City councillor Dennis Carlone has decided against running for a sixth term in office, he said in a letter to the community published Wednesday.
“I have been honored to serve Cambridge and all its residents for the past 10 years, using a commonsense business point of view integrated with knowledge gained as a publicly focused architect and urban design consultant,” he said in the letter. “I have very mixed feelings when I say that I will not be running for a sixth term.”
Carlone noted that he was 76 years old and felt it was time for a next phase of life that would focus more on “family, writing and perhaps consulting,” though he planned to stay active in the community.
His departure means at least two seats on the nine-member council will be open when Nov. 7 elections arrive, after vice mayor Alanna Mallon said June 1 that she too had decided against running for reelection. There is so far one official challenger to take one of the emptying seats: Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, who served on the council 2020-2021. There have been murmurings – or filings of organizational papers – from at least five others in the community.
Carlone joined the council in 2014 and has served as Finance Committee co-chair and chair of the Neighborhood & Long-Term Planning and Ordinance committee.
He’d intended to serve no more than 10 years, Carlone said Wednesday by phone.
“It was 10 years, max – and originally I didn’t think I was going to go 10 years. I assumed in three terms I could make the difference I wanted to make. That did not prove to be true,” Carlone said. “But I also promised my family 10 years.”
Focus on planning
He arrived as a first-time candidate in 2013, a Harvard-educated longtime resident in private practice as a planner, architect and urban design consultant since 1978 with a client list including Boston, Chelsea and Lawrence and the towns of Plymouth and Winchester, as well as private and public institutions. Most important for that run and subsequent terms, the client list also included Cambridge, where his projects included the nationally recognized East Cambridge Riverfront Project and original NorthPoint Urban Design and Broad Canal & Environs plans. Those helped guide the transformation of more than 40 acres of formerly underutilized industrial land on the Charles River, now a neighborhood with admired parks and the retail and restaurants of the Cambridge Crossing development.
He was an early advocate for sustainable planning and design, he told voters, and his urban housing background included creating 500 units of affordable housing.
The key thing he will leave undone: “I wanted the city to have a true master plan,” Carlone said. “That became known as Envision Cambridge, and we’re not there yet. I said there should be planning and an urban design plan for the city – and the city responded saying it would do urban design for Massachusetts Avenue and Cambridge Street. I added the Alewife Quadrangle. Well, we never fully got urban design for the Alewife Quadrangle. But it’s a start.”
Prekindergarten and affordable housing
In addition, he’s disappointed that the universal prekindergarten plans being implemented don’t extend to 2-year-olds – his thesis in architecture school was on prekindergarten for underserved children, he said – and “we’re still lacking dramatically in open space. Every opportunity should be reviewed for that, especially in neighborhoods like The Port that have literally 20 percent of the national average of open space.”
Carlone’s professional background underlay much of his work on the council – and his references to that background when prefacing remarks were legendary – and more recently have led to clashes over the best path forward for the Affordable Housing Overlay. That zoning has proposed changes that he said will build towers too high for cost-efficiency, the good of the city or their residents.
He opposed an affordable-housing project at 2072 Massachusetts Ave., North Cambridge, proposed in 2020 that he called “too tall” at nine stories. Amendments might allow all-affordable buildings to rise to 12 stories along the city’s main corridors and to 15 stories in the squares.
Carlone presented an alternate plan to build six- or seven-story buildings on city land, with municipal uses such as schools or libraries at their base, and by using eminent domain to buy single-story properties and convert them, but it got little traction among other councillors.
“The council is too focused on the short term, for obvious reasons – a two-year election cycle,” Carlone said. “We don’t look at facts, we look at what gets public support.”
Wrong direction for beloved city
Zoning is going in the wrong direction, he said, and “crazy zoning impacts people much more dramatically than the council realizes. They’ll take umbrage to that comment, I get it. But they’ve recognized that zoning is the greatest power they have, and they use it very loosely. Quite frankly, Community Development – and I love them as people – do not speak up enough” to discourage it.
Most of that results from previous city managers telling staff “to be quiet” and not discourage commercial development, but every such upzoning made it harder for Cantabrigians to find reasonably priced homes or rents, Carlone sad. “We have too much commercial development already. We need the whole focus to be residential, with active ground floors.”
Though Carlone leaves with frustrations that he knows won’t be satisfied by the end of this final term, he said he loves where he lives and worries that staying in Cambridge won’t be sustainable for long for his family.
“I already know our rent is going up,” Carlone said. “My son and his wife and child are in Cambridge and in the same situation. We want to stay here, but we’ll see. I hope we can stay.”
A stronger
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Zoning is a power that has been used far too excessively. You have a place where many people want to live, but zoning limits the amount of housing that can be constructed. Renters and buyers compete for the limited housing through price increases until enough people can’t afford it and drop out of the market. Works for Cambridge, works for Palo Alto.
Question is whether we want Cambridge to be a low density country club or the rich, or to build substantially more housing so a broader swath of population has a realistic chance of living here. Or else, we just play endless musical chairs rationing; rationing by high prices or rationing by lottery.
You had me until you said “low density country club for the rich” … that’s just nonsense. Carlone was a worthy adversary. He successfully blocked C2 calling it “Pearl Harbor” in a very I’ll thought out robocall during his first election. He then aligned with Quinton Zondervan and folks like Nadeem Mazen, and JDevs to be the slate of socialism and ideology over practicality. We agreed some times but most of time it was knocking horns. He was light years better for the ordinance committee than Zondervan but Siddiqui seems to do QZs bidding now so tis what it tis. Happy retirement Dennis I’ll miss fighting you.
