Cambridge to Temporarily Switch to MWRA Water for Remainder of 2022

Aug 26, 2022 – The City of Cambridge will temporarily begin sourcing its water from the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) starting Tuesday, August 30, 2022. The Cambridge Water Department anticipates that the MWRA will exclusively supply all of Cambridge’s public water through the end of the year. Even though Cambridge owns and maintains its watershed, it is also a member of the MWRA.

The two contributing factors to Cambridge’s decision to temporally switch to MWRA water are increasing Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) levels in our finished water and supply chain delays for the upcoming replacement of the filter media used to treat the drinking water at the Walter J. Sullivan Water Treatment Facility, located at 250 Fresh Pond Parkway in Cambridge, with new Granular Activated Carbon filter media. The filter media replacement, expected to be completed in November 2022, will strengthen the Cambridge Water Department’s ability to remove PFAS from the water supply.

“Initial results for August showed PFAS levels trending upwards and September results are generally highest and so out of an abundance of caution, the Cambridge Water Department will be temporarily switching to MWRA water to eliminate potential health effects from PFAS levels above the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) regulatory standard,” said Sam Corda, Managing Director of the Cambridge Water Department. “Cambridge’s temporary use of MWRA water will continue until we replace filters with new Granular Activated Carbon filter media in our treatment plant. Replacing the filter media will ensure that our PFAS levels will be reliably and consistently below the MassDEP regulatory standard in the short and long term.”

Cambridge water comes from the Stony Brook Watershed, nested in the Charles River Basin, in the towns of Lincoln, Lexington, Weston, and the City of Waltham. The water makes its way by gravity through tributaries, reservoirs, and pipes to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, where it is pumped into the Walter J. Sullivan Purification Facility for treatment. Finally, the finished water is pumped to and stored in the underground Payson Park Reservoir in Belmont, where it is fed by gravity to the residents and businesses of Cambridge.

“Massachusetts has some of the strictest PFAS standards in the country, and the Cambridge Water Department is committed to maintaining and supplying high-quality water to our community,” said Owen O’Riordan, Acting City Manager. “We have decided to temporarily switch to MWRA water until the Cambridge Water Department replaces the existing filter media with new Granulated Activated Carbon filter media in our Water Treatment Plant. Unfortunately, the replacement process is taking longer due to supply chain issues, and our temporary switch to MWRA water reflects our commitment to providing all residents with a safe drinking water supply, especially those sensitive subgroups such as pregnant or nursing women, infants, and people with a compromised immune system who are most impacted by increased PFAS levels.”

The temporary switch to MWRA water is expected to cost approximately $2 million per month.

Like many public water supply operators, the City has been aware of the emergence of PFAS as contaminants of concern in recent years. The MassDEP standard for the level of PFAS in public drinking water is 20 nanograms per liter (ng/l), or 20 parts per trillion (ppt) for six specific compounds called “PFAS6”. The Water Department has complied with the MassDEP regulations at all times since it started monitoring for PFAS in August 2019 and has also been proactively monitoring for PFAS in its water supply reservoirs since that time (Hobbs Brook, Stony Brook, and Fresh Pond) to stay on top of this emerging issue.

The MassDEP promulgated a new regulation on October 2, 2020, for the six PFAS compounds designated as PFAS6. Within about a year from when this new regulation was adopted, the City tested and obtained approval from the MassDEP to replace the Granular Activated Carbon filter media in its Walter J. Sullivan Water Treatment Facility to strengthen our ability to remove PFAS from the water supply. The purchase and replacement of the Granular Activated Carbon filter media was bid out and subsequently awarded in May. The Cambridge Water Department is awaiting the formal implementation schedule from the vendor, with the anticipated start date of this work being Fall 2022. When the filter media are replaced, it is anticipated that our PFAS levels will be lower and reliably and consistently below state regulations.

For additional information about PFAS and the Cambridge Water Department, visit www.cambridgema.gov/water.

2021 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report

Cambridge to Expand Free Small Business Compost Pilot Program

Aug 25, 2022 – The City of Cambridge today announced that it will expand the free Small Business Compost Pilot Program for up to 40 additional small businesses in fall 2022.

The goal of this pilot is to assist businesses in reducing costs, controlling rodents, and protecting our environment. The city will offer up to twice per week collection of two carts of food waste from small businesses.

Beginning November 1, 2022, commercial generators that produce more than 1,000 lbs of food waste per week will be required to reduce or divert their food waste going into the trash. To assist small businesses in Cambridge with this state regulation, the service and carts will be provided by the city at no cost to the participating businesses. Weekly collection is anticipated to start on October 24, 2022.

Currently, the city’s curbside compost program is available to all residential buildings on the city’s trash collection route and 60 small businesses.

Composting reduces trash going to landfills and converts food scraps into clean energy. Separating food waste from trash bins and placing it in curbside compost carts also helps manage rodents in the community as the locking green compost carts make it more difficult for rodents to access food scraps that might otherwise end up in trash bins.

Currently, the city collects more than 35 tons of food waste per week, and with the expanded Small Business Compost Pilot Program, the city has the potential of diverting an additional 5 tons per week. Since curbside compost collection began in 2014, Cambridge has diverted more than 6,000 tons of food waste.

“Building upon our successful Small Business Recycle Program that now serves 200+ businesses, the free Small Business Compost Pilot Program is an important service to support businesses while reducing waste,” said Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui. “More than 50% of waste from food service businesses is food waste, and separating food waste from the trash helps fight climate change and manage increasing waste disposal costs.

“Current participants in the program reported saving an average of $200 per month and many have cited that rodent activity has decreased due to the addition of the compost program,” said Cambridge Acting City Manager Owen O’Riordan. “We are incredibly proud to offer this program to help businesses save money, reduce rodent activity, and protect our environment. A true win-win-win program.”

To apply for the pilot program, interested Cambridge businesses must fill out this application before October 1, 2022.

The City will host a virtual public meeting to review the program and answer questions from the business community on Monday, September 19 at 11:00am. Register in advance for this webinar.

For more information, please contact the Department of Public Works at recycle@cambridgema.gov or call 617-349-4800.

Images from the Oldtime Baseball Game - Aug 24, 2022 at Saint Peter’s Field

photos contributed by James Williamson

Dear Mr. Barr (Traffic Director) - Letters from Megan Brook…

Inman Sq. safety failures

Dear Mr. Barr,

First I want to say that you have always been genial and courteous to me even when I have confronted you at Inman Square discussions in the past. I appreciate this. But because I believe you (and your “consultants”) have done permanent real harm to our neighborhood in your haste in applying “Vision Zero” ideas to Cambridge, I am still going to communicate my thoughts about it to you, in stiff language as befits the seriousness of what you have done, most of which can never be undone.

All over this town your plans are encountering resistance, and you are no doubt dismissing this resistance as just old-fashioned “fear of change”. But your dismissal of our concerns is a mistake. I have been told informally by someone I won’t name that even CPD hates what you have done to our intersection and that my impression that the transition is not being well handled is correct.

I won’t go into how shocked I am at how needlessly wide the new sidewalks are in so many spaces where there used to be parking, or space for delivery trucks, or space for drivers to pull over for emergency vehicles. That’s another story. For now I will focus on the following:

Traffic Division has a history of laxity, which almost certainly flows from top leadership, with anything it regards as “temporary”. Witness the carelessly attached signage for the no-left-turn in Inman Square which I myself found on the sidewalk in a windstorm, and returned to the Firehouse. The sharp-edged heavy sign had to have flown at about a 45 degree angle through the middle of the intersection to have landed where it did, and it could have killed any person it might have struck, including a person in a car. I know you didn’t take this seriously, because not once did anyone from your division, let alone you, so much as thank me for picking it up and alerting the City that it had come down. And then the other one got loose, dangling at an angle while no one from your Division did anything until you got complaints. I suspect that your cavalier attitude towards the no-left-turn change was communicated to the worker who put up the signs, and that he failed to secure them properly because he knew you didn’t care about them. No-left-turn was never part of your glorious permanent plan. (But it worked very well.)

We see similar carelessness now in Inman Square with the incompleteness of preparations relating to pedestrian safety. The contractor, Newport, opened the new bent roadway and put the Walk/Don’t Walk signs in operation before marking needed stop lines for vehicles at crosswalks. You might think while they were making the zebra stripes for the crosswalk they’d have the equipment handy to paint the stop line.... The inevitable result is that drivers have blocked crosswalks, at least at the crossing from the rump park to the sidewalk in front of the pharmacy on Cambridge St. The line of idling cars goes all the way up the hill, and drivers have no idea when to stop.

Why do I have to tell you that these stop lines should have been marked immediately, even if they would be very temporary; or, if not, a PD officer should have been there at all hours except maybe the wee hours of the night. A baby-sitter with a child in a stroller and two or three other small kids to mind shouldn’t have to try to get around a car; a blind person should not have to; a wheelchair user shouldn’t; do I have to go on? Do you not know such people exist and frequent our square? Why do we have crosswalks at all if people can safely navigate crossing the street without them? Do you think someone maimed or killed in some temporary situation will not be permanently disabled or dead?

I suppose, the nasty audible “walk sign is on, walk sign is on” feature is required by some idiotic law made by people who have no understanding of neighborhood feeling. Once you turned our square inside out, you had to include all this garbage, no doubt -- one more reason not to make such wholesale changes. I can tell you already, people don’t read the little sign telling them that the arrow is for the audible feature. They naturally assume it is to request a Walk sign. So they press it reflexively, and everyone around has to listen to it, including the sight-impaired person who might be trying to navigate a nearby but different crossing. You need to fix this problem somehow!

I plan to ask a blind friend and neighbor of mine what he thinks. He spends a lot of time in the square, especially going in to play in Irish music sessions at the pub. But I already know that many blind people find audible directions to be either unnecessary or downright dangerous. “The map is not the territory,” as the old saying goes, and “walk sign is on” does not mean the road is safe.

I ask the City to provide enough officers to monitor pedestrian crossings everywhere the signals and street markings are not finished and for a few days afterwards, to make sure the new arrangements make sense to people. And I ask you to require Newport to complete the job ASAP. We have watched them dawdle over the whole mess for nearly three years now and we are pretty tired of it all. This was definitely not what we were promised -- and don’t tell me it was because of the pandemic. Outdoor work went right on, pandemic or not.

If you can’t get CPD to spare enough officers, I want to see you, Joe Barr, out there in a yellow vest doing your best to help people to cross the street. It wouldn’t hurt you to hear what some of them have to say about what you have done.

