Watch meetings on freezing rents and evictions; expanding Internet; closing streets; school funds
Streets are emptier than usual in an image posted March 21 by the City of Cambridge after self-isolation was encouraged to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Coronavirus: Housing, closing streets, better Internet
City Council, 5:30 p.m. Monday. There are related orders asking for a coronavirus-related pause on rent payments, mortgage payments, evictions and foreclosures and for basically the same at publicly owned housing, publicly subsidized housing, and federally assisted housing. There are also orders to look at closing some streets in all neighborhoods to nonessential traffic, giving residents more room to walk and exercise at proper distances during the duration of the health emergency, and for Memorial Drive specifically – seeing as it already closes to traffic Sundays in months with better weather. With people citywide being asked to stay home and live their lives online, the holes in Cambridge’s Internet capacity have become more glaring, and councillors Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, Quinton Zondervan, Patty Nolan and Marc McGovern are asking the city manager to explore short-term solutions to expand Internet access “until such time that a municipal broadband network can be implemented.”
Also, this may be the week that city officials spell out ways to protect the homeless during the Covid-19 crisis, starting with a $52,890 appropriation to keep the Y2Y Youth Shelter running for another few weeks and avoid raising our estimated 81 unsheltered people to 108. But a Boston University School of Social Work study suggests the real cost to the city of emergency quarantine units and service for 244 homeless might be $7.3 million.
The meeting will be televised and stream online. Sign up for public comment here to get instructions about how to use the necessary Zoom video conference platform.
A look, literally, at the proposed school budget
School Committee virtual budget workshop, 6 p.m. Tuesday. Committee members will gather online to review the proposed school district budget for the 2021 fiscal year. No votes will be taken and there will be no public comment.
The workshop will be broadcast over Cambridge Educational Access TV Channel 99 and should stream online.
“… Patty Nolan and Marc McGovern are asking the city manager to explore short-term solutions to expand Internet access”
Too bad the city manager doesn’t think that municipal internet access is worth his attention. We need someone in the job that can look further than the tip of their nose.