By adamg on Fri., 4/5/2019 - 10:44 am
State Rep. Liz Miranda (D-5th Suffolk) writes:
I'm an elected official and I cant afford to buy a home of my dreams in Roxbury. Everyday my family gets calls and letters to buy our homes, cash. Its harassment. Its greed. Its absurd.
Roxbury is tired. We are tired.
Go develop your suburban towns.
Go speculate your land.
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No, but the increase can be a
By anon
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 2:56pm
No, but the increase can be a shock. I'm in the suburbs. My property tax jumped 20%.
It's nice my property value is going up, but that doesn't increase my income.
You're missing the root problem
By AgingCynic
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 12:35pm
She's a politician for whom there is never enough money and power. Never. Multiple houses? State-paid employees? She's entitled to all that, of course.
Empathy
By Pedro
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 12:24pm
Many of the comments don't seem to see any downside to gentrification. I wonder why. Could it be that some of them are part of the carpetbagging class? Hmmmm.
You can't expect white people
By Scauma
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 1:47pm
You can't expect white people to be empathetic to a problem they (mostly) created. When cars were all the rage they couldn't wait to get out of the inner city. Now that they all want to ride bikes they need the location back.
yup
By bosguy22
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 1:52pm
White people are literally the worst.
Whitey
By StillFromDorchester
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 6:00pm
It's aways their fault, good call.
I’m sure the percentage of
By Lmo
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 3:06pm
I’m sure the percentage of Uhub commenters that are from Boston or currently live in boston is low.
comments are much different than when its Southie gentrification
By anon
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 12:32pm
Much different comments here than when reports of this happening in Southie. When this happened in Southie, commenters were all about yuppies and how they were destroying Southie. When its Roxbury, Uhub commenters talk about how residents should just be happy. Seems like when its white people being gentrified uhub readers sympathize, but when its black residents they pounce.
Nah
By bosguy22
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 1:53pm
People said the same thing about Southie. "Talk to your neighbors who are selling, not those who are buying. Be thankful home values are going up, not down. It's a good think there aren't junkies sleeping in doorways anymore."
That's funny
By Waquiot
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 3:17pm
The gist of my comment above is that it's the exact same thing.
I think that it's interesting that when white ethnic neighborhoods were up in arms about yuppies moving in black people didn't care. Now that those areas are conquered and the yuppies are training their eyes on Dudley Square it's a problem.
I don't think the residents of Roxbury should be happy, but I do think it's a hoot that they think this is a recent thing. Charlestown began being gentrified in the 1980s. I feel for Roxbury, like I felt for other, whiter parts of Boston. And the same people having no sympathy now had no sympathy then. Just ask Swirls about that one bus ride she took back in the day when the local Irish American folk were bemoaning the turnover while at the same time happy about what they got for their homes.
You new people might make her work!
By TrophyWifeLinda
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 1:13pm
Like, OMG,
People who are moving in like have jobs and stuff and can afford to pay more Benjamins, and don't have to go all tooth pasting because they can give big props to good stuff, when Andrea Cabal brings the green heaven to the hood.
Next thing, those people paying all that moulah too are going to actually like demand like schools and shit that they can
actually get an educamation from. Do you know that in like Brookline and places they have town halls, and not like I'm talking Prince Hall with their dance lines, where citizens actually ask questions and demand like accountability.
KEEP THEM OUT!!!!
My peoples demand low quality services, low quality housing, low quality journalism, low quality schools, low rents and low taxes! Graduated income and property taxes! Guaranteed seats! and especially Low Quality Politicians who can't spell and have bad grammar on their twitter accounts. And if I like notice bad grammar, like you no it's bad!
#speakingtheTtoP
"Joke Account"
By Pete X
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 1:25pm
"Linda' is usually just disgustingly sexist, but now also abhorrently racist. Fun.
Is there a "3 strikes you're out!" rule for general ass-hattery?
By MrZip
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 1:31pm
If so, TWL long ago whiffed twice and must now be surviving on a long string of foul tips. Time for her to be ejected.
Re: Uh...
By Angel
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 1:29pm
Can you scale back the blatant racism just a bit?
Rent control
By "fitting"
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 2:10pm
Do it up!
Liz, if you need additional $$ for a down payment
By Friartuck
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 3:01pm
Diane Wilkerson probably has a few bills in her bra..
Don't forget her son
By Hardy Har Har
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 3:49pm
A judge on Monday sentenced Cornell Mills, a city employee and former Boston City Council candidate to probation after he pleaded guilty to posing as a real estate broker.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's office said Mills posed as a real estate broker and asked potential Boston homebuyers to hand over thousands of dollars.
Mills said he would hold the money in escrow while the purchase of the home was still pending, according to Healey's office. He did not have any escrow account.
He spent the money on airplane tickets and a cruise to Jamaica, authorities said.
