Hi UEP!

You are invited to get involved with No One Leaves, a campaign started at Harvard Law School to help Boston residents living in foreclosed homes exercise their legal right to stay there. Some of us from UEP canvassed folks in Dorchester last Spring, and found the effort really worthwhile - we helped link people to some vital information and services, and learned a lot in the process about the foreclosure crisis (and where to get some great Vietnamese food!). I highly recommend it to anyone struggling this semester to link what we're learning in school to what actually happens in the real world.

Please join us for a meeting about the effort, and how you can get involved, next Tuesday, September 22, in Pearson 104 from 5.45-6.30 (right after Cities, in the same room).

If you're interested, but are unable to attend the meeting on the 22nd, please contact Abi Vladeck.

In November 1968, little baby Evangeline nearly died in a house fire. Forty years later, she was able to thank the fireman who saved her.

This story is especially touching when one considers the political climate and racial tension weighing the city down at that time.

Enjoy...

(Boston Globe) Meeting the man who saved her life
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid6936117001/bclid1214007415/bctid11812033001

SPPA is hosting a Student-Only Community Meeting and your presence is requested.

CONVERSATION & FREE FOOD...

Join us on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 from 12-1:30 PM in Anderson Hall, Room 211 (in the Quant classroom).

LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED.

The meeting will be similar to the Community Meeting held last semester, minus the faculty/staff. Our goal is to generate feedback/suggestions about the program based on our experiences thus far - things done well and possible areas for improvement.

Group feedback will then be shared by the SPPA Student-Faculty liaisons at the next monthly staff meeting.

PLEASE EMAIL JACQUI HOLMES WITH TOPIC SUGGESTIONS BY FEBRUARY 16, 2009 (JACQUELINE.HOLMES@TUFTS.EDU).

This meeting is brought to you by the UEP Student Policy & Planning Association. SPPA recognizes that this time may be difficult to work into your busy schedules. All who are unable to attend are encouraged to email Jacqui Holmes with feedback prior to the meeting.

Please also note that SPPA will be sure to rotate the times of meetings throughout the semester in an effort to accommodate those who work during the day.

Do not hesitate in contacting us if you have any other questions.

See you on the 18th!

~SPPA

...Van Jones is GREENING the world near you...

The January 12, 2009 edition of The New Yorker featured an interesting article on Van Jones, founder and president of Green For All. He recently gave a lecture in New Bedford. Jones, a supporter of Barack Obama, is an even greater supporter of collective efforts to affect significant change from the ground up. Of Obama he asserts, "One man is not going to save us...And, in fact, if you want to be real about this...Not only is Barack Obama not going to be able to save you - you are going to have to save Barack Obama." Regardless of whether or not you agree with such a bold statement, the fact is that even Obama has been very clear from the get go, a successful future is contingent upon everyone doing even a small part to usher in change. Jones is as charismatic on paper as he is in person. The New Yorker article is definitely worth perusing.

Enjoy!

As an aside, Van Jones will be among the featured speakers at next week's National Green Jobs Conference in DC.

I'm sure at some point during our UEP tenure we've all read at least an excerpt from Herbert Gans' Urban Villagers, so we share some understanding of the history of the West End.

A quick overview would read a little something like this...

• Thriving, ethnic community, occupying prime downtown real estate.
• Deemed blighted, skid row and targeted for 1960s-style urban renewal program.
• Redeveloped to house a hospital and high rise apartment complexes.

The project displaced thousands and quickly came to represent the ill-conceived vision of the city's (nascent) planning authority.

50 years later, most don't even know where the "West End" is or what it once was. Its history has been left to the review of policy and planning students.

Yet, as one article mentions, there are those who, in recent decades, have been fighting against further development in an effort to preserve the sense of community that persists. 

And so it is through this lens that many view the recent renaming of a Green Line T stop as a small victory. The Museum of Science stop has been renamed Science Park/West End in homage to the historic area.

