This reminds me of the Cambridge candidate who wanted to bring in more homeless people to bring housing prices down.
There is a logic to it: if more people want to live in your area, then you have exactly three choices: you can build more housing for them, accept people being priced out, or do something to make people not want to live in your area.
Since laws and politics here are pretty hostile to new housing, that leaves soaring rents or self-sabotage as the only options.
And more people do want to live here. The GLX might be part of it but wouldn't explain e.g. Davis rents going up 20% a year. Lots of people are moving back into urban areas in general. Millennials don't want to drive as much. Cambridge students and workers spill over into Somerville.
MA, Boston, and Cambridge all went up 12-13% in population between 1990 and 2013; Somerville went up only 3%. I suspect that difference reflects Somerville zoning more than anything else.
Re: dystopia or no? a guessing game!
There is a logic to it: if more people want to live in your area, then you have exactly three choices: you can build more housing for them, accept people being priced out, or do something to make people not want to live in your area.
Since laws and politics here are pretty hostile to new housing, that leaves soaring rents or self-sabotage as the only options.
And more people do want to live here. The GLX might be part of it but wouldn't explain e.g. Davis rents going up 20% a year. Lots of people are moving back into urban areas in general. Millennials don't want to drive as much. Cambridge students and workers spill over into Somerville.
MA, Boston, and Cambridge all went up 12-13% in population between 1990 and 2013; Somerville went up only 3%. I suspect that difference reflects Somerville zoning more than anything else.