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  • Early Voting Starts Today: Why We Support Willie Burnley Jr.

Early Voting Starts Today: Why We Support Willie Burnley Jr.

Get out the vote

Author

Aaron Weber
September 09, 2025

Somerville needs more housing and more staff with living wages. Willie Burnley, Jr. is the best choice for mayor to solve these problems.

In the Somerville YIMBY survey this summer, we asked candidates: “Our neighbors in Cambridge have updated their zoning to allow residential buildings of up to 4 stories citywide — 6 if they include affordable housing at Somerville’s 20% level. Would you support a similar change that would legalize buildings of up to 6 stories by right (without special permits) citywide?”

Burnley was the only mayoral candidate to say yes. He said, “I would support such a measure. That said, I would look for a way to prioritize this development in neighborhoods that are not as dense. East Somerville and Union Square shouldn't be the only neighborhoods to be impacted by this.”

The other mayoral candidates effectively said no. They lack the boldness to solve our housing crisis.

There has been some discussion about building more housing mainly near our T stations, also referred to as “transit-oriented” development (TOD). By allowing builders to build more homes near transit, more people can enjoy public transit, which the state has invested millions of dollars into. We support this, too!

However, about 83% of all of Somerville is within ½ mile of a T station. About 99% of all of Somerville is within ¾ mile of a T station.  As we see it, city-wide upzoning is transit-oriented development because all of Somerville is transit-oriented.  Therefore, any candidate seriously advocating for TOD in a subset of Somerville should specify the number of stories and radius of the proposal they would support. We invite all candidates to define their version of transit-oriented development.

Separately, although we like the recent ordinance that makes it easier to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs, or small homes in backyards) and triple deckers, it has only led to a small number of new homes. In this housing shortage, we need bigger changes. Councilor Burnley’s collaboration with Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen on removing parking minimums proves that he’ll continue to look for bold policy changes that make it easier to build badly needed homes, and also mitigate traffic by reducing the number of  additional cars coming to Somerville.

As the only renter in the mayoral race, Burnley also takes displacement seriously. In 2022, he was the only councilor to file the amendment to update our Housing Stability Notification Act. Thanks to his leadership, the city now requires all landlords to notify tenants of their rights in the tenant’s language shortly after starting a lease. He also led the charge inside and worked with elected officials outside Somerville to push the Commonwealth to ban tenant-paid broker fees, an improvement that became state law this very month.

Furthermore, Burnley is the only mayoral candidate to propose starting an Office of Social Housing. This Office would buy or build housing, using profits from market rate homes to pay for subsidized affordable ones. A similar program in Montgomery County, MD, has already built hundreds of mixed-income homes in the last few years, and a program in Seattle was just approved this past February. The Cambridge Housing Justice Coalition just published an op-ed asking Cambridge to create a revolving loan fund for social housing. Burnley’s social housing initiative is a big and proven way to fight displacement.

Building more housing will require more city staff, treated with dignity and paid living wages. Burnley has stood by our workers. In June 2024, the Somerville Municipal Employees Union (SMEU) had been out of a contract for 2 years, all during Ballantyne's administration. The union had been asking for raises to be competitive with comparable cities. Ballantyne's administration continually failed to meet this demand. During the June 2024 budget process, however, Ballantyne proposed salary increases for her administrative staff. For example, she proposed increasing the salary for Lammis Vargas, the Chief Administrative Officer and current Rhode Island state senator from $177,554 to $185,466. To protest this inequity, SMEU asked the city council to freeze these administrative salaries. Burnley and four other councilors voted for this proposal, but Jake Wilson and the remaining five voted it down.

Burnley has the vision, the collaborative skills, and the moral compass to fight our housing shortage and build the city capacity to get it done. Vote for Willie Burnley, Jr. during early voting or on September 16.

Our Endorsed Candidates

Mayor: Willie Burnley Jr.
At-Large: Scott Istvan, Ben Wheeler, Will Mbah, Jon Link
Ward 3: Ben Ewen-Campen
Ward 5: Naima Sait
Ward 7: Emily Hardt

Early voting will take place at at City Hall, 93 Highland Ave:
Tuesday 9/9 & Wednesday 9/10: 8:30 A.M. - 4:30 P.M.
Thursday 9/11: 8:30 A.M. to 7:30 P.M.

For full details and on-site absentee ballot dropoff times, see the city elections calendar.

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