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Denise Simmons Home address: Contact information: Send contributions to: |
2019 Statement: Background and Experience in Public Service I am a proud wife, a mother, a grandmother, a small business owner, and public service is something that my family instilled in me starting at a young age. I grew up in Cambridge, I’ve lived my entire adult life here, and I care very much about what kind of city we’ll be leaving to our grandchildren, and to our grandchildren's children. That sensibility has been at the heart of all my public service dating back to my time as Executive Director of the Civic Unity Committee in the 1980s. Throughout my years on the School Committee in the 1990s, and my time on the City Council since 2002, it has been an honor and privilege to serve the community that I love. Cambridge has been undergoing significant changes, and facing great challenges, over the past two decades. We are a community that is imbued with a deep, rich history, yet we are also evolving toward a future in which our biotech sector is drawing the greatest minds from the world over. Our challenge continues to be determining how to strike the appropriate balance in preserving our rich history – and holding on to the families that have been so essential to our character for generations – while acknowledging that all healthy cities grow, change, and evolve. I hope to continue tackling these challenges head on in the coming term, with my colleagues on the Council and with people throughout the community. Together, we have already accomplished many great things – and the work is far from over. Housing I’ve also helped hundreds of constituents navigate through the housing search process over the years. I have learned many important things about this process just by virtue of doing the work so often, and that is why I have put together an Affordable Housing Search Guide for people throughout the City, which is available on my City Council webpage. This housing search guide has links to the various housing agencies in Cambridge and Greater Boston, contact information for housing and legal advocates, and lists of important questions to ask during the process of signing up for housing. I strongly encourage anyone who is at any stage of the housing search to download this guide, or to contact my office for a copy. Economy I have also been working to strengthen our local job training and job placement programs. I’ve continued working to bring officials from Cambridge and Boston together, to help establish links between our Office of Workforce Development and Boston's "Building Pathways" program, which is a fantastic entryway into the local building trades. I’ve also worked to call out the large, multi-billion dollar corporations in Cambridge who have sought to cut corners on the backs of their lowest-paid workers, and I’ve urged for these businesses to reconsider these cutbacks. I also continue to stand in staunch support of those who wish to bargain collectively for fairer contracts, and for easier, clearer guidelines to report and resolve issues around workplace harassment and discrimination. Last but certainly not least, this term I’ve also been working to promote fairness, equity, and equal opportunity in workplaces throughout the City (including within the City’s own workforce), and I’ve been pleased to see (and support) similar efforts being introduced by our esteemed congressional representatives, Ayanna Pressley and Katherine Clark, in just the past few months. I very much hope to expand upon this work in the upcoming term. Civic Unity I have been leading my colleagues on the Council, the City's administrators, and the public through some difficult, but important, discussions about best employment practices and policies. We have discussed areas where the City has not done a good enough job in the past, and areas where we must work to improve in the future. Cambridge prides itself in being a beacon of tolerance and a community that draws strength from its great diversity. The City, as an employer, must also adhere to those ideals, and I certainly hope to be leading these most important discussions and meetings in the coming year. During my second term as Mayor, I was pleased to hold a number of Town Hall meetings, focusing on everything from the LGBTQ Community in the Age of Trump, to a forum for Tenants in Cambridge, to a forum on the intersection of Race, Class, Gender, and Cultural Identity in the City. These have all been energetic and thought-provoking discussions in which the citizens of Cambridge came in and spoke their minds, informing City leaders about ways in which we can and must be more sensitive, more inclusive, and more responsive to their concerns. I am hoping to revisit some of these discussions in the coming Council term, and I shall continue to seek ways to bring more people to the table to get involved, be more engaged, and to be heard in the conversations that shape our community. Our Town Hall meetings continue to be a fantastic forum for this. Energy, the Environment, and Public Health Traffic, Parking, and Transportation With the continued rise in popularity of TNC’s like Uber and Lyft, and the continued regional concerns around the safety and reliability of the MBTA, I continue to believe that Cambridge’s transportation discussions cannot be limited to just ourselves – these are regional issues, and therefore they require regional conversations. During my second term as Mayor, I was heartened to learn that the Transportation planners for Cambridge, Boston, Somerville and the surrounding communities do regularly communicate with one another – yet these informal discussions often take place in the background, and the results of these discussions do not necessarily directly inform the policymakers in each of these communities. In the coming term, I would like to push for the establishment of a framework for a regional, public discussion to be held once or twice a year that would allow the regional Transportation planners, elected officials, and members of the public to engage with one another in an open dialogue that would help us all better understand how we can address these shared issues in a more holistic, region-wide way. The Interfaith Community and Our Senior Community I also continue to hold monthly meetings with my Senior Advisory Committee, which is comprised of seniors from all across the community who all come from a variety of different socio-economic backgrounds. We continue to explore ways to ensure that the City is being more responsive to our senior residents, including working to ensure that seniors are connected to more transportation options (such as the TNCs), ensuring that senior concerns are factored into how we manage extreme weather events, and also via holding our now-annual Senior Service Providers Information Fair. This fair, held each September, is now entering its 4th iteration and it creates a one-stop-shopping environment in which seniors can come and learn about the wide variety of services and programs available to them from the City, from the Commonwealth, and from the numerous organizations that cater to seniors in this area. Public Safety One of the frequent items of concern in our past Safe Streets meetings was Central Square, which many have associated with excessive panhandling, public intoxication, and occasional eruptions of violence. That is why I spent years pushing for the Police Department to return to Central Square with a permanent sub-station, and I was incredibly pleased that this finally came to fruition in December 2018. Commissioner Bard reports that the sub-station has already made an appreciable impact in lowering crime and undesirable behaviors in Central Square, and I expect to see these positive trends continue as the City Council continues to work with the local business community and other local stakeholders to revitalize the area. I am also mindful of the fact that the various social service programs across the City, which provide essential stabilization services, are perpetually overburdened and underfunded (I was proud to lead the charge in our last term urging the City to help fund Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services – and to support these efforts again just this past June). We must continue offering services to the most fragile members of our community, and that means supporting these important programs as much as possible. We have some extraordinary service providers in Cambridge, and we must also recognize the extraordinary work that our Cambridge Police patrol officers in Central Square and Harvard Square do on a regular basis, reaching out to chronically homeless individuals in an effort to connect them with the appropriate social services. Children and Public Education Of course, one of my proudest achievements has been growing the Girls Only Leadership Development Program, which I started during my first term as Mayor and which has steadily grown through my collaboration with the YWCA Cambridge. The GOLD Program is a weekly program which teaches life and leadership skills to help guide participants on a path toward future success. This program is free for 8th grade girls from across Cambridge, who meet and learn from a diverse cast of strong, local female business, political, and civic leaders. Meeting topics for the program included high school and college preparation; preparing for different career paths; learning proper social etiquette for formal settings; learning about appropriate online and smartphone etiquette; how to make a strong and positive first impression; and learning about the benefits of civic engagement and the importance of networking. Closing Thoughts CCTV candidate video (2019) CCTV candidate video (2017) 2017 Candidate Page 2015 Candidate Page 2013 Candidate Page 2011 Candidate page 2009 Candidate page 2007 Candidate Page |
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Page last updated Thursday, September 19, 2019 4:30 PM | Cambridge Candidates |