CITY OF CAMBRIDGE
ADDRESS OF THE MAYOR
UPON THE
FIRST ORGANIZATION
OF THE
CITY GOVERNMENT
MAY 4, 1846.
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL.
CAMBRIDGE:
PRINTED BY ANDREW REID,
CORNER OF MAIN AND MAGAZINE STREETS,
1846.
MAYOR’S ADDRESS.
Gentlemen of the City Council: –
On this occasion of the first organization of a City Government for Cambridge, it seems appropriate to advert briefly to the nature of the change we have made in our form of government, and the reasons which have led us to it. We may thus be enabled to appreciate more justly the interests confided in our care, and to understand and perform our duties better.
Under a town organization, all the business, which appertains to the interests of the people, and is subject to municipal regulation, is transacted immediately by the people themselves, that is, by those who are legally qualified to vote., assembled in town meeting. They exercise for themselves immediately, without delegating it to others, the right to deliberate and decide. They constitute the legislative department, and choose Selectmen and others to act for them as executive officers. Such, in brief, is the theory of town government. It is the simplest for; the most purely democratic; has existed in New England from the earliest period of the Colonial history; has done more to cherish the spirit of freedom in the breasts of the people; is regarded by them with feelings of strong attachment; and is not changed for any form of government, except for good and substantial reasons. Nay, the people will submit for years to great practical evils in the administration of town affairs, rather than change a form of government, to which they are attached by so many and such strong associations.
But, as a town increases in population beyond a certain limit, this theory of government, in itself so simple, becomes less and less practicable; a smaller and smaller proportion of the legal voters can be assembled in town meeting for the transaction of business; and the alternative presents itself as unavoidable, of a small minority of voters doing the whole business of the town, or the adoption of a form of government, by which municipal affairs shall be transacted through delegates or representatives elected. for that purpose. The number of inhabitants, contemplated by the Constitution of the Commonwealth to be such as to render a City Government expedient or necessary, is twelve thousand. The population of Cambridge exceeded this number by nearly five hundred, a year ago; and it may be reasonably presumed, that, at the present moment, it is between thirteen and fourteen thousand. It must be obvious to every one, at all acquainted with the mode of transacting town business, that the great interests of the population, relating to the management of the public property, the instruction of two or three thousand children, the support and employment for some part of the year of nearly two hundred paupers, the care of the roads and bridges requiring uninterrupted labor, the maintenance, direction and control of the Fire Department, the raising by taxation, and appropriating annually to specific projects, forty or fifty thousand dollars, cannot be judiciously or satisfactorily in a town meeting, in which by one-fifth or one-sixth of the voters are present, of whom many are but temporary residents, and few perhaps possessed of any considerable stake in the affairs of the town.
A City Government, with two council boards, each having a negative on the other, comprising a limited number of those in whom the electors have reposed confidence, by delegating to them the power to deliberate and act instead of themselves, affords a surer guaranty for a mature consideration of important measures, and a wise and satisfactory administration.
In regard also to accountability, for measures pursued, and for the expenditures of the public money, a city form of government affords far greater security. Where several boards of officers are authorized each to draw upon the treasury, and there is nothing to interpose an efficient check, and where each board looks to the interests of its own, and either does not know, or does not regard, the claims of any other department, it can hardly be otherwise than that specific appropriations will be exhausted before the end of the year; money intended for one purpose will be drawn out for another; some of the great interests of the town will suffer for want of the pecuniary means that had been provided; the treasury will become embarrassed; and a debt will be incurred that must be provided for by increased taxation the succeeding year.
If, moreover, the several boards of town officers act by sub-committees, and each subcommittee shall be swayed, it may be unconsciously, by local feelings, the interest of the whole will suffer by a care which is unequal; one section will be benefitted at the expense of another; and it may be, that one board of officers will be called on the make satisfaction for injuries supposed to have been done by another. The mode also of choosing those town officers, who are not chosen by ballot, that is, by nomination at large in town meeting, where the presiding officer is expected to propose the name which first strikes his ear, is, perhaps, of all modes that could be devised, the one which is the least likely to secure the services of the most suitable individuals.
The police regulations of towns, it is well known, are generally weak and inefficient. In places, where the conduct of every individual is exposed to the observation of all others, and the public sentiment is brought to bear directly upon it, there is less occasion for police restraint. But in regard to a town, situated like Cambridge, in immediate proximity to a large and overflowing commercial metropolis, crowding out into the suburbs, from year to year, its surplus population, large numbers of whom require, from their habits, more efficient restraint than a town administration affords, it may be necessary to resort to a City Government for adequate self-protection. There are many incidents, appertaining to such a local situation, and a rapidly concentrating population, which call for vigilant and efficient officers of police to give that protection to his person and property, which every individual has a right to demand of his government.
