Huge. From the Herald:
Ayanna Pressley is launching a challenge to long-time incumbent Democratic Congressman Michael Capuano, launching what could be one of the state’s most competitive — and closely watched — primaries this election cycle.
“Today I humbly announce my candidacy for the Democratic nomination in the 7th Congressional District,” Pressley said in a statement. “This district and these times demand more than an ally, they demand an advocate and a champion.”
Please share widely!
Ego bloat.
Ego bloat.
Ego bloat.
Adios Ayanna, since this will mark the moment you decided to make your career and ego more important than progress in a year when resources will be stretched thin.
She’s great. I hope she wins. I hope it’s not too ugly.
And I like Capuano, but she would be better.
Surprised. I heard a rumor she was gunning for the Dorcena-Forrest Senate seat instead. This is certainly a better fit for her. A strong argument could be made that the district deserves someone from one of the more marginalized parts of it to represent it in Washington. It would’ve been a slam dunk to vote against Nadeem Mazen had he stayed in this race, Pressley will leave us with two strong choices. A solid record of progressive achievement or a bolder future of progressive potential?
I have tried to find any policy achievements in her work. Can you name a few and am genuinely curious. But I am always dubious when when somebody starts their announcement to run for Congress with the phrase “I humbly announce…” since there is nothing humble about announcing a Congressional candidacy against a progressive incumbent. I assume she is a fine City Councillor but I could find no policy achievements in her work history.
Alas, this race represents $1 million in progressive campaign donations that will not be spent on places where the left might make, to coin a phrase, progress..
TBD — These are really terrible, offensive arguments. She has every right to run. Period.
Resources? You really think the million (nice job picking a number out of thin air, by the way) is going to go to other districts? How much are you personally planning to donate to other Congressional districts?
If you support Capuano, that’s fine, but don’t say she shouldn’t run because a democratic primary is going to damage progressive politics. That is sophistry of the worst order.,
I think this is a different primary than other ones we’ve been looking at . Leland Cheung was running explicitly as the pro-charter candidate against an anti-charter leader in the State Senate. Mac D’Allesandro was running as the pro-Obamacare candidate and pro-choice candidate against the (then) anti-Obamacare and (then) anti-choice incumbent Stephen Lynch. This primary race against Keating seems to be focused on defense, foreign policy, and criminal justice issues with the primary challenger (fairly or not) taking positions perceived to be to the left of Keating.
How do you get to the left of Mike Capuano? He is a lifetime 100% pro choice rating, a lifetime 100% HRC rating, a lifetime 100% AFL CIO rating, a 100% ACLU rating, and a 96% League of Conservation Voters Ranking. A 0% rating from the Club for Growth.
(Those rankings here:
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/michael_capuano/400063)
He has voted with the Trump administration 12% of the time and against it 88% of the time, one of the highest such ratings in the entire House.
(https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/michael-e-capuano/)
The Chelsea Collaborative, a Latino organization I worked with in Chelsea, listed him as one of their best allies on their tenant eviction, check kiting, and ICE campaigns. He was also an early and consistent anti-war leader during a time when such a position was politically unpopular, certainly with his blue collar Somerville base that elected him in 1998.
I am simply at a loss for how one can primary Capuano from the left on any substantive policy issue. Essentially the primary argument Pressley will have to make is that a minority-majority and majority woman district should be represented by a woman of color. I actually think this is a compelling argument. Another argument she could make is that he has largely been a behind the scenes player, a bit of a backbencher, and someone who is not as visible as he could be in the district. I am not agreeing or disagreeing with that argument, but it is one she can make. I know he spoke at my school last year and is quite visible for town halls throughout the district, but I am not sure if people in Randolph, Brockton, Milton, or Mattapan feel the same way as the people in Cambridge and Somerville.
