Attention Cantabrigians! The
time is nigh; to elect thine Glorious Representatives in this fine City, the true home of Democracy!
Or something like that. On November 5th,
voters will decide the makeup of the nine-member City Council; as we do every
odd year, sandwiched between Presidential and mid-term elections, when nobody’s
looking…or are they? The million-dollar question will be whether an
increasingly civic-minded generation of young people will apply their
democratic enthusiasm at the local level.
For many, it is hard to really care, or
even pay attention. No need to make Cambridge great. The city is already fantastic. We have beautiful parks and two
world-famous universities; schools and libraries are remade for the 21st
Century; roads are more accessible to cyclists; crime and violence are
dramatically down from two decades ago; our community is vibrant and diverse…
Others stress the need for change or
say that we are not doing enough. But with 8 of the 9 current councilmembers
seeking reelection, how much change is realistic to expect? With only one
undefended seat and three incumbents in their first term, the Free Radical estimates we are likely to
elect 3 new councilors this time around as well. With 14 new candidates for
election this year, many with similar talking points, who will stand out to the
public in order to garner enough #1 votes to earn a seat on the council?
It is easy, trendy even, to say we need
change, to promise to represent the people over real estate developers who
donate to councilors and bring revenue in to the city while getting a free pass
to transform our precious communities into gentrified cosmopolitan technocratic
yuppie districts. Anyone can talk the talk and put in an order at a print-shop.
Who will deliver if elected, and how much can they really accomplish, if a
majority of the council still resist substantive change?
We sat down with candidate Ben Simon
recently at Mariposa Bakery in Central Square to get his views on the issues
confronting Cambridge today. (We miss Cezanne. Cambridge, how you’ve changed.)
If there’s “one issue”, Simon told us
over freshly brewed pots of rooibos, “it’s gentrification. It’s not only
housing,” not just the families that get displaced from Cambridge, as did his
own when he was growing up in the 90s after rent-control was abolished, but
also local businesses and spaces that foster the arts community, like the EMF
building where Simon and other musicians banded together to resist developers’
plans and save the building, where local bands hone their craft, preserving our
local music scene.
Another challenger, Nicola A. Williams,
has specific implementation plans to create a pathway for small and local
businesses to grow and thrive in the community. “Small and local businesses”,
Williams said in a statement to this writer, are “the engine of the community.
We have seen massive displacement of small and locally owned business in
Cambridge for a number of reasons”, including “escalating rent costs,
competition from online retailers” and the shrinking middle class “who tend to
shop from local mom and pop stores and within their neighborhoods.”
Williams advocates updating zoning laws to
promote “small businesses, especially food makers, and up and coming businesses
such as breweries. Somerville and Boston have benefited from this thriving
industry because they invested in the resources and regulations to support the
development of this thriving sector.” The candidate tells us she successfully
urged the city recently to launch “an entrepreneurship training program for
food makers” a category she says is represented by many in the Caribbean,
African-American and Latinx communities. A longtime Cambridge resident and
community activist, Williams herself is an immigrant from Jamaica and would add
to the diversity of the council, which has few members of color, in a city with
a strong West Indian community, one of many ethnicities that are not represented
in the council’s makeup.
Longtime councilwoman E. Denise Simmons, famous
for previously becoming the first openly lesbian African American mayor in the
United States, has mastered the art of appealing to voters across many
demographics, always reaching out to seniors during election season, touting
her credentials and enviable name recognition and getting her foot soldiers out
there early holding signs in Central Square ahead of the pack. Whether or not
you like her policies, Simmons is a powerful symbol of the progressive
inclusiveness of Cambridge.
To what extent Cambridge will represent the
growing split in the Democratic Party nationally will be seen, perhaps in this
election, but certainly in the near future. With more left-leaning candidates
like Simon describing the current situation vis-à-vis developers as “class
warfare” and several candidates proposing giant steps to convert to clean
energy and preserve the city’s tree canopy, the young and the restless are in a
position to advance the agenda that so many liberal millennials are embracing.
So get
out there on Tuesday.
-G.T.
Evans
