Returning Central Square to its status as “the jewel of our city” after an increase in homelessness, drug use and public intoxication, violence and aggressive panhandling is being made a top priority for the city manager by Cambridge city councillors – and the path they recommend in a Sept. 18 order is to simply pay attention to recommendation made over the past decades.
“Central Square has been the focus of numerous studies and city action plans for over 40 years,” an order by councillor E. Denise Simmons says in an amended version crafted by councillor Marc McGovern with Simmons and councillor Paul Toner. The original was introduced Sept. 11. “Many of the plans arising from these sessions remain unimplemented, leading to a frustratingly continuous cycle of task forces being convened, studies being commissioned, recommendations being issued and the city’s failure to fully and coherently follow through.”
A history of studies dating back to 1980 is cited by Simmons, with the most recent being the council’s red ribbon commission “on the Delights and Concerns of Central Square,” which wrapped up work in 2011, and recommendations from a two-year, $350,000 process called C2 by consultant Goody Clancy that followed Nov. 28, 2012.
In her original version, Simmons asked the city manager to convene a task force and report back monthly on quick fixes for “low-hanging fruit” and longer-term solutions; McGovern aimed to change how the city got there, asking: “Rather than forming a new task force to look at Central Square, that the city manager work with relevant departments to look at the reports that have already been made.”
There was confusion Sept. 18 around presentation of the amended version; what the council adopted doesn’t read differently in the section calling to convene a task force, aside from the addition of a hyphen, though councillors agreed to the shift away from creating a new group.
A more concrete change is in removal of references to the square’s unhoused population, “as there is already a task force that has been working on those issues,” McGovern said, noting that he, the mayor and city manager “have already been in discussion about how to move those conversations forward.”
Around the general thrust of the order, “I share the frustration,” McGovern said. “There have been numerous studies and rarely do we move forward on them.”
It was a theme echoed by the head of Central Square’s Business Improvement District, Michael Monestime, on Monday. He pointed to an action plan for the square published in 1987 from work led by Carl Barron – the businessman who was unofficial “mayor” of Central Square until his death in 2014 at 97. “Everything is having these anniversaries. It’s been decades of convening and studying the square, and I would love to see action in my generation,” Monestime said, “I hope the city responds quickly.”
The C2 report included a number of suggestions for public places, retail, housing stock and “connecting people to the square,” ranging from the creation of small parks to encouraging “green walls” and rooftop restaurants and gardens, adding a farmers market space and retail stalls, affordable offices for nonprofits and small businesses and live-work housing models.
The lack of concrete, clear action around the report and a matching one for Kendall Square raised an outcry that has only been repeated with the lack of coherent response to the three-year, $6 million Envision Cambridge development master plan process, for which a final report was presented in November 2019.
Still, no part of Cambridge has drawn as much concern as Central Square in the past several months. The red ribbon and C2 reports make note of the challenges of the square hosting social services but precede a recent influx of homeless and the violence resulting from people preying on them, which leads to a perception of crime throughout the Central Square area.
“The real emphasis here is to make Central Square a top priority,” Toner said, calling for city staff under new City Manager Yi-An Huang – now on the job for just over a year – to review past work and “come up with an action plan.”
Councillor Dennis Carlone sounded a note of caution that no task force – “or non-task force” – will be able to turn Central around rapidly. “As long as it’s taken for Central Square to change, it will take almost as long to bring it back to what people deserve,” Carlone said.
Still, Central Square should at least be moving forward, Simmons said.
“I see it as the jewel of our city,” Simmons said. “How do we improve it?”
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The answer was simple when we go through a five year planning process and produce zoning and non-zoning recommendations instead hiding under a shrub or succumbing to neighbor group nonsense we just follow through. Carlone is the one who ran on the premise that planning for Central Square was the same as “Pearl Harbor.” So it’s deeply ironic that he is not only quoted but the content is just … wow. The only part of the 2013 plan that was enacted was so done by the private sector. We pay a lot of a people really astronomical salaries to do and produce very little. Not to worry. I’m sure it’ll all get done soon enough.
Simmons is correct it could be a jewel. It clearly is not.
It’s largely become a no go zone for families but the potential is enormous.
Lots of plans with limited / no execution – sounds like a familiar theme. Finland here we come 😂
It’s very sad. I can hardly take my kids there. Most of the council has been on there too long watching it just get worse with little positive change.
But the bike lanes! Don’t forget about the bike lanes.
They will save us!