So ultimately it will be up to the voters in the district. I think Capuano has a great record of service. I think Pressley could be a historic leader for the Commonwealth. It will be a tough call for me to make in November. I hope to meet and talk with them both, and hope they can both come back to my school to meet with my students.
I’m not criticizing Capuano. He’s a great Congressman, maybe the best in our delegation. He’d be a great Senator.
But bottom line, primaries are healthy. These seats should be competitive.
Oh absolutely. I think this is what democracy should be about-two great candidates having a fair fight on behalf of the people. I’d take that over an h contested primary.
I think she laid it out by saying we need an advocate and champion not just an ally.
He almost always votes the right way, but I don’t think many focusing on LGBTQ issues, choice, race issues, or gender concerns look to him as a true leader. Pressley is.
Acknowledging that he’s good but that we can do better is a tough climb.
I am not sure why you think my comments are terrible and offensive. I genuinely want to know what policy wins she has achieved in her tenure on the City Council. Admittedly it is not a place with much power but there should be some record. It seems like it should be easy to note them.
She says she is “humbly” running for Congress. THERE IS NOTHING HUMBLE ABOUT ANY PERSON SAYING THEY WANT TO BE ONE OF THE RULERS OF THE NATION. Of course she has a right to run. It is in the Constitution. And I have a right to question her, also found in the Constitution. Sophistry??? BS.
As to my campaign contributions this year, I have donated to Randy Bryce, the Iron Stache running against Paul Ryan; Beto O’Rourke running against Ted Cruz, Tammy Duckworth, and Amy McGrath in KY http://womenyoushouldknow.net/retired-fighter-pilot-amy-mcgrath-announces-congress-kentucky/
Will I donate to either Capuano (no, he has easy access to big money) or Pressley (I don’t piss away money on vanity campaigns) No. And your comment questioning my one million dollar figure is real sophistry. Look at the campaign finance numbers from the past decade in MA. Capuano spent almost $700,000 in an uncontested election in 2016 and has $800,000 on hand now.
Grassroots activism is hard enough in the summer of a non-Presidential year and even worse this year with the re-scheduling of the primary election. If I donate to any candidate in an MA primary, it will be to the State Senate candidate to replace Dorcena Forry.
Your first comment is completely offensive. Pressley topped the ticket for Boston City Council twice. But it’s “ego bloat” for her to run for Congress? He “vanity” campaign is “more important than progress”? Since when does progress depend on uncontested races?
Of course she has every right to run.
And those of us who are grateful to have Capuano in our delegation have every right to wish that she’d run for a different seat, so that we don’t feel like we’re going to lose overall, as a commonwealth and a nation, no matter how this comes out.
James, you have to consider the political demographics of the First Suffolk District.
Senator Forry – to her credit and her husband’s – operated as a Dorchester unity politician, not a black politician per se.. However she always embraced her Haitian heritage.
Ayanna Pressley simply isn’t part of the organizational structure within the District.
Furthermore, the ex-Senator was the alpha-politician of the entire southern tier of the City, West Roxbury excepted. In addition Senator Forry was the go-to person (often the only legislative option) for black activists outside her District.
The black vote in Dorchester, Hyde Park, and Mattapan tends to be either English-speaking Caribbean or Haitian, which is not automatically transferable to an African-American candidate (particularly in the context of Senator Forry’s pre-existing relationship with Representative Dan Cullinaine,- a probable candidate for the seat and her political director prior to his own election within a majority-black District).
Councillor Pressley would have an uphill fight – at best – in First Suffolk.
Correction: Dan Cullinaine was Dorcena-Forry’s field director.
Great analysis Paul. I do think her pedigree made her the perfect candidate to replace Lynch when he retired. It’s too bad she’s cashing in her chips.
BTW, Conway, Nadeem Mazem was briefly running in a different Congressional district, one in which he was not even a resident http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/1/30/nadeem-mazen-withdraws-race/
Mazen had transferred his candidacy to CD 3, but last week withdrew from that as well, I believe citing health concerns. That leaves a field of 12 and there are a couple of others whom I question sticking with it through the signature process.
