Residents of Cambridge like their government, but their feelings about the city as a whole are slipping. Or so says the most recent Cambridge Residents Survey, presented Monday night during the City Council Meeting.
Overall, Cambridge outperforms its peers, said Ernie Paicopolos, CEO of Polity Research Consulting, which conducts the annual survey.
“The one thing that jumps out at me continually in Cambridge surveys compared to other ones in Massachusetts and elsewhere around the country that I do is the excellent rating in terms of overall government services,” Paicopolos told City Council. “You should feel very lucky in terms of that question, because other municipalities in Massachusetts don’t come close.”
Of residents polled, 22 percent rated the municipal government’s performance excellent, slightly higher than last year and tied with 2023 for the highest total ever. With a margin of error of about five percent, these ratings have remained largely consistent over the last five years.
Still, the share of people who rated Cambridge as a place to live as “excellent” dipped from 51 percent last year to 48 percent this year, while the number of people who rated their neighborhood “excellent” dropped from 54 percent to 45 percent.
For the municipal government, excellent ratings were most likely from:
- men
- people aged 18-34
- West Cambridge residents
- short-term residents
- Asian/East Indian and African American residents
Fair ratings were most likely from
- residents earning under $50,000 a year
- Hispanic residents
- those with some college education
- longer-term residents
- retirees
- residents of The Port
Analysis Highlights Demands for Affordable Housing
Residents who participated in the survey said there were three main areas city needs to focus more attention on: affordable market housing, safe streets, and economic health.
Cambridge received its highest ratings for opportunities to attend cultural events, quality of open space, and keeping streets safe.
Included in Polity’s report is a “gap analysis” that measures the difference between how important an issue is to the community and how well the city government has done on that issue. The two issues with the largest gap between performance and importance were the availability of affordable market rate housing and the availability of municipally subsidized housing. Economic well-being and maintaining a balance between new construction and neighborhood preservation also rated highly in the gap analysis as issues that needed more attention.
“It’s pretty clear that disproportionately housing related issues are the ones that people are telling you need to perform better on,” said Paicopolos. “We’ve been doing [the gap analysis] for two or three years, and essentially the same results have turned up all three years.”
When asked to pick just one issue the city needs to improve on, 46 percent of respondents said “Affordable Housing.” The next highest option, “Cost of Living/Economy/Jobs” only received 8 percent of responses.
Cambridge tops rankings in strong feelings
Polity partnered with national resident survey provider Polco to analyze where Cambridge stacks up compared to over 300 communities nationally on 33 different metrics.
Cambridge had the highest score nationally for how strongly residents reported feeling about the importance of having high-quality transportation and an engaged community.
Cambridge also ranked “Much Higher” than the municipalities it was compared to when it came to the quality of public transportation, the proportion of respondents who have contacted their local representative in the last year and the proportion of respondents who have volunteered for a Cambridge-based organization.
Cambridge also ranked “Higher” than the benchmark for residents’ ability to get around on foot; being welcoming to different races, cultures, and identities; whether residents would recommend living in Cambridge; the importance of having quality of open space (a drop from “Much Higher” last year); and the importance of having opportunities to attend cultural events.
The only metric where Cambridge was ranked “Much Lower” was for ease of getting around the city via driving. Cambridge was not ranked “Lower” for any metric and ranked “Similar” for the 22 others.
Councillors Have Questions on Methodology
While councillors were generally receptive of the report’s findings, some mentioned gaps between the demographics of respondents and those of the city itself, which may have skewed responses.
“Students are listed as seven percent of the respondents, and they are 24 percent of our city,” said Councillor Patty Nolan. She suggested there should be three different kinds of reports: one for the entire population, including students, one with just students, and one with no students. “They’re a very different type of resident.”
Nolan also noted the underrepresentation of high incomes in the sample: the median household income in the city is $126,000, but only 32 percent of respondents reported an income of $125,000 or more.
Councillor Jivan Sombrinho-Wheeler noted the low percentage of respondents aged 34-45 and the seemingly high numbers of older respondents. Among respondents, 26 percent were 65 years or older, but according to the American Community Survey, only 12 percent of Cambridge residents are in that age range.
The Cambridge Residents Survey has been conducted regularly since 2000. It was biannual until 2020, when it shifted to annually. This year’s survey was conducted Sept. 15-19, 2025 via phone interviews of 400 Cambridge residents.
Other findings of note
– Libraries Rule: Residents also rated 11 specific services or departments. Libraries received the most “Excellent” responses at 61 percent, followed by the fire department with 51 percent. Sidewalk maintenance scored the lowest, with only 11 percent of residents rating those services excellent.
– Bike riding drops: The percentage of residents who said they rode a bike in Cambridge more than 26 times over the last year dropped by ten percentage points from 32 percent in 2024 to 22 percent in 2025, while the percentage of residents who want the city to focus more on parking rose by eight percentage points, from 16 percent in 2024 to 24 percent in 2025.
– Owners and Renters United: Despite differences in perceptions of affordability, homeowners and renters rated the overall quality of city government similarly, with 21 percent of owners and 22 percent of renters giving the government an “excellent” rating.
This story was updated to correct the name of the American Community Survey.
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.
Treating students as a separate population? That invites their marginalization. Worries about underrepresentation of high incomes?
Thank goodness Patty Nolan is there to defend the interests of the wealthy.