Weekend canvassing & upcoming events This weekend we’ll be out canvassing with Jon Link and Ben Wheeler. We hope you’ll join us! Canvassing with Willie Burnley, Jr. Canvass with Jon Canvass with Ben We also encourage you to help our other endorsed candidates with time and/or money if you can:…

Come out this weekend and get out the vote for Jon, one of our endorsed candidates for city council at large!

Two great events on Wednesday 10/8 We’ve got dueling events on Wednesday October 8, and we hope to see you at one of them! Zoning Lessons for Housing Affordability Please join A Better Cambridge and Somerville YIMBY on October 8 for a panel discussion on Zoning Lessons for Housing Affordability…

Panel on October 8: Zoning Lessons for Housing Affordability, from National to Local Please join A Better Cambridge and Somerville YIMBY on October 8 for a panel discussion on Zoning Lessons for Housing Affordability From National to Local. Speakers include: John Infranca of Suffolk Law and Jake…

October is Canvassing Time Do you like talking with people? Even if you don’t, would you be willing to have a few short conversations anyway? Somerville YIMBY is knocking on doors and making calls for our endorsed candidates, and we need your help. Wear your Somerville YIMBY shirt if you’ve got…

Single-stair reform would be a huge win for building abundant homes in MA, and especially for allowing more family-friendly homes to be built!

Somerville CLT & Just A Start have acquired 297 Medford St to build a 100% Affordable project! Congrats to both organizations, we look forward to supporting this effort 🎉

And now everything is (unofficially) counted for the preliminary here in Somerville. Some 100 votes remain to be hand counted, election officials say. Jake Willson seems to have 42 percent of the mayoral vote. #Somerville

Preliminary Election Day is Today! The Somerville preliminary election is today, September 16. Elections like this have low turnout, so your vote is especially important. The next few years will be very important for the city’s overall direction and growth, so please be sure to show up and vote…

Hey folks! Abundant Housing MA IEPAC is having a fundraising house party this coming Wed. Sept 17 in Somerville, and we’d love to see you there! Register here: actionnetwork.org/events/ahma-... #MApoli #VilleMA #SomerPoli

Early Voting Starts Today: Why We Support Willie Burnley Jr. Somerville needs more housing and more staff with living wages. Willie Burnley, Jr. is the best choice for mayor to solve these problems. In the Somerville YIMBY survey this summer, we asked candidates: “Our neighbors in Cambridge have…

With early voting starting tomorrow, it's great to have the support of @somervilleyimby.org in my race to become the next Mayor of Somerville! We can elect a pro-housing movement focused on ensuring Somerville has economic diversity and housing stability. Join us: linktr.ee/WillieforSomerville

Sept 5 2025 Social: Canceled! Hey folks! This Friday’s social, Sept 5, is canceled to avoid conflicting with the Mayoral Forum on Libraries and Schools:

What exactly counts as transit oriented? For many months now, Somerville YIMBY has been working with city councilors and city staff on a broad proposal to update Somerville zoning citywide. This summer, residents have been especially keen to discuss upzoning, and some have suggested that…

Catie Gould and Kate Brunette Kreuzer were on the frontlines of two of the biggest state pro-housing wins in the country so far. They built meaningful connections with coalition partners and leveraged hard-earned expertise from prior years to get it done in the Evergreen State. Hear their story:

Action alerts: Send an email, have a chat Write to the Planning Board Last Thursday, the Planning Board reviewed a proposal to build a small apartment building at 675 Somerville Avenue. This modestly sized three-story building would be built and operated by a local family business. It’s replacing…

Excited to canvass for @willieburnleyjr.bsky.social after the @bostondsa.org General Meeting tomorrow! I’ve organized with Willie since his 1st campaign. From ending forced brokers’ fees to curtailing surveillance tech, he’s been a partner. And he’ll be a great Somerville Mayor. Prelim is 9/16!

I'm so pleased to have the endorsement of @somervilleyimby.org and @gblcboston.bsky.social! More are on the way - you can find all of our endorsements at www.willmbah.com/endorsements

Take action to support housing Do you like talking with people face to face? Even if you don’t, would you be willing to have a few short conversations anyway? Somerville YIMBY is ready to start knocking on doors for our endorsed candidates, and we need your help. Wear your Somerville YIMBY shirt…

We love to see these sorts of awesome safety & livability improvements!

Happy to report that the Somerville YIMBYs have endorsed me. I’m excited to help bring more housing (esp. affordable) to our city through upzoning around transit hubs and supporting the amazing work of orgs like the Somerville Community Land Trust. Let’s work together to make good things happen.

I'm proud to have earned the endorsement of @somervilleyimby.org as the housing candidate for Mayor. As Mayor, I will continue to fight for renters, to build more housing, and to ensure affordable and accessible units are available to keep our neighbors in this place we call home!

