I truly respect Marc McGovern; however, I adamantly disagree with suggestions regarding my candidacy (“Vice mayor responds to candidate in Cambridge: There’s been no retreat on Trump, social services,” Sept. 9) that our City Council has effectively stood up to the Trump administration or that it has taken steps necessary to protect Cambridge’s most vulnerable communities from dangerous federal policies.
I know firsthand that McGovern has been willing to support several important causes when persuaded by social service advocates. Just this spring, the Cambridge Housing Affordability Organizers, a group I co-founded, joined others in urging the council to stop the closing of the Transitional Wellness Center homeless shelter and extend the Rise Up program, which provided cash assistance to low-income families with young children. McGovern was the sponsor of the resulting policy order, which was also supported by councillors Sumbul Siddiqui, Ayesha Wilson and Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler – but that sadly didn’t get support from any other councillor and didn’t pass. It was this failure to support our neighbors in need that made me realize that significant change was needed on the council. That is why I’m running: to ardently resist the Trump administration’s assault on our neighbors, reform a local political system that prioritizes special interest money over our community and improve affordability for our working-class residents.
So it was peculiar that Marc rushed to respond to an article spotlighting my candidacy, where I was quoted as suggesting that our political system is not designed to benefit working-class people (Reader: Do you think it is?), that the city was cutting specific social services (like those we fought for together) and that the council’s response to Trump has been inadequate.
McGovern curates 17 items out of the thousands in our misshapen $1 billion budget, including things such as printing 1,000 copies of a pamphlet, offering a few Know Your Rights sessions on Zoom and passing a resolution affirming our values. The majority of these items predate Trump’s second term, while others are not designed to support our immigrant or low-income neighbors. He also names the city’s lawsuits, in which the council has absolutely no role, but for which we are all grateful to the city solicitor. Sadly, McGovern attempts to explain away the cessation of Rise Up by writing, “the program ended. It was not cut.” The many families I’ve spoken to across the city who are missing this vital assistance will not find comfort in this distinction. The council allowed a program that benefited about 7,000 of our most low-income residents to lapse. No rhetorical sleight of hand makes this look better.
I am a careerlong educator and administrator, not a career politician. So perhaps that’s why I believe that we should hold our city leadership accountable. I believe mere rhetoric and box checking isn’t enough to stand up for Cambridge, or to stand up to the Trump administration during this crucial moment. Like the hundreds of folks who have confided in me at their doorsteps and in their living rooms throughout this campaign, I too believe that what matters most is what the council achieves, not what it proclaims.
Cambridge is an incredible city, full of progressive-minded and compassionate people. But if we genuinely want to demonstrate an alternative to the politics of self-enrichment and moral indifference in Washington, D.C., we also have to acknowledge the inequality in our community and the dysfunction in our local politics. In Cambridge, food insecurity has risen sharply in recent years, homelessness has trended upward over the past decade and stark income inequality persists along racial lines. Meanwhile, the city’s unsung heroes – the nonprofits who serve our immigrant and vulnerable neighbors – are in serious need of financial support and upgraded facilities. And super Pacs polarize and divide our community while corporate speculators take aim at our neighborhoods, putting profit and petty politics over the needs of residents.
A small sampling of what we need, and what I will fight for, includes:
- Public financing of campaigns through democracy vouchers, reducing the influence of super Pacs that prioritize special interests over working-class people.
- Substantial outreach within immigrant communities, connecting those in need with adequate legal and material resources, as well better supporting nonprofits in this important work. Monday, eight months after Donald Trump resumed terrorizing international students and immigrants, and as the election quickly approaches, the council finally passed a policy order asking the city manager to begin planning for a 24-hour immigration emergency hotline and other measures. Though much belated, I’m pleased councilors have come to acknowledge this need and at last begin to respond. We must now quickly and assertively implement these initiatives.
- Funding Rise Up, right now – not “possibly” a year from now.
- Keeping people housed, with dignity, by building mixed-income social housing that is tenant-governed, publicly owned and permanently affordable; investing in community land trusts; providing sufficient and safe shelter capacity and expanding municipal vouchers.
- Addressing food insecurity by committing sufficient resources to keeping pantries stocked and nonprofit grocery stores (such as the recently shuttered Daily Table) open.
- Funding these priorities through increased property taxes on out-of-state speculators and our wealthiest residents, while shielding the majority of homeowners from tax hikes through expanded residential exemptions (via home rule petition).
In this moment or urgency, we need decisive action rather than rhetoric. I hope my fellow City Council candidates continue to acknowledge the inadequacy of our response thus far, and join me in fighting for reform, resistance and real affordability in Cambridge.
I also call upon McGovern to accept an invitation (he has declined two thus far) to join me on stage for a friendly but substantive debate; it would be far more productive and illuminating to residents than dueling editorials.
Stanislav A. Rivkin, Channing Street, Cambridge
The writer is a candidate for Cambridge City Council.
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“Funding these priorities through increased property taxes on out-of-state speculators and our wealthiest residents, while shielding the majority of homeowners from tax hikes through expanded residential exemptions (via home rule petition).”
Truthfully I think this is internally contradictory. Our wealthiest residents are the very same homeowners that would benefit from expanded residential exemptions. Raising residential tax rates on non-owner occupied properties would in effect raise the cost of housing for the 65% of Cantabrigians that are renters.
How do you plan on squaring this circle?
I also don’t find the whole “debate me, bro” aspect of this very compelling.
Mr. Rivkin is faulting McGovern for failing to deliver five votes or move aspirational home rule petitions through the legislature. Where’s his ire for councilors who are less aligned with him ideologically?
His critique of PACs doesn’t hold up. Our community is divided. For goodness sake, we have people suing the City when they try to undertake park repairs! PACs simply reflect that reality. I encourage him to look at OCPF filings to see where the money is coming from and where it’s going. Eliminating PACs would advantage the very wealthy who could pay for political advertising out of pocket.
I would love to see a substantive debate between a fresh voice and a seasoned entrenched political manipulator.