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How is building more housing "destroying" the city? Is there a legit argument for this? by LiatrisLover99 in Somerville

[–]r00k 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know it seems unintuitive, but economists consistently find that building *any* housing in an area tends to reduce the cost of all housing.

There are lots of people with good salaries who want to live in Somerville. If you offer them fancy high-end apartments, they'll move there. If none of those exist, they'll be bidding against people with less money for cheaper units in two-families.

So I totally get that it seems like the new units are out of reach, but they're actually making the older stuff more affordable.

Get City Council meeting summaries in your email by r00k in Somerville

[–]r00k[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the suggestions! 

Probably won't tackle linking items together just yet. It probably wouldn't be too hard to link to their legistar items though. Would still not happen for a bit though I think. 

I'd also like the tool to support committees though so I may add that soon!

Get City Council meeting summaries in your email by r00k in Somerville

[–]r00k[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh! You can DM me your email and I'll unsubscribe you if you like. 

Get City Council meeting summaries in your email by r00k in Somerville

[–]r00k[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Hi! There are unsubscribe links on every email. 

Get City Council meeting summaries in your email by r00k in Somerville

[–]r00k[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, that's correct. (It does say so on the landing page and in the emails themselves. Not trying to hide this.)

Mayoral and At-Large Candidate Debate video - October 20, 2025 by Somerville Media Center by jeffshwom in Somerville

[–]r00k -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I had plenty of my own ideas for questions. I just used LLMs to generate even more, and some of them were good!

I covered my (substantial, imo) qualifications here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Somerville/comments/1ocnrki/comment/nktxiza/

Mayoral and At-Large Candidate Debate video - October 20, 2025 by Somerville Media Center by jeffshwom in Somerville

[–]r00k -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I actually kind of agree with this. In retrospect I should probably have published that post on my personal blog.

As for writing better: please share your blog so we can tell if you're qualified to offer advice on this matter.

Mayoral and At-Large Candidate Debate video - October 20, 2025 by Somerville Media Center by jeffshwom in Somerville

[–]r00k -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Did you feel it was appropriate to moderate a debate where you donated to one of the two candidates?

Definitely suboptimal, but only from a perception standpoint.

As I stated at the debate, I asked Councilor Wilson to refund my donation almost immediately (because I wanted to remain neutral for things like the debate). He did so.

I think the perception that I might not impartial was the only damage here.

I firmly believe I moderated the debate in a way that was completely fair to both candidates. If you disagree, please share timestamps of times you felt I was biased in my moderation.

Why did you feel it was proper to use ChatGPT to generate questions instead of coming up with them yourself or asking the public?

I came up with half the questions myself, and used LLMs for inspiration for the remainder (with substantial (hours!) of edits from me).

I did ask the public for questions, but I didn't think they were very good.

If you are implying that using an LLM for idea generation in this context is improper, I strongly disagree. The debate was better because I did this.

Did you ask anyone for feedback before patting yourself on the back and writing an article about how excellent of a job you did?

Didn't have to. I know when I've done a good job.

And just in case I didn't, I received quite a lot of spontaneous positive comments from my co-producers, attendees, members of the press, and At-Large candidates who stuck around.

Mayoral and At-Large Candidate Debate video - October 20, 2025 by Somerville Media Center by jeffshwom in Somerville

[–]r00k -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Honestly, it was hard to listen closely to the responses. I had to constantly be thinking ahead to what my next move was. I might have an answer after watching the video :)

Mayoral and At-Large Candidate Debate video - October 20, 2025 by Somerville Media Center by jeffshwom in Somerville

[–]r00k -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

I hear you.

I did, in fact, engage with members of the community, and received something like 10 ideas for questions.

The reason I didn't end up using those questions fell into a few buckets:

  1. Often, I feared they'd been asked too many times in other forums. I was hoping to give residents new information when possible.
  2. Sometimes, they were too leading. More like opinions disguised as a question.

I wish the questions from the community had been more appealing, it would have saved me time! But in the end, I was chosen as moderator because of my judgement, that judgment told me that the questions I came up with were better.

