Preliminary results showed the Cambridge City Council avoided the turnover that swept away two-thirds of the School Committee, with only one incumbent councillor, Ayesha Wilson, not winning reelection.
Vice mayor Marc McGovern was the top No. 1 vote getter in the city’s ranked-choice form of balloting, followed by Sumbul Siddiqui and newcomer Ayah Al-Zubi. Timothy Flaherty is the other challenger joining the council. Incumbents Burhan Azeem, Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, Cathie Zusy, E. Denise Simmons and Patty Nolan were all returned to office. Dana Ray Bullister, who also ran in 2021, finished 10th in top votes.
This year’s race seemed to be defined by different visions of Cambridge, shaped by the city’s two housing Super Pacs, the pro-development A Better Cambridge and the slow-development Cambridge Citizens Coalition. The successful challengers, Al-Zubi and Flaherty, were not endorsed by either group. Wilson, meanwhile, was the only candidate endorsed by both.
Many figured that this election would represent a referendum on perhaps the most controversial policy adopted by the 2024-2025 council, citywide upzoning that allows four stories of housing in most areas of the city, or six stories if buildings meet certain affordability requirements (also known as “four-plus-two” zoning). The results were decidedly mixed. Zusy, the lone vote against citywide upzoning, held onto her seat, while Wilson, who voted in favor of the measure, lost hers. At the same time, the six other councillors seeking reelection who voted yes on upzoning succeeded.
Al-Zubi and Flaherty made housing central to their campaigns. Flaherty has come out strongly against the upzoning amendment, saying “it makes absolutely no sense,” advocating for new large-scale housing development to be focused around transit corridors rather than citywide. Al-Zubi, a democratic socialist, has as her central policy idea a proposal for municipally owned social housing and would build on densification efforts, although she has expressed concerns about the environmental impacts of citywide upzoning.
“I can’t really think of someone who ran a better campaign, from head to toe, in terms of the number of doors she knocked, in terms of galvanizing older people and younger people and homeowners and nonhomeowners,” McGovern said of Al-Zubi, reflecting outside his election night party in Central Square late Tuesday. “We had a lot of really strong candidates. It’s not unusual to have 20 candidates running, but it is unusual to have 20 candidates running who are running real strong campaigns.”
He did not stride into Election Day certain of the outcome – his strongest finish in years. “It was really interesting election. We would talk to one person who would be very upset about things that I did. Then we would talk to the next person who would be really happy. So we had no idea where this was going to go,” McGovern said.
Cambridge Bicycle Safety, the city’s most well-funded Pac, will add to its ranks of “bike champions” on the council. Al-Zubi joins Azeem, McGovern, Siddiqui and Sobrinho-Wheeler as members with the group’s top distinction, indicating their strong support for expanding Cambridge’s network of bike lanes and improving road safety. Zusy and Nolan were also endorsed by the group as “bike supporters.” Multiple voters said the list of CBS endorsees affected their votes on Election Day.
No members of the antiupzoning “Repeal Slate” – John Hanratty, Elizabeth Bisio, Peter Hsu and Zion Sherin – won a seat on the council. All four pledged to repeal citywide upzoning if they were elected. Hanratty, who also ran in 2023, came the closest to earning a seat, placing 11th.
“We’re excited of course that the supermajority of five bike champions, plus two of the bike supporters, made it on the council. We’re excited to move forward on the Cycling Safety Ordinance and on safety projects,” said Chris Cassa, an organizer with Cambridge Bicycle Safety. “People deeply care about getting around safely. They want to make sure that kids have independence and that everybody has the freedom and ability to get where they need to go safely, whether they’re walking, biking, driving or taking transit.”
Eyes will soon turn to who among the next council will earn the support of their colleagues to be named mayor. McGovern and Siddiqui have led during previous recent terms, while Simmons currently holds the position.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)3 nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.
Great to see Cambridge and Somerville residents backing people-friendly policies like housing and bike lanes. A clear rejection of disinformation about zoning reform and safe-street infrastructure. Well done.
The voters have voted. Congratulations to those who won.
The majority of the City Council is once again filled with councilors who only know how to spend. That was fine when there were substantial increases in taxes because of the growth of biotech. That’s ended. It will recover, but not for another 5-10 years.
In the meantime, this city will continue to be in a very difficult financial position. Don’t listen to the councilors saying that’s not so. It is so and you will continue to see it in the increase in taxes during the next five years. This increase will continue to force the economic middle class to move from the city as they have for the last 15 years.
What we are going to have is a progressive city council bordering on socialist principles. Say what you want, but socialism, wherever it has been tried, has failed.
This city cannot continue to bring in more people.
It is already diverse. It is dense. It needs a middle an economic middle class.
continued
While many would say “well, compared to city xyz our taxes are low.” The problem with that is that it is not oney the absolute level of taxes, but the increases in taxes, and there Cambridge, unfortunately, stands alone.
With regard to affordable housing. The city has a long list for those waiting for affordable housing apartments. If so many say that we need those apartments for those who work for the city, why don’t we have teachers, firemen, police officers and city administrators at the top of the list to get those apartments?
And finally…the city wastes so much money on superfluous things. Why is there no ombudsman? What are the councilors and city manager afraid of? An ombudsman would pay for him/her self at least 10 times over.
@Old Boy
“This city cannot continue to bring in more people.” You do realize that more dense housing brings more taxes, right? You do realize that not needing a car for every day transportation frees about $1000 per household per month? I am very happy that pro-housing and pro-safe street council members were elected.
Congratulations to the winners of the election!
Old Boy, as you know, our residential property taxes are lower than every other city and town in Greater Boston, so it would not make sense for anyone to leave for somewhere where they would have to pay more.
My understanding is that it is not currently legal to change our affordable housing waitlist preferences, although those who live or work in Cambridge already get a preference.
@Old Boy I really struggle to believe that the increase in residential property taxes is what’s driving people out of Cambridge. We’re talking about changes of a couple hundred dollars a year for most homeowners. Renters, on the other hand, often see their rents go up by that much every month on lease renewals.
You have your analysis wrong, declining commercial property values means we need to bolster the budget via residential property taxes. The way we do this without large increases to homeowners is to allow more residential construction, which adds more to the tax base while also stemming the increase in property tax values, which bumps us up against the max tax shift from residential to commercial.
What do you think we’re spending on that’s “superfluous”?
The change to the council was leaning against the new zoning. Ayah got many of my friend’s number 1 votes because she said she understood the new zoning was bad for the environment. Tim also is against the new zoning completely and Patty almost lost because of her vote. I think zoning wasn’t the biggest issue on the ballot, but I think it says something that ABC lost not gained a seat.
Old Boy, my family has lived here long enough to have seen every kind of election season, and I’ve rarely seen messaging as bleak as what CCC and the repeal slate were pushing: that the city is “full,” that we can’t build places for people to live, that taxes are out of control, and that the community is boiling with anger. They sent that out in every way they could, in op-eds, postcards, mass emails, and online posts.
And then, when it came time to vote, people chose a completely different vision. The housing and bike people were ranked at the very top. Only one CCC candidate made it, and none of the repeal slate did. To me, that says people aren’t buying the scare tactics. We’re choosing a city that plans for everyone, not just the richest and loudest voices.