The resources argument is a compelling one. Not only would this rave be taking them away from swing districts, but also from other candidates of color competing for open seats across the country. There is also the fact that it’s pretty hard to get to the left of Mike Capuano on a given issue and his long track record.
It’s definitely good to see competition and one could also argue the representative should look like the majority of the district. The MA-7 has been majority non-white for quite sometime. It’ll certainly improve Boston turnout for the gubernatorial primary which we can be thankful for.
One might plausibly argue that a campaign that increases minority voter turnout is valuable but not in this case, a September primary in MA where the real GOTV effort is going to be driven by the State Senate campaign. If the minority turnout was bumped in November it might be different, pressure against Gov Baker. The Pressley candidacy is on the wrong part of the election cycle, the primary, a campaign that is likely to be just another vanity career boost.
Again, if anybody can point to a policy victory by Pressley I would be glad to reconsider.
Um… a point of order, Mr Chairman…. ?
Does anybody know if Capuano is actually running for re-election?
My favored scenario: Capuano announces he’s not running for Congress, but against Baker… You heard it hear first (and probably last, what do I know…)
There’s probably going to be an answer on this point this afternoon. Capuano and Pressley will both be on Radio Boston at 3. Separate interviews, not a debate.
Pretty sure he has announced for re-election and already noting the endorsements he has received for that effort.
That was a great and substantive interview. This will be a very tough choice, but a far more compelling one than no choice at all.
It won’t be a tough choice — at all — for this Somerville resident.
Mike Capuano has been and will continue to be a great Representative. He actually knows something about Somerville and its residents, since he was a very successful mayor here.
Ms. Pressley offers nothing comparable. It appears to me that Ms. Pressley brings three things to this campaign:
1. Her gender
2. Her race
3. Her inexperience
Ms. Pressley, and apparently you, suggest that I should dismiss Mr. Capuano’s superb record and readily enumerated strengths based on these?
Sorry, no sale.
You clearly know absolutely nothing about Ayanna Pressley or the issues she has led on. This is a bad comment, even from you.
Here is what’s on this thread:
I invite you or anyone else to cite substantive issues where Ms. Pressley stakes out a better position than Mr. Capuano.
You seem to know nothing about Somerville or me.
And … frankly … this kind of content-free response is why I’ve chosen to avoid commenting here.
He has done a great job for Somerville, but has he done a great job for the 70% of Boston he represents? For Brockton or Randolph? Part the case she will be making is that he has not. Part of the case she will be making is that the 60% of the district that isn’t white, the 55% of the district that isn’t male, and the 80% of the district that doesn’t live in Somerville or Cambridge should have someone who lives where they live, looks like them, and identifies as they do. I am not taking a stance on that debate (yet), but it is definitely a debate worth having and a debate we would not be having if she didn’t run.
I think that Capuano does a fine job for the entirety of the CD, and the Commonwealth. I did not hear any complaints coming out of Roxbury and Hyde park when he warned in 2017 the MBTA that consideration of expanded rail service to Foxboro should not be at the expense of Roxbury and Hyde Park service on the Fairmount Line, and then stepped up with $53,000 from his campaign account to pay for two weeks of free service for Fairmount riders. It was creative, it squeezed the MBTA, and yeah there will probably be people who kvetch that it wasn’t his personal money so it doesn’t count, but I have never seen another pol do anything comparable.
Capuano can be abrasive and a pain in the ass but I can live with that. The notion that he is a backbencher and works behind the scenes strikes me as entirely wrong in judging him. The real work in politics is almost always done behind the scenes. I don’t like politicians who think that government is by press release and getting on TV. It worked for Capuano on the Fairmount issue, but mostly you make change by corralling votes, counting noses and persuading. Sometimes you can do that publicly but mostly policy is made out of the public view by people who know how to pull the right levers.