Judge Elizabeth Fahey suspended a sentence of two and a half years in a house of correction and put Mills on three years of probation.
Mills, a 44-year-old Roxbury man, must pay back $36,651 in restitution and he can't work as a broker or manage funds.
He pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court last week to seven counts of larceny over $250, six counts of fiduciary embezzlement, one count of acting as a broker without a license and one count of being a "common and notorious thief."
Mills is a son of former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, a Democrat who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in 2010. She was released in 2013.
https://www.masslive.com/news/boston/2018/12/forme...
I am SO sad now
By capecoddah
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 3:33pm
At first I was thinking about the worlds smallest violin playing for Liz Miranda.
Then I thought about how Roxbury used to be a big Jewish place, which got me thinking about a Jew playing a regular sized violin.
Then I thought about the Italians and Irish who used to call Roxbury home.
And the American Indians of course.
Now I am envisioning this ragtag band of ethnic instrument players following Liz around constantly like the episode of MASH where the Korean refugees follow Major Winchester around playing Mozart's Clarinet Quintet then the refugees all get blowded up except one refugee who is left.... playing the song all alone.
Now I am wicked sad.
bubblish
By Jay
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 4:00pm
Not to burst anyone's bubble but....this looks like a serious housing/condo bubble. I don't think it's different this time, I think you would have to be crazy to buy now. Just my two cents.
About that bubble, well... potential bubble
By Robert Winters
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 7:53pm
A friend of mine who owns some real estate recently put all of his residential properties on the market because he believes the market has peaked - maybe not everywhere, but in general. I don't know if he's correct, but he's usually pretty analytical about these things and he's been generally right in the past. It's reminiscent of when people were buying up small apartment complexes 30 or so years ago and turning them into condos further and further out from downtown Boston and the demand to buy those flipped condos just dried up as did the financing. Then the banks started to get hit. These days there's supposedly a lot of money from around the world getting parked in our local real estate because it's seen as more stable than a lot of other investments. If values level off (and there are some indications that this is happening), of if they drop a little with some increases in the supply, I wonder if all that faraway money remains parked here or if some of it goes toward other investments.
Things may be different this time when the bubble bursts because, as we saw in the recession that started around 2008, the federal government could step in to keep home prices artificially high in order to prevent a flood of mortgage defaults. I'm not so sure that this would happen with the current administration, but maybe by the time a potential bubble burst happens we'll be on to a different administration. If so, perhaps they'l just socialize a large fraction of the housing and lots of people will be knocking on the door of government for their housing.
Time will tell re: Boston condo situation
By Jay
Sat, 04/06/2019 - 1:34am
Unfortunately we don’t have a crystal ball here. But I think slow and steady gains say 3-5% a year in real estate is best for many reasons. When assets appreciate resulting in 70-80% gains in 5 years give or take it turns into a boom and bust musical chairs game which isn’t great for community and generally doesn’t end well causing unneeded heartache and despair for folks if they get laid off etc. I have heard about the condo bust decades ago but wasn’t around for it as an adult. Please post more info about that era if you can. A lot of mid-30ish people I know started doing the “drive until you can afford to buy†thing starting a few years ago. Time will tell I guess. But splitting a 3-decker say in JP (which IS a great area)...but...dishing out 800k per unit or more and 1 mil plus for a so so 1BR condo in S.End w/ HOA, taxes, maintenance, insurance etc. seems a little insane to me even if your income supports it. I think single family homes in all of Greater Boston will be fine long term but condos...a little scary.
home if my dreams
By mary burns
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 5:42pm
I’ve lived in Hyde Park then Mission Hill for past 70 years and worked as a RN in Boston for 46 years, couldn’t afford a house when I was young, never inherited anything, and now too old to think about buying- and still don’t have enough for a big downpayment. All my money went to college educations for myself and child, and to church contributions. Now saving to buy my cemetery plot. Don’t complain about calls when you all own homes, even if they aren’t “dream homes†! I love my shabby rental because I just appreciate getting to live here. Not sure how long it will last, only been in my current neighborhood 45 years.
Don't blame the players,
By anon
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 6:03pm
Don't blame the players, blame the game.
Hello, Roxbury? Meet Somerville.
By Friartuck
Fri, 04/05/2019 - 8:44pm
Somerville, tell them how this story ends.
So fight to fix zoning
By jorf
Sat, 04/06/2019 - 12:01am
Or you have no cause to keep complaining.
Silly, Jeff
By Friartuck
Sat, 04/06/2019 - 8:50am
Liz is only an elected official, she can't be expected to be aware of such mechanisms...
Enough
By s8nlovesyou
Sat, 04/06/2019 - 9:34am
You asked for capitalism, you asked for "social mobility" -- this is it. Sorry it wasn't what you expected.
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