Quinton Zondervan
2021 Candidate for Cambridge City Council

Home address:
235 Cardinal Medeiros Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02141

Contact information:
email: info@votequinton.com
website: www.votequinton.com
phone: 617-901-2006

Send contributions to:
https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/quintonforcambridge
OR:
Committee to Elect Quinton Zondervan
19 Everett Street, Apt 2B
Cambridge, MA 02138

Introduction: Hello, my name is Quinton Zondervan and I am serving my second term on the Cambridge City Council. As an immigrant and person of color, I am very concerned about the direction our country is headed in. I am proud to be endorsed by Sunrise Cambridge and Massachusetts Sierra Club in recognition of my decades-long work on a just transition to 100% renewable energy and on adapting to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. I do not accept contributions from real estate developers or other special interests with business before the council, because I want the voters to know that I’m working for you, not for the developers.

My Story: I grew up in Suriname, a small country in South America that was taken over by a military dictator when I was ten years old. I witnessed the destruction of the press and the killing of prominent citizens. One day, when I was using a machete to cut bamboo to make a kite, a soldier came up to me, pointed a gun to my belly, and asked me if I wanted to die. Soon after, my dad sent me ahead to the United States, where as a teenager I spent a few months living in the small forward cabin of my grandfather’s boat, which I shared with my uncle and his family. When my family finally joined me, my dad’s work permit fell through, and I had to help out with odd jobs after school so we could make ends meet. I taught myself to speak American English, did well in school, and eventually realized my dream of attending MIT. My wife and I bought a home in the Wellington-Harrington neighborhood in 2004. We raised two children who attended the King Open and Cambridge Street Upper School, and the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. As a result of my life experiences, I deeply cherish the democracy and freedom we have here in the United States of America.

ENDORSEMENTS:
In my 2021 re-election campaign, I’m proud to be endorsed by the following individuals and organizations:

Organizations:

• Sunrise Movement Cambridge
• Sierra Club Massachusetts
• Cambridge Residents Alliance
• New American Leaders Action Fund
• Our Revolution Cambridge
• Boston Democratic Socialists of America
• Democratic Socialists of America
• SEIU 32BJ

Individuals:

• Cambridge civil rights leader Janet Moses
• State Representative Mike Connolly
• State Representative Dave Rogers
• State Representative Erika Uyterhoeven
• Former City Councillor Nadeem Mazen
• Former Cambridge School Committee Member Richard Harding
• Leader of Black Response Cambridge Stephanie Guirand

ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
In my two terms on the council, I’ve advanced several initiatives and policies to bring more equity to our neighborhoods and protect our most vulnerable residents. To continue this important work, I’m seeking reelection to the council and hope to build a stronger coalition to advance racial, economic and environmental justice in Cambridge.

This term I introduced the Green New Deal Zoning Petition, which creates a framework for accepting emissions offsets from commercial developers to create robust green jobs and economic opportunity for the most vulnerable members of our community.

I advanced a $500 million bond to directly construct at least 1,000 new units of permanently affordable housing. This creates an expeditious way to respond to our regional shortage of affordable units for low and middle class people.

I wrote and passed a policy order to create a Racial Justice and Equity commision to look at reparations for the war on drugs and housing restitution for black residents in Cambridge to address our profound wealth disparities.

I voted for and secured key improvements to the Affordable Housing Overlay that eliminated parking minimum requirements and gave preference to recently evicted tenants for new affordable units.

I was the lead advocate for the H.E.A.R.T proposal to establish alternative, community-based public safety and have been the strongest voice on the council for demilitarizing our police department and reinvesting funding in communities that have been pushed to the margins. I voted against increasing our police budget in 2020 and 2021.

FIRST TERM (2018-2019) ACCOMPLISHMENTS
I was the only Councillor who stood up for Carnival when it was canceled by the city on short notice. I worked with the organizers, including my friend Nicola Williams who is also a candidate for City Council, to hold a peace march and community meeting at the Union Baptist Church. Carnival is one of the only city festivals specifically focused on uplifting black and brown culture, and I’m proud that Cambridge brought back Carnival in 2021, hopefully for good.

I partnered with Councillor Carlone to introduce the Welcoming Community Ordinance, which made it the law for the Cambridge Police Department to serve the public without consideration of immigration status or citizenship. A benign interaction with the Cambridge Police or the courts should not be allowed to lead to deportation and separation for an immigrant family. As an immigrant whose family was served a deportation notice when we came here from Suriname to escape dictatorship and oppression, this work is deeply personal to me.

I take a stand and vote against the school budget, and the city budget, despite all the good it holds, because it fails to address the persistent racial achievement gap in our schools. It is unacceptable that our academic proficiency goals for Black students are significantly below what they are for white students.

We need to address the structural racism and root causes of inequity, starting with universal preschool, and afterschool.

