I encourage folks to read the candidate interviews here <https://www.bcheights.com/2023/11/10/meet-newtons-new-city-councilors/>. The grassroots organization endorsed 11 candidates - 10 of them were elected.
The citizens' group concerns were very similar to ours, that is, maintaining influence over developers and ensuring citizens are heard. Ultimately, it is the town as a whole that should decide, following a democratic process. “For-profit developers don’t ever try to lower housing prices,” [newly-elected Councilor] Lobovits wrote in the statement regarding housing affordability. “Their redevelopment model is based on pushing rents and housing prices as high as possible because their only motive is maximizing profits.” On Sun, Nov 12, 2023 at 7:39 PM John Mendelson <johntmendel...@gmail.com> wrote: > Not terribly surprising. People fighting change and perpetuating > exclusionary zoning practices are what got us into the housing crisis to > begin with. > > For more, read this: > > > https://tcf.org/content/report/walls-exclusion-massachusetts-three-mothers-overcome-discriminatory-zoning-laws-improve-lives-children/ > > *The constraint on supply has had a highly predictable result. In a 2020 > study of housing affordability by Moody Analytics and U.S. News & World > Report, Massachusetts ranked forty-eighth of fifty states, making it one of > the least affordable states in the country for housing. The median price > for single-family homes in the state exceeds $500,000. In Boston, the > percentage of homes in the metropolitan area that cost $1 million has > nearly doubled in five years.* > > John > > On Sun, Nov 12, 2023, 7:07 PM Karla Gravis <karlagra...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I would encourage folks to read about what happened in Newton's recent >> elections, held this past November 7th. >> >> A grassroots volunteer group was created due to resident >> dissatisfaction with the HCA plan being proposed by the town, as well as >> discontent with residents' voices being ignored. The local movement group, >> "Save Newton Villages", endorsed a number of candidates and won 5 seats >> in the recent election (Micley, Farrell, Block, Getz, and Lobovits were >> all endorsed by “Save Newton Villages"). >> >> Interestingly, even though Newton is very different from Lincoln, the >> concerns of the Newton local group mirror the concerns being expressed by >> Lincoln residents. You can look at their site here >> <https://savenewtonvillages.com/what-residents-want> for the full list, >> but they include: >> >> - Zoning should be for people, not for developers! >> - Give Newton citizens a voice and let them vote on zoning reform! >> - Newton should hold onto our “Special Permit” power over developers >> so we have greater control and public input over what gets built and how. >> - Conduct a community capacity/needs assessment. >> - The minimum open space requirement for a lot in the proposal (30%) >> is much too low; it needs to be at least 50%. Preserve nature, don’t >> over-build. >> - Promote and support much more affordable and moderate income housing >> - City Hall's zoning proposal needs to be changed! It's unreasonable. >> Their proposal allows buildings that are too high and out of scale with >> the >> villages, calls for too much density, will lead to gentrification, is >> not environmentally friendly, will harm local small businesses and fails >> to >> provide enough affordability." >> >> A few quotes from the winning candidates >> <https://www.bcheights.com/2023/11/10/meet-newtons-new-city-councilors/>: >> >> - “For-profit developers don’t ever try to lower housing prices,” >> Lobovits wrote in the statement regarding housing affordability. “Their >> redevelopment model is based on pushing rents and housing prices as high >> as >> possible because their only motive is maximizing profits.” >> - “[VCOD] will zone for around 15,000 by-right units—much taller >> buildings by-right than we need to to reach the mandate,” Micley said. “My >> issue with that is, I really think it just gives up too much power to >> developers that we don’t need to hand over to them.” >> - “We have to weigh [traffic] when we think about what kind of >> additional housing we’re going to allow in this city,” Block said. “I >> chaired the neighborhood committee and was part of the negotiating team >> that advocated for a smaller development to reduce the impact on the >> adjacent neighborhoods,” Block said. “With support from our Ward 4 >> councilors … we reached an agreement with the developer for a development >> of 1 million square feet, one-third commercial and two-thirds housing.” >> - “(...) most of it’s going to be market rate and what they call >> affordable, again, in my opinion, is not affordable for the people that we >> would want to live there.” Farrell said. >> >> -- >> The LincolnTalk mailing list. >> To post, send mail to Lincoln@lincolntalk.org. >> Browse the archives at >> https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. >> Change your subscription settings at >> https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln. >> >>
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