COURTHOUSE OUTRAGE

The Following letter by Seth Teller was sent to our city councilors. I reprint it here, with permission, because Seth does such a great job encapsulating the negligence of Cambridge city agencies and departments in representing the interests of the East Cambridge neighborhood against those of a private developer.

Dear Councilors,

The residents of Cambridge, and the Council itself, have been terribly served by the various City departments and agencies on the Sullivan Courthouse matter.courthouse

The Community Development Department has been mostly absent throughout the process. Apart from some minor comments around the edges of the proposal, we haven’t seen any informed pushback to the misinformation the developer has been spreading over the City: the questionable traffic studies, the garage parking study, the wind study, and the lighting impact study. The developer didn’t even mention, in their application to the City, the anticipated impact on surface parking in East Cambridge. They didn’t even mention the anticipated impact on residents’ privacy. Did the City or any of its agencies call them on any of this? No.

The Traffic and Parking Department certified, quickly and in writing, the Developer’s proposal to long-term lease 420 parking spaces in the municipal garage. Yet after months of wrangling, we citizens were able to analyze the City’s actual parking data. It shows without any doubt that the garage is headed for full occupancy, even “without” any development at the Courthouse. How could your T&P department have gotten this basic fact so wrong?

Meanwhile, the City Solicitor’s opinion on the critical legal question underpinning the proposal is nothing more than a parroting of the developer’s attorney’s assertions. She did not even acknowledge the existence of a contrary opinion by a nationally-known land-use attorney hired by us citizens. There is no more polite way to say it: this is dereliction of duty.

Councilors, there are myriad technical objections to the current proposal. And there are serious legal objections as well; we maintain that the Planning Board simply doesn’t have the right to grant this permit. But beyond the technical and legal objections, there’s the overarching moral question: should the State of Massachusetts be allowed to discharge the debt it incurred in the 1970’s on the backs of today’s Cambridge residents alone?

Here’s how this story could continue, if only the Planning Board, and the City Council, could find the courage to stand up and say to the State, “This process is simply unacceptable. You cannot take a planning disaster from the 1960’s and 1970’s, which all agree was allowed to be built ‘only because of state supremacy,’ and perpetuate that disaster forever by transferring the site to private ownership.”

Folks, as representatives and residents of our City, it is time to take a stand here. Let’s use every means at our disposal to send this completely inappropriate proposal back to the State, and back to the drawing board. Yes, that will likely mean waiting for the next Governor and her or his administration. But they can’t do any worse than the current administration, who have stonewalled us at every turn. And there’s a reasonable chance that they will do better.

We’ve lived with this monstrosity for four decades. Let’s take a few more years to get it right. Let’s block this proposal with every tool we have, and put the State on notice that their current RFP and sale process is a dead duck. They simply must issue a new RFP that states explicitly that whatever is to be built in the City of Cambridge, by a private developer, shall respect the City’s zoning ordinances. Meanwhile, on our end, let’s convene a grand conversation among all citizens of the City about what ought to be done with the site, as part of the Master Planning process that has been so much discussed of late. (A useful precursor to that conversation would be to hold the next Planning Board hearing in East Cambridge, so that the residents most directly affected, including many seniors who were here before the Courthouse was built, can weigh in.)

That’s the process that should have been followed from the start. We’ve lost a few years and dissipated a lot of energy getting to this point. We can’t get the time back, but we can avoid wasting all that good work. It’s not too late to fix this situation, but correcting it will require the Council to step up and take a stand against this outrageous proposal and the process that produced it.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Seth Teller
281 Hurley Street

 Something Is Out Of Alignment

We’ve reached a moment in time where city agencies like Community Development, Traffic, and the City Solicitor, appear to be out of alignment with the needs and vision of Cambridge’s neighborhoods and citizens.

Seth’s letter illustrates not only the bias of city agencies toward development, but also the frustration that many of us have in attempting to protect Cambridge’s unique quality of life, affordability and diversity. Pro-development advocates have been all over this proposed Courthouse renovation, bobbing their heads up and down as if it represents the best chance we’ll ever get to extract a good deal from the developer. Why fight it, they seem to ask, when playing nice will still give us some leverage? And who can blame them for looking at it that way, once you see our city agencies wagging their tails and licking the developer’s hand? With the CDD, Traffic and Parking Department, and City Solicitor all seeming to roll over and play dead in the face of the state and the developer’s arguments, we are left with a group of understandably outraged citizens standing alone in their fight to have Cambridge’s legal zoning laws enforced. Citizens who wish our city agencies would STOP being so ludicrously helpful to our adversaries. Yes, I call them “adversaries,” as I would call any developer who seeks to impose his or her will against our zoning laws or the best interests of our neighborhoods.

