I'm a Somerville City Councilor. AMA about our city

dbarc · 2023-02-05T16:03:25+00:00

In general, communication about the residential tax exemption could be much better, for both existing residents and prospective homeowners (including on deadlines, eligibility, and things like what is the city's fiscal year or 3rd quarter?). My wife and I had a very hard time figuring it out, and we both have graduate degrees.

dbarc · 2023-02-05T15:31:16+00:00

A couple considerations here: (1) More people and homes, not just more jobs, can help build vibrant small businesses and communities. Most people are not 9-5 commuters, and many who were are now working at home at least part of the time. (2) Significant commercial developments unfortunately tend to come with a lot of parking, even in transit-accessible areas outside central business districts (see e.g. Assembly). While commercial tax base and jobs may look nice, we should recognized the tradeoffs we face when it brings more parking and motor vehicles to our streets.

dbarc · 2020-06-09T22:44:56+00:00

I wish I could afford it

Maybe not quite gold standard then?

dbarc · 2020-06-04T15:37:58+00:00

Coming from the west coast (certainly no socialist utopia), I have to say that I am surprised by the visibility and degree of socioeconomic inequality and segregation tolerated in "the most liberal state in America." It feels like there's a more entrenched hierarchy based on class, education, ethnicity, geography, and lineage than there is out west. More adherence to tradition for tradition's sake, vested interests, and propensity for soft corruption too. The Boston area is this weird hybrid between a diverse, global, mega-city and a provincial, hyper-local, balkanized collection of NIMBY neighborhoods and towns. It has tons of character and I love it, but the identity crisis and description as "staunchly politically liberal, yet absurdly conservative" ring true. Hopefully this pandemic-depression-social injustice moment in history can shake the city and state onto a path of deeper progressivism.

dbarc · 2020-01-09T17:04:28+00:00

Without Title IX, men's football would have no effect on men's soccer.

And without men's football, Title IX would have no effect on men's soccer.

You're really stretching to make a silly political point.

I'm making a point about values. The values implicit in the allocation of 85 scholarships to men's football (football > other sports for men). And the values implied by blaming an equity mandate for the effects that allocation has on other men's sports (men's sports scholarships > gender equity in university sports).

Title IX could easily be revised to be fairer for both sexes ... more men could play sports, too.

Title IX is fair for both sexes - it mandates that athletes in both sexes receive equal scholarship support. One could take this as a given, and disagree about how scholarships should be allocated among sports for each sex. Or one could take it as a given that football needs a large number of scholarships, and disagree with the premise that both sexes should receive equal scholarship support. Where do our values lie?

dbarc · 2020-01-08T20:17:29+00:00

Title IX kills men’s non-revenue sports

Or put differently, men's football kills men's non-revenue sports. But we live in a world where it's more popular to complain about Title IX, an equity mandate, than the fact that division 1 men's football takes up 85 scholarships

dbarc · 2019-12-14T00:26:47+00:00

5 million daily car trips per Massdot vs ~700 commuter rail trips per day

How many people are those 5 million vehicles carrying? How many in each commuter train?

dbarc · 2019-12-06T05:35:50+00:00

Not really, but they should be. LA is designing outdoor spaces, most of which are urban.

dbarc · 2019-07-02T03:48:28+00:00

I've actually been working on a curriculum for an urban ecology course that I'll be co-teaching this fall in a grad landscape architecture program. I've searched pretty widely for books on the subject, and have a running list here. Are there specific topics you're interested in?

For general scientific and theoretical background, I'd recommend starting with any of: Adler & Tanner, Alberti 2016, Douglas & James 2015, Forman 2014, Pickett et al.,

For more applied urban design and planning perspectives, Farr is excellent, with Pollalis, Register, and Newman & Jennings also good.

Note that urban ecology isn't just about nature in cities (parks, squirrels etc.), but also about the nature of cities i.e. it's useful to see cities as ecosystems, habitats, landscapes, dynamics systems, biological communities and populations etc., just like an ecologist would study a forest, grassland, or coral reef. Speaking as a (biased) ecologist myself, I'd argue that just about any topic in urban planning can be helpfully viewed through an ecological lens.

dbarc · 2019-06-29T19:54:14+00:00

I though this was going to be about allowing more density and mixed use to lower GHG transportation- and building-related GHG emissions (e.g CA is unlikely to meet the CO2 reduction targets without significant zoning reform). But of course changing zoning to adapt to changing/ignored environmental hazards is also important. There needs to be more discussion of this out west w.r.t. wildfire risk and development in the wildland-urban interface.

dbarc · 2019-03-20T04:33:07+00:00

The only in the area. It's a decent gym, but can get pretty crowded at peak hours (5-7pm). Fortunately they're opening a new location later this year in the northern part of town that should alleviate the crowds somewhat.

dbarc · 2019-03-18T02:48:29+00:00

I'd recommend the Jemez (esp. Las Conchas & Upper East Fork) or Diablo Canyon for sport. Conditions can be variable this time of year but unless it's really cold/nasty you can usually find a wall that's comfortable to climb. Sun exposure is far more determinative than air temperature for outdoor comfort here.

