Dear Councillor Reeves:
Congratulations on your re-election to the Cambridge City Council! You have been re-elected because of your hard work and dedication to a future vision for our city. Your long time commitment to Central Square, as exemplified by your initial vision and leadership of the Red Ribbon Commission, is of tremendous importance and widely appreciated. The Central Square Business Association wants to be among the first to offer you both our thanks for a job well done and our support for another successful term on the Council.
As you so well know, Central Square is the subject of much interest and new energy. With a number of new business openings, the impending developments by MIT, Novartis and Forest City at the east end of the Square, and Robin Lapidus now established as our Executive Director, the CSBA looks forward to active stewardship of the new vision for Central Square that you are helping to forge.
Unlike two years ago, when vacant space was the scourge of many commercial areas, Central Square now has almost no commercial vacancy. New retail stores and services, including a number that have expanded from other successful locations have helped to return Central Square to a new level of busyness that enlivens the Square at all hours of the day and on weekends. The City’s ongoing investment in public space improvements, dedication of staff resources, and partnership on so many other initiatives around planning and policy issues are huge factors in Central Square’s continued success.
The CSBA recognizes the unique roles that you have played, and during the coming term we will look to your leadership and guidance in matters that are critical to the Square’s long term success.
Respectfully yours,

Central Square Business Association
George R. Metzger President

Don’t miss this exciting evening where members of the CSBA, representatives from the City of Cambridge, and friends of Central Square come together to usher in new beginnings — and there is much to celebrate!

We need you to join us to help make our 80th Anniversary a momentous occasion.

Date: Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Time: 6:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.
Location: MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Central Square

Enjoy an evening of Cocktails and Comestibles – Awards for Notable Central Square Contributions – Central Square Entertainment – Learn about Central in Motion 2012.

Tickets:
$50.00 per person for CSBA Members
$70.00 per person for Non-Members

Please rsvp by February 6th, 2012 to 617-864-3211 or robincentralsquare@gmail.com
Checks can be sent in advance to CSBA, P.O. Box 390426, Cambridge, MA 02139 and made out to The Central Square Business Association

Call Robin Lapidus, CSBA Executive Director 617-864-3211 if you would like to be featured as a sponsor of this event!

Saturday March 3rd 6:00pm –Sunday March 4th 6:00am

 When there’s an extra day in the year, is there a better way to spend it than dancing?  For the fifth time, The Dance Complex is hosting a (non-competition) dance marathon. Live bands, food and great dancing; all to help support the creation of a costume co-op, Betty’s Closet, named to honor the late Elders Dancer, Betty Milhendler. Come for an hour, come for twelve.  Get pledges, or just pay at the door: $20 general, $10 BDA/College ID.

Dance and dance some more.

Dance Community Meeting 29 Jan  at The Dance Complex

On Sunday, 29 January The Dance Complex will hold an important community meeting/potluck dinner. From 5:00-6:30pm anyone with a love of dance and/or a concern for The Dance Complex is invited to come and share food and ideas, learn about upcoming changes and learn how to get more involved in the movement arts center.

Some of the items for discussion will include a search for a new Executive Director, Betty’s Closet and the issue of fees and responsibility. There will be a posted agenda. Anyone with a potential topic for inclusion should contact Rozann Kraus.

For 20 years The Dance Complex has been home to thousands of dancers, teachers, choreographers and associated lovers of the arts. As a volunteer-based artist run facility, it has been a model for non-profits nationally and an inspiration for

programmatic innovation on the East Coast.

Bring Food to share and your dance-loving energy.

Application Moksa, LLC, Taslim Chowdhury, Manager, holder of an all alcoholic beverages as a restaurant license at 450 Massachusetts Avenue has applied to for a change of hours to open 7 days per week at 10:00am. The closing hour on Sunday will be 1:00am unless the following Monday is a legal holiday. They are currently licensed to open at 11:00am Monday through Saturday and closed on Sundays.

