Thank you to David Mickley for his 1/9/24 Letter to the Editor, criticizing Greg Vasil’s Boston Globe editorial (Massachusetts can make housing more affordable, 12/27/23). Vasil called the Newton zoning law “watered down” and claimed that suburban voters fear that “apartment buildings and dwellers will change their neighborhood’s character and depress property values.” This was a not-so-subtle NIMBY dig which grossly mis-characterized the objections Newton residents had about rezoning. Traffic, school overcrowding, lack of green space, and infrastructure problems are not secret codes to mask racism or snobbery, but real-life concerns, especially since Newton has already approved two massive developments at Riverside and Northland. Yes, we need more housing and diversity in the ‘burbs. But high-rise apartments and crowded living will not provide desirable homes for low- and middle-class families. We need new thinking and solutions, not the same old blame game that gets us exactly nowhere.
Cyrisse Jaffee
Newton Lower Falls