I secured significant improvements to the parks of Wellington-Harrington and The Port. We planted 16 new trees at Greene-Rose Heritage Park, and repaired playground sprinklers at both Gannett-Warren Pals Park on Jefferson Street and the tot lot on Pine Street. The city even installed a trash can at that tot lot (there wasn’t one) and a brand new water fountain! Kids need trees and working sprinklers to stay cool during the hot summers and we need lots of trees to soak up excess water during heavy rains. With climate change continuing to worsen, this is more important than ever.

I have continued to fight against displacement caused in large part by our ad-hoc approach to growth and planning. Developments like Mass + Main drive up rents in the neighborhood, displacing vulnerable families that have lived here for decades. The city’s own analysis shows that black and brown families in The Port are being displaced and replaced by wealthier, mostly white, residents. I support strong tenant protections, including limits on rent increases under just cause eviction, and I proudly stood with members of the Alliance of Cambridge Tenants and elected officials from around the region at a recent rally in support of legislation from our State Rep. Mike Connolly that would give us the tools we need to address the affordability crisis and create stability for renters. If re-elected, I will continue to stand up to developers who encroach on the neighborhood with expensive housing and high-end commercial space that isn’t meant for the people who actually live here.

I successfully led the fight against Eversource’s proposed substation in East Cambridge across from the Kennedy-Longfellow School. We failed to plan for impacts to our electrical grid when we began building out Kendall Square with power-hungry lab and office buildings years ago, and it wasn’t right to impose a 150-foot tall substation (with disruptive tendrils in all directions) on the residential neighborhood next door. I introduced a zoning petition with Councillor Carlone that would require the Planning Board to consider impacts on electrical and gas infrastructure when issuing special permits for large new buildings. By taking a strong stand against this substation and refusing to grant any new upzonings in Eastern Cambridge until this issue is resolved, we got Eversource and the large property owners in Kendall Square to the negotiating table.

I partnered with Councillor Siddiqui to secure equity in the emerging recreational cannabis retail industry. Prohibition and the war on drugs have been nothing but an excuse to lock up black and brown people, but now, thanks to the law we put in place, those who have been disproportionately impacted will have exclusive access to open retail stores in Cambridge for the first two years.

COVID-19 RESPONSE
This pandemic has forever changed our lives and it is not going away anytime soon. I’ve worked to lead our community through these uncharted waters with a relentless insistence on prioritizing public health, protecting our most vulnerable residents and addressing racial disparities in case rates, testing and vaccine access. I demand clear accountability from our City Manager on the city’s COVID response, never shying away from asking the tough questions and giving honest feedback. I maintain covid.quintonzondervan.org with charts that analyze the latest Cambridge data, providing insights on the pandemic not available from the city’s website. I am continuing to fight hard for widespread vaccine distribution, equitable and frequent testing options, data transparency and public health measures to maximally protect our safety.

I prioritized public health by pushing back against the City Manager’s attempts to loosen COVID restrictions during the height of the pandemic when all the science and data was telling us it was unsafe to do so. I pushed the city for safe, non-congregate shelter for the unhoused, an effort which eventually led to two entirely new housing options: Spaulding and the Green Street Shelter.

I insisted that the city provide testing for all members of the unhoused community, something they were not originally planning to offer.

I deliver responsive constituent services with a focus on meeting the self-identified needs of members of the unhoused community, tenants facing eviction, and anyone in need of food or financial assistance. Our office was part of a mutual aid network that got our community through the most difficult days we have had so far.

I stood in solidarity with janitorial workers who were at risk from layoffs by Harvard during the pandemic, because they were not direct employees of Harvard. Eventually Harvard relented under the pressure we put on them and did not lay off the workers.

I worked with colleagues to implement a local eviction moratorium and made sure it was being honored by the Middlesex Sheriff's department. When the City Manager let it expire in June 2021, I worked with Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler to pass a policy order calling for the eviction moratorium to be immediately reimplemented.

I demanded pandemic interventions to our built environment like additional outdoor recreational space, shared streets, outdoor dining options, and more.

I led the successful push to expand Memorial Drive closures to Saturdays and has called for the permanent closure of one lane in each direction along the entirety of Memorial Drive.

PUBLIC SAFETY AND POLICING
As chair of the Public Safety Committee, I’ve taken a new approach to conversations on policing by centering the voices of the most vulnerable and especially Black women. I’m leading discussions on demilitarizing the police, shifting towards a community-based public safety response for mental health calls and routine traffic enforcement, strengthening accountability around the use of force policy, and scrutinizing police surveillance technology. I’m also leading the effort to reallocate money from our bloated police budget towards other spending priorities that would advance public safety and racial justice.

I introduced floor amendments to reduce the Police Department budget in solidarity with calls from the Movement for Black Lives and hundreds of Cambridge residents to defund the police. The Police Department received $69 million this year, a figure which has doubled in the last 15 years and only continues to skyrocket. Despite this, even my modest proposals to keep the budget flat by eliminating vacant positions failed to pass the council. We have so many critical community priorities that go unfunded or underfunded while the police budget continues to increase, and it is unacceptable.

