@marionsd@better.boston
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

marionsd

@marionsd@better.boston

Climate & cities nerd, proud tica, snarky feminist leftie, cat mom, wanderer, art & music lover, sci-fi fan. I write and edit wonky climate/development stuff. Somervillen. She/ella.

If you want to know more: Costa Rican educated by Germans, journalist for 15+ years, then global think tank, immigrant advocate, now freelance writer/editor/comms focused mainly on climate and social justice. Board of REACH Beyond Domestic Violence, also in Carbon Free Somerville, Mothers Out Front.

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marionsd, to random
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

Psyched to see @pluralistic finally come to Boston, April 11 at Harvard's Berkman Center! If you're not familiar with his thinking on what corporate shittiness does to digital technologies, make sure to read up and go see him! https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/enshittification

marionsd, to climate
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

This new tool is incredible. A detailed mapping of sources of greenhouse gas emissions around the world, including major industrial facilities, power plants, ports, waste disposal sites, and much more. This is a snapshot of just one such site, the landfill in Acushnet. Note it's generously measured in 100-year terms (methane is short-lived but incredibly powerful in the first decade). Try out the tool here: https://climatetrace.org

marionsd, to random
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

This troubling new blog, which U.S. urbanists should also read carefully, shows cars' powerful grip on many people's idea of a good life. If urban leaders don't listen, proactively address equity issues, and communicate the full benefits of bike lanes, traffic calming, etc., it warns, "the ambitious climate and environmental policies our cities need and deserve will continue to be framed as 'luxury beliefs' when nothing could be further from the truth." https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2023/11/08/is-europes-green-wave-turning-blue-making-sense-of-the-rightward-shift-in-european-cities/

marionsd, to random
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

Wow, Braintree! Congratulations on killing a pretty nice-looking apartment complex that would've replaced a big parking lot next to a dying mall and near transit! I mean who wouldn't prefer empty pavement, right?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/10/04/business/housing-development-braintree-death/

misc, to random
@misc@mastodon.social avatar

Just curious - any places with the updated covid vaccines in Massachusetts other than CVS and Walgreens?

marionsd,
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

@misc Probably Stop & Shop and Walmart? ๐Ÿ˜

charliejane, to random
@charliejane@wandering.shop avatar

"Figuring out your own gender identity is hard work, requiring large amounts of self-awareness and vulnerability.... For anyone, of any age, this can feel like riding a unicycle across a muddy field while bystanders shout unhelpful advice."

https://wapo.st/3sErodO

This piece is a couple years old, but it feels more relevant than ever, and I'm still really proud of it. I'm grateful to the Post for letting me write it.

marionsd,
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

@charliejane This is a great piece. Persecuting kids who are trans (or are wondering if they are) is not only cruel and a human rights violation; it also imposes gender stereotypes that are oppressive to all. Many people don't fit their parents' or other adults' or kids' ideas of male/female. My sense is the norms have narrowed, not expanded, since I was a kid. Figuring yourself out in this context is hard enough without having to fear the authorities.

annaleen, to random
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

There has been a lot of random media discourse about how the GenZs are using IJBOL instead of LOL. If this generational use of internetese is real, I think it's because the LOL generation was still getting used to the idea of social media. It was startling to find yourself laughing out loud in the middle of a silent conversation online. GenZ is not surprised by this; their internet humor is notoriously rich and complex. The emphasis is on the laugh, not the "out loud." https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/08/ijbol-meaning-definition-acronym-lol.html

marionsd,
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

@annaleen I don't know about that. It seems to me that what killed LOL was its cringy misuse by many Boomers, GenXers and perhaps Millennials, less to indicate "this made me laugh out loud" and more, as the Slate article notes, as a sort of softening device, like a ๐Ÿ™‚, or a way to convey "I'm being funny/silly." I don't remember using it much even in the 90s (now I really aged myself!); for "this is hilarious" I remember using ROTFL. Given how lame LOL usage has become, I say let it RIP.

marionsd, to gardening
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

I feel seen.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/tips-for-a-successful-tomato-season

marionsd, to random
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

"What police shrug off as mistaken identity never takes into account how it feels for someone to be treated as a criminal, to face police guns drawn and pointed, or the vulnerability of having oneโ€™s hands cuffed behind their back."

If this happened regularly to middle-class white people, radical police reform would have as much support as tax cuts.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/08/15/opinion/police-encounters-black-people-trauma/

marionsd, to random
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

Great story by @gbhnews's Liz Neisloss on the huge potential for redeveloping strip malls in Greater Boston into high-density housing with commercial spaces.

