Salem Street Rezoning: To make a difference, show up and be vocal

Last Tuesday, City Council passed a proposal to rezone Salem Street. This is one step in a citywide rezoning project that is generally trying to build more affordable residential units and increase the commercial tax base in Medford. Before this meeting, we received dozens of emails in support, and at this meeting, 70 people spoke about it — many against, most in support. Prior to the meeting, there was a significant effort by progressives to turn out supporters. I personally put out this message to a mailing list:

With all the destruction happening at the national level, I've seen many people wonder what they can personally do to help. Showing up to these zoning meetings and voicing your support is how, right now, you can make an impact.

I watched a nice interview with Matthew Desmond last night, and I think that a big reason that the left, nationally, lost in 2024 and is going through a general upheaval is a long-term failure to really commit to battling income inequality. And a big part of the reason that income inequality has been allowed to perpetuate is NIMBYism, which has artificially capped housing supply, made it that much harder to find a place to live, and, in Medford particularly, caused businesses to stagnate. The reason that NIMBYism is allowed to happen is because a very vocal minority will always show up to talk about what they don't want, whereas the majority — who do want to see progress — stay at home. When a vocal minority shows up, day after day, meeting after meeting, they have an impact, even when a supermajority of elected officials are committed to progress, because they wear away at the will of electeds, staff, consultants, and anybody listening.

The way to counter this is to show up and loudly, vocally express support. Now is the time to do so.

The Salem Street rezoning will allow us to increase the housing supply in residential areas, it will make it easier to open a business in Medford, it will allow ground-level commercial uses by right while allowing residential properties to be built on top of those. It is the first time in generations that Medford has had this opportunity, and we cannot let it go to waste.

I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow night!

And — in large part due to effort of other activists in the community — people showed up. They made their voices heard. And because they did, they made a difference.

The voices against the proposal had turned out consistently at most of the recent meetings around it in the last few months, and this had caused the consultants we’re working with to dampen the zoning proposal. Those against it were making themselves heard while supporters were not. This is a common dynamic in any rezoning process — people naturally show up to oppose more than they do to support, and this is a big reason that progress is so difficult at the local level.

The original rezoning proposal for Salem Street; the Community Development board recommended changing the Mixed-use 2 at Salem and Park (the node at the left of the graphic) to Mixed-use 1.

Towards the end of the meeting, after the public comment period, I motioned to reject the Community Development Board’s recommendation to put Salem and Park Street to MX1 and keep it at MX2 — allowing developers to build one to two extra stories in that node. This was subsequently adopted in a 6-0 vote. In my comments when presenting that motion, I essentially said that I didn’t think that adopting the amendments would be useful: the proposal had been a compromise brokered at the CD Board meetings to get its detractors on board, and the same folks that consultants and staff were trying to work with asked that the proposal be sunk anyway. (This was the same dynamic I’ve written about before that also came up during the Mystic Avenue rezoning: I always know what detractors don’t want, but I can never find out what they do want.)

I thought this was one of the best meetings that Council has had this term. I always feel that it’s a priviledge to be in a front-row seat over so many hours on Tuesday evenings and see the public comment play out before me. The most important lesson here is that showing up and supporting an initiative makes it so much more likely that it will pass. People often think that electing the right people is all they need to do to see progress. But electing people who want progress is only one step in the process — continuous support is necessary. I would never have gotten the gusto to make that motion if so many people in favor hadn’t asked it during their public comment, and my colleagues wouldn’t have supported it if they hadn’t heard that, too. And it shows those watching that there are people who support these changes.

And the process continues: at the following Planning and Permitting Committee meeting, Council discussed new changes to West Medford and Medford Square, while my colleagues advertised a public Q&A on the Neighborhood and Residential Rezoning proposal on Thursday, March 27th in City Hall.