Connor Morrow
@cmorr0w
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Building a better world. Wannabe developer, New Urbanist, policy wonk, progressive optimist, Catholic
Somerville, MA
Joined April 2022
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Me @ me
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“I’d like to build a life here” is routinely underrepresented, while “gtfo of my city” is routinely over represented
We found that the individuals already engaged with the Planning Department are not representative of the City of Boston. Check out who currently participates in development review versus the demographics of all City residents. (2/4)
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@YaBoiShagNasty
Nothing has made me angrier than chipotle telling me when I walk in they won’t serve me, that they’re only doing mobile orders
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@alancornett
@AndrewFiggy
IIRC the only way people spoke it was if they were taught it either for acting or at a private boarding school, I’d assume if fell out of fashion in both places
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@tjsleakyroof
That $600 would go to a mortgage for the first 30 years.
The remaining 12 years, assuming NOT ONE new lightbulb, repaired fridge, sewer bill, hallway light bill, or ANY maintenance, would generate $86,400
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Significant symptom of regional problems: growing population and declining school enrollment in Boston
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@dmtrubman
This image of a lot in Newton MA, courtesy of
@berkie1
, has stuck with me for weeks. So many cases where “more density” just means going back to how things used to be
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@brianonhere
New construction primarily brings rents down in existing buildings, still a win!
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@dieworkwear
Someday I’ll run for office and I’ll be so well dressed these posts will just be complimenting me
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This is TWICE the density required by the MBTA communities law everyone is freaking out about
If we ever hope to produce the housing options our communities so desperately need, we have to stop fearing the types of density that once served as the backbone of our communities.
🏠 1 town home, 3 condos
📐 25 units / acre
🏗️ 1800
📍Chestnut, St, Salem, MA
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@BFriedmanDC
Best way I’ve heard him described is (something like) “someone who’s good at finding problems other people can solve”
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@EricDLombardi
I can see the appeal of living in a “greener” setting near the amenities of a city, what I can’t understand is the desire to drive, park, etc *within* the city like it’s a suburb
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Alright, I’m on my train without a book and I’m feeling particularly motivated
So welcome to “why does housing cost so f%&
@ing
much?” aka “Connor comes up with a development project”
I happened across Quincy, MA’s MBTA Communities draft zoning maps today and got fired up
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Anyone born before 1900 seeing this: “this looks like every other street I’ve ever seen”
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Them: the libs are trying to destroy America
Me: they legalized *towns*
The proposed state budget would work with localities to allow for 50 homes per acre around train stations in NYC and within 15 miles.
But what does that average density look like? We worked with the great
@alfred_twu
to visualize what areas around train stations could look like.
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@TheGattoniCelli
Most of America’s social and political problems can be traced to the feeling of “I don’t want to interact with or be aware of other people”
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We’re doing Will Stancil grocery discourse! As someone who religiously tracks their spending, but is single, my grocery bills have gone down it seems (in part because I pay more attention)
I ignore this man as much as possible but everything about him utterly screams of permanent childlessness. This is, in fact, exactly the way real people buy groceries. Particularly when you have to budget for children, who have rather regular and predictable needs/desires.
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@dmtrubman
Big picture questions of “community character” should be asked on the ballot, and then that character built
80% of residents want a nice downtown? Ok, we know how to do that
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In a functioning housing market, this home would've been converted into a duplex in 2016. $600k buy + $400k construction + $200k profit == TWO $600k homes.
"I like the house the way it is, I like going by it"
Very relatable, but a functioning civilization is more important
This 4 bed, 2 bath, 1,900sf single family home sold today for $1.1 million...
It last sold in 2016 for $597,000.
📍Marblehead, MA
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The adult Catholic vibe is realizing that mass ISNT as long as it felt as a kid 😎
As someone who was raised pretty Catholic, I'm baffled by the effort to rebrand Catholicism as transgressive and exciting. The authentic Catholic experience is getting dragged to mass and CCD by your parents and being bored out of your damn mind
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I’d rather live in a place that’s too desirable and deal with that than live in a place where no one wants to live
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The irony of this is that the Commonwealth’s found itself in a situation where it’s unable to bring in new residents OR retain existing residents, especially young people, due to aggressively, purposely constricted housing supply
Allow me to translate:
"We don't want you, we are only interested in rich people who can afford the limited housing we have. We won't build more or better connect it."
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Today in “fighting NIMBYism with design” — if you’re building in MA, context-sensitive siding and bay windows can go a long way toward making residents like your building
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@MatthewDezii
@MBTA
I don’t understand how there’s no one on the payroll for “random things that need to be done rn” like going around and hanging up new maps
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@MilwaukeeAvBike
In MA, every household *without* a car spends $14,000 a year subsidizing driving for others; those with cars spend $16k, which includes direct expenditures IIRC…
What would a world look like if those numbers were reduced due to reduced car use… probably not half bad!
