Marc McGovern
2015 Candidate for Cambridge City Council

Home address:
15 Pleasant St.
Cambridge, MA 02139

Contact information:
Tel: 617-642-1731
e-mail: marcmcgovern@gmail.com
website: www.marcmcgovern.com
Facebook: Marc McGovern Cambridge City Council

Send contributions to:
Committee to Elect Marc McGovern
17 Pleasant St.
Cambridge, MA 02139

Background
Marc is a 4th generation Cantabrigian and father of four, serving his inaugural term on the Cambridge City Council. From a long line of community activists, Marc grew up surrounded by people who taught him the importance of giving back to one’s community. During his time as a Cambridge elected official, Marc has earned a reputation as a level-headed, collaborative, problem solver who always puts the good of the city first.

For the past 20 years, Marc has served the community in a variety of ways. In addition to serving four terms on the Cambridge School Committee, Marc has been a member of the Cambridge Kids’ Council for close to a decade. Through the Kids’ Council, he helped write the first-of-its-kind city order guaranteeing children with special needs the ability to attend any city-run after school program in Cambridge. Currently, Marc works fulltime as your City Councillor and 15 hours per week as the Clinical Support Social Worker for Farr Academy, a Cambridge school for children struggling with emotional, behavioral or mental health issues. Marc also coached Cambridge Youth Soccer and is the former president of Central Division Little Baseball League which serves over 100 children annually. Marc is an active member of his Democratic Ward Committee and the Cambridge Democratic City Committee, taking on a leadership role to help elect progressive Democrats to both state and national office.

In 2014, Marc was the first freshman City Councillor in a decade to be named Chair of the Finance Committee. In that role, Marc worked with the city administration to develop and pass a budget that not only kept property taxes low but added many new services and programs to a city that already does so much and helped communicate the nearly half billion dollar city budget to the Council and the community at large.

Marc has dedicated this term to better understanding the problem of poverty in Cambridge. As Chair of the Human Services and Veterans' Committee and Chair of the Mayor’s Commission on Income Insecurity, Marc is holding a series of meetings focused on poverty, hunger, and the real cost of living in Cambridge to better learn the effect that these issues have on our community and in what ways we can provide improved coverage of services. As a member of the Housing Committee, Marc is tackling the affordable housing crisis in Cambridge by sponsoring a number of policy orders to create more affordable housing in our city.

Marc is always willing to meet with anyone who wishes to share his or her thoughts and concerns regarding Cambridge. To reach Marc, please email him at mmcgovern@cambridgema.gov, or call 617-349-4264 to schedule a meeting.

Top Priorities
Affordable Housing
Poverty, Homelessness and Hunger
Bringing high quality, affordable universal pre-k to Cambridge

Land Use, Planning, Zoning, Density
Cambridge is in a challenging time. As a very desirable city that is thriving, we have more and more people who want to live here for all the same reasons we all do. We are, however, a city that is limited in space. When we subtract the land owned by our universities, Fresh Pond, and all the coveted open space throughout the city, there is not much land left to meet the needs of this growing population.

There are some who believe that the best way to manage this growth is to not provide additional housing and hope that people will stop wanting to live in Cambridge. Unfortunately, that is unlikely. What we have seen instead is that as the industry in Cambridge has changed, and there are more people earning more money, this lack of housing stock has led to skyrocketing rental and housing costs.

We need to find a way to balance the increasing desire of people who want to live in Cambridge with our limited space. To be honest, I’m not sure what the answer is. I don’t think anyone knows. What I do know is that balance is important and if we don’t provide additional density, particularly around transit hubs, then rental and housing prices will continue to rise. With that said, there is a limit to what our infrastructure can support and we must always be cognizant of the livability of our neighborhoods.

I was proud to vote for a city-wide master plan that will tackle many of these questions and am excited that this process will soon be taking off at full speed.

Economic Development and Commerce
I would like to give credit to Vice-Mayor Dennis Benzan who has led the charge for economic development in Cambridge. His work on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) has been extremely important. Cambridge is very much a tale of two cities. We have a booming economy in Kendall Square, yet many of our young people can’t access this workforce. We need to make sure that we teaching our students the skills they need to enter the innovation economy.

