Over the past six months there's been a huge amount of discussion in the Davis Square Facebook group about a proposal to build a 25-story building in Davis Square: retail on the ground floor, 500 units of housing above, 100 of the units affordable. I wrote about this a few weeks ago, weighing the housing benefits against the impact to current businesses (while the Burren, Dragon Pizza, etc have invitations to return at their current rent, this would still be super disruptive to them if they even did return).

The impact to local businesses is not the only issue people raise, however, and I wanted to get a better overall understanding of how people view it. I went over the thousands of comments on the posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) over the last six months, and categorized the objections I saw. Overall I found comments by 90 different people opposed to the proposal, and ignoring super short ones ("Stupid idea", "Oh no") I put them in 11 different categories. I counted some comments towards multiple categories: the goal was to understand how many people hold each objection. Here are the objections, sorted by the number of unique people raising each, and with some representative quotes:

23/90 people:it won't bring down the cost of housing:

"I'm tired of this simplified idea that building more buildings here will solve the affordable housing problem"
"It isn't going to lower prices like people think. It is going to drive prices up because the new construction will be of the unaffordable type."
"Somerville can't build its way out of a housing crisis."

21/90 people:it's just too tall:

"We don't want a high rise building"
"These ugly, tall buildings are destroying the city."
"They are better off just making a 3-4 story building"

20/90 people: I don't want these businesses displaced:

"When it takes out 3 local businesses two of which are institutions it's not just nimby"
"Many long time tenants won't return after being forcibly closed for the renovation"
"Losing any local independent businesses in Davis Square will have irreparable harm to what we all love about Davis or any locale that's unique."

16/90 people: this should be built somewhere else:

"What I don't really understand is, why *this* particular spot"
"How about they go build it in the middle of West Medford square and you can go live there"
"Density is good but not here."

15/90 people: The roads / sewer / other infrastructure is not up to it:

"Nice. Where are all the delivery vehicles going to park? Figure 50 meal deliveries, 10 UPS, USPS, Fedex, couple of ambulance calls EVERY DAY."
"I'm worried about our aging sewer system and the impact of 500+ flushing toilets!"
"let's see what happens if you turn the Boston area into New York level density without New York level public transit"

11/90 people: This kind of building is aesthetically unacceptable:

"It damages our home city visually by rising like a giant pr*ck over a small town. Aesthetics matter."
"This place is an eye sore and monstrosity"
"A large, impersonal, brick and mortal prison, with few local independent shops and stores; few parking spaces; high consumer prices; and no character."

11/90 people: Units won't actually be affordable, or there should be a higher fraction of affordable ones:

"The developer has no intention of making any of it 'affordable' housing"
"I would accept 8 stories if the building was 100% affordable"
"the affordable housing part is all smoke and mirrors, it will still be very expensive."

4/90 people: Mostly new construction just sits empty:

"The problem is that builders keep building 'luxury condominiums' which they then can't rent and so take a tax deduction"
"Where's your evidence that all of the market rate units are leased up?"
"Just because you build it doesn't mean people will actually live there. More and more apartments are being purchased as investments by people who are not at all invested in living in the community."

3/90 people: Density makes us worse off:

"We don't need to live on top of each other. This city is already too crowded."
"You want this place to become Hong Kong and Kowloon"
"Keep jamming people in small areas. Fcking ridiculous. More people more problems."

3/90 people: This will damage our culture, beyond just losing the businesses:

"Nothing is sacred anymore. Without a solid base, life comes tumbling down. Take care of what there is instead of creating future problems. The small town feeling is being lost"
""when you start putting high rise building in a smalllll neighborhood, you lose the sense of community. It just naturally dies because you cram a bunch of people in a big building and everyone stops seeing one another"
"Multigenerational families who haven't been displaced physically are culturally and socially displaced"

2/90 people: Tall buildings make solar panels produce less:

"Those in the immediate area who put solar panels on their homes will see the damage."
"Project supporters care about climate change but you're S.O.L. if you got solar panels...which *check notes* helps fight climate change."

There are solid responses to all of these, and I saw lots of great ones in reviewing the comments. I'm not getting into rebuttals here, just get a sense of what the objections are and how common each is.

(An hour ago someone started yet another thread in the group, which already has sixteen comments. I'm not looking at it here, though, because this post is done. Serves me right for mostly drafting last night but not finishing it until this afternoon.)

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