Council & Mayoral Endorsements The Somerville preliminary election on Tuesday, September 16, 2025 will include votes for mayor, city councilor at large, and councilor for Ward 7. Based on candidate survey responses, individual conversations, public statements and established track records, we…

Somerville YIMBY’s 2025 election endorsements are here! We’re pleased to endorse these candidates: @willieburnleyjr.bsky.social @scottistvan.com @benjiwheeler.bsky.social @wilfredmbah.bsky.social Jon Link @benforward3.bsky.social Naima Sait Emily Hardt Read on: somervilleyimby.org/elections/20...

One of the things that’s great about allowing & building an abundance of homes is that, even when those new homes are high-end & high-priced, they have the biggest positive impact on the housing most likely to be attainable to lower-income folks. New housing helps everyone!

Over & over again, scientists find the same results: building abundant homes works to reduce the cost of homes! Cambridge has done the work to allow more homes, come on Somerville, let’s do this!

We’re out in the Bow Market courtyard tonight, Remnant has a private party! Look for Josh and Jeff

This month’s social is tonight at Remnant Brewing! Typically it’s the first Friday of each month, but last week was July 4th, so we moved it to tonight. Hope to see you in Union Square this evening!

One of our city councilors is stepping down, and having a thank you party to celebrate her time on the council!

Hey, that’s our petition! We’re trying to rationalize & liberalize the rules around dormers. It’s a small, but meaningful, thing for many homeowners who want to renovate their home instead of having to move.

Hey #MApoli, let’s do this! We know @abundanthousingma.org has a study bill at Beacon Hill, but how about we just go ahead & legalize it? Plenty of places have already studied this! What say you @mikeconnollyma.bsky.social?

We love to see it! And just like Minneapolis, Austin, Oakland, and Tokyo, building an abundance of homes here will also reduce rents. Let’s do it!

We’re on the agenda tonight! Huge props to our member @taniith.bsky.social who wrote the zoning amendment we have before Land Use Committee of our City Council this evening. Here’s to simplifying our rules around dormers!

Correction: Help us out at Land Use this week https://newsletter.somervilleyimby.org/p/correction-help-us-out-at-land-use-this-week

April news from Somerville YIMBY https://newsletter.somervilleyimby.org/p/april-news-from-somerville-yimby

I work in a “housing first” program in Atlanta and this will absolutely get people killed.

Our very own @thejeffbyrnes.com is remotely attending tonight’s #VilleMA Land Use Committee + Planning Board joint hearing! Up first is 297 Medford St, a proposal to build 7 storeys, ~50 homes of 100% Affordable Housing, making use of our Affordable Housing Overlay.

Tonight @ 6pm, @cityofsomerville.bsky.social Land Use Committee & Planning Board host a joint hearing to discuss multiple projects! * #Somernova * Just-A-Start + SCLT 100% Affordable bldg * More homes at Assembly Row! Speak up for abundance! us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #VilleMA #SomerPoli

Great to see @thejeffbyrnes.com of @somervilleyimby.org presenting a ‘Streetwise’ talk at Aeronaut. The new ‘barrel room’ is super nice.

As a YIMBY, I fully support converting buildings like this to supportive housing. Because there are _plenty_ of opportunities to enable market-rate homes, and scarce few to create supportive housing to help the worst off among us. ”Yes, and” is my YIMBY byword.

Fantastic paper from @shoshannasaxe.bsky.social et al on the misguided notion that tall buildings have higher embedded GHGs -- they do, but the difference is swamped by the road, sewer and other infrastructure needed to support more, shorter buildings. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...

Hey folks, a correction! @thejeffbyrnes.com is speaking at Streetwise on Feb 26, 6pm, at Aeronaut. Hope to see you there!

We’re delighted that our next-door neighbors passed an historic zoning reform tonight! Six floors & corner stores are now legal citywide in Cambridge! 🎉 We’re working on Somerville’s version of the same thing, so stay tuned… #MApoli #YIMBY #AbundantHousing

Cambridge, MA just upped the ante for every pro-housing municipality in the USA, legalizing 4-to-6 floors & corner stores on every lot in the city. This is what it looks like to truly prioritize affordability & creating access to homes of all shapes and sizes. Absolutely historic.

We’ll be there!

As renters continue to grapple with the rising costs of housing, my office hears them loud and clear. That's why we're suing RealPage and the nation's largest landlords to hold them accountable for working together to keep rents high. www.wbjournal.com/article/thre...

Woooooo! Let’s go let’s go let’s go!

Today we dropped off our first zoning amendment petition! This amendment will simplify & streamline regulations for building or renovating dormers, removing multiple onerous rules that make it difficult or impossible for folks to modify their homes to better suit their ever-changing needs.