News & Announcements

We've got a busy week coming up, and we hope to see you at some or all of the following events:

• Somerville YIMBY office hours at CultureHouse, 20 Broadway, this Wednesday the 17th from 1 to 8 pm. Drop by and chat with us about the zoning map, this year's city council elections, housing creation, and how we can achieve equity in development!

• CAAS Somerville Renters Meeting includes a workshop about "Our City, Our Budget," and information about tenants rights and organizing for affordable housing. The primary audience here is tenants, but CAAS is inviting allies to attend and learn about what's going on at the sharp end of the housing crisis. Online, on Wednesday the 17th, from 7:00 to 8:30. Multilingual translation will be provided. Register at bit.ly/Somerville-Renters.

• The Land Use Committee and Planning Board have a joint session that will include updates to dimensional standards of 100% affordable housing buildings in midrise districts. This minor technical change to the requirements for the shape of upper stories of buildings may make it a lot more feasible to build the affordable housing our community needs so much. A proposal about the redevelopment of the collapsed auto body shop at 93 Walnut Street is also on the agenda.

• Voting for the Union Square Neighborhood Council board will be held on May 20 and 23. USNC is an all-volunteer group that, among other things, negotiates and tracks implementation of Community Benefits Agreements for major developments in the square. Anyone who lives, works, volunteers, or owns property in and around the square can vote. Candidate profiles are here, and include Somerville YIMBY member Peter Kim-Santos.

  Development Transparency at City Council

The city's largest and most complex construction projects are what's known as master planned developments, and they begin with negotiations between the mayor's office and the developer, before public proposals or community input. The negotiations are opaque at best and many feel that enforcement of the agreements is insufficient. The Union Square Neighborhood Council has assembled a petition to ask City Council to address the lack of transparency in the planning and development process, and the

council will take it up in their meeting on May 25 at 7:00 pm

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Coming Next Month

Next month, we'll begin circulating our city council endorsement survey and starting a book club to read and discuss

Henry Grabar's book Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World

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