Another issue facing our community is the challenge of operating a small business in Cambridge. With high rents and more and more people ordering items online, many small businesses are finding it hard to succeed. As the Finance Chair this term, I worked with City leaders to ensure that funding was available for various programs that support small businesses.

Housing
Affordable Housing continues to be the number one issue facing our city.  Recently, the Council was faced with voting on the Mass+Main project for Central Square. This project is going to bring 47 affordable units to our city when we desperately need them; that's approximately $28 million dollars of subsidized housing that will be turned over to the city for our inclusionary program. The market rate units will also bring additional rental relief to a market that is in high demand. People making as little as $32,000 per year - people who would otherwise be unable to live in our great city - will benefit from this project. Without these additional units, people moving to the city who earn higher wages will drive up the prices in rental units in two and three family homes, as they have done for decades.

Some folks have worried that building more housing will increase rents. The data, in fact, suggests the opposite. In the ten years following the loss of rent control, Cambridge lost close to 10% of our rental stock to condominium conversion, dropping the number of rental units available. During that time, the monthly rent of a one bedroom apartment rose from $913 in 1996 to $1,600 by 2006, an increase of 75%. From 2010 to the start of 2013 the city added 800 units of housing. During that time the price of a one bedroom apartment rose from $1,725 to $2,500, an increase of 45%. From 2013 to May 2015, the city added 1,300 units of additional housing. The price of 1bedroom went from $2,500 to $2,300 per month, a decrease of 8%. There is no question that rents are still outrageously high, but what these figures show is that when we take housing stock away, prices go up, when we add housing stock, prices go down. Building housing works.

The Greater Boston Housing Report Card, written by the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, states: "Our own statistical analysis indicates that when the rental vacancy rate has fallen below 5.5 percent, landlords are able to extract higher rents. Facing little inventory, renters are forced to compete for a limited number of available units. Low vacancy rates are good for landlords but anathema for renters." It goes on to say, "Only by creating sufficient supply to meet demand - and producing appropriate housing for the changing demography of the region - can we hope to moderate prices and rents." Building more housing in and of itself won't solve this problem, but not building housing will only make things worse.

My approach to dealing with this issue is to fight it on many fronts:

• Affordable housing preservation: Cambridge has many affordable housing developments that are scheduled to be “expiring” in the upcoming years. We must do everything in our power to ensure that these expiring use buildings continue to be affordable. If we lose what we already have in place, it will only make our situation worse.
• Increase Inclusionary Zoning: Currently, any development over 10 units must have 15% of those units be affordable. With density bonuses that 15% turns out to be much closer to 11.5%, not enough. We need to increase this percentage to ensure that developers are required to build as much affordable housing as possible.
• Build on City owned land: The only way we will get 100% mixed income housing (low, moderate and middle) is to control the development ourselves. We need to assess what land we currently own and what can be built on that land. We need to partner with non-profit, affordable housing organizations like Just-A-Start and HRI to build more mixed use housing.
• Purchase available property: The City needs to be nibble and quick to purchase property that becomes available so that we can have control over how that property is used. If we don’t look to purchase available property then we will lose out to private developers who will build more market rent housing and less affordable housing.
• Build more housing of all types: Although some believe that building more market rent housing will drive up prices, the opposite is true. The Dukakis Policy Institute at Northeastern studied housing in Cambridge and Boston and determined that there are two ways to control rental prices: 1. Build more housing or 2. Make your city an undesirable place to live. Given that we don’t want to do that later, we need to increase our housing stock. Cambridge is a great place to live and if the current market rent developments weren’t built, would those tenants not move to Cambridge? Of course not, they would still come but without additional housing they would drive up the rents in all the two and three family homes in our neighborhoods. We saw this after the loss of rent control.
• Offer incentives to landlords who voluntarily keep rents below market value.
• Look at ways to increase revenue to the Affordable Housing Trust

Energy, the Environment, and Public Health
Over my first term I have been proud to have supported and taken the lead on many environmental issues. As a father of 4 I am very concerned about what type of planet they and my grandchildren will eventually inherit. I have worked with such amazing groups as the Sierra Club and Mothers Out Front on numerous policy order to support environmental protections. Some of those issues have included my taking the lead on finally passing a ban on plastic bags, making Cambridge the largest city on the East Coast to do so. I was also proud to support the work of the Net Zero Committee that will move Cambridge toward becoming a net zero community. I led other initiatives such as directing the city to create a solar incentive program to increase the number of residents converting to solar energy, to create incentives for electric car ownership and to move Cambridge toward using 100% renewable energy.

