The Latest Hero of the 'Yimby' Movement Is a Massachusetts Man in a Hoodie
David Modica, headphones around his neck, hoodie sleeves scrunched up, took the mic at a Marblehead, Mass., meeting this week and asked the question facing every American town pushing back against new housing.
“Are we kinda bein’ pricks?”
His frankness about local housing opposition turned him into something of a hero for the “yes in my backyard,” pro-development movement. And his disheveled look, Massachusetts brogue and salty language was instant meme fuel.
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For more than a year, Modica’s upscale Boston suburb has stalled on complying with a Massachusetts law requiring towns with transit access to allow more housing. The Boston area is among the nation’s priciest, has a chronic housing shortage and is packed with small cities and towns that control their own zoning rules.
Recently, Marblehead settled on a plan that its voters could get behind: change the zoning codes at the Tedesco Country Club and golf course, where apartments could hypothetically be built, but likely won’t be. The coastal town of about 20,000 people is filled mostly with single-family homes. The plan’s do-nothing nature was never so clearly articulated as when Modica approached the mic at a packed town meeting Monday.
“Tedesco, that’s like a golf course, yeah?” Modica asked, addressing a planning board member who was moderating questions. “Last time I drove by,” the board member said.
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Residents at the meeting ultimately approved the controversial new plan by a wide margin. For the so-called Yimby movement, or activists who support policies to make building easier, Modica became an instant star
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