Exposed as our citizens are to have the quiet of their homes disturbed by riotous noises at night; to have their persons or lives endangered by the furious driving of horses through the streets, by those who have lost, in a measure, the capacity to guide them; to have depredations committed upon their own or the public property; their fences injured, their enclosures entered, their trees set for ornament and shade destroyed, their windows broken, their buildings set on fire, hospitals prepared for the sick attacked and partially demolished; to have the morals of the youth, the hope of the age, perilled by the establishment of places of low and vile resort, where the gambler and the profligate lie in wait to entrap the inexperienced and unwary; is there not occasion to adopt that form of government which is most likely to afford the adequate protection?
Under our City Charter, the administration of municipal affairs is vested in the City Council, composed of two Boards; of which, from the mode of election, the one represents the general, and the other the local, interests of the city The executive powers of the city, and administration of the police, with all the powers heretofore vested by law in the Selectmen of the town, are vested in the Mayor and Aldermen; and they are required to perform all the duties which the law requires of Selectmen of towns.
All the powers, which were heretofore vested by law in the town, or in the inhabitants, as a municipal corporation, are now, Gentlemen, vested in your two Boards, constituting, in their joint capacity, the City Council; and are to be exercised by concurrent vote, each Board having a negative on the other. You will establish your own rules of proceeding; such as are best calculated to facilitate the orderly transaction of business. You have the power to make all needful by-laws, which shall take effect without being submitted for approval to any court. You are required, in the language of the Charter, to take care that no money be paid out from the treasury, unless previously granted and appropriated; you are to secure a just and prompt accountability from all persons entrusted with the receipt, custody, or disbursement, of the monies or funds of the city. You are to have the care and superintendence of all the property of the city; and exclusive authority and power to lay out streets, construct drains and sewers, and to estimate the damages which any persons may sustain thereby. The powers are transferred to you, which have heretofore been vested in the Board of Health; and you may provide for the appointment of all officers necessary for the good government of the city, not otherwise provided for, prescribe their duties and fix their compensation.
Such, Gentlemen, is the nature of the change we have made in our form of government; and such are some of the powers now vested in you, as the City Council. The possession of powers implies corresponding duties, and involves responsibility for their faithful performance.
After completing the organization of the two Boards, by the election of the Clerk, and when existing vacancies in other Boards of officers shall have been filled, and a City Treasurer and a Collector of Taxes, with other subordinates required by law, shall have been chosen, you will be prepared to enter upon the duties bearing directly on the great interests of the city.
In the first place, an object of special care will be provision for the public schools. The very full and able report of the School Committee, which has been recently distributed, shows, that, in regard to instruction, discipline, and the manners and morals of the pupils, the schools have been improving from year to year, and are now in a condition more satisfactory than they have been at any previous period. There is also a marked improvement in the attendance of the children. The teachers are commended for a “laudable ambition and faithfulness,” and as not often disappointing the high expectations entertained. The great want in reference to the schools, – a want, which, more than all others, presses upon attention every year, and which is the unavoidable result of our rapidly increasing population, – is that of additional or larger buildings for their accommodation. There is a want, in this respect, existing in each of the Wards, but especially in the Second and Third. I refer you to the statements contained in the Report of the Committee, for the particulars; and add the expression of my hope, that the suggestions therein contained may receive your early and favorable consideration. The whole number of public schools is thirty; of teachers and assistants thirty-seven. The whole number of children in town, a year ago, as ascertained by the census, between the ages of four and sixteen, was two thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, – being an increase in a single year of two hundred and thirty-nine, if the preceding census was correctly taken, of which there is some doubt. But taking a period of six years immediately preceding May 1st, 1845, the average annual increase in the number of children in Cambridge, between the ages of four and sixteen, has been one hundred and forty; rendering unavoidable a provision every year for at least two additional schools. I would here throw out the suggestion, though I do it with diffidence, whether it would not be expedient to require that a child, before entering the public schools, should have attained the age of five years.