A kind-hearted police officer we see all the time told me, “Don’t dump any more on Joe Barr, he’s getting it from all sides.” That’s too bad (though I didn’t say so to the officer). You might be getting it from all sides because that’s what you get for foisting your costly, disruptive, unalterable experiment on us. People are angry.

Meanwhile you will be lucky if no one gets badly hurt or worse, given the chaos.

I appreciate your attention to what I have written.

Megan Brook, 103 Inman St.

Not even stop line helps

Dear Mr. Barr,

Yesterday I wrote to you pointing out that the crosswalk from the Inman Square rump park to the sidewalk by the pharmacy on Cambridge St. was missing the stop line which should tell drivers where they need to stop to avoid blocking the crosswalk.

I hope you found time to read that email, but if not, let me repeat my point that crosswalks in Cambridge need to be clear of vehicles to be safe for many of the people walking there, including the visually impaired, the very old, the frail and slow, the very young and small, and wheelchair users. The purpose of a marked crosswalk is not to allow folks to go around cars and trucks which could start moving at any moment!

I wrote yesterday that the stop line for the crosswalk in question needed to be painted in forthwith. But I shouldn’t have bothered. It was there for all to see later yesterday when I walked through the intersection on my way home from the grocery store. And yet, there was a car in the crosswalk during my Walk interval, which I had patiently waited for. I mentioned to the driver that he was stopped in a crosswalk, and he threw gently up his hands, as if to say, “I don’t know how this happened, I followed the signals, I landed here, you’re right, I’m sorry.” These people are not bad drivers. They are just trying to navigate through chaos. The chaos you created in your messianic zeal.

I attended many of your promotional events for the re-design back in 2015-2018. You and your consultants insisted that you had the ability to accurately predict new traffic patterns. If you accurately predicted these patterns, then we must conclude that your purpose was always to scare everyone except bike riding commuters (who don’t live here) away from Inman Square: to make our neighborhood nothing more than a commuter pass-through. We said so then, and you dismissed us.

The pandemic changed the situation somewhat, but you always underestimated how dependent on cars and trucks our economy is. Now it is more so. There are more delivery trucks. More people giving up on public transit. More people buying EV’s or hybrid cars. It is dangerously hot to ride a bike many days now. The single young people who were riding to work at a computer in the office? they are now often working from home.

Much of the rationale for the disruption you have forced us to live through, and the awful results, is now gone!

If you had had a little more humility and a lot less drive to put your great big footprint on Cambridge neighborhoods you don’t live in, using Other People’s Money, you might have wondered whether you really knew what you were doing. All our attempts to convey to you the unknowns of your plan fell on deaf ears. Our requests for visuals of the modelling were met with promises to provide them next time -- promises all broken. All we can do now is hope when this mess is actually finished, another year from now, it will work better than it does right now, and that our local small businesses will manage to stay. But I fear they will not. You never cared a scrap for them or for us who depend on them. All you cared about were the bike commuters: the future, you imagined; those alone needing Cambridge’s protection.

My partner didn’t go to most of your presentations. But he looked at the plan online. He has been saying to anyone listening ever since, “They have no idea what will happen to the traffic when this is done.” He would say it, “no-o-o-o idee-ee-ee-a.” How right he was, apparently; unless this mess was your plan all along.

You obviously have no idea how to stop people from trying to drive through Inman Square on Cambridge St. from the Harvard Sq. direction so as to block the crosswalk during the Walk interval. That’s a pretty simple thing and should have been a priority.

Everywhere we look we see the world falling apart. Now we see it in our own formerly friendly, interesting, un-trendy, useful, well-working square. Thanks for nothing. If the people actually running Cambridge had to face the voters, you would lose your job.

I am going to make one more point, one you will hear again, and again: Make the bicyclists stay in their bike lanes. We have given up far too much for them. Now any one of them darting through vehicular traffic to take a straight line through your precious “bend” should be arrested and fined. Their antics terrify good drivers and snarl up traffic. And it should go without saying, they have to keep off the sidewalks. So far they are not doing so if it suits them.

Thank you, if you have read this far.

Megan Brook 103 Inman St.

[Editor’s Note: If I were bicycling through Inman Square, I would likely ride along with the rest of the traffic as I have always done rather than be corralled into those “protected” bike lanes. Visibility matters. I will add that I don’t think any of these expensive changes will make traveling through Inman Square appreciably more safe than was accomplished by simply painting that long green stripe several years ago.]

Dear Megan Brook,

I’m not really in a position to respond to all of your comments and accusations, but I did want to share some information regarding the current status of the project, since it is still an active construction project and it is too early to evaluate the traffic operations. Not all of the pieces which will ultimately allow the intersection to function as intended are in place yet. There are also delays inherent in the construction operation itself, as crews move materials around the intersection, interrupt traffic to perform work, etc.

Cambridge Street between Springfield and Prospect is currently operating as a one-way street (westbound). The street will return to two-way operation at the conclusion of the construction later this fall, and the two-way condition is what the new signal was ultimately designed for. Right now, all traffic heading south/eastbound needs to wait for the “Hampshire green” near the fire station. In the future permanent condition, there will be two separate green phases (one heading to Cambridge Street, one heading to Hampshire Street), so there will much more overall “green” time in the intersection which will allow it to clear out. While we currently are looking at adding some additional time to the “Hampshire green” to help with the backups, we must balance this additional green time with the need to safely operate the pedestrian and bike crossings of Hampshire near the fire station.

The middle of the intersection (in front of the Urgent Care) will ultimately have two lanes heading south/eastbound, not just one as is the case now. This will allow for sorting of Cambridge-bound and Hampshire-bound traffic so they can use the separate signals described above. The Contractor is in the process of building out this additional lane as part of the adjacent plaza construction. Given the tight constraints of working in an operating intersection, it was not possible to fully build-out this lane ahead of the recent traffic switch.

Finally, regarding your concern about cyclists staying in the bike lane, I agree that cyclists should not be on sidewalks, since Inman Square is a business district and sidewalk cycling is prohibited. However, Massachusetts does not have an “obligatory bike lane use” law, so cyclists are fully allowed to stay on the street regardless of whether a bike lane is present.

Thanks. Joe B.

Inman Square Layout

Dennis Eckersley, Lou Merloni to Appear at Oldtime Baseball Game to Be Held Wed, Aug 24, starting at 6:00pm (date/time changed due to rain)

Jim Corsi Boston Red Sox Game Will Be Played for The Jimmy Fund in Honor of Late Red Sox Pitcher Jim Corsi

Cambridge’s Annual Celebration of Baseball Returns to St. Peter’s Field

It’s throwback uniforms. It’s period music. It’s local baseball talent. Put it all together and you have the 28th annual Abbot Financial Management Oldtime Baseball Game, which will be played Wednesday, August 24 at 6:00pm at St. Peter’s Field on Sherman Street in North Cambridge.

The evening will be headlined by Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley and former Red Sox infielder Lou Merloni, who will take part in a pregame ceremony to honor the late Red Sox pitcher Jim Corsi, a native of Newton, Mass., who died in January.

About a month before his death, Corsi did an emotional interview with WBZ-TV sports anchor Steve Burton in which he spoke of the importance of colonoscopy screening. In the last weeks of his own life, then, Corsi was working to save the lives of others; in that spirit, this year’s Oldtime Baseball Game will be played as a benefit for the Jimmy Fund.

Specifically, funds will be directed to the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Jim Corsi’s family, working in concert with the Oldtime Baseball Game, chose the Young-Onset Center as this year’s beneficiary.

Corsi had a special relationship with the Oldtime Baseball Game, as he pitched in it in 2002 and 2003 after his major-league career ended. He was the first former Red Sox player to appear in the game. So Eckersley, the longtime analyst of Red Sox games on NESN, recently announced he will retire at the end of this season. This year’s Oldtime Baseball Game will thus be one of his last public appearances before exiting the New England stage for a move to California to be closer to his grandchildren.

Eckersley’s reason for appearing at the Oldtime Baseball Game is simple: He wants to help honor the memory of Corsi, with whom he forged a lasting friendship during their years as teammates on the Oakland A’s. And it’s the same with Lou Merloni: beginning in 1998, when he made his major-league debut with the Red Sox, he and Corsi were teammates for parts of two seasons.

Eckersley and Merloni will take part in a pregame ceremony in which they speak about Corsi and then catch ceremonial first pitches thrown by Corsi’s sons Joey and Mitch. Joey Corsi, who in September will be a junior at Bellingham High, plans to play in the Oldtime Baseball Game, wearing a uniform from his father’s days with the Red Sox.

Merloni, now co-host of the “Merloni, Fauria & Mego” program on Sportsradio 93.7 WEEI, played nine seasons in the major leagues, six of them with his hometown Red Sox. A native of Framingham, he has been a fixture in the Oldtime Baseball Game over the years, having played in the game 12 times. To honor Merloni’s commitment to the game, he will receive the Greg Montalbano Award, presented annually to a former player from the Oldtime Baseball Game. The award is given in memory of Greg Montalbano, a former Northeastern University pitcher who was only 31 when he died of cancer in 2009.

A Westborough native and baseball standout at Northeastern University, Montalbano was a participant in the Oldtime Baseball Game in 1997 and ’98. Selected by the Red Sox in the fifth round of the 1999 amateur draft, he played six seasons of professional baseball before illness ended his career. In 2001, he was named Minor League Pitcher of the Year by the Red Sox.

The Montalbano Award, instituted in 2010, is presented to a former participant in the Oldtime Baseball Game who best exemplifies Greg’s spirit, competitiveness and good nature. As is Oldtime Baseball Game tradition, Merloni, as recipient of the Montalbano Award, will wear the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals uniform that Montalbano wore when he played in the game in 1998.

The Oldtime Baseball Game, founded in Cambridge in 1994, is a summertime celebration of baseball. What makes the game special is its dazzling collection of flannel uniforms that represent virtually every era in baseball history. Used just once a year for the Oldtime Baseball Game, these recreations represent such long-ago teams as the Boston Braves, St. Louis Browns, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Athletics.

Representing the Negro Baseball Leagues are uniforms from the Homestead Grays, Kansas City Monarchs, Cleveland Buckeyes, Baltimore Elite Giants, Detroit Stars and Boston Royal Giants. Former minor-league teams are represented by the Oakland Oaks, San Francisco Seals, Wichita Falls Spudders and Hollywood Stars.\

Dr. Kimmie Ng, Director of Clinical Research at Dana-Farber’s Gastrointestinal Cancer Center, leads the way in the Dana-Farber’s Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center. She and her team are specialized in research and care for patients under 50 by developing new and innovative strategies for prevention, early detection, and treatment. They work to address the increasing instances of colorectal cancer in young people and to advocate for early detection. The Young-Onset Center also provides young adult patients and family members with support and services, including convenient colonoscopy screening.