Certainly it is a nice gesture, albeit belated, but one wonders what such a nominal honor means to most of the people who will ride the train to and from the stop. The generations brought up since its demolition most likely have no memory of the West End as it once existed. And, given the construction that has taken place since, many passers-by would be hard pressed to visualize what the area looked like in the middle of the last century. Even redevelopment of the North End has reduced what used to be the most accurate point of reference to a generic yuppie playground.

Standing on the Blue Line platform at Government Center, one can see a faded remnant of the Scollay Square marker on the wall, but even I have a hard time conceiving where a train to Scollay Square might have taken me. While grabbing a morning coffee at the local Dunkin Donuts, or a post-work beer at the Red Hat, is one really able to picture the variety clubs and taverns that once dotted Bowdoin Street, home to barroom brawls and burlesque shows, staples of a once-notorious nightlife. It was Times Square before Times Square (and pre-Guiliani). 

In the end, I appreciate the signage for the gesture that it is, but wonder what it is gesturing towards. A nameplate marking a lost past hardly does justice to the cost incurred by those who renewal displaced. For the rest of us, I wonder…is the sign indicative of where we are, or where we’re going?

Brown Bag Lunch presentation

by

Monday, Feb. 2nd at Noon

97 Talbot Ave (UEP’s Brown House)

It’s easy to despair about the foreclosure crisis currently sweeping the country; but fortunately, in Boston at least, people are getting together to do something about it. City Life / Vida Urbana is a tenant organizing group that’s been helping people in Boston fight for affordable housing for the last 35 years, and now has its sights on foreclosed buildings. With the help of hundreds of volunteer student canvassers, they’ve organized a “bank tenants’ union” to help folks in foreclosed properties fight for their rights. Come and hear what one group is doing, and how YOU can get invovled. For more information, contact Abi Vladeck at abigail.vladeck@gmail.com.

Presented by Tuft’s Student Policy & Planning Association

The following is courtesy of Abi Vladeck:

We see a lot of news stories about homeowners in foreclosure – people who were sucked into a predatory loan, were victims of a sudden chill in the housing market, or turn out to have been just one pink slip away from default. 

It’s easy to forget that renters are affected by this crisis, too.  In fact, in cities like Boston, more renters than homeowners are living in foreclosed properties.  

Luckily, they’re getting some help.

City Life / Vida Urbana is a tenant organizing group that’s been helping people in Boston fight for affordable housing for the last 35 years, and now has its sights on foreclosed buildings.  With the help of hundreds of volunteer student canvassers, they’ve organized a “bank tenants’ union” to help folks in foreclosed properties fight for their rights.  

Banks aren’t set up to be landlords; when they take over a building, they try to get the tenants out in order to sell it.  In Massachusetts, they can’t legally evict people in these “no fault” foreclosures, so instead they offer “cash for keys” – a token sum of money – if the tenant will leave the apartment ASAP.  But most people don’t realize that this is a negotiable offer, and assume they’re being kicked out.

City Life helps people understand their options.  Some people want to stay in their homes, and continue paying rent (to the bank – hence “bank tenants’ union”); others want to leave, but with adequate compensation for their lost security deposit, and for the expense and hassle of finding a new place.

 So far, CL / VU has helped people in dozens of properties stay in their homes; has helped others double, triple, or quadruple their initial cash-for-keys offer; and connected hundreds of people with free legal services and housing counselors. 

I think it’s fair to say that your average working class American feels pretty powerless right now.  People are working harder for less.  Healthcare (when you can get it) is getting more expensive.  We were sold dream of homeownership, and now it’s turning into a nightmare.

But organizations like City Life give people the resources to fight back.  It’s not just about telling people what their rights are, or helping them minimize their losses.  It’s about orchestrating a re-alignment in political power. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

If you're interested in learning more about what you can do to help the fight against foreclosures, please join us for a Brown Bag Lunch with Nick Hardigan on Monday, February 2, 2009, 12-1:15, Brown House Classroom.

...we're officially in a recession.