The conviction exists in my own mind, that it will soon be necessary to make some changes in our school system. At present there are three schools, one in each Ward, combining the characters of a classical and grammar school. The multiplicity of studies is too great, and the time of the instructor too much divided, to allow of proper attention to the pupils in the higher department. What would be the best substitute for the present system, – whether the establishment of one school, centrally located, devoted exclusively to classical studies, or an arrangement, which perhaps might be made, for the admission of a larger number of pupils, on the part of the city, into the Hopkins’ School, or some modification of the two, – I do not feel prepared at present, to suggest.
In this connection I will say a word in reference to the Normal Schools. You are aware that they are institutions, mainly established and supported by the State, for the preparation of teachers for the common schools. There are three of them at present in the Commonwealth, sending out annually, as I am informed, about one hundred and fifty teachers. They have more than realized the sanguine expectations of the friends of the system; and are doing much to supply what has so long been complained of as the greatest want in the common school system of Massachusetts. Just previous to the close of the session or the Legislature, I attended, as a member of the Committee on Education, an examination of one of these schools, – that at West Newton; and the evidences exhibited of the thoroughness of the course of instruction, and of the great proficiency of the pupils, were in the highest degree satisfactory. In the Algebraic department particularly, a gentleman present, who had officially attended as an examiner at the Military Academy at West Point, pronounced the instruction at the Normal School to be a nearer approximation, than any he had elsewhere witnessed, to that in the above institution. I cannot refrain from expressing the hope, that, in order·more highly to elevate our own standard, hereafter, in the choice of teachers, when vacancies are to be filled, preference will be given by the committee to those who have been instructed at one of the Normal Schools.
A successful experiment has been made the past year of Teachers’ Institutes, as another means for the improvement of the teachers of common schools. They had previously been tried in the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, and had commended themselves to the friends or education. The aid of our own State treasury has been extended to them by a recent act of the Legislature, making an annual appropriation of twenty-five hundred dollars, without limit in regard to time. At these Institutes, teachers, in number not exceeding one hundred, are brought together, arranged in classes so as themselves to constitute a school, and instructed from day to day, for two or three weeks, by those most experienced and having the highest reputation in their profession. Ten of these Institutes will probably he held in different parts of the State, the present year, and it would seem important that the teachers of our own schools should be able to avail themselves of the advantages thus offered.
For the appropriations that will be needed for the purposes of instruction the present year, and for the erection of new school-houses, and the repair of the old, I refer you to the report of the school committee, in the confident belief, that you will cheerfully provide the means which are necessary to extend equal school privileges to all of the rising generation who are the objects of our care, and enable the schools of our new City to sustain the high reputation which they now enjoy.
In the next place, gentlemen, I ask your attention to the affairs of the Almshouse. Here is a large establishment, of which the value is estimated, in round numbers, at twenty thousand dollars, having afforded relief, in the course of the last year, to one hundred and eighty-seven paupers, of whom only twenty-three had any legal settlement in this Commonwealth, one hundred and sixty-four being State paupers, and one hundred and thirty-nine of these last foreigners; and some of the preceding being insane and others idiotic; and one hundred and fifty of the whole number, as stated in the return made by the Overseers to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, made paupers by intemperance; an establishment, which, in connection with the roads, draws from the treasury annually between eight and nine thousand dollars; but concerning the affairs of which, what the town has known has, for years, been comparatively nothing. Of the management of its concerns, no report has been made since I have had any acquaintance with the affairs of the town. Labor, to a vast amount in the course of the year, is performed upon the highways, by the inmates of this establishment; and I do not know but the value of that labor may be a full equivalent for the whole expense; but it would be some satisfaction to the citizens to be informed as to the fact, or at least to have presented to them from some authentic source an estimate of the balance, whether of profit or of loss.
The town has voted more than once, that all monies, paid for labor·performed by inmates of the Almshouse and the town teams, should be accounted for to the treasurer; but that vote seems not to have been regarded; and though it is well understood that considerable amounts, at various times, have been paid to those having the direction of the work, no account has been rendered to the treasurer, to the auditor, to the committee on finance, or to the town; and the citizens therefore have been kept in ignorance of the actual cost of supporting the establishment. My own conviction is that a parallel to this state of things is hardly to be found elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Let me not be understood as intimating that the money referred to has not been faithfully and properly applied toward defraying necessary expenses; but I speak of the mode of transacting the business as altogether improper, and express my trust, gentlemen, that you will adopt such measures, as in your judgment will secure in this case, what our Charter requires in all, a just and prompt accountability.