I’m championing the HEART proposal, which stands for Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team. This program proposes a community-based response to mental health, substance use and other personal crises, as an alternative to the current option of calling 911 and summoning the police. Police are not the right people to handle the vast majority of these situations, and their very presence can lead to violence, incarceration and trauma. The HEART proposal was developed through a true community process led by the women of the Black Response. I’ve guided and scaffolded this important work through multiple committee hearings and in weekly meetings of the Monday Coalition. It has been a privilege to be a witness to the birth of this very promising alternative approach to public safety that seeks to provide compassionate care to those in need of support in the most difficult moments of their lives. By investing in the creation of this program, Cambridge has an unprecedented opportunity to improve the lives of its most vulnerable residents.

I’m leading the effort to demilitarize the Cambridge Police Department by eliminating hundreds of shotguns, assault rifles, and the Lenco BearCat armored vehicle which has been used to intimidate peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in Cambridge for years. I uncovered a forgotten provision in the municipal code which compelled the City Manager to produce a complete inventory of the Department for the first time. Then I chaired multiple hearings where Black community leaders led discussions on getting rid of the weapons. These efforts have so far led to a modest reduction, but we need to continue to push for a complete demilitarization of our Police Department.

I’m pushing for a reinvestment and reallocation of Police Department spending towards universal preschool and afterschool, universal mental health services, reparations for slavery, restitution for the war on drugs, more spending on affordable housing, and the creation of more economic opportunity for all of our young people.

I’m exploring traffic enforcement alternatives not involving armed officers pulling drivers over for “pretextual” stops. Police aren’t very effective at conducting traffic enforcement, which is understandable in the context of all the responsibilities we foist on them. But traffic enforcement is an essential component of public safety in our city, and the council has long-identified a need for intervention. Police have used traffic stops as a tool in their racist war on drugs for decades, terrorizing Black and brown people in our communities. The reason for this can be partially found in the disastrous 1996 Supreme Court decision Whren vs. US: In an opinion authored by Antonin Scalia, the court held that a search and seizure is not a violation of the Fourth Amendment in cases where the police officers have a "reasonable suspicion" that a traffic violation has occurred. In practice, this Supreme Court decision allows police to use common traffic violations as pretext to stop motorists and search the vehicle for evidence of unrelated crimes. To change the culture and get public safety that is racially just, we have to be willing to have honest conversations and explore new ways forward.

YOUTH AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
My perspective on our schools is informed by raising my children, Jahnavi and Sunil, in the public schools and at the King Open Extended Day program. I’m fighting relentlessly for systemic improvements that would improve learning conditions and comfort for students from preschool to post secondary. I’ve thought deeply about the ways in which the City Council can improve the quality of our education and youth services, especially through programs run by the Human Services Department. We need to make use of our city’s vast resources to better meet the needs of families, especially low income families. I’m focused particularly on solutions at every age level that will close the racial achievement gap that persists and has been made even worse by the pandemic. I voted against the budget in large part because we simply haven’t done enough to help our most vulnerable youth succeed.

Universal Pre-K:
It is now well established that universal pre-K offers tremendous benefits to young people as they become adults. We’ve had years of conversation and committee hearings, but the City Manager has yet to commit to a full universal pre-K program for every child in Cambridge. We are told constantly that classroom space is a limiting factor, but there are vacant storefronts all over the city that could be rented out at any point. It is unacceptable that the City Manager has not moved faster on this.

Free Mental Health Counseling:
I believe strongly that all of our youth, and indeed all our residents, should have access to free mental health counseling through the Cambridge Health Alliance.

Expanding Extended Day and Community School Programs:
The King Open Extended Day after school program is a great model that should be expanded across the entire district. There is no reason why there can’t be a similar program at every school in the city. My children benefited greatly from the King Open Extended Day program, and I want every child in Cambridge to have that opportunity. Additional staff should be hired for rapid expansion of Community School programs. All after school programs should run until at least 6 PM to maximize convenience for working families.

Investing in our Youth Centers:
Our youth centers offer tremendous benefits to young people growing up in the city, including my children when they were younger. But there are limited slots and mostly nothing available on weekends. I’ve called for expanding Youth Center hours to create Saturday options, particularly for middle and high school aged students. We also need to invest in the physical spaces: for example, the Moses Youth Center requested funding for equipment upgrades back in 2019, but since they weren’t chosen the facility was never upgraded. That is unacceptable.

Expand the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program:
MSYEP is a great opportunity to build important skills while earning money, and there should be enough slots such that no student who applies is turned away. We need to continue being creative about opportunities we create as part of this program. I’ve worked with Green Cambridge to expand urban forestry and urban agriculture opportunities available to youth through MSYEP. I have also hosted students in my office at City Hall.