I will always take a work horse over a show horse. And unlike many people who write on BMG, I don’t believe that every race should be contested. All resources are finite in both nature and human enterprises and I would prefer that they be saved for races that are plausible and draw sharp distinctions, not about somebody saying “it is my turn.”
I fundamentally reject the premise that people must be represented only by those who share such things as race or gender.
Tom, you reduced her to just her race and gender, which is disgusting. If you’re going to come back and drop garbage like that, people here will respond to it. It’s also particularly ironic from you as someone who used to regularly call those who criticized Clinton as sexists.
You want substantive issues on which she is better.
1. Choice
2. Urban education
3. Every issue impacting minorities in Boston.
Making those things a priority is different than voting the right way when things come up. For example, that’s why Warren is a stronger Senator than Markey, even though their voting record is about 99% the same.
Doubleman, JimC, TBD, and Tom need to cut it with the racist and sexist accusations. It is neither racist nor sexist to argue that a black woman would make a better for a minority majority female majority district nor is it racist or sexist to argue the white incumbent is doing a good job by those same groups.
“You want substantive issues on which she is better.
1. Choice
2. Urban education
3. Every issue impacting minorities in Boston.”
HOW? He has a 100% pro choice rating, a 100% MTA rating, and a 100% ACLU and NAACP rating. How do you get better than that? There may be an answer-but it has to be a specific one beyond she is black and he is white therefore she is better than he on those issues.
Jim Cohen, the white progressive who replaced Harold Ford is substantially better than Harold Ford who was a black DINO for most of his career.
So let’s see them debate and pick the best candidate for the job.
I have made no reference to either Pressley’s race or gender, so this would be an excellent time and place for you to apologize for smearing me with your accusation of racism and sexism. You probably owe an apology to some of the other you similarly accused.
Say what? I made no such accusation. I said Tom “reduced” her with his reductive comment. I didn’t call him or anyone else racist.
How do you get better than a 100% rating? Easy.
Stephen Lynch has a 100% NARAL rating in recent years. Is he a champion for choice? Those ratings tell so little of any story.
On reproductive issues she has led changes in Boston public schools and citywide public health initiatives. These were spearheaded and won with her as the leader.
Capuano votes the right way, but on some things he is definitely not the one out front. He has led on other issues, I am not disputing that, but on some things he has been an ally not a champion. That may be good enough for many and on many issues, but these are where there can be real differences even if the voting record looks largely the same.
There is a difference between being good on an issue and being a champion on it. Again, let’s look at Markey and Warren. They vote the same way on consumer protection bills. Who’s better on consumer protection, though?
Another thing a 100% rating doesn’t tell you. Katherine Clark is very close with reproductive rights leaders in MA, and I heard that she spent the day of the inauguration at Planned Parenthood talking with staff. That is a real difference.
It’s the difference between someone already being there out front and needing to call them to let them know and having them say they’ll back you.
As far as your other comment, it actually is quite something to say that the only thing a challenger is offering is BEING a black woman, which is exactly what STom said.
When did I say this?
As far as your other comment, it actually is quite something to say that the only thing a challenger is offering is BEING a black woman, which is exactly what STom said.
I NEVER said this. I said she is a strong advocate for the communities of color in Boston based on her record as a city councilor. Not because of her identity. Please do not put words in my mouth, especially when I am an undecided voter weighing my options between two candidates I respect. That is hardly the way to win allies for the candidate you champion.
Moving past that, I appreciate your substantive comments before and the question of her being a youth advocate. My mentor teacher is voting for her because she took great care in meeting with last year’s class when they were testifying in favor of body cameras. Her and Campbell were the only councilors to attend that hearing, and Pressley took the time to walk the students through the process and meet with them afterward to debrief. My mentor teacher is also a Dorcehster resident who has said that she is the go to Councilor to call and that she will show up to everything.
