In light of all the recent conversation, both at the local and the state level, about development, I wanted to share for discussion this recent presentation by the non-profit Massachusetts Housing Partnership.
Some of the highlights:
- Housing production has sharply declined in Massachusetts despite increases in population and employment
- Massachusetts now has one of the lowest rates of housing production in the U.S.
- Without adding any new people or new jobs, the state’s housing supply is already about 44,000 units short of demand. Most of that shortfall is in metro Boston.
- Most of the regions with which we compete for skilled workers are building more housing and have lower housing costs
I pose this question to my neighbors: At what point does this become our problem?
Surrounding communities that welcome development such as Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, and Watertown are building as fast as they can, accounting for more than half of the multifamily units created in the entire state. And yet even with that, we’re falling further and further behind the housing our economy needs to continue to grow.
Newton has a responsibility to provide a diverse housing choice to all residents. But has NO responsibility to make housing affordable to a “large number of people” who cannot afford to live here.
Newton can fool itself by creating a ‘token’ number number of affordable units in order to keep its ‘liberal badge of honor’, but unless we intend to build ‘several thousands’ of such units, its not going to make any difference because of market forces.
ie if any NON ‘income restricted’ affordable houses are built, they will simply get bid up by upper middle class folks looking for a good education for kids and a decent commute into Boston.
According to the US Census, only 9 states are growing more slowly than Massachusetts. Furthermore, Newton is growing at 0.23% per year – even slower than the state average. Our city’s population is 87,000 thus 0.23% amounts to 200 people. Our average household has 2.5 people so those 200 people need about 80 “housing units” Given the existing housing stock and rentals available, there simply is no need or justification for additional housing. Unlike the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), the US Census Bureau is not a smart growth consulting agency that profits from predicting inflated figures. Unlike the Sunbelt and the West Coast, Massachusetts has for decades had a relatively stable population, and as long as the Northeast continues to have cold, snowy winters, it seems unlikely that the state or the region will experience the kind of rapid population growth that has become the norm in warmer areas of the country. It is, of course, the task of the MAPC to anticipate and plan for growth, so we should probably not be surprised that the council foresees a burgeoning population desperate for inexpensive housing. http://newtonforum.org/fix-first-part-2-no-housing-crisis/
@Chris: Don’t know where to start, with how much misinformation is in there. No, the MAPC and the MHP (which is who actually produced this) are not smart growth consulting agencies. They’re non-profit organizations dedicated to affordable housing and housing policy.
I also think you’ve gotten yourself into a very backwards argument: You say Newton isn’t growing in population (because we don’t allow for more housing), therefor we don’t need more housing. In fact, you will find it impossible to find research that shows we don’t need more housing to meet the demand and to keep our economy growing. You linked to an article on Newton Forum, which you yourself wrote, which links to no data. You cite the US Census Bureau, which doesn’t project how much housing we’re going to need, it only states how much our population has changed.
@Chris Pitts – I think about the best gauge of housing supply vs housing need is prices – the old supply and demand. In places with substantially more housing than locals need prices are depressed. In regions with substantially less housing than is needed, prices are high.
Here’s a very nice map that shows the picture – this region is one of the most pronounced housing price hot spots in the country
@Bryan: The MAPC has consultants who are paid to prepare communities for the “growth” they will experience, hence it behooves them to exaggerate their figures. You insert that decades of slow growth census figures are the result of Newton keeping people out, really? Then you add those numbers are not valid data for projecting how much of the housing Newton will need? And then one of my favorite misconceptions: that economic growth is dependent on population growth. You are also not considering that Newton is part of a system that includes Boston, Cambridge, Watertown, Brookline, Sommerville, etc. each bringing different strengths to the whole region. So for misinformation, I challenge you to prove any of it anything but correct.
The numbers don’t tell the whole story. In the not too distant future, an enormous generation of aging Boomers will need a different kind of housing than your typical single family house with stairs to navigate, snow to be removed, maintenance, etc. Many boomers would like to age in the community where they’ve lived for decades, but there’s simply nowhere to go.
I’m the interest of full disclosure,
Chris should mention that he is
involved with the Newton Villages
Alliance that has vehemently opposed
any development in Newton including his home village of all white, all
Democrat, very well off
Waban. It was about this time last election cycle that Chris pulled papers to run in Ward 5. Are we having another go at it Chris? Chris was one of the
Newton Villages Alliance sponsored
slate candidates that got crushed.
My guess is he’s running again.
Should be “In the interest of”…
Paul,
Wow, you somehow managed to bring race into this discussion. The extremes on both sides assure that this issue is never going to be resolved.
Let me ask a simple question.
Does anyone think a WP or Austin Street would ever occur in Waban? Right next to a T stop? Great public transport.
Look, my vision for Newtonville is a cross between Coolridge Corner and Waban. A little charm, some activity, a walkable village, a central T coridor. (The T being the intersection between Walnut and Washington, not public transport). Eventually it includes improved commuter rail service, and a new train station. I’m taking the long view.
