Éirinn go Brách, everyone! Hope Parade Day has treated you nicely.
Today’s guest is Keith Linhares, who joined us to talk about his bid for the District 1 city council seat!
His first run for office, he’ll be taking on former District 1 councilor Tony Economou, an avatar of the sort of entrenched townie politics that keeps the city stuck in the ‘80s. Keith wants to change that! A bunch of great moments on this episode, but I especially appreciate Keith’s take on the core difference in leadership style between progressives and what we might call the “old guard,” and how that relates to the political calculus around property value.
“(…) I don't want to make decisions based on economic indicators. I actually studied economics as an undergrad student. So I do have sort of a healthy respect, or maybe disrespect, that's been gained for some of those types of concepts that come from the perfect market situation. So it's all these hypotheticals that exist in these perfectly sterile environments, that all these models are developed in.
And from what I've observed in my own life, what I know from talking to my friends, from my family, is that just because property values are getting higher, it doesn't mean our lives are getting better. Just because we have 30,000 more units in the city doesn't mean we can afford them or that regular people who are already here can live in them. So I guess I want to make a pledge to everybody out there that if I'm elected as your city councilor, I'm not going to be looking purely at the numbers. I'm not going to be purely looking at these economic indicators that are supposed to be telling us how hot of a market our city is and all that other stuff.
I'm going to be looking at quality of life for the people who live here now. I don't want to see my friends, my family continue to be pushed out of the city because it's getting too expensive.
I want to see families have the ability to afford a home here and live a life that's comfortable for them.”
Check out Linhare’s Act Blue to donate to his campaign, as well as his volunteer sign up sheet, Instagram and other links.
After the interview we briefly discuss the Clark student worker strike (more on that soon!) and other odds and ends.
CU Undergrad Worker’s Union IG
Livestream of the Roast of Worcester at the White Room
Last four grafs of The Atlantic’s Aidan Kearney feature
The Palestine / Puerto Rico solidarity sign at the Mother’s Day event
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—Outro music: “Building Up and Tearing England Down” by the Mary Wallopers
—Intro music: “Roaming The Cosmic Winds” by Mystic Realm, Worcester-based dungeon synth project by Kevin Fitzgerald. Check out the full album, Forsaken Kingdom, on the Mystic Realm Bandcamp.
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