Homeless camps and trash in the Fitchburg Cutoff Bike Trail

 The Covid pandemic and the opioid crisis have increased the level of homelessness throughout the nation.  The economy has faltered and economists don't expect to recover for a decade so this will be a persistent, heartbreaking problem for years to come. The health care system is also failing those addicted to opioids.

Homeless camps have appeared in the Fitchburg Cutoff bike trail that links Alewife to Brighton Road.  The Belmont Community Path will extend this path to Waltham bringing the problem of homeless camps to the back of abutters' homes.   Addressing his concerns to the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization (Boston MPO) since town officials won't hear our concerns, a fellow abutter wrote as a follow up to a previous letter:

RE: continuing tent village and trash problem on the Fitchburg cutoff path. 

Hi Matt, 
Thank you for your response dated 2/27/2021. It provided more information than we have received from the bike path committee in its various forms and the town, in 20 years. 

In my email dated 2/11/2021, I informed you and the MPO of the  existence of the tent village on the Fitchburg cutoff path in Cambridge. Since that time the village had disappeared, for a while, thanks to you and your fellow committee members. However, the occupants left behind a great deal of trash(some of it quite large)in a very sensitive area. Please see photos 1, 2 and 3 attached below.  

Also, like a bad weed, a village has popped up again in the same place with a different colored tent.  Please see photo 4 attached below.  

This is a recurring problem on the Fitchburg cutoff path. This is the 4th village that I know of in this area. As a Channing Rd abutter, I do not want the trash nor unknown people to accumulate on the north side of the MBTA RR tracks in Belmont close to my home and to create a security problem. I also do not need the rats or other vermin that will be attracted by the above mentioned. 

Thank you,
P.C.




 

 

The problem of trash behind our homes will not only be related to homeless camps.

 I have been informed by the DPW Chief that there will be no trash cans installed along this park that, according to the Pare feasiblity study, will see ~1000 visitors PER DAY. The town hopes that many of these people will stream to Belmont Center eateries where they will buy drinks, bagels, snacks, ice cream and pizza.  Then, most likely, they will head back to the park to eat and trash.  It will be up to us, abutters, to pick up the trash to diminish the fly and rat infestation that will naturally follow.

Anyone wonders why we complain about how these park is being planned?

 

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