But I also heard my friends in Waban speak about Philip Neri development and Engine 6. And some of my very liberal friends were very intent on keeping apartment buildings out of their village. And formerly homeless. Some had well-reasoned arguments. Some basically said I paid good money for my house and I don’t want *that* here. That could have been increased density, increased diversity, increased affordability. Some said that apartment renters wouldn’t be part of a community, that they would be transient. And some were basically very upset their bubble of exclusivity was being popped, even in the smallest way.
So hey, I like what is going on in Newtonville. But I remember my neighbors in Waban’s words. I remember the woman who accused me of supporting Engine 6 which was going to being sex offenders to her village. I remember my friend who thought apartment renters would drastically bring down his property values. And I remember that exclusivity can be great, but it can also be isolating.
Give me Newtonville. More my speed. But let’s be honest about which villages are actually pulling their weight on affordable housing. Sure ain’t Waban.
@Jerry: real estate values are not Econ 101. If the rules of supply and demand applied in the same manner it does to goods, then NYC, Boston, Seattle would be some of the cheapest places to move to. In Newton’s case, the mayor’s own consultants explained: “The City can not “build its way to affordability.” The imbalance of demand and supply is so great that the City could not physically accommodate the development needed to affect pricing in a substantial manner.”
@Paul: Perhaps I should also mention that I am a member of the Newton League of Woman Voters, the ACLU, the Waban Area Council, the Waban Improvement Society, and the Board of NewTV. I do not get directly, or indirectly funds from developers or the development community. I am a home owner in Newton who does not want any more overides since my taxes have gone up $5K since I move here 17 years ago. I work out at the West Newton YMCA and have two dogs.
@Chris: Of course Newton can’t on its own solve the entire greater Boston housing crisis. That’s not the point. The point is that more communities like Newton need to be part of the solution instead of contributing to the problem.
You clearly are in favor of sticking your head in the sand, pretending there’s no problem, and watching housing costs skyrocket and the economy slow down. Many of us don’t have that luxury.
Chris:
Regarding your taxes going up 5k, isn’t that largely due to your home value doubling in that time? Yes there have been increases, but our property taxes are based on home values, and in 2000 your value must have been much less. Homes in my neighborhood have gone up 50% in that time, at least. Can’t blame it all on overrides. Let’s be honest about taxes, ok?
Also, can we also stop with the “I don’t get money from developers” line? Do you really think a political donation in the amounts folks get them in Newton influence actions so directly. You DO get money from anti-development folks, do you not? Are you saying you’ll obey their wishes directly?
If I was a developer in Newton I’d donate to lots of folks. But there really isn’t a development cabal out there. Sometimes folks just like programs you disagree with, Chris. It’s democracy. And from the dollar numbers I’ve seen, you can’t even make a campaign finance argument. Local elections just tend not to be like that.
I don’t know Chris Pitts. I have never met him. I don’t have huge desire to defend him, nor does he need me to defend him. I don’t even know if he’s aware of my existence. But instead of arguing with him about the facts, this is what he’s had to listen to on this now useless thread:
“including his home village of all white” – race baiting
“You clearly are in favor of sticking your head in the sand” – personal assumption based on simple disagreement of approach.
“Many of us don’t have that luxury” – over-the-top class envy.
Please check your theater program. Apparently playing the part today of the Marvel Comics’ villain will be Chris Pitts.
@Mark, I find it comical (pun intended) that you of all people have a problem with hyperbole used to make a point. Isn’t that basically your job?
Mark:
I may not agree with Chris, but he is very capable of defending himself. I don’t think I’ve villified him, nothing about my posts is personal. As for the other posts, it is a blog, not a dinner party. Perhaps Chris can respond if he feels villified. If a comment goes too far, I always think that a calm rational response is a good contrast. And he’s been doing that.
Just my 2 cents.
Fig – Without question, some people in Waban have said some really terrible things in the last few years, but maybe you should take a look at the N’Ville listserv if you want to read some outright nasty, personal attacks. While I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be associated with the vile commentary on that listserv, most residents of Waban are perfectly nice people and don’t want to be associated with similar comments made by their neighbors.
Jane, I understand your point, but I wasn’t just making a point about speech. Truth is, the opponents of the projects in Newtonville do have a point. These projects would never be built in Waban. And it isn’t because they don’t belong there. Smart growth would be a good idea in Waban as well. Lots of folks in Newtonville are supporting affordable housing and support these projects. I just don’t see that same commitment from my friends in Waban for their village.
Look, hypocricy burns my britches is all. And sometimes the other side of an argument has a point. Point me in the direction of anything Waban has done regarding affordable housing. I’ll wait. I can point to dozens of projects large and small in the other villages.
If I were to use 2017 hyperbole, I would spew words like “your bilious response to an upright community serving citizen leaves me nauseated.” That would be the kind of language our President might choose. Others on this blog might respond a la Nancy Pelosi that “the nouveau riche plutocrats of Waban are selfish isolationists!”