Admission to the Oldtime Baseball Game is free. Fans are asked to bring a beach blanket or chair and camp out along the foul lines, as it is the crowd that makes the game so electric.

City of Cambridge Mail-in and In-person Voting Options, Temporary Relocation of Polling Sites and
Designated Early Voting Locations, Dates and Hours for the State Primary September 6, 2022

On June 22, 2022, “The VOTES Act” was signed into law. The VOTES Act makes several temporary election administration changes, which were instituted in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, permanent. Early voting is available to all voters for the State Primary, September 6. Early voting is available by mail and in person to all registered voters and no excuse is required.

To vote by mail, all you need to do is:

1. Complete a Vote by Mail Application; you can download an application at www.MailMyBallotMA.com;

2. Applications can be sent by:
email to elections@cambridgema.gov or
mail to Election Commission, 51 Inman Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 or
fax to (617)349-4366

3. Vote when your ballot arrives;

4. Return your ballot to the Cambridge Election Commission by mail, in-person, or by drop box.

The deadline to submit a Vote by Mail application for a mailed ballot for the primary is Monday, August 29 by 5:00pm.

The deadline to return a Vote by Mail ballot is September 6 by 8:00pm to be counted.

To vote in-person, visit any of the three (3) early voting locations offered in Cambridge during the period of Saturday, August 27 to Friday, September 2 for the State Primary. You must be a registered voter in Cambridge to vote at the early voting locations. Please refer to the city’s designated early voting schedule below.

The last day to vote early in-person will be Friday, September 2 at 5:00pm.

Please be advised that once a voter has cast an early voting ballot, the voter may no longer vote at the polls on Election Day.

CITY OF CAMBRIDGE
DESIGNATED EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS, HOURS AND DAYS

Cambridge Water Department - 250 Fresh Pond Parkway

Valente Library – 826 Cambridge Street, Side Entrance on Berkshire Street

Main Library – 449 Broadway

The Election Commission office located at 51 Inman Street will NOT be an early voting location for the State Primary, September 6. Voters must go to one of the designated early voting locations listed above.

Official Ballot Drop Box Locations (6) – (Cambridge voters only) Open from 7:00am to 8:00pm every day until September 6th at 8:00pm.

City Hall - Near the back door of the building located at 795 Massachusetts Avenue

Morse School - Near the front entrance of the building located at 40 Granite Street

Cambridge Police Headquarters - Right-side of the front of the building located at 125 6th Street

Maria L. Baldwin School - Right-side of the Oxford Street entrance of the building located at 28 Sacramento Street

O’Neill Library - Adjacent to the entrance stairs of the building located at 70 Rindge Avenue

Coffon Building - Right-side of the front of the building located at 51 Inman Street

IMPORTANT: Please make sure your voted ballot is sealed inside of the jurat envelope (yellow envelope)
and the affirmation on the jurat envelope has been signed prior inserting the envelope into the drop box.

Additional Voting Options

Voting on Election Day (7:00am to 8:00pm) will still be available for those who may want to vote at the polls. Please note that due to the 2022 Reprecincting, your polling location may have changed for the upcoming 2022 State Primary, September 6. Please double check your polling location before going to vote. To find your polling location and precinct information, visit www.cambridgema.gov/pollinglocations. In the next few weeks, voters will receive a Guide to Ward and Precinct Changes, Early Voting Guide and a Voter Notification Card. They will have information pertaining to any relocated polling places and other important election related information. Signage will also be posted to help voters find their polling sites.

Polling Locations Map and Addresses (revised Aug 17, 2022)

For anyone wanting to vote early in-person, vote by mail or vote on Election Day, the first step is making sure you are registered. To check to see if you are registered to vote, and to find information on how to register to vote, you may visit the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s website: www.registertovotema.com. If you need to register to vote, you may do so online if you have a license or an I.D. issued by the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV). If you don’t have an RMV ID, you will need to print and sign your registration form and mail it to the Cambridge Election Commission, or you can register to vote in person at the Election Commission office during regular office hours. The office will also be open for voter registration on Saturday, August 27 from 9:00am until 5:00pm. To be eligible to vote in the State Primary, September 6, you must register to vote or make any necessary changes to your voter registration by the deadline of Saturday, August 27.

We encourage all our citizens to exercise their right to and take advantage of the voting options available.

Advance Removal and Depositing of Ballots for the State Primary, September 6, 2022

From the Cambridge Election Commission (Aug 22) – Under the provisions of “The Votes Act”, early voting ballots may be processed in advance of Election Day. The City of Cambridge Election Commission will conduct advance removal of voted State Primary ballots on Mon, Aug 29; Tues, Aug 30; Wed, Aug 31; and Thurs, Sept 1 beginning at 9:00am at the Citywide Senior Center, Windsor House, 806 Massachusetts Ave, Basement Level. The voted ballots will be removed from their sealed envelopes and prepared for advance depositing. The advance depositing of voted State Primary ballots will be conducted on Fri, Sept 2, beginning at 9:00am at the Citywide Senior Center, Windsor House, 806 Massachusetts Ave, Basement Level. The voted ballots will be placed in a tabulator and counted. The results from advance processing will not be determined or announced until after the polls close at 8:00pm on Election Day, Sept 6. The results from the advanced processing will be added to the Election Day results and posted in a public place.

Both processes will be open for public observation. If you would like to observe the advance removal and/or depositing of ballots, we ask that you arrive at the rear entrance of the center on Green Street on the scheduled days. Observers are strongly encouraged to use face coverings. If you have any questions, please call (617) 349-4361.

Thomas F. Cahill Jr. Named Acting Fire Chief of the Cambridge Fire Department

Aug 18, 2022 – Cambridge Acting City Manager Owen O’Riordan has appointed Assistant Fire Chief Thomas F. Cahill Jr. as Acting Fire Chief of the Cambridge Fire Department, effective August 17, 2022. Cahill takes over for Acting Fire Chief Gerard Mahoney, who retired after 39 years of service with the Cambridge Fire Department.

“Cambridge Fire is a nationally recognized ISO Class 1 Department, and Thomas Cahill Jr. is highly qualified and prepared to lead the Department,” said Acting City Manager O’Riordan. “As a longtime resident of Cambridge, Tom has spent his entire career with the Cambridge Fire Department. He has demonstrated his commitment to ensuring the safety of our community and his ability to lead the Cambridge Fire Department. I am proud to appoint Tom as the Acting Fire Chief.”

Cahill joined the Cambridge Fire Department as a firefighter in 1995 after serving in the U.S. Coast Guard for four years. He served as a firefighter and fire lieutenant in fire suppression until promoted to Captain, where he served in the Fire Prevention/Fire Investigation Unit. Cahill is the first and only nationally certified fire investigator in the department. As Chief of Operations, he was responsible for management and oversight of the day-to-day operations of the 278 member department. Cahill holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix and a Master of Public Administration from Framingham State University.

“I want to congratulate Acting Fire Chief Cahill on his appointment. His dedication to public safety in our community makes him an excellent choice to fill this critical role during this transition,” said Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui.

To create a formal and transparent appointment process, Acting City Manager O’Riordan organized a screening committee comprised of the Acting City Manager, Incoming City Manager, City Personnel Director, Police Commissioner, and Executive Director of Metro Fire to conduct interviews. The Committee developed a set of standard interview questions covering experience and preparation, leadership style, vision and goals, collaboration and outreach, people management and judgment, labor relations, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The screening committee selected Cahill from among nine internal candidates interviewed. The City Manager is the appointing authority for the Fire Chief.

Cahill said, “My entire career has been dedicated to public service. As a longtime resident of Cambridge, I love working in this city, and I am proud to work with the incredibly dedicated and talented members of the Cambridge Fire Department. I am honored to have been selected as Acting Chief and look forward to the challenges and opportunities I will face to keep the Cambridge Fire Department at the forefront of our profession.”

City of Cambridge asks Residents for Assistance in Supporting its Urban Forest During this Summer’s Heat and Drought Conditions

July 28, 2022 – The City of Cambridge today announced it is asking residents and local business for assistance in maintaining its healthy urban forest, which includes trees on streets, in parks, on private property, and campuses. Recent extreme heat and the current drought have significantly stressed many new and mature trees throughout the city. These trees provide essential shade, clean the air, and support a living ecosystem.

“The most important thing people can do is help by watering trees near their home,” said Public Works Superintendent of Urban Forestry Andrew Putnam. “This is the most sustainable way to water, and we’re asking any residents and businesses who are able to please do their part by filling a Gator Bag on a tree or drenching the soil in a nearby tree well.”

The City’s Urban Forestry Division is responsible for planting, watering, and maintaining all trees on city property, and crews have deployed proactive strategies. Currently, staff are operating three water trucks to water street trees across the city from early morning until evening. The Parks Division, along with the Cambridge Water Department, are also assisting in watering, and the City’s Water-by-Bike staff water trees 8 hours daily. The city’s tree planting contractor is also running multiple trucks to water newly planted street trees that are two years and younger, six days per week.

“Protecting our Urban Forest is a top priority of the city, and our residents and businesses can play a critical role in this effort by assisting us by watering street trees adjacent to their property,” said Owen O’Riordan, Acting City Manager. “While we are in a level-3 critical drought, the amount of water we are asking residents to provide street trees is insignificant in terms of drought impact on our water supply.”

Given the size of the city’s Urban Forest, the city alone cannot water every tree. In drought conditions like this, residents and businesses can play a critical role in protecting street trees in their neighborhoods by watering trees. Generally, street trees need approximately 20 gallons of water per week from May to October. However, in heat and drought conditions, it is recommended that trees are watered at least 2-3 times a week.

Many young trees can be easily watered by filling the green Gator Bag attached to the tree with 20 gallons of water using a garden hose or container to fill the bag. Water can be slowly poured on the base of the tree directly if it does not have a Gator Bag or is well-established. Compacted soil reduces water’s ability to infiltrate the soil and can lead to water runoff. Residents can gently loosen the soil with a trowel in such situations so water can better penetrate the ground. If a tree is small enough and doesn’t have a Gator Bag, residents can go to DPW at 147 Hampshire St and get a Gator Bag from the Front Desk to attach to the tree to assist with the watering.

Residents who see a tree in distress should report it through SeeClickFix so DPW can try to assess and/or water the tree.