Regarding Public Health, I was very proud of taking the lead on updating and strengthening our Tobacco Ordinance. Not only did we ban smoking in public parks and outdoor seating in restaurants, we also raised the age to purchase all tobacco products to 21 years old. This move earned praise from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and now the state is moving forward to raise the age to 21.

Traffic, Parking, and Transportation
Car registrations in Cambridge have declined over the past several years. According to the City’s Traffic and Parking Department, “Since 2000, the number of Cambridge households owning zero vehicles has increased from 27.7% to 32.2% (Census 2000, 2006-2008 American Community Survey). Within ¼ mile of an MBTA station 50% of households have no car (Residential parking demand near transit, CDD and TPT Departments, July 2007). There was a 10% decrease in resident parking permits issued between 2000 and 2009.” So if car ownership is down, why is there so much traffic?

That can be due to many reasons. One is commuter traffic. Many people from the suburbs travel to or through Cambridge to get to work. We need to work together to expand the Red Line into Arlington and Lexington. Another reason is that the City has made very specific decisions that has deliberately created traffic. Over the past decade the City has widened sidewalks, added bike lanes, added raised crosswalks, bump outs and street lights. These are all positive for increasing bike and pedestrian safety, however, they lead to slowing down cars and creating congestion.

We need to continue to support other modes of transportation by making it safer to bike in the city, requiring developers to provide Zip Car or other care sharing memberships to their residents, and looking at ways to improve the public transportation system.

Open Space, Parks, and Recreation
As the father of 4, baseball and soccer coach and having grown up in Cambridge, I don’t think there is a park I haven’t been to in our city. I love that we have a mix of larger parks and fields combined with smaller neighborhood parks that makes it easy for people to enjoy. As Chair of the Finance Committee this term, I worked with city leaders to make sure that there was money in the budget to improve parks, such as at the Amigos School, and I will continue to support these initiatives.

When considering open space around larger developments, such as in Kendall Square, I would like to see open space that is usable and inviting to the community. Much of the open space in our more industrial areas look more like front lawns for the building and not places where people feel invited to enjoy. Kendall Square specifically is changing from a purely commerce driven area to a mixed neighborhood of commercial and residential. The open space in this area needs to reflect this change.

Municipal Finance (budget, assessments, property taxes, etc.)
With a budget of approximately $546 million dollars and a capital budget of another $85 million, Cambridge is the envy of every city and town in Massachusetts. Our financial stability allows us to do things that other municipalities can’t even contemplate. One example was during discussion on the Public Celebrations budget, the council spent almost an hour thinking of ways we can spend more money on public art and public events. Other communities are cutting these important cultural activities, if they fund them at all.

Some of the highlights from this budget include 12 new full-time positions including a Net Zero Planner, a Housing Planner, an Organics Recycling Manager, a Public Works Landscape Administrator, a DHSP Community Engagement Team Leader, a S.T.E.A.M. Coordinator, a Parking Control Officer, a Licensed Social Worker for Police, and new IT positions. These positions come from policy initiatives set by the City Council and the community and represent a commitment to expanding the incredible services the city already provides.

In addition, the city will allocate another $10 million tax dollars under the Community Preservation Act to create and preserve affordable housing; bringing the total since 2005 to $115 million, which has led to the creation of more than 1,000 units of affordable housing and the preservation of 1,100 units, helping to keep low- and moderate-income residents in our city.

The capital budget also represents a city committed to its residents. As the new Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School and Putnam Ave Upper School building prepares to open this September, the city will embark on construction of a new campus for the King Open Elementary School and the Cambridge Street Upper School, which will also include renovations to the public library and public swimming pool. While other communities struggle with school buildings that are falling apart, Cambridge is able to move forward without State funding on these projects because of our financial stability and AAA bond rating.