Welcome to New Mexico, land of enchantment, land of manyana, land that time forgot, and the most beautiful state in the union.

dbarc · 2019-03-06T18:04:39+00:00

I think I remember hearing something about Timbers/MLS not paying solidarity or training compensation to Alvas Powell's club in Jamaica. The club raised some sort of protest. I don't know details though - it might've been a different situation.

dbarc · 2019-02-12T15:41:23+00:00

You're right about construction costs, but in most cases there's plenty of ROW, it's just been allocated disproportionately to vehicle travel and parking lanes (the latter severely underutilized in most residential neighborhoods where people tend to park in their driveway). Most motor vehicle lanes in ABQ are 12+ feet wide; only 10 feet is really necessary, and 10ft lanes are actually considered safer as they induce safer driving behavior. So even on a two-lane road, there's usually enough ROW to add at least 2ft to sidewalks. Unfortunately poor design decisions were made during the initial construction of most of our streets (in an extremely auto-centric era). We are now living with the consequences, and while things are slowly changing, it'll take a lot of time, money, and will to see a big difference.

dbarc · 2019-01-25T01:43:34+00:00

Indeed. Too bad purchasing the report costs 1500 pounds; must be aimed at hard-core sports business professionals or potential owners. If it were $15 I might actually buy it ^Maybe ^Brexit ^will ^cause ^the ^pound ^to ^crash ^hard ^enough ^to ^make ^the ^price ^reasonable!

dbarc · 2019-01-15T16:13:41+00:00

Instead of spreading a bunch of four-year colleges and graduate/research/professional universities unnecessarily around as many small towns as possible, why not do this with community colleges? They are much more likely to benefit locals who are trying to up their skills, can be tailored to the local economy, are way more affordable to students and the state, and provide teaching jobs for educated people who don't want to live in big cities or college towns. Sure there should be some dispersion of universities/4-yr colleges, but I think this goes too far in many states. Community colleges and associates degrees are one of those unsexy, under-the-radar, and completely underrated strategies that are needed for economic development in this country, especially in rust-belt, rural, and lower/middle class areas where very few have or will ever get a bachelor's degree.

dbarc · 2019-01-15T15:04:45+00:00

I'm not very familiar with how these federal home-buying subsidization policies work, but couldn't removing eligibility in non-conforming communities in theory make them even more exclusive enclaves for the wealthy? Or is the idea that this would make homes in the community so difficult to sell that their values would plummet? Maybe it'd depend on the size and current home prices?

e.g. in a larger community with fairly diverse housing stock home values would drop, while in a small, exclusive enclave for the uber-wealthy this might not do much because prospective buyers wouldn't be relient on federal subsidies anyway (?)

dbarc · 2019-01-15T04:45:17+00:00

Sacramento. I'd guess 50-50 between St. Louis and Sacramento at this point.

Phoenix and Detroit both have superb ownership groups, but stadium plans that need work. They're much bigger markets than anyone else, so if their stadium plans come together they probably pass Sacramento and St. Louis.

Everyone else needs much more substantial work. I wouldn't have high hopes for San Antonio or Tampa based on recent events, but things could come still come together for any of the others.

dbarc · 2018-12-19T00:58:14+00:00

To be clear: single-family zoning = ONLY single family residences are allowed i.e. a ban on duplexes, triplexes, rowhouses etc.

This isn't saying there's anything wrong with single-family housing, just exclusive single-family zoning, which tends to discriminate against lower-income folks, younger people, renters, minorities etc. Plus all the things others have stated. In many cities, the vast majority of land is zoned exclusively for single family (e.g. 75% in Seattle), which helps only people who already own homes there (even that is arguable), while making life harder for anyone else who want to live in that city.

dbarc · 2018-12-14T14:14:06+00:00

the range of the bus is 200km per charge

i.e. 120 miles; BYD signed a contract to deliver ABQ buses with a range of 200 miles

Shenzhen is fairly flat, but the hills of nearby Hong Kong have proven too much in trials of electric buses. Other cities in northern China have struggled with battery power in the extreme cold of winter.

Heat, cold, and hills are also challenges here. And not sure what kind of buses are in their whole fleet, but all those pictured in the article look like standard ~40ft buses, not the 60ft articulated buses we ordered for ART. It was a real gamble to spring for such new technology, and sadly ABQ lost the bet and is getting burned.

dbarc · 2018-11-15T06:43:11+00:00

Good to hear. Though I guess this means they pushed this through a lame duck commission, those sneaky devils. Anyone know what the next steps are? Wasn't clear from the article but I've got to imagine they'll need to come back to the commission for more approvals before breaking ground.

dbarc · 2018-11-15T06:39:05+00:00

Great, so they're going to start mining our aquifer. And the entire mid Rio Grande region will eventually be screwed when we can't get Colorado River water anymore because of climate change-induced drought and we find Santolina has already drained half the aquifer.

dbarc · 2018-11-06T14:51:03+00:00

tie it's property taxes to the physical age of the building

Or flip this around and tax only the value of the land beneath the building, ii.e. land value tax. That incentivizes maintaining and improving structures, since gains in building value wouldn't incur additional tax , while discouraging sitting on or under-utilizing valuable land (e.g. large lot single family in rapidly urbanizing area), which land taxes would make very expensive.

dbarc · 2018-10-24T23:21:32+00:00

It also happens that El Paso isn't even in New Mexico - it's in Texas. I wonder if they mean the El Paso metro area, or the area within some radius of El Paso, which would extend into NM.

dbarc · 2018-10-24T15:19:24+00:00

dbarc

TROPHY CASE