 

License Commission General Hearing

6:00 PM Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Location:
Lombardi BuildingLombardi Building
831 Massachusettes Avenue
Basement Level Conference Room
Cambridge

Contact:
Chris O’Neil, coneil@cambridgema.gov, 617-349-6145

License Commission General Hearing
Tuesday evening, January 24, 2012 at six o’clock
Michael J. Lombardi Building
831 Massachusetts Avenue
Basement Conference Room

PLEASE SAVE THE DATE!

 

CENTRAL IN MOTION 2012

 

Our Kick Off Celebration 

and 80th Annual Meeting Of the Central Square 

Business Association

  

February 15th 2012 at the MIT Museum 

For more information please e-mail 

Robin Lapidus 

CSBA Executive Director

robincentralsquare@gmail.com

The proposed date for the 2012 Taste of Cambridge (TOC) on Sidney Street and in University Park is Tuesday, June 12th with a rain-date of Thursday June 14th.

Celebrate MLK Day With Service

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., volunteers of all ages are joining together for an afternoon of service to Cambridge residents in need. Come lend your hands and make a difference. WHERE: The YWCA at 7 Temple St. and the Cambridge Senior Center, 806 Mass. Ave. in Central Square, Cambridge WHEN: Monday, January 16th from 2:00-5:00 pm WHO: Adults, teens, and families welcome.

“The time is always right to do what’s right.” Dr. Martin Luther King

We couldn’t agree more!

And with just one week left before our 2nd Annual MLK Cambridge Day of Service, we’re getting ready to put hundreds of helping hands to work on fun, family-friendly crafts projects to benefit Cambridge residents in need.

We’re thrilled with the enthusiastic response to our advance calls for volunteers and support.

If you haven’t already signed up, NOW is the time. Advance registration (free) is very helpful for planning purposes, but, you can register at the door: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1138075013

Monday, January 16, 2-5 pm in Central Square
Volunteers are asked to assemble and check in on City Hall steps at 2:00 sharp. After a brief 15 minute welcome ceremony, we’ll fan out to the YWCA (7 Temple St.) and the Senior Center (806 Mass Ave). (If you arrive after 2:15, please go directly to either of the two service locations.)

If you’d like to be part of our event crew, helping with day-of logistics (event set-up and clean-up; assigning volunteers to locations; organizing and staging supplies; assisting young volunteers with tasks, as needed), please email: manyhelpinghandscambridge@gmail.com

This year’s event is shaping up to be even bigger and more fun than last year’s. A few highlights:

• Over 250 individuals and groups have pre-registered to lend a hand. Volunteer groups include: teachers from the MATCH School in Boston; Starbucks employees; high school students from Burlington, VT; veterans from New Bedford; and a youth hockey team. If you’d like to bring a group, just let us know and we’ll assign you to work together in the same location.

• The Cambridge business community has rallied around our cause with financial donations and gifts in kind to defray the cost of the supplies. See list of business and retail supporters below.*

• Award-wining singer-actress Valerie Stephens and Cambridge’s “Poet Populist” Toni Bee will lead us in song and verse at our welcome ceremony on City Hall steps at 2 p.m. CCTV will be there to film our gathering!

• Starbucks stores in Central Square and Harvard Square have put out collection baskets for donations to our food, winter clothing and children’s book drive. Volunteers are asked to bring donations with them on the 16th (see below).

What we’ll be making (no heavy lifting, all work is indoors): fleece scarves and blankets for homeless men, women and children; valentine cards for shut-in elders; bookmarks for students in adult literacy programs; and activity kits for children waiting in hospital emergency rooms.

Don’t come empty-handed!
If you can, please bring one or more of the following to share with someone in need.

• a gently used children’s book;
• gently used winter clothing;
• non-perishable food items.

*We are very grateful to our local business supporters: Cambridge Trust, TAGs Hardware, Masse’s Hardware, Fresh Pond Market, Henry Bear’s Park, Starbucks, Classic GraphicX, Whole Foods, Stop and Shop, Gentle Giant, Staples, TD Bank North and Keeper Springs Water.