One of the most exciting projects in this budget process was the Participatory Budgeting Process. Thanks to its introduction from Councilor Leland Cheung last term, and the hard work of those in the Finance Department, we were able to initiate a citywide outreach campaign to involve the community in directly deciding how to spend just over $500,000. This process resulted in 380 ideas that were whittled down to 20 and then to the 6 winners, which included a public toilet in Central Square, 100 new trees in certain areas of the city, 20 new computers for the Community Learning Center, six free, public Wi-Fi locations, eight bike repair stations and 300 bilingual books for children learning English. This process was so successful that the city has committed to continuing again next year.

Our ability to be bold and responsible in our fiscal decisions have placed us in a position where we can continue to serve our residents in incredible ways, while building for the future.

Quality of Life and Public Safety
In addition to tackling the big issues of affordable housing and poverty, I take my responsibility to help improve the quality of life of our residents very seriously. Whether it is holding weekly office hours to hear from constituents, helping residents find housing or work, fixing a pot hole or street sign, I see these as important functions of a City Councillor and I'm committed to maintaining Cambridge as a city with a high quality of life. To that end, I've filed a few orders pertaining to our streets and sidewalks, namely an order on March 30th requesting the placement of "No Trucks" signs on some of our narrower streets to prevent large trucks from becoming stuck or damaging cars, and an order requesting the City Manager increase the number of electric charging stations. I also co-sponsored an order with Councillors Kelley and Cheung, and Vice Mayor Benzan asking for a plan to inventory and manage street tree wells.

In addition to streets and sidewalks, noise has been a hot topic. I co-sponsored two orders with Councillor Kelley about noise in Cambridge: one, also supported by Councillor Cheung and Vice Mayor Benzan, regarding airplane noise issues, and the other regarding the capacity of the City to address and analyze noise complaints.

As a social worker for 20 years, I firmly believe in funding prevention and intervention programs. If we maximize our education, our job opportunities, our human services programs, and our community outreach, we will resolve many of the public safety issues facing our city. We have a police force and a police commissioner who value community policing and building relationships with residents. That puts us far ahead of other municipalities. I will continue to work with the police department to continue our community policing efforts.

I would like to see additional social workers and community workers on our streets, engaging with our young people and helping them feel connected to our city. I will continue to support human services programs that provide our youth with places to go, continuing education, and job training to help them get back on track. Overall, Cambridge is a safe city and we need to build on our success.

Homelessness:
Throughout this term, I have been working hard on issues pertaining to homelessness in our community. Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking at the ribbon cutting of Y2Y, a new homeless shelter opening in November for homeless youth, see video below. I have worked closely this past year with Sam Greenberg and Sarah Rozenkrantz, the two main forces behind this incredible project, in their fundraising and development of the shelter. With only 16 youth-specific shelter beds in Boston, these beds will be lifesaving to many young people who are unable to find help. What makes this shelter even more spectacular is that it will be partnering with Youth On Fire, a program of the Aids Action Committee, that provides case management services, food, necessities, care, and support to homeless youth during the day when the shelter is not open.

I joined Councillors Simmons and Cheung and Vice Mayor Benzan, requesting the City Manager work with relevant departments to develop a process to complete a new city plan to address homelessness in our community. I also co-sponsored an order with Councillor Leland Cheung requesting the City Manager advocate for the creation of tax credits specifically geared toward incentivizing the creation and support of transitional housing and services.

In addition, as Chair of the Human Services and Veteran’s Committee, I have held several meetings of various stakeholders to discuss how best to support our homeless population. These conversations led to a process beginning in September 2015 to develop a comprehensive city plan to eradicate homelessness.

