BPD closes off parkways to shut down dirt bikes, parties

After a late night at work, Allentza Michel arrived at the Forest Hills Orange Line station at 12:50 a.m., hoping to take the 16 bus to Blue Hill Avenue, where she had just enough time to catch the last 28 bus.

All was going according to plan until the 16 bus reached the police barricades closing off Circuit Drive, the road the bus would normally take to cut through Franklin Park to Blue Hill Avenue. With no chance at that point of catching the 28, Mitchell got off the 16, lugging her groceries and a backpack loaded with camera equipment and her laptop.

“I ended up walking home for 40 minutes,” she said.

Call it bad timing or bad luck, but Michel had stumbled across the first night of a Boston Police Department effort at combatting illegal activities such as latenight tailgate parties and dirtbike racing that for the last two years have generated numerous noise complaints. In addition to Circuit Drive, the BPD is closing off portions of American Legion Highway, the portions of Talbot Avenue and Westview Street that border Harambee Park, the portion of South Street that passes through the Arnold Arboretum, Canterbury Street, and streets in the Mass and Cass area from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., Friday through Sunday.

In the Mass and Cass area, the street closures apply to the entire lengths of Hampden and Proctor streets and Newmarket Square.

Michel and others interviewed by the Banner say the closures were not advertised nor vetted through neighborhood organizations whose members use the roads police have closed.

“There was no major announcement, no signage,” Michel said. “Nobody knew they were closed. I asked the bus driver, ‘Do you know what this is about?’ She had no idea.”

Police spokesman Sgt. Detective John Boyle said the department implemented the street closures after they were approached by elected officials and community members complaining of loud parties, many with people blasting music through elaborate car and truck stereos late into the night, in addition to complaints about violent crime.

“It’s an ongoing intervention that we’re continuing to monitor and assess,” he said. “We welcome feedback, naturally. We’ll continue to work with neighborhood groups and local politicians.”

State Rep. Russell Holmes said he has been in conversation with police officials over the last two years and has received numerous complaints from constituents about the noise.

“The question became, how do we stop this from happening?” he said. “How do we address the loud music, the auto racing, the people who are urinating in people’s yards? We can’t go back to that happening again.”

But Fatima Ali-Salaam, president of the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council, said members of her organization were not part of any conversation around street closures.

“Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council had no notification,” she said. “I go to as many as 40 meetings a week. I heard nothing. People who live here in Mattapan are shocked.”

While traffic is often light between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., the closures present a major inconvenience for those who do travel at that time. Ali-Salaam says street closures on Canterbury Street and American Legion Highway could add as much as 10 minutes to a trip between her home and that of her elderly parents, who frequently require rides to the hospital.

Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association President Louis Elisa says he attended meetings about noise complaints in Franklin Park in previous years but was not notified of the plan to close streets. He said that rather than closing the streets to all traffic, police should break up the gatherings and issue citations for excessive noise.

“In our community, we should not have to suffer because police aren’t doing their job,” he said. “You can’t hold the people in a community hostage.”

Streets and parkways surrounding Harambee Park and Franklin Park became popular hangout spots for young adults during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. People with dirt bike and all-terrain vehicles have used the parkways and roads for racing and group rides. Police have issued citations to people from as far away as Brockton and Lawrence for illegal use of such vehicles in Boston.

Holmes said he has frequently received complaints in the early hours of the morning from constituents frustrated by the loud noise from dirt bikes and car stereos.

“I’m getting phone calls and emails in the middle of the night because there are hundreds of people out acting the fool,” he said. “We’re much happier being able to sleep through the night.”

Ali-Salaam said the street closures will simply push illegal activity to other areas.

“What makes them think that the dirt bike riders wouldn’t continue down Blue Hill Avenue or go down Seaver Street?” she said. “I don’t know why that was seen as less dangerous.”