 

Sit down, relax, and immerse yourself in the PlayStation®Vita experience at the Vita Hill Social Club. At Vita Hill Social Club, you will be amongst first to experience PlayStation® Vita and many of its features. You will have the opportunity to play tons of PS Vita games, including SoundShapes, UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss, LittleBigPlanet, Little Deviants, WipEout 2048, ModNation Racers, Reality Fighters, and Hot Shots Golf!

All you have to bring are your hands and the desire to have fun, and we’ll provide the rest.

Join us for the grand opening of the Boston PS Vita meetup on Wednesday, 1/18! Attendees will feast on free food and beverages, have unfettered access to a dozen PS Vita titles, and enter for chances to win a PS Vita system before it hits store shelves on February 22nd. Not bad, eh? All meetups start at 5:30pm local time, ending at 8:30pm.

We even whipped up a limited-edition PS Vita T-shirt for the occasion, which will go to the first 100 people to show up to each meetup. So don’t be late!

Hope to see you next week! Oh, and bring friends!

579 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge
Your host: Sid Shuman from PlayStation.Blog
5:30pm to 8:30pm

 

The next meeting of the Central Square Advisory Committee will be held on

Wednesday, January 25

6:00 – 8:30 PM

Sullivan Chamber

Cambridge City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Avenue

Topics:  Introduction to Goody-Clancy; what we’ve heard; and preliminary thoughts on issues and opportunities

All committee meetings are open to the public.  In addition to regular committee meetings, we will be planning public meetings/study area walking tours to solicit broader participation.

 

Flower Health Benefits & Research – Home Ecology of Flowers Study

Don’t let the cool weather get you down: Brighten your day with fresh flowers from Central Square Florist.  A behavioral research study conducted by Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, reveals that people feel more compassionate toward others, have less worry and anxiety, and feel less depressed when fresh flowers are present in the home.
“Other research has proven that flowers make people happy when they receive them,” Etcoff says. Central Square Florist can provide flower deliver to Boston. She further says “What we didn’t know is that spending a few days with flowers in the home can affect a wide variety of feelings.”
Rebecca Cole is the author of “Flower Power” and co-host of Discovery Channel’s “Surprise by Design.” “The Harvard research is proof that if we live in places that lift our spirits, we can live happier, healthier lives,” Cole says. “Fresh flowers are the perfect everyday accessory for any budget – they add color, fragrance and style – and now we know they even increase energy and compassion.”
Study participants reported the greatest mood-boosting effects when fresh flowers were placed in common areas of the home such as the kitchen, dining room and family room. Cole’s ideas for incorporating flowers into these areas include:

Place bud vases in high traffic home areas – with even just a few flowers. Any decorative glass from the kitchen will do!
The kitchen table might be the best place for flowers, because it’s where people gather together. Stop by a florist where you’ll find a wide selection of flowers from which to choose.
For an easy, elegant table decoration, set a series of crystal vases on a fabric runner. Place fresh flowers in each of the vases and surround them with greenery.

Submitted by Tom Benner on Fri, 2011-12-16 05:32

Tom Benner
Spare Change News

For three years, Officer Eric Helberg has served as the city’s first homeless outreach officer, walking the city and getting to know its street dwellers, helping them however he can — from giving them a blanket to telling them where to get medical care or a free meal, offering a ride to a homeless shelter, helping long-lost relatives to reunite, or sometimes just listening to their stories.

“If you need medical care, we’ll get you to a hospital. If you need psychiatric care, I can get in touch with the outreach workers from the shelters,” Helberg said in a recent interview at Cambridge police headquarters. “We can get people into the shelter if they want to see a doctor. Clothes, bottled water, whatever it is, we’ve expanded it so we have a resource we can utilize. I think it’s been huge in getting the homeless to see us as another service provider, not just as law enforcement per se.”

On a typical day, Helberg checks various spots in East Cambridge where the homeless often congregate, then makes his way to Inman, Porter, Harvard and Central Squares. Helberg walks the city but also has access to a police wagon equipped with supplies that might be helpful.

“It’s almost a combination of police officer, social worker, cab driver, everything,” Helberg said of his beat.

At first, many of the city’s homeless community were a little skeptical of an approaching police officer. Eventually they saw Helberg as someone to talk with, even go to for help.

