Aaron Berdofe

Backed by science, sure, but my reasons mostly involve just being annoyed by said people because they want all the upside of owning a dog with none of the responsibility to the dog or society at large.

apnews.com/article/clim...

Town loses $50K earmarked for 250th celebration due to 3A noncompliance - Marblehead Current Last week, the state rescinded a $50,000 grant for Marblehead’s months-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Revolution. The money, awarded in July, was yanked on Aug. 5 due to Marblehead’s...

I may have LOL’d (maybe better categorized as a “grim chuckle” because it’s not actually funny. It’s supremely disappointing when you watch someone you like hurting themselves, but you did tell them so. ) when I read this headline.

marbleheadcurrent.org/2025/08/11/t...

the thing everyone is going to have to accept is that the post-trump period, whenever it comes, will not and cannot be a project of national unity, it must be a project of partisan project of renewal, in the same way that reconstruction and the new deal were partisan projects of renewal.

It started with website templates full of fake reviews and stock photos for “employee” bios and then they just gave them the ability to chat with you.

aaronberdofewine.com/2020/03/29/j...

Pg 63 in the open space inventory shows the stairs listed as a right of way.

www.swampscottma.gov/sites/g/file...

Screenshot of Google maps showing Phillips beach Ave, Littles point rd in Swampscott. Between two oceanfront properties off of Littles point rd it is highlighted in red where there is a stairwell down to the beach.

In Swampscott I have been trying to get answers on why one of our public ways to a beach is locked up with “private” signs all over it, and the road to get to it littered with “Private way” signs. It’s been months since I first started inquiring about it.

Neck homeowner blocks access to popular beach path - Marblehead Current A longstanding footpath to the ocean on Marblehead Neck is now the subject of a legal review after a neighboring homeowner moved to restrict public access, raising broader questions about the status o...

I think the protection of public space from private property owners is something that isn’t focused on enough in communities. This manifests itself in selling public land, the erosion of public ways like this example and even down to just protecting sidewalks.

marbleheadcurrent.org/2025/08/10/n...

I have to be in Swampscott for a thing this evening and man alive it is utterly, impossibly gorgeous.

It depends…we could have taken the Paradise Rd/1A route and only had 30% no sidewalk, but then would have had to cross at a pretty treacherous intersection with a slip lane. So yes, but only if there was an actually safe route.

Screenshot of Google maps walking directions from the Salem strip mall containing staples and Supercuts over to the Swampscott side, 0.3 miles away to the Marshall’s.

Survived this walk with my 7 y/o son from one suburban shopping plaza to another in which 60% of the route contains no sidewalks.

AMA.

Photo of Humphrey St in Swampscott made into a pedestrian only block party event.

It’s nice when the main street is closed for a day.

Swampscott Humphrey St Block Party 2025

Screenshot from article: From a modest ranch house in Texas, the couple oversee a network they say has been turbocharged by President Donald Trump's return to the White House. They point to Trump's rhetoric - his attacks on diversity initiatives, his hardline stance on immigration and his invocation of "Western values" - as driving a surge in interest and recruitment. Trump "awakened a lot of people to the issues we've been raising for years," Stout told Reuters. "He's the best thing that's happened to us."

Imagine being one of the Trump voters who still insists that their vote had nothing to do with their own racism.

American Nazis: The Aryan Freedom Network is riding high in Trump era - www.reuters.com/investigatio...

really feels like housing affordability is one of the most important political issues of our time, affecting nearly every aspect of our lives, and everyday our mainstream political discourse is about whether sour cream is woke or not

Missed a housing one:

🙂 25-21 An Initiative Petition to Protect Tenants by Limiting Rent Increases

www.mass.gov/doc/25-21-an...

Not housing, but special shout out to this guy definitely misreading the metaphorical Massachusetts room:

www.mass.gov/doc/25-02-in...

Yes, 4 of those 5 are submitted by the same person. I guess they are in the running for NIMBY of the year.

Please note: Just bc they are listed here does not mean they will ultimately voted on. This is step 1 of 3.

The rest can be found here: www.mass.gov/info-details...

😬 25-35 Initiative Petition for an Act Reforming the Zoning Process

www.mass.gov/doc/25-35-in...

🤪 25-34 Initiative Petition for an Act to Prevent Overdevelopment

www.mass.gov/doc/25-34-in...

🫠 25-33 Initiative Petition for an Act Preserving Local Control of Zoning

www.mass.gov/doc/25-33-in...

🙄 25-32 Initiative Petition for an Act to Repeal MBTA Zoning

www.mass.gov/doc/25-32-in...

🥰 25-03 Initiative Petition for a Law to Allow Single-Family Homes on Small Lots in Areas with Adequate Infrastructure

www.mass.gov/doc/initiati...

@massago.bsky.social has posted all proposed ballot initiatives for the upcoming 2026 (proposed law) and 2028 (proposed constitutional amendment) elections.

Here are some of the fun ones relating to housing…

Emojis are my own. I am not an LLM.

one of the greatest humiliations of rule by these fascists is that, despite having total and complete control over the entire system of american government, the only thing they know how to do is ask for the manager because they're too stupid to understand that they *are the manager*

Sat next to a MAGAwoman on the train this morning that was Twitter scrolling and kept liking, reposting and commenting on things about this and similar items. Her entire feed was just right wing agitprop and there wasn’t a single post about anything else.

Like, give me one joke post in your feed.

Probably also why I’m not on TikTok.

My one pet peeve of “the internet these days” is that everything has to be a video now when it could easily be text.

Quick instructions on something: 10+ minute videos returned.

Quick explainer on something: 1+ hr videos returned.

So yeah, I’m too pressed for time to watch your stupid video.

Trying to get at least the slides posted somewhere.

With Crime on the Rise and Staffing Down, Police Chief Calls for Proactive Approach A police officer guiding traffic || Monica Sager Statistics show an increase in burglaries, motor vehicle incidents, and other crimes against people, property, and society since 2020. At Tuesday ni…

After a number of years of prodding and pushing, the Swampscott PD has finally put out crime statistics in a public forum. This was at a SB meeting and not the general public and yeah, things like breakouts by race are missing, but the right direction.

swampscotttides.org/featured/wit...

It will be great if someone behind the scenes hoodwinked RFK jr and Oz to do our industry a solid and something positive comes of this, but I will remain highly leery as it progresses.