Smart Growth in Somerville

Smart Growth in Somerville
Part 1:  Remembering how smart we were
By William C. Shelton

We’ve heard a lot lately from city government, local activists, and Commonwealth policy makers about “smart growth.”  It’s a set of land use, transportation, and urban design policies that represent the opposite of “urban sprawl.”  Its main principles are to:

·        Concentrate population density near transportation centers like highway and train junctions;
·        Mix housing, stores, services, and workspace in the same neighborhood and, often, on the same block;
·        In this way, and by thoughtfully designing public space, encourage walking and bicycle use;
·        Offer a variety of housing choices and affordability levels within any neighborhood;
·        Preserve and enhance cultural resources and structurally sound buildings;
·        Fairly distribute the benefits and burdens of development; and
·        Intersperse dense residential areas with ample and usable open space.

   In other words, smart growth is what Somerville was when our elders were children.
Factory jobs were accessible by walking or streetcar.  Every Somerville home was close to a square containing a theater; grocery, hardware, and drug stores; bars and cafes; barbers, beauty shops, banks, and other services.  Houses situated close to the street encouraged interaction.  Open space was scarce, although then, Somerville Beach was a wonderful resource accessible to all.
   In 1950, ours was the most densely populated city in the U.S.  It was also one of America’s most tightly knit, livable, and vibrant communities. 
   Irish and Italian immigrants and their children dominated the demographics.  They had brought with them their expectations of participating in extended families, parish churches, and an extensive array of civic, fraternal, sports, political, and labor organizations.
   But after practicing smart growth for almost two centuries, Somervillians started getting dumb in the late 1950s and early 1960s, seduced by the more hollow aspects of the “American dream.” 
   They had first come to this country in search of freedom.  Their understanding of “freedom” was the opportunity to more fully realize their potential.  And although they would have no reason to consciously articulate it, the truth of their lived experience was this: no one can achieve their potential as an isolated human being.  We achieve it through work, love, and play.   We need each other.
   Their rich social fabric and the weak penetration of mass media insulated them from the concept of freedom that dominates American culture.  It is the idea that “freedom” is non-interference.  It is the cultural theme that publicly lionizes the rugged individual while privately obscuring our yearning for the community that rampant individualism makes impossible.
   When freedom is understood to be the opportunity to realize one’s potential, then other humans are seen as the medium in which that happens, and as necessary partners in one’s success.  When freedom is understood to be non-interference, then others become either instruments towards, or obstacles in the way of one’s success.  The perceived common denominator of success increasingly collapses into economic gain, which among other ways, is symbolized by the physical distance with which we can separate ourselves from our neighbors.
   This was part of the lure of the suburbs that were expanding with Post World War II economic growth.  The mushrooming mass media transmitted perceptions of the suburbs as a kind of democratic utopia. 
   Tens of thousands of Somervillians left town. Those neighborhood businesses that required a dense, compact trade area were the first to die as population density decreased.
When the factories closed, developers converted them to housing.  This eliminated spaces in which to locate new-economy jobs.  It weakened the city’s tax base and fiscal structure.
   Somervillians had to travel out of town to find new jobs, reducing the squares’ daytime population yet again.  The relatively lower wages offered by those jobs, along with sweeping societal changes, further reduced the number of adults staying at home, and with them, the diversity of commercial offerings in the squares.
   Out-of-town jobs required automobiles, lowering demand for streetcars, which were dismantled.  Buses fueled by cheap oil partially replaced them.  Rapid growth in auto ownership made regional shopping centers accessible, killing more neighborhood businesses.  Traffic congestion made the city less walkable and homicidal rage over stolen parking spaces, more common.
   Despite all these changes Somerville still leads 95% of American cities in smart growth.  The built environment that Somerville’s elders bequeathed to us will provide enormous advantage in dealing with the sweeping changes that $10-per-gallon gasoline will eventually force upon the nation.  It will also bring serious challenges, the first of which may be perceived in our housing affordability crisis.

Comments

[Solh Zendeh]

Hey, does anyone know what the status is on the MAXPAC project off of lowell street? Something that always bugged me about that projet was that there was absolutely no mixed use space set aside on that site - just a giant apartment complex. It seems like those buildings will be right on top of a new green line stop in 10 years, why not have a area on the first floor of the buildings set aside for a market or something.

