Neighborhood rampant with rodents, according to findings from recent BHCA Streets & Sidewalks Committee survey
By Dan Murphy
Among the findings from a survey recently administered by the Beacon Hill Civic Association Streets & Sidewalks Committee is that 95 percent of respondents reported seeing a rodent in the neighborhood while 40 percent said they had seen a rodent in their own buildings.
“The current trash pick-up schedule we feel is the main factor [for the proliferation of rodents in the neighborhood],” said Rajan Nanda, committee chair. “The BHCA has long advocated for a change to this timing (i.e. same day trash put-out and pick-up). Ideally, trash pick-up time should be 9 a.m., so that residents are not encouraged to leave their bagged trash out overnight. This leaving of trash bags overnight attracts rodents. If trash could be left out only in the morning hours on the day of pick up, we feel this would have a significant impact.”
Regarding the city’s trash and recycling regulations for Beacon Hill, 85 percent of survey respondents said they were aware of fully aware of them while 14 percent said they were somewhat aware of the regulations. Only 1 percent of respondents said they weren’t aware of these regulations at all.
The 2025 Streets & Sidewalks Committee Survey was sent to 679 BHCA members on Jan. 30, with 188 of them participating in the survey and the last response coming in on Feb. 20. Of the respondents, 80 percent said they owned their own homes while the remaining 20 percent were renters in the neighborhood.
One hundred percent of respondents said they had observed uneven and/or missing bricks on neighborhood sidewalks while 80 percent said they had tripped or fallen on these sidewalks. One percent reported having trouble navigating neighborhood sidewalks with mobility aids, and 8 percent said they had trouble pushing a stroller on the sidewalks. Another 11 percent of respondents said they had at some point experienced difficulty walking on neighborhood sidewalks when the city apparently had difficulty removing snow and ice.
Meanwhile, 87 percent of respondents said they are familiar with the city’s BOS:311 app, which helps facilitate constituent services, while the remaining 13 percent were unaware of the app. Nanda encourages residents to use the app to alert the city of missing bricks in the sidewalks.
The overall sense of safety on Beacon Hill is high, with 77 percent of respondents saying they felt safe in the neighborhood, compared with 22 percent who said they felt somewhat safe and the remaining 1 percent who said they didn’t feel safe there.
“We feel that as a pedestrian neighborhood, there is usually a good amount of foot traffic,” said Nanda. “We also think that the sense of community felt on Beacon Hill gives people a feeling of safety. Recently installed cameras will help increase the sense of safety.”
But despite the prevailing sense of safety, 42 percent of respondents said they had been the victim of a crime in the neighborhood, compared to 58 percent who said they hadn’t been targeted there.
“The fact is that this is such a high number merits a further look into this,” said Nanda in response to this finding.
Additionally, 45 percent of respondents said had seen discarded drug paraphernalia in or around the neighborhood.
Eighty-two percent of respondents said they had encountered homeless individuals in or around Beacon Hill while the remaining 18 percent said they hadn’t seen anyone who appeared to be homeless in the neighborhood.
Survey respondents felt significantly less safe on the Boston Common, with only 20 percent of respondents saying they felt safe there. In contrast, 52 percent said they felt somewhat safe on the Common; 22 said they felt not very safe there; and 6 percent said they entirely unsafe there.
Meanwhile, 64 percent of respondents said they parked a vehicle in the neighborhood, but only 3 percent of them said they could always find parking there, compared to 32 percent who said they found parking most of the time; 58 percent who said they sometimes found parking; and 7 percent who said they could never find parking on the Hill.
“Contractor parking is a big concern in our compact neighborhood,” said Nanda regarding the relative scarcity of street parking on Beacon Hill. “This is most likely limiting the ability of residents to find parking.”