Chris Gittins

@[email protected]
9 Followers
38 Following
69 Posts

Father, husband, dog companion, former quantum mechanic, scientist, gardener. Particularly interested in climate change, transition to renewable and carbon-free energy, housing, planning. #CleanEnergy #energytransition #renewableenergy #electrifyeverything

Elected member of the Bedford, MA Planning Board. Posts are my own. They do not reflect the views of the Board, my employer or anyone else.

Sporadic posts at http://www.robustanalysis.net/

Chris GittinsOct 5, 2023
Dan KennedyOct 5, 2023
Why are our local media united in referring to the #MaPoli tax cuts as "tax relief"? It's an unnecessary package, mainly skewed toward the rich, that will offset the ballot question we just passed to try to meet some real needs in schools, transportation and social services.
Chris GittinsMar 14, 2023

"We now have this extraordinary scenario of bailing out the entire deposit base of the United States in one shot. The banking system has been utterly transformed overnight to prevent a threat that should have been easily avoided with basic risk management among SVB and its customers. In effect, depositors at SVB got all the upside of banking there, paying nothing extra to lighten the risk of failure, and none of the downside. Privatized profits, socialized risks."

https://prospect.org/economy/2023-03-13-silicon-valley-bank-bailout-deregulation/

The Silicon Valley Bank Bailout Didn’t Need to Happen

The debate over protecting all deposits in a blink looks past the incompetence that got us here.

The American Prospect
Chris GittinsMar 14, 2023

"Nationwide, SVB has lent more than $2.7 billion and made $1.3 billion of investments for new construction or rehabilitation of affordable housing, according to the bank."

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/03/13/business/massachusetts-affordable-housing-projects-roiled-by-svb-meltdown/

Massachusetts affordable housing projects roiled by SVB meltdown

Dozens of nonprofit developers across the state have for years relied on loans and sponsorships from Boston Private Bank and Trust, which SVB acquired in 2021, to help finance subsidized housing projects.

The Boston Globe
Chris GittinsMar 5, 2023

My pro-housing Letter to the Editor in the local paper - https://www.thebedfordcitizen.org/2023/02/letter-to-the-editor-bedford-needs-more-starter-home-and-rental-apartments-carlisle-road-project-would-help/

Take anecdotal evidence with many grains of salt, but I've received many more positive replies than negative ones.

Letter to the Editor: Bedford Needs More Starter Home and Rental Apartments; Carlisle Road Project Would Help - The Bedford Citizen

Submitted by Chris Gittins

The Bedford Citizen - “For an informed and involved community”
Chris GittinsMar 5, 2023

Why we need to liberalize our zoning rules - https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/18/business/people-are-leaving-massachusetts-has-lost-110000-residents-since-covid-began-is-life-better-out-there/

"Before the pandemic, a family making $100,000 a year could afford to buy 37 percent of homes available in the state. Today that figure is just 12 percent. In metro Boston, it’s just 6 percent, compared with 34 percent nationally."

‘People are leaving’: Massachusetts has lost 110,000 residents since COVID began. Is life better out there?

Between the rise of remote work, the stifling cost of housing, and a host of other issues from child care to transportation to the new so-called “millionaires tax,” there is a growing worry that migration will only mount in the years to come.

The Boston Globe
Chris GittinsMar 5, 2023

Why we need to liberalize our zoning rules - https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/25/business/housing-market-almost-no-one-rising-prices-interest-rates-have-made-home-buying-feel-impossible/

"Even to afford a house in the lowest-priced third of the Greater Boston market required about $138,000 a year in household income in 2022, according to an analysis by Boston Indicators, a research center at the Boston Foundation. A year prior, that figure was $96,000."

‘A housing market for almost no one’: Rising prices and interest rates have made home buying feel impossible

Two-plus years of seismic shifts in Boston’s housing market knocked the prospect of buying out of reach for tens of thousands more families here.

The Boston Globe
Chris GittinsMar 5, 2023
As a member of our town's Planning Board, I've been trying to get a better handle on the merits and limitations of Affordability requirements for new housing developments. Towards that end, this op-ed from Chelsea officials is instructive - https://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/we-dont-just-need-housing-we-need-affordable-housing/
We don't just need housing, we need affordable housing - CommonWealth Magazine

WHILE ECONOMIC RECOVERY takes hold across many communities, residents of the city of Chelsea, the epicenter of the pandemic, continue to experience acute housing and economic instability, exacerbated by structural racism and the lack of affordable rental housing and homeownership opportunities. In order to help residents remain stably housed, communities like Chelsea need effective tools(...)

CommonWealth Magazine
Chris GittinsJan 17, 2023
Show threadJoe LaRusso 🔌🕳🐇Jan 17, 2023

…true during periods when offers into the markets are still being settled. But does it remain true weeks after those settlements have been closed?

This brings us to ISO-NE’s Information Policy👇🏻…the topic for some future thread. ###

bit.ly/3XhigGF

Chris GittinsJan 17, 2023
Show threadJoe LaRusso 🔌🕳🐇Jan 17, 2023
…X-mas Eve are such known weak points—shouldn’t be forgotten. How can the public be assured those vulnerabilities have been addressed if ISO-NE won’t identify the plants that failed? ISO-NE’s position is that disclosure would distort offers into its markets. That may be…
Chris GittinsJan 17, 2023
Show threadJoe LaRusso 🔌🕳🐇Jan 17, 2023
New England’s grid is hardened against cold weather. That cold weather durability differentiates New England’s grid from ERCOT’s. Nevertheless, the lesson of failing to act to address known weak points in the system—and the generating resources here in New England that failed…