First Pass at the Feb 10, 2020 Cambridge City Council Agenda
Manager’s Agenda #4. Transmitting communication from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to the appropriation of $1,200,000 from Free Cash, to the Public Investment Fund Public Works Extraordinary Expenditures Account for expanded tree planting and continued implementation of the Urban Forestry Master Plan recommendations.
Unfinished Business #3. TPO (Tree Protection Ordinance) Extension PO [Passed to a Second Reading on Jan 27, 2020. To Be Ordained on or after Feb 10, 2020]
It seems likely that the Tree Removal Moratorium extension will breeze through. Ideally, the Council would at least amend it to allow for some additional flexibility, especially for long-term residents who are simply maintaining their property rather than redeveloping it. Hope springs eternal, but I don’t have much faith that reason will prevail here or when they finally get around to implementing any master plan recommendations.
Manager’s Agenda #8. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to amending the Cambridge Municipal Code to insure a Welcoming Community Ordinance. [Red-Lined version][Clean version]
Unfinished Business #4. That the Cambridge City Council amend the Municipal Ordinances of the City of Cambridge to insert a new Chapter 2.129, entitled “WELCOMING COMMUNITY ORDINANCE” [Passed to a Second Reading on Jan 27, 2020. To Be Ordained on or after Feb 10, 2020.]
I expect this too will breeze through ordination either this week or very soon, but the rhetoric over restrictions on police activities should prove interesting, especially the clarifications from the City Solicitor in the section on the "Role of Police Department in immigration enforcement" to make it consistent with federal statutes.
Order #1. That the City Manager is requested to direct the appropriate City staff to work with the residents of the Agassiz neighborhood in furthering this important neighborhood conversation and in helping make a determination as to how to arrive at an appropriate, official name change for this neighborhood. Councillor Simmons, Mayor Siddiqui
Cambridge neighborhood names have no real legal standing. Some of them, like Mid-Cambridge, were invented by what was once called the Planning Department back when they were making maps for federal grant programs. So in some sense this is just feel-good stuff. Maybe we should just use Zip Codes to avoid any future historical crisis.
Order #2. That the City Manager is requested to rename the maintenance area within the Ryan Garage at 147 Hampshire Street in honor of Sydney Cox, with this becoming known as the “Sydney James Cox Maintenance Facility”. Councillor Simmons, Councillor Toomey
This continues what has become a DPW tradition of naming its buildings and facilities for some of our great long-time dedicated DPW employees.
Order #4. That the City Manager is requested to confer with relevant City departments on the feasibility of instituting a program to install rings on parking meters to expand bicycle parking options. Councillor Nolan, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Mayor Siddiqui
This has been suggested in the past by me and by others, and the stock answer at the time was that locking bikes to parking meters somehow obstructed access to motor vehicles. Geometry and reality contradict this. The only exception would be bikes with trailers. Maybe we’ll get a different answer this time around.
Order #6. That the City Manager is requested to confer with the Department of Human Services and other relevant departments to determine the feasibility of both expanding the Head Start program hours and adding additional scholarships to improve access to high-quality, early childhood educational resources. Mayor Siddiqui, Vice Mayor Mallon, Councillor Carlone, Councillor McGovern
The single most important thing we can do to lessen inequality is to support programs like Head Start that help to level the playing field so that residents can one day succeed on their own terms. If somebody wants education we should provide it one way or another.
Order #7. That the City Council go on record calling for the Parliament of India to uphold the Indian constitution by repealing the Citizenship Amendment Act, stopping the National Register of Citizens, and taking steps towards helping refugees by ratifying various UN treaties on refugees. Councillor Zondervan, Mayor Siddiqui, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Councillor Nolan
We’re barely one month into this Council term and it’s already looking like we need a change in the City Council Rules to establish a standing Foreign Policy Committee.
Committee Report #2. Report of the Ordinance Committee – Committee Meeting – Feb 5, 2020 5:30 PM [PDF][HTML]
This concerns the Alexandria zoning petition to establish a Grand Junction Pathway Overlay District. It is noteworthy in that the petition was likely to die a lonely death unless an alternative site for the proposed Eversource electrical substation on Fulkerson Street could be found. Thanks to the intervention of City Manager Louis DePasquale and others, an alternate site seems to have been identified but not yet revealed. – Robert Winters