.

“Today, I’m calling on Mayor Wu to listen and act, to listen to a community that is suffering and scared, to the experts, advocates and neighborhood leaders here with us today who know there’s a better path forward, and to her staff by immediately changing course on Mass and Cass because what you’re doing here is not working,” Kraft said at a press conference he held at Worcester Square.

“Sadly, the only one who seems to be ignoring the truth is a mayor who keeps trying to convince us that we all live in the safest city in America,” he added.

His plan, he said, includes stricter enforcement for open-air drug use, dealing and related crime, restarting a community syringe program that he says has resulted in a surge in improperly discarded needles since it was discontinued by the city; the implementation of Recover Boston, a community-pitched recovery campus; and a renewed partnership with the state that he says was strained when Wu took office.

Kraft described Mass and Cass as a “crisis with two faces,” pointing to the “human tragedy” of homelessness, addiction and mental health issues that have led to “a story of pervasive public disorder, and a city that has lost control of drug dealing, of human trafficking and of property crime.”

The spillover problem is particularly prevalent right now in the South End, residents and business leaders told the Herald on Tuesday. The mayor’s plan began with clearing out tent encampments at Mass and Cass in late 2023, but has been criticized for pushing the drug use and related crime into surrounding neighborhoods.

“If you don’t live here, you don’t know how bad it is,” Brian McCarter, a 38-year-old South End resident, said. “It’s scary all the time.”

The problem, McCarter said, “just keeps getting worse.” While he attended Kraft’s event, he mentioned that he was more focused on trying to “survive” until the election, than thinking about who he’d vote for.

City Councilor Ed Flynn, who represents part of the South End and was at Kraft’s press conference, said “what is taking place now in Boston must be declared a public safety and public health emergency.”

“We’re here in the South End because the mayor’s management of this crisis has been a clear failure,” Kraft said. “Just look at all the for-sale signs here. We all know that cities grow when they attract families, but families are scared to raise families in this neighborhood.”

Kraft described a scene where there’s frequent open drug use, it’s not uncommon to see addicts passed out on doorsteps, and residents, including children are “forced to witness people selling drugs outside their front door and people injecting, needles littering the ground, and people going to the bathroom on the sidewalk.”

To compound matters, he said, residents are “blown off” by police when they call 911 to report those problems.

“To be clear, the police are not to blame,” Kraft said. “We’ll never get there on enforcement with a mayor who believes public drug use, stealing and quality of life crimes should be consequence-free. I know some people may think the mayor’s plan is rooted in compassion, but there’s nothing compassionate about leaving people perpetually stuck in the grips of addiction. It’s truly heartbreaking.”

Wu fired right back at Kraft. She defended the city’s plan and dismissed her opponent’s criticism as evidence of his lack of leadership.

“We’re sticking with it, and there has been so much done over the past few years,” Wu told reporters, saying that her efforts have ended tent encampments in Boston. “We haven’t solved homelessness, we haven’t solved the opioid crisis, but we’re in a different place now than we were as a city several years ago.

“To say that nothing has happened or everything’s a failure … it’s not leadership to constantly tear down our first responders and public health workers and criticize the city. This has been an ongoing challenge for over a decade.”

Her campaign added that, “It’s no surprise that, like with every other issue, Josh Kraft has plenty of criticism, but no new ideas. It’s not leadership when your only message, day after day, is to root against Boston.”

Wu said the problem on this particular issue dates back to the 2014 closure of the Long Island Bridge and addiction recovery campus

The city’s long-term goal is to get those facilities up and running again to tackle the opioid crisis, but with that being years away, the mayor said her administration is working in the meantime to try to resolve a “really complicated nationwide issue at the local level.” She noted that overdoses are “way down.”

The Newmarket Business Improvement District, which is behind the Recover Boston proposal included in Kraft’s plan, announced the formation of three strategy teams Tuesday that would be focused, in part, on determining the viability, location and cost of at least one long-term addiction recovery campus.

Recover Boston has been pitched by community and business leaders since August of 2023 as a stopgap until the bridge can be rebuilt to a permanent 35-acre recovery campus on Long Island. City officials have indicated that its lack of progress has been due to a funding issue.

Sue Sullivan, Newmarket’s executive director, estimated that such a facility would cost roughly $8 million annually to operate, which she said is “very doable.” She anticipates a combination of city, state and private funding.

“Talk means nothing unless you actually have the money to make something happen,” Sullivan told the Herald. “And we’re at the point where we’re done talking about it. We need to make it happen.”