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To the editor:
At the recent Coffin School listening session, several abutting residents asked some variant of why they should have to bear the burden of residential development on the site. This framing, that housing is a burden, was also widely present during the town's debate over 3A in the summer.
I do not see new housing as a burden. I think more Americans is an unqualified good thing, therefore housing is also good because if there were more Americans they would need housing. But others disagree and this reality cannot be wished away. So it's worth taking this perspective seriously. One question promoted by the housing as a burden framing is this: when Marblehead declines the "burden" of new housing, where does it go?
The short answer is it falls on neighboring communities. Marblehead's housing stock has been roughly fixed since 1980 with only about 250 units of housing added according to the Census Bureau. As a result, several groups are pushed out because there is no housing to meet their needs. Elderly residents who can no longer maintain single-family homes and young people who want to start families but can't afford a $1 million median home price are the most obvious.
These people do not vanish when Marblehead says no. They move to neighboring communities. The "burden" we decline—traffic, noise, school seats, demand for housing—lands in other lower-priced towns. That extra demand pushes up their prices and spreads the cycle of displacement.
Housing is not the only arena where Marblehead shifts burdens. In a recent Weekly News article, a Marblehead resident objected to the idea of removing a traffic lane to create a dedicated bus lane to provide more transit options, especially for Lynn residents. But this proposal is partly due to Marblehead residents driving to Boston. The congestion we create is a traffic burden we currently push almost entirely onto that city.
From the perspective of someone who sees housing, or people generally, as a burden, this is all perfectly rational: export the costs of housing whenever possible. What is less clear is why neighboring communities have accepted these burdens for so long and whether they will continue to do so.
Residents of Salem and other nearby towns might reasonably ask why they should accept housing pressure from Marblehead while we continue to receive millions of their tax dollars in state aid each year through UGGA, Chapter 70 and other programs. A Lynn resident reading complaints from Marblehead residents about reducing the Lynnway's car capacity might suggest reducing it to not two lanes but one lane all the way to Commercial Street.
For years, these problems were slow-moving. Like a frog in boiling water, our neighbors may simply not have noticed the cumulative costs imposed on them via housing and traffic.
What has changed is the salience of affordability. The cost-of-living crisis has become the overriding concern for working- and middle-class Americans, sharpening their focus on anything that raises rents, mortgages and commuting costs. It seems unlikely that our neighbors will forever agree to both absorb the housing and traffic burdens we create while subsidizing that choice through their state tax dollars.
Something to consider.
Nick Ward
Rolleston Road
