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.
Flu and Covid shots clinic
Department of Public Health, 4 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Everyone 6 months and older can get free vaccines this fall. Bring an insurance card if you have one to the Reservoir Church, 170 Rindge Ave., North Cambridge. (Another clinic is Oct. 30 in The Port neighborhood.)
Cambridge Street and Mass. Ave.
Ordinance Committee, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday. This committee run by vice mayor Marc McGovern picks up zoning petitions for Massachusetts Avenue (including up to 12 stories of residential uses along its length, and up to 18 stories of residential in Porter Square in exchange for increased open space requirements and minimum retail density) and Cambridge Street (including up to eight stories of residential uses along its length, and up to 10 stories in parts of Inman Square; up to 12 in the Webster Avenue and Windsor Street area; and up to 15 stories in the Lechmere area). The committee meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
City elections and vote count
Election Commission, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. onward Tuesday. Voting at polling places citywide takes place for the nine-seat City Council and six-seat School Committee, each of which had an incumbent opt out of running for reelection, guaranteeing one new face on each body come January – though plenty of people expect to see a more-than-typical amount of turnover this year. After polls close at 8 p.m., ballots make their way to the commission vote count beginning at 9:30 p.m. at the Citywide Senior Center, 806 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Cambridge’s ranked-choice, proportional-representation form of balloting takes longer than most cities to work through, so the ballot count is set to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Senior Center. (Still, expect unofficial results to be known before commissioners and their crew pack up overnight.)
New path to family engagement
School Committee School Climate Subcommittee, 5:30 p.m. Nov. 6. This hearing chaired by Rachel Weinstein looks at deepening families’ participation in their kids’ education through an approach developed by Karen Mapp from 2010-2013 and since adopted by hundreds of school districts nationwide (and some overseas). Watchable online.
Democracy Center landmarking
Historical Commission, 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Nov. 6. The board considers a landmark study report for a recommendation to the City Council about the fate of the former Democracy Center at 43-45 Mt. Auburn St., Harvard Square. The addresses include an 1846 double house and 1928 clubhouse addition; the owner, the Foundation for Civic Leadership, closed the meetinghouse and rented office space last year to prepare for eventual renovations, upsetting the groups who relied on it. Also on the agenda is a review of existing two-way bike lanes and related structures on Brattle Street from Mason Street to the Fresh Pond Parkway. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Wonder comes to Kendall
Board of Zoning Appeal, 6 to 11:30 p.m. Nov. 6. If ever an eatery made sense for Kendall Square, Wonder is it: This company was founded in 2018 by Marc Lore, who ran e-commerce at Walmart from 2016 to 2021, and has been buying up components of an empire, including the delivery service GrubHub, behind its concept of “a new kind of food hall” that is expected to double in count this year to 90. That means that instead of being able to order one kind of food at or from one location (say, Italian or Thai), diners can select from an estimated 500 options across cuisines (say, rigatoni with chicken satay). This “mix and match your cravings” style is not strictly like the so-called ghost kitchens that sprang up during the Covid pandemic, because Wonder will have a bricks-and-mortar location at Boston Properties’ 319 Main St., formerly part of the Google building at 325 Main St. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
A stronger
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