How Cambridge can put public need before private greed A five-hour city council hearing can really get you thinking. As I sat watching the latest chapter in the East Cambridge courthouse saga unfold at city hall on Monday, I mulled over what it would take to start moving the city away from dependence […]
EASTBOUND AND GOWN: AS STUDENTS DISPLACE LONGTIME EAST BOSTONIANS, A COMMUNITY WELCOMES NEWCOMERS BUT NOT WITHOUT SOME CONCERNS
“We will lose the connection, the tight community we have in our neighborhood,” she said of more transient renters. “We won’t get to know our neighbors.”
RENT CONTROL REQUIRED
Single mother working for the city of Boston can’t afford to live here A city employee is often required to live within the city in which they are employed. Luckily, in my case that is not a requirement. It’s not recommended that an individual pay more than 30% of their gross monthly income […]
LAST CALL FOR JUSTICE AT THE EAST CAMBRIDGE COURTHOUSE
City council must resist bogus privatization scheme Everyone agrees the state-owned Sullivan Courthouse site in East Cambridge needs to be remediated of asbestos and prepared for redevelopment. The current proposal, backed by the Baker administration and Cambridge’s city manager, would accomplish this goal by transferring ownership of the courthouse to commercial real […]
COUNTERPOINT: PROGRESSIVES AGAINST PROGRESS
Why is Cambridge afraid of affordable housing? When Cambridge city staff decided to use the city’s zoning code to incentivize the creation of affordable housing, they faced a choice. They could, like generations of planners before them, trace old zoning and neighborhood boundaries, but those boundaries are the echoes of past racism and […]
POINT: YES TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING; NO TO THE CITYWIDE OVERLAY
Cambridge is embroiled in a heated debate over the 100% Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO)—a city-wide up-zoning plan to allow large housing developments citywide, four stories (45’) tall in all residential areas and seven stories (80’) tall on major corridors. Although absent from Cambridge’s 2019 Envision new city planning report, the AHO is being […]
DON’T BUY WHAT CAMBRIDGE MAYOR MCGOVERN IS SELLING
An East Cambridge courthouse update It’s sad when a local public official claims powerlessness before real estate developers, the market, and state government. But that’s exactly what Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern is doing in the latest round of the already half-century long East Cambridge Courthouse saga. Which I wrote about in some detail […]
NO FINISH LINE IN SIGHT: 21ST ANNUAL HOMELESSNESS MARATHON TO BROADCAST FROM CAMBRIDGE
“We said we’re going to do this the same way the British had to get their troops out of Dunkirk,” the radio host said. “It was an immediate need. They were going to die and homeless people are dying.”
SOMERVILLE SUMMIT: PART VI
Residents vent on issues related to arts, artists, and artisans
THE SUMMIT: PART V
Residents vent on issues related to trees and the environment
