Patrick Deval is apparently considering using Kevin Honan to advise him on how to deal with the affordable housing crunch in Massachusetts.

Maybe that's a good thing, but results will be hard to come by, and hard fought.

Forcing cities and towns to allow more housing on smaller lots is a good thing. Just about every city and town government will be against it; more importantly, so will just about every resident in those towns and cities!

I am a little fearful of rumors that Patrick Deval is also thinking about using Barry Bluestone as an advisor on housing issues. Barry Bluestone works at Northeastern University in their Center for Urban and Regional Policy (CRAP), and I don't like what I hear out of them. CURP is the organization that keeps bringing up that stupid story about the oral surgeon who moved to North Carolina because she said she couldn't afford to live here. An anecdotal story, but CURP has been riding it for months.

I fear that the new administration will be too quick to grab onto some solutions, as harmful as they may be, in order to look like they are moving forward on the pressing issue.

More: Honan: Use local aid as stick to stop ‘snob’ zoning - By Scott Van Voorhis, The Boston Herald