Mike Leyba
Co-executive director, City Life Vida Urbana
Industry experience: 10 years
A group of community activists founded the Jamaica Plain Tenants Action Group in 1973 to prevent evictions and displacement. The organization, later renamed City Life Vida Urbana, stepped up its activities following the repeal of rent control in 1994 to pressure landlords into maintaining reasonable rents, help residents form tenants associations and partnering with Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp. on affordable housing production.
Mike Leyba joined the organization in 2012 and was named co-director in 2021, sharing leadership duties with Denise Matthews-Turner. This year, CLVU organized protests to call attention to displacement and rent increases at apartment properties in Chelsea, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan and Medford. In Malden, the group reached an agreement with landlord Mystic Valley Regional Charter School in May to negotiate collectively with the Maplewood Square Tenants Association after a high-profile organizing campaign.
Q: What portion of CLVU’s mission is related to real estate?
A: We are mostly known for our housing work. It’s not the only type of work we do. We are a community organizing group, but the issue that we tend to focus on in land and housing. These policy campaigns are needed interventions in what is a very difficult market for renters. We’re trying to think about how we get to the root problem around the fact that land is a finite resource. When you think about proximity to cities, there’s not a lot to do to make more of it. If we’re trying to prevent displacement, that means we actually own and have access to and use the land that’s in the neighborhoods.
Q: How is the Jamaica Plain real estate market being affected by the new development guidelines of the Boston Planning & Development Agency’s JP-Rox planning study?
A: I went to a new restaurant yesterday and was excited to go into the place, and I was really sad when I left. The food was good but a little pricey for my tastes. I was really lamenting that it was a totally different neighborhood than the Jamaica Plain I know. That’s what’s happening. I see a lot of change, and I see a lot of people who are struggling to stay housed, and I see a lot of corporate actors that are taking advantage of that and moving people out in favor of higher-paying tenants. You can’t think that’s happening without connecting it somehow to the JP-Rox plan, which was a pretty radical shift in density and development just along Washington Street. I drive down Washington Street every day to work and it’s just even just thinking about during the pandemic it’s almost recognizable and that’s the challenge.
Q: How does the organization select its public campaigns?
A: There are many campaigns that are mostly building-based, and sometimes there are multiple buildings. We recently did an action outside of a property at Hyde Park Avenue. The tenants feel their landlords are harassing them and as a result of that, we’re hopeful it will open up some conversations that will end up with everybody in a happy place. We’ve done some marches in East Boston. There are a lot of corporate landlord campaigns that we mobilize around and in defense of our neighbors.
We’re not trying to pick fights for no reason. We’re doing it because they’re trying to bully and intimidate people. In Malden, the school next door purchased a property and took steps to displace everybody, and the tenants really fought for their best interest and weren’t intimidated out. We spent months of work on that, with vigils and publicity campaigns and working with the city and other nonprofit organizations, and we were able to come up with a resolution that makes everybody happy.
It was a multi-year lease with a modest rent increase, which is exactly what the tenants wanted. They’re not asking for outlandish things. They’re not saying, “Sign over the deed of the property.” They’re saying, “You’re not going to gouge us on the rent as we look for a new place.”
Q: Have you noticed any benefits to tenants from Boston’s new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing zoning yet?
A: I actually don’t know the answer to that. I’ve tracked it, but the ramifications of having passed that legislation are still a little unclear to me as it relates to new development. It’s hard to talk about that without talking about the BPDA’s inherent conflicts. In any other business, there would be a conflict of interest in what the BPDA does trying to account for the common good and neighborhood-based planning. That’s a good thing, but they’re also accepting developers’ fees to get a project through the process. That incentivizes ramming through a building that may not be in the community’s best interest. It is difficult to navigate, given all the contradictions within the BPDA.
Q: What has the election of Mayor Michelle Wu meant for CLVU’s agenda?
A: Mayor Wu ran on a very progressive housing policy platform, which many organizations over the years popularized. CLVU and all of our partners have been pushing a lot of the things that Wu ran on [like rent stabilization]. With a commanding margin in winning, you think this is a great having somebody with a similar vision now having a mandate. Now our focus is on making sure we’re taking advantage of the mandate. There’s been four or five years of State House hearings and city hearings, and now we have a pro-rent-control mayor. Even in the polling, 70 percent of Bostonians support rental control. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of how. There are strong opinions on both sides. I hope that it will land somewhere that gives us some strong rent stabilization policies.
Leyba’s Five Favorite Mexican Restaurants in Boston
- La Taqueria (Hyde Park, Dedham)
- Taquería Jalisco (East Boston)
- Tenóch Mexican (Somerville)
- El Pelón Taqueria (Fenway)
- Herrera’s Mexican Grill (Downtown)
