Bravo to Mayor Michelle Wu and her team for thinking boldly about ways the city can get housing development unstuck. But her preferred solution – significant tax breaks – raises questions about the viability of high affordable housing mandates.
I applaud Mayor Michelle Wu for making Boston’s housing affordability crisis an early focus of her administration. Cambridge shows that a zoning overlay which boosts affordable housing development can produce more affordable units than inclusionary zoning.
IDP does not successfully address the more systemic, underlying issues of destabilized neighborhoods. But what it can do and has done is create needed affordable housing that would not otherwise be built.
