Now that @burhanazeem.bsky.social is running for State office, Macy's is selling his look at its store downtown.

Brookline and other municipalities could plan for steady new growth that offsets Prop 2.5 via zoning reform but choose not to do so.

Brookline and other municipalities could plan for steady new growth that offsets Prop 2.5 via zoning reform but choose not to do so.

Great explainer on how (and why!) to fix the build-to-rent single-family home provisions in the Senate housing bill.

When forced to sell, they would have to evict the existing tenants! I fail to see how this forced sale provision helps anyone.

Click the link and scroll down. 😉

The current 12-game Jeopardy champion works at an affordable housing finance agency in NJ, and shamed New York for not building more housing:
"NJ's doing really well, we're ahead of NY, CT, PA. If you're from one of those states, shame on you, build more housing."

🚨MA Sen. Sean Maguire files S.4012, the "Nonconforming Conformity Act."

The bill would make Massachusetts legal to build in Massachusetts again.

Towns would calculate what they actually built before zoning existed, lot sizes, setbacks, density, and make that the new baseline.

@massgovernor.bsky.social @kimdriscollma.bsky.social this would be a straightforward boost to housing production, along with permitting reforms like a municipal review shot clock and licensed third-party reviews and inspections.

Lexington Public Schools to cut scores of teachers and other staffers - The Boston Globe Like many districts, Lexington is grappling with a budget crisis that is prompting drastic measures: cutting about 65 teachers, classroom aides, and other staffers and issuing non-renewal letters to a...

Lexington schools have lost 550 students and face a $4.7 million gap. Staff cuts are coming. Those 1,600 apartments some are fighting will bring at least $7mil in revenue & maybe 250 students.

That new housing is not a burden. It's a desperately needed bailout.
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/27/m...

1. Here’s a thread on #NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) and the challenges of change in cities:

First off, although it might feel that way, NIMBY isn’t unique to your city, and it’s (probably) not worse in your city than anywhere else. It’s also not surprising, since it’s largely about human nature.

Los Angeles’ housing crisis is self-inflicted. 

For decades, city leaders have taken deliberate actions to limit new housing.

Today, we announced our plan to fix this and triple housing production.

Across the country, the balance between local control & state action on housing has played out very differently. Montana & Texas have acted boldly at the state level while MA, CT, and NY continue to lag.

A recent poll shows MA voters support stronger statewide action on housing.

Build or Die From a leading voice of the pro-housing movement comes a blueprint for revitalizing America’s major cities

It's happening! BUILD OR DIE: HOW AMERICA IS SUFFOCATING ITS CITIES AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT, coming from Princeton University Press on December 8. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

This new Pew study finds the biggest rent decreases from building multifamily go to lower income renters in the least expensive apartments, which directly prevents displacement and homelessness. Exactly our goal in #CambridgeMA!

Walkable Neighborhood Madness | re:MAIN 40 Neighborhoods. 2 Nations. 1 Champion.

We’ve spent decades making walkable neighborhoods like these nearly impossible to build today.

Beacon Hill v. Federal Hill
Old Montreal v. Old Quebec

But which ones are the best?

40 iconic neighborhoods. 1 champion. 🇨🇦🇺🇸

Round 1 voting ends March 25
www.remainplaces.com/walkable

And that stress is in the form of rising rents and displacement/homelessness—there’s a real human cost to it.

Portland has a wonky secret to building cheaper houses. Other cities are copying. Portland legalized fourplexes, tiny houses and backyard homes and then sorted out how to actually get them built.

The inclusionary requirements were already in existence, and we are working on mechanisms to offset the costs and increase production.

But basically everything in, e.g., this article is legal in Cambridge, plus a whole lot more. wapo.st/4rJ66Vt

Never let anyone tell you politics doesn't matter. Change is unimaginable until it's inevitable.

The Senate just passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. I worked with colleagues on several of the bills in this bipartisan package to help boost housing supply and make it easier for families to find an affordable place to live.

https://youtu.be/Es1IWoMprbA?si=Owf3Xgxvc8pVj1Mt

Owner occupied houses good. Owner occupied apartments bad. Corporate owned rental houses THE WORST. Corporate owned apartments meh.

The folk morality around housing type and tenure in American cities:

It happened in my n’hood in that era with triple deckers

Excellent speech from @schatz.bsky.social Schatz on the importance of fixing anti-build-to-rent provision in the ROAD to Housing Act (h/t @pewilliams.bsky.social) (1/3)

This former JP monastery is a case study in why Boston is short on housing - The Boston Globe The Poor Clares are up against a powerful opponent with City Hall’s ear, the director of the Arnold Arboretum.

They also called her out for not letting an order of nuns build housing last week!

www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/06/o...

Over the past decade, The City of Austin, Texas has permitted more housing in a typical year than the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 2022 alone, Austin approved 24,227 units, about 1.5× the number permitted across Massachusetts that year.

I’ve had people laugh saying 'A better Massachusetts is possible' sounds underwhelming.

But do you actually believe it? That fixing the T, solving the housing crisis, making childcare affordable is around the corner?

Or is believing that we can have a government that delivers genuinely radical.

Great piece to share with the NIMBYs in your life.

Shoot, I wanted to get tickets. The aftermarket prices for the game at BU’s Agganis Arena are really high!

New Housing Slows Rent Growth Most for Older, More Affordable Units The nationwide housing shortage has driven rents up more in low-income neighborhoods than in the U.S. overall, but in areas that have recently added large amounts of housing, rents have fallen the mos...

That’s still like a third cheaper than average for Lexington, and it opens up less expensive places for families that need them.

www.pew.org/en/research-...

New Housing Slows Rent Growth Most for Older, More Affordable Units The nationwide housing shortage has driven rents up more in low-income neighborhoods than in the U.S. overall, but in areas that have recently added large amounts of housing, rents have fallen the mos...

All new multifamily housing is called “luxury” housing. It’s a meaningless marketing term, as single-family homes are more expensive and failing to build makes everyone worse off, particularly lower income residents.

www.pew.org/en/research-...