A quick word on another City Council candidate forum
Oct 8 – Congratulations are in order to the good folks of the Porter Square Neighbors Association (PSNA) for putting on an excellent, well-attended City Council candidate forum tonight. There were other sponsors, but this was clearly a PSNA production. Alice Wolf moderated the forum and did a great job managing things with just the right tone and sense of humor. I was especially appreciative of the choice of questions presented to each of the three panels of candidates. They were fair and relevant – a big improvement over last week’s MCNA candidate forum. I am grateful that Erin Baldassari from the Cambridge Chronicle was there taking notes, and I will defer to her report for most of the details of what was actually said and emphasized by the candidates.
One thing that distinguished candidates was their differing views of new residential and/or commercial development in the city. Several of them spoke of the need for a "master plan" which, quite frankly, makes me think of Robert Moses and others who felt they had all the answers. This was softened to some degree by a call for "neighborhood planning" which was not really defined and which could, quite easily, be just a code word for "not in my backyard". Some candidates (who I will refrain from naming for now) spoke only of their fear of any redevelopment in Central Square. The final candidate of the night was the only one who emphasized the importance of training local residents to take advantage of job opportunities in developing areas such as Kendall Square.
On a personal note, I have to say that I was gratified to see some people in the audience who had with them material printed from the Cambridge Candidate Pages. I also greatly appreciated the fact that several candidates referred to material I have posted on the Cambridge Civic Journal. I wonder sometimes why I continue to do this civic journalism, and it helps a lot when I see people actually making good use of what I produce. The next four weeks are going to be brutal in terms of the misinformation and outright falsehoods that are going to be spread about the candidates and about various issues. I’m already seeing some of it in listservs and pamphlets distributed at these forums. At some point self-appointed oracles will tell you which candidates you should vote for and who you should not vote for. As tempting as it may be to go up to the mountaintop and come down with a few inscribed tablets commanding you who you should vote for, I will continue to resist that urge and, once again, ask you to consult what the candidates submit to the Cambridge Candidate Pages and post on their own websites, use your own judgment, and decide on your own how to rank the candidates. Above all, I urge you to ignore any advice from self-anointed pundits regarding which candidates you should vote for. – Robert Winters