Astonishingly, there are >3,000 strip malls in our region. MAPC estimates if only 10% of these 14 square miles of land into multifamily housing, we could add 125,000 units, many close to transit. Bonus: great walkability for residents!

https://www.wgbh.org/news/2023-08-15/housing-solution-turn-old-strip-malls-into-new-housing

pbump, to random
@pbump@journa.host avatar

Six in 10 Americans see the investigations into Trump as an effort to keep him from the presidency. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/07/trump-federal-election-charges/

marionsd,
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

@erikalyn @pbump I think that's an important point. If Trump had sailed away into the sunset, he wouldn't have been less criminal, but a lot of the sense of urgency to put a stop to him would've been sapped. Prosecuting him to protect democracy from an active, unrepentant criminal doesn't seem wrong to me.

marionsd, to random
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

Cool! 214 new apartments available for rent in Southie, and they're totally within the reach of normal Bostonians: Studios will start at $2,780, one-bedrooms at $3,300, two-bedrooms at $4,500 and three-bedrooms at $6,185. Via @stephmsolis (the must-read Axios Boston newsletter).

๐Ÿ—๏ธ Fancy new digs for Southie https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-boston-5806b06f-52a2-433a-8aaf-bc4e0031770f.html?chunk=3&utm_term=twsocialshare#story3

marionsd,
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

@jik Wait, you mean the average Boston family doesn't earn $250,000 or more? Oops! The developers must've misread the data. Or maybe they don't care one bit about Greater Boston's housing affordability crisis? https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bostoncitymassachusetts/INC110221

marionsd,
@marionsd@better.boston avatar

@misc @jik All hail the Invisible Hand!

BlackAzizAnansi, to random
@BlackAzizAnansi@mas.to avatar

deleted_by_author

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    marionsd,
    @marionsd@better.boston avatar

    @BlackAzizAnansi Years ago there was a little cat who started coming to my house and getting food. One day she showed up with two kittens and demanded to move in. After we adopted her, we learned that she'd had at least three homes on our block. You need to buy some feline Greenies so you can be a worthy host.

    marionsd, to delhi
    @marionsd@better.boston avatar

    Is it just me, or is this the most ludicrous collection of bad tech bro ideas proposed for Boston in a while? The worst part is how close they sometimes are to potentially good ideas. Like yes, commuter rail tracks are underused. Maybe try a short train/tram, not driverless cabs? https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/18/business/boston-transportation-innovation/

    marionsd,
    @marionsd@better.boston avatar

    @universalhub But will they be driverless?

    marionsd, to random
    @marionsd@better.boston avatar

    This week, the Greater Boston Food Bank reported that 1 in 3 people in Mass. struggles to afford enough to eat. Then on Friday, we had this great story about a 500-unit new complex in Dorchester, which desperately needs more affordably priced housing. 66 units will be income-restricted; the rest range from $2,500 studios to $5,000 3BRs. How can people eat when housing sucks up all they've got? https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2023/06/01/dot-block-fills-in-a-stretch-of-the-avenue
    (The food story: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/30/business/high-levels-hunger-persist-mass-covid-era-benefits-roll-back/)

    marionsd,
    @marionsd@better.boston avatar

    Erin McAleer, chief executive of Project Bread, explicitly said as much to the Globe: โ€œFolks who make minimum wage and work 40 hours a week โ€” they come home with $2,000 a month. Forget food. You canโ€™t really afford much else but your apartment.โ€

    The market isn't solving Greater Boston's housing crisis. Incentives and mandates aren't steering developers hard enough, either. I think only large-scale social housing development can solve this. Do we even have the tools to get to that?

    marionsd,
    @marionsd@better.boston avatar

    @itamarst I agree, zoning is a major impediment, even in cities like Boston and Somerville. But zoning changes -- as necessary as they are -- haven't seemed to make a dent in market prices. I think there's just too much money, and developers focused on maximizing profits will naturally cater to the rich.

    I don't actually know how this gets solved. I just think we need to stop pretending the market will do it. As with health care, profit-seeking corporations will never deliver affordability.

    marionsd, to random
    @marionsd@better.boston avatar

    Today's Boston Globe Trendlines newsletter has bad, but unsurprising news about the market. It should be great news that prices are dropping, but the market was too messed up already for that to improve affordability -- plus the spike in interest rates has been huge.

    Inside I-495, the median price fell 3% year-over-year in April, to $820,000, and sales were down 26%. People can't afford to buy, so they can't afford to sell, either.

    https://mailchi.mp/bostonglobe/trendlines-the-states-housing-market-is-frozen-and-updates-to-other-big-stories

    marionsd, to random
    @marionsd@better.boston avatar

    Massachusetts' 61B property tax break is meant to apply to natural spaces and recreational areas open to the public or to members of a nonprofit. But these highly exclusive golf clubs are nonprofits, too. Talk about gaming the system!

    Was the Legislature naรฏve when it passed this, or was this done knowingly, since these clubs "do a lot for the community"?

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/02/metro/this-is-unjust-wrong-amid-economic-downturn-state-program-slashes-elite-golf-clubs-property-taxes/

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