Look at where this extreme argument has gotten us. Yes, it’s a blog, but not a venomous poison-arrow-slinging-word-pit. For God’s sake (I know, never invoke the Almighty) can’t we please think about what our words do to other people. They are razors, cutting at the flesh of rational talk. How many times I have swallowed the vile epithets thrown at Waban. I am the President of the Waban Area Council. I live and serve Waban residents. I don’t get paid. I don’t develop property. I help people understand what is going on or what is being planned for their community. Yes, I am white. Yes, I am well off (My wealth being personally measured by the fact that I have three successful married children with three accomplished grandchildren each.)No, I am not a Democrat. I am a member of the near majority “party” of unaffiliated voters who want centrist values expressed, not extremes. I have thought about what could be done in Waban to increase diversity of income here. Many people don’t realize that we have affordable housing right in our village center. With another member of our Area Council, I have visited a Board meeting of the Newton Housing Authority and asked them to do a feasibility study of increasing the number of units on their property. While I believe that a “densifying” high-rise in our small Village Center would be monstrously character morphing, I do believe that 10 affordable units could be easily added, without the 30 extra luxury units that would support a 40 unit dense project. @Paul: there are bigots everywhere. there are frightened people everywhere. @Bryan: there are “facts” everywhere. We can tone down the arguments and present them with annotation. We can argue honestly. then, maybe we can hear each other! I’m sure Marty Bower will scold me for asking our blog to lower the rhetoric, but I think it’s worth the risk!
Sallee:
For the record, I attended the meetings on Engine 6, and some of the meetings on Neri. You always seem so hurt when folks point out the obvious about Waban. But c’mon now, at least be honest about what happened on both those projects, and be honest about what happened before and after those meetings.
In the end we can go back and forth on rhetoric, but pointing to a solitary affordable project in Waban is a hilarious defense. Newtonville has DOZENS. Newton Corner has DOZENS. Ask CAN-DO and other developers if they’d dare develop even a medium size affordable project in Waban. 15 units or less.
As yourself this: If the city tried to repurpose Engine 6 to be very low income affordable (not homeless, just less than 60% AMI) would it have gotten Waban’s support? If Philip Neri had been a full affordable project, would THAT have gotten Waban’s support. I tried that argument with Engine 6 with many folks from Waban. Didn’t get very far. Is it any mystery that it was developed as luxury condos?
2 out of the 5 developers of Austin Street for 100% affordable units using low income housing incentives. Newtonville didn’t even blink an eye. Far as I could tell, even the anti-development types were fine with those projects because they were smaller in size and scale. Was there some opposition on affordable units? I’m sure. But it certainly wasn’t a focus.
A final thought. I love Waban. Nice area. Beautiful village. I admire all the things you’ve done for your village. You are a great blog poster and I enjoy reading your posts. But none of my posts above are examples of bad rhetoric or “venomous poison-arrow-slinging-word-pit”. You may not like my opinions, or Bryan’s opinions, but our posts don’t wound. But I’ve noticed that you seem to resort to this argument whenever the blog moves to criticize something you support. Suddenly we are too mean.
Talk to me about Waban’s efforts to spur affordable housing. I’ll listen. I just listed out my actual experiences with several Waban projects. Perhaps you can as well (annotation style). You are part of the council. Has affordable housing even come up at your meetings? (I mean increasing it, not blocking new projects). Honest question, not snark.
Or you can talk about the “venomous poison-arrow-slinging-word-pit” aspect of the blog some more. Sometimes that is the best strategy when you are defending something without a great argument.
@Bryan. Touche…well played, sir!
I do think there’s differences but believe me when I say that I’m not copping out by not going into detail here and volleying back. Too long a discussion but one I’d look forward to having in real time at some point as I think it folds into other areas quickly as well.
Fig – I grew up in New England and so I’m aware that just about every sizeable town/city is made up of sections, each with varying degrees of compactness or hustle and bustle or whatever one wants to call it, so the village concept in Newton isn’t new or different for me. As an adult, I always chose to live or work in more populous areas with a diverse housing stock (Somerville, Brookline, Newtonville, Auburndale).
I do think the city in general, and the villages north of the Pike in particular, suffer from thinking that there’s a place in the city where the grass is always greener, and it’s named Waban. In fact, Waban is fine. However, it doesn’t have the activity that’s a huge part of Newtonville. Newtonville is within walking distance of the library, has a great community meeting place with the Senior Center, has an excellent selection of good restaurants and coffee shops for a village its size, a grocery store (huge!), a pharmacy, the center for Newton Community Education, a swimming pool, numerous playing fields, the best theatre venue in the city. Complain all you want about the commuter rail and bus schedule – at least you have one. Compare that to any other area in the city. Newtonville is a pretty great place to live, work, and raise kids. Is it perfect? Of course not.
The only downside is an inferiority complex that just won’t quit. It’s been part of the culture of the northside of the city since well before I moved here 36 years ago. When I first moved here, I was shocked to learn that one side of the city was considered “better” than the other when all the while, I thought I’d chosen the area that suited me best. I noted it as a teacher at Burr School as well. I thought I’d landed my dream job, only to find out parents thought it wasn’t as good as other schools in the system – notably those in Waban.
To a certain extent, Waban’s become that place in people’s minds where the grass is always greener. I don’t see it that way. Waban is nice and my neighbors are the absolute best. However, the village is tiny and cramped so the opportunity to develop the kind of vitality one finds in Newtonville is limited. I do see some efforts to change that though.
I agree with you that Waban would benefit from smartgrowth. However as I’ve learned living here, there’s simply not much buildable land zoned for multiple units. As an unimportant aside, I supported the St. Phillip Neri project and said so to the developer and had planned to support some version of the housing units in Waban Square before it was sold.
