Are you working with any consultants, groups, or a slate of candidates? If yes, please disclose who you’re working with.

None, but because a new law bars candidates from obtaining the electronic voter file for Portsmouth, I had to get help from the state Democratic Committee to get this. I use it to select homes to go door to door in as many neighborhoods as I can each election.

What is the biggest problem Portsmouth is facing and how you would solve it? *

Housing is our biggest challenge. Rents and home prices have shot sky-high and the people who keep our city running can’t live here. Restaurants close because they lack service workers, and day care centers, hospitals and schools struggle to stay staffed.

New zoning in 2017 allowed our supply of housing to go from 40 new units a year to 260. Since 2015, we have added 1,810 but only 128 are affordable for working people. This shows how distorted our housing market is, and why it’s not delivering solutions.

To have the political will to address the problem, we need a citywide dialogue, surveys and education. Those who oppose more housing need to engage in a conversation with those who need it, especially in Portsmouth Listens-style small group discussions . I am working on such a dialogue with the city’s Housing Navigator.

We’ll need multiple solutions. We should make it easier for homeowners to make single family homes into double units. We have a surplus of land zoned “Office/Research” that could be revised to residential. Our Land Use Committee has improved ways we trade density bonuses for projects that make 10-20% of units affordable (which has created 46 units so far). Ruth Griffin Place, built on city-owned land, offers 82 units with rents in the $1,000 a month range, built with private capital and federal tax credits through Portsmouth Housing Authority. Micro housing, group living and other options bear exploring.

Should the city work to create below market rate housing, and where is the best site? *

Yes, and Griffin Place shows how. The old Sherburne school and the Community Campus are logical sites if consensus can be achieved. Beyond public land, communities like Montgomery County, Maryland have been very successful with projects that are 50% market rate, 50% affordable. The private sector has an appetite for these, feeding off federal tax credits. It’s a good model for the McIntyre, for dying retail plazas, and for surplus land non-profits or businesses wish to sell (of which there are a number of prime parcels). This could create scores if not hundreds of affordable units.

Should the council continue to try to acquire the Thomas J. McIntyre federal building property? *

In four years of work on McIntyre, I have worked consistently to get a project that benefits the public, not just developers. The “Values to Visions to Sketches” process in 2020, involving 3,800 residents, showed residents want more public space don’t want high rises on Bow Street.

I strongly support our council’s effort to pressure the GSA to honor the 2004 Senate Bill 1589 for a no-cost transfer to the city as passed into law, and use McIntyre for affordable housing, not more luxury condos.

The GSA is so far defying all efforts to enforce the 2004 law, and time is on their side to complete their auction. I don’t think there is the time nor public will to put together a bid. But based on the Values to Vision to Sketches process, the Planning Board and City Council approved zoning changes that reduce the density on the site and incentivize parks, observation decks and indoor gallery space. The public engagement ensured there will never be a project as big and dense as Redgate-Kane’s on that site. I am grateful for my role in that.

Do you support the council’s spending level on the last two budgets? If not, what’s an appropriate level? *

I did not vote for the FY23 budget because I felt adding 25 positions in one year was too much. Overall, the last two budgets have increased on average 4.5% a year. Historically, tax increases over the last five councils move in a range between 3.5%-4.5% a year. We are at the higher end of the range in the last 24 months due to inflation in all costs and a bulge in delayed capital spending after COVID. We’ve also made wise investments in wages for our police and fire teams, an IT overhaul, and in education. These were essential for long term stability, and to help kids recover from COVID learning loss. We need to hold tighter on headcount and have small and predictable budget steps in the future. To do this, I initiated a practice of the City Council setting spending limits for the City Manager at the outset of the budget process.

Should Market Square be open to pedestrian and bike travel only?*

No, but there are opportunities to widen the sidewalk for pedestrians on Congress Street.

How do you feel about the safety and aesthetics of outdoor dining in the city?*

Outdoor dining is an economic driver and creates vitality and memorable experience on summer nights. We should create aesthetic standards (such as decks level with sidewalk, more plantings, and softening of the Jersey barriers).

