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.
Advice for immigrants and allies
Know-your-rights training, 10:30 a.m. to noon Thursday. A free workshop with immigration attorneys discusses the rights of people when confronted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents; recent changes in immigration law; and how to get personalized legal help from an immigration lawyer. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Refining ideas for Porter Square
Massachusetts Avenue planning study, 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday. Weigh in on the future of Porter Square, including possible zoning changes, urban design concepts and open-space improvement ideas developed over the past several months with community input.Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Police seek high-tech tools
City Council, 5:30 p.m. Monday. Police ask for an infrared automated license plate recognition system, with cameras placed citywide “based on public safety needs and crime trends”; a drone with high-resolution infrared cameras that can be equipped with a speaker “to give verbal commands” (with potential uses described as documenting traffic accident scenes, checking out suspicious packages, searching for missing and lost people and getting aerial photographs and videos of crime scenes to help reconstruct events and gather evidence); and a “GrayKey” tool that gets data off of locked phones or other devices (after police get a search warrant or owner permission). The council meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Bike lane open house, Part I
Broadway Street Safety Improvement Project open house, 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday. Broadway is due to get separated bicycle lanes and related safety improvements between Portland and Quincy streets. Similar projects have whipped up strong feelings around traffic complications and loss of parking. This open house (primarily about the section between Portland and Columbia streets) will provide an opportunity for the community to drop by in-person to talk with city staff, ask questions and provide feedback. At the Fletcher-Maynard Academy, 225 Windsor St., The Port.
Town-gown reports
Planning Board, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. It’s town-gown report time, when the board checks in on what Lesley and Harvard universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are doing in, for, with and to the city. The Harvard report arrives as the city and university are mid-negotiations for the payments meant to make up for all the Harvard-owned land removed from tax rolls. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Cannabis and psychosis
“Marijuana and Psychosis: What are the Facts,”7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Dost Öngür of McLean Hospital in Belmont presents on the state of current science around marijuana’s effect on people who are susceptible to psychosis. Rich Parker, of the local National Alliance on Mental Illness branch (which is the sponsor), moderates at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge.
Bike lane open house, Part II
Broadway Street Safety Improvement Project open house, 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 6. Broadway is due to get separated bicycle lanes and related safety improvements between Portland and Quincy streets. Similar projects have whipped up strong feelings around traffic complications and loss of parking. This open house (primarily about the section between Portland and Columbia streets) will provide an opportunity for the community to drop by in-person to talk with city staff, ask questions and provide feedback. At City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge.
The feature image for this post (but not the image seen above) was added to in a digital retouching process. The far right and left of the frame are not real. The police officer and drone and what is seen behind them were photographed and are real.
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