People against bus and bike lanes: “Look, we are just reasonable people with reasonable concerns who just want to take a step back and talk about this.” The same people after expressing their concerns for 5 minutes:

“Addressing the state’s housing crisis is a shared burden, and Marbleheaders can’t look on from Tedesco’s 18th tee as their neighbors Salem and Lynn do all the work.”

Annnnnd the lead petitioner of the foie gras article is asking everyone to vote for indefinite postponement on the article (if it was voted down, there is probably issue voting for it in the future) bc she didn’t include the full by-law language in her submitted attachments.

Found out on Tuesday that Marblehead is also thinking of trying to do some “historic preservation” on the their portion of the Glover site which would prevent housing from being built on the only part of this zone that isn’t golf course. So yes, they really are being pricks.

Being in town governance is like a looney toons episode sometimes…

There is an individual trolling one of the local FB groups using a fake account which is sadly not an uncommon occurrence. I honestly don’t understand what people get out of doing this or how they have so much free time, but I do suspect it’s mostly one local person that’s doing this.

The warrant for Swampscott’s upcoming Town Meeting next week is out. Here are all of the articles. Nothing too spicy fortunately so hoping for a succinct one-nighter. This will be the first year the rec department will be offering limited child care during the meeting which is great.

Smdh, these slightly younger millennials calling you weird.

NIMBY logic is that infrastructure only exists to serve current buildings and can’t be changed and a plot of land can never be used more efficiently than it is today if there is an existing building on it. #haveIgotnewsforyou

I still don’t think people really get that Democrats don’t have a dedicated media ecosystem working to promote them while Republicans do and that’s the main difference. It has nothing to do with “messaging” or “kitchen table issues” or “needing to be more moderate”.

👇👇👇👇👇

Marblehead: the town that compares new housing laws to the revolutionary war while ignoring their own history from the revolutionary war to present and how it led them to their current moment where someone has to rhetorically ask if they are being pricks. swampscottrjag.medium.com/the-history-...

A couple of facts are buried here that highlight perhaps the source of the issue. Mandatory minimum staffing in Swampscott is determined by what is in the police union contract. As stated, there is no flexibility bc the police union contract doesn’t allow it. swampscotttides.org/top-story/sw...

MA State and Lynn Gov: we’re going to slow down cars on the Lynnway and do pedestrian/transit improvements to make people safer and move more people efficiently. Drivers: YOU’RE GOING TO SLOW US DOWN AND THIS IS WHY THE PROJECT SHOULDN’T BE DONE.

I honestly don’t know how the crossing guard at this intersection I walk my son through does it. There is fear in his eyes every time he steps out and at least 30% of the time a car blows through anyway.

The irony of historic preservation is that we spend more time erasing most of the actual history instead of digging into it and learning things about why Marblehead is one of the whitest towns in the state (spoiler: yeah housing is part of it). swampscottrjag.medium.com/the-history-...

the more I think about it, the more I feel like “Odysseus is from Boston” is true in a sort of ecstatic truth way

The Odyssey but it's just trying to get from Amherst to Boston without a car

“wHy ArE wE sTiLl dOiNg BuS lAnEs?? vIRtUe SiGnAl MuCh?!?”

On the one hand, Mr. Modica's Marblehead comments were wonderful as a case of classic YIMBYism—calling out NIMBY bullshit at public hearings. On the other hand, it's symptomatic of a performative "local control" approach to pro-housing reform that we need to move past. My latest on Substack:

The only thing hilarious about this time line is that we are using Douglas Adams’s books as our technological blueprint. apnews.com/video/south-...

On its third attempt tonight, Marblehead Town Meeting approved an “MBTA Communities–compliant” district largely centered on the 125-year-old Tedesco Country Club, meeting 3A requirements on paper while all but assuring no new housing would be built. This comment says it all.

Tying together the preservation effort for the house of a revolutionary war general, racial demographic disparities, housing, and town finance crunches…wasn’t as difficult as you might expect. Quite direct actually.

This needs to be repeated often enough so that people don't forget. Mass murder commited in white gloves doesn't stop becoming mass murder - especially when the racist rationale for the murder is abundantly clear.