Capuano also showed up at my school last year and engaged with my students. So I am impressed with both of them and this will be a tough choice for me. Do I reward the record or the potential? It’s actually a hard and good choice we are blessed to be making here. i really don’t see the need for the rancor, the two candidates themselves took great pains to praise one another while highlighting their differences on Radio Boston.
@jconway
On your first comment, you said that we need to cool it on racist and sexist accusations. I think Tom needs to apologize or walk back what he said because he said that the only thing she’s offering is being a black woman, and I think the meaning of that is clear.
I was responding to his words and your call to cool it. I did not intend to ascribe that to you in any way. It’s a gross thing for Tom to say and I think he should own up to what the clear reading of those words are or provide an explanation.
I made no racist or sexist accusations.
I live in Somerville, I vote in this district, and Mr. Capuano is doing an excellent job of representing me. If Ms. Pressley (or any other candidate) is able to do better than Mr. Capuano in a primary campaign, that’s great. I certainly hope that such success will involve more substance than what I’ve seen here.
The onus is on those who think Ms. Pressley is competitive with Mr. Capuano to make their case. None of you has done that yet.
One of you enumerates three bullet points (“Choice”, “Urban education”, “Every issue impacting minorities in Boston”. The other, after accusing me of being racist and sexist, agrees with me that Mr. Capuano is as good as it gets on those.
It is you, the proponents, who argue that Ms. Pressley is attractive because “60% of the district that isn’t white, the 55% of the district that isn’t male”.
Ms. Clinton NEVER argued that any of us should have supported her because she was female. To a fault, she instead forcefully articulated issues and pursued aggressive and specific proposals to address them.
I ask for how she is better than what I have, and the response is:
1. She’s not
2. She’s black and female.
That is not persuasive.
I think a debate is great. I’ve said nothing to the contrary. I have no problem with Ms. Pressley tossing her hat into the ring.
Ms. Pressley is not — to me, today — even remotely competitive. That’s neither racist nor sexist.
A good friend of mine who’s a Dorchester resident said Pressley was the most impressive and hardworking person she met. So did David at our first BMG Stammitsch.
I like them both. I think they both bring substance to the table and the debate will iron their differences out.
I have no doubt that Ms. Pressley is impressive and hardworking. I join you in welcoming upcoming debates between them.
A classic journalistic dictum is “show me, don’t tell me”.
I’m looking for the proponents of Ms. Pressley to show me that she will better represent me and my district than Mr. Capuano. That’s my “ask”.
I listened to both of them on WBUR yesterday. Ayanna’s best line was “This is so much bigger than Mike Capuano.”
Despite my headline, she’s not running against him. She’s running FOR the seat. We would all be thrilled if she took on a Congressman we liked less. It seems to be we should be happy that there’s competition.
Welcome back Tom. Do look further into Ayanna Pressley before you reduce her to her race and her gender.
Typo: “seems to me.”
Thanks for the kind words.
It is the job of Ms. Pressley to introduce herself to me. It is her proponents here who are, so far, emphasizing her race and her gender.
I have invited and welcome more substantive material.
Re: “This is so much bigger than Mike Capuano.”
Not to me, as a Somerville resident. Right now I have a great representative.
In fact, she IS running against him. There is only one seat up for election in this district. There is no way that both Ms. Pressley and Mr. Capuano can both serve.
I didn’t draw the district boundaries. I get to vote in exactly one CD, and these are the two candidates in the primary. I will vote for one of them (almost surely Mr. Capuano). Ms. Pressley did not ask my opinion about whether or not to run nor did she ask me which incumbent she should run against.
I, therefore, see this as a straightforward choice. I will listen to her, I will watch the debates, and I’ll listen to her proponents.
I am swayed by arguments that have substance. The incumbent has always made those arguments, persuasively (I doubt that Scott Brown would have defeated Mike Capuano in that shameful special election loss).