@Christopher Pitts –
I’m afraid I don’t follow your logic. The cities you mention all have significant housing supply problems. Supply hasn’t kept up with demand and the result is spiraling prices.
Check out vacancy rates region by region. Everywhere that prices are high, vacancy rates are low – a clear sign of a mismatch between supply and demand.
You’re right that Newton can’t solve the region’s housing problems on its own but it certainly should try paddling in the right direction. If every modest effort to build new housing in the city runs headlong into a wall of strenuous opposition then our housing problems are sure to continue worsening.
Hey, Fig: How big is Newtonville? How big is Waban? Does Newtonville have an east-west and north-south commercial corridor that goes on for many blocks? What about Waban? Waban is a small, concentrated one block, maybe two block commercial area…really a quaint historic center. To compare the effect of dense housing projects on Waban and Newtonville village centers is apples to oranges. As to Engine 6…let me set the record straight. Waban Area Council was in formation…not born yet. A bunch of uninformed residents were thrown into a frightening controversy with no information available to help them sort out the consequences of what was being proposed. Legal terms like “affordable housing” and “chronically homeless” were thrown around as if residents were avid perusers of the Massachusetts General Laws as bedtime reading. At the time, I joked that 40B sounded like a bra size, not a piece of legislation. I was surprised. Many of my friends said they were not opposed to “affordable housing.” I didn’t really know what it was! Thinking it was “housing you could afford” I was quickly disavowed of that notion, learning there was a HUD legal term defining it. The same was true of the definition of “chronically homeless,” whose image seemed to be at first non-worrisome. Again I was wrong. HUD’s legal definition was not as fact-based as the Waban psychiatrist who stood on a chair and stated that he had treated the chronically homeless for many years, had helped set up a psychiatric hospital in Westwood, and that most members of the chronically homeless population were victims of schizophrenia as the legal disability accompanying their chronic homelessness. OK. I realized that neither I nor my neighbors knew what was upon us. Were the “clients” going to be given adequate services? Who was the nasty woman who stated that she would bring a “40B” upon us if we didn’t accept her “friendly” program as proposed? What was a 40B anyway? In the middle of all this Mayor Warren granted the three leaders of the forming Area Council a meeting with him about the new Add-A-Lane project that no one in Newton was watching and that would affect Waban directly! At the end of that meeting, I believe that I made a casual comment to the effect that the Engine 6 project had been thrown at our community giving it a very short time to respond and with lack of information and respect for the residents’ fears. None of us wielded any power. We didn’t have any! But the fervent “opposition” wagged that we had influenced the Mayor to back out and down. Not so. Boston Magazine repeated this alt-fact in Lauren Paul’s article. Lauren Paul, never interviewed any of the three of us. Waban had been painted ugly. Yes, as everywhere, there were a few very bigoted people here; yes, there were some people who felt that their real estate would be devalued by the residents of Engine 6; yes, there were people frightened by the thought that the clients of Engine 6 might harm their kids. When I looked at the funding for the resident manager whose skill set was undefined in the proposal, I realized that the proposal was to fund that manager position for only one year. What about afterwards? Could we trust the Pine Street Inn folks who hadn’t even thought to check on the Triple I status of the residents they would place there? (They had checked their criminal records in Massachusetts, but had no idea of their criminal status elsewhere.) The tinderbox that was Engine 6 exploded. Waban lost blood. I like to think that we have moved way on from there. The Waban Area Council convened a Citywide 40B Forum to educate residents from anywhere in Newton as to the 40B process and their rights and the appropriate times and places to intervene, if they had concerns, in 40B proposals. The process is now known and available. Legally. I don’t know the demographics well, but I bet the people in Waban mostly own appreciated real estate as do the people in Newtonville. I doubt that very many million dollar wage earners live in either village. (Anyone with Census income facts about the villages, please put them up here.) I am certain that Waban is not the wealthiest village in Newton! But Waban was reputed at one time to have had the most graduate degrees per capita in Massachusetts, second only to Cambridge! So I dislike being called the “rich” people of Newton. (Unless you define wealth and riches the way I describe in my earlier comment in this thread!)
Fig: you asked if Wabanites would ever want affordable housing at Engine 6…I remember a friend and neighbor saying during the learning curve about Engine 6 that she would be happy to read to the children who moved there if Engine 6 were to house families who qualified for affordable housing! Instead of galloping in to defeat, Engine 6 could have been successful if it had joined in community discussions instead of attacking it. If you look at my earlier comment, I described a way to get 10 more affordable units in Waban without the density. I reported this information to our Area Council. We were told that the NHA Board was researching the idea. (See the other long comment I made above.) Our community felt that St. Philip Neri was too large a project for a residential site. There was no opposition to the “affordable” component. I think I have represented the events truthfully and completely as I lived them. (And the only pejorative that I used was the adjective “nasty” to describe the person who taunted Waban residents with her power to inflict a 40B upon us! And even those residents who later sued the City would have to admit that she was, at best, inappropriate.)
