To the editor:
At what point did you encase your ideal version of Swampscott in amber? Was it when you were a child here? When you moved here? There is a loud and boisterous group of residents who oppose any significant change happening in town and it is to the detriment of all of us.
Climate change can be seen in the worsening storms that cause flooding and increasing damage from Eisman’s to Fisherman’s Beach and over at King’s Beach. This is compounded by having a sewer system that is already leaking raw sewage onto our beaches. Town leadership has spent the past few years just talking about things. One of the reasons? They don’t want to raise taxes because they know people would complain.
We are also in the middle of a housing crisis in which the state is starting to take back control over local zoning, which it delegated many decades ago to municipalities because towns like ours are choosing not to allow more housing to meet the needs of the growing population. Swampscott has been an exclusive town from its inception, which is why our demographics are predominantly white, with just more than a percentage of the population Black. Ask where all the racial diversity of Glover’s Regiment went.
We complain about rising taxes even though our tax rate has actually gone down over the past few years because the values of houses have skyrocketed without us having to lift a finger. We could alleviate this by allowing more housing to be built and allowing some small commercial spaces integrated into existing neighborhoods, but every time even a duplex is proposed, people take to the streets with outrage at what someone else is doing with their own property.
Right now there is a lot of anger at the Select Board and town administrator for valid reasons, from the casual misogyny that seems to pop up every Select Board meeting to the air of secrecy around proposed changes or even happenings in town. Some of it though is also longstanding animosity from people offended that anyone proposes anything that might change the town from their idealized version encased in amber. All of this needs to change dramatically if we want Swampscott to still be a place that we proudly call home.
Aaron Berdofe