“Once they get past this,” said Helberg, putting a hand on his police badge, “once they realize there’s a person inside the uniform that’s there to listen, it’s amazing what people will open up and say, the help they will accept when they know you’re there to help and you’re not there to harass.”

One of those who was initially skeptical was a homeless man who had been living in Harvard Square and who
had been the cause for numerous complaints. Eventually, he warmed up to Helberg and told him his story – and in turn, he learned about HomeStart, a nonprofit agency that helps the homeless find permanent housing and settle into the community.

Soon the man was housed for the first time in 15 years, and today he belongs to a speaker’s bureau on homeless issues.

“He has been housed ever since. We still talk all the time, and he actually speaks at different functions about homelessness,” Helberg said. “He credits his interaction with the Cambridge police homeless outreach program for getting him to where he is today.

”On another occasion, Helberg helped a young man who was looking for his father – so the young man could wish his dad a happy birthday.

“I took the individual down to where I knew his father would be. The two had a very moving moment,” Helberg said. “Seeing his dad in that capacity, and the father seeing how much that had affected his son — the next day they picked him up and took him home. He has been housed and sober and employed for almost two and a half years now, and he still contacts me via social media and lets me know how he’s doing.”

While panhandlers are not necessarily homeless, and vice versa, Helberg has worked to combat aggressive panhandling, a frequent complaint among business owners when panhandlers stand in the front doors of businesses. Panhandling is protected as free speech, but making passersby feel uncomfortable or unsafe is not.

“The way we combat that is through social interaction — I talk to people, I let them know without barking orders at them that their behavior may upset people, may make some people afraid, it’s not welcome with the business community,” Helberg said.

Two panhandlers had been holding the door in front of one Central Square
business as customers came and went, prompting complaints from the business owner and customers.

“After speaking with the individuals over several days, we all agreed we would have an area opposite the door,” Helberg said.

“Once we got everybody on board with that, the complaints for that location dropped dramatically.
Everybody wins — they get a little space where they can panhandle, the businesses are happy, and the customers don’t feel like they’re being accosted all the time.”

Helberg developed the homeless outreach approach with Superintendent Steven Williams. A second officer, Matt Price, has been added to the homeless outreach beat.

“Every time they go out and interact with a group, it might reduce the calls for service or disruptive behavior. It definitely does reduce the calls for the need to transport to a facility,” Williams said. “A lot of times, they’re able to do an evaluation and get to a person before they get to a state where they’re going to need an ambulance run, so there have been fewer ambulance runs since this program started for that population, fewer ambulance runs translates into fewer emergency room bed visits for that population, because they’re not getting to that level. They need a shelter, they need someplace to go, but it might not be an emergency room bed.”

Williams adds that homeless populations often differ from one part of the city to the next.

“Down in Harvard Square we find a lot more of the younger, teenaged, twenty-somethings,” Williams said.

“Harvard Square is more of a bohemian-type atmosphere, whereas in Central Square, for example, we find a majority of the people from the CASPAR shelter, which are the chronically homeless, chronic alcoholic types. So it is a really different dynamic with the homeless.”

Williams said the police department doesn’t have a position yet on the charity meters that have been installed in Denver and some other cities. The meters resemble coin-operated parking meters, and allow passersby to donate spare change that will be donated to organizations serving the homeless. Some in the Cambridge and Boston business communities are pushing to have the meters installed here.

TOM BENNER is editor of Spare Change News.

PHOTO: ADRIANA ARMANO

PLEASE HELP US AMPLIFY CENTRAL SQUARE THIS HOLIDAY AND SEASON AND FOR YEARS TO COME!

$25- $100: FUSES!
Become a “FUSE” sponsoring holiday lights throughout Central Square!

$250: SKYWRITERS!
Become a “SKYWRITER” sponsoring a portion of the costs of the Vinyl Banners to identify Central Square planned for 2012.

$500: LAMPLIGHTERS!
Become a  “LAMPLIGHTER” adopting a Pedestrian Pole and the cost of year-round decoration and lighting it.
$2000: ENERGY STARS!
Become an “ENERGY STAR” by sponsoring a Light Banner! Tell us which one you’d like us to acknowledge as yours!