I am never running for elected office again, so I am calling bullsh*t on Salle Lipshutz’s rendition of the Engine 6 debacle. Mayor Warren screwed the pooch by terminating a well established process for CDBG projects by caving to the uproar from certain Waban residents who demonized chronically homeless people. They used the worst stereotypes about homeless and mentally ill people to couch their prejudices and they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. I have spent most of my adult life advocating for homeless and mentally ill people, and I have to say that this was one of Newton’s darkest chapters. Shame on you. Shame on all of you.
Oh! Councilor Hess-Mahan! Truth and Justice and the American Way are all glued exclusively to your soul and no one else knows how to follow the Path of Righteousness! You forget that those who demonize others who disagree with them are what we are suffering at the National level right now. You were not in the room with Chris Steele, Maureen Reilly-Meagher and me when we met with Mayor Warren. (Perhaps you have tapes of the conversation 😉 ) Also, there were people in our village who were pushed very hard, really bullied, and lied to. When the first word of Engine 6 was uttered, one of our Ward 5 at-large Alderpersons assured those of us ignorant about the “process” that there was plenty of time to respond if we wanted to do so. And yet, suddenly, there was no time. Fear wasn’t mongered. It was real, because no one tried to reach out slowly…to explain options…to try to understand what was being forced on our Village. Waban was naïve, not slick or sophisticated in the ways of “progressives” who would have preferred that the community accept, without evidence, that what was being offered was both good and safe. The population the program suggested to be housed in Engine 6 would take more than a bleeding heart to sustain. I don’t do bullshit, as you crudely suggested. I try to understand how others have come to their conclusions. Are you old enough to remember the 1960’s when the State Mental Hospitals were shuttered and the mentally ill were denied even the minimal care they had gotten when hospitalized? That’s how most became chronically homeless, ultimately being rounded up periodically and put in jail to prevent them from freezing to death in the cold winters. Shuttering the hospitals, instead of funding them and regulating them properly, was, perhaps, a well-intentioned but ultimately ill-advised move. So was a program to house those same patients and leave them in Waban without the resources they required to lead functional existences. I respectfully disagree with you and your conclusions. I also believe that shaming, shunning and stone casting is both juvenile and unproductive.
Skipping back over the Engine 6 history…
The problem with generating small-a affordable housing is that the whole model is broken. Until the 1970s or even later, housing was naturally affordable almost everywhere, though not of course in every neighborhood. I bought a large 1BR in Brighton for $32k in 1980. Suffice to say is would be worth a lot more now. (I made a decent profit when I sold it.) But policies created problems: Housing meant more school kids, paid for from local property taxes, and so every city or town wanted industry, or maybe luxury housing, not family housing. It was a competition between towns to have more ratables/student. Cities and towns, including Newton, also had zoning designed in the 1950 to 1970s, frankly, to “keep the riff-raff out”. That attitude also contributed to the limited amount of public transit left, as the middle class folks had cars and many felt that public transit was a tool for bringing in the poor.
So now we have zoning that makes it uneconomical to build the kind of two-family and three-family homes that for decades were the backbone of affordable housing. Washington Terrace was one small block of them, now taken away by Korff. When you need 5000 square feet of land per unit and land is $8M/acre, you don’t get $1300/month apartments. And big luxury apartment blocks cost more per square foot to build than three-deckers. It’s all about land values and how many units of what can go where.
Instead, “conventional wisdom” — and this is expressed in various planning reports — is that the only way to get sub-luxury rent is to require subsidized units of upper-case Affordable Housing. Hence the lottery-ticket units in the Austin St. (Oran, husband of the League of Women Voters leader) and Korff developments. It assuages liberal guilt but doesn’t lower market rents. It lets lucky lottery winners (usually <2% chance of winning) subject their lives to constant monitoring to ensure that their income never leaves the 50-80% of AMI for whatever size their household is at the time. And for letting them in to 15% or whatever, the developer gets to run roughshod over the neighborhood and build ugly "luxury" units aimed at transient downtown finance-industry workers. Middle class folks, however, don't have a chance, as market prices continue to skyrocket. You're either rich enough to buy in or poor enough ( but not too poor!) and lucky enough to get a winning lottery ticket.
This is an insane system.
@Fred Goldstein – I mostly agree with your description of the status quo. Any suggestions on a better way forward?
Ted – Give me a break. In fact, you see the Engine 6 issue through your lens just as Sallee sees it through her and the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Since that time, we’ve come a long way in term of understanding housing needs and where housing growth works and where it doesn’t. Why not focus on at Newton Centre which has far more land for development, or Chestnut Hill which has a subway stop within walking distance of most of the village? Why is Chestnut Hill exempt from this conversation?
@Jerry Reilly – Sure, I have a few ideas. But first we have to break out of the old zoning mindset. The zoning code is open to change now, which could be good, but if it’s just modified to put more MU4 into villages with the same categories like SR1-2 elsewhere, no help. Rather, I’d like to reset the process from where it was pre-1953 and modernize from there, not from the Engine Charlie/Levitt era, which devolved into McMansions. The new auxiliary apartment ordinance should also help.
For one thing, the Commonwealth should help towns that improve their accessibility via zoning. It shouldn’t encourage the race for fewer kids per ratable dollar. If we do our part, we shouldn’t be penalized, and I recognize that we’re a very rich town so we don’t deserve as much help as the poor towns. Setting that aside…
Another tool is mitigation, where big developers contribute to the city, and not just lottery tickets. And certainly not more bump-outs, bike lanes, and other such “improvements”.