Expand RSTA:
The Rindge School of Technical Arts is an important piece of the puzzle, but it too is underfunded and under-resourced. Important programs such as electrical and plumbing education are no longer offered, and we need to create options in sustainability such as energy efficiency, solar panel installation, urban agriculture and urban forestry.

Postsecondary Education Support:
We need to provide additional career and secondary education support to our young adults after they graduate high school. We should be creating jobs training and recruitment programs, professional certificates, internship programs, continuing education and more to help our students transition from high school into the workforce if they are not going immediately to college. The building trades should be invited to college night, and we should better normalize alternatives to college.

Remove Barriers to Employment:
We must identify and dismantle the racist policies and systems that prevent Black people from accessing jobs in the public and private sectors. For example, the city could sponsor trainings offered by groups such as the Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council and others on criminal record expungement, transformative justice, cannabis cultivation and other ways for those who have been most affected by the war on drugs to regain access to the job market and society. The city should provide more funding for tenant legal counsel, especially for people who have eviction records that prevent them from finding housing.

Generate More Economic Opportunity:
We need to make sure that there are well-paying jobs for our Black graduates not pursuing traditional college-based career trajectories. This year, I introduced the Green New Deal Zoning Petition for Cambridge to use building emissions offsets to create robust green jobs programs and economic opportunity for the most vulnerable members of our community. But the city does not have to wait for new funding mechanisms; we could be funding green jobs training programs today! The city could buy properties and rent them at affordable rates to Black entrepreneurs, cooperatives and local businesses to create more economic opportunity. We also need to make more space for urban agriculture, so people can grow their own food and build livelihoods around local food production. And we should expand the mayor’s basic income pilot to permanently provide a basic income to all people who make less than a certain amount of money, so they can sustain themselves and their families while getting further education and training or starting their next business venture.

21st Century Public Education:
The city needs to invest in the Young People’s Project and other efforts that help Black students succeed in school and in life, while supporting their efforts to eliminate institutional obstacles to their success.

CLIMATE CHANGE
Cambridge should become the first net-zero city in the world! We pride ourselves on being the innovation capital of the world, and there is no more urgent problem that requires our leadership than responding to the climate crisis. We need to do so with urgency and with justice, and that means creating a Green New Deal for Cambridge, creating jobs that help solve the climate crisis rather than making it worse.

We already face a huge and expensive challenge in retrofitting our existing building stock, and it makes no sense to worsen that problem by adding more buildings that burn fracked gas. That is why I introduced a ban on natural gas hook-ups in new construction last term. The attorney general ruled against such a ban in Brookline, because the state preempts fracked gas regulation, so I’m working with activists and state legislators on a new Net Zero Energy Stretch Code to allow Cambridge to implement our Net Zero Action Plan goals. The city has already built several net-zero ready buildings, including two schools, a branch library, a women’s shelter and an administrative building. It is past time that we require private developers to reach the same net-zero ready standard through energy efficiency and local renewable energy sources like solar, geothermal and air-source heating and cooling. I introduced the Green New Deal Zoning petition to accelerate this transition while creating sustainable green jobs for low-income and minority residents in Cambridge.

When the gas workers of USW 12003 went on strike in 2018, I stood with them in solidarity because a just transition away from fossil fuel infrastructure must include opportunities for the unions that power our current system. In addition, the big lab and commercial polluters must steadily reduce their energy use and increase the portion of that energy that comes from renewable sources. We can’t manage what we don’t measure, so I’m pushing the city to annually track our progress and set achievable goals. The most recent citywide greenhouse gas inventory was done in 2012, and while a new report was promised in 2018, it never materialized. We finally got an update in 2021 showing our emissions increasing since 2012 when we should be going in the opposite direction! I’ve chaired several committee hearings during my 2 terms to advance annual emissions tracking and annual reduction goals policies.

Trees sequester carbon and protect us from the worst impacts of climate change, including the extreme heat and flooding that we know are coming our way. However, data shows our canopy has shrunk by 20% over the last decade. Even worse, the canopy tends to be thinnest where our most vulnerable community members live. I convinced the City Manager to hire an additional arborist and triple the tree planting budget, with a sharp focus on planting around urban heat islands in vulnerable neighborhoods -- including 14 new trees in Greene-Rose Heritage Park in The Port. But we can’t get there with new planting alone, and I’ve worked to strengthen protections for existing mature trees, including a temporary moratorium on cutting large trees. In 2021 the Council finally adopted amendments to the Tree Protection Ordinance that I led on to strengthen protections for trees on private property, including a lowering of the diameter (DBH) deserving of protection to 6”, requiring a permit for ALL significant tree removals, and a duty of care provision for replacement trees. . As part of this effort, I introduced an amendment to the tree protection ordinance so that it would apply to affordable housing construction projects. Although this amendment failed, I did secure a provision that allows affordable housing projects to apply for funding to the city for tree canopy protection. We must ensure that a healthy tree canopy is available to all Cambridge residents.

