Introduction

Hello, I’m Will, and welcome to my blog.

I started this site after years of complaining about urbanism, architecture, real estate, and transportation in Boston. I wanted a better way to collect and communicate my thoughts, and hopefully start some constructive discussions.

Ultimately, I am advocating for policies that will make Boston a better city. More livable, fun, affordable, equitable, walkable, sustainable, beautiful… you get the idea.  I don’t think everyone will agree with all of my opinions but I believe my goals are unobjectionable. I live in Boston and I’m primarily focused on local challenges, but many other growing cities around the country are facing similar problems and this little fishing village serves as a great case study. I want to concentrate on what can be implemented more or less within our current political framework, so anything that requires a revolution is beyond the scope of this blog.

My professional background is as an Architect and I’ve worked on projects around Boston and the northeast. This obviously gives me building design and construction experience, as well as urban design and some planning knowledge. I also read a lot of books and may review some here. I have a fancy real estate degree from the technical school across the river, and I wrote my masters thesis on middle income housing in Boston. I’ll revisit this topic often. I have a decent finance background too, so I am a rare breed that understands design and economics. You’ll see both qualitative and quantitative analysis on this blog. I also do a lot of old fashioned, Jane Jacobs style empirical research, and then I relate it back to economic concepts. I want to dive into some relatively complicated stuff, but I’ll try to provide enough background so that any intellectually curious individual can follow along.

I generally identify as a progressive person and a YIMBY. I lean left socially but I care more about good ideas and effective strategies than what ideological bucket they may fall into. I also believe in economics and efficiently allocating resources. I think that the real estate market needs to be responsibly regulated but certainly not overregulated, since that can backfire. I also know that many people need help and I want to explore the best ways to help them. I don’t think we can build our way out of all our problems, but I favor responsible action over inaction. Boston has too many issues to continue with the status quo.

I chose to name this blog The City Upon a Hill because of the term’s historical significance for Boston, as used by John Winthrop, and for its more generic aspirations for building a better society. I should make it clear that this is a secular blog, and it also has no relation to the similarly named TV show or other publications. I hope to update it regularly, I’m sitting on a lot of material. Here we go!