Teamwork needed to solve South Coast’s housing crisis

1. After Josh Amaral kept citing the city plan without specifics as to what it would actually entail beyond a wish list and the panel acted all enthused about the suggestion from the audience for a regional approach as housing on the South Coast affects every municipality, and again we got references to “The Plan”, the moderator asked why, since it is in the years old plan, it has not begun doing that .

   Then it became a panel of Ralph Kramden trying to explain himself to Alice with, “Hummina. Hummima”.

   The audience was made of people seriously concerned about housing and not a gathering of people just getting out of the cold, so questions were serious and the people wanted answers.

   Although the panelist touted all the resources available to those with housing problems and the panel was in total agreement that these programs addressed many problems, it was obvious these services were unknown to the audience of interested people and, so, would be unknown to the general public. A member of the panel was asked how this information, being so necessary for so long but unknown, is being made known to the general public. Again, there might have been a concept how this dissemination of information would be done, but it was clear nothing, at best little, was being done, and there was no actual plan as the person answering the question went immediately to the standard dodge to avoid any effort to have had a plan formulated over the past few years, the panelists suggested they could utilize the schools.

   There were no details how this would happen, but, having taught from 1973 to 2011, whenever a politician wants credit without accountability, schools were tasked by non-educators to implement their nebulous plans and take the heat for failing to do what the politicians should have done a different way or had even taken the time to plan the method. That is why most teachers now get blamed for not teaching children what parents should be teaching at home, like banking and changing a tire, while instead of realistically addressing school shootings tell teachers they must be armed and held responsible for anything that goes wrong regarding the gun.

   There is obviously no plan other than the plan.

   I have a copy of the city plan and it is colorful and glossy, but it, and the members of the panel basically reduce the city’s plan to simply getting the city ready for people not here yet while driving out those who have stayed with the city from the closure of the last major wage related industry until now when the major plan seems to be to ignore building on the city’s and region’s strengths and history and produce just another cookie cutter city of chrome, class, and luxury apartments based on finances elsewhere and not reality where a tourist has to check his phone to remember which city the convention is being held in as it looks just like the city where the last one was held.

   There was plenty of discussion of increasing the housing stock, but none about preventing outside investors and LLCs from forcing out citizens by raising rents to where locals cannot afford them while doing nothing for them, most improvements being geared to getting a higher rent from the hoped-for new people.

   There are cities that capitalized on their character and those whose only difference between one city and another is how the interior of the Hard Rock Cafe is laid out.

   The plans have been to bring the city back but it is clear that the grasped at straws of a casino and aquarium did not pan out, so we had to jump to something new and hope that is the answer as opposed to having a serious meeting of people outside the backroom and minus the investors to decide what the city is.

   I am old enough to have seen the beginning , middle, and end of many things. I have lived in cities that needed a new life. However, it was usually the came script with different actors reciting the same emptiness.

   The meeting could be summed up simply:

   A room full of people were being told nebulous plans with things titled but not developed with the overall theme coming down to this city is going to be great after the people in the room are removed and other people come in.

   The plan for the city is not for the citizens but people not here yet, so everything must address their assumed needs.

   In the end, whatever happens in New Bedford will be controlled by the out of state and out of country investment firms (It is already happening. Who is your landlord?), and those politically and financially incestuous locals who quietly bought up cheap property when the city was at its lowest and whose improvement they will now endeavor to get the citizens to subsidize by grant money and their leaving to allow higher rents, and those who, knowing the return of the train was inevitable and used this insider knowledge to buy property along the rails that will bring in the return on their investment when development increases along the rail right of way.

   Sadly, the event was an infomercial in which the panelists told the audience to wait because there’s more when nothing was actually presented that would have anyone know what the “more” would be since knowledge of what the offer is was never explained.

   1. Wow! Quigley, that was a very impressive essay! The “bad” guy is Capitalism, but don’t you worry! The “big” guy campaigned that when he assumes the Presidency, he will “make” prices go down! Happy Days are back again in America!

      1. The “Big” guy, President Trump never promised anything more than removing the restrictions on energy production, deporting the 10+ million illegal immigrants welcomed by Democrat governors & mayors to waste tax payer dollars supporting them, and enforce the existing immigration laws in America that were written and passed by previous legislators that were far more intelligent than Biden, and his fellow liberal Democrats in Congress today, and his administration of useless liars, and unqualified fools who were hired or appointed solely based on race, gender, and sexual preference with zero regard of their ability to perform all requirements of job as they were intended, and they all did an amazing job of embarrassing the United States, and exposing the stupidity of the voters who elected Biden, and even more stupid, and ignorant voters for trying to elect Harris.
         No President has the ability to lower inflation, but it’s been proven one could increase inflation by giving away Trillions of dollars to people, and signing bills into law as stupid as the Inflation Reduction Act that had the opposite effect and wasted more tax payer dollars, but that’s ok, that free money will come with a steep price for everyone when the national debt continues to grow, and the interest on that debt that currently exceed $1 Trillion dollars per year will increase to an unsustainable level, and the dollar loses so much value, even the worst Governor like Healy can’t tax people who have no income, and she can’t fund the welfare checks, SNAP benefits, Medicaid, Mass Health etc., and the have-nots have nothing and there aren’t enough tents for the homeless population when it’s increased 5X larger annually.