[Ron Newman]

Seems to be stalled until or unless someone re-introduces a zoning amendment for that parcel. (And I too would prefer to see at least a little commercial use there.)

[Born Here]

Ron,
would the bike path extension go that far ? Seems like a great oportunity for the whole area if they could put some kind of mixed use. It would also be a selling point for the developer.

[Solh Zendeh]

Yes, the bike path was supposed to go through that development and eventually all the way to lechemere.

[Ron Newman]

Absolutely, the bike path extension will go right by MaxPak.

[Martin Edin]

Affordable housing? That train has left the station a long time ago. And you can do now is peddal your bike and hope to catch up.

Affordable housing like the old Gaurd of Somerville remains in a death spiral, and its house needs a top-to-bottom overhaul if it's ever going to revive. But I don't see how. Somerville polititcs has become an antiquated structure that divides communities' strength. Too often the oldtimers talk amoungst themselves like they are the only ones. That only leads to attrition. Sufferage has fallen to less than national lows of 15% and the Democratic party of massachusetts is more like the anti-union, anti-labor republicans of yesteryear with ten times more corruption. we have to wake up to the fact that we’re in a global economy and people have to change. When Soemrville's residents were strong, they raised everyone up. Look at what's happening now here and in America. The gap between the rich and the rest of the population is growing so wide and so fast that even Alan Greenspan says it threatens democratic capitalism. We are willing to give up, totally give up on the jobs that have been lost to globalization. What about the jobs that are leaving? I think we can prove that Ronald Reagan is wrong, George Bush is wrong. Wealth does not trickle down, it trickles up. you have to understand the train has left the station of globalization. More will go on. And the question is, is: how do you make sure American workers' jobs, who are still in our country, you know, are jobs that work is valued and rewarded. The closest thing we will have to affordable housing is having 10 mexicans live in an one room apartment and love it.

[Francis Puertos]

Get ready for gas prices to go up. Right after the elections!

[Solh Zendeh]

Martin, I simply do not agree that "the train has left the station" as far as globalization is concerned. Globalization is a function of low tariffs and cheap oil. If one of those two things changes significantly, globalization will grind to a halt. We can choose to sacrifice now, by increasing tariffs, or later, when oil prices spike and we are not prepared at all for the sudden spike in prices.

We are exporting our wealth and importing poor people, how dumb are we?

[Martin Edin]

The exchange rate between the British pounds and the american dollar is now 1:2. Did you know that? Because it snuck past me too. It must have been an electric train because I did not hear it leave the station either. But it has. When china and india start buying oil from Russia and Iran and everyone else starts trading with each other they may soon forget about us.

You can not create affordable housing without jobs that pay living wages. You can not subsidize housing when employers don't pay benifits and your government is stuck subsidizing medical bills instead. The Unions have been the best anti-poverty mechanizm in America and they are being crushed from two sides now: internal corruption where bosses and chiefs make too much money and power and they want to preserve their postion and power and 2.) from within by Republicans, cooporate welfare, and illegal low ball hiring of illegal immigrants from Republicans. if the job is not going overseas it is going to local immigrants who live 10 to a house. In order to protect people the democrats & Republicans have taken money from middle class american taxpayers and have created bloated city employee unions. Our tax dollars are not spent on city services, they are spent on protecting subsidized jobs for democrats. Meanwhile the Republicans are getting Rich as well as many democrats. The people not benifiting are the middle class workers.

So how are you gonna create affordable housing if you can not create non-subisdized living-wage jobs that pay real benifits for these people? I think you can chalk the phrase "affordable housing" up with the soon to be forgotten"lifetime jobs" phrase.

[Orange Line Rider]

Ever notice that in the morning that most of the trains that show up at Sullivan Station are already crowded, and Somerville residents can't get on? SO how the fuck will these ever get to work when this new smart growth project at Asembly Square gets built, and the train is even more packed with people who are using the new Station located between Sullivan and Wellington? Let's not forget how packed these things are in the evening as well?

The new station is going to be built 200 yards away. from Sullivan. What a waste of money.