The interest upon the original cost of the Almshouse establishment, which should be added to the average annual expenditure for its support, is about equal to the deduction that should be made on account of the allowance from the Commonwealth for the support of State paupers; an allowance, however, of such doubtful expediency and uncertain continuance, that it would seem to be wise for us to protect ourselves for the time, probably not very remote, when it shall be withhold altogether.
It may be proper that I should state to you, in this connection, if you are not already apprized of the fact, that a portion of the town’s claim upon the Commonwealth for the support of State paupers the last year was disallowed by the Legislature. But the amount was small in the case of our own town, when compared with most others, having been but one hundred and sixteen dollars and nineteen cents; and the credit was awarded by the Committee on Accounts to the Overseers of the town of Cambridge alone, of having fairly and openly presented that particular part of the claim, as being distinct in its character from the rest, and of doubtful legality, though sanctioned by a previous loose construction, which the Legislature itself had given to the law.
The subject of the public roads is one of great importance, and will require no small portion of your attention. So great is their extent, such the nature of the soil in many places, and so difficult is it to procure the most suitable material for repair, that probably you will find, as has been found heretofore, that, in this department, it is more difficult than in any other to make that provision which will prove satisfactory, either to yourselves, or to the citizens generally. The town has been subjected, from year to year, to the payment of damages and legal costs, by reason of defects or obstructions in the highways. Nearly three hundred dollars were paid on this account the last year. No human foresight can guard against all contingencies; but it would seem as though, in some of the instances referred to, there could hardly have been exercised the requisite precaution.
Claims, however, to a much larger amount, have been brought against the town the past year, for indemnity to societies and to individuals, for injury they have sustained by the work of reducing the level of the streets by the side of their buildings. Some of these claims have been allowed and paid by the Selectmen. Others will be immediately presented, gentlemen, for your consideration; and I have no doubt that it will be your purpose to take such action thereon, and without unnecessary delay, as justice and equity shall require.
The expenditure for the repairs of bridges the last year has been, as anticipated, more than usually great, having amounted to nearly three thousand dollars; of which the largest proportion was spent upon Prison Point Bridge. What amount will be required for this object the present year, it is not easy to anticipate. Part of one of the piers at the old Brighton Bridge is gone, and some of the remainder is in such tottering condition as greatly to endanger the draw on the passage of vessels. The caps and stringers of the bridge on the Brighton side are so much decayed that the transit of heavy teams has, for some time, been considered unsafe. It will require, and I trust will receive, your earliest practicable attention. Within a few days the draw of the bridge over the canal between the lower Port and East Cambridge has been broken down by a vessel, which was driven against it in the night, as alleged, by a sudden gust of wind. The Selectmen have thought it necessary to commence the work of reconstruction, the prosecution and completion of which will now be subject to your direction.
Pursuant to a Resolve of the Legislature, the sum of three hundred dollars has been paid to our treasury, on an obligation given by the town to the Commonwealth to assume and lay out Magazine street, in Ward II, heretofore belonging to the State, as a public highway, and put and keep the same in good repair. This obligation, given in behalf of the town under the hands and seals of the Selectmen, stipulates that the. work of repair shall be completed within six months from the date of the indenture, that is, from the 17th of March last, and your attention, gentlemen, is respectfully asked, to see that this engagement be literally fulfilled.
It may not be out of place, in this connection, to apprize you of an act, just passed by the Legislature, and not yet published, rendering towns liable for injuries upon any private ways within their limits, or roads that have been opened to the public, though not laid out or accepted as town ways, unless notice be posted up that such ways or roads are unsafe for travel.
By the report of the Committee on Finance, you perceive that nearly two thousand dollars have been expended the year past for the construction of main drains and common sewers. This work has been done under a law enacted in 1841, and accepted by the town, which authorizes the Selectmen to make such drains, and to apportion and assess the cost upon those who may enter into them their particular drains, or who, by any more remote means, shall receive any benefit thereby, for draining their cellars or lands. Of the above amount the larger portion has been reimbursed, by the payment of the assessment; but, in some instances, individuals assessed have withheld payment, on the plea that they were not benefitted, and have made their appeal to the County Commissioners. Their cases remain undecided. You will doubtless be notified of the time of hearing. Several other cases await the issue. Petitions for the construction of other drains have been presented to the Selectmen, but they have deemed it expedient to defer action thereon.