Poverty and Income Insecurity:
When people think of Cambridge they tend to think of our world class universities and leading biotech companies. What they don’t think about is how many people in our community are truly struggling; struggling to pay their rent, struggling to put food on the table, and struggling to pay their bills. In 2014 the Community Development Department issued a startling report on poverty rates in the city. Despite the wealth and innovation in our city, 11%, or approximately 8,000 people, were below the federal poverty line. In communities of color, these numbers were even higher: 30% for our Black residents and 20% for our Hispanic residents. The federal guidelines for poverty don’t come close to what it costs to live in our city, which raises the question, “What does it really cost to live in Cambridge?” It was at that point that the Mayor’s Commission on Income Insecurity was formed.

The Income Insecurity Commission, Chaired by myself and co-shared by Councillor Denise Simmons and composed of city staff, non-profit leaders, and community members, met ten times over several months to grapple with how income insecurity impacts our residents, what the city is doing to support those in need, and what gaps exist in city and non-profit services that should be addressed. The Commission then identified several areas that were most critical: Housing; Hunger; Wages and Employment; and Job Training and Education. We formed subcommittees to research several questions: what is the impact of being income insecure in these areas, what city services are available, what city services are missing, what recommendations should be made to address these areas in regards to each topic. We compiled city demographics on what it takes for persons to live in Cambridge service-free and then broke those numbers down by subgroups to give us a more accurate picture of how many in our community are truly struggling. In addition, we conducted focus groups at senior housing and public housing developments, as well as an online survey that yielded just under 400 responses.

This Commission uses the term “Income Insecurity” as opposed to “Poverty”. We define Income security as the amount of money it takes for a person or persons to meet their basic needs without government assistance. The choice of terms is important. Many municipal, state, and federal programs use the federal definition of poverty to determine who qualifies for support services, but those numbers do not adequately address the situation in Cambridge. There are many who earn more than the poverty guidelines but still struggle to pay bills and may be in need of assistance.

As startling as the results of the City’s poverty study are, the results of the Income Insecurity Commission’s work is even more so. We found that the gap between those who can meet their needs and those who struggle is even wider than we thought. For Cambridge to be the socially just community we want it to be, we need to address this gap with more urgency. For example, the Federal Poverty Guidelines says a family is in poverty if they earn less than $24,250 annually. In Cambridge, a family of 4 needs to earn $108,800 per year to be not face income insecurity.

While we have made numerous recommendations in this report, the overarching recommendation is that we, as a city and as city leaders, need to make addressing income insecurity a goal by providing the proper resources and attention it deserves. Cambridge is a wonderful city with many wonderful programs and initiatives. We are not, however, immune to the increasing economic divide that is ravaging our country. With the people, finances and determination Cambridge possesses as a municipality and as a community, we will be able to tackle this issue in ways other municipalities cannot.

I would like to thank all of those who participated in creating this report, who attended our focus groups and who filled out the online survey. I would also like to thank all the support staff, including Annie Nagle from my office who was instrumental in the completion of this report. Finally, I would like to extend great thanks to Mayor David Maher and his office for recognizing this as an important issue and appointing this Commission.

Please go to:  http://www2.cambridgema.gov/CityOfCambridge_Content/documents/Income%20Insecurity%20Report%209.24.2015.pdf to view the entire report.

Early Childhood Education:
One of the reasons I ran for City Council was because after serving 8 years on the School Committee, I knew that if we were truly going to close the achievement gap, then we needed to provide high quality, affordable, early childhood education for all. I worked to push the City to create an Early Childhood Education Task Force.

As a result, the City Manager appointed the Early Childhood Task Force to develop a set of recommendations to ensure that all Cambridge children receive high quality early education and care.  Members of the task force include City and School staff, parents, and community-based providers of family and center based childcare, pre-school, mental health and health services. During the past year, the task force, working with national experts in the early childhood field examined best practices and current research, including learning about regional and national models of successful comprehensive systems of early childhood education and care. The Task Force gathered and analyzed data about early education and care programs and services currently available in Cambridge through focus groups and surveys of Cambridge-based providers. There were also focus groups with parents, teachers, principals and other providers.  Based on the research, focus groups and survey data, the task force identified principles to guide the development of recommendations: 

• Developing a strong, comprehensive, and aligned system of high-quality services that will meet the needs of children and families.
• Ensuring equitable access to early childhood information and high-quality services.
• Providing levels of service commensurate with the needs of children and families and that in particular address the needs of low-income families.
• Emphasizing the whole 0-8 continuum and especially the earliest years, including prenatal care.
• Emphasizing positive social-emotional development, mental health, and special needs.
• Engaging and supporting families in their parenting and "first teacher" roles in ways that are culturally-responsive and celebrate diversity.
• Building and supporting a high-quality workforce capable of meeting the needs of children and families in a sustainable way.