Additionally, residents are encouraged to participate in the Cambridge Urban Forest Friends program. City crews cannot get to every tree enough in the warmer months to water, mulch, and weed all of the new and young trees in the city. The public’s assistance in ensuring these trees get a good start is needed. Members of the public, groups, or organizations looking for a one-day volunteer opportunity can contact Cambridgetrees@cambridgema.gov.

As of July 21, 2022, Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Bethany Card declared that the Cambridge drought level has changed to a Level 3-Critical Drought, and the Cambridge Water Department is actively monitoring Cambridge’s drought status.

The significant drought conditions require close coordination among local, state, and federal agencies, with a substantial emphasis on water conservation and more stringent watering restrictions. Watering street trees is an acceptable use for outdoor watering as protecting the tree canopy is a critical strategy in the city’s climate change mitigation efforts.

As a reminder, the Cambridge Water Department strongly recommends practicing the following water conservation tips:

• Stop or minimize all unnecessary outdoor watering (street tree watering is an acceptable use);
• Look and listen to see if you have any water leaking, checking toilets often;
• Never let water run while doing dishes, brushing teeth, or washing hands;
• Flush toilets only when needed.

Learn more about water conservation at https://www.cambridgema.gov/Water/administration/droughtstatusandwaterconservation/waterconservation.

Featured recent stories in the Cambridge Chronicle (the paper of record) - with some comments:

If you would like to subscribe or pick up a free paper copy at various sites, I encourage you to do so. It really is The Paper of Record (even if the parent company (Gannett) is neglecting it and worse).

Cambridge has almost 300 pieces of public art, have you seen them? (July 21, 2022)

Legislatures’ concerns this year: plastic and mattresses (July 21, 2022)

How a city (Cambridge) and a small town (West Tisbury) found success in reducing waste (July 20, 2022)

What went wrong with single-stream recycling? (June 19, 2022, subscribers only)
‘The magic blue bin’: Unfulfilled promise of single-stream recycling… The rise of single-stream simplified recycling, but there are significant downsides, too.

As Maine limits landfill use, Massachusetts seeks answers and trash issues pile up (June 19, 2022, subscribers only)

THE CHRONICLE COMPANION: Mimosas, wine going down fine (July 18, 2022)

Get the kids out of the house: Cambridge Parks and Playgrounds guide (July 18, 2022)

Monkeypox cases are growing in Massachusetts. Here’s what to know. (July 15, 2022, updated July 18)

Mini golf has held secure place in Americans’ hearts for a century (July 14, 2022, subscribers only)
“It’s survived because it’s the one thing that you can do with your children, you can do with your grandparents, you can go on a date, you can go with a bunch of people. It’s the one thing that’s still family oriented. It’s something that all demographics do and enjoy and is still affordable.”

15-member review team to take first look at the Cambridge town charter (July 13, 2022)

Conserve your water: ‘Significant’ drought conditions in Bay State (July 13, 2022)

Cambridge gives ‘Michael’ a proper sendoff; unhomed man touched many (July 6, 2022)

DePasquale’s 45-year career in Cambridge marked by fiscal excellence (July 5, 2022)

Antisemitic map targets local Jewish community, security now the focus (July 6, 2022)

Facial recognition: Civil rights groups argue racial bias, inaccuracy (June 30, 2022)

Cambridge cuts ribbon on transformed Foundry 101 building, a new space for artists (June 29, 2022)

Group takes Cambridge to Superior Court over bike lanes (June 24, 2022)

Cambridge stages inaugural Juneteenth parade (June 21, 2022)

Can you score a hole in one? Mini-golf courses to try this summer (June 17, 2022)
Note: We could really use one in or near Cambridge. A small portion of the Volpe Center property in Kendall Square would be a great location.

For Juneteenth, learn about court cases that helped end slavery in MA (June 17, 2022)

Weekend of hiking, paddling, art planned at 23rd annual Riverfest (June 16, 2022)
RiverFest to celebrate Sudbury, Assabet, Concord Rivers with hiking, paddling and more

Harvard Square at the center of Cambridge native’s new novel (June 15, 2022)

Cambridge to celebrate Juneteenth with citywide events (June 15, 2022)

Cambridge Public Library celebrates Juneteenth (June 15, 2022)

Historic industrial building transformed into Cambridge arts center (June 15, 2022)
The Foundry will become a new creativity hub for Cambridge. Ribbon-cutting set for June 22.

The Chronicle Companion: Week of June 13-19, 2022 (posted June 13, 2022)

Harvard President Lawrence Bacow to step down next year (June 10, 2022)

PHOTOS: CRLS graduates Class of 2022 (June 10, 2022)

Full text of the 2022 CRLS valedictorian address (June 10, 2022 by Jade Backwater)

Cambridge nonprofit left in the dark about City-owned building (June 8, 2022)

New Moderna COVID-19 booster is showing superior response to Omicron (June 8, 2022)

Nonprofit executive Yi-An Huang to be next Cambridge city manager (June 6, 2022, updated June 7)

Justice still being sought for Charlene Holmes 10 years after fatal Willow Street shooting (June 6, 2022)

The Chronicle Companion: Week of June 6-12, 2022 (posted June 5, 2022)

Harvard Square cobbler, Felix Shoe Repair owner, discusses life at 87 (June 7, 2022, subscribers only)

Taking a trip this summer? Don’t get stuck in traffic because of road work on these routes (June 2, 2022)

…their power came from the existence of a problem. Without a problem, their power would vanish.…

July 4, 2022 - As the battle between Red and Blue rages on in Washington, DC, I often find myself recalling the wisdom of friends with the ability to understand seemingly complicated things in simple terms. One example of this was an observation from my friend David Goode many years ago in the immediate aftermath of the demise of rent control in Cambridge and the rest of Massachusetts. In describing the neverending inability of the two dominant factions of the Cambridge City Council to find compromise (CCA and the Independents), David noted that “their power came from the existence of a problem. Without a problem, their power would vanish.” This was one of the most profound political observations I have ever heard, and I think it remains applicable today in a range of issues ranging from abortion rights to immigration to gun control. It’s not that compromises are unavailable. It’s just that if some of these nagging problems were actually solved using some version of Solomonic wisdom, more than a few political players might just wither away and be gone in the next gentle breeze.

David wrote metaphorically about this in an Open Form piece in the February 23, 1995 issue of the Cambridge Chronicle:

Rent control as the unhealthy offspring of a dysfunctional family
BY DAVID GOODE
Cambridge Chronicle, February 23, 1995

Rent control is dead. Speculation remains rampant on both sides of the issue, but the next two years will amount to little more than a long funeral. While all the players in this melodrama continue to bicker about the funeral arrangements, perhaps it’s time to step back and understand what caused the death of this unique child of Cambridge.

We all know that from the birth of rent control, property owners have been trying to kill it. This is not to say that their actions were wrong. In fact, they were natural and expected. If property owners killed rent control, we must admit that it died of natural causes. However, a death by natural causes does not necessarily mean that treatment was not possible.

The parents of rent control had two options to protect the life of their child. First, they could water down rent control to limit the amount of resistance generated by property owners. Conversely, they could make rent control so strict that property owners would be forced to sell out to non-profit cooperatives that would keep housing affordable in perpetuity. This second treatment is known in rent control breeding circles as the “decommodification” of housing.

The parents of rent control in Boston, and to a certain extent Brookline, choose the first treatment. They weakened rent control to the point where property owner opposition was not life threatening. In Cambridge, the parents of rent control could never decide on an appropriate treatment to save rent control. The reasons for their indecision stems from the roots of their relationship as a family.

Cambridge rent control was born of parents from two different cultures. One parent represented the socially progressive, fiscally conservative Yankee tradition. Bom and raised in West Cambridge and a product of Harvard University, he learned that capitalism meant prosperity. However, he also learned that the most successful were obligated to provide for the less fortunate.

As he grew to maturity in the late sixties, this future rent control parent became attracted to a young, attractive movement that grew up in Mid-Cambridge, Cambridgeport and East Cambridge. He was fascinated by her upstart social progressiveness and her burning desire to change the system to protect the unfortunate. Although they disagreed on occasion, they knew that their marriage would provide the political power both needed to accomplish their goals. They fell in love and were married.

Cambridge rent control was born of this marriage. However, as they tried to raise their child as a family, trouble soon began. Property owners relentlessly attacked their child. The parents knew the available antidotes but could not decide which would be the cure. The Yankee capitalist could not accept the anti-American decommodification treatment. Conversely, the socially progressive upstart could not “sell out” the cause to a weakened version of rent control.

The fight became so bitter that the couple often considered divorce. However, divorce would mean losing the power their marriage had gained for them. At all costs, they had to preserve the appearance of a happy marriage.

They knew they had a problem and decided that election day would be their new beginning. To reach this goal, they sought the advice of counselors. The couple searched for someone who would heal their child. These counselors always produced the same advice. “Your child is only as strong as your marriage.” “Stay together and your child will be fine.” Election day after election day passed, and the answers always stayed the same. As often is the case, it’s the children who suffer from their elders’ denial.

Years passed, and the child grew weaker and weaker. Yet even when death was imminent, the parents could not come to agreement on an acceptable treatment. In panic they turned again to their counselors for advice. “Tell us what to do, we must do something,” the parents cried. “Stay together, you must stay together,” said the counselors.

The counselors knew that their power came from the existence of a problem. Without a problem, their power would vanish. As each election day approached with an opportunity to heal the child, the counselors convinced the family not to change anything. By doing so, they knew that they would maintain their powerful positions as advisors and policy makers. “Slay together,” they said to the family, “if you stay together everything will be fine.”

Rent control is dead and the family of rent control must decide if it can survive to support other children. The counselors are frantically looking for new clients hoping to avoid being revealed as self-centered witch doctors. So many families, so little time.

David R. Goode is a Cambridge native and campaign manager for City Councilor Sheila Russell. He now works as assistant town manager for the town of Provincetown.

Ad Hoc Selection Committee Announces 15 Charter Review Committee Members

July 1, 2022 - The Ad Hoc Selection Committee (Alanna Mallon, Sumbul Siddiqui, Patricia Nolan, Paul Toner) reviewed 122 highly qualified applicants and has selected 15 Charter Review Committee members: Kaleb Abebe, Jessica Dejesus Acevedo, Mosammat Faria Afreen, Kathleen Born (Chair, appointed by City Council July 20), Nikolas Bowie, Kevin Chen, Max Clermont, Jennifer Gilbert, Kai Long, Patrick Magee, Mina Makarious, Lisa Peterson, Ellen Shachter, Susan Shell, and Jim Stockard.

