Somerville YIMBY

A City In Amber Imagine you want to build new apartments in Somerville. …first, you need to demolish the structure that's currently in place, and you'll need to get past the Historic Preservation Commission to do it.

Our monthly social is tonight! 6pm at Remnant Brewing at Bow Market 🎉 Come on out & enjoy some conversation with us, discuss the primary election results, and more.

Make your voice heard! Please respond to the @cityofsomerville.bsky.social’s Davis Square Neighborhood Plan Survey. The survey closes Sunday Sep 27 @ 11:59 p.m. cityofsomerville.jotform.com/262144404986...

Our monthly social is tonight! 6pm at Remnant Brewing at Bow Market 🎉 Come on out & enjoy some conversation with us, discuss the primary election results, and more.

Great data out of Minneapolis!

What is Driving us to Drive? Car culture is deeply ingrained in the American consciousness, usually connected to visions of freedom while driving down a wide open road, or the adventure of a road trip. But most car travel is not that. It’s driving to and from work. It’s going shopping or…

We’re proud to announce our 2026 election endorsements! * Senate, 2nd Middlesex: @burhanazeem.bsky.social * House, 26th Middlesex: @mikeconnollyma.bsky.social * House, 27th Middlesex: @benforward3.bsky.social * House, 34th Middlesex: @wilfredmbah.bsky.social somervilleyimby.org/elections/20...

I forgot to post last week, but the dormer amendment I worked on with @somervilleyimby.org passed! somervilleyimby.org/2026/06/29/y...

Curious about the housing movement? Join us! 🏡 No policy experience required—just bring yourself. 📅 June 30 📍 Democracy Brewing Beer Garden Meet fellow advocates and learn how we're working to build more homes across Massachusetts.

Great opportunity to meet & mingle with your neighbors! #VilleMA better.boston/@DavisSquareNC/...

A lot of people assume that the housing market circa 1975-2005, when urban housing was cheap even without new development thanks to rapid sprawl and white flight, is the natural state of the world and not an historically anomalous period shaped by housing and transportation policy choices.

Studios are fine, actually. Plus Lobby Day. Policy newsletter Pencilling Out recently tackled a question that comes up constantly in Somerville: does building more studios and one-bedrooms actually help families find larger apartments, even if families aren't moving into those new units? Readers…

Are We Trying to Do Nothing? Marblehead has been in the news recently for passing a much-delayed and toothless plan to comply with the MBTA Communities Act. As a reminder, the MBTA Communities Act, also known as Section 3A, is a state law that requires communities served by the T to legalize at…

A letter to Somerville City Council & Redevelopment Authority re: 90 Washington St redevelopment, urging them to choose more homes, less cars, & more green space!

Factors of Upzoning Everyone knows that the single biggest factor in the price of a home is its location. A home in Somerville costs more than a similar one in Lowell, for example, and a home near Davis Square is more valuable than a similar one right next to I-93. The price for a location…

Let’s try this again! Check out “The Basic Economics of Home Building”, our latest post, this time without some HTML gobbledegook 😆

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Action Alert: Public Comment on Dormers Write In to Support Dormer Reform We presented our dormer amendment to a joint hearing of the Land Use Committee and the Planning Board on the 16th, and public comment is open until noon on May 1. If you were haven’t already, please write to…

The Future of NOAH What makes a home affordable? The government definition is that it costs less than 30% of your income to live there. If you pay more, as about a third of households in Somerville do, you’re considered “cost burdened.” There are two ways to reach affordability: subsidies, and…

A Minute for Action (for Voting and Speaking at Land Use) Elections for the Davis Square Neighborhood Council board will take place April 13 through April 27, 2026. If you live, work, or receive services in or near Davis Square, you may be eligible to vote, and your vote will have a critical…

Who Actually Builds Our Affordable Housing Let’s start with a question: Which of these do you think built more new Affordable Housing in Somerville in the last 10 years? All our non-profits combined US2, the for-profit developers of Union Square Before we answer, let’s take a look at how much we…

Fair Housing Month Events April is National Fair Housing Month, in honor of the 1968 passage of the Fair Housing Act. Somerville will host a number of events celebrating the month, including a screening of the documentary Segregated By Design followed by conversation around fair housing and…

A Delicate Dance Building new homes is absolutely critical, but it’s also expensive. Just a few years ago, the Globe estimated that multifamily buildings cost at least $600,000 per home, and a 100% affordable building that just broke ground in Union Square will cost more than $800,000 per home! If…

The Latest Copper Mill Meeting Last week, Copper Mill hosted a new meeting about their proposed 500-home mixed-use apartment building in Davis Square. With a capacity crowd at the Crystal Ballroom and hundreds more attendees viewing online, CEO Andrew Flynn laid out some new and familiar…

What the heck is going on with Backyard Cottages Have you ever wanted to add a home or workspace to your back yard? Well a Backyard Cottage might be for you! It is intended as a way to gently add a little more density to our city in a way that is not visible to most people. However, Backyard…

We love to see it!