I have been advocating for climate adaptation since 2008. The results of the climate vulnerability study are clear, but our community is not moving fast enough to prepare for the changes that are already happening. Buildings are being constructed in the Alewife floodplain, where future tenants will be exposed to serious flooding risks. Public housing tenants and seniors continue to go without air conditioning even as the risk of heat waves rises. And most of us barely know our neighbors, making us even more vulnerable. We still have a lot of work to do to build a more resilient community in the face of climate change. In my first term, I supported the climate safety zoning petition, but it was aggressively voted down by a majority of the council. A Climate Resilience Task Force was formed and has met 19 times since January 2019 but a final report has yet to be produced. The city’s Climate Resilience Plan was finally released over the summer of 2021.

Climate Activist: I served on the Climate Protection Action Committee (CPAC) for nine years, and as chair for 3 years. CPAC advises the Cambridge city manager on climate change policy and response. My advocacy on the committee led to the city’s climate vulnerability study, which was finally completed in 2017. As Committee Chair, I led the group in establishing 2020 climate goals for the city, which have guided the city’s activities in areas such as renewable energy procurement.

In 2011 I took on the leadership of Green Cambridge and served as president and chair of the board for six years. During my tenure we launched an annual solar discount program, installed hundreds of rain barrels in our community for free, and created a small communal farm in the East Cambridge neighborhood that has just completed its third growing season.

In 2013, I co-authored the net zero zoning petition and served on the task force created by the city in response. The resulting net zero action plan is one of the most comprehensive building emission reductions plans in the entire country, and other cities and towns across the state are adopting similar policies of their own.

In 2013 I co-founded the Climate Action Business Association (CABA), a nonprofit that works with local businesses to combat climate change through state level policy advocacy, focussed especially on putting a price on carbon. In 2015, I represented CABA and the American Sustainable Business Association as an official observer at the Paris Climate negotiations which led to the historic Paris Agreement. In 2017, CABA merged with Climate-XChange and now runs a nationwide network of state level advocacy groups working to put a price on carbon.

HOUSING THAT IS AFFORDABLE
Housing affordability is a pressing and omnipresent concern for most residents. Renters across the city live in fear of an arbitrary rent increase or eviction, and too many are permanently displaced every year. This status quo is simply unacceptable, and the council has failed to act for too many years.

The root causes of the crisis we face include the 1994 repeal of rent control and the city’s commercial development boom, both of which have led to massive displacement and instability for our most vulnerable residents. In recent years, median household income in The Port has risen by $20,000 as the neighborhood has gotten 10% whiter and 8% less black, while all other demographic groups have stayed relatively stable. If these trends continue, the neighborhood will soon no longer be majority-minority, as traditional communities of color are ripped apart and replaced with higher-income earning, mostly white residents.

Market-based tweaks like raising the inclusionary zoning percentage, increasing commercial linkage fees, and the recent affordable housing overlay are part of the solution, but we need to do much more to meaningfully address the crisis at the scale that is needed. Even if we reach our goal to build 100 units of new affordable housing per year, we won’t build enough housing fast enough to keep up with the 19,000+ person waiting list for affordable housing in Cambridge. In my first term, Councillor Carlone and I negotiated with the City Manager to add enough funding to our affordable housing construction budget to reach our goal. In my second term I proposed a $500 million bond to build limited equity affordable homeownership units. We definitely need to continue to explore ways to add more affordable housing for low and middle income people in addition to advocating for tenant protections to stop displacement in its tracks and give renters the housing stability they deserve.

Cambridge should join Somerville and Boston in banging at the doors of the statehouse with as many home rule petitions as it takes to get the outcome we need for our renters. That is why in my first term, I was one of just three councillors to vote for moving ahead with a discussion of Tenant Right of First Refusal, which gives tenants the first opportunity to buy when a house goes on the market. It’s hard to believe that this concept was killed by the majority before it could even be discussed.

Our options for protecting renters are not completely blocked at the state level; in my first term alone Somerville was able to strengthen protections for those facing eviction due to condo conversion AND pass a law requiring that landlords provide tenants facing eviction with a list of resources and their rights. While I greatly appreciate and respect the hard work that went into the tenant protections task force, the council has failed to act on most of the recommendations in the final report. The Cambridge City Council had an opportunity to strengthen the Condo Conversion Ordinance back in 2000, but it was killed on a 4-5 vote then, and only late in this term has an update been proposed!