Love that people are loving this. More and more people are asking if their towns are kind of being pricks for not allowing more multifamily housing to be built. #yimby marbleheadcurrent.org/2026/05/05/t...

I don’t actually disagree with the sentiment here and would have no issues if the state banned it, but I’m really tired of this particular lawyer bringing a citizen’s petition article regarding very niche animal rights issues to 90% of Town Meetings. itemlive.com/2026/05/04/s...

The Boston area adds a layer or complexity when noticing these because you do have to determine whether the “revolution” themed ones are some far-right whistle or just “dude who’s identity is being a historical expert on the revolution.”

The things US and China could accomplish together if there was a will to work together is a wild thought.

*midlife man voice* please... my hotspan

I honestly don’t fully trust anyone who doesn’t put Arrested Development in this list. Probably AI if you don’t, tbh…smdh.

Well now I’m wondering what percent of Bluesky has actually floated down the Apple River. 15% actually seems likely. 14% have peed in it.

Missing from the summary here: this was done on a sample size of…2 physicians. It’s more accurate to say “hey, this could be an interesting tool to help in the ER” which the paper states instead of “LLMs outperform doctors” which the bad summary states. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Swampscott PD put out this PSA about traffic safety which honestly is a good effort. “We are trying to implement physical changes and use data to monitor” are great things to do! Safe routes are something I asked the town for like 2 years ago so glad we’re getting around to that.

You’d think Hyatt would have changed the name of this status tier after how it was used vocally during the first Trump presidency through Steve Bannon, but they made a choice!

Turnout was even lower than our usual low turnout this year. My guesses as to the reasons: 1.) it was a low drama election. The highest turnout came from a campaign to oust the former town administrator. 2.) it was the week after school spring break. swampscotttides.org/news/inside-...

Turns out none of the concerns raised by the “concerned neighbor” had any validity to them. swampscotttides.org/news/commiss...

New from @pamherd.bsky.social and I: Trump has added work requirements to Medicaid, expanded them in SNAP. Now he is going after public housing. You can do something about it: take 5 mins to write a public comment opposing this change. Instructions enclosed.🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-trump-...

It’s Election Day in Swampscott. I can’t articulate it, but there’s something less egalitarian about the New England town form of government that is reliant on hundreds of volunteers in order to do basic functions. swampscotttides.org/featured/swa...

1.) I agree with Meta that they aren’t a social media company anymore because they’ve degraded the social aspect of their products so much that it’s impossible to use them for social purposes. 2.) I do wonder if they will trot this argument back out for the MA age verification law just passed.

YIMBYIsm is about building more housing in places where it won’t be at risk of rising ocean levels. The whole point is to give more people a safe and affordable place to live. Ergo: this is not a YIMBY thing and the net result is just creating housing that will be more expensive bc of insurance.

To summarize here: this trail is being put on hold because a neighbor thinks the compacted gravel of the trail qualifies as “paved” and will lead to flooding in his yard. swampscotttides.org/top-story/ar...

I often remind people that the housing crisis has put younger and middle aged people in the morally precarious position that we are all kind of just waiting for old people to die in order to be able to find a house.

Fact check: true. swampscottrjag.medium.com/analysis-of-...

Evergreen in local politics.

In fairness, if I recall my time living within the city limits, Ed Flynn is often wrong about a lot of things. So expecting him to consult just maybe one housing expert on this is probably asking too much.

have there been similarly culturally pervasive “everyone needs to start using this tech right now” pushes over such a relatively brief time frame as we’re currently seeing with LLMs? (This is a very genuine question)

It will never stop pissing me off how much trump is going to walk away from this presidency as a “real” billionaire in a way he never was before, and it is going to be solely because of the public office

It’s incredibly refreshing to have a select board race where 3 out of 4 candidates have clearly stated that MORE housing will be good for the town. A select board does not directly change zoning by laws, but they do push the town to explore those opportunities.

I think “guy who only posts things that confirms his priors about somewhat niche things” is fine as your social media personality, but it’s weird to see the NY Times adopt this personality over the past decade.