All Committee members are registered Cambridge voters as required by the Charter. Per the passage of the ballot initiatives in November 2021, the Committee will review the current Plan E Charter, hold community forums, and gather input from all stakeholders and residents. The Committee will recommend changes they believe will improve and modernize Cambridge’s structure and governance to the City Council. Any recommendations the City Council accepts will be put before all voters in a municipal election prior to adoption. The Committee is expected to take up to one year to complete its work with the first meeting to be held at the end of this month or beginning of August.

More information will be available on a dedicated City webpage in the coming weeks.

Please direct any questions to the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, Michael Scarlett at mscarlett@cambridgema.gov.

Current (Plan E) Cambridge City Charter (as amended)

Photo by Mutsuko

Linh Phan: Project Manager, Cambridge Jazz Foundation; Larry Ward, Executive Director, Cambridge Jazz Foundation; Robyn Culbertson, Executive Director, Cambridge Office For Tourism; Ron Savage, Artist Director & Co-founder Cambridge Jazz Foundation, Dean of the Professional Performance Division, Berklee College of Music.

June 29, 2022
After a two-year interruption, Cambridge Office for Tourism and Cambridge Jazz Foundation are thrilled to announce the return of the 7th Annual Cambridge Jazz Festival on Saturday, July 30th and Sunday, July 31st. This free outdoor festival features live music from 12 pm–6 pm at Danehy Park in Cambridge.

GRAMMY-winner Eguie Castrillo headlines Saturday’s line-up. Eguie has performed with Tito Puente, Steve Winwood, Michael Brecker, Ruben Blades, along with many other greats. Chelsey Green and The Green Project will follow as Sunday night’s headliner. Often described as passionate, vivacious, electrifying and innovative, Chelsey soloed in New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall at age 16. Her resume includes performances at the GRAMMY Awards, CBS Late Show, NPR Tiny Desk and The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History’s grand opening.

“We are delighted to help present this year’s talented line-up,” says Robyn Culbertson, Executive Director of Cambridge Office for Tourism. “Cambridge is home to a vibrant music scene; these two days will really showcase that. We’re excited to welcome jazz fans to Cambridge and share the city’s culture with them!”

In addition to performances, a college scholarship will be presented at the festival as well as Cambridge Jazz Foundation’s very own CAMMY Awards. The festival weekend also includes a jazz museum, music therapy, food trucks, plus a kids’ area with face painting. The MIT Museum will even display an interactive pop-up exhibit around the science of sound.

Visit cambridgejazzfoundation.org

On my mind this weekend

This July Fourth, Meet Three Americas (David French, July 3, 2022, The Dispatch)
The red, the blue, and the tired. [And definitely listen to Bruce Springsteen’s rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” at the end.

The Far Right and Far Left Agree on One Thing: Women Don’t Count (Pamela Paul, July 3, 2022, New York Times)

Linkage Increases - June 22, 2022 Ordinance Committee
To: Cambridge City Council
From: Patrick Barrett

Dear Ordinance Committee,

Attached is a brief synopsis of my point of view on the proposed linkage increases on the table for June 22. When the change was made in 2015 I made the sole protest of going down to 30k sq ft and thought the idea of tallying existing square footage would funnel development toward only the “highest and best use” which was laboratories and R&D. The 2019 nexus study shows exactly this. In an effort to capture dollars from the gold rush of lab uses throughout the city we have squelched infill development, repurposing existing sq ft for anything other than lab use, and obliterated the entertainments uses for the City. Further that this nexus study was done in December of 2019 should at least give some pause as the pandemic has changed this real estate landscape for decades to come. I kept it to one page … but I urge any of you concerned about livability and providing a fertile landscape of ideas and development in this city to read it and rethink what linkage is and what its actually supposed to do. I also urge this Council to expand their thoughts on what this city needs beyond simply affordable housing and to see this city from 30,000 feet not 2”.

Good Luck,
Patrick W. Barrett III
617 778 3521

Incentive Project. Any new development that consists of at least thirty thousand (30,000) square feet of Gross Floor Area devoted to one or more of the following uses listed in Section 4.30 of the Zoning Ordinance: Sections 4.31 i-2 (Hotel or motel), 4.32 f (Radio and television studio), 4.33 b-5 (College or University not exempt by statute, specifically including those uses and facilities listed in Subsection 4.56 c-4, c-5, and c-6), 4.33 c (Noncommercial Research Facility), 4.33 d (Health Care Facilities), 4.33 e (Social Service Facilities), 4.34 (Office and Laboratory Use), 4.35 (Retail or Consumer Service Establishments), 4.36 (Outdoor Retail or Consumer Service Establishments), 4.37 (Light Industry, Wholesale Business and Storage), and 4.38 (Heavy Industry). For the purpose of this definition, new development shall mean (1) construction of new buildings or additions to existing buildings to accommodate uses in the above list, (2) substantial rehabilitation of buildings to accommodate uses in the above list for which the buildings were not originally used, or (3) Gross Floor Area whose use is changed from a use not included in the above list to a use included in the above list. In no case shall Gross Floor Area devoted to a Municipal Service Facility or Other Government Facility be considered an Incentive Project.

As the Council contemplates the change in linkage fee I ask that they review the policy and its effect on all uses allowed in our business and industrial districts other than just focusing solely on lab uses. In the 2019 nexus study which reviewed the effect of changes made to the inclusionary ordinance shows succinctly that 79.9% of all commercial development was categorized as “office/RD.”  The Council should ask for a further breakdown of this number as our ordinance that conflates Lab and Office uses as essentially the same category of use. Further of that commercial build 0% was in the hospitality area and only 4.7% of this was in the retail category, which includes anything from a shoe store to an opera house. I believe this heavily weighted development scheme is by design and to further increase linkage would not only hurt the city it would continue to funnel all development towards lab use. This is an unsurprising result coming from a study that claims restaurants have a 5 times greater impact on housing cost than R/D and lab.¹

In the pursuit of extracting a maximum tax on commercial development in the City of Cambridge the City has employed a “scorched earth” methodology where a restaurant, a hotel, a gym, a level 3 lab, and an opera house all have the same impact on the costs of housing and lack of supply, and all pay the same rate. As part of the change in 2015 Cambridge lowered the project threshold to 30,000 sq ft; based on the 2019 nexus report nine (9) projects were built under 30k sq ft for a total of 167k sq ft and twenty eight (28) projects were built over the 30k threshold of which each individual project was more than the total combined sq ft of the 9 under 30k.² Thus no one even attempted to build a project within the 30-50k threshold. Imagine trying to build a 30-50k sq ft theatre in the Cultural District of Central Square or trying to take the tens of thousands of commercial office space abandoned due to Covid and trying to make the math work for anything other than a lab use which currently can command as high as $200/sq ft? Why are we discouraging owners to “substantially rehabilitate” existing buildings? Further the date of this study is December 2019! At the very least two years plus of a pandemic ought to prompt some questions from this Council on the viability of an increase in the post Covid world.

Thus we have an overly aggressive tax scheme that disincentivizes any use other than lab, punishes restoration of existing parcels for anything other than lab, and overburdens arts, entertainment, and uses that could enhance and bring life to our business districts and communities. Please reject the increase in linkage fees, exempt existing sq ft for uses other than lab, and retore the project threshold to 50k sq ft as the current scheme doesn’t draw any revenue and it forces developers to make bad decisions that will greatly impact our business and cultural districts for decades to come.

1  Cambridge Nexus Study       pg 61 (Table 35)     Karl F. Seidman Consulting Services

2  Cambridge Nexus Study       pg 60     Karl F. Seidman Consulting Services

Cambridge Streets for All et al vs. City of Cambridge (filed June 10, 2022)

This action seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against the Defendant City of Cambridge to rescind and prevent the additional implementation of its Cycling Safety Ordinance, as amended in 2020 (“CSO”).…

Text of lawsuit (PDF original)

Link to court documents
[Click on “Click Here”; Search criteria – Court Department: “The Superior Court” (dropdown menu) – Court Division: “Middlesex County” (dropdown menu) – Company Name: Type “Cambridge Streets for All”]

July 1 Update:
Judge rules that Cambridge bike lanes can roll on, at least for now (July 1, 2022, Boston Globe)
A lawsuit seeks to halt construction on Cambridge’s Cycling Safety Ordinance, but a judge said Friday the action is unlikely to succeed.

Press Release from Plaintiffs:
Cambridge Residents and Small Businesses File Lawsuit Against City of Cambridge Over Razing of Street Parking on Cambridge Streets

Cambridge Streets for All (CSA), a diverse group of stakeholders comprised of retail store owners, medical offices, restaurants, neighborhood residents and more, filed a lawsuit today against the City of Cambridge seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the Defendant City of Cambridge to rescind, restore and prevent the additional implementation of the city’s Cycling Safety Ordinance as amended in 2020.

The action describes a developing situation in Cambridge in which storefronts can’t serve customers because there is nowhere to park, where quiet side street neighborhoods will become de facto parking areas and loading docks, and where medical patients won’t be able to access the offices of their providers.

“Despite a series of packed City Council meetings, the message from residents and businesses that they are being harmed has continued to fall on deaf ears, CSA determined that taking legal action against this ordinance was our only recourse to be heard,” said CSA board member and Cambridge bakery owner Lee Jenkins. “They didn’t consult local businesses and residents when they drew up these plans in the middle of a pandemic and they’re not listening to us now. We believe improved bike lane access to be an excellent goal, but not when the parking for business customers and staff, as well as for neighborhood residents and patients of local medical providers is being completely gutted, which will clog side streets where people live.”

“It is surprising how many people across the City are totally unaware of the mandate to install separated bike lanes. That tells me there was not enough outreach from the city nor any meaningful citizen engagement. All people want is a chance to participate in a meaningful way,” said Joan Pickett, a homeowner in mid-Cambridge since 1998.

“I have lived and raised my family in Porter Square for over 25 years and have seen the area develop into a thriving neighborhood with a diverse middle-class community and business district,” said John Hanratty, Cambridge resident and homeowner. “When the city removed virtually all street parking for businesses and dedicated travel lanes for buses in North Cambridge, the installation appeared almost overnight and caught residents by surprise.”

Hanratty continued, “After seeing the negative impact the implementation of the quick-build bike lanes has had on businesses and traffic patterns on North Mass Ave, I am extremely concerned about how the imminent plans for Porter Square will irreparably harm the vibrant business community that exists here.”