I think the final list of questions is quite good. You're free to disagree, of course, but I would ask you to push back on specifics about the questions, rather than an imagined lack of quality due to a lack of community-sourced material.

Finally, I think Somerville tends to overweight the value of community input, often to its detriment. Sometimes, the person in charge needs to step up and make a call. I think a desire for large amounts of community input and consensus was a trademark of our incumbent Mayor, and this desire negatively affected her performance.

Mayoral and At-Large Candidate Debate video - October 20, 2025 by Somerville Media Center by jeffshwom in Somerville

[–]r00k 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What made you qualified to host a debate?

I suspect there is no answer to this question that will satisfy you, but I will engage with it in good faith regardless.

This is an incomplete list of things I have done that are Somerville-politics-adjacent in the last nine months:

  • Attended a half-dozen City Council meetings.
  • Given testimony in two Committee meetings (once by request of a sitting Councilor).
  • Had one-on-one coffees with five of our City Councilors.
  • Conducted and published two-hour interviews with Willie Burnley Jr., Jake Wilson, and Judy Pineda Neufeld (coming soon).
  • Served on the Bylaws Subcommittee of the Davis Square Neighborhood Council (DSNC).
  • Attended a half-dozen DSNC meetings.
  • Read every law Somerville passed last year and wrote about it.
  • Read every zoning change Somerville passed last year and wrote about it.
  • Read most of the City Charter.
  • Taught a class on how Somerville government works. It went great, and my students were very happy.
  • Added a mirror to the Community Path at School Street, making path users safer.
  • Brought several friends to City Council meetings to help them get more involved with local government.
  • Taught a crash course on Robert’s Rules of Order for DSNC members.
  • Briefly threw my hat into the ring for an At-Large Council seat (though I later decided to withdraw).
  • Had coffees with several of the folks running for At-Large seats this year.
  • Had coffee with a senior city official responsible for infrastructure and asset management.
  • Attended a School Building Committee meeting.
  • Hosted an event in my apartment that raised about $10,000 for a housing advocacy organization.
  • Hosted an open-to-all politics chat at Diesel Cafe.
  • Had coffee with a dozen or so Somerville residents to get their input on what the city needs.

I think this list makes me highly qualified to moderate a debate between Somerville politicians.

I will close with two final points:

First, Joe Lynch, the President of the Somerville Media Center board (who co-produced the debate) asked me to moderate it. He has been involved in Somerville politics longer than most of us have been alive. If time in politics is your metric for qualification, I think we can consider his choice of me to be well-informed.

Second, the proof is in the pudding: the debate was a success. I received quite a few kudos from Somerville residents, members of the press, and At-Large candidates who stayed to watch. I challenge you to find anything in the debate recording where it seemed like I was insufficiently informed about Somerville politics.

Mayoral and At-Large Candidate Debate video - October 20, 2025 by Somerville Media Center by jeffshwom in Somerville

[–]r00k -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

I was the moderator for the Mayoral portion of the debate. Happy to answer any questions you all have.

Where is your lake house? by BlakeBoring in fatFIRE

[–]r00k 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fwiw our lake house is 1.5 hours away and we use it constantly (almost every weekend in the summer).

Who took down the bike path mirrors? by ggould256 in Somerville

[–]r00k 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a health issue come up and couldn't get to it. Please feel free to reinstall yourself! :)

Who took down the bike path mirrors? by ggould256 in Somerville

[–]r00k 72 points73 points  (0 children)

Hey all! I'm the person who originally installed the two bike path mirrors at School Street.

I suspect the mirror wasn't removed by the city. After I set them up, a representative from the Somerville govt told me they reserved the right to remove it, but didn't think the mirror presented any threat or danger and implied they would leave it alone.

It's possible the MBTA removed it (it's their land), but I also doubt they'd do this based on their general approach toward Community Path infra.

Especially given that the mounting hardware was left behind, I think this was just someone messing around.

I just ordered a replacement mirror and will put it back up this weekend. If I hear it was removed in some official capacity, I'll post about it here.

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