In a few sentences, how do you approach questions related to housing? Do you generally support building more multifamily housing in Brookline? How do you feel about density when it comes to housing?
Brookline needs more multifamily housing broadly and more density for related and separate reasons. We have a housing crisis, where many types of housing are unavailable at almost any price, desirable types of housing are not allowed to be built, and the intense demand pushing up prices reduces our diversity as a Town.
Density is a great way to bring in more housing, but also provides benefits unrelated to the direct housing shortage. It improves walkability of neighborhoods, discourages sprawl, makes public transit more viable, increases the customer base for local businesses, and encourages many other climate-friendly practices.
In 2021, the legislature passed a law requiring 175 cities and towns with MBTA stations, including Brookline, to establish a zoning district in which multifamily housing is permitted as-of-right—that is, without needing any variances or special permits. The Brookline Planning Department is working on a plan that would bring Brookline into compliance with this new law. Town Meeting will be debating their proposal in November, ahead of our compliance deadline of December 31, 2023. Do you generally support the direction that the Planning Department is taking toward leveraging Harvard Street as a key "Main Street" to bring us toward compliance? (Click here for more info on MBTA Communities Act and the Town's efforts toward compliance.)
The MBTA Communities Act legislation is a much needed step forward in addressing the regional housing shortage. We need to make it legal and easier to build housing across all of Brookline, especially multifamily housing without onerous special permit requirements and without the senseless “out of character” requirements on floor area ratio, setbacks, and the like. Given the number of single story and parking-heavy lots along Harvard St, this seems to be a prudent choice by the Planning Board to meet the year-end requirements while also setting the stage to address these destructive zoning laws across the Town.
Housing policy is closely linked to other policy/political areas, such as transit, racial justice, and environmental policy. How do you think about housing policy as it interacts with these other issue areas?
(a) Housing & Transportation
Housing and transportation are inexorably linked as land use concepts. The transportation infrastructure we build helps to dictate the types of housing viable in certain locations and the housing forms we allow affects the viability of transportation options. Brookline, as a “streetcar suburb” was built with a fundamental concept of moderate-to-high density living supported by robust local options within walking/rolling and biking distances with significant abilities to reach more distant locations via public transit. The “neighborhood character” we value in Brookline is based on these land use principles. Our ordinances and practices of the last 80 years have eroded our ability to maintain and renew this form over time; by planning for and prioritizing cars, we encourage more sprawl, less pleasant streetscapes, and worse health and safety outcomes for our residents and visitors.
We must tackle these issues simultaneously, building more housing (including at historic or higher densities), making it easy for folks to opt for public transit. The last year has been rough for the MBTA, but those difficulties do not change the fundamental math of public transit and land use, nor the need of Brookline to work with the MBTA as the Bus Network Redesign and Green Line Transformation programs move forward.
(b) Housing & Racial Justice
Housing and racial justice need not to have been conceptually linked, but American history has tightly coupled these items. We in Brookline and nationwide need to do the decades of hard work to break this link and end the use of housing policy as a shield for overt, casual, or unthinking racism and racist outcomes.
Brookline invented the racial housing covenant, a Brookliner founded the Immigration Restriction League and led the charge to ban three-deckers statewide to deny housing to immigrants, and the fingerprints of redlining can be seen in our zoning code today by simply overlaying the two maps. As we reform our zoning and housing policies, we must keep these issues front and center, seek out opportunities to directly counteract the multi-generational harm of past policies, not allow people with racist intent to shield themselves with housing policies, and ensure that our next round of changes center voices of those still struggling to overcome these barriers.
(c) Housing & Climate Change
Our housing and land use choices have a direct impact on climate outcomes. Denser and more urban living dramatically reduces the carbon impact of day-to-day life. Communities like Brookline make it easy to walk/roll, to cycle/scoot, and to use public transportation to achieve many of life’s day-to-day needs. By reducing or eliminating car use, the direct carbon emissions of all of those actions are similarly mitigated. Beyond transportation, though, denser living means fewer cubic feet to heat and cool (and shared walls and roofs help insulate the spaces we use), fewer carbon-intensive resources needed to provide public services (e.g., fertilizing playing fields or plowing sidewalks and streets), and improving the viability of pooled resources that enable fewer single-person trips (e.g., grocery delivery vans). Moreover, in a growing population, housing will be built somewhere, and encouraging density in places like Brookline means fewer forests and other greenfields demolished to make room for high sprawl and carbon-intensive housing.
This has been brought to extreme light by Town Meeting over the last year when a significant contingent of Town Meeting Members gave climate reasons to preserve every tree, but enacted new barriers to building housing quickly, with carbon impacts far greater than the few dozen trees saved. Similarly, the tantrum over the proposed ZEAB articles demonstrated an unwillingness to seriously engage with the changes we need to make to decarbonize beyond feel-good actions.