“My business is a minority-owned barber shop that has been in business for 21 years in Cambridge,” said Harold Gilmer, owner of a barber shop on Mass Ave. “My shop, which specializes in razor cuts, has a broad clientele, the majority of whom come from outside Cambridge. More than 50% percent of my customers come by car.”

Gilmer added, “Past employees left because they could no longer afford paying parking tickets on top of their salary and tips. I estimate that my business has experienced about a 50% decline since installation of the quick-build bike lanes because people can no longer park near my shop.”

Longtime civic and environmental activist​​ and mid-Cambridge resident John Pitkin said, “For years I’ve witnessed how reductions in street parking have drained diversity and local business activity from Harvard Square, Inman Square and Cambridge Street. Streets make city life possible. They are essential infrastructure for residents and businesses.”

“This is not just about Porter Square or one neighborhood. The City’s plan to install cookie-cutter bike lanes across the city excludes too many people and has already done too much damage. The City needs to take a hard look at how the new lanes are actually working and come up with a fairer plan that more people can support,” Pitkin said.

Jenkins concluded, “If the City of Cambridge continues moving forward with this process, which will effectively close many small, locally-owned businesses, what do we think will happen to the vacant spaces left behind? Cambridge is already over-developed with out-of-town and deep-pocketed interests having their way with the City Council. We need the people we elect to stand up for us, but instead they’re making decisions that will shut us down.”

About Cambridge Streets for All

CSA is a newly formed education and advocacy 501(c)3 founded by residents and businesses frustrated by the lack of responsiveness of Cambridge’ City Council to concerns raised by the implementation of the Cycling Safety Ordinance (CSO).

Yi-An Huang selected by Cambridge City Council as next City Manager

June 6, 2022 – The Cambridge City Council tonight voted 8-1 to select Yi-An Huang as the next City Manager to succeed Louis DePasquale when his contract ends on July 5, 2022. The initial City Council vote was 6-3 with Burhan Azeem, Dennis Carlone, Alanna Mallon, Patricia Nolan, Quinton Zondervan, and Sumbul Siddiqui voting for Yi-An Huang and Marc McGovern, Denise Simmons, and Paul Toner voting for Cheryl Watson Fisher. Subsequently, Paul Toner and then Marc McGovern changed their votes to Yi-An Huang to make it a final 8-1 vote.

After the vote, the City Council went into Executive Session to discuss strategy for contract negotiations as well as any possible procedure for choosing an Acting City Manager until Mr. Huang assumes his new role.

PS - The City Council also voted to appoint DPW Commissioner Owen O’Riordan to serve as Acting City Manager after Louis DePasquale leaves and before Yi-An Huang takes over. Excellent choice. - RW

Comments?

Monthly Updates from City of Cambridge DPW Recycling Division

Trash Carts Rolling Out June 6-24

New trash carts are right around the corner! Read our latest news or watch this video.

Requests for Trash Cart Changes:
We received more than 2,000 requests so forgive us if we make a few mistakes.

• If you think your cart delivery is a mistake, please request a change at CambridgeMA.Gov/Trash
• If you would like to change the size of the trash cart, you can use the same form.

Please note: we will not make any changes until after the trash carts are delivered; we will schedule the swap with you soon after.

Old Trash Barrels
Starting on June 11, the City will collect old trash barrels for special recycling. It may take 1-3 days for barrels to be collected. Your new cart will have a tag on it that will have these dates.

Find the dates and the following at CambridgeMA.Gov/Trash:
  • days you will receive the new trash carts,
  • cart size and dimensions,
  • default size and number of trash carts for your building.

Got new tenants? New neighbors?

Instead of baking cookies, welcome them to Cambridge with a brand-new kitchen compost bin. Delivered fresh to your doorstep!
  1. Fill out this form to have kitchen bins delivered to your building.
  2. Drop off a kitchen bin to each new resident.

June 11th Household Hazardous Waste Event

The next Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Day is Saturday, June 11 from 9am to 1pm at 65 Waverly Street, Cambridge.

For directions, accepted items, and more info please visit our website. If, after reviewing the HHW website, you are having trouble identifying the proper disposal method, email us. An estimated 10% of visitors at HHW days bring the wrong items.

Did You Know? Prescription medicines may be brought to the Cambridge Police Dept headquarters on 6th Street any time, any day.

Consider Getting a Rain Barrel

Residents have until June 5 to purchase a rain barrel for a discounted price of $79. After ordering, residents will be able to pick it up on Tuesday June 14 at DPW’s 63 Mooney St site. To read more about the barrel and to place an order, click here.

There are several benefits to rain barrels. Capturing rainwater reduces runoff, lowers municipal water demands, saves energy at treatment plants, and improves residential stormwater management.

Reduce & Reuse Tips

Tip #1: Laboratory Plastics. As a life sciences epicenter, it’s important that we consider ways to reduce, reuse, or recycle the tons of waste generated in labs across the City. A lot of the products used in labs can be hazardous or a biohazard and that requires special waste handling. However, some lab plastics can be reused or recycled. For example, labs go through many pipette tip boxes. Unfortunately, they’re hard to recycle because recycling facilities are concerned with cross-contamination of lab-based recyclables. However, there have been some developments in finding a way to recycle plastics that aren’t required to be handled in a special manner. Green Labs Recycling is a new venture based in Concord, MA. Many Cambridge institutions use their services to rescue plastics from the trash. Read more about their efforts here.

Tip #2: Tennis Balls. These aren’t a major source of trash, but if you’re an avid player or part of a tennis club, it may be of interest how to recycle those tennis balls after using them. Recycleballs.Org recycles tennis balls into new items. As usual, we would also recommend reusing tennis balls first. Give them to a neighbor’s dog, or reuse them on the bottom of chair legs to prevent scratching the floor.

Take Our Waste Survey

Help us improve our services, please take our Waste Survey. Visit CambridgeMA.Gov/WasteSurvey to take it. Thank you!

Upcoming Dates

• Sat, 6/11: Household Hazardous Waste Event, 65 Waverly Street.
• Mon, 6/6 - Fri, 6/24: Delivery of new trash carts.
• Sat, 6/11 - Sat, 6/25: Retrieval of old trash barrels.
• Sat, 8/27: Household Hazardous Waste Event, Location TBD.

Email us to share other waste-related events!

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What Are We Reading?

To Solve the Fertilizer Crisis, Just Look in the Toilet (Bloomberg)
I’m a Fashion Editor, and I Shop at the Dump (NYTimes)
A Year Of Factory Errors (Lovin Spoonfuls)
Upcycled Products to Prevent 703 Million Pounds of Food Waste Per Year (Waste360)

Download the Zero Waste Cambridge App

With the Zero Waste Cambridge App you can:

• Set reminders and view calendars for trash, recycling, compost collection, and street cleaning.
• Get alerts for collection day delays due to holidays or weather events
• Use the Get Rid of It Right tool to find out how to dispose of waste
• Test your recycling skills with an interactive waste sorting game—fun for kids and adults!

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I Met the Finalists

May 31 – I have traveled cross-country many times and I can tell you that there are two distinct ways to do so (other than means of travel, e.g. hitchhiking, riding the Dog (Greyhound bus), driving a VW Bus alone, driving a VW Bus with a friend, etc.). The first way is to carry a camera and record all sorts of things (or a phone for all you thoroughly modern Millies). The other way is to just experience it - no camera. I'm glad for the times I brought my camera, but I generally have a greater fondness for the trips I simply experienced (including getting arrested for armed robbery, but that’s another story that we need not get into here - though I can tell you it was a case of mistaken identity).

So tonight I went to the “Meet the Finalists” forum featuring the four finalists for Cambridge City Manager with no notepad for recording juicy quotes, slips of the tongue, profound observations – and I didn’t write down a single word. I did have a camera – but just for getting some serviceable headshots of the finalists (Iram Farooq, Cheryl Fisher, Yi-An Huang, and Norman Khumalo) since I had a hard time finding anything good on the Internets. I really just wanted to look into the faces of the candidates, listen to how they spoke (rehearsed vs. sincere), whether they exhibited any clear differences in perspective (they did), and simply let my instincts take over.

I do have a favorite among the finalists, but I’m going to refrain from telling you who that is until (maybe) after all is said and done. I will say that all four of these candidates are very qualified and would bring distinctly different experience, skills and personal qualities to the job.

The City Council will have a Special Meeting on Wed, June 1 starting at 6:00pm to “interview” these finalists, and they are expected to vote at yet another Special City Council meeting at 6:00pm on Mon, June 6 (likely interrupting their regular 5:30pm meeting for this purpose). There is no guarantee that 5 votes will be gathered on any one of these candidates at that meeting, so the process could see several ballots and maybe even additional meetings before a decision is made and the white smoke is released from the roof of City Hall. Honestly, I have no idea how this group of city councillors will come together to make this decision or what kind of wheeling and dealing may go on behind the scenes in order to reach a decision. Transparency is a great concept except when it isn’t. - RW

Norman Khumalo

Yi-An Huang

Cheryl Fisher

Iram Farooq

Comments?

BEUDO

From: Patrick Barrett
Date: May 29, 2022

Dear Cambridge City Council,

I am writing to you with many questions regarding the changes proposed to the Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance (“BEUDO”). I have read the proposed changes now a few times over and must confess that I barely understand them. Some of the language is clear enough but the practical application, consequences for non-compliance, reporting, and potential hardships caused by this change cannot be gleaned from the language presented. I am also not alone in my confusion as many property owners whom this ordinance will glance are either unaware that BEUDO exists at all or at the very least have no idea that changes with serious financial ramifications could be passed. I fear the Council is using this issue to play politics and lip service to the very real and serious demands that climate change will have on all of us. It is a policy change as blunt as the one proposed that leads me to believe this has less to do with the environment and more to do with ideology. If you made it this far I am grateful and will spare you any further narration; my questions are thus:

• Eversource currently only feeds 800 amps of “network” power to buildings in Central Square and likely elsewhere. The International Building code which the state has adopted has a very conservative rubric for determining energy demands often overstating them by a significant factor when remodeling, changing use, building an addition, etc. To meet the demands of this ordinance one would have to introduce switch gear, transformers, and other electrical apparatus at ground level or below grade. For a new building this is problematic but solvable (usually) for an existing structure the demand could be next to impossible. The clearances required and 24 access requirements alone are usually non-starters. So what happens in a zero lot line scenario and there is no place for these required upgrades?
• Emergency backup power is required for buildings of a certain size with elevators. The current options for this type of service is gas or diesel only. Are we going to tax building owners for whom there is no other means of compliance? Section 29c seems to attempt to address this but the requirement if for owners to seek out alternative fuel suppliers which is essentially forcing owners to buy from only Cambridge approved sources. I see no other mention of back up emergency power in this document.
• Central Square currently has only a one-way feed from Eversource. Literally half the Square cannot make use of solar power. I see no pressure from this Council or the City on Eversource to upgrade their feeds or infrastructure. Is it the “plan” of the Council to foist the responsibility solely on property owners?
• What happens if it is impossible to comply? Currently there is an additional tax for non-compliance but after 2035 what happens?
• Data collection for BEUDO at the very least seems incomplete. How can CDD derive an algorithm for carbon usage with a complete and detailed dataset? Do they use a similar one-size-fits-all calc like Eversource and our building code does? Why is data collection so poorly presented? Can we no get similar devices to those the Water Dept uses to collect usage data without sending an analog fill-in-the-blank? Can we at least get data input online through either Viewpoint or some other service?