(The number crunchers say this recession began a year ago. So technically you could've answered yes on last week's Econ homework and been right.)

http://wbztv.com/video/?id=69623@wbz.dayport.com

http://www.orgov.org/beachbill.html

It's called coastal erosion and it's why people aren't supposed to construct large dwellings on sandy shores. When you understimate the power of Nature to reclaim that which has been taken from her, well she reminds you why that's a bad idea. Following the heavy wind and rain we had yesterday, a house on Plum Island in Newbury began falling into the water. By morning, so much land had eroded that the owner had no choice but watch as a demolition crew knocked the rest of the house down. If you follow the link, or read the transcript, you'll see the owner of the house express her frustrations with the Town of Newbury's inability to do more to protect her house. If you're like me, you'll be shouting at the computer screen, "Um HELLO! You built your house on the beach. What did you expect to happen when waves started lapping against your deck? I mean, did you NEVER build a sandcastle as a kid and then watch as the rising tide washed it away?!"

In any event, it seems to me that scenes like this have become more prevalent in recent months thanks to hurricanes, floods, etc. And for many whose homes have been or are at risk of being washed away, it begs the question to rebuild or not to rebuild. In my mind, however, these disasters seem to create an opportunity for local/state/federal planning officials to reevaluate the use of certain types of land/areas. Perhaps, as more and more Plum Island homes get swept away, the Town of Newbury will be forced to reconsider some of its zoning policies. And perhaps something like the Oregon Beach Bill will come out of this.

I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

I've been meaning to sound off on this one for some time now so here goes...

$7 tolls WTF?! I don't even know where to begin.

Yes, it unfairly targets Eastie! And yes, it will create even heavier traffic along the already congested strip of 16 that runs through Everett (EJ violations abound!!!!). But what's really got my blood boiling is the fact that I DON'T WANT TO PAY $7 TO LEAVE THIS SIDE OF BOSTON. And you know what? I shouldn't have to!

Listen, don't get me wrong. I'm a loyal MBTA subject, er rider. I quite enjoy riding the Blue Line in and out of Boston. And heck, if time permits when I do happen to be driving, I do my best to avoid the tunnels altogether. But as a resident of Winthrop, a neighbor of East Boston, when push comes to shove, if I find myself needing to hit the highways chances are I'm passing through a tunnel to do it. And I'm sorry, but I just don't think I should have to reach into my pocket to fork over $7 bucks to get through the Sumner or Williams, $2 to get to the Pike, and oh, let's say another $4 to get off the Pike should I opt to visit some friends in CT.

The very real possibility that  MTA tolls may double and SOON has got me beyond peeved! It wasn't so long ago, within the last year actually, that MTA raised the Williams and Sumner tolls by $0.50 - from $3 to $3.50. I remember being taken aback by the increase, but unable to do much about it, I begrudgingly began handing over my two extra quarters per trip. Like most on this shore, I quietly accepted that if I wanted to get out of town, I had no choice. And besides, what's $0.50? It certainly didn't hurt that at the time I was a gainfully employed young professional, but regardless, even if I were not a grad student, a $7 toll seems exorbitant, unreasonable, unfair!!!

And it's merely a proposed means of paying down the agency's ridiculously high debt and to to pay for maintenance - both of which are absolutely necessary, but at what cost? I'd probably feel a little better about the whole thing if the money were going to expand the blue line, create more stops and make the cities and towns on the North Shore more readily accessible by public transit. But that's not where the money is intended to go. Instead it's merely going to keep an aging system on life support. It's just a bad idea all around.

Certainly, I want East Boston to thrive. Anyone who's joined me at Satarpio's (SantAHpeeos) knows why. And like most I think the last thing Everett needs is more traffic-induced air and noise pollution. But if neither of these arguments appeal to people, then let me just throw this out there. I, Eugenia, and all my fellow North Shore peeps SHOULD NOT HAVE TO GO BROKE TO LITERALLY GET FROM ONE SIDE OF TOWN TO THE OTHER QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY.

There has to be a better way to finance routine maintenance than toll increases. Increased gas tax anyone? Or, better yet, start making Eastie residents pay $3.50 like the rest of us instead of just a few cents.  Do something, anything, but DON'T RAISE MY TUNNEL TOLLS PLEASE!