Are you making any endorsements in the Select Board race? If so, please list who you are endorsing and give a brief explanation (100 words or less) as to why.
I am endorsing Arden Reamer. She is passionate about public service, determined to fight for more housing in Brookline, and to do our part in addressing climate change.
The MBTA Communities Act requires municipalities served by mass transit to have a zoning district in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right and meets certain other criteria. Recently, some Town Meeting Members have urged noncompliance with the Act (see this Boston Globe article).
Will you support full compliance by the Town of Brookline with the MBTA Communities Act, including (1) a likely Warrant Article in the Nov. 2023 Town Meeting to implement the zoning plan proposed by Town staff and (2) oppose Warrant Article 24 (as currently designated) in the May 2023 Town Meeting, which would cause noncompliant delay by requiring additional options to be explored?
Yes
Optional: Let us know any reasons you have for your answer for the above question or any clarification you wish to supply (100 word limit)
The uproar at the MBTACA is a textbook “I support housing but…” response. We need to build more housing and we need to make it substantially easier to do. Removing lengthy processes of special permits and vetoes by neighbors will allow more housing more quickly. I am open to hearing improvements to the guidelines but imperfections do not negate our responsibility to act.
The current proposal allows the community to determine ground rules for ALL proposed buildings rather than concessions one-by-one from an oligopoly of developers most able to navigate the system.
Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Brookline, like many communities across the country, studied how it approached public safety. Community-driven efforts like the Task Force to Reimagine Policing ultimately concluded that our town could benefit from an approach that invested more proactively in meeting people's social-, economic-, and health-related needs — as opposed to spending more on police to respond to the symptoms of those unfulfilled needs.
One of the Task Force's recommendations was to create a civilian crisis response program that is an alternative to the police and would respond to crises involving mental health or being unhoused. Would you support a Warrant Article or other effort to create such a program, and investing municipal money for its development?
Yes
Optional: Let us know any reasons you have for your answer for the above question or any clarification you wish to supply (100 word limit)
Absolutely. The status quo by default of all emergency responses to the police needs to be evaluated and revised. Simply, they cannot be as effective in all situations, especially compared to those who do not also implicitly carry the threat of deadly force. This is exacerbated by the fact that too many police officers express and act on conscious and unconscious bias against people of color and other vulnerable populations.
Furthermore, we know this is possible because it has already been done. Paramedics did not exist as a standalone, expert 24/7 service until the 1970s.
Do you support the Debt Exclusion for the Pierce School which is on the May 2 ballot?
Yes
Optional: Let us know any reasons you have for your answer for the above question or any clarification you wish to supply (100 word limit)
The Pierce school is in desperate need of replacement. This should frankly be a no brainer. For anyone who hasn’t followed it closely (as many of us in the FRR area may not have), the video walkthrough of the school here (https://youtu.be/Vi0rABw0C_I) should make it obvious. Pierce families have supported us and waited while we replaced FRR and Driscoll, we need to do the same for their children.
Do you support the Override for Operating Expenses which is on the May 2 ballot?
Yes
Optional: Let us know any reasons you have for your answer for the above question or any clarification you wish to supply (100 word limit)
The anti-tax extremists who passed Proposition 2 ½ in 1980 have succeeded in nearly bankrupting local government. While we should look into revising state law, the only way Brookline can keep up with inflation, much less provide additional services is to pass overrides such as this. In this time of higher inflation (far higher than 2 ½%), passing the override is absolutely necessary to maintain the basic functions of Town government.
Do you support Warrant Article 13 (as currently designated) that would establish an Office of Housing Stability to assist residents at risk of displacement, prevent homelessness, and to develop initiatives to combat displacement
Yes
Optional: Let us know any reasons you have for your answer for the above question or any clarification you wish to supply (100 word limit)
Our necessary efforts to build new housing will not come without disruption and we should be doing everything in our power to assist those who will be affected by construction through no fault of their own. The services provided in this Warrant Article establish a baseline of our responsibilities and the institutional structure to adapt these services over time.
Do you support Warrant Article 20 (as currently designated) that would codify Brookline's commitment to ensuring access to safe, caring, and equitable reproductive and gender health care, and would establish Brookline as a safe haven for anyone seeking or providing reproductive or gender-affirming health care
Yes
Open-end Questions with Free-form Responses
Brookline is not immune to racism. It is embedded in our systems and institutions just as it is everywhere. How do you see racism show up in issues of housing, in our public schools, and in public safety in Brookline? What are some thoughts you have about how we can take action locally to confront and eliminate racism in Brookline?