Take that huge site around Marshalls, in Upper Falls. Northland plans 900 residential units, displacing some industrial sites (now vacant). That will hurt the city’s finances, since it will bring in more school children. So let’s make a deal. They could get to build a pretty large number of units, but they would also have to give some of the land, near NUF village, to the city, for the construction of a new elementary school (replace Emerson). And throw in a few million towards its construction. And some adjacent outdoor space could be both the playground and a city park, really an amenity for the new units.
Current zoning doesn’t permit creative architecture. I see these beautiful old houses in Newtonville, for example, which are bigger than most families need. What if we allowed construction of houses that looked like that, “2 1/2 stories”, not plain 3-deckers, but which were internally divided into three units? Say, one 1BR/1BA “granny flat” on the first floor, for seniors who might be or become mobility challenged? And one 2BR unit above it for a couple or small family, with a 3 or 4 BR “main” unit on half of all three floors? It might be 4000 sq. ft. or so total, and would have to be reviewed to be not ugly, but it would meet the more diverse needs of today than the current zoning, which focuses on 1950s-model nuclear families. This is not a Newton-specific issue; it’s just what America did in many places.
And we could encourage more attached low-rise (townhouse) building, which adds density without height or massiveness. With incentives to not just be luxury units.
In other words, let’s get creative about urban design, not have all our smaller houses replaced by McMansions, or let in more ugly 5/6-story monstrosities of the type that Watertown is now starting to regret, and which a certain develop has plans for three of along Washington St.
@Sallee: “(Anyone with Census income facts about the villages, please put them up here.) I am certain that Waban is not the wealthiest village in Newton!”
There are a couple of different ways to look at this. The simple way is this (http://www.newtonma.gov/documents/exec/BluestoneDemographicsFinal.pdf) report on the City website, which looks at Census tracts, starting on page 20. They don’t match up exactly with villages, but it’s an easy and quick way to see that the wealthiest census tracts in Newton Center and Waban (which occupy some but not all of the respective villages) are the wealthiest in Newton, and it’s not especially close. Note that I’m using median HHI as the proxy for wealth here, mostly because it’s pretty close and there’s a lot of good data easily available.
LONG POST, DATA ANALYSIS FROM HERE FORWARD! BEWARE! The TL;DR is that Waban almost certainly has the highest income of any of the villages.
If you want to get complicated, well, I’ve got the answer for you! Newton also makes available GIS shape files for block groups, the next most detailed layer (http://www.newtonma.gov/gov/it/gis/gis_census_layers.asp). I pulled those into the GIS program I use, and categorized each one by which village it’s part of. This isn’t exact, for a couple of reasons: (1) disagreements on village borders, and (2) 3-5 block groups that straddle village lines. I used my judgment, but there’s some imprecision here because of that. Thompsonville also isn’t big enough to have its own block group, so it gets swallowed up . Sorry, Thompsonville!
Once I had those, I pulled block group median household income data from the Census’s American Fact Finder site and tabulated the median income for each village (2015 numbers). Again, there’s some imprecision here: anything over $250K is listed solely as “$250K+” in the data, which, hey, an entire block group over $250K median HHI, talk about a Newton problem to have. There were three of those (two in West Newton, one in Newton Center).
Given those imprecisions and some rounding, the final table looks like:
Waban $175K
Newton Center $160K
Chestnut Hill $155K
Oak Hill $155K
West Newton $145K
Newton Highlands $145K
Newtonville $115K
Newton Corner $110K
Auburndale $105K
Lower Falls $100K
Upper Falls $90K
Nonantum $85K
These numbers should not be taken as gospel! There are quite a few issues with village lines and block group borders, especially in the areas where Newton Center meets with Newton Corner and/or Newtonville.
Waban is definitely the village with the highest median HHI, though. It’s not because it has the absolute richest areas of the city – those would be West Newton Hill and the area roughly between Centre and Waverly – it’s because it has literally no lower-HHI areas to bring the number down. Every single block group in Waban is $160K or higher.
Fred,
What you described is not some conscripracy, the same thing is happening across all high priced areas in the US. It’s caused by income inequality, those earning household incomes above 180k all want good schools and a decent commute AND want space.
Combined with liberal policies to reduce house building via zoning rules means these high earners outbid everyone else.
You cannot blame these high earners for wanting these things, they’ve probably worked extremely hard at school and career and they simply want 2000 to 3000 soft and a yard
I never hear about any of these extremes in the mid west, rich or poor, everyone can still buy a decent house
@Jonathan Stilwell – Thanks for the number crunching – great stuff.
Its worth noting that median 2016 income in US is $55.8K, and median income for all MA is $70.6K so by all measures Newton is generally a well-to-do town. It’s important to mention though that all these numbers are medians – i.e. it doesn’t mean that there aren’t lots of people in Newton, or MA, or US with incomes way below these medians.
@Sally Lipshutz
. I know, so do most people.
