Mr Deeds goes to City Hall

UPDATED - Not actually prepared (honestly, would have gotten haircut if I knew this was coming), but I stood with my neighbors on this one - Compact Living (Sponsored by Prince Albert Canned Sardines) is a hypercool new thing. Where young and old live in something about the size of a hotel room.

Truth be told, most of these things end up as hotel rooms anyway in the Disruptive Age of AirBnB.

Now, It is a decent idea on paper (see below), but the density here is none of it in the manner to maintain an anchored community with kids, for example, that play on the playgrounds, populate the Little League, go to the local schools. Which was Mission Hill's saving grace - a Village in a City Verticalism is not the only way to go. Who sees Boston as Hong Kong, Tokyo, or Blade Runner? Or San Francisco - that formerly Wonderful Wonderful Town.

Your humble servant appears here...https://t.co/liodXOzBbl

— Jack Vaughan (@JackIVaughan) January 24, 2020

Okay maybe it is a good thing.. but it is not being discussed openly. It is rezoning by dark of night. And it is just a way to use capital to avoid captial gains taxes. In fact the the micro-unit pendulum has begun its swung. Cough, sneeze, etc. The people are too close together til you cant see one without seeing the other, studies say.

My presentation here has me headed to the barbershop - to put the semi back in semi-retirement. I am joined on the witness stand by neighbors Dan, Mary Ann, and Allison. The acting Zone Czar shot down my neighbor Betty, when she tried to speak. Just to show what I mean by neighbor, Allison is Jake's Godmother. It takes a village, I've come to believe. Not a city. - Jack Vaughan

Update - Included now above is link to Jan 23 2020 Boston Globe story, in which I am quoted on these issues. My name - as is my lot -- ist spelt rong.

Jack Vaughn, a longime Mission Hill resident, said the board approved a 24-unit apartment building on Burney Street during a meeting he attended earlier ths month, in spite of neighborhood concerns. The approval, he said, seemed fore ordained."

"Development has been happening at a stupendously rapid pace," Vaughan said. "Even the signs of curruption seem to give them no pause. It seems worthwhle to stop and take a few breaths before we rush forward."