What’s a bigger priority, building a new police station or an indoor sports arena? *

The city needs a new police station. We are paying $400,000 to continually repair a building that inhibits progressive, modern policing. The crime lab is a cramped room in a basement, handcuffed prisoners must be walked through work areas almost the length of the building, to cite just a few examples. We have $38 million in the Capital Plan for this which we can handle within our means. We need to keep moving on it.

An indoor sports arena will serve Portsmouth, Greenland, Rye, and New Castle and need not be sited on our scarce city land. We should be very cautious about public private partnerships that require donation of public land – who gets what benefits?

Should the council address the pace and type of development in the city? If yes, how?*

Portsmouth is a highly desirable place to live and cannot be frozen in time or return to some mythical past. It will continue to grow. We should focus on doing it well. I often give the example of the Popovers’ building downtown. It replaced a drab, one-story building with something that enhanced the entire street. We should refine our land use controls to aim for this. A vigorous public process involving lots of citizens in the 2025 Master Plan can give residents’ views priority in the zoning for the city’s next decade.

More important than buildings are the people we attract. A city needs great schools, parks, recreation and infrastructure. I support investment in these to be a city where great young families want to live.

Is overserving at city bars and restaurants a public safety issue?

No — there are many cities with worse downtown drunkenness than Portsmouth.

Has Portsmouth changed for the better or worse during the past decade?*

This is like asking has the person you love changed for better or worse in your years together. The focus should be on what we can be in the future. We inherit strengths – Portsmouth is safe, it has very good schools, it celebrates and preserves its history, and has arts and culture of cities twice our size. It has community leaders who care deeply about all of these strengths, and residents who are smart and engaged. It has a robust economy buttressed by tourism and tech. It is challenged to be affordable for all income levels, a challenge we must meet. Government, developers, business owners and residents are all part of meeting that challenge.

Thanks to everyone who held signs, tallied results, sent letters, posted on social media and VOTED! I’m honored to be a city councilor-elect. What an exciting night.

Here are my answers to the Portsmouth Herald candidate questionnaire: https://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20191015/city-council-candidate-john-tabor

Here’s my response to PortsmouthNH questions on the issues: https://www.portsmouthnh.com/candidate-survey-john-tabor/

City budget – Seacoast Sunday February 25, 2018.

(How I would look at city budgets if a councilor…)

Portsmouth city budget this year will go down as “the year of the big ask.” Already at $109 million in spending, the 2018-2019 budget will easily weigh in at $113 million, with police and fire asking for 10 new full time positions on top of that.

City taxpayers have had a magical combination of cost-conscious councils, low inflation and lots of development downtown. Budgets have gone up an average of 3.7% in spending over the last decade, but tax burden for an average single-family home owner has gone up only 1.5% a year. Thank downtown development for the difference.

But the heart of the budget process is people – how skilled, how many, and are they allocated efficiently? And that is where the tug and pull of budgeting happens.

Some city departments say it’s time to “get back to pre-recession staffing levels” in their budget requests. A ten-year history (above) shows why, but also shows how thrifty the city has been. (All the data is in the budget section of the city website).

During the recession years, full time workers dropped from 660 in 2009 to 609 in 2012, including a drop of 28 jobs in 2011. Remember when cities around the U.S. were going bankrupt? Portsmouth was able to deliver all its vital services with fewer people and live within its lower tax revenue. This wasn’t easy – who can forget a budget hearing when hundreds of upset residents filled the high school auditorium. Notably, the data shows the city did not go on a hiring binge after reducing staff.

The city has also watched out for taxpayers at the bargaining table. In 2008, average compensation per worker was galloping at 5.4% a year. That was reined in to 3-4%. But each year, contract increases drive higher pay packages – which is not always true in the private sector. That puts added pressure on headcount to keep tax increases at historically low levels.