$5000: ILLUMINATI!

Become an “ILLUMINATI” of your entire block sponsoring seasonal decorations on pedestrian posts throughout the year!

 

 

Wishing you the best for the holidays and 2012!

 

YES! I wish to help AMPLIFY Central Square with a donation of $_____________.

 

Please list my gift with the following acknowledgement:

Name of Business or Individual________________________________

Gift in honor of ______________________________________________

I can be reached by phone___________________

or e-mail__________________________________

 

 

Dear Central Square Business Association Members and Friends,

The CSBA in partnership with the City of Cambridge is AMPLIFYING Central Square this holiday season. In addition to our signature Dancing Light Banners, we have added with new lighting to enhance the pedestrian experience.

Our newly lit snowflakes, which the CSBA purchased and the City installed on most of the pedestrian lampposts are a first-step in our expanded program of decorations and lighting. Our goal is to provide a year-round series of eye-catching lighting and colorful decoration that identify our New Central Square district. Our next step will be a series of colorful banners on the taller light posts.

As the holiday season approaches, we wanted to apprise you of what an exciting and eventful year 2011 has been for Central Square and the CSBA and of our plans for the future. The Red Ribbon Commission is delivering its final report to the City Council on December 12th and the Central Square Advisory Board has already been appointed to oversee the development process from planning stages to execution. CSBA members serve on the advisory board and the CSBA will continue to provide representation, advocacy and support in this endeavor.

With Robin Lapidus, our new executive director, the CSBA has been channeling new energy from within our board and the membership in new directions. We are finalizing a communications strategy to connect Central Square with audiences throughout Cambridge and beyond. The new year will also bring a new web portal and tech tools and an exciting calendar of events for members and the general public that uniquely represents our cultural, educational, civic and gastronomic riches.

We are rapidly expanding our membership and meeting dynamic business owners interested in participating in the future of Central Square. The Square is cleaner, brighter, more welcoming, and busier by day and night, percolating with new audiences, stores, restaurants, our expanding community, and the hum of future development.

This is the result of the hard work of the board and the members of the CSBA, and our strong, and highly effective collaboration with the City of Cambridge, its departments and elected officials. The CSBA’s commitment and partnership with the City of Cambridge to make Central Square a premier cultural destination for arts and entertainment, business services and education, shopping, dining, and socializing in “Downtown Cambridge” has never been more clear and bright.

We greatly need your help as a Central Partner in supporting our efforts this holiday season to amplify Central Square with sustainable enhancements to last throughout the year.

We greatly need your support for our efforts to amplify Central Square this holiday season and throughout the coming year.  Please do your part by becoming a Central Partner and helping us make Central Square shine with a special contribution now. Your generosity will be acknowledged in our newsletter, press release, letters to local editors, as a story on new website and at our Annual Meeting early in 2012.
Sincerely,

George Metzger
CSBA Board President

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Cambridge Day By Marc Levy Published: December 14, 2011

Along with the rest of an exciting, arts-based vision for Central Square described Monday came a call for 1,000 units of housing to be built atop what are now parking lots or one- or two-story buildings, much of it to be affordable to middle-class residents without subsidies.

That’s means possibly thousands of new residents for Central Square, in addition to construction adding height and density to the area and making room for the other three priorities named by the Mayor’s Red Ribbon Commission on the Delights and Concerns of Central Square: an incubator for businesses such as musicians, writers, dancers, architects and visual artists (similar to the incubators for tech industries and life sciences in Kendall Square); a large market hall for local food and products; and subsidized day care centers.

More publicity-grabbing festivals, such as the defunct Central Square World’s Fair, were also mentioned as needed during a presentation to the City Council by city councillor and commission chairman Ken Reeves and other members.

“If there were 1,000 more units in Central Square, once you knew the income range in those units you could say more about what could be supported in the first-floor retail,” Reeves said, explaining a formula determining what percentage of income is used within six blocks of a person’s home and “used by architects and Realtors to determine what commercial rents should be, because of what the local income structure can bear. The idea makes sense to me.”

