Courts have consistently ruled the government can set reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on free speech. Limiting debate time would absolutely comply with that since limitless free speech time would cause municipal governments to grind to a halt.

> rising interest rates

Doesn't matter. There are always buyers who aren't sensitive to interest rates - all-cash buyers, buyers with massive equity who can stomach a high interest rate on a small mortgage, and of course corporations and house flippers.

> looming recession

No one has ever successfully predicted a recession. Every historical recession came out of the blue with no warning. This is no different. The media and corporations are certainly trying to convince us we're in a recession, but we have the lowest unemployment rate in 20 years and a strong economy so no one's buying their FUD.

>drive sales prices further upwards

Three words - supply and demand. No supply, sky-high demand regardless of economic conditions or interest rates.

Top of the market? Oh you sweet summer child...

God I hope this doesn't become a reality. Opening up Springfield to the masses of rich-yet-not-rich-enough-for-Boston people will just lead to mass displacement of Springfield's existing residents and turn Springfield into yet another overpriced bedroom community of Boston that lacks any local economy on its own. Already seeing this down in New Bedford.

I know people can get into pretty crazy commute situations, but I find it very hard to believe that many people are driving from Springfield to Boston for work five days a week. That's easily four hours one way.

Shh don't let facts get in the way of gun nuts pretending to be oppressed.

Probably the only way to attract quality candidates to steer a sinking ship.

Out of everyone I know who bought a home in the past 30 years, almost all of them purchased more than they could afford according to dated "rules of thumb." The dirty little secret is you either need to be filthy rich or "house poor" to own in this state. It's been that way for many years.

The Cape figured out they could limp along by flying in thousands of migrants from third-world countries who will gladly live in squalor tenement housing and work for minimum wage. Guessing Boston will go a similar route if things get that bad. That helps with service workers, but of course that doesn't help the shortage of teachers, nurses, and other roles requiring advanced training and degrees.

There used to be a airsoft field right off of the Bourne rotary that was owned by Stop and Shop. They bought the land to sit on it and prevent the construction of a competing supermarket in such prime real estate.

>What does Massachusetts housing look like in 2040?

Anyone making under $350K a year now lives in Albany and commutes 6 hours into Boston for work. I-90 from Albany to Boston sets a world record for most congested road in the world.

It looks like a low poly LOD texture in a video game.

I'm still pretty skeptical of companies that call themselves "hybrid" and only offer 1-2 days of WFH a week tbh. It seems to me they really despise remote work and throw you a limited bone as a carrot on a stick. From talking to my friends who work remote one day a week, they tell me their employers usually don't do the WFH part well because they lack the infrastructure and culture to make it work. Which makes sense, because you're in an office most of the time. And you know they'll eventually use that to get rid of it altogether.

I decided to make a career change into tech in 2019. I was living and working on the South Coast at the time. I applied to a lot of Boston-area tech companies, and I don't think I saw a single entry level or mid-level role that was remote-eligible. The first thing every interviewer asked me is if I planned on relocating to Boston because that commute is going to kill me. In my very limited experience of simply interviewing for tech jobs in Boston, remote work pre-pandemic seems like it was unheard of for entry and mid-level roles. FWIW, I did know several people who were senior engineers with 20+ years experience who negotiated work-from-home, but that seemed like the exception not the norm. Pre-pandemic, a lot of the "name-brand" Boston-area tech companies built up their in-office cultures as a kind of "perk" and it was seen as a benefit to go into the office, even if the commute sucked.

As for what happened to me, I gave up on Boston and got a full-time in-office tech job along the 495 belt in February 2020. Good that I got a stable job in a new field just before the world went to shit, bad in that the owner of the company refused to allow remote work and forced us all back in mid-2020 (before even vaccines!). Quit that job in 2022 for a fully remote Boston-based tech company that DGAF if I ever come into the office, which has since been significantly downsized due to becoming a remote-first company. I will say when I was job hunting in mid-to-late 2022, things had completely changed in tech. I couldn't even find a full-time in-office job if I wanted to. About 75 percent of my interviews were with out-of-state fully remote companies, and 25 percent in-state hybrid/remote companies.

Do you already live here? Ask your friends. Among my friend group like five people are already looking for roommates.

Found the DILDO.

They are also usually subcontractors working for a different company.

I'll never forget when New Bedford submitted a proposal for the Amazon HQ. They wanted to build it on a rural road off of a a rural expressway.

>I've seen some pretty ok homes (in nice neighborhoods) being torn down to build something custom for the owner.

I live in a neighborhood of 2-family homes. So many of them have been converted into massive single family McMansions. Not only are we not building enough but also we are demolishing what few multi family homes we Have.

Theres a huge gap between "spreading out a little" and moving 100 miles away into a totally separate metro area. When my parents got priced out of Weymouth they could afford to move to Taunton, about 35 miles south of Boston. At the time (1990) you could get to Boston via Route 24 in under an hour. Now that drive is over two hours one way, not that it even matters because I can't afford Taunton prices even though I make 3x what my parents made at the time adjusted for inflation.

Getting priced out and moving further away from Boston isn't new. The problem is it's been going on for so long there's nowhere left to move to. In 20 years Springfield will be just as expensive as Boston and we will be telling our kids to quit complaining, move to Albany, and enjoy that 4 hour one-way commute.

I once found a public record request from Boston police on one of those public records repositories. They physically printed the pages, applied a black Sharpie to "law enforcement sensitive comments" then scanned the pages back into digital form. Except you could still read most of what had been censored in the final public release.

Noise isn't even my primary concern. Living next to a highway is linked to many adverse health effects, including asthma and cancer.

Been renting in MA for over a decade. I've never heard of this and as you found out it's flat out illegal in Massachusetts. I'm not even sure how they could legally determine your unit is the "source" of an insect infestation. That's like figuring out who gave you a cold. It's impossible.

Have you asked the leasing office about this? It may just be the case they're using a boilerplate lease across all their properties and didn't update that section to reflect Massachusetts specific law. If that's the case, they should remove it when you ask. If they refuse to remove it, RUN. It might be illegal, but they'll still take your deposit, and you'll have to claw it back in court.

When I was looking in Braintree the only "affordable" sub-$500K homes I found have Red Line tracks and Route 3 as their backyard.