It's been a huge honor to help start Neighbors Welcome! RI. I hope you'll join us in making RI more affordable for all.

Neighbors Welcome! RI@neighborswelcomeri.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Week 3: Strong organizations are built by people who bring their time, talents, and perspectives to a shared mission. Seth Zeren is a recovering city planner turned neighborhood developer and co-founder of NWRI. buff.ly/bcop1ys

I'm seeing a trend among #Providence progressives of blaming "greedy developers" for our housing woes. This is dumb and leads to bad policy proposals. I'm also seeing those. So let's be clear on a few things. /1 (thread) #housingcrisis

the influence of academics/NGO types drawn to radicalism for its own sake has been harmful here imo. The people impacted by bad policing don’t want to radically reimagine the entirety what crime is, they want their sheriff’s dept to be professionals who aren’t in literal gangs (real thing in LA)

Philo@opfuchs.gay · 3mo ago

This is how I put it when I was very involved in criminal justice reform when I was living in the US. You don't need to be some delusional abolitionist - even getting the US system to the level of, say, Germany (where I currently live) would be a radical change for the better.

Anyway, I wish the forces of fragmentation in basically all strategy games were stronger. Most games should not feel like there is a global progression towards state consolidation, so much as a continuous push and pull, fragmentation and consolidation in waves.

From Ethan Shorey in The Local Insider – whole article is here: thelocalinsidernews.com/poll-housing...

Poll: Housing costs and availability top concerns for voter - The Local Insider News

Rhode Islanders overwhelmingly support development of more housing, a fact often lost amid the noise of a small number of vocal opponents opposed to individual projects, say advocates. That’s a key ta...

thelocalinsidernews.com

'In the same way “10 angry folks” who show up to a city or town meeting to protest a development, the same can happen on social media, said Claudia Wack, giving decision-makers the impression that there’s a lot more opposition to a proposal than there actually is.'

TODAY, March 3, at the Rise, a $120m Housing Bond Hearing will be held in Senate Finance Rm 211

Been too long since I did a big silly ancient history 🧵so let's bring an old one back over from the Bad Place: It's time for ::air horn:: Publius Ventidius Bassus, the coolest Roman you have never heard of and the only person to walk in a triumph first as captive, then as triumphing general. 1/

Convening for the WNN Gathering!

Yesterday's UChicago email was so enraging that I feared I was being trolled. But nope, it is all fleshed out in this excellent piece published by Clifford Ando. The University of Chicago should be ashamed. Many thanks to Prof. Ando for his willingness to speak up. www.compactmag.com/article/the-...

The Crisis of the University Started Long Before Trump

The University of Chicago is in crisis. Under extraordinary financial strain, it has diminished its faculty-student ratio and hired hundreds of “lecturers”: teachers whom it pays little and whom it do...

compactmag.com

From concerned resident, John Mensinger, on who supports the Settlers Green proposal: "Do you have a niece or daughter that wants to remain in the town that she grew up in, and open a small business here? Or are your parents ready to downsize, but can’t find a suitable place?

Join us for a virtual friends meeting where we'll debrief the legislative session and answer any questions you have about the bills that passed this year. We would also love to hear from YOU about the latest housing news in your city or town! bit.ly/4nEsbUi

Fundamentally 'how does this impact the struggle' is going to come down to: is the majority understanding - the *image* - of LA protests (a) a building set on fire by 'looters' or is (b) an ICE agent clubbing someone's grandma or tear-gassing someone's kid? If (b), you win.

But that's where all of this discourse is - American flags, not foreign flags, no burning buildings or cars, make the police strike first, get it on film - that is how, should the crisis comes, we get the numbers and they do not. That's how you turn his calculation into miscalculation.

A window into the dark arts of commercial real estate will help you better understand why commercial storefronts stay dark. buildthenextrightthing.substack.com/p/whats-with...

As an addendum, some folks who hold this utopian vision of the past will insist that most of that wealth we work for gives us no happiness. This is, I think, a conceit of the young. As someone whose spouse and child live only because of modern medicine, I'll take modernity, thank you *very* much.

Neighbors Welcome shares deep condolences to all of the Rhode Islanders who knew and benefitted from Senator Ruggerio's strong leadership. Out of respect for his service, we have decided to postpone our scheduled lobby day until May 6th. Photo from Capitol TV.

Well, this is exciting–our first bill is off to the Senate! Thank you Representative Speakman for your sponsorship and support of H5798, a bill that makes it easier to build townhomes!

You can’t fix a housing market without a lot of private market rate development—I have a piece in the Boston Globe today along with Jennifer Hawkins. buildthenextrightthing.substack.com/publish/post...

Together, Housing and Transit just make sense. Join our team to meet up with legislators as they arrive in their respective chambers to do the work of YOU, their constituents. See you on April 8th! actionnetwork.org/events/housi...

Housing+Transit Lobby Day - April 8

Neighbors Welcome! RI is joining forces with other housing 🏗️🏠 and transit 🚍 advocates to call attention to common-sense legislative proposals that make it easier to build the homes that Rhode Island ...

actionnetwork.org