Getting Primed for the Summer Recess – Featured items on the June 29, 2020 Cambridge City Council agenda
Here are the things that might be interesting on this week’s agenda:
Manager’s Agenda #1. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to an update on COVID-19.
Always interesting. Things may be getting worse elsewhere in the USA, but we’ve had a few days now with no new reported cases and no new deaths from the virus. It’s now even OK to remove the masks outside if you can keep your distance. Meanwhile, the three new "shared streets" are now in place – and largely vacant so far.
Charter Right #1. That the Cambridge City Council go on record in support of including a two-track Grand Junction railway crossing in MassDOT’s Allston Multimodal Improvement Project plans and urges the FMCB to vote in favor of this inclusion. [Order #7 of June 22; Charter Right – Toomey]
Light Rail or Bus Rapid Transit only, please.
Charter Right #2. That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to obtain an itemized statement of all materials, tools, and property owned by the Cambridge Police Department. [Order #9 of June 22; Charter Right – Simmons]
In addition to a complete accounting of all stationary supplies and toilet paper, I demand to know if the Cambridge Police Department possesses any specialized secret agent equipment from MI6.
Charter Right #4. Alternative Policing PO. [Order #12 of June 22; Charter Right – Zondervan]
In a nutshell, this Order asks that various unarmed alternative emergency response programs be considered in addition to whatever CPD is already doing in this regard.
Order #1. That the City Council go on record in full support of the state legislation “An Act relative to saving black lives and transforming public safety” as a first step in changing law enforcement standards, use of force, and reporting in Massachusetts. Councillor McGovern, Mayor Siddiqui, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler
This Order recommends that the State legislature endorse the same law enforcement standards that Cambridge now uses. I can’t argue with that.
Order #3. That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to direct the appropriate City personnel to establish a plan designed to provide a thorough, system-wide review of the entire municipal government to identify and remove any vestiges of systemic racism and/or racial bias in any and all City departments, to establish clear, transparent metrics that will help further this critical endeavor, and to report back to the City Council on this matter no later than Sept 14, 2020. Councillor Simmons
Charter Right #6. That the City Manager be and hereby is directed to provide the City Council with an update on the formal Anti-bias / Cultural Competency Strategic Plan. [Order #14 of June 22; Charter Right – Zondervan]
Order #4. That the Chair of the Civic Unity Committee schedule hearings to discuss how to best incorporate language into the City Council’s rules that will call for anti-bias, anti-racist, and cultural sensitivity trainings to be held on a yearly basis. Councillor Simmons
For a long time and especially during recent "Defund the Police" and "Abolish the Police" campaigns I have heard it stated how ineffective such trainings are. I’m inclined to agree, but it does create jobs for those people doing the trainings.
Order #5. That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to confer with the Assistant City Manager of Community Development to determine how to best protect and preserve our commercial spaces that support our small business operators and maintain continuity in our commercial districts, and report back to the City Council with recommendations at the September 14th City Council meeting. Councillor Toomey
This is one of the Orders I find most interesting and important. A lot of retail in Cambridge has been dying on the vine even before the coronavirus came to town. Montessori schools, Rock & Roll Daycare and similar facilities and, more recently, cannabis-related operations have rushed in to fill the void. With the constraints imposed by public health standards it’s not at all clear what can survive to next year. Some residential conversions may follow, but I suspect the only real solution will be a lot of renegotiation of leases and finding a new equilibrium between what rents can be afforded and the sustainability of many Cambridge businesses at least in the near term.
Charter Right #7. That the City Manager confer with the City’s Housing Liaison and Multi Service Center to discuss a variety of long-term housing solutions and tenant protections and report back to the City Council on July 27, 2020. [Order #15 of June 22; Charter Right – Zondervan]
I suspect any discussion of this will dovetail into the discussion of Order #6 below.
Order #6. That the City Council go on record in support of H.3924, An Act Enabling Local Options for Tenant Protections, which is currently under consideration before the Massachusetts State Legislature. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Councillor Zondervan, Mayor Siddiqui, Councillor Carlone
One point is clear: Any city councillor who votes to support this Order is voting in support of bringing back full throttle rent control to Cambridge. The referenced bill is interesting in that it would allow any city or town in the Commonwealth to create its own version of rent regulation ranging from benign to draconian (and you know full well that Cambridge would eventually go full draconian). It is my understanding that even though there may currently be some greater degree of support for such regulation due to the pandemic, this is not a bill that will likely make it through the legislative process, and it’s even less likely that Governor Baker would ever sign it. There have been bills proposed that might actually have sufficient support (one proposal would simply put a cap on exhorbitant – and I do mean exhorbitant – rent increases for continuing tenants), but this is not such a bill. This bill is primarily about control – and only to a lesser degree about rent.
Order #8. That the City Manager is requested to confer with the City Manager’s Housing Liaison and Multi Service Center on implementing a Tenants Rights and Resource Notification Act that would require owners and management companies to include tenant rights and resource information when issuing eviction notifications including at the initial Notice to Quit stage and report back to the City Council on July 27, 2020. Mayor Siddiqui, Councillor Simmons, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Councillor McGovern
This is a far more tame Order than the above referenced Order #6.
Order #7. That the City Manager work with the Department of Human Services Recreation Division and other relevant departments to determine the feasibility of identifying one evening or day per week that the Fresh Pond Golf Course can be open to the public for general use. Councillor Nolan, Vice Mayor Mallon, Councillor Zondervan, Councillor Carlone
The western parts of Cambridge are not lacking in open space assets. In truth, I have yet to see any open space in Cambridge so crowded that one might mistake it for Coney Island. I’m not so sure that there really is any demand for hanging out on the golf course grass, but it is worth mentioning that there are golf courses in the Boston metropolitan area where people do walk across parts of the golf course and have to be mindful of flying golf balls, e.g. Ponkapoag Pond in Canton and Mt. Hood Municipal Golf Course in Melrose. Even the Granite Links golf course in Quincy is supposedly open to hikers passing through, though the golfers do often object.
Committee Report #1. A communication was received from Anthony I. Wilson, City Clerk, transmitting a report from Councilor Simmons, Chair of the Government Operations, Rules & Claims Committee, for a public hearing held on Feb 19, 2020.
Committee Report #2. A communication was received from Anthony I. Wilson, City Clerk, transmitting a report from Councilor Simmons, Chair of the Government Operations, Rules & Claims Committee, for a public hearing held on Mar 12, 2020.
I have no idea what the Feb 19 hearing was about, but I do know that the Mar 12 meeting had to do with possible renewal of the City Manager’s contract. No details are provided in either report other than to state that these meetings took place on those dates. Perhaps we need a new Agenda section entitled "Committee Non-Reports".
Communications & Reports #1. A communication was received from Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, transmitting considerations about reopening schools this fall.
Will they re-open? Will half the students be required to stay home on any given day? Will Zoom get tenure? – Robert Winters