Allston Christmas is now a week and a half behind us but if you’re someone like me, who slowly but surely puts their living space together after emptying mountains of boxes, you might still be feeling that moving hangover. To help ease the pain, and hopefully make your move seem like a less distressing experience in hindsight, we got our hands on the number of citations issued during that fateful date: September 1. Did you get slapped with one of these?
As it turns out, the number of citations issued this year was actually less than that of last year when the City of Boston handed out more than 2,000 tickets. Gabrielle Farrell, spokesperson for Mayor Marty Walsh, told BostInno that 1,510 total code enforcement tickets were issued.
The neighborhood, ground zero for moving mayhem in Boston during September, saw 336 Inspectional Services Department (housing, building and environmental divisions) violations and 36 $300 tickets issued.
There’s a positive side to Boston’s data, though. City officials posted 180 bed bug stickers to help inform the public about the pests the burrow themselves in furniture left for the taking on the sidewalk and they made contact with over 600 students and families.
And Bostonians are getting greener. Instead of adding to the more than 300 tons of trash, they opted to recycle many of their items accumulating to 17 tons.
Arguably the worst Allston Christmas offender, or, rather, the most decrepit property in Allston-Brighton is located at 24 Highgate Street. The City of Boston levied more than a dozen violations against the owners at $300 for each, and the living conditions were so appalling that the students who were moving in opted not to stay until the violations are addressed.
Mayor Marty Walsh even held a Monday afternoon press conference at 24 Highgate to make an example of it.
As one might expect given Allston’s dense student population, that particular demographic was on the receiving end of the brunt of Boston’s moving woes, taking to the Citizens Connect app to air their grievances.
In hopes of diminishing the backlash of moving day, Mayor Walsh opted to put some 50 ISD workers on the street to help manage the spectacle, but until we can compare all of the numbers in full we won’t be able to accurately assess the havoc in comparison to last year. His office also started a social media campaign, using the hashtag #Boston101, and pulled together applicable municipal resources pertaining to moving right here.