The task force will develop specific recommendations for a multi-year strategic plan for building a comprehensive system of early education and care in Cambridge in a meaningful and sustainable way. The strategic plan will likely include recommendations that address affordability and access to services, program quality, family engagement and support, access to information, and on-going leadership and management of the system. 

Worker’s Rights:
Fighting for working women and men in our community has been a cornerstone of my work on the City Council. I am so happy to report that, after more than a year of working with the staff at the Harvard owned Doubletree hotel and Unite Here-Local 26, we were finally able to reach an agreement to allow the workers to vote on unionization. As expected, the workers voted overwhelming to join Local 26 and are now negotiating a contract that will provide them with a living wage and health insurance for their families. This was a great victory for these hard working men and women.

I have co-sponsored three orders further supporting workers. In March, I joined with Councillor Mazen and Councillor Cheung in expressing support for the contract faculty at Lesley University and in April, I joined Councillors Simmons, Cheung and Vice Mayor Benzan in supporting the American Postal Workers' Union, and Councillors Simmons and Cheung in urging representatives of Hines Construction and Callahan Construction to meet with representatives of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters and the Building & Construction Trades Council to address labor issues.

I have also been a very vocal supporter and participant in the movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Endorsements:
National Association of Social Workers
Greater Boston Labor Council
Carpenter’s Local 40
Iron Workers Local 107
SEIU 32BJ
Unite Here Local 26
Painters and Allied Trades
IBEW Local 103

Thank you for visiting my page and thank you to Robert Winters for his efforts to bring information to the people of Cambridge. It is difficult to believe that I am halfway through my first term on the Cambridge City Council. It feels like just yesterday we were making phone calls, knocking on doors and holding signs. This first year has been very busy. Here are a few things I have been working on:

• Affordable Housing: I have been either the lead or co-sponsor on no fewer than a dozen policy orders directing the city to preserve and create affordable housing for low and middle income residents.
• Homelessness and Poverty: As the Chair of the Human Services and Veterans Committee as well as the Mayor’s Commission on Income Insecurity, I have been tackling issues of poverty, homelessness, and hunger and leading the fight to help our residents overcome these obstacles.
• Universal Pre-K: If the Cambridge Schools are going to close the achievement gap, then we must provide high quality, affordable, early childhood education to all children. Soon after taking office I organized tours for school and city staff with surrounding communities who are leading the way in early childhood education. I have also been a leading voice in support of the Early Childhood Education Task Force which will make recommendations to the Council in the spring.
• Environment: Soon after being sworn in, I directed the city to create a residential solar incentive program which will provide guidance and incentives for homeowners who wish to add solar energy to their homes. I have also been a leading voice for the plastic bag ordinance as well as the tobacco ordinance and have been working closely with the Sierra Club and Mothers Out Front on a number of projects, including ways to incentives electric car ownership, divestment from TransCanada and moving Cambridge toward 100% renewable energy.

In addition to these and other important issues, it has been my promise to serve in a respectful, collaborative, and consensus building manner. I have spent my first term building positive relationships with my colleagues and city staff, placing me in a position to move forward important issues for our community. As proud as I am of the work done thus far, I am running for re-election because there is still so much more to do. Cambridge is a wonderful city but we must never become complacent; we must continue to address issues of affordability, social justice, climate change and safe and supportive communities.

I thank you very much for your support. As honored and inspired as I am to continue this work, without your assistance it would be impossible. As always, please feel free to contact me anytime with questions, concerns or just to say “hello,” and please visit www.marcmcgovern.com for more information. Thank you again.

Sincerely,
Marc McGovern

Candidates's 2013 responses    Candidate's 2011 responses    Candidate's 2009 responses    Candidate's 2007 responses

CCTV candidate video (2015)