Fines for restaurants with food safety code violations, a measure available to inspectors in all neighboring communities, don’t exist in Cambridge.

The plan to build a public market in the proposed Lechmere Square in East Cambridge is not yet out of the question, but the city will have to doggedly negotiate with state transportation officials.

Even affluent Cambridge has nearly doubled its food stamp recipients in the past four years. But getting food benefits in Cambridge doesn’t mean recipients can afford to spend them in Cambridge, and more than half those funds are spent over the border.