Action alerts: Send an email, have a chat

Plus: Alarming national housing trends

Author

Aaron Weber
August 26, 2025

Write to the Planning Board

Last Thursday, the Planning Board reviewed a proposal to build a small apartment building at 675 Somerville Avenue. This modestly sized three-story building would be built and operated by a local family business. It’s replacing a gas station, so it displaces nobody and reduces Somerville’s overall carbon emissions and car dependency. Plus, people who live in this building would not get street parking permits, so they won’t even compete for street parking with existing neighbors. In other words, it should be a slam dunk, but it’s been slow going as it proceeds through neighborhood meetings and Urban Design Commission presentations and special permit hearings.

As ever, even this modest amount of housing needs your help to get through the gauntlet of special permitting that Somerville requires. Write to [email protected] by Friday 8/29 and let them know you support housing on this site, without delay! The usual guidelines apply: keep it short, keep it polite, and include your address.

September Election Update

Do you like talking with people face to face? Even if you don’t, would you be willing to have a few short conversations anyway? How about sending an email?

Wear your Somerville YIMBY shirt if you’ve got one, and join us for canvassing, phone banking, and more.

Canvassing with Willie Burnley Jr.

We also need help sharing these events and endorsements with your friends. As great as this newsletter is, only a thousand or so people subscribe to it. Please share our endorsement list with your family, friends, and neighbors !

And seriously, come out and talk to your neighbors. If you haven’t done it before, it’s surprisingly easy, especially since you can get advice and training from more experienced volunteers.

Visit somervilleyimby.org/elections/2025-election for our voter guide, and be sure to vote! The Somerville preliminary election is on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, and the last day to register to vote in it is September 5.

Other News

Legalize Starter Homes : We often hear that Somerville can’t solve a regional housing shortage alone, and that’s where campaigns like this one come in. Legalize Starter Homes is a statewide ballot initiative to reduce lot-size requirements that prevent construction of moderate-size “starter” homes. Somerville is already compliant with the proposed ballot initiative, but we should support this regional effort. They’ll be hosting a volunteer info session on September 7.

Upcoming Events

As always, you can find our Google calendar at somervilleyimby.org/calendar . If you notice we’ve missed an event, feel free to reply to this message and let us know!

Trump’s crackdown on immigration and our regional refusal to build housing are combining to make the 2030 census critical in the national balance of power. Withinternational migration falling and domestic migration away from high-cost cities rising, we may be in serous trouble. Current projections show places like Massachusetts, New York, and California losing congressional seats, while states like Texas, Florida, and Utah all gain. That kind of realignment could alter the balance of power in Washington for a decade or more.

Map of the US showing congressional seat changes in 2030

Brennan Center 2030 Redistricting Projections

And that’s before we account for the fact that the immigration crackdown has also hindered our ability to build .

Darrell Owens has a similar analysis for California, and his conclusion is strikingly dire: California housing is killing democracy . If blue states like Massachusetts and California do not house more people, he argues, they will have fewer residents. If they have fewer residents, they have less national power. If they have less national power, they cannot make headway on issues like criminal justice reform, public health, scientific research, transit, green energy, climate change, and, yes, the very foundations of democracy itself.