Late March/Early April - Explainers etc.

What Exactly is "Affordable" Anyway?

We've recently added some new pages to our website to explain the basics behind a few key issues:

• What exactly do we mean by "affordable?"

• What is zoning and why does it matter?

Check it out, and if you've got suggestions for more explainers, send them to

[email protected]

.

Historical Preservation and Neighborhood Opinion

Recently, the city took up a discussion of whether to preserve a church building at

125 Highland Ave

. A developer would like to tear it down and replace it with housing, but some community members say it's historically significant and that the building should be kept but adapted for use as housing.

There are some good reasons to tear it down and replace it. For one thing, it's in rough shape, and adapting it would probably mean delays and higher prices for the housing that eventually gets built there. Also, the original designer apparently intended for it to be a monument to white supremacy in architecture and other cultural endeavors.

There are also some good reasons to keep it. First, adapting it for housing would be more environmentally friendly way of building homes than tearing it all down. It's also a style of building that's uncommon in the region, and has already been added to the national register of historic places: intentions of the builder aside, it's definitely notable!

We're interested to see how the city handles this case.

It will next come before the Land Use Committee on April 7

, along with some other issues we're following closely. Stay tuned for an opportunity to take action on those!

Neighborhood Meetings

April 5, 6:00 pm:

100 Broadway

(Sityodtong Muay Thai Academy)

April 6, 6:00 pm:

Spring Hill sewer separation update

and separately, a big meeting on the

Public Safety Building

April 7, 6:30 pm:

Land Use Committee

- covering the church at 125 Highland and an upzoning proposal at 86 Prospect

Public Safety Building Meetings

Citywide meetings about the redevelopment of the Public Safety Building continue, with the next one on

April 6 at 4:30 pm

. This is another complex set of issues with an enormous number of tradeoffs. For many reasons, the city needs a new headquarters for the police and fire departments. However, the initial proposal to spend around $100 million to build it at 90 Washington Street has not met with a warm welcome.

DefundSPD

has been leading on this effort from a police reform perspective, and there are also numerous opportunities to improve the project, including adding housing and retail. We look forward to engaging with the community on this topic over the coming months.