All:
Lots going on this weekend and month…. and the upcoming City Council meeting on Monday night is likely to be very long and may need to reconvene Tuesday morning – due to policy orders related to Israel/Palestine. Locally the city will be flooded with visitors along the Charles River for the Head of the Charles Regatta. Enjoy it if you are in town. More info below. There is also Arts in the Park on Saturday afternoon in Sennott Park and the Kendall Fall Party at the Kendall/MIT Open Space.
This week I spent time at a few events, including a visit with Congresswoman Presley for an event celebrating the EZ-Ride Bus. One of my dreams is to have a citywide free shuttle that is reliable and frequent – since transportation is key to livability. The annual meeting of the Kendall Square Association showcased just how influential the most innovative square mile on the planet is, and how lucky Cambridge is to have it – in just a few decades it’s gone from parking lots to a booming ecosystem of homes and innovation. Transition House had a fabulous celebration of its first 50 years – I volunteered on the hotline for T-house in college, and as a councillor know how important their work is for our community.
Speaking of great community events – upcoming is the Cambridge Half Marathon/5K, which raises money for 27 (!) Cambridge based nonprofits. One team I am especially promoting is Cambridge NonProfit Coalition, since one runner in particular deserves support… my daughter – running for the first time in such an event – if you feel inclined to support her or any other nonprofit, all of which are deserving, I encourage you to do so!
The November election has started with mail-in and early voting. Your ballot will be a bit more complicated than in recent years, as there will be either 9 (statewide) or 10 (an extra non binding question in half of the wards of Cambridge) ballot questions for you to consider. I’ve filed a policy order this week with Councillors Simmons, Zusy and Mayor Siddiqui encouraging the City to emphasize early voting options, as voters may need additional time to fill out the ballots this year, which could add demands on poll workers and lengthen lines. I encourage everyone to make a plan to vote, and to hopefully vote by mail or vote early in person.
The City’s Civic Assembly, a new community engagement process that will help inform the future of surveillance technology in Cambridge will begin on Saturday October 24. Over four Saturdays between October and December 2026, the 40 selected Assembly members will learn from independent experts, deliberate together, and develop recommendations for the City Council on the future of public safety and surveillance technology — including the use of gunshot detection systems and video surveillance cameras in Cambridge public parks. The broader Cambridge community is also a part of the process. You do not need to be selected for the Civic Assembly to participate. Cambridge residents will have opportunities to share their perspectives directly with Assembly members and the City, as community input will become part of the information Assembly members consider as they develop their recommendations. At the conclusion of the process, the Civic Assembly written recommendations will be sent to the Cambridge City Council. The Assembly is advisory, and final decisions will remain with the City Council.
On the City Council agenda (some items noted below) for Monday evening are two policy orders related to divesting City funds from investment portfolios that have companies with ties to “Israel’s Apartheid, Genocide, and Illegal Occupation of Palestine”. The policy orders reference the “AFSC Divestment Shortlist” and “Israel Bonds” as the companies in question. I have some more on this proposal below, but will say in only a few short days these orders have completely derailed most work at City Hall as we prepare for an extremely contentious Monday night meeting. My office has received dozens of calls and over 1000 emails since these policy orders were published. There are a few interesting and important agenda items in addition to this, but we will likely not have time to discuss many of them, as I expect the extensive public comment on Israel and Gaza to run well into the night and into Tuesday morning, when the City is preparing for additional meeting time.
Below are comments on a few top line items and a few quick notes for Monday’s meeting. If you have questions or comments on these or anything else, please feel free to reach out at any time.
Patty
Council Updates
Thermal Energy Networks Health and Environment Committee
On Tuesday, October 20 at 11:30am, the Health and Environment Committee will be meeting to discuss Thermal Energy Network (TEN) planning in Cambridge. This meeting will provide an update on the City’s feasibility study, exploring what it would take to build a neighborhood-scale Thermal Energy Network in Cambridge. We will also have participation from several important players in this space including Eversource, MIT, Salas O’Brien, HEET, Black Swan Labs, and representatives from the BosTEN project. The City of Cambridge has been studying whether a shared local network of underground pipes could provide safe and reliable heating and cooling for buildings without using fossil fuels. A thermal energy network connects multiple buildings and often uses geothermal energy, which is the Earth’s natural temperature, as a source of clean energy. This initiative comes after a lot of Council initiative, community advocacy and work by the City to study feasibility in Cambridge.