I’ve wondered for some time about this almost gleeful rush on the part of the CDD and T&P to support developers’ demands. I mean, why would T&P certify the sale of parking spaces to the developer when the city already has need and use of those parking spaces? I ask that at the same time realizing this is the same T&P that never seems to have a problem certifying additional construction and traffic congestion for the Fresh Pond and Alewife neighborhoods. Just who is it exactly who is setting the mission for these departments? And isn’t it time that mission was re-examined?

I used to think it was our former City Manager who was playing the tune, and the ultimate reason why all city departments were so strongly and reflexively pro-development. But Healey’s gone and the tune keeps playing. Could it be his ghost…?

How many courthouses, 18-story towers and shoe-horned Alewife developments must we endure before our CDD, T&P and City Solicitor start to realize they work for us—today’s Cambridge residents, rich and poor—and not for the affluent thousands who will one day populate those oversized developments they keep facilitating?

TAX THE RICH OR KILL THE POOR

Wealth is essentially finite. There’s only so much to go around.

When a nation’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, the rest of its citizens are left with little scroogemore than long days of struggle, painful progress and unattainable dreams. We see it in the Middle East, in Africa and Asia, and in Third World countries where rulers and their cliques soak up all the wealth like so much gravy.

And we are seeing it today in America.

It won’t be long before we reach the tipping point, when students won’t have money for college, cities won’t have money for schools and libraries, governments won’t have money for basic services, and the poor won’t have anywhere to turn.

It seems as if we’re living in a Charles Dickens novel where the same Dickensian actors—greed, hard-heartedness, self-righteousness and moral vacuity—have once again stepped center stage to suggest, by their actions if not their words, that it might be better for the poor to die and decrease the surplus population.

No matter that those actions are thinly disguised behind Big Lies repeated over and over by agents and tools of the wealthy—by newspapers and TV stations owned by the rich, by a political process and Supreme Court controlled by the rich, by sound bites and legislation pushed by rich politicians—that taxes are unfair, that corporations are people, that the wealthiest among us have no obligation to assist the poorest, that government exists to protect wealth rather than its citizens, and that the surest way to help the poor is to advance the purpose and cause of the wealthy.

How can we still be talking about trickle down economics when so little wealth ever actually trickles down?

If you accept one basic premise—that wealth is finite—then all the financial, economic and social upheaval in our country starts to make sense. There isn’t enough to go around when one sector gets a lock-tight grip on the purse and the purse strings. Once that happens, with so little left on the table, those of us who aren’t rich find ourselves battling each other for an ever-dwindling share of the pie. Programs compete against programs. The needy compete with the needy. Infants battle the elderly and the poor for nutrition allocations. Recovering alcoholics challenge the homeless and disabled veterans for shelter dollars. Sesame Street scraps for funds needed to regulate Wall Street. All the while, the public sector continues to implode and gentrification elbows families and poor people out of their homes.

The recent attack on public sector unions in Wisconsin is merely the edge of the scythe as it begins to mow down the social contract we grew up with and came to expect from a civilized society. Collective bankruptcy is the problem, not collective bargaining!

Tax breaks for the wealthy that began with Ronald Reagan and continued under George W. Bush were beyond obscene, as are the bone-deep cuts to government programs now regularly enacted by a government bled dry of its assets by the Republican Party under the guise of fiscal responsibility. By protecting their excessive assets, the wealthy among us are endangering the lives and livelihoods of so many others. Children will go hungry; students will forgo college; retirees will see their pensions cut; people will lose their jobs and homes; many will go without winter heating fuel; cities will lay off police, teachers and firemen; while the health of our poorest citizens will dramatically decline—all so that a small group of wealthy individuals can amass and accumulate ever more and more money.

Tax the rich or kill the poor? What would Charles Dickens have done?

How about Jesus?

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This is an updated version of an essay I wrote a few years ago. It’s quite shocking to me how far things have gone downhill since then. With the Republicans, as good servants of their wealthy masters, continuing their assault against social security and medicare, and virtually stymieing any attempts to combat Global Warming, this world is becoming a harsh and unfriendly place in which to live.

Open Letter To The Republican Party

Dear Elephant Men:

Hey guys? You know we’re watching you, right?  And no matter how many times you tell us you’re legislating to prevent fraud, we know exactly what you’re doing.

You know that, right?   Repub

Nobody’s that dumb or lame, really. Why treat us as though we are? Makes it hurt all the more.

