During Monday night’s city council meeting, comments from Deputy City Manager Kathy Watkins indicated that the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority will be backing off on some elements of its plan to place a 10 million-gallon tank below Magazine Beach Park. The original idea, a part of the agency’s draft plan to address combined sewer overflows, would have involved permanently fencing off 2.3 acres of the park.
The plan was the subject of a community meeting in Cambridgeport last week, during which residents expressed their outrage at the proposal. City officials also said they were caught off guard by the prospect of the MWRA permanently fencing off public park space.
“That type of long-term impact is absolutely off the table,” Watkins said. She said the MWRA had “moved on” from that idea.
But some elements of the controversial plan, including a six- to eight-year construction timeframe, had city sign-off and could still happen. As City Engineer Jim Wilcox explained, Magazine Beach was listed as one of the options for a tank in the draft plan submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Department of Environmental Protection by Cambridge, Somerville and the MWRA back in April.
Councillors urged city administrators to pursue alternative locations because construction in the area would restrict access to recently improved park facilities, such as the swimming pool, splash pad and sports fields. Councillor Cathie Zusy, who co-founded a nonprofit that raised millions of dollars for the park’s revitalization and dubbed herself the “Magazine Beach Lady” during her first run for council, suggested moving the project to neighboring Goose Park or pursuing a private land acquisition.
“We really do need an alternate location,” Zusy said. “There are other areas to minimize the impact on open space and the guided long-term protection of this critical community resource.”
But in a city of only 6.4 square miles, space is at a premium. Watkins acknowledged, however, that the current plan is untenable, saying “If there’s going to be use of Magazine Beach in any way … it would need to be a plan that is much more universally supported.”
Disability rights to get awareness campaign
Also during Monday’s meeting, the council unanimously passed a policy order directing city departments to strengthen awareness of disability rights, accommodations for Cantabrigians with disabilities, and knowledge of complaints processes for those who think their rights may have been violated.
The policy was prompted by a Department of Justice reinterpretation of the Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disabilities Act. The new approach challenges longstanding legal precedent requiring states to avoid segregating people with disabilities and to provide appropriate community-based treatment in accordance with their needs. A federal judge has since ruled to strip language referring to “integration” out of federal regulations under the Rehabilitation Act, and the Trump administration has moved to throw out a legal victory obtained by the Biden-era DOJ that forced Florida to provide appropriate at-home care for children with complex needs, instead of placing them in nursing facilities.
Disability experts and advocates say these federal changes put at risk progress that has allowed people with cognitive disabilities to live in their communities.
“The law itself has not changed, but the manner in which it is, or rather is not, being enforced is changed,” Cambridge ADA coordinator Rachel Tanenhaus said. “The result can in fact be forced institutionalization of people with disabilities.”
The policy order “reaffirms that disability rights are civil rights, and that Cambridge will not stand by quietly when those rights are threatened,” Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui said. “Historically, our country has too often responded to disability differences through separation and segregation, rather than inclusion and acceptance … we can’t go backwards.”
The council also unanimously passed a policy order to review the operating model of the kiosk in Harvard Square.
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