When you are forcing people to live 50 minutes away just to work at a minimum wage job because you expect to have a parking space in every home in a city… I think that is worthy of scorn.

People aren’t dumb. Most people sell their car when they to move to NYC. You keep assuming that only people who own cars will move here but that is factually untrue.

Then the conclusion is that the lifestyle and convenience provided by the city for the past 60 years, based largely on a population that was 30% smaller than it is today, is not sustainable and must change, and is changing, as the city grows.

Right, and decades of NIMBYism has led to the need of a “enormous influx” of housing.

The need for housing isn’t a very good argument against policies they make it easier to build housing. In fact… it is just confusing.

Yes Cambridge, the suburban utopia. Unlike Boston, Cambridge rioted and stopped the inner belt from being built.

I don’t know how to argue with someone who believes increasing housing supply isn’t a solution to a housing crisis. Every other town every where says the same thing you are saying, so no housing is being built anywhere.

Cambridge has a tremendous amount of opportunity for growth in terms of 4-6 story multi families being allowed City wide, but it is impossible to build that and mandate everyone home must have a parking spot.

Having a roof over someone’s head is more important than your right to store your car on public streets. If you don’t agree then we will never see eye to eye and this discussion is pointless, sorry.

They are against them. They have never proposed a single solution other than to rip them all out.

You’re disgusted? What about the large number of disabled and elderly people who can’t drive at all? Just fuck them right?

“Omg I was presented with reality and it made me screech”

Given that these parking minimums add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of each unit built in the city, how could you possibly argue that it is anything but wealth segregation?

People who sign these leases will know there is no parking. Some people will choose not to move here because of that. Other (on average less rich people) will be happy to take those homes.

There isn’t enough space in this city for everyone to own a car. Charge market rate for parking and give subsidies to those with real need (elderly, disabled)

The city gives away these spots for free.

“Car traffic is awful… when it’s in MY neighborhood” - literal NIMBY that owns a car

Parking takes up a huge amount of space, and developers will often not even bother building a project (especially low-to-average quality housing) because the parking minimums cut into their margins too much

Councilor — when is the city going to tackle zoning restrictions? Is there any good reason why the city can’t have 4-6 story multi families city wide?

Weird because last time I checked this law was passed by an elected city council with a near unanimous vote.

I’m sorry you think building more homes for folks who don’t want cars or parking is so evil. I disagree.

That’s not how supply and demand work but ok

It amazes me that anyone could say that the inner belt should have been built. It was so bad that it wasn’t even built during the peak of white flight and highway construction

That entire area north of beacon hill needs to be re demolished and completely redone. What a travesty

Helped so much that the state had to undertake the most expensive infrastructure project ever in the US because it was actually helping too much.

The highways are what led to white flight and urban decay in Boston and elsewhere

Literally an entire neighborhood was razed, large swaths of the city are stuck next endless pollution/noise/ugly road ways, And this led to far too much car traffic inside the city

How to tell someone lives in the suburbs in 10 seconds or less

Greatest decision Massachusetts ever made to cancel that project.

Random guy on the Internet thinks something is preposterous based off of a personal anecdote. 🤡

100 people want to live in a neighborhood but there are 20 homes. The wealth of these people follow a standard bell curve.

Who gets to live in the neighborhood?

The next year the city passes a policy that leads to the creation of 40 more homes.

What happens to the price of homes, again with a standard curve where everyone has a varying max budget

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It is worth noting that there if a regional housing crisis and increased demand for walkable neighborhoods. This example assumes demand is constant. The solution is not to prevent Cambridge from building more housing, but to encourage/force surrounding towns to build more housing.

The population has simply grown and we haven’t built homes to keep up

Mandated parking adds 50-60k to the price of each unit, 100-250 dollars in rent, and also restricts the supply of available housing due to how much space these lots take up.

The only possible outcome is a decrease in prices. Whether or not the impact is big is unknown

Thank you for your work on this councilor.