Last Council Meeting Before Summer Break!

All:

Happy Summer! Looking forward to summer outings – and to making progress on ensuring the summers are bearable. The searing heat in much of this country is sadly not a good sign — hundreds of records for heat are being broken as you read this… All the more reason for us to continue to dramatically increase our actions to address the climate crisis. We on the council are working on a number of initiatives in this area. I am hopeful that the city will allocate ARPA funding to a range of needs – for non-profits, community initiatives like HEART, and climate related needs. The heat island situation in Cambridge is intense and I will continue to work toward mitigating the inevitable consequence of climate change with more trees, more green, less emission pollution – we need to do all we can.

In full disclosure: I cannot concentrate now since the news just hit that Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision has been overturned and a fundamental right that I believe is essential to women’s equality is now not the law of the land. The same court recently asserted a fundamental right to conceal a lethal weapon that has been used for massacres. Although anticipated, this ruling hit me hard. I have children who are in their twenties who now have to consider carefully whether to move to a state where they will not have control over their bodies. Both my parents were opposed to abortion, yet support choice since they did not believe the government should impose that belief on all women. With January 6 hearings showing clearly that an attempt to subvert our election was only stopped by Republicans following the rule of law and the Constitution, I am simply at a loss for understanding how the creators of the big lie who sought to organize a coup are not in jail. I won’t give up my work for democracy, but this day is hard.

Below is some news about next week’s meeting, which will be the last one for a month. The meeting will be the last one for City Manager DePasquale. I have enjoyed working with him and appreciate his leadership during my time on council. I look forward to working with Commissioner O’Riordan who will take over as interim City Manager until Yi-An Huang can start.

I will put out newsletters this summer, although not weekly. The Charter Review Committee will be gearing up and my work will continue over the summer.

I attended the ribbon cutting of the Foundry Building – a truly remarkable project that happened due to community activism, led by East Cambridge Planning Team and city councillors, notably Nadeem Mazen who fought hard to make the case that the city should keep the building which Alexandria gave to the city and transform it. The space is incredible – will be open in September – check it out. I also went to an event at Magazine Beach – the newly opened center that includes Audubon… I heard a great local band and enjoyed the recycling art project being constructed on site.

Take care of yourself, don’t give up – despite Covid and recent news, I feel lucky to live in Cambridge, in Massachusetts, and in the USA… Breathe deeply, and commit to making our world a better place.

Patty