Greetings everyone, and happy December! It is a busy month with Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, and lots of parties, so before we get to the week ahead, we are delighted to announce the Fabulous Brookline for Everyone + Yes! In Brookline Holiday Open House in two weeks on Monday, December 18, from 6:30-9:00 pm (location near Coolidge Corner). We have lots to celebrate, including B4E’s winning slate in Town elections, and the Yes in Brookline coalition’s overwhelming success in passing meaningful MBTA-CA compliance at Town Meeting. We will have plenty of food, drink and good cheer. Come join us! You can find more information and RSVP here.
And in the holiday spirit, please consider a generous gift to the Brookline Holiday Toy Drive, sponsored by the Brookline Community Development Corporation and the Brookline Housing Authority. You can drop off new, unwrapped toys for kids ages 0-14 until December 11 at Brookline’s public libraries, and other locations (more information here), or for those who don’t have time to shop, please consider a cash contribution here to BCDC so they can purchase holiday gift cards for Brookline kids in our affordable housing developments. Please be generous!
Now, on to the week:
- The Housing Advisory Board will be meeting on Wednesday, December 6 at 5:30 pm via Zoom. The wide-ranging agenda includes review and discussion of housing-related applications for Community Preservation Act funding, a presentation from the BHA of their Walnut-High Street project (with a possible vote of support), and updates on other items, including possible revision to Brookline’s ADU bylaw. You can find the full agenda and related documents, and Zoom registration info can be found here.
- The Economic Development Advisory Board (EDAB) meets on Monday, December 4 at 7:00 pm, including an MBTA-CA recap and a discussion of “Next Steps in Implementing the Ground Floor Commercial Incentive.” You can find the full agenda and related documents here and can register for this Zoom meeting here.
- Also on Wednesday, Dec. 6, the Citizen’s Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) is holding an in-person forum entitled Zoning for Equity from 9:30-11:30 am at MetroHousing Boston’s office in Roxbury. This forum will include an excellent panel to help understand opportunities and limitations of modern zoning, including Amy Dain, researcher and author of the newly released Exclusionary by Design: An Investigation of Zoning’s Use as a Tool of Race, Class, and Family Exclusion in Boston’s Suburbs, 1920 to Today. You can find more details and register here.
Here’s a quick reminder about our favorite way to search for affordable housing in Massachusetts, Housing Navigator. We’ve mentioned them several times before, and they continue to improve their tools. We love their bi-weekly newsletter (you can see it here, and can subscribe here), which features include First Come First Served (FCFS) units, new Lotteries, and Short Waitlists which are always being updated. Check it out!
And finally, after our successful 2023 we’re excited for the possibilities and progress 2024 holds. While our all-volunteer board and many volunteers throughout the year provide the labor, we rely on contributions from people who value the work we’re doing to make sure that we can keep informing and mobilizing our Brookline neighbors. Please use this link to donate directly to Brookline for Everyone so that we can continue our important work.