Ben Simon
2019 Candidate for Cambridge City Council
Home address:
67 Bishop Allen Dr. #2
Cambridge, MA 02139
Contact information:
Tel: 857-880-0559
website: www.votebensimon.com
e-mail: benforcambridge@gmail.com
Facebook: Ben Simon for Cambridge
Send contributions to:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bensimon
I grew up in Porter Square in a rent controlled apartment, and only four years after rent control's abolition, my family was displaced. I moved back as a young adult in 2004, and as an after school teacher and a musician, it has been a struggle to afford to stay here as rents continue to skyrocket.
Last year I was one of the lead organizers of the Save EMF Campaign that sought to keep a thriving artist community from being displaced by luxury development. Though we were not ultimately able to keep our art spaces, the experience taught me both the tremendous power of organizing and the unsavory closeness between the real estate industry and City Hall. Afterwards when I sat on the Mayor’s Arts Task Force, I was frustrated to find that the role that development plays in erasing artists and art spaces from Cambridge was not up for discussion.
But art is not the only casualty to rampant real estate profiteering. We are rapidly losing our affordable housing, affordable groceries and small businesses of all kinds. Until we have a city government that will stand up to the developers who are breaking up our communities, everything and everyone in the way of their profits is under threat.
Because I see that we do not currently have such a government, and because I see my eventual displacement from Cambridge as inevitable unless fundamental change is made, I am running for Cambridge City Council.
The first step to solving the housing and general affordability crisis in Cambridge is to stop making it worse. As a councillor I will fight rampant displacement-causing development. I will fight for truly affordable city-owned social housing funded by taxing big business, Harvard, and MIT. These city-owned buildings can also provide spaces for the types of businesses (arts spaces, affordable grocery stores, etc.) we are losing due to gentrification. I will fight for residential and commercial rent control, and to get the real estate industry’s money and influence out of our politics once and for all.CCTV candidate video (2019)