I agree. What part of “this is so much bigger than Capuano” is so impressive of a statement? To me it sounds like she knows there is no real difference, but she still wants to be in congress and he is in the way.
While obviously a multi-term incumbent has the better claim on experience, she is not entirely inexperienced. In fact, she has been on the Hill as part of Senator Kerry’s staff in the 1990s, which is the context in which we first met when I interned for Kerry.
Urban education? Nobody has a better record than Capuano. He is a powerful advocate for public education, and has a solid understanding of the issues faced in urban school districts. His passion is aligned with his moral advocacy for supporting public schools and opposing privatization schemes and phony “Democratic” reformers.
I am lucky to be in Katherine Clark’s district, who shares Capuano’s positive attributes. They are both feisty, passionate, effective members of congress. We have to support our best people, and while I like Ayanna, I also hope her primary challenge doesn’t get off the ground.
He’s good on education, I don’t dispute that. She has demonstrated leadership and a deep passion in a way that I do not believe Capuano has, on difficult issues like trauma faced by students, school discipline, and the experience of pregnant students and young mothers.
When has she backed privatization or phony ed reform? I think you are arguing with a strawman there Pablo, she was on the right side of Question 2, as early as 2015.
(https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/31/councilweb/YpsbOJJMmMxnAqYUxyF7pM/story.html)
Again, I see a lot of people jumping into camps without hearing what either candidate has to say. It’s not a good look for BMG.
On one hand, as good as Capuano is, Congress is awful. Could Pressley make Congress better? On the other hand, it’s hard to put the phrases “effective legislator “and “Boston City Councilor” in the same sentence, unless you really like irony.
A lot might hinge on whether we get the majority back or not. On the one hand, Capuano would have seniority, on the other hand, he sided against Pelosi and is likely going to be relegated to the backbench because of it. So that’s an issue he will have to point too during these debates. Either his seniority is an asset or his relationship with Pelosi is a liability. If we end up staying in the minority, we have way bigger problems with our party and the progressive movement than this primary.
Please re-read my words. I’ll repeat them here for convenience:
I did not say that my three bullets “[are] the only thing she’s offering.
I said, perhaps unclearly, what I perceive the message of her campaign and proponents to be so far. In all the exchanges in this thread, nobody has yet identified specific and substantive areas where Ms. Pressley is superior to Mr. Capuano.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and if she wants my attention then the onus is on Ms. Pressley and her proponents to fill that vacuum with whatever message the campaign wants me to take away. I don’t see anything substantive yet.
There were three slogans offered … “1. Choice 2. Urban education 3. Every issue impacting minorities in Boston.”
My perception is that Mike Capuano has been fighting for “choice” his entire career. If I’m mistaken about that, please let me know. The implied comparison to Mr. Lynch is an insult to Mike Capuano.
Pablo has already demolished the “Urban education” bullet. His comments are completely in line with my experience as a parent of a Somerville High School graduate (certainly an urban high school). Mike Capuano is well-loved as a representative and was well-loved as a mayor because he has done so much for urban public education.
After all this commentary, I don’t see any specific issues — especially around “Every issue impacting minorities in Boston” where Ms. Pressley is a better choice than Mr. Capuano.
If there are issues, positions, stances, votes, proposals, and so on offered by Ms. Pressley that are preferable to those offered by Mr. Capuano, then those are what I want to see and hear. That hasn’t happened yet.
We’ll have a chance to see them in the debate, which I’ve already said several times that I welcome.
I see nothing to apologize for or walk back. If my initial comment was unclear, then perhaps this helps.
I love Somerville and would love to be able to afford to live there. The reality is, it’s become a much more affluent community in the two decades since it’s Mayor became it’s representative in a Washington.
A SPS middle school teacher with 15 years experience remarked at a PD we both attended that her class went from a mix of blue collar white, blue collar black, and Hispanic to largely being the children of white or Asian young urban professionals with the diversity coming from Hispanic and Brazilian immigrants whose families face immense housing insecurity.