No matter how you cut it though, overall Newton is a relatively wealthy town. Within Newton, Waban, at well more than twice the median income of the state, or twice the other end of the city, is a relatively wealthy village. It’s a factual statement not a slur. Call it “rich”, or “well-off”, or “affluent”, or “economically advantaged” but the differing socio-economics of different areas of the city are definitely pertinent to this discussion. I think when it comes to the various proposed developments in Waban (Engine 6, Phillip Neri, etc) we’d be sticking our heads in the sand to ignore that – it always matters.
Every day I drive down Rt 95 I’m reminded of how this matters. A few years ago a sound barrier was put up on the Newton side of the highway to block the highway noise from the neighbors. If I lived there I would definitely want that wall too. I’m sure it was a big improvement. Right across, on the opposite side of the highway there is a public housing development in Wellesley. The houses there are much closer to the highway than on the Newton side but there’s no sound barrier, even years later. I don’t begrudge the Newton neighbors their wall but you have to question the system by which the state decides who gets a wall and who doesn’t. You’d have to be willingly naive to say socio-economics didn’t enter into it.
So it’s no about fanning class warfare, its about being wary to make sure decisions get make equitably, and making sure that the different voices of the city get heard equally – regardless of wealth, connections, etc.
Anything to back up the claim that Watertown is beginning to regret their apartment buildings? Last time I drove down Arsenal (a week or two ago) there were still some under construction.
@Fignewtonville — “Regarding your taxes going up 5k, isn’t that largely due to your home value doubling in that time? Yes there have been increases, but our property taxes are based on home values, and in 2000 your value must have been much less. Homes in my neighborhood have gone up 50% in that time, at least. Can’t blame it all on overrides. Let’s be honest about taxes, ok”
I think you probably know this, but residential property taxes rise due to increases city costs, not due to increased house values. If the assessed value of of all houses dropped 50% next year, the taxes collected by the city would not drop a penny once mil rate adjustments were made. Total taxes collected by the city can rise 2.5% each year per prop 2.5, or more with an override. Total residential taxes can rise more than 2.5% if commercial taxes rise less. An individual home owner’s taxes can rise more than average rate if their house’s assessed value increases more than the average house due to increased desirability of their neighborhood or if they make renovations.
New construction falls outside of the 2.5% limit and can raise total revenue growth significantly, but only helps the average resident if the incremental costs associated with the new construction are exceeded by the revenue.
@ Mary
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/west/2017/06/16/the-downside-watertown-success-traffic/zk6VTw820YxjChzCpG3LvL/story.html
And also these apartments are going for $3000.00/month
And Watertown has not considered what will happen to the Schools with most likely increased enrollment. They are only realizing what is happening with the Traffic and they are only looking at Arsenal Street. They have not even commented on Pleasant Street/Howard Street/Bacon Street which is adding another 400-500 apartments.
Joanne,
I’m guessing the affect on watertown schools will be extremely positive. I used to live in school zone rate 1 out of 10, over 10 years the place gentrified with 2BR rents reaching $4500.
Guess what happened? The new folks were all upper middle class and slowly sent their kids to the school. The School population went from lower middle class to upper middle class and is now rate 9 out of 10.
Yes, the smarter kids pushed out all the bad kids into other zones and cities… but that’s gentrification
Like most threads about housing, this one has brought up some interesting ideas and opinions. We need to listen and attempt understanding and common ground when discussing controversial issues. It’s particularly important not to be the tone police and not involve emotion because touching only on tenor and tone means the conversation stays on the surface and never reaches the depth of the disagreement.
I am quite adept at ignoring most labels , like “limousine liberal” and other terms from the opposing side and even though I may call them out when they do not apply. I would rather address the subject than the words. It galls me more when those I agree with won’t listen to other’s opinions and over react in ways that live up to the labels thrown at us – elitist, smug, knee-jerk liberals, etc. Speech is just that – speech.
Bashing the Newtonville listserv is popular at the moment. I’m a member, as I live in Newtonville, and disagree with a lot of what is said there about housing but instead of leaving or joining in the bash fest, I reply to almost all posts – mainly to correct the “facts” touted, lay out some facts of my own and correct the gross hyperbole – so that even if no minds are changed no one can legitimately say I did not pay attention to ideas other than my own. Hopefully the lurkers will read a more balanced opinion that way.
I have spoken to several homeowners on Foster Street directly behind WP – they do have legitimate grievances and deserve to be listened to. Unfortunately the words and ideas they seem to rely on most and repeat come from KKG who makes a point to stay in regular touch with them. (Does anyone else?) She throws around words like being oppressed” describing what they are going through, “devil strip” pertaining to the strip of zoning between them and WP and “profiteer” to describe Mr Korf. We need to give them some new descriptions. Can’t be done by talking for or ignoring them.
@Marti
On the listserv, you made the point that a “profiteer” is defined as one who makes excessive profit, and then claimed that didn’t apply to Korff.
Do you have any evidence of his expected profit? How do you know that it isn’t excessive?
@Paul – re “profiteer”. Here’s an admittedly simplistic answers
Question: What’s the difference between a 40B developer and all other developers
Answer: A 40B developer has a statutory limit on profit. All other developers have no limit.
Paul, a profiteer not only makes excessive profit but generally makes it illegally – on the black market. You again use only the parts of quotes you choose.