City Manager John Bohenko has imposed fiscal constraint with a sound budgeting process: he and the council adopt a spending increase guideline (this year 3.25%) and city departments must deliver a budget that sings that tune with additional requests separate and above. That insures the budget doesn’t go wild, hurting the taxpayer.

In contrast to 2012, we are now living in Boomtown, USA. Here are some of the interesting budget choices to be made as our economy charges ahead:

Police Chief Robert Werner wants four new positions including two patrol officers. He says correctly that his department is still below pre-recession levels – 91 police employees in 2007, 86 today. And while city population has been flat at 21,000 for a decade, the number of visitors keeps growing.

Fire Chief Steve Achille wants to add four firefighters an inspector and an administrator. The fire department has been flat at 60-62 employees for a decade, despite at least 3 million feet of new construction, and increasing demand for paramedic services as our population ages. But given the context of our headcount history a 10% jump in staff is an ask taller than a ladder truck. Much of the construction is office space at Pease, and all of it has sprinkler systems.

School Superintendent Steve Zadrevic is working towards a 3.25% guideline, helped by retirement incentives for a “status quo” budget. Schools full-time headcount is 361 today versus 373 pre-recession.. Enrollments, though, are flat.

As we become a city of older residents and condo dwellers with no family growth, and exploding tourist traffic, all these trends pose some profound questions around how to allocate our human capital. Unfortunately, the city cannot create taxes or fees for visitors (except parking) due to state law.

So grab your tv remote and watch the debate, or go to city hall and speak out.

McIntyre – Binnie proposal – Seacoast Sunday, August 11, 2019

Bill Binney’s alternative plan for the McIntyre building poses a real alternative – and the key lies in the capital structure.

The Redgate Kane proposal takes the 2.1 acre site and adds quite a bit of new buidings. The largest income stream comes from luxury apartments. Hence the “inherent tension” – a project on land that is “the people’s land” that has a small – but well planned –amount of public space and a majority used for developer’s buildings.

Bill Binney’s plan has more public space than private He aims for a smaller lease income from the McIntyre only, lowers the cost of the project by turning half over to a park, a grand staircase at Bow Street, and a summer-and-winter glass atrium. And his company will fund the project with its own capital.

Binney will get a modest $3mm of revenue from the McIntyre building and his firm, Carlisle Capital, will invest $38mm to make the project happen. He will use no bank debt and no outside investors. He will seek a rate of return in single digits. This makes a huge difference between the two proposals, according to what he told The Herald’s editorial board.

Redgate-Kane, by contrast, will spend more than $61mm and will use $40mm of bank debt and $21.4mm of equity. Much of the equity will be raised from outside investors. It will seek an 11% internal rate of return and defines developer’s “reasonable profit” as at least 18% (according to the presentation to the council by financial consultant David Eaton).

In short, the Redgate Kane project is driven by a capital structure that must pay back banks and investors. This forces the developer in the public-private partnership to tilt the project more toward private return, and pack as much density in while still serving the public purpose.

One councilor teased that the Binney proposal has been the Revisit McIntyre proposal all along. It’s true they have a similar look, but Binney’s includes what the public said they wanted in the process last year – indoor atrium space for people to gather in winter (substantially more than Redgate-Kane). It also includes the rooftop restaurant and categorically reserves space for the post office, including keeping their loading dock (which Binney says is not true of Kane-Redgate),

Throughout the input process, which I participated in, we were told “the developer needs to make a profit.” But how much profit, for how many outside banks and investors? That’s where Binney proposes a very real and very liberating alternative. He doesn’t need luxury apartments, more building scale than public space they dwarf. Binney’s willingness to step up and self-fund for a modest return changes the game completely from where the process started in 2017. And that deserves a full and robust debate by the council.

