Work against the environment by president Donald Trump is rippling through the state to Cambridge, where the sole policy order at the Cambridge City Council meeting Monday is a call to resist surrender on Beacon Hill.
Councillor Patty Nolan wants a ceremonial vote against a bill by state representative Mark Cusack, a Braintree Democrat, to gut work to prevent the worst of climate change. The state bill argues that if Trump makes it impossible for Massachusetts to meet its climate goals, it’s okay to stop trying, as reported first by Commonwealth Beacon on Tuesday. That would include the end of funds coming to Cambridge to help meet those goals.
Much of the meeting, though, will be spent on accepting grant funds for such things as traffic enforcement, housing, college transition and language proficiency.
High-visibility traffic education and enforcement: A $64,974 state grant would go to police to support traffic education and enforcement and “address significant public safety and quality of life concerns.”
Bicycle ridership is growing in Cambridge – it has one of the highest rates of biking to work in the country – and city data shows crash rates dropped significantly over the past two decades, to around nine per million bicycle miles in 2022 from about 28 in 2003. The city’s Vision Zero safety engineering initiative, with its lower speed limits, redesigned crosswalks and more protected infrastructure, has helped pedestrians too. But the dangers of getting around the city are a frequent theme of meetings and motions about transportation, with critics saying they would be safer if everyone followed the rules of the road.
Supported housing: A $153,809 grant would go to support local homelessness services, specifically the Carey Men’s Permanent Supported Housing Program, which helps formerly homeless men stay safely housed. The program provides rooms at the Cambridge YMCA and offers counseling, case management and other support through the city’s Multi-Service Center. Those in the program get help with issues such as substance use, mental health challenges, legal problems or difficulty finding work.
The grant will pay for program staff, services provided by Eliot Community Human Services, as well as meals and basic supplies.
College transition and language instruction: Two grants support the Bridge to College Program and English for Speakers of Other Languages instruction. The first is a $40,000 grant raised by community members for the Community Learning Center to support the Bridge and ESOL instruction. The money would be distributed across staff salaries, program operations and training.
Bridge to College is designed to help adult learners prepare for success in college. It supports adults who want to pursue higher education and need help with academic skills, navigating the college system or understanding financial aid. The program provides coursework and guidance to help participants strengthen reading, writing and math skills; prepare for placement tests; complete college applications; and transition smoothly into a college program.
ESOL instruction provides English-language classes for adults whose first language is not English. These classes help learners improve speaking, listening, reading and writing skills so they can communicate effectively in daily life, find or advance in employment, engage with their children’s schools and participate more in community activities. The programs often serve immigrants, refugees and other new community members who rely on accessible language education to build independence and opportunity.
The second request involves appropriating $15,000 in individual donations collected by the Friends of the CLC. These funds would go toward salaries for language teachers at the center.
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It is unacceptable to roll back the meager climate and energy policy Massachusetts has put into law. I can only assume the representatives on the relevant committees think they personally would not be affected by the climate crisis. They are woefully mistaken. The climate crisis will make life difficult for all of us (well, maybe billionaires would do ok). I will try to work hard to primary every state representative and senator who guts the climate regulations. Don’t understand the climate crisis? You should not be in government in any position.
To protect the environment, let’s hope the Council moves forward on zoning to protect solar panels. They’ve been discussing very minor tweaks to the recent multi-family zoning which would prevent existing and future solar installations from losing their sunlight.
A majority of councilors said they supported it. But then the study got slow-rolled for months (while much bigger zoning changes were advanced right away). And then they voted to send the order back to the Housing Committee, which at best means a long delay, and could mean the whole thing gets dropped.
Bike fatalities were dropping for 15 years before the start of current “improvements”?
More interesting would be stats for the past 5.