Sex Work Policy Order
The policy order on decriminalization of sex work was amended to make specific note of the decriminalization of autonomous sex work, and not the decriminalization of the buying of sex. Importantly, the policy order really focuses also on the shared goals of many advocates: anti-poverty efforts, safe reporting mechanisms, youth LGBTQ protections, and law enforcement best practices. This is a difficult issue, and I appreciate hearing from so many people across the ideological spectrum working towards similar goals of ending exploitation and protecting sex workers.
Combined Sewer Overflow Control Plan
I was very excited to pass the final policy order advocating for a stronger Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control Plan. This issue is important – and one I have been working on for a long time. I especially appreciate the incredible work of advocates who have brought passion, data and energy to pushing us to address this public health and environmental issue. I’ve worked on several policy orders and had a few Health and Environment Committee meetings over the past few years to unpack the nuances of the various draft CSO control plans. Now we are at a point where the Draft CSO Control Plan is ready to be finalized and it is an important time to advocate for changes. I have worked with watershed advocacy groups, neighbors, and City staff to develop a policy order that: 1) advocates for the strongest level of CSO possible, ensuring that Typical Year calculations are rigorous enough to grow as the climate crisis continues to worsen, 2) ensures the funding for this regional CSO Control Plan is spread equitably amongst the broadest base of ratepayers and taxpayers in order to protect residents in Cambridge and the broader community (and encourage the state to work for additional funding models), and 3) on the Cambridge-specific side, urges staff to develop and publish clear plans for long-term projects that can be effectively budgeted and advertised for residents to give better expectations and work through impacts and concerns. And I want to do all of that without undermining the work of DPW staff, who are working incredibly hard to not only negotiate this Control Plan with MWRA and Somerville, but are also already working on a number of sewer separation projects, CSO and stormwater tank installations, and countless green infrastructure projects aimed at reducing stormwater pollution and flooding. The biggest point we want to make in the advocacy to Mass DEP and Secretary Tepper through this policy order is that the CSO Control Partnership (MWRA/Camb/Som) should spend additional time investigating hybrid solutions at higher level of controls, and to come back with a new draft that goes through a variety of CSO Control Alternative Projects. So the hope is to spend more time and come back with a next draft that incorporates more hybrid project models for those higher levels of controls – and importantly, includes real cost impacts of doing less, including public health and environmental costs.
Please write to the Council (at council@cambridgema.gov) or come speak at the meeting (sign up here) about any of the items below.
City Council Meeting - Monday, October 19, 2026
Multifamily Zoning Response
As part of our ongoing review of the Multifamily Housing Zoning Ordinance, CDD has delivered a report answering several questions requested by Council including planning for a housing development dashboard, dedicated community liaison, a neighbor’s guide for development, and other related work. We have more work to do as we continue the annual review process and consider amendments which I proposed a few weeks ago and the Council voted to continue to discuss.
Magazine Beach
Separate from my last policy order on the Combined Sewer Overflow Control Plan, the MWRA surprised the entire community, including our own City staff by presenting concerning plans to permanently fence off significant portions of Magazine Beach for a large tank project. I joined Councillor Zusy on a policy order this week criticizing this new project plan and advocating for better solutions. The City Manager also sent a letter to the MWRA demanding answers for this irresponsible project proposal. Cambridge Day reported on some of the details. The MWRA’s proposal sets up a false dichotomy that we need to pit environmental protections against parkland access. It’s a misguided and wrongfooted proposal and it is to the detriment of public trust and the larger CSO Control Plan negotiations. As the Charles River Watershed Association put it: “the [CSO] plan includes proposals for other combined sewer storage tanks in the Charles River watershed which will be located under roadways; it is safe to say these will not be fenced off. Across our watershed and throughout the country, it is common practice to locate storage beneath active playing fields and coordinate installation with park improvements. Even the City of Cambridge, co-author of the CSO Plan, was blindsided by the news that the tank would be fenced off.” I will continue to engage in this work to make sure that we have a strong CSO Control Plan that doesn’t sacrifice our community’s need for open space.
Election Preparation and Early Voting
In most of Massachusetts, ballots will include not only regular state and federal elections, but also 9 statewide ballot questions. In much of Cambridge, an additional ballot question will be present as a non-binding referendum on legislative leadership stipends. This additional information on local ballots can be confusing or new information to many voters in Cambridge and the City should do all it can to publicize the information and prepare for additional time needed for individual voters. I filed a policy order this week asking the City Manager to work with the Election Commission, Communications staff, and other relevant departments to encourage residents to utilize the early voting sites or vote by mail and to prioritize communication of the need for voters to plan for enough time to vote, given the complexity of the ballots.
