CAMBRIDGE CITIZENS
COALITION
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CCCOALITION1@GMAIL.COM |
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Checks can be mailed to: Cambridge Citizens Coalition
P.O. Box 410291 Cambridge, MA 02141 AUGUST DONATION MONTH |
Cambridge Citizens Coalition
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UPCOMING MEETINGS on the Cambridge Up-zoning Petition
(the Affordable Housing Overlay - AHO)
**Tuesday September 3 12:00 PM Ordinance Committee Meeting on the AHO. Cambridge City Hall. 795 Mass. Ave.
**Tuesday September 3 6:30 PM Planning Board discussion of the AHO up-zoning plan. City Hall Annex 344 Broadway 2nd floor. Probably No Public Comments.
Saturday, Sept. 7 from 10Am -12 PM. CDD Discussion of AHO. Windsor St. Care Center Gym, 119 Windsor St.
** Monday, Sept 9, 1st City Council Vote on the AHO city-wide up-zoning plan.
** Monday, Sept.23, 2nd City Council Vote on the AHO city-wide up-zoning plan.
City Hall, 795 Mass Ave.
Help promote sensible development, and learn more about plans to up-zone and increase density.
Email us: at: cccoalition1@gmail.com
Visit us on FACEBOOK at: Cambridge Citizens Coalition
Affordable Housing and Responsible Growth
Cambridge City Council will be voting on a new citywide upzoning plan to add large scale affordable housing projects. This plan removes current design guidelines and oversight as well as citizens rights to legal appeal. Why? We have surpassed state mandated affordable housing goals. Yet we must do more but we need to make smart choices. Among the possibilities explored in progressive cities or advocated by progressive politicians that Cambridge is NOT doing to support affordable housing are the following:
*Tax credits for renters *Create a housing investment at birth (baby bonds): By 18, low-income children would have nearly $50,000 to invest in a down-payment on a home. *City financing to remodel to create low income accessory dwelling units and multi-family homes. *7% rent stabilization for tenants who meet income criteria in buildings owned by persons or entities who have more than 4 rental units. *Require new property owners to notify the city of tenant names and contact information; Provide legal representation for people facing lease termination or eviction. *House the city homeless and provide aid. *Build new mixed low and middle income affordable housing on city property (parking lots, vacant areas, above libraries and municipal buildings. *Acquire properties in the city to renovate for affordable units. *Provide a path to home ownership for low and middle income tenants with city-funded down payments. *End restrictive zoning that precludes multiple family units (currently 7% of Cambridge housing. *Allocate state funding bonuses for transportation and other funding for cities (like Cambridge) that have already met state affordable housing goals. *Acquire shared interest affordable housing (for artists, teachers, social workers, others. *Limit tax benefits to one home per family. *Tax any vacancies in housing and commercial properties that exceed three months per year. *Improve public transportation. Streets are clogged with traffic and little action is anticipated in the near future. Neither the city nor the state have added more public transportation. This much change. *Curate commercial and residential areas in order to provide needed amenities for local residents - from grocery stores and laundry facilities to parks and health facilities. *Modernize city infrastructure. With the city's recent large scale growth the city infrastructure is under duress. In December 2018, just before Christmas, a Civil War era water main in West Cambridge broke flooding basements and causing millions of dollars in damage - none of it covered by the city. In East Cambridge, the large increases in labs and other commercial developments has introduced a crisis in electricity capacity, and pressure to address brought new concerns to this hard hit neighborhood to accept a massive towering electric substation next to a local primary school to help address capacity. The city needs to integrate neighborhood needs and concerns into growth plans. |
Addressing Increased Gentrification
Cambridge is in the middle of a massive gentrification movement. More and more longtime residents are being forced out. Each case is important; each story is different.
In the Riverside area, many historic African American and hispanic families are hard hit and many more are losing their homes: https://vimeo.com/334075355/d08c28a45a This is an ongoing problem in Cambridge: buquad.com/2013/09/23/the-inescapable-gentrification-of-cambridge/ Seniors are also getting hit and are being forced to leave the city: C, a woman in her 60s, worked for the federal government and is a long time local activist. A foreign investor purchased her building near Central Square and forced every resident to leave. With a salary just above the city cut off, she received no support from the city, and has now been forced to move out of the city and her friends of 40 years. The city has no real policy to around identifying and helping individuals forced out of residences when their units are purchased and converted to luxury condos. W, a 98 year old woman, lived in a 4-family house owned by an elderly Caribbean American who was renting to family members. A developer hounded her to sell her house but she did not want to sell. While in the hospital for a procedure she was presented with papers and ended up signing away her house. A friend and family members caught wind of it and through a website talked about how to void the written document they thought was predatory. Someone in the city said she would get representation, but nothing was forthcoming. The family and relatives ended up moving to Mattapan deeply upset by what transpired. The developer got the house. |
Surging Costs and Too Little Return
A 6.12.18 article in Cambridge Day notes that tax bills in Cambridge are likely to surge with the city's big rise in housing. Massive changes are envisioned. Major changes are envisioned in Riverside, East Cambridge, Harvard Square, North Cambridge and Alewife. The "development master plan’s call to build affordable housing will almost certainly have unsettling, expensive effects for long-term Cambridge taxpayers, officials warned Monday at a City Council roundtable. “We need to address affordable housing,” City Manager Louis A. DePasquale said. But the suggested growth “will have a huge impact.” Commercial property pays about two-thirds of the total property tax base in Cambridge – and the tax base funds about 65 percent of the city’s operating budget. The city leans on commercial taxpayers despite the fact it’s homeowners that account for about 62 percent of all the assessed property value in the city. How? Cambridge takes advantage of a state classification law that taxes commercial property at a higher rate – and Cambridge does the maximum shift, according to the city’s assessing office. 'There are limits that are established in the state constitution that we’re not allowed to go above. If residential is growing at a faster clip, commercial would start paying a lower portion of the burden, and that would be absorbed by residential,' said Bob Reardon, the city’s assessor. 'The concern is that it would make the existing affordable taxes on a lot of homes less affordable. Although it would create more affordable housing, it would make existing housing less affordable. That’s something we’re trying to keep an eye on.'"
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KEY TERMSand why they matter...
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