For the last twenty years I haven't paid much attention to my State Senate race: Pat Jehlen hasn't had a close race since she won the seat in 2005. I think she's done a lot of good work: while allocating credit is hard, more people want to live here than did two decades ago, with more high-paying jobs, better schools, and being a better place to walk and bike. The biggest missing piece has been building housing to keep up, because a larger number of people with the same pool of houses means some people aren't able to stay. I know so many people who've had to move away to find a place they could afford to live, and Jehlen's skeptical attitude towards housing construction was my biggest complaint.

She's retiring now, however, which opens the field to new candidates, and an opportunity to get someone in office who is solidly enthusiastic about construction as a component of housing affordability. Looking over the candidates, Burhan Azeem is a clear standout here. He massively improved Cambridge zoning as city councillor with the Multifamily Housing Ordinance, cofounded Abundant Housing Massachusetts, and his housing page has policies I do think would work.

To make housing cheaper you need to let people build more of it, which means increasing density. If you do that in isolation then you're setting yourself up for massive transportation issues, as more people try to use the same limited amount of space to park and drive their cars. Density has to be paired with strong public transit, and in fact makes transit better for everyone by supporting high frequencies and broad coverage. If you look over what he proposes I think he's again a really solid candidate, and much better than any of his competitors.

Finally, I think he's really good on AI. I expect our society's handling of AI to be the largest issue over the next few years, and while MA doesn't have the leverage of CA here, there's still a lot that can be done. Of the other four candidates, three haven't focused on AI, but State Rep Erika Uyterhoeven has. Comparing their approaches, Uyterhoeven has pushed for privacy protections and improving the procurement process, while Azeem is pushing for oversight and testing to influence what the AI firms build and release. If you expect AI to be like other systems the government might buy then I think Uyterhoeven's approach makes a lot of sense. Because I expect AI to be very different here, substituting for human expertise and agency, and having enormous effects across society, I'm much more supportive of Azeem's approach. We have to change what gets built and how it's tested, not just what MA buys.

(I also had a great conversation with him when I met him a few months ago, talking about how we can improve air quality in our schools, and I think everyday clean air is very important for both general health and pandemic prevention.)

The primary is in a week, and if you're in Somerville, Medford, or the relevant parts of Cambridge (Ward 7 Precinct 1, Ward 8 Precinct 1, Ward 10, Ward 11) or Winchester (Precincts 4, 5, 6, 7) I encourage you to vote for Burhan Azeem.