“Tear Down the Burren” by jefftk

I love the Burren. It hosts something like seven weekly sessions in a range of styles and the back room has hosted many great acts including many of my friends. It's a key space in the Boston folk scene, and it's under threat from developers who want to tear it down.

But after thinking it through, and noting that this puts me on the other side from many of my friends, I think the project should go ahead. The proposal isn't to tear down paradise to put up a parking lot, it's to put up 500+ apartments (studio, 1br, 2br, 3br), 100+ of them limited to people below income thresholds ('affordable'). We're in the middle of a housing crisis, where instead of letting people build up to meet demand we've been competing with each other to bid up the apartments that do exist. Rising rent has [...]

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First published:
February 4th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dz4eNgfx726cgtpCB/tear-down-the-burren

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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