Brookline invented the racial housing covenant and the fingerprints of redlining can be seen in our zoning code today by simply overlaying the two maps. As we reform our zoning and housing policies, we must keep these issues front and center, seek out opportunities to directly counteract the multi-generational harm of past policies, not allow people with racist intent to shield themselves with housing policies, and ensure that our next round of changes center voices of those still struggling to overcome these barriers.
Right-wing activists have been all too eager to defund social services and public health initiatives over the past 40 years. This has left police to handle the outcomes of our collective failure to care for our neighbors and trapped us in a cycle of reaction-only responses to poverty, access to health care, isolation, joblessness, and dangerous living conditions. All of these problems are more likely to be found among communities of color due to the history of racist and racialized policies spanning hundreds of years.
Policing is an objectively poor solution for inadequate social services in any context. The American context of violence and mistreatment of people of color by the police, including in Brookline, makes this a dangerous situation for people already in need. Brookline is not an island. While we have not had the most horrific situations occur within our borders, there is no reason to believe we do not have the same problems as the rest of our society. Indeed, there have been high profile incidents of alleged discrimination within the department, a survey showing black and Latino/Latina residents have less trust in fair treatment by the Brookline police, and plenty of anecdotes of bias and overpolicing of non-whites within our community.
Please review all of the recommendations from the Task Force to Reimagine Policing at this link. In addition to the civilian crisis response program discussed in Question 2 of the previous Section, what are your thoughts on the other recommendations of the Task Force and policing generally? (More context here)
The Task Force for Reimagine Policing did excellent work identifying clear improvements in how Brookline handles matters of public safety and policing. While not the end of the conversation, these steps would be an excellent start. I am happy to see the “school resources officer” and “walk and talk” programs ended (and especially the insult of having the BHA pay for it), but I am dismayed by the lack of progress on the other, and frankly more substantial, changes. Providing services to people in need, and ideally to people in need before a moment of crisis, is the humane thing to do.
With my transportation policy background, I am keenly aware of the benefits possible if we shift traffic enforcement responsibilities to a new civil division. Doing so should have significant safety improvements first because a traffic stop cannot run the danger of escalating into the horrific scenes we see around the country. Additionally, though, it is abundantly clear that traffic safety is not a priority of the local police. When people park cars in bike lanes or bus lanes, when people drive cars right through the red light in front of my house nearly every cycle and these things continue for decades, it speaks volumes about their priorities. Car crashes are among the leading causes of accidental death in America and we can do our part in addressing it while also improving the mobility of those on buses, on bicycles, and walking/rolling, who are on average poorer and more likely to be a person of color than the person driving a single occupancy car.
In your opinion, what are the most pressing transportation- and housing- related issues facing Brookline? And what measures or policies would you like to see the Town implement to address these issues? How would you encourage the Town to create more affordable housing?
Broadly, housing and transportation are too expensive in Brookline (and the Boston metro area as a whole). It is too expensive for all segments of people, including those looking for low-income, middle-income, and even for high-income housing. A very large number of Brookline homeowners would have a difficult time affording their current home today, including those of us who purchased in the last decade.
While there are short-term measures we can (and should!) take to improve the ability of current residents to stay, the only long-term solution is to increase the amount of housing available. These must be of multiple types and at multiple price points, supported by robust public transit that makes dense living viable and allows us to devote space to house people rather than cars.
Brookline, as a “streetcar suburb”, was built with a fundamental concept of moderate-to-high density living supported by robust local options within walking/rolling and biking distances and the ability to reach more distant locations via public transit. The “neighborhood character” we value in Brookline is based on these land use principles. Our ordinances and practices of the last 80 years have eroded our ability to maintain and renew this form over time; by planning for and prioritizing cars, we encourage sprawl, less pleasant streetscapes, and worse health and safety outcomes for our residents and visitors.
We must tackle these issues simultaneously. We must build more housing and reforming zoning. We must make it easy for folks to opt for public transit through bus lanes, signal priority, and bus stops that respect the dignity of riders. And we must work with the MBTA to improve the quality of public transit within Brookline and the region.
What are the top three issues that you care about most for Brookline? Please tell us in one sentence per issue on how you would address them.
My expertise is in transportation and land use policy and so one of my priorities would be to address these with comprehensive zoning reform and aggressive pro-transit and pro-multimodal solutions including bus lanes, multimodal paths, and working with the MBTA to ensure the Green Line Transformation delivers significant improvements to Green Line riders.
40+ years of Prop 2 ½ has severely limited our ability to provide the full breadth of government services our residents deserve; we must become more assertive about implementing the recommendations of the BFAC report, notably planning for and implementing regular operating overrides.
We must acknowledge that the status quo in Brookline does not work for everyone and move forward on equity actions recently rebuffed including a toothsome discrimination complaint process and access to Brookline Recreation programs for low-income households.