Help Plan Affordable Housing in Gilman Square On March 12, Just-A-Start and the Somerville Community Land Trust will host a meeting for neighbors to discuss their plans to build a fully affordable building at 297 Medford Street in Gilman Square. They’ll go over the design and project timeline and…

No Vacancy Have you had a landlord ask you to do something they’re supposed to handle, like shoveling snow or dealing with a rat infestation? Have they ever dragged their feet on important repairs or charged illegal fees? Have you ever shaken your fist and then given up because, although you’re in…

Affordable Housing Makes Progress We have two pieces of very promising news about affordable housing for you. First, Just-A-Start has secured financing and begun construction work on their 24 Webster Avenue project, which will create 43 deeply affordable rental homes in a 6-story building. That’s…

The Displacement Time Bomb Over the last 50 years, Massachusetts has focused on high-income job creation. It started with the “Massachusetts Miracle” and continued with the growth of Kendall Square as a technology hub. The latest addition to our “brain factory” has been the boom in biotechnology…

Copper Mill, ADUs, and Dormers Join the Davis Square Neighborhood Council We strongly encourage all eligible readers to join the Davis Square Neighborhood Council and contribute to the ongoing Copper Mill discussion. The Council is moving swiftly toward full recognition from the city, and will…

Is Somerville Full? Everyone knows that Somerville is one of the densest cities in New England, with around 19,000 residents per square mile. Some folks use that number as a reason to say “we’re full, go away.” That’s not exactly welcoming to newcomers, especially not to those fleeing other states…

Support Housing in Davis Square Boston-based real-estate company Copper Mill is seeking permits to redevelop the area between The Burren and Dragon Pizza in Davis Square. Their latest proposal includes ground floor retail, a promised right of return for the Burren, and a lot of housing: 502…

YIMBY Stands with Immigrants YIMBYs are advocates for construction of housing because we want people to live in homes. We are advocates for housing in Somerville because we are advocates for Somerville. To us, that means helping people be part of Somerville, so we can all thrive and grow together.…

Davis Square 40B update, Fair Housing Commission opening Apply for the Fair Housing Commission The city is recruiting new members of the Fair Housing Commission, and we strongly encourage members to apply. The commission generally meets one evening per month, with additional meetings and events as…

Displacement versus Displacement Most of our subscribers probably know someone who’s been displaced, or forced to move. Maybe their lease ended, the rent went up, or in some cases their building has been condemned and must be torn down. In general, good housing and urban development policy aims to…

Build Baby Build, But How Much? We know that building a lot more housing can bring down prices. We’ve seen evidence around the globe, from Austin and Minneapolis to as far away as Auckland, or as near as Jersey City and New Rochelle, where we have seen major impacts on affordability from new…

Housing is Moving Forward 2026 is starting off with a bang in Somerville’s housing! Mayor Wilson’s inauguration had a lot of discussion of the affordability of housing. Then this week 2 projects took a major step forward. In Union Square, the Just a Start 100% Affordable project at 24 Webster Ave…

What Kinds of Housing Do We Need? Somerville’s recent Housing Needs Assessment (HNA) is an analysis of the current state of housing in the city, and provides useful information about the types of housing Somerville needs to accommodate our changing demographics and population pressures. Home sizes…

What’s Bringing Down Rents, and Where? A few bright spots for you as we close out the year: the financial press has noticed that Luxury Apartments are Bringing Down Rents in Some Big Cities. In Boston specifically, we’ve seen that bike lane initiatives are working to reduce traffic and pollution,…

A Tale of Two Lots I was traveling around Somerville and ran into what looked like a gut renovation of an entire lot at 38 Laurel Street in the Spring Hill neighborhood. And my first thought was: could this have been more? 38 Laurel Street, Circa 2025 This seems like fairly serious construction,…

In the Weeds Zoning has always been a reflection of the people’s desire to control how their environment looks, which is another way of saying it’s an expression of our city’s values. One value many of us share is to have a local environment that is greener and more environmentally friendly. That…

I am the Very Model of a Modern Major Upzoning How Somerville creates "missing middle" housing I am the very model of a modern major upzoningI've information efficiency, density, and filteringI know the price of homes, and I quote the cause economicalFrom Austin to Minneapolis, in order…

Mayor Wilson Transition Survey & Other News We hope you’ve been enjoying our recent series of data-driven essays on planning and policy — if you’ve missed them, you can find them at newsletter.somervilleyimby.org. Our next piece will take a look at what happens when a single lot in a typical…

Where Did the Demand Come From? We at Somerville YIMBY talk a lot about the need to supply more homes to solve our housing shortage. But supply is only half the economic equation. We also need to ask ourselves where all this demand came from. Why have we seen such large increases in the cost of…

What Would SB 79 Look Like Here? Hi, all! Over the past two years, we have been working on an upzoning proposal for Somerville. With an new city council in 2026, it feels like a good time to move forward on it. In support of that effort, we hereby start a roughly weekly blog post series about…

Action Alert: Starter Homes, Dormers, & Working Groups Get Involved: Join a Working Group Would you like to be more involved with Somerville YIMBY, but aren’t quite sure where to start? Join one of our new working groups to discuss: Elections: How did we do in the 2025 election? What could we do…

🏡 Help us get more housing on the 2026 ballot! Join AHMA, Cambridge City Councilor Burhan Azeem, and the Legalize Starter Homes Ballot Initiative for a Day of Action this weekend! tinyurl.com/2sk34xt9

Congratulations to Our New Electeds Congratulations to mayor-elect Jake Wilson, and to new and returning members of the city council. While we did not endorse Jake Wilson for mayor due to his restrained support for our zoning proposals, we look forward to collaborating with him and supporting his…

Not Just Election News The big news on the election front is that Sen. Ed Markey has endorsed Willie Burnley Jr. — and early voting is on now! Be sure to vote this week or next Tuesday. Check hours and locations at somervillema.gov/elections. Canvassing with Jon Link (left) and Ben Wheeler (2nd…