Letter from the Executive Director for October 2025: Elections, Spanish

As is often the case, September was a blur of connections in-person, over email and by phone. This letter makes only passing reference to some of a dozen projects ongoing in a variety of fields.

The big news is we now have a 30-hour-a-week Spanish Language Content Manager and Translator, David, though January at least. David has several goals. First, we’ll be offering rental forms, Home Depot savings and memberships on our Spanish language site. Second, we’ll share the history of rent control in Spanish. Our strategy to get new visitors remains content marketing: the first of many articles with value for search engine ranking is now translated, The Complete Landlords’ Guide to Lodging and Rooming Houses in Massachusetts. (Click “English” at top and select “Spanish” to see the translation.)

Spanish echoes the language of the ancient Romans, as well as the past common ancestor of English and Spanish both, Indo-European. It’s a joy to see how much we have in common. Many of you know I learned Spanish in grades 7 through college. Then I lost it. During the pandemic, I regained it, first by watching Paw Patrol in Spanish, and as of last week, picking my way through the literary magical realism of Julio Cortázar. I hope one day to provide housing commentary in Spanish. It’s needed. (Pro tip: If you want to improve your recall of a language or anything, I recommend learning the open-source software Anki, which uses spaced repetition learning for the most learned in the least time.)

Monthly dues (English and Spanish) is tentatively planned for release in October. This will lower the apparent price point for new members, hopefully increasing new signups and reducing churn as well.

We drafted an opposition campaign to rent control. Phase I is fundraising. I met with Tad Heuer, a ballot attorney retained by the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. Attorney Heuer showed me the legal arguments and the fundraising need. We were approved for Facebook political ads; a major contribution we will make in this fight is public messaging.

MassLandlords elections take place in October now. We are talking with nominees. Please plan to vote. Last year was an off-year because two of the team were seriously long-term ill. We have up to three seats to fill this year.

I met with staff at the administrative office of the Housing Court to ask for help enforcing the Mass Save electrification agreement. More to come on this when it’s released.

I was happy to sit in on my first MIT class in roughly 20 years this fall. You can read about my mentoring Terrascope in this edition.

The MUC website launched along with our GoFundMe. We recorded four webinars and had hundreds of thousands of viewers on our ads. The social media channel is growing quickly. The only issue seems to be replacing the looked-for federal funding. The whole initiative was launched on the assumption of a grant being available. Sadly, after 50 years, Arbor Day-style grants are done. We will keep at it. Give MUC financial support if you care about local farms, pollinators or helping others get junk land off their P&L (we already have more donated land than we can accept for now).

We’re busy and doing great things. Please join as a member, encourage others to join, become a property rights supporter or increase your level of support.

Sincerely,

Doug

Executive Director

MassLandlords, Inc.