I saw an article quoting someone saying that Somerville doesn’t lack housing in general, it lacks only affordable housing. Regardless of the merits of that statement, what does it imply? That Somerville is done growing. I disagree, because how could that be? People want to live in Somerville, and we can’t prevent them from moving here.
Imagine that it’s 2040. The workers of a few well-positioned industries take home absurd amounts of compensation. These wages are used partially to fund Cava bowls and Amazon deliveries, but mostly to pay rent. The rent doesn’t even make money for landlords – it just covers interest payments, with the promise of profitability in years to come. There is an intractable homelessness crisis, unsolved despite billions poured into nonprofits. Attempts to build shelters are met with swift, coordinated resistance. Street corners are filled with the likes of Tatte, Starbucks and Citizens Bank. This is not only the Somerville of tomorrow – it’s the San Francisco of today.
As rents climb, so do the incomes of the fortunate. We are all liberal here, well, mostly, but after a few hundred grand, a switch flips. You start to think, “I deserve what I have. I earned it because I am better. I’m better than the guy who brings me DoorDash, the lady drawing my blood at the hospital and the guy shooting up in the park. I could never be like them.” As the old guard pays off 30-year 2 percent-interest-rate mortgages and dies out, these arrogant fortunates will replace them. Not the plucky artists, baristas, immigrants, creatives or the kind of people you think deserve to be here. It will be people who you will not recognize and who will not look you in the eye. This morning I was in Broadsheet and two men in Patagonia vests were discussing the AI startups they worked for. This stuff drives me insane. I just don’t want to hear about it. When an AI agent can make cocktails that cost less than $14 or fix my bike, come talk to me.
People need to realize that this is what we are signing up for. There is no law you can write that will prevent people from getting paid $500,000 a year to make agentic bidet services or AI-powered funeral homes, companies that will spend all their investors’ money and implode in three years. It’s happening already. Plugging our ears will not stop it.
I think annoying bike people such as us and annoying tech people like them can coexist, because we already do. Someone came up with a term for that dialectic – it’s Cambridge – and I assume a lot of these opposites end up pairing up and producing some stressed, overachieving children. But for this curious balance to continue, we must make places for everyone to do what they want. You should be able to walk to Chipotle if you want to. There should be dog parks for dog walkers and cat parks for cat walkers; condos for the rich, and industrial lofts for the young. I would prefer a future in which Somerville’s built environment looks nothing like it does today (albeit with thoughtful planning) than one in which it looks the same as today. Refusing to change doesn’t mean that we will preserve our way of life – far from it. It just means that the treadmill we’re on will accelerate.
Nicholas Marchuk is a local author and engineer. His work is available at major retailers and on his website, nicholasmarchuk.com. Comments and questions can be directed to his contact form and may be responded to in this publication.
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