Thank you Councillor Carlone for your amazing service to our city – the 5th- 6th most dense city for its size in the US – and one rich in historic buildings. To make the city work for all of us, now and into the future, using proven urban design skills is critical. We are a very small city in terms of size and balancing the array of needs – environmental, historical, and socio-economic is key. You have been a leader on this, and we hope you will be active in helping us long into the future. The high cost of housing is a global, national, and area problem that is not going to be solved by allowing even more entry of developers interested in tearing down sustainable buildings, forcing long term tenants out, and building on a larger footprint (and to out of scale heights) for new market rate (luxury) homes simply to make greater and greater profits. You have been a voice of reason in all of this.
Thank you Dennis for your many years of dedicated service. It has been a privilege to work with you. Our City is a much better place because of your efforts.
I don’t doubt that Councillor Carlone sincerely believes that had his vision for Cambridge been implemented, our city would be a better place to live. Fortunately, voters are realizing that maintaining the low-density character is not the answer to our housing crisis, nor is it the way to have a vibrant city.
The short version of Carlone’s letter: “This is exhausting. Screw you guys, I’m going home.”
Also, I’m confused. Is zoning “a power that has been used far too excessively” or should it excessively be used to up-zone all those evil, rich retired teachers, therapists, janitors, and lawyers living in their mansions next to the Cambridge golf course?
According to Wikipedia, Cambridge is the 4th densest US city over 100k population.
Dear Councilor Carlone,
I have been disheartened by your eminent departure but understand it well. Throughout your years, you have been the voice of reason, facts, analysis, experience and CIVIC duty- not personal agenda. You are the only one on council who understands zoning and the importance of design which ultimately affects the social well-being of people. CDD, lacking independence, has become a yes voice for the Council. Unlike those untrained councilors who see design as “subjective” or “today’s eye sore is tomorrow’s landmark”, you understood that a well-balanced and human-scale home can be timeless, doesn’t have to be onerous and can contribute to the quality of life.
You have often been disrespected by those who have self-aggrandizing goals–some of the procedures can attest to that. It has been almost painful to watch. Some of your suggested design changes still maintained or added to the number of units. You initiated ENVISION CAMBRIDGE for a master plan which morphed unceremoniously into an unqualified mess by others, full of contradictions, only to be trotted out to “support” controversial ideas– but still no city-wide urban plan.
You had a better design for Central Square’s Mass and Main tower with several mid-rise buildings with MORE units instead of an 18-story tower now the precedent for the poorly considered city-wide AHO height jeopardizing different neighborhoods. But you got chastised for not following protocol as favored developers got their – what was tantamount to- spot-zoning.
You came up with another better design for Walden Sq apartments, mid-rise townhouses instead of the cruiseship mass of a housing tower consistently fought by residents who live in the complex. No other councilor understood or listened to residents. Housing is housing. The developer, who was hand-slapped by the Mayor for shoddy management of its other properties, is reverting back to its old massive design and height in anticipation of the new AHO as-of-right which deletes neighborhood input. You understand the importance of re-purposing older buildings, set-backs, green space and city livability- all the while looking for opportunities for more housing. But, alas, housing advocates are siloed into their one talking point without looking at the total context and environment for ALL Cantabridgians, not just the special interest groups with deep pockets. 2072 Mass Ave was a dangerous design with one elevator for 9 stories. (the new AHO 2.0 is political revenge, thumbing its nose at this rejection going bigger and taller). Indeed, design helps make a better project for years to come. You used your experience to try to relay consequences and ideas but were again ignored.
And all the while, you remained a gentleman, respectful- using humor to lighten the moment while making your point. You ran a respectful meeting. You had a calming influence unlike those who chastise speakers BY NAME whose opinions at public comment you disagreed with and where they don’t have a rebuttal opportunity. You attend subordinate meetings like planning board and historical commissions as a member of the public- NOT FLOUTING YOUR POSITION AS A COUNCILOR, which could be considered intimidating. You worked tirelessly behind the scenes while making yourself available for coffee.
In short, you were often the only adult in the room. With the stacked council often at 6-3, much like the supreme court, and with the immense pressure put on Cambridge to be first, the biggest and bestest in the commonwealth, it is obvious we need a new Council- one that is balanced, data-driven not ideological, who has more consideration for ALL the people and not just loudest constituents or personal agendas for the resume. Today we have at least 5 overlapping proposals and petitions which may interfere with each implementation because one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing- Forgotten is the synergistic effects of similar contrary policies. You also understand that 2-yr olds are experiencing the next stage of school life and should be included in universal pre-K.
Soon we will be faced with amendments to the Cambridge Historical Commission and Neighborhood Conservation districts at the Ordinance Committee, chaired by the amendment proposal’s lead sponsor, darling of the pro-housing people, and again master of diminishing anything that gets in the way of the AHO. There is also ignorance about conservation and its invaluable protective guidelines for affordable housing. You have been a champion for integrating the old and new, advocating for the responsibility of good zoning and guidelines which are warranted in a society being overwhelmed by commercial, bio/ tech, lab spaces, employees of which takes up more housing. While zoning can be tweaked, it should not be erased. In many cases, it is a safety net.
We need a more conscientious, civic-minded and sober council who understands NUANCED positions and not just all or nothing creating panic. You, councilor, are a calming influence with constructive ideas and were willing to have that tough deep dive- often being the lone dissenting vote. Having the courage of your convictions will be sorely MISSED in today’s climate. We have one or two potential guiding lights on council but Cambridge needs to dig deeper into fair, equal, balanced representation for all and not just deep pockets or loudest voice. And for all of that– Councilor– that is why this citizen will sorely miss your presence. Good luck and I do hope you will still watch over proceedings from the comfort of your easy chair.
Best of Luck. Coffee??
Pete – Thanks for that. We’ll never know for sure, but I suspect that most Cambridge residents would agree with you and Dennis on these points. It may take 10 years for many to see how right Dennis was.