IN THE END, Hingham’s gonna Hingham.
And so the tony town on Boston’s South Shore finds itself facing a bit of blowback following an effort to show that it wants to be known as something other than an almost-all white, upscale enclave of privilege.
It started when a local group recently formed and took on the name HinghamYIMBY — the acronym standing for “yes, in my backyard” — and said it wanted to promote Hingham as a welcoming place for families of color to move.
Hingham, a town of topsiders and Talbots devotees, is 99.8 percent white and 0.2 percent black, according to the 2019 US Census Bureau estimate. The new group says it wants to change that.
While it has employed the acronym of a growing national movement that seeks to counter the “not in my backyard,” or NIMBY, attitude that often looks to block new development or housing, the Hingham version comes with its own picture-postcard harbor view twist: The group is not encouraging the building of housing that might be more affordable to blacks or other buyers of color.
“We are talking about people who can afford to live in Hingham, and letting them know that they are welcome,” HinghamYIMBY founder Paul Cappers, a white longtime Hingham resident, told the Boston Globe. The article says median home values in the town are $742,000, according to Census data.
The YIMBY movement nationally has sprung up in high-cost cities — including Boston and Cambridge — and is grounded by a pro-growth call for more housing development, including more moderately-priced units to counter the trend of such places becoming increasingly affordable only to well-off buyers.
On its Facebook page, the Hingham group says, “We are dedicated to encouraging real estate purchases by people of all races to live in the wonderful town of Hingham.”
Or, as some in the broader YIMBY movement might say, the group is declaring that Hingham is open to all who can afford it.
“I recognize that the local contexts in various communities differ, and what may be the goal of YIMBY groups in places like Boston or Cambridge may not be the same in Hingham,” Jesse Kanson-Benanav, a founder of the Boston area’s first YIMBY chapter, A Better Cambridge, wrote on Twitter. “HOWEVER: at the core of *my* YIMBY movement is an effort to integrate communities, racially AND economically. Simply seeking to invite only *wealthy* people of color perpetuates a classist, and still exclusionary attitude. YIMBY is about building opportunities for people of all income levels, and ensuring that EVERY city and town does its part to build the dense, multifamily housing that is needed to address our regional housing crisis. It does not appear the new Hingham group shares this goal.”
Cappers said he worries that would-be black homebuyers opt for places like Newton or Milton over HIngham because of the town’s past reputation of being hostile to blacks. “We are a NIMBY town. That’s the idea that’s projected. And our desire is to have the image of the town be what’s happening now, not what happened in the past,” he said.
No doubt watching this play out with at least a momentary pang for the past is Globe editor Brian McGrory. In his earlier days as Metro columnist, he made regular sport out of ridiculing the snooty ways of the good habitants of Hingham. The town’s not-quite-open-door version of YIMBY would have been very low-hanging fruit.
MICHAEL JONAS
FROM COMMONWEALTH
Public school enrollment dropped 3.9 percent, or by about 37,4000 students, across the state this year. The student departures were not uniform across the state, and tended to concentrate in urban areas and wealthy suburbs of Boston. Brookline lost 11 percent of its students.
Despite a statewide shellacking, President Trump did better this year than he did in 2016 in many urban areas of Massachusetts where people of color live.
State prisons are continuing to see COVID-19 flare-ups, with MCI-Shirley’s medium security facility the latest. New testing shows 17 percent of inmates have tested positive.
Attorney General Maura Healey sues the Boston Sports Clubs for continuing to charge customers who tried to cancel their memberships.
FROM AROUND THE WEB
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
After coming up short last year, Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer secured $500,000 from the City Council for a potentially forgivable loan program for residents who fix up the outside of theory homes. (Berkshire Eagle)
The Coast Guard suspended its search for four fishermen on board the fishing vessel Emmy Rose, missing off the coast of Provincetown. (Cape Cod Times)
The Enterprise has a photo gallery of the massive lines at Brockton’s drive-thru free test site, where people were turned away after waiting hours.
A seven-year-old Mattapoisett boy has returned home from Boston Children’s Hospital after battling COVID-19-related symptoms and receiving a diagnosis of MIS-C, a related syndrome in children. (Standard-Times)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
Purdue Pharma pleads guilty in a criminal case, accepting its role in the nationwide opioid epidemic. (Associated Press)
Seven residents die of COVID-19 at Andover assisted living facility Atria Marland Place, and 14 remain hospitalized. (Eagle-Tribune)
Top officials from Operation Warp Speed, the government’s program to fast-track the development and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, announced they’ve allocated 6.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to states based on their total populations. (NPR)
Massachusetts convenes a group of infectious disease doctors to help plan for how to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine. (MassLive)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Something that wouldn’t qualify as big news after any other election: The Biden transition finally begins, as the incoming president’s team held at least 20 meetings yesterday with various members of the Trump administration. (Washington Post)
Globe business columnist Larry Edelman urges President-elect Biden to begin negotiating a stimulus package with Republicans now — and to not let the perfect (a large number) be the enemy of the possible (a more modest one).
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The US Coast Guard suspends the search for the fishermen lost when the commercial fishing boat Emmy Rose sank off the coast of Cape Cod. (Gloucester Daily Times)
Food pantries are seeing a surge in demand as families struggle from months of pandemic-produced unemployment. (Boston Globe)
Stores are spreading out sales across a few days to avoid crowds shopping on Black Friday. (Telegram & Gazette)
US Sen. Ed Markey says he will fight for the rights of laid off hotel workers. (MassLive)
EDUCATION
Education officials are considering at-home MCAS testing this spring. (MassLive)
An Amherst woman is suing the town, its schools, and her former volunteer basketball coach for the emotional distress the coach’s sexual assaults and rape caused her. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
Schools are changing the way they teach about Thanksgiving to better reckon with how Native Americans were treated. (The Associated Press)
ARTS/CULTURE
After nearly three decades of live summer theater, New Century Theatre in Northampton is calling it quits because of COVID. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
Joyce Ferriabough Bolling offers a shout-out to several Massachusetts arts ventures that she says bring much-needed light amid the pandemic darkness. (Boston Herald)
World chess champion Garry Kasparov explains his role in helping Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit get the chess right.
We’re celebrating Thanksgiving amid a pandemic. Here’s how we did it in 1918 — and what happened after the holiday. (USA Today)
TRANSPORTATION
North Shore officials are unhappy about MBTA proposals to shut down weekend commuter rail service. (The Salem News)
Local officials and T riders from across the South Shore are asking the MBTA to limit looming service cuts in the region, especially a proposed temporary elimination of the Hingham and Hull ferry lines. (Patriot Ledger) CommonWealth also recently covered ferry service cuts.
MBTA police have begun handing out masks to bare-faced riders. (Boston Herald)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
The Committee for Public Counsel Services sues the City of Springfield for refusing to release internal police records regarding officers accused of misconduct. (MassLive)
MEDIA
Fox News reaches a private settlement with the parents of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. (NPR)
Ted Grant, the publisher of the Daily Item, says we need an adult in the White House to fix all sorts of problems. Is the country up to the task? “Given what we’ve become, I’m not optimistic,” he says.