We all agree that the environment is an important issue. We all strive to make our buildings more efficient. Aside from being environmentally conscious it’s also just good business sense. The proposed amendments read like an attack written by someone who does not know how buildings work. I suggest we scrap it … start with Eversource and good data collection. Let’s get all of the people who for the past eight years never even heard of BEUDO all up to speed. We can teach people how to make their buildings more efficient but without Eversource in tow this entire endeavor is futile … which I feel at least someone has to know that or should. If this passes in its current form I fear that only lawsuits and bitterness will proceed. It really doesn’t have to be that way and if the Council truly means to foster better climate stewardship then this proposal does not reflect the seriousness of that mandate nor the absolute dire need of real consequential change.

Good Luck,
Patrick W. Barrett

From: Patrick Barrett
Date: June 18, 2022

Ordinance Committee and Cambridge City Council,

I am writing to you with several concerns about the proposed Council amendments to our BEUDO ordinance:

1. As currently written the amendment does not make any accommodation for federally mandated and state regulated emergency backup systems which either use diesel or gas.
2. The ordinance as written does not address the fact that currently Eversource provides about 52% of their electrical output through fossil fuels.
3. The ordinance as written illegally taxes “covered properties” under a euphemistic heading “Alternative Compliance Credit.”
4. The ordinance as written does not provide accommodation for buildings where transformers and switchgear, necessary to fully electrify, nor does it anticipate where to locate such devices where no exterior or code compliant interior space exists.
5. This ordinance as written does not provide accommodation for the costly and lengthy procurements through Eversource (current lead time ranges from 9 months to over a year) for devices that could cost small owners $1M-2M in retrofitting costs. Additionally, in most cases, the installation process will require buildings to shut down and evict tenants to upgrade. Please bear in mind that this will include residential tenants, hospitals, schools, restaurants, and just about any other commercial use housed in buildings that are considered a “Covered Property.”
6. The Ordinance as written considers a “Covered Property” to be:
   1. Buildings owned “singly or together” aggregating twenty-five thousand (25,000) sq ft or 50 dwelling units. Thus, this ordinance as written could include small residential property owners, any housing (public or private) aggregating 50 dwelling units “singly or together” and small commercial property owners all of whom would find the requirements impossible to comply with. (I do not see agreeing to pay a tax as “compliance.”)
7. Lastly and most importantly Councillors Zondervan and Nolan have activated an entire community likely filling your inboxes and social media with talking points based on the singular premise that this is all possible and that only greed and apathy keep us from achieving net zero. This is 100% false and not only a misuse of activist energy and worse; it upends the larger discussion that we all agree on: Climate Change is real, and we need to prepare. Further, up until a week ago, many of the “Covered Property” owners have been left out of the discussion. What I personally saw last week was a big table that only Harvard and MIT were allowed to sit at discussing a carbon tax credit system many of us know nothing about. For those of us not funded by billion-dollar endowments we would rather discuss the practical matter of tackling climate change without decommissioning our buildings, evicting tenants, paying an unjust and illegal tax, or being forced to spend resources on attorneys when we could be working together.

Many of us we are still struggling against the damage Covid has wrought on our families and businesses. We were locked down when most were not, we were forced to operate with at least one hand tied behind our backs while many you turned their backs on us. We are only now seeing a bit of daylight. I ask the Council to strike this amendment and vote to work with us. Let’s create incentives and take Eversource to task not new taxes and ill will. Lastly, I ask Councillor Zondervan to stop misleading his constituents, his ideology over people/reality methodology needs to be called out; eventually even his most ardent constituents will catch on and in the end all we get for his “glory” are inaction and wasted time. Vote no on these amendments and let’s unite for a better cleaner future.

Patrick W. Barrett

Cambridge Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day Saturday, June 11

The next Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day in Cambridge for 2022 will be held on Saturday, June 11, from 9:00am-1:00pm, at 65 Waverly Street. Additional 2022 Household Hazardous Waste Collection dates are August 27 and November 5.

Accepted items include:
• Batteries: Vehicle & Non-Alkaline
• Car Fluids: Antifreeze, Brake, Engine Degreaser, Transmission
• Car Tires (max four per household)
• Chemicals: Cleaners, Glues, Removers, Photography & Swimming Pool
• Fluorescent Light Bulbs
• Mercury Items: Thermometers & Thermostats*
• Paints: Oil-Based & Latex
• Poisons: Insecticides, Pesticides & Weed Killers
• Prescription Medicines (accepted year-round at Cambridge Police Dept. 125 Sixth St.)
• Propane Cylinders (20 lbs. or less only)
• Waste Fuels: Antifreeze, Gasoline, Kerosene, Sterno & Motor Oil (motor oil also accepted year-round at DPW) Fire Extinguishers

Items not accepted include:
• NO Alkaline Batteries
• NO Ammunition, Fireworks & Explosives (contact Cambridge Fire Dept. at 617-349-3300)
• NO Asbestos (requires proper disposal)
• NO Bleach or Ammonia
• NO Commercial/Industrial Waste
• NO Construction Debris
• NO Empty Aerosol Cans
• NO Compressed Gas Cylinders
• NO Infectious or Biological Waste
• NO Radioactive Waste
• NO Smoke Detectors
• NO Syringes (Contact Cambridge Public Health Department at 617-665-3848)

See additional event information here.

The Cambridge Recycling Dropoff Center located at 147 Hampshire Street, also accepts some of the items listed above, including non-alkaline batteries, fluorescent bulbs, mercury items, and motor oil. Cans of latex paint may be dried out and set out for curbside trash collection, with the lids off. Let evaporate outside or add kitty litter to speed drying. Hours of operation for the Recycling Center are Tuesday, 4:00-7:30pm, Thursday, 4:00-7:30pm, and Saturday, 9:00am-4:00pm. Learn more at Cambridgema.gov/hazardouswaste.

Featured recent stories in the Cambridge Chronicle (the paper of record) - with some comments:

If you would like to subscribe or pick up a free paper copy at various sites, I encourage you to do so. It really is The Paper of Record.

The Chronicle Companion: Week of May 30 - June 5, 2022 (posted May 30, 2022, updated May 31)

Veterans picked to be next Cambridge auditor, clerk (May 31, 2022)

Massachusetts couples’ new book offers a history of Cambridge’s global influence (May 26, 2022, updated May 27)

Recycling boat shrink wrap has environmental and supply chain issues (May 26, 2022, subscribers only)

MBTA redesign would add four bus lines in Cambridge (May 25, 2022)

The Chronicle Companion: Week of May 23-30, 2022 (May 22, 2022, updated May 23)

Gather around: Public patios enliven Inman Square in Cambridge (May 20, 2022 from CDD)

Finalists for Cambridge city manager released (May 19, 2022)

New England predicted to see nation’s highest wholesale electricity prices this summer (May 18, 2022, subscribers only)

City launches Envision Cambridge dashboard (May 18, 2022)

Discount rain barrels available to Cambridge residents (May 18, 2022)
Deadline to purchase rain barrels is Sunday, June 5.

The Chronicle Companion: Week of May 16-22, 2022 (posted May 16, 2022)

Cambridge art installation to tackle Brattle Street slavery (posted May 13, 2022)

The Chronicle Companion: Week of May 9-15, 2022 (posted May 9, 2022)

3 top fishing spots around Cambridge (May 6, 2022)

10 municipalities endorse state Fair Share tax to address budget needs (May 5, 2022, Medford Transcript)

Baseball season kicks off with special parade in North Cambridge (May 4, 2022)

Body of man known as ‘Michael’ remains in limbo under state law (May 4, 2022)

The Chronicle Companion: Week of May 2-8, 2022 (posted May 2, 2022)

Rainbow over Peace House - May 28, 2022

Swans - Little Fresh Pond

Turtle - Little Fresh Pond

Brian Murphy Award Recipients

Expect Memorial Day Weekend Traffic Impacts Across the City

May 23, 2022 – Expect significant traffic impacts across the City for events taking place over the Memorial Day weekend. Events include:

• The Boston Calling Music Festival will take place at the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston from Friday, May 27 through Sunday, May 29. The festival will go from 1:00pm to 10:45pm each day. Expect street closures in Harvard Square between 9:00pm and midnight each night. Cambridge residents who experience noise or other impacts from the event should contact the Boston Calling Hotline at 617-870-4120 / community@bostoncalling.com or call the City of Cambridge Non-Emergency Line at 617-349-3300.
• Harvard Commencement will be taking place in and around Harvard Square. Events will take place all week, with Commencement for the Class of 2022 happening the morning of Thursday, May 26, and Commencement for the Classes of 2020 and 2021 happening the morning of Sunday, May 29.
• MIT Commencement will be taking place in and around the MIT Campus and Kendall Square on Thursday, May 26 and Friday, May 27.
• Boston’s Run to Remember will take place along the Charles River on Sunday, May 29 between 7:00am and 11:00am. The race route is on Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation property along Land Boulevard and Memorial Drive, from Cambridgeside to JFK Street.

City of Cambridge Department of Veterans’ Services to Host Memorial Day Weekend Observance Events Saturday, May 28 and Monday, May 30

May 23, 2022 – The City of Cambridge Department of Veterans’ Services (DVS) invites the public to attend three Memorial Day Weekend Observance Events on Saturday, May 28 and Monday, May 30, 2022.

