Attend meetings in Cambridge from Sept. 15-22 for community safety updates and energy change
These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City Calendar and in the city’s Open Meetings Portal.
The uniform of the Community Safety Department response teams: T-shirts. (Photo: City of Cambridge)
Community Safety and Cop City
City Council, 5:30 p.m. Monday. An update on the city’s Community Safety Department shows the new unarmed response team on a slow path to start taking 911 calls in March, though the department was staffed as of Monday and will transition into staggered shifts as of Dec. 4 – for three months “getting familiar with the community through outreach, shadowing, ride-alongs and support for the [homeless] warming center as well as attending meetings, events and other community engagement opportunities,” according to a memo from the City Manager’s Office.The department’s Community Assistance, Response and Engagement teams will arrive at the scene of a crisis in distinctive T-shirts meant to split the difference between confusing plainclothes and potentially divisive uniforms. “We landed on a softer look, with T-shirts in visible colors that are fun, accessible and soothing,” the memo says. (Meanwhile, the citizen-founded Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team signed a $300,000 contract with the city June 2 for staffing.)
This meeting marks a year since the arrival of City Manager Yi-An Huang, and his fall update covers the work of the past several months: locking in the 2024 fiscal year budget; zoning for the Alewife neighborhood; and addressing climate change, including amending the Building Energy Use and Disclosure Ordinance, preparation to participate in a state Fossil Fuel Free pilot, launching the Electrify Cambridge program and making electric-vehicle charging more accessible. (There’s a council order at this meeting about support for getting rid of gas-powered lawn care equipment too, and debate on a motion returns from the previous meeting about green roofs.)
A number of orders will feel familiar from a week ago, starting with councillor E. Denise Simmons wanting reconsideration of an order that passed without even a vote – opposition to Cambridge participating in any way with activities at the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (often referred to as “Cop City”) or similar facilities. Items returning from councillors using their “charter right” to delay discussion by one regular meeting concern the quality of life in Central Square; possible reform of the city’s approach to lower-income homeownership; and that green roofs amendment.
The council meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery
Short-film screening and discussion, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Free, but register. The first in a series of community conversations to spark engagement for reparative work following the release of Harvard’s report disclosing its historical ties to slavery and its commitment of a $100 million endowment to support reparative efforts. A short film highlights the report, followed by a panel discussion with Vincent Brown, Melissa Wood Bartholomew and Terrance Mitchell moderated by Tony Clark of My Brother’s Keeper Cambridge. In the lecture hall at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge.
Ranking users of school facilities
School Committee, 6 p.m. Tuesday. The committee prepares to prioritize use of school facilities among its own needs, other government uses, residents and Cambridge nonprofits, nonresidents and nonprofits from outside the community and for-profit businesses. Motions signal support for the LGBTQIA+ and condolences for the death of student Jaden McDaniels, and there’s unfinished business with elementary school guidelines – stressing that the schedules are merely advisory. The committee meets in the Dr. Henrietta S. Attles Meeting Room at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, 459 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge.
Changes to building energy law
Ordinance Committee, 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. This committee run by city councillors Marc McGovern and Quinton Zondervan looks at a proposed change to the Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance adopted by the council June 26 to reduce reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The amendment from Zondervan would set Jan. 1, 2025, as a dividing line for standards on nonresidential properties covered by the law. Get a certificate of occupancy after, for example, and compliance periods are yearly and must show linear progress no matter the square footage. The committee meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Open data, its licensing and AI
Open Data Review Board Meeting, 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Cambridge has plenty of raw data of all sorts online for anyone to work with – but not everything is posted. City Manager Yi-an Huang visits to talk about his views on open data and its licensing and discuss how artificial intelligence changes things. The board will also talk about retiring obsolete datasets and changes to the open data website. The board meets in the second-floor Ackerman Room at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Schools’ steel ‘topping-off’
Tobin Montessori and Vassal Lane Upper schools steel topping-off ceremony, 1 p.m. Thursday. Nope, these campuses aren’t done – not even close. The fall of 2025 is still the hoped-for reopening date. But this ceremony marks the placement of the final steel beam at the top of the building’s framework, a construction industry tradition “that marks a significant milestone in the construction of a building,” organizers say. And there will be a look at the site, officials on hand to buttonhole and refreshments. At 450 Concord Ave., West Cambridge near Fresh Pond.
” launching the Electrify Cambridge program and making electric-vehicle charging more accessible. (There’s a council order at this meeting about support for getting rid of gas-powered lawn care equipment too, ”
Where does the city think electricity comes from?
Hint… fossil fuels. Where do the elements making up electrical wires come from? Well, first the elements are mined, using fossil fuels. Then they are refined. Using fossil fuels.
