Homes at 2072 Massachusetts Ave. will be lifeline for hundreds of families over the coming decades
A rendering of a proposed building at 2072 Massachusetts Ave., North Cambridge, as presented May 4 by developers to the Planning Board.
This essay was contributed by Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, vice mayor Alanna Mallon and councillors E. Denise Simmons and Marc McGovern.
On May 20, 2021 the Board of Zoning will hold a second meeting to discuss the 100 percent affordable housing proposal for 2072 Massachusetts Ave., North Cambridge If approved, this building will create 48 homes, approximately 70 percent of which will be two and three bedrooms, just blocks from public transit – all affordable.
The project would achieve “passive house standards,” which when combined with the planned energy-efficient HVAC, lighting, installation of rooftop solar/green roof and healthy building materials will be one of the highest levels of sustainability achievable by a builder.
In short, this building is everything we’ve stated we want as a city: affordable, family-sized homes that are transit oriented, on a major retail corridor, beautifully designed and environmentally sustainable. This is a project that meets all the city’s major goals, and it should be applauded.
The Planning Board has twice approved the project unanimously, and now its future and the future of those who will benefit from these affordable homes sits with the BZA to approve zoning relief under the chapter 40B process.
Over the course of the past several years, city staff and the City Council have taken steps to address the critical need for affordable housing in our community. For those of us working every day to address the housing needs of our residents, we know how important it is that we move beyond words and sentiments in support of affordable housing and take action to build and produce this much needed resource.
The Covid-19 pandemic has illuminated and revealed decades of public policy that fails our most vulnerable residents in housing, transportation, food access, education and more. This realization should be an opportunity for us to remedy these injustices.
Recently, Frost Terrace, another 100 percent affordable building, got close to 1,000 applicants for its 40 homes, and Finch Apartments on Concord Avenue, a 98-unit affordable building, got more than 2,600 applicants. The Cambridge Housing Authority has a list of more than 5,000 families who live or work in Cambridge waiting for affordable housing. Every unit matters. Every unit is a home. Every home change lives.
Some have indicated their willingness to “sacrifice” units to make the building smaller. As councillors, we don’t believe these homes should be “sacrificed.” We see these homes as tangible lifelines for residents. Residents such as Lisa (names have been changed), who lived in her car for months during this pandemic while her CRLS students doubled up with friends so they could still attend school. Or Ellen, a single mother who grew up in Cambridge and is being forced to move outside the only city they have ever known because she can’t find an affordable apartment. Or Dina, a victim of domestic violence who fled her abuser with her children and lived with a family friend in her one-bedroom for years as she waited for a family-sized unit to accommodate her family.
These are real people, people we’ve gotten to know, love and care for as friends and valued members of our community. These residents are not abstract, and their future should be a priority for all of us.
We have heard some say, “this project won’t solve the affordable housing crisis.” This might be true, but Cambridge has never been a community to throw its collective hands in the air and abandon responsibility because we can’t solve the entire problem. These homes will not only be a lifeline to those 48 families who will live there initially, but to all the families who will call the building home over its lifetime. Hundreds of families who would otherwise be forced out of Cambridge will have the opportunity to stay in Cambridge over the next several decades.
We see the BZA as partners in helping to meet the city’s goal for providing housing for a more affordable and equitable Cambridge. Although concerns such as traffic, parking and shadows may be important, we don’t see them as more important than people having places to live. We hope the BZA will see clearly to move this building forward so more people can have the security of a safe and affordable home.
Hundreds of community members have expressed concern about this outlandishly oversized building and the impacts it will have on the residents of the senior and disabled low-income Russell Apartments next door, as well as pedestrian and traffic safety at this notoriously congested intersection. The city and developers have been absolutely unresponsive to these concerns and appear determined to railroad the project through with full support from a complicit city bureaucracy.
If you’d like to see affordable housing at this site, but in a size and scale that doesn’t cause hardship (permanent loss of light and privacy) to the vulnerable abutters (seniors and disabled residents living in very low income affordable housing), please consider signing a petition:
Email: [email protected]
One would think that these City Councillors would have learned by now the difference between the Planning Board “approving” a proposal, as is claimed here, and “recommending” one when asked to opine on a case before the BZA, as is the case with 2072 Mass. Ave. The fact that they manifestly do not should be a bit disconcerting to all Cantabrigians, one would hope. The Planning Board are not gods. They make plenty of mistakes. In my experience, though sometimes disappointing, the BZA have typically been more conscientious and diligent in their guardianship of appropriately regulated development for a livable, affordable, and sustainable Cambridge. Not every proposal with the magic words “affordable housing” slathered on it deserves to pass muster without careful scrutiny in the public interest. ALL the public. That should include the elderly and disabled residents in the Russell Apartments next door, who are nowhere mentioned in this purportedly “high-minded” letter. The residents of the Russell Apartments vote.