A 1946 photo used in a report by the Mayor’s Red Ribbon Commission on the Delights and Concerns of Central Square showed more density in Central Square, and 1,000 more units of housing — intended to be primarily for the middle-class incomes — could be on its way.

The 1,000-unit figure comes from Goody Clancy, the consultants hired by the city to shape the future of Kendall Square, Reeves said.

But shaping the future of an already dense Central Square based on an influx of residents begs the question of logistics, especially when developments throughout Cambridge are universally met with questions and concerns about traffic and parking.

First, Reeves said, “Central Square was already upzoned in the last rezoning. In that zoning, you allow height and massing around transportation nodes, which is what Central Station is. All that two-story stuff on Mass. Ave., a lot of it used to have six and seven stories, but they were torn off because the people who owned them didn’t want to pay the taxes when they had vacancies up there.” He pointed to a 1946 photo used in the commission’s report and its presentation that showed more density (and larger, more garish signs); Cambridge’s peak recorded population of 120,740 was from the 1950 Census, while the city has a recorded 105,162 in last year’s report.

“A dialogue about density in the square will be a big issue,” Mayor David Maher acknowledged Monday.

Transportation infrastructure

The Harvard Square T stop has about 20,000 weekday riders, Reeves said, and the report says Central Square has 14,531. (Central is the third-busiest stop on the red line, behind Harvard and South Station, according to 2010 figures from the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.) The square is also a major hub for buses to and from Watertown, Allston and Somerville, with well over 6,000 people boarding them daily.

“Could Central Square take on what Harvard Square takes on? I say yes,” Reeves said, noting also the “bicycle revolution” that has taken place in Cambridge in the past several years.

Not only is the T stop not a limiting factor in growth, but there’s even room for more cars, suggested Brent Ryan, an assistant professor of urban design and public policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tapped by Reeves to lead much of the commission’s reporting and presentation.

“When I talked to the the Forest City people, they said, ‘We’re so surprised. Our parking garages are half-empty.’ People are not driving here. They’re coming on the bus, they’re coming on their bikes, they’re walking, they’re taking mass transit, they’re not driving. The garages are empty. Probably the city felt they were getting a good deal when they asked for so little parking at University Park, and they overbuilt,” Ryan said. Forest City is the developer behind the institute’s mixed-use University Park, mostly known for its office and lab space, just outside Central Square. (The presenters said the institute has $1.5 billion in real estate investment, half of it in Central.)

“We’re not in the same world as 20 years ago, where everybody wanted to drive in from the suburbs,” Ryan said.

The largest businesses coming to the area, including three biotech companies already on the way as Central’s borders with Kendall Square blur, can be tapped for an infrastructure improvement “wish list,” he said, since Cambridge is in a unique position in which “even if we do nothing [to entice them], developers will still want to build here. We’re in a position 99 percent of other cities would want to be in.”

Class issues persist

But councillors listening to the presentation worried that there would be more of the high-end development that makes the average condominium in the square worth $430,000 even during an economic downturn, and it was noted that despite the 10,384 institute students living in or within a mile of Central, the visitors they draw tend to speed straight from MIT dorms to Harvard to spend tourist dollars despite Central’s significant number of sophisticated and well-regarded restaurants and arts facilities. (Robyn Culbertson, of the Cambridge Office of Tourism, agreed the square “is not a tourist destination” and noted that the report used the term “visitors” instead. But when she made a half-joking pitch to give Central Square the tourist center it lacks and put it in the “entire first floor of the Novartis building” going up nearby, she got a positive response from councillor Leland Cheung: “We all chuckle when you say that,” he said, “but we can have anything we want.”)

In addition, the high-earning innovation-industry workers tend to eat inside their buildings — thanks to good food provided within by employers to keep them working and avoid public conversations that could leak valuable information, councillor Marjorie Decker said. She credited workers and clients at the square’s 20 nonprofits and social service agencies with providing more economic benefit.

There’s plenty of concern about the effect they have on the square’s image, Decker said, “and not enough recognition of their value.”

