Patty Nolan for City Council, 2023
Incumbent first elected in 2019 and seeking for her third term in office
The candidate’s website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Background: Business, then nonprofits | Focuses: Good governance, climate crisis, affordable Hhousing
Q&A
Compiled by Matt Rocha
Nolan has a background in startups and corporate consulting. As a public servant, she has worked to improve Cambridge’s education system, especially during her stint on the School Committee. She won election to the City Council in 2019. She attended Harvard as an undergraduate and earned a master of policy, planning and management degree from the Yale School of Management.
Housing: “I think it’s ironic that I’m often characterized as anti-housing when I was the first on the council, with Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, to propose ending parking minimums citywide, which then happened this term. I was the first to propose working to end all single- and two-family-only zones, which we are still working on.”
Climate policy: “The most exciting thing about Beudo, which could be transformative, is the way we allow offsets, which we’re requiring to be local. If I’m Harvard and I have a historic lab and I can’t reduce the carbon, we’re going to say fine, take an affordable-housing development in Cambridge, reduce its carbon and you get ton-for-ton credit for that. That’s the kind of exciting thinking we put into this ordinance.”
Road infrastructure: “The idea of a local electric shuttle that goes across the city, which many other cities have, we can do. When there’s frequent, reliable service, people will use it. The council has worked to address this by working with neighborhood groups.”
Pet project: Nolan spearheaded the project to review the city’s charter and, if reelected, will prioritize drafting a new charter.
Participatory budgeting:
“What Cambridge needs is more ways for residents to recycle, reuse and give away to others the stuff they don’t need. Build on the many Buy-Nothing Cambridge groups and Freecycle and Curb Alerts.”
Favorite place: Danehy Park – built on a landfill and now a spectacular spot.
