March 15, 2025
Dear Fellow Cantabrigians,
Transportation Committee Meeting this Monday
I will chair the Transportation Committee meeting this Monday, March 17, 10am-12noon about better accommodating all forms of transportation, including driving, while we continue to encourage more sustainable options.
MIT Professors Joseph Ferreira and Jinhua Zhou, and Robin Chase, former CEO of Zipcar, will share what other communities are doing around the country and world.
Cambridge staff from the Council on Aging, Commission for Persons with Disabilities and the Transportation Department will respond to questions.
The goal of the meeting is to explore how to ease the pain of those who must drive. There are 42,000 permitted cars in Cambridge and we’re planning on growing our population by 10,000-20,000 over the coming decades.
Topics include how to encourage residents to get rid of their second cars, if not their first; and how to transition to more sustainable travel options, while understanding that the elderly, disabled, young families with infants, teachers, health aides, construction workers, shoppers and visitors continue to have driving and parking needs. Livestream the program here.[ https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/citizens/default.aspx?]
It will be filmed; I’ll share the link when it becomes available.
Update on Last Week’s Zoning & Arts Meetings
Neighborhood & Longterm Planning Meeting about Zoning 3.4.25
Video and PP of meeting: https://cambridgema.granicus.com/player/clip/970?view_id=1&redirect=true
We voted to prioritize first zoning Cambridge Street and North Mass. Ave., and then Central Square. I pushed to prioritize Central Square, as it has been the subject of planning studies for forty years. As Cambridge’s downtown, it is the most obvious place for development and smart growth. This will demand difficult conversations about tradeoffs, but we need to have the courage to undertake this and to commit to a plan. Until then, Central Square will remain stuck. Good news: Later this month, the Community Development Department (CDD) will finally share the Requests for Information for development at 84 (once Starlight Square) & 96 Bishop Allen Drive.
I was happy to see the conversation about zoning shift to transportation corridors, which is where growth should occur. I also pushed to advance zoning at Alewife. I’ve been pushing for this for months. CDD is in no hurry and is eager for the MBTA to choose a partner before beginning the conversation.
I asked whether 12,500 new housing units by 2030 is really the number we should strive for in an uncertain economy with looming federal-funding cuts. I requested design studies and visualizations, not just numbers of units, for Cambridge Street, North Mass. Ave and Central Square. They each need to be places where people want to live and visit.
Neighborhood & Longterm Planning Meeting about the Arts 3.5.25
Video and PP of meeting: https://cambridgema.granicus.com/player/clip/971?view_id=1&redirect=true
Great stuff is happening thanks to City partnerships with the Central Square BID, Cambridge Community Foundation (CCF) and the City’s many arts nonprofits. Cambridge Arts not only provides programming and grants, but also oversees our public art collection and celebrations such as the River Festival. During COVID, $2.5m of ARPA money went to artists and arts nonprofits over and above Cambridge Arts’ budget ($1.8m in FY25). The CCF also gave out $170k in arts grants in 2024 and is eager to grow a Cultural Capital Endowment. Consider making a donation! The Dance Complex and Cambridge Community Arts Center both need money to maintain their buildings. A surprise to me and perhaps to you: Cambridge’s legacy arts organizations (like our other nonprofits) lack endowments. We need to change that.
New arts spaces: the Foundry, Harvard Square Kiosk, Arrow Street Arts, and soon, Street Theory Collective (in Central) and 585 3rd Street (in Kendall). Coming soon: Your Light at Central, NITES events, and the CCF’s report on the arts. The arts improve public health and nurture social cohesion.
The National League of Cities Congressional City Conference
I attended this meeting in Washington, DC, to develop a broader understanding of transportation.
My takeaways:
*Only 15% of federal funding goes to local projects. Most of the money goes from the Department of Transportation to the state DOT offices—mostly for highways.
*Much of the money from Biden’s infrastructure bill never got out because of EPA regulations and other requirements. Under the Trump administration, much of the funding, even committed dollars, may never be distributed.
*Smaller communities are especially challenged since they lack technical expertise: with permits, safety and accessibility requirements, and engineering.
I lobbied with other officials from Boston, Mansfield, Melrose and Quincy for the League of Cities’ priorities (keeping tax-exempt municipal bonds, keeping government reliable and dispersing committed funds) and, especially, for the two big transportation infrastructure projects impacting Cambridge: the I-90 Multimodal Infrastructure Project (to bring workers fromwestern Massachusetts to Kendall Square) and the Draw One Bridge Project (connecting North Station to the northern suburbs). MassDOT and the MBTA have been awarded federal grants for these projects; we must receive those dollars.
The National League of Cities is a bipartisan organization with members representing 2,777 cities, towns and villages in 49 states. We are all challenged by the new federal funding climate.
VP J.D. Vance spoke to us about the need for more housing—a topic where there was general agreement. He then transitioned to blaming illegal immigrants for our housing crisis and to scolding sanctuary cities for breaking the law.
Regarding sanctuary cities, lawyers advised that currently local governments “can” work with the federal government on immigration issues. This may become a “must.” Concerns were raised that the federal government’s request that cities detain illegal immigrants for 48 hours is an unfunded mandate as well as a potential source of liability. Long Island’s Suffolk County is being sued for $60m for detaining illegal immigrants.
Another tidbit: The EPA is requiring cities to assess their lead and copper pipes and PFAS contamination by November 2027 and to remedy these things by 2037. There is federal funding only for small and underserved communities.
Around Town
I attended Harvard Square’s Business Association annual meeting; a Homeowners Rehab meeting about the Affordable Housing Overlay project at 28-30 Wendell St.; the City’s Iftar Celebration; and a tour of Central Square with the Cambridge Police Department and DPW.
Those are my scoops. Striving for balance and thoughtful governance, as always. Join us on Monday if you can!
Cathie Zusy
Cambridge City Councillor