McIntyre – Go forward or revise? Seacoast Sunday March 11, 2019

The McIntyre Project to redevelop two blocks downtown in a public-private partnership with the Redgate Kane development team is the biggest impact project downtown in a generation. Some thoughts on where it now stands:

The city council is “stuck in the middle.” Go forward, and the pushback from the Revisit McIntyre group and their more than 1,000 petitioners only grows more vocal, creating divisions in the community. Go back, and the council faces the bitter prospect of starting from scratch.

Everyone involved is seeking what they think is best for the city – and I include developer Michael Kane in that. He’s a local boy and Redgate has the best credentials of regional developers.

Rather than dissect what has gone wrong so far – which seems to be the topic in town — the more important question is what to do next.

First, there’s no rush. A senior council source told me tenants of the federal building aren’t going anywhere this year. This is a big contrast to when Deputy City Manager Nancy Colbert Puff said in late 2017 that plans had to be submitted June, 2018 because tenants were moving out in December 2018. What started in a rush has turned out to have time for reflection and improvement.

The council can decide whether to commit to Redgate Kane’s plan and begin the land review process with city boards. Or they can decide to get more input which could lead to reshaping the plan.

The current project preserves the federal building’s façade as a mid-20^th century piece of history, turning it into prime office space. The balance of the land is split between apartments, retail and public space. The site is now a walled parking lot, and the Redgate/Kane plan opens walkways connecting it to Daniel, Penhallow and Bow streets. I’m on record as saying there is a lot to like about the plan, including the outdoor public spaces and indoor atrium as a gathering space. But many feel (and I agree) the project doesn’t have enough parking and the massing and infill can be intimidating in some places. Keeping the post office there is everyone’s preference, and the city is negotiating hard to do that.

A subcommittee of councilors Dwyer, Perkins-Kwoka, and Roberts debated whether to have more input or stand pat with the consultant-run work sessions done last spring. Councilor Dwyer has been vocal in not wanting to stop progress. But doing so would leave the issues that are being debated unresolved. The council – and a large number of citizens – are pondering what to do about that.

When the city sought a development partner in 2017, several parameters guided the process. The federal government would transfer the land to the city, keeping the building intact under the federal Monuments Act. A developer would be given the entire rest of the parcel in a public private partnership. The city would allow the developer to make a reasonable profit and would be off the hook for large public investment. The developer would include some public space. Excess profit above “reasonable” would go back to the city to fund parks.

A public dialogue process would determine our appetite as a community for going outside these constraints.

• Does more public space and less development on the site outweigh city desire to have the developer shoulder all the cost, even if that means taxpayer spending by the city?
• Does additional parking outweigh city’s desire to spend no money (the developer says it is uneconomic for him to do a second underground level)?
• Does lower density and building mass outweigh city desire to spend no money (city could reduce developers cost in a number of ways by providing parking and public space infrastructure, asbestos removal, etc.).
• What is the best public space – indoor, outdoor park or a mix?

Assistant Mayor Lazenby and councilor Roberts recommended a role for Portsmouth Listens in getting additional public input. Chris Dwyer disagreed. As a member of Portsmouth Listens, I can say we have always thought McIntyre was a great project for a public dialogue in the study circle format, but the prime moment for that was at the start. That would have been the best time to reach consensus on our values as a community for this prize property. Instead, public input was minimal before Request for Proposal was developed (one public hearing). The question is whether to reopen the process including whether the public buys the RFP constraints. There’s not an easy answer.

Study circles as an input process can be criticized, but they also have a track record of success from 1999-2013 on many contentious issues. Local people in study circles don’t filter their input through consultants. The people themselves deliberate in each circle, decide the best answer to a problem, and author their own reports. They present directly to the city council. They have access to a database of all relevant documents the council deems fit for them to study.

In 2007, a Portsmouth Listens dialogue swiftly resolved years of wrangling about whether to renovate or relocate the middle school. A few folks were unhappy with the choice to renovate and started a petition drive afterwards. Fewer than 25 people signed because every household in town had been mailed an invitation to the study circles, 171 people participated in eight small groups, and it seemed everyone knew someone who had. The process was seen as open, honest and fair.