The rent control law that existed in Cambridge prior to the 1994 statewide ban was far from perfect, but ultimately effective in accomplishing the goal of providing stability to renters and protecting them from eviction. The flip-of-the-switch outright repeal was absolutely devastating and that aftermath has spiraled out of control into the affordability crisis we see today. Nobody is saying we should go back to 1994, but it is time to implement a 21st century version of rent control that learns from the past and finds a way to give renters the protection they deserve without completely handcuffing property owners. California and Oregon recently passed statewide laws capping rent increases at 5% and 7% plus inflation, respectively, and we need similar protections in Cambridge as well. Renters also need stronger protection from arbitrary evictions, and more notice when an eviction does occur. The current requirement of 30 days notice is simply not enough time for most people to come up with the money it takes to find a new place to live in a competitive market.

This term, I advanced a $500 million municipal bond proposal to build thousands of units of new permanently affordable units, with a portion of new units set aside for black residents who have been affected by gentrification and redlining as a form of housing restitution.

Next steps:
I will continue to pursue zoning reform to facilitate and incentivize affordable housing construction, especially limited-equity homeownership opportunities.

I will work to change our zoning code to mandate that large surface parking lots are only developed into affordable housing and green open space.

I will continue to advocate for eliminating parking minimums in new development and reducing parking maximums.

Together we can build an inclusive community by growing our supply of truly affordable housing instead of allowing luxury and commercial development to further drive up rents and displace our most vulnerable residents. I’m also committed to exploring ways to increase protections for renters, including rent control, finance and create additional affordable homeownership opportunities for first generation homebuyers.

SAFER and SUSTAINABLE TRANSIT:
My transit priorities are improving safety for our most vulnerable road users and encouraging a just transition away from cars as quickly as possible. Too many of our friends and neighbors are being killed as we bend over backwards to prioritize the convenience of personal motor vehicles over everything else. We need to become serious about reallocating road space to make walking, biking, and public transit safer and more efficient for everyone. The city has not moved fast enough in this direction, and it is inexcusable. I am also a strong advocate for improvements to our public transit at the state level, including making it free for all riders.

Protected Bike Lanes NOW (link)
I’ve been a bicycle commuter in Cambridge for over twenty-five years and it is remarkable how little progress we’ve made on bicycle safety in that time. Cambridge has only two substantial cycle tracks, Vassar Street and Western Ave. Major thoroughfares like Hampshire Street still have door zone bike lanes, just like they did when I was doored as a grad student (on Hampshire). Even though a majority of the council committed during the 2017 campaign to a rollout of four miles per year, only one major project has been completed and no more than 1 mile of protected infrastructure was built during my entire first term. I am proud to have supported the first in the nation Bicycle Safety Ordinance which requires protected bike lanes whenever major road work is done on streets included in the city’s bicycle plan. This term, we updated the Bike Safety Ordinance and I’ve taken the pledge to ensure its speedy implementation. Already we’ve seen several quick-build projects on Mass. Ave. and elsewhere and we need to ensure continued progress.

Next steps:
I will continue to advocate for protected bike lanes along the entire length of Mass Ave as soon as possible and to complete capital improvements and quick-build projects on Hampshire, Webster, Broadway, and in Porter Square. We must connect and expand protected bike lanes to ensure that riders are not exposed to heavy-duty traffic. These improvements must include bus transit priority and pedestrian safety.

Reforming Rideshare and the Gig Economy
We need to take on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft that offer artificially cheap service on the backs of their workers, clogging our streets, bike lanes, and air with traffic and pollution. We can address the congestion while raising additional revenue for public transit improvements by implementing a surcharge on rides to, from, and through the city during peak travel times. Congestion pricing in various forms has been used successfully in large cities around the world including Singapore and London, and it is now being implemented in New York City. It works by shifting some rush hour street traffic to off-peak periods or to other transit modes altogether, improving efficiency and air quality. Cambridge passengers should be exempt, and the companies should not be permitted to deduct the fee from driver paychecks. We also need to push for state-level reform that ensures all rideshare drivers (and indeed, all workers) are paid at least a living wage for their work. By shortchanging their workers and operating at a significant loss, these companies are able to undercut public transit and taxis, worsening traffic and pollution. Ultimately, I believe we should make our public transit free for all riders, and we should ensure that rideshare drivers earn a living wage.

Next steps:
I will file a home rule petition that would allow Cambridge to assess a congestion pricing fee on rideshare trips. I will also work with state legislators to push for universally free public transit, and to demand that rideshare companies pay their workers a living wage.

Car Free Sundays in the Major Squares
The major squares of Cambridge should be car-free on Sundays, especially in the summer. Moving in that direction would improve safety and encourage more cycling, walking, and public transit at immense benefit to local businesses. In order for this to be a success we will have to work with all stakeholders including neighborhood and business associations, and we will of course need to make accommodations for people with disabilities, emergency situations, and unavoidable deliveries. Our planning, traffic and public safety departments need to research solutions to these challenges that other cities around the world have come up with as they transition away from cars (I happen to have been born in Amsterdam, which is aiming to become a car free city), so we can ensure unique needs are met before any changes are made. A section of Memorial Drive is already car-free on Sundays between April and November, at great benefit to everyone in our city and during the pandemic, Saturdays were added as well.

