“Let’s make a plan” was the theme of one of the three teams that pitched for the contract to lead the citywide master planning process in a four-hour dog and pony show that I attended on Monday night at City Hall. Any of the three teams (Perkins+ Will, Sasaki and Utile) could do the job, but the fundamental question of how the job will be scoped remains, and of course implementation is not a given based on past experience with prior planning studies that have been shelved or ignored. The Alewife area has defeated all attempts at sustainable development planning for the past five decades, and the result is the huge honking mess we have today. Can our future leaders summon the political will to squarely address the area’s transportation and environmental dysfunction with more than buzzwords like “tactical urbanism” and “urban prototyping”? A significant public investment will be needed in addition to an unprecedented degree of cooperation and foresight among landowners and state and municipal authorities in neighboring towns. I recently read “The Great Swamp of Arlington, Belmont and Cambridge: An Historic Perspective of its Development 1630-2001” by Sheila G. Cook. Published in 2002, the book came out just before the city embarked on its last round of Alewife planning, which ultimately failed to correct any of the past mistakes Cook documents. The book, which should be required reading for the selected citywide planning team, is out of print but a copy is available at the Cambridge Public Library. A venerable Cambridge activist, philanthropist and volunteer, the 95-year-old Ms. Cook recently sold her longtime residence on Follen St. and is moving into assisted living.
I’ve been out canvassing and have found that — when people are home to answer the door — they are very receptive to my message that our entrenched political culture needs a housecleaning, especially with regard to the large amount of special interest money flowing into most of the incumbents’ coffers in $500 and $1000 chunks. By contrast over the past five and a half months, I have received 195 donations from 168 individuals with two-thirds of them $100 or less, and about 85% from Cambridge residents (most of my family is not local and their support accounts for most of the out-of-town giving). If you have not already donated, I would pleased and grateful to count you among my supporters.
Tomorrow some Cambridge taxis are planning a one-day strike to demand that Uber and other ride-hailing app services be held to the same regulations as medallion taxis. The taxi industry does not deserve the city’s protection but we riders do and drivers of any service deserve a living wage. The Uber drivers I’ve spoken with, several of whom formerly drove for medallion owners and felt exploited, are happier driving for Uber. Personally I have been far happier using Uber than I have with Cambridge taxis, many of whom still refuse to take credit cards. However, along with greater convenience and reliability, as a rider I also expect that any driver for hire have a clean driving and criminal record, insurance that will fully protect me in the event of an accident, and be paid a living wage. If adding these regulations means Uber has to charge more, so be it. After all, the decision to take a taxi or an Uber is optional and the service should be priced to reflect all costs.
I’m continuing to read Debby Irving’s memoir “Waking Up White” and adjusting my white privilege lens chapter-by-chapter. Last week I attended a fundraising dinner and discussion that Debby hosted for the Cambridge Black Lives Matter group, which is beginning a door knocking campaign across the metro region. This fall in addition to candidates’ yard signs we’ll be seeing Black Lives Matter signs, too. Here’s a test of your critical media skills: when you read this story and look at the photos of black teens, do you detect a racial bias in the headline? How might the headline have been phrased if the story had featured a summer jobs program for white suburban youth (maybe something like, “Summer jobs program prepares next generation leaders for lucrative careers”)? We still have a lot of work to do in eliminating racial bias even in a city as progressive and diverse as Cambridge.
Tim Love of Utile presenting his team’s qualifications for the citywide master plan contract
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