Housing Growth and Affordability- Seacoast Sunday May 6, 2018

The old Frank Jones Brewery off Islington Street was turned into apartments last year. The project opened for business in February and sold in a land rush – 33 of 40 smaller studio and one bedroom units were rented instantly even though occupancy was three months away. They were priced at an average of about $1,450 a month including heat and water.

In a city where affordable housing is scarce and rents have been rising, this was a bonanza. Eric Chinburg, who developed the property, told me recently that as he walked outside the new building, “I met a young woman who works in a Portsmouth salon, and another resident who has a house cleaning business – and I felt good about that.”

Portsmouth’s scarce and expensive housing has threatened our economy and health as a community for two decades. “The restaurants and small businesses that make Portsmouth ‘unique and amazing’ may not be sustainable as home prices go up faster than wages,” a report to the city said last year. Median rents have been leapfrogging toward $2,000 a month and are by far the highest in the state. Home prices are equally out of reach to working families.

But here’s the good news: city data shows housing construction – especially apartments — has been taking off. The free market may be late the party, but it is finally showing up.

Between 2010 and 2017, the supply of apartments increased by only 279– fewer than 40 per year. But between 2017-2020, Portsmouth will add 255 units or 128 a year, according to figures from the planning department. If condos are included, growth could reach 459 or 230 a year.

The growth really started four years ago – 113 units at Portwalk, and last year, 94 Veridian apartments near Southgate Plaza and Chinburg’s 68 units at Brewery Lane.

Looking ahead, a second Chinburg project will deliver 92 units where the old city yard was in the West End, and Deer Street Associates’ Foundry Place projects will add 48 (and another 67 condos). The Portsmouth Housing Authority has proposed 68 units of low-income housing on Court Street. Then there are two bigger projects awaiting application – a plan to build 80 units on the North Mill Pond, using old railroad property, and 124 units at the Frank Jones Center site on the Route 1 Bypass.

Peter Francese, a brilliant demographer retained at times by SMG, said, “if you could grow housing supply in Portsmouth 1% a year, the market would work.” For years, that’s been stubbornly difficult. It’s expensive and risky to build here. Land is scarce. Parking requirements are a major barrier. Zoning codes are complex. NIMBY neighbors fight multi-family housing near them, and applications can take not months but years.

According the census, the city has 4,820 rentals (2016 estimate). So growth of 1% in rentals would be 48 a year. This sudden surge in 2018-2020 is three times that. The market is playing catch up.

As developers explain to me, what will occur is qualified renters moving up to the new “Class A” rentals, creating more “Class B” vacancies whose landlords have to keep rents low to lure new tenants. 

Affordable housing requires projects of 40-60 units or greater if we are to have a true socio-economic mix and a healthy local economy. What can keep this trend going? First, smarter zoning. Chinburg credits the new West End zoning with an easier review process that didn’t need waivers and variances.

Second, encouraging housing zones like Councilor Rebecca Perkins-Kwoka’s ordinance to convert dead retail space like K-Mart on Woodbury Ave to housing. These projects don’t impact neighborhoods.

Third, and most important, is our own community will. We need to support 40-60 unit projects when they are sited correctly and work as “urban infill.” We need to admit that we are a city and think like one (that includes public transit to ease the parking restrictions, but that’s another, topic).

While the right to quiet enjoyment of our neighborhoods is fundamental to all of us, we can’t reject higher density housing on the one hand, and mourn the loss of socioeconomic diversity and young families on the other. We can’t try to keep Portsmouth as a village in a snow globe while our small business owners lose their workforce. In that light, the Portsmouth Housing Authority’s proposal for 68 units of “urban infill” will be an important test. It will offer rents of $900-$1,200 a month for service workers, teachers, musicians and actors, and young families starting out. It will keep the current positive trend in supply moving in the right direction. It’s located between taller, urban buildings and will probably improve the streetscape. If we can invest $27 million to house cars at a new garage, shouldn’t we support a plan to house people