Hi Neighbors,

Tomorrow everyone who works, lives, or volunteers in the expanded Union Square Neighborhood Council (USNC) area can vote in a ratification election on a Community Benefits Agreement that the USNC has negotiated over the past two years with the owners of the “Somernova” (formerly Ames Envelope) complex on Somerville Ave, Dane St, Tyler Ct, and Properzi Way. Voting is at St Anthony’s Church on 480 Somerville Ave from 7:30am-7:30pm on Wednesday, and you can find out more information about how to vote and eligibility at the USNC website: https://sites.google.com/view/usnc

For myself, I am planning to vote YES on the CBA this Wednesday, because this process has been conducted with integrity and transparency by an elected group of my neighbors, and represents a compromise that I can be at peace with. For me in some ways this is also a question of governance, legitimacy, and theories of power.

The Union Square and Assembly Row “benefits” processes were dominated by the Mayor and planning staff from start to finish – with abysmal results. The creation of the USNC (Union Square Neighborhood Council) was an attempt to put neighbors not just at the table, but in the drivers’ seat when it came to major development decisions. Having seen multiple mayors and planning dept staff work closely with developers to steamroll projects like US2 and Assembly Row and others before them, residents of Somerville were very keen on putting the power closer to the people. After all, even Councilors like me only get elected every 2 years, and everyone else involved is even further from public pressure. Similarly, it’s a lot easier for a developer to convince 11 Councilors and a Mayor than it is to win over a whole neighborhood.

That was the vision when the USNC was conceived, and I’d say it has succeeded pretty darn well for an entirely volunteer effort. Holding local elections, operating openly and with integrity, they’ve managed to build a “4th level of government” that is more democratic, smaller, and easier for neighbors to directly engage with – AND earned the respect/deference of the 3rd (municipal) level of government in the process of doing that, as evidenced by the ordinances passed by the Council and signed by the Mayor approving their authority to negotiate. Even further, the USNC isn’t legally a government body and so is eligible to enter contracts that cover questions and commitments that municipal laws cannot address. Their continued existence and authority is a triumph that should not be taken for granted.

For most of us, we tend to just accept that we have municipal, state, and federal governments and that they have moral authority to do what they do. Below that though, the USNC is a novel (to this area, not to the whole country or world) approach to building an external power structure that can endure, hold legitimacy, and create positive material impacts by and for their neighbors. And it only persists with the consent of the governed (i.e. members, as well as the forbearance of the muni/state/feds).

I don’t love everything in this CBA. As a neighbor, I actually don’t mind height and would rather have seen a lot more civic space and dollars directed at community partners (like the Somerville Community Land Trust money included in this CBA). But as a participant in the conception and creation of the USNC way back when, and as someone dedicated to the expansion of democratic and civic engagement that it represents, I am inclined to vote in favor of the CBA. This CBA is the result of the actual and transparent process of a CBA negotiation that neighbors in the movement have been fighting for from 2012 and before. I trust that those people deepest in this negotiation for the past several years have sought and incorporated feedback from every one of our neighbors. Advocates like me and you fought hard to build that negotiating power, and many neighbors have put forth sustained efforts for years to keep the organization and that community power intact. I vote yes out of respect for them and their work, and out of my support for what they’ve been able to negotiate in a process that would not exist without them.

I acknowledge that not everyone may see things in this framing. It’s also fine to see this as a question of “are we getting enough in this CBA to allow an extra 20% expansion of the existing by-rights zoning?”

This question, at its simplest, is about whether or not we neighbors get a direct say in both how much gets built AND what we get in return. By-rights development is possible even in FAB or CI zoning which the city perceives as prohibitive, as we saw recently in Brickbottom with 100 Chestnut Street building. The very real prospect of a by-rights development of 1.2M square feet, with no abatements or benefits attached, is by far inferior in my opinion to a marginally-larger building that comes with contractual obligations to the neighbors and significant mitigations and benefits for the neighborhood.

Either way this vote goes, I commit to you the same thing I’ve always committed to: I am dedicated to getting more neighbors involved directly in civic decisions, and I will support the vote of the Union Square Neighborhood Council regardless of the outcome.

As ever, I strive to be the representative I want to have in city government someday when I leave office – and I’m grateful for your continued support over the years in that position.

-JTS