Part Eight: Summary of YIMBY blogposts and further news

PART EIGHT: SUMMARY OF YIMBY POSTS & MORE NEWS

PART ONE --    “Take a Look. It’s Already Happening” HERE
 Part One introduces the recently ordained citywide up-zoning petition and what is presented as a real YIMBY (Yes in My Back Yard) win by both the eight City Councillors who voted for it and its various supporters. We look at a recent realtor's letter to an East Cambridge single family home owner urging them to sell, as well as a series of properties that are part of our current and now far more impactful city gentrification upzoning project. The specific properties addressed here include: Huron Ave. (West Cambridge), Henry St. (Cambridgeport), Jay and Kinnaird Streets (Riverside), as well as a Harvard Square-adjacent property, that of one time  boarding house of famed African American abolitionist and author, Harriet Jacobs. 

PART TWO  --  "YIMBY Present and Past" HERE
Part Two explores the Kirkland Street property featured in two recent Boston Globe articles by their YIMBY housing staff writer, Andrew Brinker. We zero in on both the history and likely future of this home in the Kirkland Village area. Most likely it will become two very expensive single family homes, one close to the street, the other in the rear, adjacent to the property line. This project will increase the property values (and taxes) of nearby residents. But two very lucky wealthy families may be able to live here. We also take up the history of the existing more modest home on the site and the goals of the circa 1900 "American Dream Housing" that. unlike the current "gilded age" housing dream today, actually cared about creating affordable housing for young families.  
 
PART THREE -- "Strawberry Fields Forever" HERE
Part Three focuses on on one specific Cushing Street project in Strawberry Hill in the western section of the city, a neighborhood abutting both Fresh Pond and Mt. Auburn Cemetery. This area, like Riverside, is likely to be hit especially hard with the up-zoning changes, as wealthier individuals acquire larger and more expensive luxury single-family homes and duplexes. Here we especially focus on the advertising language used by the site's realtors to showcase the investment potential of this property, one that already was being upgraded to more expensive luxury homes, and likely now will be upgraded even more. We have edited this post to add the Feb 23, 2023 Andrew Brinker article on the Massachusetts state push on this effort, noting how a onetime Cambridge resident and A Better Cambridge co-founder along with his ally Councillor Burhan Azeem are part of this expanded effort. We conclude with the Beatles' famous song lyrics and their relevance today.
 
PART  FOUR -- "A PRIMER: Our Revolutionary YIMBY Success Story"  HERE
Part Four looks at the "Primer on Multi-Family Upzoning" created by Councillor Azeem and posted on his Social Media sites in conjunction with his celebration of the pro-builder Cambridge zoning success. He compares Cambridge's up-zoning criteria and perceived impacts to Paris (although absent design oversight, related city plans, or even the ability for legal appeal. We remind him (and our readers) that Haussmann's Paris with its large boulevards, not only is inapplicable to the small quirky streets of Cambridge without massive neighborhood and district demolitions, but also that Haussmann's plan destroyed the historic Medieval center of Paris, forcing out Jewish and other residents along with the businesses that once were thriving here. 

PART FIVE -- "Cambridge is Number 1!!!" HERE
Part Five explores the celebratory Social Media posts (X/Twitter and BlueSky) by Councillor Azeem and related comments and questions about this citywide YIMBY up-zoning by others. Some of the responders ask good questions, such as what is to prevent one from creating new (more expensive) single family homes and what will be the green space impacts. We also address here the investment property acquired by Councillor Azeem in the period this zoning was being made public and some of the related concerns about whether the City's Plan E government framework was being followed in this case. 

PART SIX -- The Role of Students in our Recent YIMBY Victory HERE
Part Six addresses the fallacious  information conveyed to and provided by Councillor Azeem and the ABC group to many of the Harvard and MIT students who spoke at City Council meetings on the YIMBY up-zoning. Salient among these issues is the claim that this zoning petition would promote the building of  apartment buildings citywide with lower cost housing for them. We also address the student views, that they as lower income (student) residents should expect to benefit from related inclusionary projects when their salaries are likely to rise considerably upon graduation. Our affordable housing is intended instead for lower income local working families or those without other means. We don't let ourselves off the hook here, urging far more engagement in educating both city residents and the many wonderful students who live here on these issues and what the impacts of this up-zoning are and likely will continue to be.
Cambridge YIMBY win? Initial Results and Reflections (Parts I to VI): HERE

PART SEVEN - Updates  Updates" HERE
As of March 16 there have been six projects that appear to have been directly impacted by the citywide rezoning. 
26 Jay Street in Riverside
24 Newell St in Area 9
121 Rindge in North Cambridge
131 Thingvalla in Strawberry Hill 
161 Cushing Street in Strawberry Hill 
​18 Clinton St in Mid-Cambridge 
194 Lakeview in West Cambridge
This blogpost discusses each in turn. 

UPDATE (March 17, 2025) the website of the Harvard Undergraduate Urban Sustainability Lab website  supporting the upzoning (addressed in Part 6) with its links to A Better Cambridge has now been taken down: https://www.huusl.org/morehomes

UPDATE (February 25, 2025) Councillor Azeem Responds:
On February 25, 2025 Burhan Azeem emailed Suzanne Blier via his city council email account to commend her on  CCC's 6-part blog posts on the luxury housing upzoning passed by City Council on February 10.  He incorrectly assumes this 6-part blog series, and our strong opposition to this citywide up-zoning petition did not target any one Councillor. In exploring the role of the various student speakers, we did uncover his specific role in garnering the attention and interest of students with the promise of more apartments which are highly unlikely as a result of this zoning. His email is below. 
​

On March 3, 2025 he posts on both X and Bluesky a request for supporter donations because his work has "ruffled feathers," may have made his  reelection more difficult as a result of his leading role in this upzoning matter. Below is this post. 
​