Back at you – how do you -or KKG who used the term profiteer to describe Mr Korf – know how much profit he will make. He doesn’t know himself yet because there are many factors not settled. How much will construction costs be when he finally builds it? Interest rates are on the rise – how will they factor in? Will he be able to reach a reasonable development or will he have to fight law suits? And who determines what’s excessive anyway? Are you saying you carry out you business endeavors with no profit? You wouldn’t stay in business long.
KKG starts calling developers profiteers and abutters oppressed, really in Newton, and her lemmings jump right in and parrot her words.
My point is not defending the term profiteer, but about the question of excessive profit. Which you claimed was not the case.
How do you know?
Why wouldn’t you- and others on here- want to ensure a fair, but not excessive profit? Why are you OK with literally blindly accepting this? Why not insist on open and public P&Ls that ensures Newton is getting its fair share in exchange for zoning relief?
There’s only so much money. Don’t understand why you and other are blindly standing behind a multi-millionaire who is hiding how much he is going to make off this project.
PS Probably unintentional, but the argument that I’m against profit is silly and not true. The key word here is excessive and the lack of concern of not knowing where things stand. What’s excessive? Definitely greater than 15% ROI. Arguably more than 10%. 40B project limit it to 7-10%, I believe.
Lordy, Lordy, Paul,
I have never claimed that Korf is not making excessive profit. Please read my comment above. I specifically said there’s no way to know at this point. Neither you nor I nor Mr Korf – and certainly not KKG.
Its a private company building a privately owned development – actually he has no obligation to tell anyone how much profit he makes. Why would you think he does?
This city is filled with millionaires who make untold profits on their investments. Are you suggesting that they all show you a profit and loss statements?
This is not a 40b. He is allowed to make what prifit he can just like you and me. That’s the capitalist society we live in. We all take risks. Some pay out and others don’t.
I just don’t understand why you think you get to set a limit on the profit someone can make on his own project. It’s perverse. As I’ve said, he doesn’t yet know.
Paul,
His profit could be between a loss of 100% to a profit of 100%.
If there is a deep recession in 2 years, he could be at a total loss. That’s the risk he is taking, if he sets rent too high and no commercial tenants then he will bleed cash like crazy. He should be compensated for the risk he is taking
“I just don’t understand why you think you get to set a limit on the profit someone can make on his own project. ”
Not me, Newton. Because he’s asking for a change in our zoning. And he’s profiting more as a result. We should share in that.
If its a fully private business transaction, I’ve got no issue with the level of profit. If we’re rezoning the property, and Newton is making the property more valuable than it used to be, and we should share in that increased value and it should be a significant share.
Think of it this way: With the approval in hand, he could turn around and sell the property right now and make money purely from the fact that the zoning is being changed. That doesn’t seem right.
It is too bad when people start using labels rather than trying to listen to what people are saying. They jump to conclusions if someone does not match their viewpoint and no productive discussions occur.
I did not think that Engine 6 was a good idea not because I don’t support affordable housing but rather my experiences with a mentally ill relative who does live in subsidized housing due to her disability. I have seen first hand how critical it is for her at times to be in close walking distance of a cvs, supermarket etc and felt that location was not close enough to those type of things. I think though many people who heard that I was not in favor of that project may have jumped to label me without listening to where I was coming from.
On another note every time I drive through Watertown I wonder who is going to live in all these units being built especially in the Pleasant at area where every time I go there are more and more units being built. On the commercial side I see Needham St with all the new retail properties being developed when many existing sites sit empty on the same St and in the Villages.
@newton highlands mom – I agree about how labels,at times can shut conversations down rather than further them.
As for engine 6, what fired me up about the possible benefits of that project was,also a personal experience with a guy named Sandy Winslow. He was featured in Gail Specter’s book Notables of Newton.. He also suffered with profound mental illness. He had a number of very tough years bouncing from institutions to the,street but eventually found permanent housing in newton. In the years,afterward he became a wonderful and talented part of our community. What made,all the difference was stable and permanent housing.
I agree, the engine 6 location was not ideal. It certainly would have been significantly better with nearby shops, but thats not the alternative. There’s a great unmet need for that kind of housing. The alternative to not building Engine 6 was nine people, with a great need, having no permanent housing. I think it was a missed, admittedly not perfect, opportunity.
I hope the next time somethi g like this comes up we can do better AND have a,CVS next door.
@Newton Highlands Mom and Jerry Reilly have ended this post on a positive and productive note even if they seem to be drawing somewhat different conclusions from their different experiences. I, too, know or have experience working with people who have been addicted to drugs or alcohol, or who have grave emotional conditions. I’ve always been perplexed by the unbounded fear these kinds of folks seem to generate in so many people especially when they are about to move into the neighborhood. On the other hand, I was never certain that Engine 6 was a good fit not because it would mix the wealthy with problem folks, but because it was isolated away from shopping areas and other community access points. Deep loneliness is a condition that underscores much of addiction and mental illness and the overriding tendency is to isolate and draw inward. But I never had any doubt at all that the people who could clear the vetting process at Pine Street Inn wouldn’t be able to handle themselves at Engine 6. In most respects, they are just like you and me. I’m sure they could and would have worked together to make it work. It’s just that I thought there were more supportive community environments that could be found.