Thread by @jarjoh

Some people’s refusal to engage in reality has profound consequences for low income people and people of color. For residents of the W-suburbs, Green Line suburbs, & certain coastal towns- you don’t live in a middle class community. You are middle class living in luxury housing.

I wanna say to those folks: Your house with 15-year old appliances, and the same countertops that I have is valued at $950k. It drives me up the wall to see residents in these homes decry $500-750k condos. Like, where do YOU think you live?

Though intentional polices, market forces, and regional trends, it is nearly impossible to build anything other than “luxury housing” in these communities- not that the phrase has any real meaning any more. What’s even more frustrating is a refusal to put forward real solutions.

Small lot sizes, smaller unit sizes, larger buildings that will be both more affordable and could support inclusionary zoning units. I say this not just to rehash an old thread, but to point out that these peoples actions directly contradict with the signs in their front yards.

You see the only place “trickle down” does apply is in housing demand. That couple that would have bought a $650k condo in Newton or Lexington will now buy in Jamaica Plain or Everett. With that supply gone, the couple in the next bracket will now buy in Eastie or Dorchester.

And of course this just crowds out poor folks renting who are living on the margins. It also zaps supply for the POCs who are mortgage ready, but are now competing against people who were ready to put down 20% on a house in Wellesley or Hingham.

So by refusing to acknowledge the realities of the housing prices in their own neighborhoods and by refusing to embrace realistic solutions these development skeptics push housing demand onto poorer communities. No amount of dog whistle signage or appeals to white ethnic heritage

will explain away those facts. Your town cannot be progressive in the metro area with a minuscule amount of people of color- and cannot be progressive anywhere with working class and low income people. Not just kids in your schools- but families in your communities.

There folks in each of these communities organizing and working hard to change parochial, nativist, or sometimes well meaning- but wrong ideas about housing; they’re doing the yeoman’s work. It’s time for state legislators, neutral mayors and councilors, & even the state parties

to support that work. They need highlight that the status quo on housing doesn’t work. Local control with no recognition of the interconnected nature of housing fails poor people and people of color. Full stop. Massachusetts’ ridiculous housing costs are a blight on the CW.