The Huntington News September 22, 2023
The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community
@HuntNewsNU
MISSION HILL RESIDENTS GRAPPLE WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS MOVING TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD Juliette Piovoso | News Staff In recent years, more and more Northeastern students have flocked to Mission Hill for off-campus housing. As appealing as the idea of affordable rent and a more spacious living style is for college students in Boston, surrounding Mission Hill neighbors have had to bear the brunt of this transformation. The influx of students has paved the way for an outburst of rowdy parties and unruly late-night noise
complaints that are hard to ignore for many long-time Mission Hill residents. “It’s more of an annoyance than anything. I have a fence around my yard that has wooden pickets, and, without fail, every weekend, there’s a broken picket. There are always red solo cups littered in my yard, too,” said Candance Belanoff, who has lived in the neighborhood for 19 years. In a community that has consistently been known to appeal to those seeking transient or temporary housing, Belanoff feels as if their impermanence in the area contributes to the chaos they bring. “There is no sense of belonging or feeling like the community
is theirs,” she said. “People feel they can come into our community and party as hard as they want to without affecting anyone else. If you knew it was your mom’s yard, you probably wouldn’t mess with their property like that. But if it’s anonymous, it doesn’t matter because these students are only here for nine months.” As of this year, more than 3,700 out of Mission Hill’s population of 15,600 are off-campus college students —
more than 11% of Boston’s off-campus students in a neighborhood representing 3% of the city’s population, WBUR reported. As Mission Hill’s popularity amongst college students rises, Cindy Walling, a resident of 14 years, acknowledges that many Mission Hill neighbors, including herself, don’t mind the flurries of college kids moving to the area. HOUSING, on Page 3
Graphic by Ali Caudle
Mission Hill, a neighborhood near Northeastern, is home to more than 3,700 students as of this year. Residents have been frustrated with students partying.
Photo by Katy Manning
Boston’s Hemp Fest advocates cannabis reform By Noelia Arteaga News Staff After a windy day full of hurricane warnings delayed planned festivities, Massachusetts’ most 420-friendly citizens enjoyed a sunny day on Boston Common for the 34th annual Boston Freedom Rally, commonly referred to as Hempfest. Hundreds walked through the crowded Parkman Bandstand walkways in Boston Common Sunday in a smoky haze lined with booths of vendors promoting deals on bongs, pipes, oils, vapes and flower. Whether event goers were planning on participating in the THC or CBD experience, attendees did not have to worry about scoring before the event. Held annually on the third Saturday of September, the rally is the second largest annual gathering advocating for marijuana law reform after Seattle’s Hempfest, which Boston’s rally is often confused with. The rally achieved its main goal of legalizing marijuana for statewide recreational use in 2016 and has since become a celebration of the plant’s legalization. While legalizing recreational marijuana at the state level is the main goal for many, medical marijuana —
an important first step in the journey of recreational legalization — seems to be getting left behind. “When recreational [marijuana legalization] comes, medical programs kind of fade away,” said Jeremiah MacKinnon, president and executive director of Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance. MacKinnon’s organization helps medical marijuana patients find products for affordable prices as well as push for bills that make medical marijuana more accessible. MacKinnon explained when states first made their medical marijuana regulations, they were too restrictive, requiring medical dispensaries to grow their own product, cultivate it, take care of their own manufacturing and act as a business. Joining MacKinnon at his booth was Frank Shaw, founder of Frank’s Friends, an initiative that helps medical cannabis patients with HIV/ AIDS and financial hardships obtain medical cannabis at a reduced price. “[Medical marijauna regluations] makes it so our medical market is largely dominated by multi-state, large corporations and not really the small mom-and-pops that really should get a shot at serving patients,” MacKinnon said.
According to MacKinnon, recreational legalization opened the floodgates, and it became easier to operate as an adult-use dispensary. MacKinnon’s organization is pushing for a bill that would make medical licensing systems recreational ones. This means medical marijuana dispensaries would not have to manufacture and cultivate their own products and instead sell through recreational dispensaries as another product on the menu. Shaw, who is HIV/AIDS positive, believes that if he needs the help, others probably need it, too. Now that recreational weed is in Massachusetts for good, another desirable garden dweller is looking for a chance to make a positive change in people’s lives: psilocybin mushrooms. Commonly known as magic mushrooms or shrooms, the fungi is making buzz in the state, with many cities like Somerville, Cambridge, Northampton and Easthampton decriminalizing the Schedule I drug. Lucas Fernandes of Trip2Nite, a business and advocacy group of psilocybin mushrooms for recreational and medical use, grows his own mushrooms so that he knows exactly what he and his customers are consuming.
“I bought mushroom chocolate from a friend and it turned out to be a research chemical, kept me up for a day and a half,” said Fernandes, who has recovered from a heroin and fentanyl addiction. “Luckily, I was three years into my recovery,
and I had been looking for medicinal benefits from mushrooms, which could have potentially sent me back to the street and I could have been doing fentanyl again.”
Photo courtesy Megan Moffat Glass bongs sit on a vendor’s table. Vendors offered deals on bongs, pipes, oils and vapes.
CAMPUS
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
Read how NU students and administration reacted to insensitive SPD footage.
Read about the dance team’s gold bid to nationals in Florida.
Review: read about the latest release from the acclaimed indie artist.
NU responds to bodycam footage
PAGES 6-7
Husky dancers earn bid to nationals
Photo by Sofia Sawchuk
PAGE 8
LEGALIZATION, on Page 4
Mitski unveils artistic 7th album
Photo courtesy Nicole Vicino
PAGE 5
Graphic by Emma Liu