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.
No-questions-asked gun buyback
Ninth Annual “Safer Homes, Safer Community: Cambridge Gift Cards for Guns” drop-off from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the parking lots of Reservoir Church, 170 Rindge Ave., North Cambridge, and Pentecostal Tabernacle, 77 Columbia St., Central Square. No questions, no ID required to safely drop off unwanted unloaded guns with the safety engaged in a bag, box or case and in exchange get a grocery gift card ranging from $50 to $200 in value. Information is here.
Walk of Massachusetts Avenue
Neighborhood walk from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, meeting at Cambridge Common at Waterhouse Street and Massachusetts Avenue, Neighborhood 9. The organization A Better Cambridge discusses the history of the built environment while exploring a neighborhood – this time along Massachusetts Avenue between Harvard and Porter Squares. Josiah Bonsey, a member of the Massachusetts Avenue Planning Study Working Group leads.
Approaches to police oversight
Public Safety Committee, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. This committee run by city councillors Paul Toner and Ayesha Wilson hears from the Police Review & Advisory Board, a citizen oversight board, on general issues and a procedural justice dashboard launched in September after long delay. The committee meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing. (Update on June 11, 2024: This meeting was canceled.)
Middle school math programs
School Committee Curriculum & Achievement Subcommittee, 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. This meeting co-chaired by David Weinstein and Richard Harding Jr. looks at the upper schools math curriculum – the source of a firestorm coming out the Covid pandemic when a district goal of algebra for all eighth graders was erased for a time – and related programs. Watchable online.
Annual reports from utilities
Planning Board, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. It’s time for the annual reports due to the city from utilities such as the electricity and gas provider Eversource and Vicinity Energy, another electricity company, as well as the city’s own departments of Public Works and Water. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Talk about exclusionary zoning
Exclusionary zoning webinar, 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. A talk led by George Washington University’s Richard D. Kahlenberg (including on his book “Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism, and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See”) as Cambridge begins discussion of zoning that could eliminate single-family-housing-only neighborhoods and allow multifamily housing to be built citywide. Sponsored by the organizations A Better Cambridge and Abundant Housing Massachusetts. Register here and suggest questions for the event here.
Look at municipal broadband
Neighborhood & Long Term Planning, Public Facilities, Arts & Celebration Committee, 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday. This committee run by city councillors Joan Pickett and Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler discusses municipal broadband – a topic not heard much of since December, when the price of creating a city-owned broadband network (which would likely be run by a third party) was put at $194 million. Councillors would have to consider the expense in the context of a need for budgeting austerity in the coming years. The committee meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Zero-waste community event
Zero Waste Plan kickoff, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The city wants community feedback on plans to cut waste in half by 2030, better control the rat population and maintain good service on trash, recycling and composting. Residents are are asked to come anytime during the two-hour event to give input and come away with free food, free compost bags. There will be kids’ activities and fun ways to give insights. At the King Open/Cambridge Street Upper School & Community Complex, 830 Cambridge St., Wellington-Harrington, Cambridge.
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.