Abstract
The City of Boston’s Long Island was once used as a location that supported housing and substance use treatment services for over 400 individuals. In 2014, the bridge that provided access to Long Island was condemned due to faulty infrastructure and safety concerns. The abrupt closure of the bridge resulted in the displacement of social service agencies and the individuals utilizing those services. The unintended consequence of closing the bridge forced those displaced from Long Island to seek out services near Boston’s South End at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melena Cass Boulevard known as ‘Mass & Cass’. Following the closure of the bridge, Mass and Cass, an area well-known for social services, experienced exacerbated challenges related to the increased visibility of substance use and homelessness. As a result, Boston political leaders, service providers and South End residents have long advocated for the bridge to be rebuilt and for services on Long Island to be restored. Efforts to rebuild the bridge have been consistently contested by the City of Quincy because access to the bridge ran through Quincy’s Squantum neighborhood. I used interviews with stakeholders from Boston and Quincy and participant observation in both cities to uncover the broader conditions of the sociopolitical dispute around access to Long Island.