Next steps:
I co-sponsored a policy order asking the City Manager to begin this work in Harvard Square in time for the summer of 2020. I will continue to meet with stakeholders and city staff to make sure we can begin the transition towards car free Sundays in all the major squares, starting with Harvard Square.

Memorial Drive Redesign
I have worked with various environmental & transit advocacy groups to form the Memorial Drive Alliance, a grassroots coalition pushing for a safer, more accessible parkway as part of DCR’s upcoming redesign of Memorial Drive from the BU Rotary to the Eliot Bridge. The community path along this stretch is one of the most cherished and widely used open spaces in the city, but anyone who uses it knows it is very treacherous. Spanning just four feet wide in some areas, the path forces a diverse array of users into constant conflict: bicycle commuters, casual cyclists, pedestrians, families with strollers, joggers, seniors, people with disabilities, and more. The path is cracked, poorly demarcated, and located inches away from what is effectively a four-lane highway. There are also several unmarked and unprotected intersections that force users into dangerous conflicts with motor vehicles.

As part of this project the Alliance would like to see a reduction in motor vehicle lanes, safe bicycle infrastructure, separated paths for cyclists and pedestrians, and mature tree preservation. This project needs to prioritize the safety and comfort of all park users without sacrificing any mature trees, including the iconic sycamores, which would not survive any expansion or major disturbance of the road bed because of their sensitive root systems. We will need a road diet (fewer motor vehicle lanes) to accomplish these priorities given the significant space constraints and safety concerns of the current configuration. One case study looked at over 100 locations that had experienced vehicular capacity reduction either intentionally or through a disaster and found not a single instance of long-term traffic chaos or prolonged gridlock resulting from such a change. This is remarkable and understandably hard to fathom, but we can choose a safer, more accessible parkland for all without making traffic any worse than current conditions. The best way to get people out of gas-guzzling vehicles and improve congestion is to actually make it safe and convenient to use alternative transit modes.

The city has very little control over the fate of this project, as the state owns the land, but our advocacy through the Alliance has gotten the attention of DCR and our State Representatives, and we will continue to push for these objectives. So far I’ve advocated for an expanded process, met with various state and local officials, and put the city council on record in support of our efforts.

Next steps:
I will continue working with the Memorial Drive Alliance to advocate for a park with fewer vehicle lanes, safe bicycle infrastructure, separated paths for cyclists and pedestrians, and mature tree preservation.

High-Frequency Municipal Transit
The city should look into a municipal transit network on high demand routes. A municipal shuttle network could be free, electric, and trackless. Our public transit is broken and we cannot wait for the MBTA to prioritize and fund system improvements. The recent “Better Bus Project” was a revenue-neutral disaster that ultimately worsened conditions for riders on some routes right on top of a systemwide fare hike! Meanwhile the 68 bus is over capacity and children from The Port who rely on it are often late to school. Things are heading entirely in the wrong direction, and we don’t have time to wait: free and reliable public transit is within the city’s reach. We could partner with other municipalities to expand the network even further and make connections that don’t currently exist.

Next steps:
I will continue to advocate for this approach as the city deepens its mobility planning efforts. And I will work with local transit and mobility advocates to organize and build momentum around this idea, because ultimately it will only happen if the people demand it.

Vehicle Electrification
As we encourage people to move out of their cars, we also need to electrify the motor vehicles that remain on our roads as fast as possible. In my first term, I worked with then Vice Mayor Devereux to secure 7 new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at public garages throughout the city. The city has responded to my request to pilot the installation of publicly accessible EV chargers on residential streets, which is important because many residents who are interested in switching to an electric vehicle for necessary commuting cannot install their own charger due to space or financial constraints. Installation of four EVSEs each capable of charging two vehicles simultaneously will begin in late 2021 or early 2022 adjacent to these four city parks: Sennott, Pacific, Pemberton and Raymond. I also worked on a Right to Charge Ordinance with then Vice Mayor Deveruex, modeled after legislation first introduced in Boston by City Councillor Michelle Wu. This would prevent condominium or homeowner associations from objecting or banning individual property owners from installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. Governor Baker has already approved Boston’s legislation, so I anticipate that ours will move forward as well. Finally, we need to electrify our municipal fleet as rapidly as possible. I have successfully advocated with the city to begin leasing new vehicles instead of outright purchasing them, so that we can keep up with this rapidly-evolving technology.

Next steps:
I will continue to advocate for more publicly accessible charging stations in parallel to improving transit and incentivizing people to move away from cars altogether. I will also continue insisting that we electrify our municipal fleet as rapidly as possible.