She loses many from that group of students every year to Malden or Everett while more of the affluent demographic increases. As a Cambridge native who grew up outside Davis, it pains me to see both communities become richer and whiter as gentrification takes its toll. This will inevitably change the demographics of the schools and the community at large.
Gentrification and housing security are issues Pressley has put front and center in her council career that Mike Capuano simply isn’t leading on. That’s one policy area where they will have differences. To the extent this primary, even if she doesn’t win, puts that issue front and center it’s a worthwhile challenge.
There is also something to be said for the 70% is the district residents who live in Boston and the 80% who don’t live in Cambridge or Somerville.
Are their needs being met? Are their concerns getting heard? Do their communities feel represented?
I don’t know the answer to that, but I am glad this primary will force these questions out in the open. The district is the most diverse in our state. It’s also the most segregated and the most stratified by income. I think those issues sometimes get neglected when we view politics through the national binary of liberal vs. conservative. I think an intraprogressive conversation has to happen regarding the intersection of class and race and the role both play in our local economy. I’m glad it will happen.
Essentially double mans rebuttals to my voting record argument have merit. I think this goes beyond voting records to what kind of community do we want the district to be in the next 20 years. I think the candidates could have very different viewpoints on that. This race is going to be an embarrassment of riches for progressives and I hope we keep it civil and stay excited.
The issues of gentrification, housing security, public transportation, and racism are inextricably bound together.
I have a prediction: When black and Hispanic voters are finally full participants in our economy, so that they are home-owners in districts like this, we will hear a much different story about gentrification.
The rising cost of housing is primarily an issue for those who do not have it. I’m not minimizing the issue. I’m saying instead that I think the issue here is focused around wealth and income disparity — and the de facto discrimination that currently comes along with that.
The economics of the run-away rents in Somerville are inescapable, easy to understand, and difficult or impossible to change without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
The neighborhoods of Somerville where people want to live are densely built out with two- and three-family wood-frame homes built a century ago. Working class families have lived in these homes for as long as they’ve existed — they were built by workers for workers.
You cannot buy by a habitable wood-frame two-family in Somerville today for much under a million. Anything within a reasonable walking distance of public transportation is more likely to be more than that.
So anybody who needs a mortgage to buy one of these is going to be looking at monthly payment of $4,000 to $5,000 (mortgage, insurance, property taxes). Any building of this age is going to require maintenance. Many of them are heated by oil- or gas-fired steam radiators. Many do not have insulation. A home owner is therefore going to spend at least another $1,000 a month on renovation or repair costs.
The typical two-family like this is 2 BR up and 2 BR down. In order to break even (never mind earn even a small profit), the rent for that 2BR apartment has to be $2,500-$3,000 per month.
As housing prices climb, all these numbers will climb. This is all good news for those who own the properties, and terrible news for those who do not. Sadly, I see no way to avoid this — this is the reality of what a free-market housing economy means.
I am perhaps overly cynical. My sense is that if the black and Hispanic communities were full participants, as home owners, in this market then they would celebrate the increase in their prosperity rather than (rightly) object to the constantly-rising rents.
Somerville, in particular, is a success story. There are winners and losers in every success story. The losers are all too often (in fact, almost always) blacks, minorities, and women. We need to fix that. We do not fix that by making success stories impossible.
Somerville was a struggling, diverse working-class community that somehow made wise and forward looking choices about public transportation, public education, and a host of related issues. Mike Capuano was a key player in those choices and the resulting success.
If Ms. Pressley achieves long-term success, then there will be winners and losers in her successes as well. Surely we do not intend to suggest that Ms. Pressley should be attacked by those losers because of her successes. Surely we do not intend to suggest that we should block or derail her proposals because those successes will create losers as well as winners.
We should similarly not do the same to Mr. Capuano or to Somerville.
I am very glad that Ms. Pressley is on our team. I think she has chosen the wrong race.