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@not_so_gratian
Back when it listened to WOF a bit, it really started me getting back into faith because I could realize “oh people have answered and thought about these questions before”
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@elaifresh
@TheOmniZaddy
“Have an intern just go do it for cheap, today” is now the motto for any future mayoral run I undertake
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@matcatastrophe
600sq ft at $250/ft to build would cost $150,000 to construct - let’s say $200,000 total for land and all - mortgaged out over 20 years at 6% would be $1,433/month…
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Driving everywhere is not based, nor trad, nor sustainable, nor humane, nor equitable, nor Christlike 😎
(Did I leave anyone out?)
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“This building looks bad so I’m going to force it to be a smaller ugly building…” dude just tell the developer to make it look traditional
NIMBYs getting all bent out of shape when a nice apartment building replaces a dumpy little commercial building is why we have a housing shortage crisis in Philadelphia.
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I will not be satisfied until a train going in every direction arrives at every MBTA stop every 5 minutes
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@BeijingPalmer
IIRC at least in MA everywhere is required by law to accept cash (which is good!)
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“Should we allow inefficiency, especially government inefficiency, to create jobs” needs to be a national referendum
(No idea how I’d vote)
Often overlooked that "waste" doesn't generally involve burning money in a furnace.
It usually involves paying people to do "fake" jobs.
That medical insurance billing clerk has a mortgage you know!
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@GBHNews
@MassGovernor
The Commonwealth should be leading the nation on housing, economic mobility, vibrancy, and quality of life. We aren’t and we keep punting
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I go to coffee shops as a (regular) treat and try to sit down and have it be an event. I’m beginning to think it’s incredibly strange to do so
Learned that a nearby location is converting into a mobile-only store -- a sterile glorified vending machine. The push to eliminate customer interaction always feels like an attack on worker organizing--and is why such organizing is so important.
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Site plan prepared 🫡🫡
We’ve now got a general site plan: a small parking lot, a green space of some kind, and some basic units in a 3-story walkup. I’m going to go out on a limb and call it perfectly alright urbanism.
How much is it going to cost our new neighbors?
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Best part is, I forgot that there’s a 10,000 square foot minimum lot size until I wrote half this thread. So this project isn’t possible as presented even if you have a million dollars 😎😎
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@TheLastFarm
@libraryofthings
@DenverTools
@TheToolLibrary
@TOToolLibrary
@edintoollibrary
@hfxtoollibrary
@yowtoollibrary
@WSToolLibrary
@SNToolLibrary
@LivToolLibrary
Any book reccs for your vision of municipal eco-socialism?
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Triple deckers are more or less illegal to build new, but putting that aside, we’re going for their general vibe in the form of row homes. We can fit a set of 3 rowhouses on the site, fronting Centre St, 60’ wide (20’ each, 50’ deep). This will also leave us some green space!
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I’d like
@BostonPlans
to be mapping their development review projects 👀 while I love the list format they have, a map would be cool
Another Development Hotspot: Around 1000 units planned or under construction at the Santa Monica / Vermont B-Line Station, over half of which are affordable
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“Organize neighborhood teams to do this in a weekend” is like 1/3 of my politics
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It’s possible we (metro Boston and therefor the Commonwealth) are circling the drain while still getting wealthier… as in, declining school enrollment, declining family formation generally, inequality and disparities in opportunity, and maybe most notably a broken housing market
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Connor: “abolish the suburbs”
What I truly want to replace them with:
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@aquaimperium8
I once checked out a 1916 USDA pamphlet that was stored in an envelope because it was falling apart
One of my prouder moments
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2 years on the job and I finally got to see a building get finished :)
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@OnlyInBOS
This tower and the residential building next to it will meet *approximately* 0.03% of the region’s housing needs
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THEY OUT HERE DOING IT
Former department store site in the heart of downtown Greenfield's Main Street Historic District to be converted to 65 mixed-income rental homes and a full-service co-op grocery store. Three locally owned retailers to remain in place.
📍Greenfield, MA
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It’s expensive! How much profit should a brand new condo unit make? 5%? 10%? What's our time and money building this worth?
Aiming for decent and community minded, let's add an 8% profit margin – less than you’d make in the stock market!
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I’m beginning to realize I save a fortune by only ever buying coffee when I want to sit around in the coffee shop and eat a pastry
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How is there a "tobacco is good for you, actually" side of Twitter
Not even "I like tobacco" Twitter, but people positing actual health benefits
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Here’s our site, currently three lots, nicely situated on a corner on Centre St. For argument’s sake, we’re only developing residential space, but this would probably be well suited to mixed use.
Using Zillow’s Zestimate, just *acquiring* these three homes will cost $2,227,000
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@ArmandDoma
“The state exists to supply my wants and personal preferences, even in spite of my other, equal citizens needs” strikes again
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For our trouble, we’ve made $415,760 in profit. Maybe it’s all ours, maybe we had a partner fronting the money. If we took out a loan to do the whole project, we would still need over $1,000,000 in down payment (25%).
($400k over 4 years of work is… An upper middle class wage?)
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