Safe and Just Micromobility Expansion
Dockless electric bikes and scooters have become very popular and companies would like to offer such services on Cambridge streets. Though I don’t see these devices as a panacea to our transit woes, I am highly supportive of piloting them in Cambridge. As we move forward though, we need to be careful of companies that rely on the “gig economy”. These companies often skirt labor and wage laws by classifying their employees as independent contractors, even though many of them are effectively working more than full time. In many cases workers do not even take home the minimum wage, let alone a living wage. Job training is minimal, and the bar is so low to fill an important role like maintenance technician that I question the safety of the product, which sees quite a bit of wear and tear.

One alternative to freewheeling Silicon Valley startups experimenting on our streets is to use the City’s own bikeshare system, BlueBikes, to explore these transit options. Consumers having to use multiple apps, each with their own set of rules, is not conducive to successful deployment of this technology. It makes sense to use our municipally-owned infrastructure to pilot new approaches and technologies in a safe and controlled manner. Using Bluebikes also avoids the pitfalls of the “gig economy” and already operates a regional network which is critical to the success of these new modes. The Bluebikes operator, Motivate, has already implemented electric bike and dockless solutions in other systems it operates, including Citi Bike in New York City. Adding a scooter option doesn’t seem like a big stretch, once the state law has been updated to allow it.

Regardless of how we move forward, here are some concerns I have that need to be addressed as part of any pilot:

• Workers need to be paid a living wage and trained adequately for their duties
• There must be equitable rebalancing of devices to ensure all neighborhoods have access (using electric vans, as soon as possible!)
• Electric devices cannot operate on sidewalks and cannot litter the right of way. The operator must actively prevent these situations, for example by safely disabling the electric motor if it detects sidewalk use, and quickly remedy inappropriate device storage

Next steps:
I will continue to advocate with the City for a micromobility pilot through blue bikes.

Pedestrian Safety
I am a champion for pedestrian safety. In my first term, I pushed hard to lower the speed limit to 20 MPH citywide. The chicanes on Cambridge Street lowered average speeds by 6 MPH, and I would like to see this type of design implemented wherever possible. We should also look at slowing traffic by reducing lanes wherever possible, with Binney Street being a great example. Our current laws enshrine car dominance. Until we admit that, and commit to changing it, we will continue to kill pedestrians on our streets every year, and blame them for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Next steps:

Ban trucks
Large trucks are dangerous and truck design needs to be more tailored to the urban environment to reduce the risk of collisions with pedestrians and cyclists. We need to minimize when and how often they are permitted to drive in Cambridge. Sideguards are now required on municipal trucks, but we need to change the state law to require that all trucks have sideguards. Cambridge should work with Boston in at least three areas to advance safety:

• Explore ways to incentivize new and smaller models for delivering freight in the city
• Encourage use of truck new designs that reduce turning radius and blind spots
• Employ emergency braking technologies that activate brakes automatically to prevent or mitigate collisions.

Next steps:
I will continue to push back against federal efforts to allow increased truck size, and advocate for universal requirements that trucks install side guards to avoid worst-case scenarios if there is an accident with a pedestrian or cyclist.

TRANSPARENCY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE
I believe strongly in transparency and good governance, and have pushed to modernize and democratize the way the council conducts business with an eye towards improving the resident experience. Overall, I support moving away from the Plan E charter so that Cambridge has an elected executive branch.

Expand Public Comment to Maximize Democracy:
I opposed the council’s decision to restrict public comment from three minutes to two minutes in most situations. Members of the public often feel rushed when trying to deliver their comments in just two minutes. If re-elected, I will push for further restricting the set of circumstances under which public comment is limited to just two minutes per speaker. I will also demand that a virtual comment option becomes institutionalized to maximize who can participate. Finally, I would like to expand the signup window for public comment at committee hearings so that members of the public can RSVP for the hearing further in advance instead of having to wait until the last minute to sign up.

Allow Signs in the Sullivan Chamber:
I support changing the council rules to allow the display of non-obtrusive signs and other materials in the Sullivan Chamber as a matter of free speech.

Expand Key Committees:
I would like to make the Housing Committee and the Government Operations Committee committees of the whole, which means that each councillor would have a vote on the important discussions happening in those spaces.

Digitize the Council Archive:
I have consistently called for digitizing the council’s meticulously-kept record, which is currently on paper in the basement vault at City Hall. Digitizing the record would greatly improve accessibility for the public and for council staff when they are researching policy. The City Clerk’s office has done such a great job maintaining the record, but there has historically been too much reliance on institutional memory. My efforts have led to the initiation of this important process through Community Preservation Act funding, and I will continue shepherding it through next term.

Broadcast Meetings on YouTube:
Live broadcasting meetings on YouTube would greatly improve the quality of the product that the public receives. A local journalist has occasionally gotten this done and it has been helpful, but the city should really take on this simple responsibility. I passed a policy order asking for this during my first term in office, and for a few weeks, city council meetings were live broadcast on YouTube, but then they stopped and have not resumed.

2021 MCNA Candidate Forum (Zondervan)

CCTV candidate video (2019)

2017 Candidate Page    CCTV candidate video (2017)