These councilors seem to be pushing an agenda without regard to common sense, with a result here and at the proposed 8-story development down the street at Walden Square, of site-specific over development.
The artist’s rendering of the development look great–trees, bicycles, pedestrians, a sun-bathed building, and well-spaced cars. The fact is that pre-pandemic and without the proposed building it’s already an intersection past capacity. Coming from Walden to Mass Ave, it’s three tight lanes that challenge an experienced driver. It has taken me routinely 10 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic to get from Fresh Pond to Mass Ave on Walden.
I am glad we have elections, if only to vent our frustrations.
This project represents everything the city has attempted to bring about. When the vast majority of Cambridge residents make it clear that affordable housing is the most important need in the city today we must stand behind the decisions that make that housing a reality. We are in a crisis situation! When some neighbors of proposed affordable housing attempt to stop development because of their concern for “vulnerable” neighbors, or when they complain about a seemingly endless process when it does not go their way, we have to stand for what is right. Now it is time for the BZA to do their job and approve this much needed project.
I live in North Cambridge and cannot wait to see this built. It looks like a great addition to the neighborhood.
There is a dire need for affordable housing, but you can’t throw all zoning considerations out the window. For example, parking. Does this new building offer any parking? The proposed development at Walden Square, with which I’m more familiar, has only 25 parking spaces for 103 units (243 to 486 people). Public transit is great, but some people still need cars. For example, at Walden Square, some residents drive for ride-sharing or delivery services.
A large majority at Russell Apartments for the elderly and disabled has signed a letter to the BZA in opposition to the plans as proposed. This current proposal could be built to current zoning standards and with setbacks rather than as a massive assault to our standard of living, better allowing two affordable housing communities to live side by side. We want compromise. Cambridge has the ability to build affordable housing projects that don’t create the kind of inequity we are trying to solve. We need to stop the rhetoric that this 8,500-square-foot lot is the answer to all of our affordable housing needs and instead follow the money. And fortunately a few people are finally speaking out about the back-end bundling and financial incentives for scale.
There has been no discussion with the developers that have addressed any of our concerns. It took me months to get the developers to share a rendering of the proposed building design. Even then, the rendering included a distorted view with the ground floor obscured. When I asked for a better schematic, I was told by them they could not rationalize spending further public money. When I pushed further I was told “Not everybody can have the view they want” – this to a Russell abutter. We have been invisible to not just these developers, but to the City of Cambridge, despite being a community where more than 50% of residents are people of color and everyone is of the lowest means. This is what marginalization is.
What is really is being suggested here is that the Russell seniors of North Cambridge aren’t equal citizens – but housing Justice, like social justice, asks us to question ourselves and find the answers while work to treat every human being with respect.
If maggieb believes that “Housing Justice like Social Justice asks us to question ourselves and find the answers to and work to treat every human being with respect,” I hope she’ll talk to her neighbors in the affordable apartments in her building and encourage them to welcome their neighbors in the new affordable apartments that will be built next door.
In response to @karenc’s question above: no, this building does not have parking. It offers 3 handicapped parking spots and 2 dropoff spots in its small garage, for an anticipated 150-200 residents. The theory is that no one will have cars, but in reality the residents will park on city streets (as they have a full right to do) and will have to make a lot of dropoffs / pickups in front of the building since they can’t park there, adding further to the congestion and complexity at this intersection.
I am very tired of hearing how some neighbors are “in favor of affordable housing, but.” When someone says, “I apologize, but,” do you consider that a real apology? Or do you realize that whatever comes after the “but” negates what came before it?
If you support affordable housing *but* only if it never inconveniences you in any way, then guess what, you do not support affordable housing! No one has to take your expressions of “support” for affordable housing seriously when you’re trying to block affordable housing.
I’m so grateful we have councilors who prioritize affordable housing. In poll after poll, it’s the number one issue for Cambridge voters. Fighting for housing is exactly what we elected these councilors to do!
Apparently, for pro-development types in Cambridge these days, you’re not allowed to say you’re for affordable housing. If you do, you’re supposedly against it! This reminds me of the infamous remark by the US Military officer in Vietnam commenting on a burning village: “We had to destroy the village in order to save the village.” The Red Queen is off her head!