Cambridge’s tale of two cities is widely documented. But it has failed to make any meaningful effort at racial equity, and that has to change.

These unprecedented times have laid bare the fault lines of injustice, but It isn’t too late for the city, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to come together in an unprecedented way and serve as equalizers and truly lead our response to this crisis.

The past two years have been a small taste of what a determined minority can accomplish on the council to create more equity. To make durable change, the voters need to elect a majority that will prioritize equity and stand up for communities, not developers.

This legislative efforts of Naiop, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association of Massachusetts, are a case study in how commercial interests influence politics in Cambridge, councillor Quinton Zondervan says.

The council’s procedural move effectively precludes the City of Cambridge from considering any climate protection action in the petition through zoning amendments for the next two years. Now, even the most popular ideas would be at risk of a legal challenge if implemented.

Residents and city staff are outraged after a contractor hired by Eversource damaged the roots of a large oak tree Tuesday on Gore Street so severely that the tree had to be cut down immediately for safety reasons.

We’ve been disrespectful of nature for too long, and an assessment this year will surely show even further tree loss. That’s why at the next council meeting I will introduce three orders designed to protect our canopy while we wait for a tree task force to complete its work.

Cambridge, the city where the Internet was invented a half-century ago, ironically has struggled to ensure that residents have access to the benefits of the digital world. Let’s set the goal of ensuring universal affordable broadband access for all residents by 2025.

Will we listen to our children, recognize that their survival in the age of climate change depends on our ability to truly understand the value of trees, and make this the year Cambridge turns around its horrifying trend of destruction?

While I am thrilled MIT is committed to following the city’s the 2015 Net Zero Action Plan, it is an empty promise – construction will almost certainly start before the date the plan requires buildings to be net zero. But MIT can still set a real environmental example.