And now, gentlemen, I ask your attention to a few remarks in reference to the Fire Department. By the report of the condition of the Department, made to the Selectmen by the Chief Engineer, on the 1st of April last, there are five Engines, with companies attached consisting each of about forty members, all of which are in good condition, and one of them is new. The same is reported of the apparatus generally, particularly the suction, (twenty-seven feet,) and leading hose, (five hundred feet,) and hose carriages, some of which are new. Two of the engine houses are in good condition, one of them new. The house of No. 2 is said to be out of repair, and needing to be set back from the street. The house of No. 4 is reported as in a very bad condition, and a petition has been presented for a new one. There is one Hook and Ladder Company, consisting of twenty-two members. There is another engine, No. 5, which is pronounced indifferent; no company is attached to it, and it is kept in a hired house. Each of the five companies has a compensation of four hundred dollars, and the Hook and Ladder Company two hundred dollars, amounting to twenty-two hundred dollars, exclusive of the pay of the Engineers.
The Fire Department is certainly one of great and growing importance to Cambridge, where buildings are multiplying with such rapidity, and where, in many parts, they are placed in such close proximity. If well regulated and efficient, it gives a feeling of security to the citizens, which could not otherwise be purchased; and they are, in no small measure, reimbursed for the cost of maintaining it, by the reduced rates at which they can effect insurance on their property. What is the best system for the management of such a Department, I feel not qualified to judge. Whether, and under what conditions, minors should be admitted as members; whether the services of volunteers are to be accepted; and if so, under what restrictions; are some of the questions which should receive mature consideration. The act of the Legislature, passed in 1832, establishing the Fire Department in Cambridge, placed the entire control of it in the hands of the Selectmen, authorizing them to appoint the officers and members, to fix and establish their powers and duties, and to ordain rules and regulations for their government. Such rules and regulations have been made by the Selectmen, and duly published. The power and authority which were by law vested in that board have now, by the City Charter, been transferred to and vested in the Mayor and Aldermen. Whether any additional provisions will be required, gentlemen, for the better government of the Department, I submit to your judgment. The members of the several companies have always displayed a commendable degree of alacrity and promptness in repairing, upon alarm, to the scene of danger; their operations have been skilfully and efficiently directed; and a spirit of ambition has induced efforts to excel. In all those respects, I doubt not they will sustain a creditable comparison with any Fire Department around us. Their services have always been duly appreciated by the inhabitants, and by the officers of the town; and the necessary annual appropriations, now amounting to at least four thousand dollars, have not been withheld.
If, however, beyond all this favorable appreciation of their services, the members of the department expect to be indulged in every request to go abroad, it may be hundreds of miles with their engines, for display, at times too, when their services are required at home, and seek opportunities to manifest their resentment at refusal; if their spirit of emulation, so laudable and useful when confined to proper objects, is allowed to break out into acts of insubordination, toward their own officers, or the municipal authorities; if they show themselves actuated by such an esprit du corps, as shall lead all the members to make common cause with any one, who may subject himself to censure for disobedience of orders, or neglect of duty; if, beyond this, leaving their proper sphere, and their usual party connections, they combine in measures to influence elections, and calling the department together by preconcerted signals, striking the bells to create an alarm of fire, and this too on the Sabbath, they concert their measures for the defeat of particular candidates; it becomes a serious question, whether we are not fostering the growth of a power in our midst, which will one day lead, if unrestrained, to the enactment among us of the scenes which have rendered the same department in Philadelphia so notorious; and the dangers of which will far·outweigh all the benefits conferred.
But I leave a topic on which I should not thus have spoken, had I not felt compelled, by a sense of public duty, to disregard those personal considerations, which, of themselves, would have constrained me to be silent.
It will be your duty, gentlemen, to make an estimate of the probable wants of the City for the year, and to provide the ways and means that will enable you to meet them. The report of the committee on finance, recently printed and in your hands, shows the condition of the treasury on the first of March. Since that time $1402 29 have been received, and $1534 39 have been paid out, leaving a balance in the treasury at the present time of $135 29. The expenditures of the year ending March 1st, for ordinary purposes, were $39,142 03, and, in addition, there had been paid, towards a reduction of the town debt, one half of the note due to the Lowell Institution for Savings, viz.: $5000, thus making the aggregate expenditure $44,142 03.
In March, 1842, the debt amounted to $41,527 41. Since which time, $19,527 41 have been paid, leaving the debt at the present time $22,000, of which $7000, being the amount of a note to Catherine E. Thompson, will become due on the 16th of December next.
