Taking tangled paths to uncertain destinations

By Marc Levy
Published: March 8, 2010

Does Cambridge have a predisposition to doing things the hard way? Some recent news items suggest it does.

Editorial: How to not elect a mayor

By admin
Published: February 27, 2010

Many times during the eight weeks it took to elect a mayor city councillors said some variation of “This is our system. The system works.” They weren’t saying that at the end of the process, and for good reason.

Phrasing let attorney close file on Chronicle open-records request

By Marc Levy
Published: January 30, 2010

Over the summer, the editor of the Cambridge Chronicle asked for city police log information, including some crime addresses, and was told some outrageous thing. That is, they’re outrageous if you’re not a lawyer.

Trying to claim a bit of Coakley history, after she’s become it

By Marc Levy
Published: January 19, 2010

You read it here first: Martha Coakley is the Bill Buckner of politics.

Editorial: Keeping proportional representation is smart thing to do

By admin
Published: January 18, 2010
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Vote counting continues Nov. 3 at the Central Square Senior Center in Cambridge. Some suggest the Election Commission's work be more transparent. (Photo: Marc Levy)

Vote counting continues Nov. 3 at the Central Square Senior Center in Cambridge. Some suggest the Election Commission's work be more transparent. (Photo: Marc Levy)  | read this item

Every four years there is a call to abolish the U.S. electoral college. In Cambridge, elections incite calls to end proportional representation — our rare form of voting in which candidates are ranked instead of just chosen or rejected. Let’s not.

Editorial: Church project should be approved with conditions

By admin
Published: January 5, 2010
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An early rendering from Oaktree Development shows a U-shaped design for ground-floor church uses at St. James’s Episcopal in Porter Square.

An early rendering from Oaktree Development shows a U-shaped design for ground-floor church uses at St. James’s Episcopal in Porter Square.  | read this item

Sympathies flow first one way, then the other in the case of condominiums proposed to wrap around St. James’s Episcopal Church in Porter Square, mainly depending on the last people who speak on the matter. But the project should go forward.

Editorial: District shouldn’t lock community out of schools

By admin
Published: January 2, 2010
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Erika Lawson shows off her 3AM Confections line in December as the final Design Hive show in Cambridge gets under way. (Photo: Marc Levy)

Erika Lawson shows off her 3AM Confections line in December as the final Design Hive show in Cambridge gets under way. (Photo: Marc Levy)  | read this item

December was the last month at the Maria L. Baldwin School for Design Hive, the fashion and crafts fair run by Cambridge resident and business owner Valerie Fox. This is bad for Cambridge, its schools and its students.

Adding travel restrictions won’t keep us safe. It never has.

By Marc Levy
Published: December 26, 2009
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Our efforts at airport security aren't working. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Our efforts at airport security aren't working. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)  | read this item

Can homeland security officials really, really be this dumb? They keep piling on airline travel restrictions as a response to attempts at terrorism, and they don’t work. At the risk of drawing the wrath of safety officials around the world, I’m going to explain how terrorists think: Whatever the restrictions are, they try something different.

No need for controversy over Obama, Gates arrest and Fort Hood shootings

By Marc Levy
Published: November 9, 2009

Twitter, the blogosphere and conservative media in general are hopping with unfounded and irresponsible allegations of hypocrisy by President Barack Obama, comparing what he said about Thursday’s shootings at Fort Hood — that “We don’t know all the answers yet, and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts” — with what he said after the July 16 arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., that “I don’t know all the facts, [but] Cambridge police acted stupidly.”

Preliminary election results bring much uncertainty, little cheer

By Marc Levy
Published: November 4, 2009
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Cambridge City Councillor David Maher waits tensely for election results Tuesday night at the Central Square Senior Center. (Photo: Marc Levy)

Cambridge City Councillor David Maher waits tensely for election results Tuesday night at the Central Square Senior Center. (Photo: Marc Levy)  | read this item

Cambridge comes out of Election Day knowing very little for certain, and even as names of candidates were announced the unsettled nature of the wins inspired few cheers as accompaniment. Today at 9 a.m., the Election Commission will end the uncertainty.

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