Public meetings this week look at LGBTQ+ issues, Alewife zoning and development, the use of federal Covid recovery funds, the budget for the next fiscal year, a school district sexual misconduct policy, implementing a 988 crisis line and some food, drink and event issues – including a new bubble tea business for Harvard Square.

Public meetings this week look at trash bins and Alewife development (and IQHQ’s plans there), budgeting for the next fiscal year, infrastructure for The Port and meeting candidates to become the next city manager.

Teachers need and deserve to be treated as professionals. Work with the Cambridge Education Association to give them a contract that honors that professionalism.

The harassment of trans and other LGBTQIA+ students in the district has increased dramatically this school year. An incident reporting system called Speakfully was to launch Monday to better capture the extent of the problem, along with complaints about other kinds of sexual harassment.

An 18-year-old Prospect Hill Academy student was arrested Wednesday after bringing a loaded gun to school, police said. The gun lacked a serial number or manufacturer information, making it a “ghost gun” of the sort called a priority of the White House this month.

Teachers and administrators have been offered an effective salary increase way under current levels of inflation, be evaluated based on test scores and are being asked to take on bigger class sizes and give up consultation on transfers. They’re even being asked to accept assignments as bus and sidewalk and cafeteria monitors.

Liberation Libraries opened Tuesday at five locations across Cambridge, a special subset of the popular little free libraries already found around town that are filled with books by black and brown authors.

Public meetings this week look at approvals and timelines for the next set of bike lanes and a study of their business impacts, a 400-foot tower for Kendall Square that would be the city’s tallest, a pause on office and lab development around Alewife, a possible guaranteed income program for the city’s poorest and much more.

Lesley University has agreed to sell a historic building at 1627 Massachusetts Ave. to Homeowners Rehabilitation Inc., a nonprofit builder of affordable housing in Cambridge. The nonprofit plans to buy the property with funding from the city’s Affordable Housing Trust.

Public meetings this week look at making a neighborhood in Alewife; bike lanes through Porter; school district budgeting; a Net Zero Action Plan update; solutions in helping the unhoused; permitting for Starlight Square and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology food kiosk; and more.