Greetings everyone,
It’s a busy week, so let’s get right to our two key Action/Learning Items:
Action/Learning Item No. 1: Join us in person at Brookline Booksmith at 6:00 pm on Monday, 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. Registration is free, though contributions to support B4E are welcome, and we look forward to another chance to connect in person with each other.
Action Item No. 2: Attend the Select Board Meeting (in person or on Zoom) on Tuesday, March 28, at 5:45 PM to hear the Planning Department’s update on the Harvard Street Corridor and related plans to comply with the MBTA Communities Act. (The meeting actually starts at 4:00, but this item is scheduled at 5:45, and it is always a good idea to show up 10-15 minutes early if you can.) You can register here for the Zoom meeting, or attend in person in the Select Board Meeting Room on the 6th floor of Town Hall, 333 Washington Street. You can also review an outline of the presentation here. This will be a public hearing, with public comments, and we urge everyone who feels comfortable to speak up and support the Planning Department’s work. If you can’t attend, we encourage you to send a short support letter to the Select Board in care of Charlie Young at this address: cyoung@brooklinema.gov. And, if you haven’t already, you can also sign our petition to encourage the Select Board and Town Meeting to support the Planning Department’s Harvard Street Corridor Proposal to comply with the MBTA-CA. Thank you for your continued support.
Finally, a few quick updates on coming attractions and one easy learning opportunity;
- Town Elections are coming fast on May 2nd. Watch this space next week for B4E’s endorsements for Select Board and Town Meeting Members. If you would like to help with door-knocking, texting, or anything else, sign up on the B4E website. And if you’re able to contribute financially, we encourage you to support the Brookline for Everyone PAC; every dollar counts, and we thank you!
- Next Monday, April 3, the Economic Development Advisory Board (EDAB) has its regular monthly meeting from 7:00-9:00. You can register here, and find the agenda here. The first item on the agenda will be a presentation by Senior Planner Maria Morelli on the status of the Harvard Street Corridor/MBTA-CA compliance, followed by a Public Hearing on Warrant Article 24, which proposes to establish a parallel process to the current Planning Department effort to respond to the MBTA Communities Act by establishing a Moderator’s committee. We are deeply concerned about this proposal, and will provide more details, along with our recommended comments, in next week’s newsletter; for now, we encourage you to register and add it to your calendar.
- How much do you really know about homelessness? Take 5 minutes for this Quick Quiz from the Urban Institute. Spoiler alert: while mental health, substance abuse, poverty, and weather, and race are all factors, the biggest predictor of homelessness is . . . you guessed it, housing prices.
Thanks and have a great week,
Jonathan Klein, on behalf of Brookline for Everyone