2. I really don’t understand how anyone expects New Bedford, and administrators from surrounding towns can do anything beyond acknowledging the fact that housing is more expensive today than it was 5, 10, 10, 20, years ago.
   For some reason, there is a small percentage of the population in the city who are expecting city officials to solve a problem they have no control over. You’re asking cities and towns to solve a private problem they have little to no control over, what property owners charge for rent on apartments and homes isn’t a problem for the city to solve, state and federal tax payers already pay far too much to subsidise housing for too many people who could, and should be working and paying for their own housing, maybe you should blame them instead of the investors who buy a run down building and make it presentable again with increased rental costs so they can see a profit within 10 years, not 50 years.

3. The city absolutely has the tools, and in fact a mandate, to exponentially increase housing production.
   The hold-up is NIMBYism and incrementalism, and the inability of city planners and council to get out of the late 1900s.
   We wasted so much time this is no longer a social or political issue.
   People are made of matter and take up space. They need somewhere to literally physically exist.
   Look to places that are actually doing it, like Houston. Boston is sending a delegation there to learn because Boston is serious about making change.

   Abolish parking minimums, upzone everywhere and delete single family zoning, remove special permitting for 5-over-1 and allow them by right.
   It’s not just that “housing is more expensive”. There literally isn’t enough of it.
   As for getting the word out, ward meetings are a great start, and city council members need to take charge. If they aren’t up to that small task how can they handle the other bigger stuff, like answering emails or letters from constituents?

   1. The only tools needed are land and money, and the city of New Bedford owns very little land, and has no extra money, each year, for at least the past 8 years, the Mayor clearly displays in a pie chart where the money is spent on everything from education to services the city is required to provide by law with salaries, benefits, trash collection, electric, heat, and maintenance for the buildings owned and operated by the city, vehicles and all the associated costs, road repairs, etc., etc., and the small portion the city can decide where the money should be spent, and in case you didn’t notice, property taxes, water rates, swear rates, and other fees increase every year. There is no “mandate” for the city to increase its housing supply as demands rise, New Bedford isn’t Boston, you can’t expect a city that has mainly had a population of 100,000 residents to mow expand so an additional 50,000 more people can live here, there are already 20% more vehicles in the city than there were ten years ago, and you want to abolish parking minimums in a city that already opens up parking on those vacant schools when there’s a snow storm with a parking ban, or do you want to build more parking garages along with with additional 10,000 low income housing units? Don’t forget to let me know who is going to subsidize those low income housing units, and the added 20 story parking garages needed for more vehicles, or should the middle class and wealthy pick up the tab for that too along with the added welfare, SNAP, Medicaid, section 8, and housing projects? You don’t like the zoning rules because you obviously don’t own a home, if you did buy a single family home in an area zoned for single family homes and paid $350,000 in mortgage interest for your single largest investment, you wouldn’t want a 4 story home built on each side of your house when the house lot became vacant because a home burned down, and a single parent with 4 children can’t afford to pay more than $900.00 per month in rent, and her cost of living benefit check doesn’t rise at the same rate as property taxes, water, swear, maintenance, and all the other costs like heating system upgrades & maintainance, property insurance, and all the other expenses you never see.

4. Time to elect a new Governor: For the past two years under Maura Healey’s watch, we have watched the unrelenting waves of migrants enter our state and continue to cost Massachusetts taxpayers between $1 and $2 billion annually, with no end in sight. This $1 and $2 billion annually could be a big help to all the Cities and Towns of Massachusetts.

   1. wrong issue. This is about local housing not immigration. Please cite the number of migrants coming to this state that is unrelenting.

      1. All the financial debt increases are related, low income housing in New Bedford is just one small part that has no solution other than increasing your income, or relocating to a different state or country with a lower cost of living.

5. There are a lot of residents in New Bedford that would like to build an in-law addition to their homes, however zoning does not allow it. If allowed families would have space for additional members and it would free up apartments. Plus better care could be for family members because they would be on the families property.

   1. Well they won’t be allowed because I don’t want my neighbors building additions on their property that are within 10-15 feet of my property line, and property owners wouldn’t build them anyway, according to the majority who would want to build are already complaining about higher property taxes, property insurance, increased water & sewer rates, if they can’t afford to build anyway.

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