Let them eat cake!
- mcc021557
- Mar 21
- 5 min read
First, please look for our upcoming MCC Neighborhood meeting on 3/24/25 on Neighborhood & Urban Residential Zoning in preparation for the city Q&A session 3/27/25.
We have already highlighted some of Matt Leming’s self-serving behavior at the Final Salem Street Corridor Hearing on 3/11/25 in earlier blogs and videos, but some new information has come to light we would like to share.
Check out this snippet of bravado as Matt reverses all of the neighborhood engagement with one motion.
Within council deliberations Matt suggests that his proposed motion is a result of the community coming out and voicing their approval of the zoning. But where did all of these people come from? They didn’t attend any of the previous meetings to discuss and learn about the zoning? They were called by Our Revolution (and Matt) to attend and speak "in favor" of the zoning.
Notice that there is ZERO zoning information on the actual post. No summary…no link to documents. Just come and speak "in favor". Perhaps this is why the majority of those speaking out "in favor" highlighted things that didn’t exist in the zoning proposal, things like affordable housing.
As we all know, 3k square foot lots are likely the largest obstacle to creating affordable housing on Salem Street. The lots are simply too small. We saw on High St in West Medford a large and profitable 9 unit “luxury” building with no affordable units, which will likely be the result of this zoning here. As we have advised prior, any project less than 10 units requires ZERO affordable units. Yet somehow that information was not shared when people were told to come out and speak "in favor". These likely well-meaning people were ultimately weaponized to validate the actions of Matt.
Matt, specifically and with malice, insisted on reversing the tiny concessions residents gained through months of community engagement with a blanket “call to action” devoid of relative information via email and Facebook. In short, a seated Councilor mobilized residents against one another.
Why? What is in it for Matt? Matt seems to suffer under the delusions of a God complex. He believes that he is better than those who don’t agree with him, and he is not afraid to say it repeatedly. Don’t believe me…see it here from Matt himself.
There many more excerpts in this post, and his other blogs.
Matt Leming has a belief that he alone has the solutions to the city, and even national issues; and that others are just misinformed. So, he will do as he likes without considering the views of others…even when he will not bear the brunt of his mistakes, but instead those speaking out will.
If the city was sharing information in a transparent and honest way, then we would not need to do this work. Advocacy is not just for you and those who agree with you.
What did the consultant say about the feasibility of the Salem St zoning?
They said that it was a struggle to even get to four stories, and that they had not even attempted to see if six stories was achievable. Yet Matt still motioned to pass the zoning deemed infeasible by the consultant paid to write it. Take that Salem Street/Glenwood.
Once Matt was able to push through the impossible zoning and crush the neighbors who had worked so hard to achieve small but meaningful concessions, he proceeded to gloat. Not just in the meeting, but he wrote yet another blog, insulting the intelligence of the residents who will bear the burden of his uninformed and purposely misinforming votes.
Matt makes the mistake of believing that those coming out to fight this zoning have “nothing going on in their lives” or are “lonely,” but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The residents of Glenwood are not lonely. We are a community that talks to our neighbors and wants to preserve our quality of life. We have a lot going on and are MAKING time to fight for our neighborhood.
The mistake that Matt repeats over and over is that he believes that there is something wrong with anyone who doesn’t agree with him. Matt, we don’t owe you allegiance, but as an elected official, it would be beneficial for you to hear us and understand us; after all you do represent us. So, if you don't understand, feel free to ask questions, but please stop trying to tell us what is wrong with us. There is nothing wrong with us, your narcissism is just clouding your ability to absorb the thoughts of those who don’t agree with you. Many of us have taken the time to speak with you, and give you the benefit of the doubt, but time and again you turn away and then launch attacks against us.
We aren’t spreading the misinformation, you are. We are sorry that you are lonely and feel that you need to fill gaps in your life by attacking others, but you need to stop. This is unhealthy, and unhelpful.
You have championed and passed zoning that goes against your own platform. One look at the neighborhood zoning you also endorse shows that you have full intentions of widening the gaps between the dense and less dense areas of the city, between the wealthy large lots and the tiny dense lots. You may believe that you are doing good, but you aren’t. You are doing the work of the wealthy landowners that you railed against here:
You, Matt, are emboldening the luxury flipper to dice the Glenwood area into smaller and smaller bites for bigger profits and reduced affordability. This will come with the reduction in quality of life for one of the densest areas in Medford…which is also not near major transit.
There is nothing to be proud of in rallying the uninformed to speak over those involved and personally affected by the zoning change. We don’t understand why you can’t engage with us honestly and constantly retreat to insults on your blog. We stand ready to have a conversation with you, as we have before; but it would be appropriate if you could listen with empathy rather than with malice.
We have attended these many meetings because you are seeking to change the character of our entire neighborhood. We will be impacted; and our voices should have had more weight than those you solicited to come as your “back up” and speak without any knowledge of the zoning. You are the ringleader, and you are the rabble rouser that you describe in so many of your blogs. An elected official is supposed to represent and listen to the people, not just cherry pick who you deem worthy based on their agreement and regurgitation of your views.
We look forward to you zoning the less dense areas near transit at a density index higher than the treatment you have given to Salem Street, which has the potential of gaining a single bus to some of those transit rich areas. However, we know that you won’t; because we have watched as the Neighborhood Zoning proposal was crafted. You and your colleagues have worked hard to assure that you don't "bother" or "throw shadow" on those neighborhoods; suddenly calling for studies and a better understating of what can be done.
We have read the neighborhood zoning and find it, and council actions, to carry forth on the idea that some neighborhoods are worthy of maintaining “neighborhood character,” while others must carry the load of your goals of density.
The hypocrisy is clear and is a source of indignation for the neighborhoods that you are taking advantage of. We stand ready to talk, are you ready to listen, understand, and do better?
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