Greetings for the President’s Day Weekend. We hope you have been able to get outside a bit for the sunny (if cold) weather, and for all the parents on this list, we wish you best of luck coping with — or even enjoying? — school vacation week.
Likely because some folks are out of town, it’s a relatively quiet week for Town meetings and other events, so we will use this newsletter to highlight two upcoming B4E events, and to repeat our ask for your help with the upcoming May Town Election, which is so critical to everything we hope to do.
Looking ahead: We hope you’ll join Brookline for Everyone and Abundant Housing MA at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, February 28th at Hops N Scotch for Brookline’s 2023 MBTA Communities Kickoff. This year Brookline has the chance to pass the MBTA Communities Act, a set of reforms that allows the transit oriented housing our community needs. This is Brookline’s best chance to promote economic diversity, environmental sustainability, and racial inclusion through housing. Join Brookline for Everyone in advocating for the housing we need to make living in our community an authentic choice. Come to hear about Brookline’s MBTA Communities Act compliance plans, but more importantly, come to connect and share a drink with pro-housing neighbors and friends. This event is free, but contributions are gratefully accepted. Register here.
Looking further ahead: Mark your calendar now to join us in person at Brookline Booksmith at 6:00 pm on March 27th for a conversation with Katherine Einstein & Maxwell Palmer, authors of Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America’s Housing Crisis. Einstein & Palmer, political science professors at Boston University, examine how local land use boards and institutions enlarge the power of entrenched interests and privileged homeowners. They draw on sweeping data to analyze the dominance of land use politics by so-called “neighborhood defenders” — individuals who oppose zoning reform and new housing projects far more strongly than their broader communities, and who (not surprisingly) are likely to be privileged on a variety of dimensions. The result is diminished housing stock and higher housing costs, perversely reproducing inequality. You can register here now to reserve your place for this in-person presentation and discussion. Registration is free, though contributions to support B4E are welcome.
More on the upcoming May Election: Brookline’s local May election is just around the corner, and candidates for Select Board, Town Meeting, and more are gathering signatures (deadline is March 24th) and developing outreach plans. Brookline for Everyone is working on our May 2023 electoral strategy, and we need your help. Are you interested in running for local office — there is still plenty of time. Do you want to help with our campaign strategy, door knocking efforts, phone banking, or any other electoral ideas and tactics? Let us know! We’ve already heard from folks wanting to help, but we can always use more hands and energy. And if you’re able to contribute to our work, we encourage you to support the Brookline for Everyone PAC which will support our pro-housing election work; as we gear up for the May election, every dollar counts.
Thanks and have a great week,
Jonathan Klein, on behalf of Brookline for Everyone
PS If you haven’t already please check out our cool new website, brooklineforeveryone.com. We think this site is easier to navigate, helps folks understand why more housing is so important for Brookline, and looks great! Special thanks to B4E board member Katha Seidman for spearheading this major effort.