“Voter fraud” has the same believability and cover story value as euphemisms like, “Enhanced Interrogations,” “Trickle Down Economics” or “Clean Coal.” Everybody knows what you’re doing, and can see through your lies, even while you deny doing anything and continue to behave in the same manner.

So enough of this fig-leaf excuse of Voter Fraud please?  It’s really beneath you to continue to deny what you’re doing.

Once and for all, there is no voter fraud! Certainly nothing that could be used to explain the sudden rash of Voter Fraud laws pushed through by Republican-led legislatures in nine states. And just so nobody is missing the fact, let me ask this next question directly…You guys are creating laws, directing the will of nine individual state legislatures, to enforce a solution to a non-existent problem, is that right?

The only problem you’re solving is that you guys are held in such low esteem you can’t win an election without cheating.

Don’t you think there should be a law about that? Using a state legislative process to foster political ends? In nine different states? Smells like some sort of conspiracy to me…hmm…?

Lest anybody be confused, this is nothing but a bald attempt by Republican legislators to suppress voting by blacks, students, poor people and anyone else who might vote Democratic. You guys couldn’t win the Presidency last time around, so rather than reform your party by turning to positions that might appeal to larger segments of the voting public, you chose instead to stay with your Big Money Masters, and to restrict people’s right to vote in so-called swing states.

And that’s what you spend your time doing? On the public payroll? Stealing elections?

Aren’t you even a little ashamed?

Okay, fine! That’s your choice and we respect that.

But hey guys, call it what you will, it’s still JIM CROW all over again…and just as shameful.

Hey, don’t get me wrong. Nobody’s accusing you guys of racism. The fact you’re legislating to disenfranchise blacks has nothing to do with racism and everything to do with the fact you’ve completely abandoned whatever moral authority your party once possessed.

So, in reality, you no longer have any ethical basis to stand as a national party.

Sorry guys, but the truth hurts. And if you want to win the presidency sometime soon—just so you know—it won’t be by kissing the backsides of the wealthiest sliver of the nation’s population, or by writing off Immigration Reform and Income Equality. Nor will you win by continually trumpeting your aversion to 21st Century sexual and cultural norms.

One thing more, it’s time you guys stopped running for office in our highest institutions of government, then worked to dismantle that government and cripple its ability to make a difference in the lives of its citizens.

Yeah, I know, that will get you millions of dollars from the Koch Brothers.

But it won’t win you many votes in whatever voting booths you allow to remain open.

Just remember, we see what you are doing.

And we will not forget.

Councilors Make Bold Bid To Save ‘Feeding Grounds’ For Endangered Developers!

Last Minute Order of Maher, McGovern, Benzan A Brilliant Move                                                   To Kill A Meaningful Master Plan!

Cambridge, MA — Fearing the ecological and financial damage an honest Master Plan might bring to the already threatened Cambridge Hawk, a developer species known for flying tight circles around the City of Cambridge, veteran City Councilor David Maher, and two freshman councilors, Dennis Benzan and Marc McGovern, proposed a policy order they hoped would deflate and defeat a rival call for a Master Plan.       hawk

That rival Master Plan, as proposed by councilors Dennis Carlone, E. Denise Simmons and Nadeem Mazen, would have threatened the status quo of microwave development in the city, as well as the security and livelihood of the vulnerable developers.

“SAVE THE DEVELOPERS!” resounded throughout the staid, marble-floored corridors of City Hall, as the Maher proposal was introduced. Aside from consigning the process to an endless succession of motivation-killing meetings, the Maher proposal would put responsibility for the Master Plan in the hands of the Cambridge Community Development Department (CDD), whose concern for the prosperity of Developers has been proven repeatedly. Most recently in the CDD’s pursuit of 16- and 18-story towers for Central Square.

The Maher Proposal refuses to acknowledge the high level of public unrest and dissatisfaction with current development policies, pretending residents are merely disturbed over ” recent projects.” With an unstinting blind eye to the realities all around, the Maher proposal seeks to preserve “a sensible approach” to future development (read undiminished).  It completely ignores resident outrage at the clogged roadways and, most notably, the city’s lack of honest planning.

But the most important element in the proposal is the way it will derail the Carlone proposal and keep residents from speaking their mind to the City Council on April 7th, at 5:30PM. Just as important, it will leave the Cambridge Hawk once again safe to hunt for his meal ticket in our city.

Why We Should Scrap K2C2 and Start Some Real Planning. And do it NOW!

In case you haven’t noticed, the residents of Cambridge are fed up! They’ve had their fill of the city collaborating with developers and business interests to cash in on Cambridge’s rocketing real estate values at the expense of families, the middle class and the diversity that makes this town so special.

