Public meetings this week look at independent counsel for elected officials, renter credit checks and the city’s winter expenses; design review on two lab buildings that will begin transforming the CambridgeSide mall; the city’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic; and an interim schools superintendent.

Two long-running debates over use of streets during the pandemic have received definitive answers for 2021, with an announced reopening of “Riverbend Park” and the end of Cambridge’s shared streets program.

Public meetings this week look at passing zoning more easily, and a Green New Deal; opting out of the MCAS test and a vocational education coalition; the Volpe redevelopment in Kendall Square; “missing middle” zoning; a Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream in Cambridgeport; and much more.

The state has retreated on bus and subway service cuts, but residents shouldn’t hope to see fares quickly decrease or be eliminated – and Cambridge isn’t doing much on its own to lower the cost of mass transit, councillors heard Monday.

Proposed “missing middle” zoning that might bring more multifamily housing to the city will stay with a torn Planning Board for more discussion – yet the fallback would have meant sending the proposal onward with notes on its complexity rather than the usual recommendation or rejection.

Rodent-resistant trash barrels are on their way to all residential buildings taking part in the city’s trash program, thanks to a $1.5 million outlay approved Monday. But supply chain disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic mean barrels won’t be distributed until the spring of 2022.

A plea for help sent in January to city and state officials has brought to light the challenges facing efforts to move people with long-term homelessness into permanent housing.

Police are being asked by city councillors to report as soon as possible what’s known of the Saturday killing of Xavier Louis-Jacques, 19, and what can be done to prevent further violence on Cambridge streets.

Accusations that they’re opposed to a temporary homeless shelter near Central Square took Cambridge officials and a business leader by surprise last week, especially since advocates for the homeless had already sent those allegations off to state officials.

Public meetings this week look at keeping rats out of the trash with new barrel and advice on a single-use plastics ban; the school district budget; and the “Missing Middle” and “Green Roofs” zoning petitions.