Neil Miller

I’m proud that our city has faced the resulting housing crisis realistically, and with an eye to equity and sustainability. Cambridge started with the 100% Affordable Housing Overlay, which has opened new opportunities for lower-cost housing, with over 800 homes in the pipeline. This year, Cambridge passed a Multi-family Zoning Ordinance – a landmark law that received national attention as it created possibilities for multi-family housing citywide. Among the results of the lowered barriers in this law: a 4-unit lot in mid-Cambridge will become home for 30 households; a one-story retail building with three stores near Porter, fixed at that size and use since 1894, can now become three stores plus 71 homes; a deteriorating historic structure near Harvard Sq. is on track to be restored and maintained because it can share its large lot with housing and a small hotel. Cambridge accomplished all this with planning, deliberation and resident involvement, although not everyone’s policy preferences could be adopted. I expect there will be much more to come as we work our way out of the long-term housing shortage. This is what some Council candidates want to repeal. We’ve seen what happens when conservatives try to take their country back. Some of our local conservatives have announced their intention to take our city back – to the exclusionary policies from the last century. To keep Cambridge on an equitable and inclusionary path, I’m voting for the slate endorsed by A Better Cambridge: Burhan Azeem, Dana Bullister, Mark McGovern, Ned Melanson, Sumbul Siddiqui, Denise Simmons, Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, and Ayesha Wilson. For Cambridge’s sake, I hope you will, too.

Powerful letter to reflect on before you go to vote.

Many candidates are running to roll back the progress Cambridge has made - they are explicitly pro-exclusionary zoning.

A vote for ABC's pro-housing slate will help Cambridge go forward, not back.

www.cambridgeday.com/2025/11/03/c...

No, I don't have a count of 2025 registered voters by precinct handy

Cambridge 2025 vs 2023 early votes

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
#CambMA EV+mail turnout is slightly higher in 2025 vs 2023, as of Saturday before election.
Increases in precincts covering Alewife, Rindge, Port, Kendall, CX Crossing, some mid-Camb.
Decreases in Wellington-Harrington, lower C-port
@johnhawkinson.bsky.social

@ayannapressley.bsky.social is a nationwide progressive leader who's saying YES in her backyard to proven pro-housing champions! Congratulations Mayor Simmons, VM McGovern, @councillorsiddiqui.bsky.social, Ayesha Wilson, @votejivan.bsky.social, @burhanazeem.bsky.social: all 6 ABC-endorsed incumbents

Me (wearing red plaid shirt) leaving a flyer at a door

Your Friendly Neighborhood Puppet Master
cascadeanalytics.substack.com/p/friendly-n...

Two volunteers Sophia and Camilla from 2023 talk about why they canvass.

Canvass TODAY and TOMORROW for our pro-housing slate! More info and sign up here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Hear from our volunteers in 2023 about why they canvassed. Come join us and share your "Why?" for our next newsletter!

The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts Get this The Boston Globe page for free from Friday, October 2, 1981 THE BOSTON GLOBE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1981 47 The ethic of Eleanor Raymond ELEANOR RAYMOND Selected Ar.... Edition of The Boston Glob...

A housing proposal at 84-86 Ellery St, #CambMA was blocked in part b/c architect Eleanor Raymond was born there.

In 1981, Raymond said "I grew up alone by myself".

"No, the house I grew up in was not important to me. I got out of it just as soon as I could."
www.newspapers.com/newspage/436...

Following up on an earlier reply, just finished this piece, from Massachusetts:

Police Planning Places for People: how "stakeholder engagement" inflates reduces livability and increases the cost of affordable housing in Massachusetts

open.substack.com/pub/cascadea...

Police Planning Places for People "Stakeholder engagement" inflates cost of affordable housing in Massachusetts

Police Planning Places for People: how "stakeholder engagement" inflates reduces livability and increases the cost of affordable housing in Massachusetts

open.substack.com/pub/cascadea...

Webpage with highlighted text: "Chapter 40B has a long history of succession Massachusetts"

Freudian slip? "Chapter 40B has a long history of succession Massachusetts" - home rule must really be important in some places.
www.mass.gov/info-details...

Opinion— Let’s get moving on ‘common app’ for public benefits | Dorchester Reporter Massachusetts wants to cut paperwork for people who are applying to public benefit programs. Ironically, the state is stuck in its own paperwork, harming thousands of Dorchester neighbors. Despite the...

My friend @neilsmiller.bsky.social had this excellent piece published in the Dorchester Reporter on how to get MA's common public benefits app moving. I only just got around to reading it but wish I had earlier! It's very accessible, clear writing on a vital but often wonky topic. Check it out!

Young man with glasses smiling with IV in background

Boston cares!
@bostonchildrens.bsky.social Blood Center sent out urgent need for platelets yesterday afternoon, and they've been full all day today.

Make an appointment to donate: www.bostonchildrens.org/halfpints

@mbta.com @mbtaslowzonebot.bsky.social
Shuttles replaced red line through Kendall-- ok, great. But now the train broke at Kendall, my wife and many others are stuck there. It's late, please help everyone get home!

