Last week’s campaign schedule included time in the studio at Cambridge Community Television to tape a 5-minute stump speech, which soon will be posted on CCTV’s website along with those of other candidates for city council and school committee. Below is the transcript; I will share the link to the video as soon as it’s available.
From now until Election Day (50 days), my schedule is jam-packed with house parties, breakfasts, and candidate forums (see my Events page for the complete list). This coming Saturday (Sept.19) I am holding a drop-in meet-and-greet from 2-5 p.m. in the backyard of 235 Lexington Ave. along with two other great candidates, Dennis Carlone and Mike Connolly. All welcome!
Transcript of my CCTV segment:
Hi, my name is Jan Devereux, and I’m a candidate for City Council.
First, I want to thank CCTV for offering all candidates the opportunity to introduce ourselves to voters citywide.
I hope that if you like what you hear you’ll share this link with your friends and neighbors, and give me your #1 vote on November 3rd.
Let me tell you a bit about myself before I touch on the important issues in this election:
- I have lived in Cambridge since 1993 — 22 years.
- Before that I lived and worked in Manhattan and Paris. I’m lucky to have lived in 3 of the greatest cities in the world.
- I earned a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia.
- I’ve raised 3 children in Cambridge. My youngest is 21 and a senior in college.
Cambridge is my adopted hometown. I love living here. And I know I have been very lucky to be able to afford to stay in Cambridge in the post-rent control era. I also realize that by the time I arrived the city had already changed a great deal since when my husband sang in music clubs in the 1960s. Change is inevitable, but how we plan for it can’t be left to chance.
I’ll be honest. I never expected to run for office. Being a city councillor wasn’t on my bucket list.
But the Cambridge we all love is at a critical juncture. The stakes in this election are very high. Our city needs more “average” residents like me to step up and serve. We can no longer afford to tune out and leave it to career politicians to determine the future of our city.
The Council also needs more women — the current ratio of 1 out of 9 is worse than when I was a student at Princeton after it had recently gone co-ed.
In early 2014 when I co-founded the Fresh Pond Residents Alliance I had no inkling that it would become the political force it has — and that my community organizing would become virtually a full-time job. It turns out many other residents were feeling blindsided by the thousands of new luxury rental units popping up around town and had no way to make their voices heard. The FPRA sounded the alarm that the planning process has failed us — and that we are on the verge of unleashing a traffic and environmental disaster without more thoughtful, comprehensive planning. For the past 2 years I have attended countless public hearings and talked to residents from all over town. I’ve learned that residents of every area share my concerns and frustrations with the lack of big-picture thinking. In June I left my job in order to devote myself to these issues. That’s how important this work is to me.
My campaign slogan is “Your voice. Our city.” because, as a writer and a community leader, I believe in the power of words. And in our collectively speaking up for preserving the livability, affordability and diversity of the city we love before it is sold to the highest bidder. That’s why I am not accepting any campaign donations from large real estate developers, many of whom do not live here.
As a councillor I will make it my full-time job to help residents make their voices heard on the issues we all care about:
Sustainable growth: Some people may try to tell you I’m a NIMBY who’s against all development. They are wrong. I am not anti-development — I am for better planning that maintains our quality of life, preserves neighborhood character and human scale, and prepares for climate change. In planning for the needs of future residents, we can do better by those who already live here.
Housing affordability: We can do more to keep Cambridge affordable for families with children and working people of modest means. I support raising the inclusionary rate to 25% for all new development and existing buildings undergoing extensive rehab. I also support protections for residents and local businesses facing eviction due to rising rents.
Traffic!: We must improve transportation facilities, connections and incentives to make it safer and more convenient for people to drive less often. You may have seen me pedaling around on a cargo trike decorated with my campaign logo. I support creating more protected bike lanes, so people of all ages feel safe on 2 (or 3) wheels.
Open space: I am lucky to live near Fresh Pond, Danehy Park and the Alewife Reservation. Other areas of our city desperately need more public open spaces for health and recreation. Future development in Kendall Square and East Cambridge must include significant new public open spaces.
Local retail: Small independent business are the lifeblood of neighborhoods and are part of what have always made Cambridge so vibrant. New mixed use development must include affordable space for local retail.
Thank you for watching. Please visit my website where you can lean more about my qualifications and what I stand for.
I hope I’ve earned your #1 vote on November 3rd.
Looking forward to when this multi-use path alongside Fresh Pond Parkway connects to the planned rail trail to Watertown
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