Last week I made a short video in support of Black Lives Matter in Cambridge. My campaign manager Nora shot it on her iPhone, while I stood on the 3rd Street park with Alexandria Real Estate’s new Binney Street building in the background and construction cranes visible in Kendall Square beyond. The students playing kickball on the field attend Community Charter School of Cambridge, where I formerly worked as director of external relations. As I say in the video, working at CCSC made supporting Black Lives Matter deeply personal for me.

I could not attend the Bernie Sanders rally Saturday night in Boston, but I was there in spirit with more than 20,000, mostly younger, supporters. Sunday’s Boston Globe reports that it was the largest presidential campaign rally in Boston since 1968, when Eugene McCarthy spoke. The war that is currently galvanizing young liberals is the war on income inequality, which began with the Occupy movement and has found its candidate in Sanders, who minces no words, “Wages in America are just too damn low.” This is not “socialism,” it’s common sense. Capitalism can’t survive, politically or economically, without a substantial middle class.

Both Sanders and the Right to Remain coalition, which led a protest march for tenants’ rights through Boston yesterday, champion raising the minimum wage to $15. Right to Remain is demanding the elimination of no-fault evictions (like those that recently took place at 295 Harvard St and 33-35 Harding St in Cambridge) and that cities prevent “predatory” landlords from “flipping” rental properties. Similar tenant protections have passed in other cities experiencing housing crises, notably San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago. I agree with Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson, who was quoted in the Boston Globe as saying, “A healthy city is not only about million-dollar condos,” Jackson said. “It’s a city that supports workers and working people.”

We often hear that the only way to rebalance the housing market in the post-rent-control era is to massively increase the supply, but because land values are so high in Cambridge what is being built is almost entirely (about 88% under our current inclusionary zoning requirement) small luxury rental units, which risks continuing to displace lower income tenants by raising land values in adjacent neighborhoods. I agree with one commenter on the Globe’s Right to Remain story, who wrote: “More supply does not mean more ‘affordable’ housing or more available units if rich people from Boston and from other places buy or rent them. Existing housing is also being bought or rented at very high prices. Building more housing would only help the problem if there are policies implemented that protect low and middle-income people who are now being displaced. Boston and Cambridge are looking more and more like playgrounds for the rich.”

Talking with supporters at a recent "meet & greet" event

Talking with supporters at a recent “meet & greet” event

I had my first (and only, so far) encounter with bigotry while canvassing last week in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood. An older female homeowner and her friend, a younger man who told me he is in a construction union, angrily told me they do not support building any more affordable housing because there are already too many “undesirables” and “foreigners” in Cambridge. The said that I shouldn’t even be allowed to run because I am not “from” Cambridge originally. Twenty-two years of residency still makes me a “dangerous newcomer” in their eyes.

Since everyone’s talking about the sudden change in temperatures, I will confess that it’s a lot more enjoyable to canvass in “Goldilocks” weather. In August I wore shorts and a t-shirt and nearly burned my fingers on a few doorknobs and mail slots sizzling in the direct sun. Too hot! Yesterday I broke out my winter coat for six hours of canvassing, and toward the end of the day I hesitated to shake anyone’s hand with my fingers like icicles. Too cold! Mid-to late September was sunny, mild and dry with an occasional breeze that hinted of autumn. Just right! I’m hoping we have an Indian Summer reprieve after this storm passes through — and that my yard signs don’t go airborne.

With fellow candidates endorsed by the Cambridge Residents Alliance. L-R: Nadeem Mazen, Mike Connolly, me, Romaine Waite and Dennis Carlone.

With fellow candidates endorsed by the Cambridge Residents Alliance. L-R: Nadeem Mazen, Mike Connolly, me, Romaine Waite, Dennis Carlone.