On Saturday, May 28, from 9:00-10:00am, the community is invited to assist in the decoration of veterans’ graves with flags at Cambridge Cemetery, 89 Coolidge Avenue. An Observance event will commence at 10am at the Civil War monument at the top of the hill on Bonny Path. Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui will give the city’s greetings, and City Manager Louis A. DePasquale will deliver opening remarks. Taps will be played by bugler Robinson Pyle and Amazing Grace will be played on bagpipes by Edward O’Callaghan. Refreshments will follow at 10:30am next to the Cemetery office by the main gate.

A Naval Water Ceremony will also be held on Saturday, May 28, at 12:00pm, at the Weeks Footbridge, 953 Memorial Drive. Women’s Auxiliary member, Catherine Decker, will offer flowers to the public to cast into the water in honor of those lost at sea.

Saturday, May 28 Memorial Day Weekend Observance Schedule

Event 1: Flag Decoration and Observance, Cambridge Cemetery, 89 Coolidge Ave.
9-10am – Flag Decoration
10-10:30am – Observance
10:30-11:15am – Refreshments

Event 2: Naval Water Ceremony, Weeks Footbridge, 953 Memorial Drive
12-12:30pm – Naval Ceremony: Tribute flowers will be cast into the river

The Memorial Day Observance will be held on Monday, May 30, at 10:30am, on the Cambridge Common, Waterhouse Street and Massachusetts Avenue, in Harvard Square. Cambridge DVS Director, Neil MacInnes-Barker (US Air Force) will serve as Master of Ceremonies and Cambridge Police Superintendent Robert Lowe, a U.S. Marine veteran, will deliver the keynote address. Marching regiments and bands will parade past the review audience on the main lawn. The event on May 30 will also include performances by the Refugee Orchestra Project, Ukrainian Choir, Team Ragoza, and a procession and wreath laying by Prince Hall Masons. Family entertainment will be held by the Kemp Playground, adjacent to Waterhouse Street. Food trucks on the Cambridge Common (Garden Street side) will offer free food to veterans, on a first come, first served basis, beginning at 11:00am.

Memorial Day Observance Monday, May 30 Schedule of Events
10:30-11:00am – Observance with a Ukrainian Choir and Refugee Orchestra Project
11-11:30am – Marching Divisions, Family Entertainment, and Food
11:30am-1:00pm – Refugee Orchestra Project Public Concert
1:00-1:30pm – Prince Hall Masons Procession and Wreath Laying
1:30-3:30pm – Team Ragoza Public Performance

Mon, May 23

10:30pm   Special Meeting of the City Council to conduct interviews and potentially appointment the next City Auditor and City Clerk.  (Sullivan Chamber and Zoom)

The candidate for City Auditor is Joseph McCann. The candidate for City Clerk is Diane LeBlanc.

5:30pm   City Council meeting  (Sullivan Chamber and Zoom)

Note from Councillor Toner regarding City Clerk search: We received 32 applicants for City Clerk. We invited 10 for interview. 8 accepted interview. We invited 4 back for second interview. We selected 2 very strong candidates as finalists to bring to the full City Council for consideration and a vote. One of the finalists decided to withdraw their name at the last minute before we were about to go public. The selection committee felt confident in moving forward with our remaining finalist. I am proud of the process we conducted and I think we have a great final candidate. I hope the rest of the City Council agrees. If not they can vote to start the process all over again. [Late Communication]

Update on City Manager Selection/Appointment

May 18 – The screening process is complete and the candidates are now down to a short list. If the current schedule holds, there should be public meetings for community interviews and City Council interviews in early June followed by a vote of the City Council to formally appoint their new City Manager.

Wed, June 1

6:00pm   Special City Council Meeting to interview candidates for the Office of City Manager  (Sullivan Chamber and Zoom)
The City Council will conduct public interviews with the four finalists: Iram Farooq, Cheryl Fisher, Yi-An Huang, and Norman Khumalo

Cambridge City Manager Search     2022 Cambridge City Manager Leadership Profile (final revision of job posting)

The City Clerks and City Managers of Cambridge

To: Cambridge City Council
From: Sumbul Siddiqui, Mayor
Date: May 19, 2022
Subject: Communicating information regarding the City Manager finalists

To the Honorable, the City Council:
The City Manager Initial Screening Committee, Co-Chaired by City of Cambridge Personnel Director Sheila Keady Rawson and me, announced the names of the four finalist candidates being forwarded to the entire City Council for consideration.

The finalists are:

Iram Farooq - Ms. Farooq is currently the Assistant City Manager for the Community Development Department (CDD) in the City of Cambridge since 2015. Prior to that, she served as Chief of Policy & Planning in CDD and as a Senior Project Manager for Land Use & Zoning starting in 1999. Ms. Farooq has a Master’s in Landscape Architecture with special emphasis on Land Planning from Harvard University.

Cheryl Fisher - Ms. Fisher is currently the City Solicitor for the City of Chelsea, MA since 2003. She served as Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Cambridge from 1999-2003. Prior to that, she served as Assistant Regional Counsel II for the Department of Social Services for the Commonwealth of MA and a Field Attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Boston. Ms. Fisher has her Juris Doctor (Law degree) from Boston College.

Yi-An Huang - Mr. Huang is currently the Executive Director of Boston Medical Center (BMC) Hospital Clinical Operations since 2021. Between 2018 and 2021 he served as Chief Transformation Officer and Senior Director - Population Health Analytics for the BMC Health Plan. From 2013 to 2018 he served as Senior Director of Clinical Operation, Director of Strategy and Senior Project Manager for the BMC Hospital. Mr. Huang has a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard University.

Norman Khumalo - Mr. Khumalo is currently the Town Manager of Hopkinton, MA since 2009. He served as Assistant Town Manager of Westford, MA from 2002-2009, and served for 6 months as Interim Town Manager. Prior to that he served as a Town Planner, Planner and Transportation Project Manager in Massachusetts. He also served from 1993 to 1997 with Oxfam America in the Boston office, and served in the Planning Field in Zimbabwe. Mr. Khumalo has a Master’s in Public Administration from Carleton University, Canada and a Master’s in Regional & Urban Planning from the University of Zimbabwe.

A “Meet the Finalists” forum will be held on Tuesday, May 31st, 2022, from 6-9 p.m., in the Fitzgerald Auditorium at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, 459 Broadway, where members of the public will have an opportunity to meet and hear each finalist’s vision for the City and answer questions. On Wednesday, June 1st, beginning at 6:00 p.m., in the Sullivan Chamber, 2nd floor of Cambridge City Hall, the City Council will conduct public interviews with the four finalists.

The City Council is expected to vote to appoint the next City Manager during a Special City Council Meeting on Monday, June 6th. Each meeting will be broadcast on 22-Cityview or Channel 99, and can also be live-streamed online on Zoom.

The Initial Screening Committee was appointed by an ad-hoc committee of the City Council and was composed of 15 community members reflecting citywide constituencies, and four City Council members. Randi Frank, LLC the Executive Search Firm hired to assist with the recruitment and hiring process, presented candidates for the committee’s review. This position attracted a diverse group of close to 30 candidates. The Initial Screening Committee conducted an in-depth review of 10 candidates held on May 12th and 13th.

The interviews performed by the Initial Screening Committee were preceded by close to 20 recorded community focus groups, feedback received through our dedicated search website, and resident and employee Town Hall meetings, all of which led to the development of a leadership profile used during the recruitment phase. I am grateful to all who have participated in the City Manager Search Process and encourage all residents to attend the upcoming meet and greet session.

Additional information about the City Manager search process can be found www.cambridgema.gov/CityManagerSearch.

Respectfully,
Mayor Siddiqui

City Manager Louis A. DePasquale Submits Proposed FY23 Budget to Cambridge City Council

On May 2, 2022 the City Manager submitted the proposed Operating and Capital Budgets for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23), as well as the proposed FY24-FY27 Operating and Capital Plans.

The Operating Budget of $801,451,870 represents an increase of $48,754,799 or 6.5% over the FY22 Adjusted Budget. The proposed Capital Budget is $164,063,235.

The public is encouraged to review the budget document, which contains a special joint City Manager and Mayor COVID-19 message; Consolidated Spending information across departments on key priority areas; City Council Goals; Key Initiatives for FY23 (Section I); narratives for each Department (Section V); and FY23 Capital projects (Section VI).

There will be public hearings on the FY23 Budget at the City Council Finance Committee on Tuesday, May 10 at 9:00am; Wednesday, May 11 at 6:00pm (School Department); and Tuesday, May 17 at 10:00am.

Link to Open Meeting Portal

The projected budget adoption date is Monday, June 6, 2022.

Link to FY23 Submitted Budget (PDF)     Significant Budget Modifications (2-page PDF)

Links to Specific Sections of FY23 Submitted Budget (PDF)

FY2023 Budget Summaries/Appropriation Orders now available

City Manager's Agenda #1. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to the FY2023 submitted budget and appropriation orders.

Here's a spreadsheet showing how things have changed from last year, from 2 years ago, and from 18 years ago.

Here's an alternate version that shows proposed vs. actual and projected budgets.

The biggest changes:
Mayor's Office budget increased 29.7% - reasons unknown
Election Commission budget increased 23.7% - likely related to costs of Early/Mail-In Voting
Human Rights Commission budget increased 32.1% - reasons unknown
Peace Commission budget increased 20.2% - reasons unknown
New budget category for “Community Safety” with a proposed budget of $2,874,570 - Details
Overall City Budget increase of 7.2% over FY2022 Adopted Budget
Loan Authorizations increased from $83,910,865 to $159,900,000 [Note: it was $275,300,000 in FY2021]

FY2023 Budget Book Coming Soon

Apr 28, 2022 – I am expecting the City of Cambridge FY2023 Budget Summary to be included in the City Council’s May 2 meeting materials available later today. I am especially interested in what the document says about the proposed new “Community Safety” budget category and whether this includes patronage funding for the “HEART proposal” that has been advocated by several political entities. My main question is whether any allocation for a purpose such as this is subject to M.G.L. Chapter 30 (Uniform Procurement Act) which would require competitive bidding from qualified vendors for services such as this. I am hopeful that the City administration will propose a better model that works in conjunction with the Cambridge Police Department.

The full FY2023 Budget Book should be available on Monday, though it might be available online before that. Budget Hearings start May 10.

Tues, May 10

9:00am   The City Council's Finance Committee will meet to conduct hearing on FY2023 City Budget.  (Sullivan Chamber and Zoom)

Wed, May 11

6:00pm   The City Council's Finance Committee will meet to conduct hearing on FY2023 School Budget.  (Sullivan Chamber and Zoom)

Tues, May 17

10:00am   The City Council's Finance Committee will meet to conduct hearing on FY2023 City Budget.  (Sullivan Chamber and Zoom)