Aaron Berdofe

In Winthrop, the state’s ambitious housing law was on the ballot. It lost in a rout. - The Boston Globe Candidates opposed to the MBTA Communities Act — the controversial housing law that has ignited fierce debate in Winthrop and other towns in Eastern Massachusetts — won all six council seats that were...

And last night, Winthrop voters doubled down, electing a slate of anti-MBTA Communities candidates to the Town Council.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/05/b...

How the state’s most ambitious housing law in decades is tearing this peninsula town apart - The Boston Globe Many towns have been divided over the MBTA Communities Act, but few as badly as Winthrop.

A story about what all of those local housing fights are really about: change.

A housing crisis, a state law, and Winthrop's fight to stay the same.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/03/b...

Screenshot of article: “"We can't predict what th state is going to say," Fox emphasized. "We're making sure everything we do complies with the word of the law."”

I was going to post about them clearly trying to meet the letter of the law without meeting the spirit, but he just said it out loud.

Is Tedesco Country Club the town’s solution to 3A compliance? - Marblehead Current The town is considering rezoning the 32 acres of Tedesco Country Club located in Marblehead for multifamily housing to help meet requirements of the MBTA Communities Act. “We feel pretty confident tha...

Marblehead teeing up a big FU to the state and people who need housing again:

marbleheadcurrent.org/2025/11/04/i...

And another one.

7 (possible) candidates for this seat now.

marbleheadcurrent.org/2025/11/04/m...

a rainbow and a star with the words " i know you know " Alt: a rainbow and a star with the words " the more you know”

Annual reminder that of the 351 municipalities in Massachusetts, only 55 of them hold local elections in November.

#mapoli

Once again, the people that wanted people of color to be terrorized are ticketed to bits by a Trump admin whereas everyone else thinks he’s a failure.

Tax more - in which the run up against prop 2.5 quickly

Or find new sources of revenue - allow for more housing/commercial and increase the tax base.

Residents will fight you on both of these.

Residents’ gut reactions are usually to scream about “wasteful government spending”, but these people have generally not looked at their town’s budget…ever. There is a world of discussion on how better to fund and run education from the state level, but towns are faced with two decisions right now:

New report from MMA documents a fiscal crisis in cities, towns - Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) The MMA released a major report this morning that documents a convergence of forces that are putting dramatic pressure on city and town budgets and on the vital, quality-of-life services provided by m...

This is one of those quiet sleeper issues that town finance departments have certainly been aware of, but the general public has actively avoided. How many towns have a rising school budget? All of them?

www.mma.org/new-report-f...

This is a good way to put it. I'm not going to write anyone off as an irredeemable human being but as a political matter, the American right is animated by bigotry and misinformation. It just is.

Continuing on the generative AI for raw slop that people can react to before hiring actual professionals. Some reimagined Swampscott locations to make the more pedestrian friendly and add housing/commercial.

I once sat at a meeting with the local Democratic town committee and started asking if people knew what the DNC party platform said in regards to housing and I got a bunch of blank looks. Turns out no one knew what was on the party platform. THIS WAS THE LOCAL DNC COMMITTEE!

Moulton’s longtime aide hits campaign trail for 6th District seat - Marblehead Current Rick Jakious of Swampscott, longtime chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, has announced a run for Moulton’s seat representing the Massachusetts 6th District. Moulton announced earlier this month ...

And another for the Essex 6th district. It’s getting crowded in here… I think this will be oldest candidate so far.

marbleheadcurrent.org/2025/10/28/m...

The cynic in me is saying “well, it’s because they often don’t follow up with the thing you want followed up on so why would they want to showcase their lack of follow up?” but who knows.

Maybe I’m missing it, but why does no news outlet have a “follow this story” feature on their websites? Seems like a basic feature that would entice people to read more of the news instead of just scroll headlines.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu calls for state to repeal Prop 2½ law limiting annual increases in property tax collection - The Boston Globe The law allows municipalities to increase the total amount they collect in property taxes every year only by 2.5 percent, not including tax revenue from new developments.

Agreed! We should be empowering our cities and towns to take action to address local challenges, not hobbling them. #mapoli

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/24/m...

This is so true. You’re battling against both the lack of motivation in people AND the armchair organizer who “helpfully” keeps interjecting with “what if” ideas that they aren’t willing to execute on.

Legislation action: H3917: Updating the tax treatment of recreational lands in the town of Swampscott - Bill reported favorably by committee and referred to the committee on House Steering, Policy and Scheduling https://app.legislata.com/posts/2665674/detail?oid=15

Just curious, how many units of housing are going to be in this ballroom?

Screenshot of the article: Del Toro's film credits include Pan's Labyrinth, Nightmare Alley and The Shape of Water, which won four Oscars, including best picture and best director. [this next part is highlighted for emphasis] Now, with Frankenstein, he reimagines Mary Shelley's 1818 classic, telling the final part of the story from the creature's point of view.

It appears the writer of the OP didn’t read the article too carefully and just ran with “reimagining”.

I usually get almost run over twice a month on average on my runs I do a few times a week. Today was another one of those days. Even great drivers don’t pay attention 100% of the time.

And yet most people’s initial reaction to fixing this risk is:

This took about 5 minutes of work online to find this. Certainly worth mentioning in any story about the topic so not sure why it’s being neglected.

Screenshot of headline: Patsios bids for Swampscott Select Board

Apparently is is going to attempt the longest campaign for elected office in Swampscott’s history.

I believe this puts him against Doug and David should they run again which is an interesting choice given that Charlie usually has similar opinions on issues as them.

Screenshot of a Google maps view of Pine st in Swampscott. All the houses have driveways.

Here’s a map of the future site of this development. The thing every house around it has in common is a driveway that fits multiple cars.

I’m incredibly sympathetic to the complaint of not wanting people to park on the street near you so the street space can be used for things like kids playing, but 99% of the time it’s bc people want their car to be there or no “stranger” (read racism) to be there.

Screenshot from article: At Tuesday's meeting, neighbor Steve Gadman raised concerns about parking. "They're going to end up parking in front of our house," Gadman said. "We did request if possible to have one entrance and exit."

The 👏 road 👏 in 👏 front 👏 of 👏 your 👏 house 👏 is 👏 not 👏 yours 👏 it’s 👏 public 👏 space 👏

swampscotttides.org/top-story/bn...

For the record, I have zero Nazi tattoos.

Deferred to the November meeting.

There’s a term for a party with a lot of Nazis in it. That term: Nazi party