Nicola Williams for City Council, 2021
Challenger running for City Council for the second time
The candidate’s website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Background: Entrepreneur, event organization | Focuses: Affordable housing, environmental sustainability, women’s rights
Q&A
From A Better Cambridge, Sept. 19: What’s the No. 1 strategy or policy you want the next City Council to pursue on housing?
The No. 1 housing issue is making more opportunity for homeownership to help Cambridge residents build equity. We have one of the highest differentials in equity by race anywhere, and one of the lowest percentages of homeownership. I want to see the next council set goals of increasing affordability by 20 percent by 2040; if you don’t set those goals, we cannot set policies to resolve our affordability crisis.
From the Cambridge Nonprofit Coalition: How would you increase the diversity of voices on city projects and as members of Cambridge boards and committees?
We need to consider offering honorariums, child care and meeting times useful to working parents, people with day jobs and jobs that don’t allow for taking hours out of the day to volunteer. We also need to engage community influencers such as clergy, nonprofit leaders and neighborhood groups in the recruitment process and limit terms to ensure new, diverse and fresh perspectives. And we should limit the appointment of the same person on several boards and commissions.
From the Cambridge Citizens Coalition, Sept 26: Cambridge is about to hire a city manager. Describe your ideal city manager for this time and their qualities.
I would love for a progressive manager with strong community-centered experience. Also, I would seek out more diverse candidates, including women and people of color. They need to support municipal broadband and have a strong fiscal background. They also need to demonstrate leadership skills as well as being able to work with diverse communities and diverse opinions and agendas. It is also important for the manager to understand the meaning of an equitable, inclusive and diverse community.