And support to getting rid of gas-powered lawn care equipment. In the Cambridge Cemetery, exactly how is the grass going to be cut? With a
manual lawnmower? An electric lawnmower?
A scythe?
Finally, if this City Council is serious about fossil fuels, why does the CPW continue to have fossil fuel spewing vehicles?
So much of this is virtue signaling without any possibility of real results.
Concerned 43– I have one word about grass cutting – Goats.
You argue against electrification then you say they shouldn’t electrify this because they haven’t electrified everything else? Kettle logic.
I have done landscaping work. There are basically equivalent models of pretty much everything that comes gas powered in electric versions now. it’s not that complicated. low hanging fruit if anything.
Gas gardening equipment does pollute, adding up to tens of millions of tons of pollution nationally every year, but one of the biggest advantages of the electric versions for urban life is how much quieter they are. Better for the workers and the neighbors. I’m happy to see it for that reason alone.
Goats are good for clearing invasive plants (and just about everything) from a plot if that’s needed but not so much for a lot of the more finer tuned things that landscaping tools do.
@Slaw
You have a very bad habit of telling people that they’ve said things when they have not. It has happened many times on this forum, not only with me, but with many others.
You said: “You argue against electrification”.
I didn’t argue against electrification. Why do you make up things?
For the record, what I said is that electricity is generated almost totally by fossil fuels. And, the elements that are used in electrical wires are mined (disastrously) If that is not true, please correct me.
Yes, gardening equipment does pollute. But, you know what. The fossil fuel trucks and cars that this city uses also pollute… greatly pollute. Why don’t you make it a point to speak up about that.
You have raved about bikes and against cars, but nary a word about all the pollution that the city itself creates.
And do you really believe that the Cambridge Cemetery will, today, be able to cut the extensive plots of grass with electric lawnmowers? Perhaps in the future, but not today. And when we do get electric mowers that can cut the cemetery grass, that electricity will probably still be powered by fossil fuels, unless Cambridge can find space to set up fields of solar panels, or perhaps wind turbines on the Cambridge Common.
“Why don’t you make it a point to speak up about that.”
The city should electrify its public works fleet. It should also do the far easier thing of electrifying its gardening equipment. These are not in conflict and it makes no sense to position them as if they are. It’s an austerity mindset. The city should do both.
“I didn’t argue against electrification. Why do you make up things?
You make strongly worded critiques of electrification, some of which are simply wrong some are really meaningless out of context, which I will get to, while arguing against the electrification of landscaping equipment. You are practically arguing against electrification regardless of what you think you are doing.
“For the record, what I said is that electricity is generated almost totally by fossil fuels. And, the elements that are used in electrical wires are mined (disastrously) If that is not true, please correct me.”
Renewables already make up over a quarter of electricity generation in MA. It is simply false that electricity is almost totally generate by fossil fuels even in the current moment. That number gets higher every single year and the state has ambitious goals and ongoing programs that ensure that will continue. The grid gets greener every year while the fossil fuel alternative will continue to pollute directly at the same rate.
As for the mining of materials needed in renewable energy, I agree that is regrettable. It should be done carefully to diminish the negative impacts and the burden should be spread including in the global north. However, those impacts are truly nothing compared to the planetary impacts of fossil fuel driven climate change. Fossil fuels are also mined “disastrously” and they have truly world changing implications beyond that. It makes no sense to focus on the environmental impacts of renewable energy without contextualizing the broader climate emergency and the need to eliminate fossil fuels. What’s your alternative to electrification?
“And do you really believe that the Cambridge Cemetery will, today, be able to cut the extensive plots of grass with electric lawnmowers? Perhaps in the future, but not today.”
No, today. When was the last time you went to home depot? Fully electric seated mowers are consumer products now with a variety of brands. The city would have no problem purchasing the necessary equipment. This isn’t some far off technology its already here. Again this is low hanging fruit, if the city can’t do this how can it electrify the harder stuff?
I should not have said almost all electricity in Massachusetts is generated by fossil fuels. That was a mistake on my part. Only 75% is.
Most of the rest is hydro electric power which has its own problems.
Question. Other than using your bicycle as I’m sure you and others do all year round, including the coldest and rainiest of days, do you use vehicles that use fossil fuels? Let’s say cars, planes, trains, buses; do you walk the talk?
If our grid were 100% fossil fuels, it would still be less polluting to transition our vehicles to electric. I’m more of the thought that we should push public transit, cycling, and walking to reduce our VMTs, but denying that electric vehicles are an improvement of ICE vehicles is ridiculous. And our grid gets cleaner every day, we’ll have offshore wind projects coming online soon as well as significantly expanded hydro capacity coming from Canada.
One need not personally be perfect to say we can organize our society, transportation, and energy systems to be better than they currently are.