Council Updates, Community Division, And More

Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers
On Monday, December 4, we will be finalizing (hopefully passing) ordinance language that will phase out gas-powered leaf blowers for residential users and commercial/municipal users by 2025 and 2026 respectively (in line with several nearby communities – Arlington, Belmont, etc). All the information on the ordinance change is available from our recent ordinance committee meeting here. This effort comes out of the work of many in the community who have advocated for this kind of action many times throughout the years in order to protect public health, protect workers, and curb emissions. This issue is important for emission and noise pollution impact on overall public health, environmental justice, and worker safety and health. The timing of this last push across the finish line could not have come at a better time. MassPIRG recently published a report which outlined many of the costs of inaction on gas-powered lawn equipment. The Boston Globe published an article this week on our proposal. I hope our work will inspire further regional action.

Policy Order on the Israel/Hamas War
As you no doubt were aware of, there was a policy order on the agenda for the November 20 meeting about the Israel/Hamas war. That led to hundreds of people emailing and participating in public comment. After hearing from the sponsors of the policy order, I made a motion to end debate on the issue as I did not believe it was in the best interest of the city to continue debate on this divisive foreign policy issue. That motion passed 6-3. We then voted on the policy order where 2 councillors voted yes and the other 7 councillors voted present, neither supporting nor opposing the order. The policy order failed 2-0-7. In the days since, I summarized some of my thoughts on the issue in a letter in CambridgeDay. This issue is sensitive and heartbreaking no matter where you stand on how the involved parties are responding. I hope you will take the time to read my letter. Instead of focusing on a potentially divisive resolution, I would prefer an emphasis on treating each other with respect, empathy and compassion. Let’s put our efforts into listening to and understanding each other’s losses, hopes and perspectives. We, as a council, should model that behavior.

H&Env Committee Meeting – Eversource Electricity Planning
Last week, I chaired a Health and Environment Committee meeting to get an update on plans and timeline for the distribution of electric power by Eversource in the city including the substation in East Cambridge. As a part of the state-required regulatory process, Eversource has received pushback on recent transmission line planning from MIT, which has been reported on in CambridgeDay. We heard from Eversource, City staff, and MIT on the proposed routes and the disagreement. The result of the meeting was a policy order passed by the committee which asked MIT to withdraw its objection to Eversource and the City of Cambridge proposed transmission line route so that the project can move forward expediently. We will vote on the order as a full council on Monday night.

No-Tow Pilot Program Results
The City Manager’s agenda includes a report on the 2023 Street Cleaning Pilot program. In an effort by myself and other councillors to reduce the negative impacts of towing vehicles on residents, the city agreed to conduct a pilot program this year where they would not tow vehicles for street cleaning purposes. That pilot was combined with an increased ticket fee to incentivize residents to continue moving their cars. Now we have a report on the results. There is a lot to unpack in the report and the program is being evaluated on a number of different levels: volume of material being swept from the streets, numbers of tickets, street cleanliness, and resident surveys. It seems to me, based on an initial reading, that the pilot is worth continuing if we can find ways to continue informing and incentivizing residents to move their cars on their own.