Artificial Intelligence Civil Rights
I joined Mayor Siddiqui and Vice Mayor Azeem on a policy order in support of federal legislation around civil rights protections for artificial intelligence. We have done a lot of work at the City level the last year or so to both implement functional AI products to improve productivity, but also rolling out training and safety tools to educate employees and residents on the importance of public health and safety in engaging with these tools. This policy order builds on the Roundtable discussion on August 6 and we will continue to work hard to implement these tools in a practical way and develop more guidance and safety tools to ensure these automated systems are not having adverse impacts on employees, residents, or the community.
Divestment and Boycott of Companies
This week the City Council is being asked to consider two policy orders. One, linked here, asks City staff to work to divest any municipal funds from “companies with severe and consistent involvement directly contributing to genocide, apartheid, and occupation of Palestinians.” The second, linked here, asks City staff to prepare ordinance language for “Ordinance to Boycott Companies Complicit in Israel’s Apartheid, Genocide, and Illegal Occupation of Palestine.”
I have stated that I have changed my position on the City Council debating foreign policy issues during regular meetings. However, currently we have no such rule on foreign policy issues having a place to be discussed outside of our regular meetings. While these POs point to our own funds, it is a back door way for the city to take a stand on a foreign policy question – specifically focused on Israel’s conduct in the war, not on human rights overall.
I stand firmly on behalf of human rights, opposing genocide and all war crimes. I also stand firmly that we must be unwavering in our commitment to opposing all such actions, in any country, enabled by any company. These POs name only Israel, which is deeply troubling. We have seen the rise in violence and anti-semitism related to the constant vilification of Israel. Our city is not immune. I want Cambridge to contribute to peace and condemn war and war crimes wherever they occur – not single out only one place. In addition to the Gaza war, there are other human rights disasters ongoing around the globe, and wars and humanitarian crises. Many have some company involvement on some level. China represses their people, and brutally represses Tibetans and Uyghurs. Companies operate in China and sell there. In our own country, companies supply ICE and Homeland Security and the military which illegally bombs boats in the ocean. In Russia, as part of the Ukraine War, over 1 million deaths already, and more casualties. And our own country is enabling Russia’s targeting of civilians. In Iran, tens of thousands of people have been killed by the regime, which is a key supporter of Hamas. If we want our city to spend time ensuring that no company we invest in has any ties to any repression or violence or war crimes or human rights violations, then it should be across the board. Full stop. Do we not care about the hundreds of thousands killed across the globe – in Iran, Congo, Syria and beyond? Right now in the Sudan Civil War there is ongoing, extreme violence against civilians, massacres, severe famine conditions, and millions displaced, one of the largest humanitarian disasters globally with over 33 million people affected. If we don’t want our dollars involved, then we should make sure.
The war in Gaza is horrific. So is Hamas. Let’s advocate for peace and justice, not a one-sided view of a terrible war.
Local Events/Notes
Head of the Charles
The Head of the Charles is always a wonderful weekend and I encourage all of you in the area to take advantage of all the festivities along the river. https://hocr.org/. See traffic impacts here.
Central Square Rezoning – Community Open House
The Community Development Department is excited to share the Central Square Zoning Recommendations with the community! The feedback received from online surveys, walking tours, community meetings, pop-ups, listening sessions, and focus groups identified the community goals that have guided the process. Now, come join City staff at an in-person event to learn about the zoning recommendations before they are sent to the City Council. These strategies are designed to help create new growth, produce meaningful community benefits, and reinforce Central Square’s unique identity as Cambridge’s civic, cultural, and commercial heart. When: Thursday, October 29, 5-8 p.m. Where: Street Theory Collective, 541 Massachusetts Ave. Format: In-person Open House, drop by any time between 5-8pm, food will be provided Note: All information presented at the Open House will also be made available online at the project website for review and public comment.
135 Sherman Street Community Meeting
Wednesday, October 21, from 6-8 p.m. The City of Cambridge will host a virtual community meeting to share updates about the City-owned space at 135 Sherman St. This meeting will be held virtually through Zoom and will include a presentation with updates on the tank design. There will be time for attendees to ask questions and share feedback with members of the project team. Register for the meeting and learn more here.
Thank You
Thank you to everyone for reading. If there are any topics you want me to cover in future newsletters, I’m always happy for the input! As always, please feel free to reach out to my aide, Patrick (phayes@cambridgema.gov), or me for any of your City Council needs.
You can find all previous newsletters on my website. Please share with anyone you think would be interested: https://pattynolan.org/news/