They will be death of us!
Rabble rabble rabble!
Also that dude in the photo was there on the 1st of September…….and he was still there on the 3rd of September.
Champagne for everyone!
Someone help me out, because this is a sincere question.
If public intoxication and drug use are problems– why aren’t those people being arrested? Those are crimes. Toss the offenders into the drunk tank for a while. Get them off the streets. Clean up said streets while they’re in the tank.
I know there will be objections to that idea, because this is Cambridge and people object to everything. I even assume there are flaws in my idea that I don’t understand– so, what are those flaws?
Anyone who talks about “no go zones” is not someone to take seriously. That is always a dog whistle phrase that ignores the thousands of people who go there every day. Central square is busy every single time I pass through. Stop inventing false danger and emptiness to justify stigmatizing homeless people.
For someone that delivers packages and pulls weeds sure have lots of time…
Yes everyone agrees Central Scare is a liberal Utopia! Umm wait:
Councilor Simmons “still central square should at least be moving forward”.
Councilor Carlone “as long as it’s taken for central sq to change it will take almost as long to bring it back to what people deserve”.
Councilor McGovern “I share the frustration” “there have been numerous studies and rarely do we move forward on them”
But wait some delivery person says it’s great! Who to believe 😂
Yes unfortunately when you’ve witnessed a child picking up needles and drug paraphernalia sadly it’s time to eliminate it from visiting. Yes that happened and it was years ago but from what was described in the article, seems to have deteriorated further.
Utopia I tell ya!! Lmao
You have no actual solution to the real problems problems and likely oppose the real ones in favor of policing. All you offer is stigmatization and exaggeration.
What professions are allowed to participate in public discourse in your opinion btw because You clearly yearn for the days when only land owning white men could vote.
I don’t find central square to be a “no-go” zone for me personally, but I sympathize with people who don’t want to shop or do business there, and sympathize a lot with friends who own businesses there that are struggling due in part to the public health crisis.
Its also not fun to walk by vomit, syringes, people in open fistfights, etc with a four year old, that legit is not safe, thats not an exaggeration or stigmatizing. Many of my daughter’s past dance classmates now actually just drive to dance in the suburbs, which is sad for Cambridge on many levels and adds to the traffic problem too. I don’t blame them.
I certainly have no solution, but feel strongly that current policies are not working for business owners, residents, families, or the unhoused and addicted.
Please see above:
Central Square turnaround must be a priority, starting where reports left off, councillors say.
It’s safe to say the majority of the citizens want the same as the Cambridge City Councilors.
Let’s support them! to improve Central Scare back to Central Square. As Mr Carlone said “it will take almost as long to bring it back to what people deserve”.
Admitting that there is a problem is the first step! The councilors all in in agreement. Now let’s see the turn around plans and all lend a helping hand. After all don’t we all want thriving shops, safety and security in the Cambridge squares?
I had been following the Carl Barron Plaza project (https://www.tighebond.com/project/carl-barron-plaza-redesign/) but have not heard any updates for some time. Does anyone know the status?
There is limited to no drug enforcement. The police do not currently even have a drug unit. There is also a liquor store that sells roughly 6-8 cases of nips monthly and is inexplicably allowed to open at 8am. This fuels the open air drug market and the violence the precipitates from it. Enforcement of drug dealers and gang must be a priority. The unhoused who used to populate central square have never really been much of a problem but most of them have been scared away by the more violent and dangerous folks that made their way from Boston’s disaster. We have current city councilors like Quinton Zondervan who have attacked the police and his aide who confronts not only the police but anyone working on the street creating a toxic environment where services cannot be rendered and a feckless City Manager and staff are allowed to hide behind faux virtue. Allowing people like this on the city council is not only a problem for city as a whole it has set made the situation in Central Sq untenable. No one can even address the social issues in Central Sq while drug dealers own the place. We need enforcement, limit bio sales until at least 11am (maybe all package sales in the square?), pass zoning reform, fund our cultural district, and support the police and non-police efforts in the square and stop allowing ideologues run the show.
Good ol barren Barron plaza….
It is true Central Square is not a “no go” ….but it definitely has become a “have to go”.
I think thats what’s being missed- when one looks closely there are many unhoused people for economic reasons, then those who struggle with mental health and addiction, but there is now currently a more violent and predatory element who prey on those more vulnerable populations.
It would also not hurt to ban nips citywide as other cities have done, in addition to at least enforcing the drug dealing, if not drug using.