[Born Here]

not to mention that they will all be carrying their large IKEA boxes too !!

[Ron Newman]

it's not going to be "200 yards" from Sullivan. It will probably be around Foley Street.

[Tricky]

Absolutely. 200 yards from Sullivan gets you barely past the overpass on Middlesex Avenue.

It's about two-thirds of a mile to where Foley Street would run into the Orange Line, which also happens to be almost exactly between Sullivan and Wellington.

[brickbottom]

ouch

[brickbottom]

ouch

[Trust me]

Trust me, that money won't be wasted. I will go right into the pockets of some loyal Democratic cronie who worked hard to earn the trust of the powers that be. These guys worked hard to get where they are, don't you think they should be paid?

[Affordable Housing]

OK lets create some affordable housing.

But let us not let the people who live in these houses have a voice in this community!

Somerville is first a a business, and as soon as we start letting the residents dictate to the Business community we will begin to lose tons of profits and money making opportunities. It is bad enough with what the Unions are already doing to us. We don't need more pod people involved. Less is more.

Furthermore as a business community I think we should shift the burden of paying for affordable housing to the residents of Somerville. If they want to live with people who can't afford to live here then let them pay for it. Create a condo ordinance and bring back rent control so that the multi-family owners have to bear the burden of affordable housing. If we don't do this, and we don't unite as a business community we will end up being the business of helping people. WE ARE NOT IN THAT BUSINESS! Trust me , we can shift the burden of the poor onto the middle class pod people and we can continue to grow this economy. In 2000 corporate profits were 8% today they are 15%. Wages were 66% today they are 63%. Lets keep up the momentum here. We are winning this battle. And if the pod people want out, if they want to join us then they have to a pay heavy toll, because the cost of a college education has gone up more than 40% since 2000. Lets keep these people where they belong and lets start putting some money in our pockets before China and India get here.

So yes , lets get Union square going. But lets not let Residents and Affordable Housing initiatives get in the way of Progress!

[brickbottom]

The two weird posts above attributed to me were not mine.

Pretty freaky!

[brickbottom]

Affordable Housing,

Hopefully your post was done "tongue in cheek" if not you are one greedy coldhearted selfish cancerous growth that must be surgically removed.

[Affordable Housing]

Why would you say that Brickbottom? You don't even know me. Besides we don't go out of our way to make sure certain people win the housing lottery just so that we can go ahead and let whinney little Union reps like you tell us how to run our Businesses and our city do you? And make no mistake about it. It is our city. Even if we do let you vote.

[brickbottom]

Affordable Housing,

You say: "Why would you say that Brickbottom? You don't even know me"

Same goes here you little schmuck. You have no idea who I am.

Your city? I think not. Union Rep? I think not.

Why don't you take your meds and do a little basket weaving, that might relieve you of your Napoleon complex.

[Affordable Housing]

Listen Brickbottom , I am speaking for the whole business community here. do you think the whole Business community has a Napoleon complex? Why would you think we had a Napoleon complex just because we know how to run a city? And we controll who gets a license to do what around here. We are tired of all neighborhood and union groups who think they know whats best fot this City. We have contractors ready to roll on projects who worked hard to earn the trust of the powers that be. These folks need to get paid, not you, not the unions and not the neighborhoods!

[brickbottom]

Affordable Housing,

You ARE IN MY CITY and you and your contractors can go to hell if you think you are going to steamroll over my neighbors and neighborhoods that are just "in your way".

Believe me simpleton if anyone knows who controls getting licenses here it is me. And you don't "control" any of them. So take your bulldozers and............

[Affordable housing]

You are going to be standing in the way of progress Brickbottom. What about all those shopkeepers that want to serve a more affluent clientel? What about all the businesses that want open in residential zones? You are going be taking money out of their pockets just so you can keep some old community that nobody cares about together?

And what about the polititions who want make friends with all the business people so they can land some cushy job after doing favors for them? That is their ticket our of here and you are going to just ruin it?

I think you are hurting more people than your helping Brickbottom!

[kotygate]

brick,

sounds like affordablehousing man is someone that has already paid of stan and just wants to make sure his little project gets taken care of