Mayor Wu visits shuttered Long Island addiction recovery facility

BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says the city is on track to clear out the tent encampments at so-called ‘Methadone Mile’ by next week.

The Mayor toured Long Island for her first time since the island’s addiction recovery facility was cut off from the mainland when the bridge was torn down years ago.

The city-owned facility previously had upwards of 1,000 beds for addiction treatment. But the bridge connecting the island to the mainland was demolished in 2015 after it was deemed unsafe.

Mayor Wu says right now - taxpayers in Boston are paying $1.3 million dollars per year to keep the facilities heated and operational. Boston and Quincy are in a court dispute over the facility, because Quincy says it doesn’t want the commercial traffic coming through its city - which right now, is the only way to the island.

The mayor and her team think it’s worth the enormous cost to begin using again, using a ferry or a new bridge.

“In terms of what is worth it or not worth it,” Mayor Wu said Tuesday, “Every life we can save, every person we can get housed, is a step forward that we are going to analyze.”

Mayor Wu said Tuesday’s trip was part of a full audit of all city-owned areas to see what could be used in this health crisis. The mayor says everything is on the table, and right now Long Island would be part of the long-term solution.

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