iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

As we speak, I’m wearing shoes that are too small (they were on sale!)

All of this is a long way of saying that you need to maximize the value of your land if you want to keep your library open.

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Marblehead has held 20 override votes in that time.

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Incidentally, in 40-something years, Hudson has only held four Prop 2.5 override votes. This means that their annual tax receipts have more or less covered their budget consistently over the years.

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Towns are generally not creating more land, so getting the most out of what they have on a value-per-acre basis is critical to maintain a level of public services that residents deserve.

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A duplex on the same parcel generates two rents. A three-decker generates three rents. You can see where I’m going here. Each of those multifamily rents may be smaller than the one single family rent, but in aggregate they start to add up.

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Land is valued by how intensely it’s used, because it reflects how much economic activity it produces. A single family house generates one rent. It may be imputed rent if the owner lives there, and it may be a big rent if the house and parcel are huge, but it’s one rent nonetheless.

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A few reasons. Hudson has more industrial land, which can be taxed more than residential land. Another huge reason is that only 54% of Hudson’s housing units are in single family detached structures, compared to 77% in Marblehead.

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The land in Hudson, which represents the potential for revenue for the town, is assessed at more than a billion dollars more than the land in Marblehead: $4.6B to $3.5B. Why is that?

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You could argue that Hudson, which is similar in population to Marblehead, has a better claim to affluence as a town than Marblehead, even though its median household income is almost $80,000 less.

Cities and towns are raising most of their funds through property tax. In a very important way, it doesn’t make a difference how many wealthy people live in your town, because your town’s income is a function of the value of land, not the income of residents.

Local finance works differently than state and federal finance. Affluent individuals contribute a percentage of their income to the state and feds via income tax. In that way, we’re a wealthy commonwealth and nation because we collect a lot of tax from wealthy people.

But as the Globe article makes clear, Marblehead doesn’t have an abundance of riches. They’re talking about shutting down their library and multiple town departments!

Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 16/03/2026

If affluent means “having an abundance of goods and riches” (per @merriam-webster.com), then you can say that a lot of affluent people live in Marblehead (2024 median household income $182,132).

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Reposted by timmy

“While she once unapologetically championed bike and bus lanes and other street safety improvements, [Mayor Wu] has since substantially slowed, or entirely stalled progress on many, by requiring her personal approval on most transit and road safety projects...” www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/15/m...

bostonglobe.com

Delayed projects, low morale: Boston’s streets department is stalling under Wu, long a transit champion - The Boston Globe

Advocates and city staff say the policy change has caused an epic bottleneck, stalling the majority of Boston’s transit and street safety projects for the past year.

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Roman “Mark” Ant(h)ony says the pop-ups that men hit live after them. The dingers are oft interred with their bones.

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On the Ides of March, no less

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Posted this without even knowing about Judge striking out in a key at-bat.

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

The feeling that Americans have about the USA baseball team is what it’s like to be a Yankees fan.

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If my political opponent made an issue the main plank of his policy platform and subsequently didn’t even make it to Election Day, I would consider that to be an overwhelming mandate to put the pedal to the metal on that issue in my second term. Not so in Boston! www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/15/m...

bostonglobe.com

As pressure mounted on transit plans, Wu imposed a new policy: nearly all streets projects must go through her - The Boston Globe

Advocates and city staff say the policy change has caused an epic bottleneck, stalling the majority of Boston’s transit and street safety projects for the past year.

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

You can heat your house with a pile of mulch! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost...

en.wikipedia.org

Compost heater - Wikipedia

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Going through my camera roll and found some documentary evidence that I’ve never messed around when running a public meeting

Screenshot of a Twitter post quoting me as saying “We live in a world where people want to be able to park, but never want to sit in traffic. That world doesn’t exist”

Probably not a huge deal for The Big City, but still. FIFA sucks.

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I have a friend trying to arrange this in one of Boston’s suburbs, and FIFA’s licensing fees are scandalously high.

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

My understanding is that Section 901 would also apply to build-to-rent townhouses, which could affect infill development in suburbs.

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My folks used our late 80s giant National Geographic atlas to wallpaper the powder room off their kitchen. So now whenever I use the bathroom I’m contemplating the borders of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic b

timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

My kid knows that all that rabbit poop is good fertilizer for the lawn and garden, to the point that he thanks the rabbits.

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Notably, and correctly, pizza is not on this list.

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

What’s the controversy? That it’s too short?

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

A big part of growing up is accepting that Mothra was the best of the Godzilla monsters

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

I’m sure Donald Trump’s Department of Transportation will get right on this.

timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Gonna be Wokewood when we’re done with it

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

An interesting wrinkle here is that the draft 3A guidelines included a category for Bus Communities, with an obligation to zone for 20% of their existing housing capacity. That aspect was removed from the final guidelines, but Lexington was initially on the hook to zone for 2,462 units.

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

One was a WWII vet who worked in a Singer sewing machine factory. The other was a Navy deep sea diver from a family of northeast Pennsylvania coal miners.

timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

A Piebald tshirt would have really put this over the top

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

I recommend everyone visit the Post Office on tax day at least once. It’s incredible. Truly a crucible of humanity.

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timmy @timczerwienski.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

I watched the way his wrist flicked maybe six times. If my hand did that I wouldn’t be able to hold a pen for a month