An apprehension has been felt by many, which has disinclined them to favor the adoption of a City Government, that its administration would be attended with increased taxation. I do not believe, however, that such is a necessary result; and, though some additional expenditures may be required at first, yet the improved mode of transacting business, and the more strict system of accountability from those entrusted with the disbursements, must furnish a guard against abuse, and conduce to economy. If additional expense be the result, is it not compensated for by the removal or diminution of public evils, and the acquisition of greater security to person and property?
Possessing as we do a building so large and commodious as that we now occupy, a building erected but about sixteen years since, and probably as centrally located as any one could be, a building, which, with some small alterations, I judge, may be made suitable to accommodate, for the present, each of the two boards constituting the City Council, and leave a Hall of sufficient size for those general meetings of the inhabitants, occasions for which are contemplated by our Charter to arise, I do not suppose, gentlemen, that you will think it expedient to provide for the erection of any other building as a City Hall.
Called upon as you will be to make appropriations more than ordinary for the schools, one of which is now held in this building, but which must soon, I presume, be removed, and several other objects presenting claims that cannot, with a due regard to the public interest, be postponed, I feel assured, that, without suggestion from me, you will be disposed to guard against all unnecessary expenditure.
We have reason to be gratified at the prosperity and rapid increase of our population, attended with an annual addition of seven or eight hundred thousand dollars to the taxable property; but a necessary attendant upon this rapid growth is a progressively increasing expenditure, though not necessarily an increase in taxation. With us the ration of assessment has never been higher than 51 cents on $100; for each of the last two years it has been 48 cents;– while, in the town of Marblehead the last year, it was nearly 83 cents; in Newburyport, 78; Beverly, 68; Lowell, 66; Fall River, 63; Danvers, 62; Salem, 58; Manchester, 54; in all of them exceeding our own, and all of them except two under a town government. The comparison, I am inclined to think, if further extended, would, in most instances, be favorable to ourselves. Some allowance must probably be made, however, for a difference in the system of taxation; – some towns making the assessment on a full, and others on a reduced, valuation.
And now, gentlemen, having presented to you these considerations, as not inappropriate to the occasion, and in discharge of the duty imposed on me by the Charter, to communicate to your boards such information, and recommend such measures, as the interests of the City in my judgment may require, I have only to add in conclusion, that: – entering, as I do, upon an untried field of duty, with little experience to guide me, I shall need your indulgent consideration, and that of my fellow citizens. I shall be liable to err in judgment. From mistakes and errors none can be exempt. I can only pledge my sincere endeavors to discharge my duty according to the best of my ability and understanding. I feel strong in the assurance that I can rely on your aid and cooperation. An important trust has been reposed in us. Let us not be unmindful of the obligation to execute that trust with strict fidelity; with a single eye to the public welfare; and unswayed from duty by regard to popular opinion. Guided by that wisdom which is from above, a guidance at all times needed, to supply human deficiency and correct human error, may we be enabled so to administer the affairs of our new City, that none will regret the change. May we secure for our measures the favor, confidence, and respect of all good men; and, above all, may we secure for ourselves that richest of rewards, which springs from the consciousness of sincere and upright endeavor.
City of Cambridge.
In Common Council, May 4, 1846.
ORDERED, That Messrs. Norris, Valentine and Saunders, be a Committee, with such as the Aldermen may join, to wait upon the Mayor, and request a copy of his address to the City Council, for publication.
Sent up for concurrence.
CHAS. S. NEWELL, Clerk of Common Council
In Board of Aldermen, May 4, 1846.
Concurred; and Aldermen Hastings and Batchelder are joined.
LUCIUS R. PAIGE, City Clerk.
Note: The Mayor in 1846 was James D. Green
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The Cambridge City Charter: From Town Meeting to Plan E premiered on Monday, May 15 at 5:30pm on CCTV Channel 9 and is now viewable on YouTube.
Today’s my birthday and we’ll be celebrating it with a hike in Concord (as well as the grading of Final Exams). This is also premier day on CCTV for the video “Cambridge City Charter: From Town Meeting to Plan E” that John Pitkin, Gregorio Leon, and I have been working on for the last several months. John and I do most of the narration with an assist from our good friend (and former city councillor) Jim Braude. You can watch it on CCTV Channel 9 at 5:30pm (just in case Public Comment gets either boring or annoying) and at several other times this week. Special thanks to the CCTV staff, Diane LeBlanc, Alyssa Pacy, Charlie Sullivan and all of the wonderful people at the Cambridge Historical Commission. We have more “Civic View” programs planned. [
