Imploding Democratic policies set a Massachusetts community at odds with the governor after illegal aliens were given preference to their kids.
(Video: CBS News)
As ever, government solutions to government-created problems have bred more issues. With less than 48 hours’ notice, the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts saw that play out at their local community center. Despite backlash at a local meeting, Gov. Maura Healey (D) plowed ahead with the decision to close the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex and Swimming Pool to the public to use it as a shelter for illegal aliens.
“The issue with the migrants is hard. There aren’t easy solutions. Everyone is trying as best they can in what is a really challenging situation. But my administration’s commitment to Roxbury is real,” contended the governor in an interview with the Boston Globe.
Healey had released a statement late Monday announcing the plan to sue the center house as many as 400 people and said, “On January 31, 2024, the Cass Recreation Center will begin serving as a temporary safety-net site for families in need of shelter, especially those who have been sleeping at Logan Airport.”
“We appreciate the collaboration of the City, Roxbury elected officials, and the community who worked with us to ensure we could provide families with a safe and warm place to stay while minimizing the impact to the Roxbury community,” the release went on. “We are working to relocate recreation programs, ensuring the recreation center and the pool can reopen in June, continuing to make improvements to the center for the long-term benefit of the community, and prioritizing diverse and local vendors.”
During the public meeting where Healey had been accused of treating the neighborhood “like garbage,” resident Rodney Singleton had said, “You’re really putting us in a bad, bad situation and it’s not fair.”
“Well, I definitely think the community was not heard or listened to too,” Alenor William told CBS News. The local who takes her elderly father to the center several times a week to walk the indoor track for exercise added, “I also don’t think we even had an opportunity to really talk about how we can provide support to the families here.”
The latest slight against the community followed activist uproar over yet another Walgreens closing in the area. Former Boston NAACP president Michael Curry had chided the company for allegedly putting profit ahead of people telling WBZ in an interview, “What is your obligation? What is your expectation as a corporate citizen to do what’s right for those communities beyond what’s right just for your bottom line?”
The advocate for the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers went on to state, “The communities where they’re closing these pharmacies are communities where people are desperately impacted by disease. Two or three times higher rates in cancer, diabetes, heart disease. Where life expectancy can be 15, 20 years less.”
“It’s a long-term effect that we’re concerned about. Reengaging these kids might not be as easy as 1-2-3,” Boston Bengals youth athletic organization president Domingos DaRosa told the Globe. He went on to add concern for the community represented by Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D) that Healey was “displacing one community to place another.”
The congresswoman had said to the newspaper, “It’s really critical that we are not meeting the needs of these migrants while abandoning the needs of community. It’s not a matter of ‘or.’ It is ‘both and.'”
“The outrage you’re seeing is valid. Roxbury has never gotten its fair share out of the city and the state,” said state Sen. Liz Miranda (D) to the Globe adopting a “tax the rich” stance to resolve the problem fostered by leftist policies.”I understand my neighbors’ pain. I’m hoping West Roxbury steps up, I’m hoping Wellesley steps up, other communities that have rich resources. Roxbury and communities like Roxbury cannot do this alone.”
Healey was scheduled to hold a news conference with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) at the center Wednesday morning as outrage continued online.
This is what we get when we “Vote for Blue and it don’t matter Who!”
— SultanOfBling2 (@SultanofBling2) January 28, 2024
Sure taking away from tax paying citizens. Send them back
— Jean A Fleming (@jea56730) January 28, 2024
@MassGovernor you clearly don’t care about the children and families of Roxbury. How is it okay to put your tax paying citizens last? How is it okay to take more from an already disadvantaged community? Embarrassing. Despicable.
— Lea (@LeaPirate) January 27, 2024
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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