Housing costs too much. Bringing down the cost of housing and building more climate-friendly housing near transit has been a laser focus of mine over the past two terms, and I’m committed to doing more in my third term. I’ve voted to expand multifamily housing options and ban broker fees.

 

For my first few years in America, I lived in a three-bedroom household with eleven people. It was awful. The bathroom was crowded. And I didn’t go to school for a long time—I never went to kindergarten—because the landlord didn’t know we were there, and we were afraid of being evicted. 

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People deserve housing security. Cambridge must build more transit-oriented housing and pursue development without displacement through tenant protections. We also need statewide solutions to tackle our statewide housing crisis. I founded the nonprofit Abundant Housing MA to address our broader housing crisis.

 

This term, I passed new citywide zoning that undoes generations of exclusionary zoning and allows multifamily housing across Cambridge. 

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In my last term, I wrote legislation that removed parking minimums citywide, which unnecessarily forced the ⅓ of Cambridge households that don’t own a car to pay hundreds of thousands for unused parking spaces. This historic legislation has been recognized as a huge step towards more affordable housing and pushed forward a nationwide movement. I also wrote the legislation to expand the Affordable Housing Overlay and build much-needed housing in the city.​

 

Housing policy is climate policy. We need to build more, greener housing without sacrificing the essence of Cambridge. Our city must remain walkable and transit-based—a model of sustainability.

As our national leadership guts climate protections, it’s on us to keep fighting for the climate future we deserve. Progress can and should start with us. In my previous terms, I’ve led work on building decarbonization. This term, I’m going to fight to keep Cambridge on the right track. ​
 

We can prevent this climate crisis if we act now and fight for transformative change. Here in Cambridge, we are the most progressive, prosperous, scientific, and resourceful community in the Commonwealth. Progress can and should start with us.

 

As such, I’m pushing hard on making Cambridge a net-zero city. This term, we passed three historic pieces of legislation: the net-zero stretch code - requiring new buildings to be net-zero ready; embodied emissions - tracking the emissions during construction; and BEUDO - mandating large buildings to be net-zero by 2035, which will cut the city’s emissions in half. 

Some of our most significant levers for climate action are housing and transportation policy – despite the attention on national policy, state and local governments control most of what goes on here.

Early education provides lifelong benefits to young kids: language, literacy, and math skills. For parents, it’s both a lifeline and, all too often, their biggest expense after housing. I’ve been working to bring universal pre-K to Cambridge and expand after-school. Now, I’m working on expanding and clarifying after-school options.

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Right now, the city has a patchwork of options and a complex lottery system that leaves children behind.

 

There are several issues. 

• There are only enough spots for 50 percent of applicants, and so many children are left behind and can’t attend after-school.  

• The lottery system is complex and confuses many parents.

• The results come back so late that parents feel compelled to enroll in a private option.

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It’s time we fixed these issues and provided universal access to everyone both for kids and parents – and women in particular – who have made the difficult decision to step back from their careers to care for their children. We owe it to these kids and their parents to provide after-school and pre-K for every single child. 

I’ve worked to add 170 seats this term and get us to 64%. I’ll finish the work next term to get to 100% next term.

Right now, getting from place to place is just too hard. Transportation is a huge cost-of-living driver, a threat to our economic competitiveness, and our most significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. We need to invest in our transit system and make our roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

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Rapid transit lets us thrive as a city. From bus to subway to regional rail, we need fast, frequent, and affordable service. As a Councillor, I’ve fought for more and smarter investment in this infrastructure. 

 

We need frequent and affordable bus service. As the T continues with its generational Bus Network Redesign, I’ve worked to ensure that Cambridge gets routes that meet current transportation needs. Boston has made significant investments in city-wide Transit Signal Priority, and Cambridge should be next., 

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Cambridge should have a seat on the MBTA’s board. Under General Manager Eng, the T has made commendable progress in tackling the most pressing repair needs. Now, we need a vision to invest in our future and to deliver investments faster and cheaper.  I’ll fight to make sure Cambridge has a seat at table in these discussions–in the short term, by advocating directly with the T and state lawmakers, and in the long term by securing us a seat on the board. 

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Pedestrian safety is an everyone issue–whether walking, driving or taking the train, we all have to walk to get to and from our final destination. Too often, discussions of road safety have left pedestrian safety out. The City’s raised crosswalk installations are a step in the right direction, and I’ll fight for funding to keep up installation here while investing in our sidewalk network and adding protected crossings wherever feasible. ​

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I am a supporter of bike lanes, Cambridge Bike Safety and their pledge.

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First, I prioritize reducing interactions with law enforcement. I wrote legislation pushing automatic enforcement and supported both a Community Safety Department, which will allow social workers to respond to non-violent 911 calls.

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In situations where it becomes necessary to involve armed officers, I have pushed to equip them with less-lethal weaponry.

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We also need accountability. We’ll soon have body cameras on all officers in Cambridge. We’re having the Police Executive Research Forum, a national public safety research and policy organization, review our policies and recommend changes to our policing methods and we have established a procedural justice dashboard to track interactions with the police.