Question: Do you feel that the Town has made adequate efforts and has adequate policies to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries, and what do you think about Vision Zero?
The events of the last year with two major incidents and a pedestrian killed by a driver make it clear that we have not done enough on traffic safety. That we have established a Vision Zero Committee is a fine step, but is years too late and too slow given the acute danger faced by people outside of cars trying to go about their daily lives.
Vision Zero is an extremely achievable goal for Brookline, given our largely urban and livable land use.
Despite many high level policy efforts on Complete Streets, Traffic Calming, reduced speed limits, and even Town Meeting resolutions on transportation safety, the Town’s daily actions continue to prioritize cars, and the death and injury that come with that choice. We remain largely stuck when it comes to changing the built environment to actively discourage high-speed travel. We must prioritize space for transit / walking / rolling / cycling, to remove parking, and to enforce the rules we have on the books.
Our upcoming override vote is an important part of ensuring our Public Works department is funded to engage in the necessary work to redesign our streets. However, their laudable work is hampered by a lack of resolve from elected officials. When they are reluctant to stand up to the few who benefit from highly subsidized public provision of private gain (such as street parking), they do harm to the larger, more dispersed population whose mobility and safety would be improved through improved multimodal infrastructure.
This lack of resolve is evident to the public who see daily reminders their lives are not worth protecting. Drivists and commercial goods delivery vehicles feel free to use bus stops and bike lanes as parking spaces, endangering the lives of anyone attempting to use them (and denying the civil rights of those who rely on accessible curb boarding of buses). The fact that police appear to have no interest in addressing these issues, despite having clear authority to do so, is further evidence of the need of the Town to implement the recommendations of the Commission to Reimagine Policing. Specifically this includes the recommendation to reassign traffic enforcement duties to a civilian organization solely responsible for addressing public safety in the deadliest environment Americans encounter daily.
The presence of a single block of bollards on Harvard Street is welcome, but highlights how much more needs to be done. This was made quite clear during Town Meeting last year as status quo advocates threw a temper tantrum when Town Meeting Members filed a budget amendment last year to allocate funds to safer sidewalks.
If we truly want to address climate change, pollution, congestion, livability, and maintain the “historical character” of our neighborhoods (which long predate cars and the violence associated with car culture), we need to move much more swiftly on these and future changes..
Question: How do you think safer bicycling accommodations would benefit Brookline residents, and, based on the benefits you have identified, how important a priority do you believe it is for Brookline's streets to be accessible for bicycling by people of all ages and abilities?
Safer bicycling infrastructure would go a long way toward improving the lives of people in Brookline, including those who do not or can not cycle. By reducing the reliance on cars, the streets become safer for all users, including those who do remain in cars, but critically the oft injured or killed people walking, rolling, and/or cycling. Moreover, the addition of safer bicycling facilities increases the number of people who are willing or able to cycle, promoting a virtuous cycle. This is accelerated by some of the exciting new technologies like pedal assist bicycles (including cargo bicycles) which further increase the number of people able to cycle and the number of trips able to be conducted by bicycle.
Question: Do you agree with this assessment, and are there specific bicycling-related changes in regulations and infrastructure affecting Brookline’s streets and its development patterns that you would like to see piloted or implemented?
We can and must make multi-modal travel a priority in our streets, with quick build options such as on Harvard Street and complete redesigns as we consider our land use broadly in Town.
Planters or other semi-permanent barriers can be utilized to create separated bicycle lanes, there exist many low-cost treatments to create floating bus stops to deconflict bicycle and transit vehicles and to prioritize the safety and mobility of both user groups. A temporary Beacon Street Bridle Path can similarly be accomplished during studies for the long-term design that includes full intersection redesigns, land swaps with the MBTA, and the necessary engineering for the MBTA to accommodate the longer Type 10 supercars. These lower-cost options can be implemented in dozens of miles of road per year while the regular cycle of comprehensive street redesign continues.
Noted above, we must seriously consider the steps to move traffic enforcement to an agency that both actually cares about the safety of people outside of cars and who cannot purposely or accidentally escalate a safety intervention into a violent or deadly incident.
As to our ability to keep up with our neighbors, I suspect this is a place where our highly distributed decision-making processes do us harm. A volunteer committee that meets 10 times a year has the authority to make recommendations to another volunteer committee that meets slightly more often which can provide direction to an understaffed and underfunded executive department. And then, Town Meeting (another group of volunteers that meets twice a year) is given an up-or-down vote on the full Town budget. There is very little way to enact accountability on any part of the system or to affect change in any timely manner. To that end, a charter change commission looking at alternative structures (as either a Town or City) may be the only effective long-term way to address this issue.