🚨 Big news: Abundant Housing MA is announcing our second round of candidate endorsements! These candidates are pro-housing champions committed to making MA a place where everyone can find a home. 🏡 (1/4)

substack.com/@noahpinion/... - Very interesting thought experiment but I disagree. I propose instead to take issues of congestion more seriously. If we can maintain mobility as we density cities maybe backlash won’t be so bad? #CongestionPricing #BuildMABuild #MAYIMBY #MAPoli

A reminder -- not that you need one -- of which party's electeds are routinely calling for political violence. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

They are now looking to move the historic commission Glover hearing to the same location as the Master Plan event.

Oh I seen Teen Vogue is asking the questions @bostonglobe.com isn’t. bsky.app/profile/teen...

One of the hurdles that prevents local govs from performing good public outreach is that they have a need to primarily do this through in-person events between the hours of 6-8 only on weekdays with limited spaces to hold such events.

These “know your rights” articles are obviously necessary and helpful in limited contexts, but they always just stop short of asking the questions that most people seem to be asking like: How do you verify these people in masks kidnapping this person are actually federal agents?

Worth noting too that the roots of MAGA stem from edgelords who memed trump into office in 2016.

New AI public meeting summary project just dropped. We now have 3 projects attempting this for our little town. Love it. allabouttown.com/swampscott/

Cc @sethmoulton.bsky.social if you actually want to run for Senate… @markey.senate.gov actually does support trans rights fully.

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply." me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

Anyway, all the Marblehead Republicans are yelling online that CK quotes that show how horrible of a person he was need “full context” like a the full hour long podcast will absolve him of the full thought displayed in a clip of him saying something nakedly racist.

⏳ Just a few signatures away! We’re close to our goal of 200 signers on our joint letter in support of the #YIMBYBill 🏘️ ✅ Add your name today: www.abundanthousingma.org/sign-letter-... ✅ Already signed? Submit written testimony! Resource packet + templates available here: tinyurl.com/3waz26ms

The funniest/saddest thing to me about local Facebook pages and groups is still that people using their actual names and actual pictures have zero issues going off on a racist rant and then turn around in a different thread and advertise their daycare services or whatever.

All of this.

Not linking to this because I think A LOT of context about the honoree in question was left out, but it’s remarkable how much better the RNC is than the DNC at connecting national level actions to local level here in my neck of the woods.

Nothing gives me greater joy than knowing that a holiday I completely made up (Fall Apple Triumph Day or FAT-D for short) is still going strong with old friends I had to leave behind in Minnesota.

Folks, this is fascism. One of our neighbors has been kidnapped & threatened with deportation b/c he’s legally working to become resident. Despicable stuff.

I swear the abundance crowd is actively trying to harm YIMBYism’s gains with progressives now. Ok, it’s mostly just Ezra Klein.

Hey @sethmoulton.bsky.social voted the right way here. That’s great.

Oh hey. patch.com/massachusett...

IT'S OFFICIAL: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative. The collaborative will issue their own vaccine recommendations and coordinate public health efforts.

It’s worth a reminder that what bigoted social media influencers and their followers call “debate” is really just a way to create, often highly edited, hate-based content for like-minded viewers. We have had this show up in our history here in Swampscott. jewishjournal.org/2022/11/23/s...

There are some interesting ideas in here, but one of the key examples on why direct democracy doesn’t work is to look at how ineffective local town governments are in New England where the residents demand voting on EVERYTHING, but very few actually show up to vote.

Swampscott Select Board going with the number 2 pick tonight. Let’s gooo. swampscotttides.org/top-story/se...

First look at the “Delmar” hotel concept for the Hadley school site in Swampscott and I dunno…I’m not an architect or whatever, but it’s kind of ugly.

Still wild to me that here in 2025 there are people who still haven’t caught on that some people aren’t bringing good faith to the “marketplace of ideas”, they are just performing for each other. You think you’re in a debate. They think you’re the butt of their joke on candid camera.

This would be the last thing you’d hear from me before being incommunicado for a month straight.

Great to testify this morning before the Joint Committee on Housing, alongside @dpherriges.bsky.social of @parkingreform.org, on the need for state level parking reform in Massachusetts.

Just based on initial comments from the new chair of the ZBA, this is already going better than how it went for the Westcott (Elm Place). Hopefully they don’t take the full 180 days this time though. swampscotttides.org/top-story/sw...

🚨Reporting Live: AHMA's priority bill "An Act to Promote Yes in My Back Yard" is being heard TODAY. Tune in to hear our Executive Director and other fellow housing advocates testify in support of new homes! malegislature.gov/Events/Heari...

Worth pointing out, their “free speech” hate celebrations have been primarily against private citizens and this time people mostly just quoted the things Kirk, a public figure, said.

I’m sorry but what does if say about us as a country right now that if you date or perhaps even befriend someone who is trans that this means you have “left political beliefs”? It would seem this says more about what rights political beliefs are. apnews.com/article/char...

They're turning this into their Reichstag fire and they're openly admitting it.

The thing that’s missing from people who have stated in the past few days that “we all need to work together to tone down political violence” is that the current Republican Party and its media ecosystem is in no way interested in doing that. This isn’t nihilism, we just need a different strategy.

Least surprising news out if Marblehead: marbleheadcurrent.org/2025/09/15/b...

like this is the most irresponsible level of hysteria i’ve ever seen. most of these people are either paid by the republican party, or are high level advisors and allies. this is insane

Housing advocates knock on left NIMBYs a lot, but it’s always good to remind people that all of MAGA is actively entrenched against infill housing and views cities as inherently evil. How do you even work with that? This was Charlie Kirk’s view. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

I just looked up the difference between “half mast” and “half staff” because despite opinions to the contrary I am not a sailor, and now I feel legally obligated to point this out to the internet that “half mast” refers to a flag on a ship.

ICE is so stupid. marbleheadcurrent.org/2025/09/12/f...

Final Swampscott Master Plan Advisory Group meeting tonight. One final public session outstanding.

Cc @massgovernor.bsky.social

I will again reiterate that I don’t think YIMBYism actually has much to gain from the Abundance crowd or being a part of the conversations around Abundance.

The opposition to making the Lynnway more pedestrian friendly continues. “It seems to be focused on pedestrians and bikes, neither of which are big users. “ How can we make areas more pedestrian friendly if people who drive cars want to prioritize their speed over pedestrian safety? #mapoli

I’m all for appealing to different viewpoints, even if I don’t agree with them, in order to convince people to sign on to a thing, but Marblehead voters have made it clear that financial arguments are not of concern to them. marbleheadcurrent.org/2025/09/08/m...

This is because despite all claims to the contrary by anti-vax people, vaccines just are not big money makers for pharma companies.

It's Voting Day in Boston! Make an informed vote and read responses to our housing questionnaire! The questionnaire features 10 qs that surveys candidates’ stances on recent initiatives like improving the City’s zoning code, and legalizing more homes. www.abundanthousingma.org/resources/bo...

Kind of crazy to think about the kind of parent MZ is. Either he knows Meta is actively harmful and keeps his oldest kids off of the platforms bc of that or he knows Meta is actively harmful and lets his oldest kids use the platforms. Either way, he sucks as a human being.

Save democracy. Legalize multi-family housing in your neighborhood today.