And in the Hingham example the Board of Zoning Appeals required wider interior roads (at least 24 feet) for emergency vehicle access, parking, and school buses

In 40b developers sometimes pay for infrastructure upgrades. In the Shrewsbury link, a letter from the police chief said building a new development would require the town to hire 1.75 additional officers and buy an additional police cruiser - sure the town would want the developers to pay for that

Not research per se, but plenty of examples where police departments make these requests as part of Massachusetts 40b process. May write about some of these soon:
shrewsburyma.gov/1464/104-Mai...
www.hingham-ma.gov/728/Pending-...

Operating Hours & Seasons - Boston African American National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

Two tours daily at the Museum, Wednesday-Sunday, recommend anyone to go visit

A portrait of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whose arrest and trial under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 touched off riots and protests by abolitionists and citizens of Boston in the spring of 1854. A bust portrait of the twenty-four-year-old Burns, "Drawn by Barry from a daguereotype [sic] by Whipple and Black," is surrounded by scenes from his life. These include (clockwise from lower left): the sale of the youthful Burns at auction, a whipping post with bales of cotton, his arrest in Boston on May 24, 1854, his escape from Richmond on shipboard, his departure from Boston escorted by federal marshals and troops, Burns's "address" (to the court?), and finally Burns in prison. Copyrighting works such as prints and pamphlets under the name of the subject (here Anthony Burns) was a common abolitionist practice. This was no doubt the case in this instance, since by 1855 Burns had in fact been returned to his owner in Virginia.

Powerful tour on Underground Railroad and abolitionist history in Boston @ Museum of African-American History. 1854: Bostonians stormed the courthouse where Anthony Burns was being held under the Fugitive Slave Act. May his legacy be a blessing for us today.
img: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Burns

Graphic by Neil Miller: Terminated Contracts Would Cost Harvard Well Under $100 Million. $46.7 Million in Total Outlays ($ Already Paid to Harvard). $89.5 Million Total Obligations (Planned Contract Spending to Harvard). $101.1 Million Maximum Award Amount.

I did the math, the most "damage" that can be done cancelling Harvard's contracts is half of that amount.

open.substack.com/pub/cascadea...

Graphic by Neil Miller: Terminated Contracts Would Cost Harvard Well Under $100 Million. $46.7 Million in Total Outlays ($ Already Paid to Harvard). $89.5 Million Total Obligations (Planned Contract Spending to Harvard). $101.1 Million Maximum Award Amount.

An anonymous Trump official said they were ending $100 million in contracts with Harvard. Dozens of outlets quoted them. I did the math, and that's not possible. The most "damage" that can be done to Harvard is half of that amount.

New:
open.substack.com/pub/cascadea...

Yeah but it was probably more a pro-Fulop vote, instead of anti-Sherrill 🤷 One family member's worked in JC for 30+ years and likes what Fulop's done as mayor. Not strictly voting on statewide policy

Some of my family voted Fulop, but they probably would've voted Sherrill if he wasn't running. Different bases, votes wouldn't transfer cleanly

Analyzing the Haredi Vote in the 2024 General Election • Shtetl - Haredi Free Press Getting into the details of how the Shtetl voted.

The Orthodox community there votes as a block, e.g. leaders say who to vote for and everyone follows their guidance. This year they supported Trump and Gillibrand. Similar pattern in 2020, 2022, not too hard to explain.
www.shtetl.org/article/anal...

A screenshot from a Mass DTA social media promotion related to the SNAP program.

New in the Dorchester Reporter's opinion section: @neilsmiller.bsky.social says Massachusetts is way behind on implementing a 2022 law intended to cut paperwork for people applying for public benefits like SNAP. www.dotnews.com/2025/let-s-g...

Seems like a debate about messaging - the Politico article called it a "policy research and messaging hub." Just thought there'd be more to it than parsing a memo from November 🤷‍♂️

"Medicare for All" is a good message b/c it's universal, "simple, concrete", not just for specific identities

One example, Cambridge, MA just ended exclusionary zoning. Our mayor, a leader in the Black community for decades, said "For too long, exclusionary zoning has put up barriers — barriers that have kept people out, that have restricted growth and have made it hard for families to put down roots"

Friends Without Public Benefits Broken contracting leaves MA families mired in paperwork

In 2023, Mass. allocated millions to build a 'common app' for benefits like SNAP and MassHealth. The $ is still sitting there, stuck in contracting purgatory, and the work hasn't even started yet. 10,000s of families eligible for SNAP now go without

cascadeanalytics.substack.com/p/friends-wi...

Where do these people pretend systemic racism doesn't exist? I looked up Jentleson, he wrote a book calling the filibuster racist, and campaigned for more affordable housing in (very wealthy) MontCo, MD. "Rejecting identity politics" could just mean making arguments without referencing identity

Thanks! I did read the article, only mention of race I saw is “begin with a complete rejection of race- and group-based identity politics and a wholesale embrace of a politics centered on delivering the American dream through simple, concrete action” (full quote from elsewhere). Am I missing smth?

Sorry Jon, honestly have no idea who/what you're talking about?