Fresh Pond/Alewife residents at the Tobin School

Fresh Pond/Alewife residents at the Tobin School

Something Brewing In Fresh Pond (in addition to more traffic)

Earlier this week at a meeting of the freshly-minted Fresh Pond Residents Alliance, 150 residents from the Fresh Pond and Alewife areas joined together to call for an honest response from our municipal leaders—our city managers, City Council and Planning Board—to what has become an almost non-stop and overwhelming tide of development. Development that has clogged roadways from one side of the city to the other. Development that has traded on Red Line proximity to justify the approval of more condos and apartments than the existing infrastructure can accommodate. Development that is changing the makeup of the city’s population, its rhythms, and its basic livability without anyone stopping to question where we’re going or whether we want to go there.

It was clear—to those newly gathered folks at least—the game needs to be changed. The old rules won’t work anymore. No longer can inclusionary zoning serve as a convenient excuse for up-zoning giveaways worth millions. No longer should we accept an anemic inclusionary zoning formula that results in far fewer affordable units than the numbers gentrification will ultimately displace. And no longer should our city councilors be allowed to hide behind that same inclusionary zoning argument while green-lighting developments that sacrifice the well-being of current residents to benefit affluent people who don’t even live here yet.

Jan Devereux

Jan Devereux

Let’s Talk About The K2C2 Planning Process

I came along too late to witness the K2 (for Kendall Square) part of the process, but if it was anything like C2 (for Central Square), it was flawed, biased and flagrantly disinterested in the participation of the affected neighborhoods. Without a single advisory committee representative from either the Cambridgeport or Area IV neighborhood associations, C2 pretended to seek resident input while aggressively pushing for increased densification and towering building heights.

K2C2 is a prime example of how not to plan for Cambridge’s future. The fact that a city planning department would submit recommendations for massive zoning increases without first studying the impacts of their recommendations is not only shocking, but unconscionable. To act as if decisions made concerning Kendall or Central Squares would not have consequences citywide—on traffic, public transportation and public safety—is an indicator of how hard the sponsors of K2C2 were working toward a desired outcome, and feared doing anything that might undermine it.

With inclusionary zoning, in its current formula, obviously a Trojan Horse for developers, there are fewer meaningful arguments one can make for continued over-development. So-called ‘Smart Growth’ quickly becomes Stupid Growth once you admit the Red Line is maxed out, or when new residents are asked to risk life and limb to access the ‘nearby’ Alewife station. Also stupid, if not downright criminal, is that NOBODY in charge in Cambridge, up till now, has asked for an honest look at what’s going on; or what’s coming down the road. Our Planning Board and City Council have approved thousands of new apartments and office units without comprehending the impact of their decisions or the context of growth within which those decisions are being made. Nobody apparently wants to discover, yet alone admit, that development is not just leading to gentrification, but is actually microwaving gentrification.

Microwave Gentrification 

In a report soon to be released by the Cambridge Residents Alliance, Richard Krushnic, Alliance member and an analyst with Boston’s Dept. of Neighborhood Development, projects over 22 million square feet of new commercial and residential construction in Cambridge between 2011 and 2035—half of which has already been built, permitted or begun the permitting process in just the last three years!*

No, you didn’t read it wrong—half of the construction anticipated between now and 2035 has been built, permitted or applied for a permit in the last three years!

The Need For An Honest Master Plan

Above all that construction noise, if you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of…change, though it may at first sound like angry raised voices. What’s happening in Fresh Pond and Alewife is happening all around the city. In East Cambridge, Central Square, Cambridgeport, North Cambridge, too. City residents are banding together to question the wisdom of recent decisions and ongoing policies. At the same time, newly-elected City Councilor Dennis Carlone is circulating a petition calling for a comprehensive citywide Master Plan, something the Cambridge Residents Alliance has been promoting for over two years. A Master Plan that calls for the input and support of the people most affected by such a plan, we the citizens of Cambridge.

If you want to give Cambridge a chance to grow without sacrificing its character, diversity and livability, sign Dennis’ petition. And plan to participate in the resulting process which, if done right, should finally provide a cohesive and integrated approach to growing our city while protecting our neighbors and our quality of life.

It may not generate untold millions for our city’s coffers or turn developers into millionaires, but it will result in a city we can all afford to love.

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*These figures do not represent a citywide total, as they only reflect larger sized projects in the hot spots of Alewife, North Point, Central Square, Kendall Square and The Osborn Triangle. They do however account for half of the city’s projected 22 million square feet.