Cambridge Civic Journal Forum

Featured items on the April 4, 2022 Cambridge City Council agenda

Short agendas are as welcome as the flowers in springtime. There are Net Zero policy orders this week, though I’m sure they’ll be a few agenda-come-latelies before the night is through. Here are the things I found interesting:

Manager’s Agenda #1. Transmitting Communication from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to the appropriation of $50,000 from Free Cash to the General Fund Inspectional Services Department Other Ordinary Maintenance Account to provide funds to implement a pilot of SMART Box and SMART Pipe rodent control technology in the City. This appropriation also is in response to Awaiting Report Item Number 22-12.
pulled by Mallon; Order Adopted 8-0-1 (Toner ABSENT)

Zap those rats!

Manager’s Agenda #2. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 21-69, regarding a report on creating a uniform process for aiding the resettlement of refugees in Cambridge. [Uniform Resettlement Process response] [New Resident Overview]
pulled by Siddiqui; Placed on File 8-0-1 (Toner ABSENT)

Manager’s Agenda #5. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 21-63, regarding food insecurity. [Food Insecurity response] [ARPA Funds Food Insecurity opinion]
pulled by Siddiqui; Placed on File 9-0

The referenced Order #9 from Sept 13, 2021 provides a lot of reference points such as the fact that “approximately 45% of Cambridge Public Schools students register for the free or reduced lunch programs each year”. It also elevates Boston initiatives such as the “Raised Beds Program” (since re-branded as “Food Justice” which includes “Food Forests” and “Urban Farming”). [It’s funny how many things are being re-branded as “Justice” these days.] These are all wonderful initiatives that provide great outdoor experiences for residents. My concern has more to do with proportionality, i.e. the fact that the cumulative effect of all of these initiatives in terms of actually providing food is so minimal. Indeed, if you use Google Maps to view all of the referenced garden sites in Boston, it seems that in total they cover less ground than The Fenway Victory Gardens that began as actual “victory gardens” during World War II. I also think about the deranged local political climate in Cambridge where the notion that a house lot being used as a garden might be seen as a lost opportunity for high-density residential development. Indeed, it was not so long ago that a relatively large community garden at the intersection of Broadway and Boardman Street was dramatically reduced in size in order to provide a token parklet and parking for the affordable housing re-use of the old Squirrel Brand factory.

The joint communication from CDD, DPW, and the Public Health Department also seems to include a recommendation that in the 14 community gardens in Cambridge, the City should be “more strongly enforcing a 5-year term limit for garden plots.” Ever since that policy was first proposed perhaps 20 years ago I have thought it to be both short-sighted and contrary to the idea of “community” in community gardens. A better policy would be to simply require that a percentage of garden plots turn over each year rather than enforce an eviction of all longer-term gardeners whose well-being may actually depend on their gardens. The City’s approach is both bureaucratic and insensitive. In truth, because people are always moving in and out of Cambridge, there’s already a natural turnover of a percentage of garden plots, so all that’s really necessary is to ensure that there is sufficient turnover. By the way, the City used to play essentially no role in the city’s community gardens. That changed when gardeners requested water supply, and that apparently meant that the City gained some jurisdiction.

Since the referenced Sept 13, 2021 policy order was primarily about using the ARPA windfall for addressing food insecurity, it is perhaps worth emphasizing that access to affordable food won’t significantly be impacted by raised planter beds so much but rather by access to discounted food provided through stores and other food markets that have the means to efficiently deliver those goods in quantity year-round. Expanding the number of garden beds is a welcome gesture, but it can only go so far.

Manager’s Agenda #8. Transmitting Communication from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to the appropriation of $915,000 from Free Cash to the Public Investment Fund Public Works Extraordinary Expenditures account to fund the procurement of five pieces of equipment for use in snow and ice operations.
pulled by Nolan; questions why John Deere hybrid vehicles not chosen; DPW Dep’y Comm. John Nardone explains; Nolan questions purchase because fossil fuel vehicles will soon not be permitted, suggests leasing instead; Zondervan suggests using bio-diesel fuel; Nardone says they already do; Order Adopted 9-0

On the Table #9. Transmitting Communication from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to the appropriation of the Emergency Management Performance Grant from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency in the amount of $39,600 to the Grant Fund Fire Extraordinary Expenditures account which will be used to support the purchase of a new vehicle for the Emergency Preparedness and Coordination office. [Charter Right – Nolan, Mar 7, 2022; Tabled – Mar 21, 2022]

Councillor Nolan continues her audition for Purchasing Agent. I’ll be shocked if there’s not yet another inquisition about why we’re not recommending the purchase of all-electric (or horse-drawn) snow plows, tractors, and salters.

Manager’s Agenda #9. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 21-45, regarding the feasibility of waiving dog license fees. [Dog License Fees] [Dog Fees Order] [Dog License Fees Municipal Code Amendment]

Apparently, the dog-lovin’ State Legislature passed enabling legislation 20 years ago (~140 dog years) to exempt anyone over the age of 70 from paying a dog license fee, so this is just a matter of voting to accept that provision. The City Council also wanted to have the fee waived for low-income residents even if that entails more complicated and time-consuming bureaucracy. There’s also this chilling reminder: “No part of the fee shall be refunded because of the subsequent death, loss, spaying, castration, removal from the Commonwealth or other disposal of the dog. Nor shall any part of the fee paid by mistake be refunded.” Woof, woof.
pulled by McGovern; Order Adopted 9-0 (to accept provisions of the state enabling legislation); Ordinance amendment passed to 2nd Reading 9-0; McGovern says they’ll bring up a low-income fee waiver later

On the Table #2-8. Appointments and Reappointments to City Boards & Commissions on hold while City Council pipes in Muzak to appointees.

The City Council has apparently scheduled a Government Operations meeting on Tues, Apr 12 at 10:00am to discuss new guidelines for Boards and Commissions appointments. That should prove interesting, especially the wealth of intention floating between the lines of all that is said and not said. Perhaps they’ll settle on something similar to the rather chilling call of the meeting for this week’s two scheduled meetings of the City Council’s Ad-Hoc Committee to appoint the Preliminary Screening Committee for the hiring of the City Manager to discuss the reputation and character of applicants for the City Manager Preliminary Screening Committee. [I considered applying, but now I’m glad I didn’t.]

Resolution #6. Congratulations George R. Greenidge, Jr, American Sociological Association’s Community & Urban Publicly Engaged Scholar Award Recipient 2022.   Councillor McGovern

I first met Chip Greenidge as a student in a summer program over 30 years ago. He’s a good guy (my highest compliment, by the way). Perhaps I’ll try to dig out the tattered T-shirt we got that summer with our names on it.

Charter Right #1. The Ordinance Committee met on Feb 9, 2022 to conduct a public hearing on proposed amendments to the Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance (2021-26). [Charter Right – Zondervan, Mar 28, 2022] [Committee Report]
Tabled – Zondervan (voice vote)

Communications & Reports #3. A communication was received from Mayor Siddiqui and Councillor Nolan, transmitting a report from the Climate Crisis Working Group.
Pulled by Nolan; Referred to Health & Environment Committee (voice vote)

For starters, the word “reccomendations” is actually spelled “recommendations”. Sorry about the petty correction, but when it appears at the top of the title page it’s rather off-putting. Regarding the content, there are a lot of interesting suggestions, but the overriding words are “ban” and “mandatory” rather than “encourage” or “incentivize”. Apparently, at least for those who drafted this report, the age of “choice” must give way to the new age of “require” in every which way. – Robert Winters