Leland Cheung is the councillor we want: He responds, loves to bring ideas to life
The world around us is changing rapidly, and that change seems to be only getting faster. Two of the institutions at the forefront of these developments reside here, and I have chosen to make Cambridge my home to be closer to the innovative and creative caliber this city possesses. But not because I’m a technophile – I want to use that energy to find ways to help us retain the basic humanity of our lives.
I recently started my own small business in Cambridge, called Bloombrick Urban Agriculture. I wanted to start a business that utilizes renewable energy, sustainable living, environmentally conscious products and, most importantly, provides local business with local food. We’re pioneering urban farming, and you may have tasted my microgreens at your favorite locally owned eatery.
Demand has been skyrocketing but, unfortunately, growth has been capped. While Boston and Somerville were well on their way to developing urban agriculture rules we could follow to grow, in Cambridge it was bureaucratically stuck. When we tried to figure out how to jumpstart an initiative, Leland Cheung was the only one who responded to us.
Leland has quickly become Bloombrick’s most valued advocate in City Hall, an experience I’ve since learned has been shared by many. He organized committee meetings, brought regulators to the table, set timetables and objectives and followed up consistently. He’s actually the kind of politician people want but doesn’t seem to exist.
I had a hard time understanding how he can be so different. He was elected while pursuing graduate degrees at Harvard and MIT. He formerly worked in venture capital in Cambridge. He has an incredible track record for bringing new programs to the city, such as Hubway, mobile apps, single-stream recycling and historic zoning initiatives.
I realized it’s not that he already understood how self-empowering it is for residents to grow their own food. Leland loves to bring ideas to life, just like when he was in venture capital. He understands he could be voted out at any time, but unlike most politicians, instead of pandering for votes he’s focused on making the most of the time he has.
Which is why we should vote him No. 1. If he’s safe like his competition claims, we’ll both send a signal and have our No. 2 votes roll to them. If he’s not, we’ll have lost the councillor we can count on.
Ross Cordio, Rindge Avenue
I appreciate how Ross would be grateful for Leland’s devoted constituent service for Ross’s company, but he wildly misattributes developments in Cambridge.
Leland had nearly nothing to do with Hubway, and absolutely nothing to do with single stream recycling, which was a practice here long before Leland arrived on the scene.
Yes, he’s had something to do with Cambridge apps, which were developed at great cost and contribute little or nothing to quality of life. Leland should own this boondoggle.
Leland Cheung has done little of substance, perhaps because he has been so busy running to get in front of any parade that wasn’t moving fast enough. He’s precisely the type of self-serving operator that we have too many of in Cambridge government already.
I think the bigger story about Leland is his failed political career as a Republican in Virginia, most recently losing a state representative election in Virginia in November, 2005. He lost the election to a Democrat! by a greater than 2:1 margin. The Washington Post summarized Leland as “a novice with no substantial record of community involvement.”
Nevertheless, as a newcomer to Cambridge, and with no significant community involvement, we made him a city councilor.
He came to Cambridge a few years ago to go to school and found us rubes ripe for his exploitation, now styled as a progressive. It’s funny that the same “electleland” web site that he used for his Virginia Republican career now touts his Cambridge persona.
His campaign literature, and city council home page, are as disingenuous as Leland is dishonest. He starts out talking about how his dad came to “Harvard Square” in 1969. He does not continue to mention that Leland himself moved to Cambridge in 2006, leaving the hapless reader (voter?) to consider Leland as Cambridge born and bred. Furthest thing from the truth.
In the usual fashion, Leland fashions himself as an up-from-the-roots, hardscrable fighter for the common man. Actually, Leland is:
– the scion of a Harvard-educated father
– educated exclusively in private schools
– a venture capitalist
Come on Cambridge voters, we can do better.
The bad taste of Leland Cheung had hardly left my mouth from this morning before I had a robo call from him on my answering machine this afternoon. The recording told me that he was calling me personally from his cell phone. The number was blocked on caller ID, and he didn’t leave a call back number. So, um, a personal call from his cell phone, eh? Wow! THIS is exactly what I’m talking about. Disingenuity, thy name is Leland Cheung.
Please, Cambridge, consider some of the worthy alternatives at the polls on Tuesday, November 5.
I have enough differences with how Councillor Cheung votes that he’s unlikely to get any ink on my ballot. However, I think enuff_guff is being somewhat unfair. Councillor Cheung has a history of doing his homework before meetings, something too many of his colleagues neglect, so he at least tends to know what he’s talking about. He also runs more interesting and informative committee meetings than most of his colleagues. Now if he’d just vote more like his stated values, I’d be more of a fan. Perhaps he just needs better co-councillors, which is something the voters can bring about.
Hi Heather,
I take no exception to your comments. Of course, I construe your meaning of “somewhat unfair” to mean that I am insufficiently critical of Leland Cheung and his opportunistic, self-interested pandering. Otherwise, I make no objection to your claims that he does his homework, knows what he’s talking about and runs better meetings than his colleagues. Nevertheless, I see this amounting to no benefit for Cambridge. While I agree that he needs better co-councilors, I think this would be better achieved in the context of having better councilors generally, which includes not having Leland “Republican” Cheung as a councilor at all.
We’ll find out in a few minutes how our council will be constituted, and it can only be said that we get what we deserve. Perhaps it is the great inert bulk of the electorate that is unwilling to stir itself to vote that we should blame for allowing the toadying servants of the current incumbents to carry this election? I don’t know, I guess I just want to blame somebody.
Unless there’s a substantial change I’ll find myself despairing at the council’s ceaseless self-aggrandizement, despite continued inept governance, with Leland leading the way on both fronts.
Lastly, I think Leland’s Dad never actually lived in Cambridge. His disingenuous construction of Dad moving to “Harvard Square” leaves me to suspect that Dad attended Harvard and lived in Somerville. Of course, that’s neither here nor there, unless one attempts to depict that as a history of continuous Cambridge residence dating back to 1969, as Leland does.
I appreciate your thoughtful comments and wish you the best, Heather.
EG
Opportunist is the right word. He keeps using that picture of himself and Elizabeth Warren implying that she supports him. At least it was how many people read it. He is no progressive. Thanks for clarifying that he ran as a Republican in Virginia, that makes sense. When he ran the first time he used Harvard’s staff email list to promote his candidacy which is not allowed. Leland, I am afraid, has few scruples when it comes to being a “winner.”