!!! That's like the final boss in a video game.

Have they deployed Sideways Cart Protocol?

And it is a real holiday. It had a resolution passed in Congress, and around here it's heavily commercialized as befits a true American holiday: www.wcvb.com/article/on-p...

All the people standing in line this morning at Petsi Pies agree.

The goal is definitely to be accessible to anyone, yes, will share draft when I have something.

It'd make things worse is my guess.

1. Many ward councillors in Somerville run unopposed, which depresses voting turnout (see also Boston's turnout, with Wu unopposed).
2. It makes it much harder for renters to run, and incentivizes ward councillors to overweigh homeowners' opinions even more.

Just need to emphasize the overall political picture, so even if it fails in short term, people don't get discouraged and understand how it fits into a long term project of political change.

(Sorry for all the words, I am thinking out loud for working paper on increasing political engagement).

That being said, even if social housing in the short term is unworkable policy due to austerity, it's still worth a hard push far separately from whether it succeeds as a policy. Since insofar as it gets more people politically engaged, that makes it easier to pass it long term.

To clarify: the only time I've seen _public comment_ go for hours, at least somewhat spontaneously without large group organizing it, was Councilor Zondervan's freezing of police budget (in 2020 I guess?).

And, have Somerville and Boston had better policing policies than Cambridge because they have an elected Mayor? No.

But Cambridge did implement a community safety department (reluctantly!) because of massive public pressure, the only time I've seen a city council meeting go for hours spontaneously.

This is why I think the anti-Plan-E approach was misguided. Reflexive support for police comes from the Council (see the original 6-3 vote on Flock rollout bullshit). Support for low taxes comes from the Council. If the same voters elect a mayor, the mayor will still support police and low taxes.

1. The Council has a lot of power when they choose to exercise it. Like it or hate it, Cycling Safety Ordinance did not come from the manager, nor did multi-family upzoning or AHO 2.0.

2. The City Manager _is_ a good excuse for Councilors who don't want to admit they are the problem.

Unfortunately Cambridge City Council has a majority who will not budget on austerity. Which is why I think increasing political engagement and voter turnout is a critical goal (and also why I think the Cambridge DSA spending time fighting the Plan E form of government was a waste of time.)

Given no new pennies are being made $2.99 is actually better than $2.98 cause it depletes the strategic penny reserves more slowly.

Meanwhile... www.multpl.com/shiller-pe

Maybe that's the goal?

The cushier seat is a thing you could fix on your current bike...