Massachusetts Man's Blunt Question at Town Meeting Makes Him a YIMBY Folk Hero

David Modica — headphones around his neck, hoodie sleeves rolled up, Boston accent in full effect — walked up to a microphone at a packed Marblehead, Massachusetts town meeting and asked the question that launched a thousand memes: 'Are we kinda bein' pricks?' The moment went viral, racking up over three million views on a single X post and spawning doctored images of Modica as a Norman Rockwell subject and New England Patriots head coach. One user proposed his signature line as the new Massachusetts state motto.

The context that made his question land so hard: Marblehead, a wealthy coastal suburb northeast of Boston with median household income above $180,000 and average home values topping $1 million — up more than 60% since 2018 — had spent over a year dodging compliance with a state law known as 3A. That law requires communities with transit access to rezone for more housing. Marblehead's response was to concentrate 780 of the required 897 new housing units onto a single golf course, the Tedesco Country Club, where apartments could theoretically be permitted but almost certainly will never be built. Modica called the maneuver out in real time: 'So this is a way to comply with 3A without doing any of the 3A stuff?'

The exchange resonated because it crystallized a pattern playing out across high-cost states. Massachusetts Attorney General sued nine non-compliant communities in January, Marblehead among them. In California, the Bay Area town of Woodside tried to claim its entire territory was a mountain lion habitat to dodge a similar state housing mandate, while Huntington Beach fought its own case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the appeal earlier this year. Pro-housing YIMBY activists have increasingly scored legislative wins in both states, but local resistance remains fierce — often dressed up in zoning technicalities.

Marblehead voters had earlier rejected a plan that would have rezoned actual residential neighborhoods, after opponents flooded the town with yard signs warning of 'overdevelopment' and 'over 700 more cars.' The golf-course workaround passed Monday's town meeting by a wide margin. Modica, who owns a small online business and once pursued a political career, declined further interviews but told a local outlet that some housing opponents act like 'revolutionary soldiers fighting the good fight against the tyranny of townhouses.' Jesse Kanson-Benanav, executive director of Abundant Housing Massachusetts, called Modica's delivery pitch-perfect for a movement that has long struggled to make its case in venues dominated by homeowners protective of their property values.