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BLM Statement
Somerville YIMBY Commitment to Anti-Racism
Friends,We've been pretty quiet for a couple of months. First, the pandemic shut down or postponed a lot of community meetings and construction projects that are a mainstay of this newsletter. Then the widespread upwelling of anger and sorrow at police killings gave us pause. We didn't feel like it was our place to talk, and housing policy seemed like less of a priority for everyone.But as we search for solutions to the problems of racism, we have to acknowledge that housing policy is influenced by the same same intractable systemic racism that condones and creates police violence against people of color.Zoning was created to keep people of different races apart. Apartment bans were created to keep lower-income (i.e. minority) people away from higher income (i.e. white) people. Redlining created and reinforced segregation, especially in places like Massachusetts where there weren't explicit segregation laws. If you want a little more background on this, check out this short video from NPR's Code Switch, or Richard Rothstein's book The Color of Law, which is an excellent guide to the racism behind the veneer of dry policy rules.Even today, our systems of housing policy hold up the racist structures that our predecessors built. For example, community meetings about development favor the interests of incumbent homeowners, who are mostly white due to decades of explicitly racist policy. As a result, their concerns about property values and parking override the genuine need of other people to have homes. People who could be our neighbors, friends, and co-workers, but aren't, because we reinforce racism in our urban planning. And that doesn't even begin to address the financial priorities that over-emphasize militarized policing and under-emphasize social services and affordable housing.We can do better. We must do better. And we invite you to join us in our ongoing project of making that happen.Sincerely,The Somerville YIMBY Steering Committee
Take Action
One way to get involved in fixing things is to get engaged in the FY2021 city budget, which is expected to be about $250 million, and tell the mayor and the City Council how you would like to see your money spent. Please email
and
to tell city staff where you would like to see budget dollars allocated (and reallocated) - to public health, to affordable housing, to education. In the next couple of weeks, there will be a public process for people to make comments on the draft budget. It will be announced on the city's website and we'll send you a notification about it by email as well.
Learn More:
In Other News
Ball Square: The Broadway Bridge is open! We can't all throw a party at once, but we encourage you to join the Ball Square District Association in dropping by this week, spending a little money at a local business, and posting a selfie to social media with tags #loyal2local, #ballsquare, and #broadwaybridge.Winter Hill: The Somerville Redevelopment Authority will be having an online public meeting on June 10 at 5:30 pm (tomorrow!). One key agenda item is a presentation about the Winter Hill Neighborhood Plan. Union and Assembly Square updates are also on the agenda. Details and full agenda are here.Boynton Yards: The planning process for the Boynton Yards neighborhood is underway, and this represents a great opportunity to make sure we help guide the city to plan in an inclusionary and anti-racist way. Keep an eye out for announcements about this important project.