Overall, planning has been fitful and opaque here, with developers nurturing political connections to city councillors in exchange for approval of projects on an ad hoc basis. What if we leveraged our strengths toward a better approach?

The City Council voted 8-1 on Monday to ask the MBTA to reconsider a bench design some consider “hostile architecture” installed recently at Cambridge T stations.

Plans were released this week for the building that will house a College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – an eight-story structure to be completed in 2023.

Once upon a time, the city dominated in an industry that was far less essential than the life sciences companies generating crucial vaccines but way more fun: candy.

While Sheer Queer Fest, an annual music festival with Cambridge roots, was canceled for September due to Covid-19, its messaging is still particularly relevant: loud music that defies oppression, and anger as a step in the healing process for those who have been systemically wronged.

The fun of Chuck Latovich’s thriller “The Girl in the Boston Box” goes way beyond a savvy dissection of South End real estate and dead accurate descriptions of T travel from Harvard Square to Fenway Park. The book is slick and sophisticated, with plenty of pleasantly electric shocks.

Wanting to see a big game on a big screen in a festive setting, I sauntered over to Olde Magoun’s Saloon with a degree of trepidation it would be too crowded, and your typical cap-on-backward bro-ness would reign. I was pleasantly surprised on a number of levels.

If you’ve ever been to a Cambridge or Boston area poetry reading, you’ve probably heard Charles Coe deliver one of his truths in his deep baritone voice. That voice resounds through Roberto Mighty’s short film, “Charles Coe: Man of Letters.”

If you’ve ever been to a Cambridge or Boston area poetry reading, you’ve probably heard Charles Coe deliver one of his truths in his deep baritone voice. That voice resounds through Roberto Mighty’s short film, “Charles Coe: Man of Letters.”

As if Covid-19 isn’t enough to worry about, Cambridge has been in the high-risk category for West Nile virus since Sept. 10, and among four people exposed in Middlesex County is a man in his 40s who is a Cambridge resident.