George Metzger, president of the Central Square Business Association, agreed. “Without a doubt, the square to a great degree owes its identity to the nonprofits,” he said, and “are part of the diversity in the Central Square area.” Most of the social service providers also own their buildings, Reeves said, and will very likely be around for the long run.

But the future lies in the arts, not additional social services, according to the Red Ribbon Commission report — a culmination of a 16-month process that drew in hundreds of participants to its 13 meetings. A city manager-appointed commission is replacing it.

Remaking Central Square won’t be fast, or done in a single, comprehensive sweep, Ryan said. He described Cambridge as “a patchwork,” where work can be done — tearing down or building up, and with sensitivity toward the historical structures peppering the area — only on a parcel-by-parcel basis.

“Over 16 months, we’ve been able to begin the conversation,” Reeves said.

Drop off a pair of new mittens or gloves to Blick Art Materials and receive 30% off of one non-sale item for your shopping or gift creating list! Contributors to the Mitten Drive will be given an ornament to decorate to hang on the or Central Square Holiday Tree!

Ornaments are available for decorating on 12/10 – 12/11, and 12/17 from 1:00 until 5:00 p.m. and will be hung on the tree at the Tree Lighting Ceremony.

Blick Art Materials, 619 Massachusetts Avenue. 

This Friday 12/9 & Saturday 12/10 

Central Central, a documentary video and sound installation celebrating the life of the Central Square neighborhood includes scenes of places in and around Central Square: stores, businesses, a church, a coffee shop, a theater, and the weekly farmer’s market. There are portraits of people too and events such as a rehearsal of the community orchestra, a salsa lesson, and the rituals of election day. Other scenes show the public life of neighborhood as well as its buildings, streets, intersections, and bustling activity.

Central Central is a collaborative project done by students in a Harvard class in Visual and Environmental Studies with contributions by several guest filmmakers. Using two channels of projected video and four of sound, the installation format immerses viewers in the world of Central Square while allowing them to experience as much as they wish of its approximately 50 minutes of moving pictures and vividly recorded sounds.

The Central, Central exhibition will be on view at CCTV, 438 Massachusetts Avenue, on Friday, December 9th from 4-9pm and Saturday, December 10th from 1-9pm.

Admission is free.

Join The Central Square Business Association  Holiday Tree lighting in Jill Brown Rhone Plaza as Central Square celebrates the season with  dazzling emcee Toni Bee, the Poet Populist of Cambridge, for holiday poems and stories, hot chocolate and sweet treats, musical entertainments, and a visit from SANTA and PUPPETS from Behind the Mask Theater!

Saturday 12/17/11, 5:30 until 6:30 p.m 

Jill Brown Rhone Plaza (Lafayette Plaza) on Mass. Ave in front of Café Luna.

 

This event is graciously sponsored by

Patrick W. Barrett III,

JB Associates, LLC.,

Cambridge Trust Bank,

TD Bank, Z Rant and the CSBA

 

In June 2010, Cambridge Mayor David Maher convened the Mayor’s Red Ribbon Commission on the Delights and Concerns of Central Square.  After sixteen months of work, the Commission, chaired by Cambridge City Councillor Kenneth E. Reeves, will present its report to the Cambridge City Council and the public on Monday, December 12, at 7pm.  There will be public comment before the presentation at 5:30pm.  All events will take place in the Sullivan Chambers of Cambridge City Hall, 795 Mass Ave., Second Floor.

 

The Red Ribbon Commission was composed of about 120 Cambridge residents, officials, landowners, developers, university representatives, and others with vested interest in Central Square.  A 42 page book will explain the work and conclusions of the Commission.  Brent Ryan, Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Public Policy in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, led a team of MIT urban planners to write, develop, and design the report.  He has come up with four new, bold ideas to lead Central Square forward:

 

• Unsubsidized middle-class housing for the new Central Square workforce
• An incubation center for arts, including space for musicians, writers, dancers, and visual artists
• A large market hall for local food and products
• Subsidized daycare centers

 

Councillor Reeves and Professor Ryan will speak on the process and conclusions reached by the Commission, followed by a panel discussion with the committee co-chairs.

 

On Monday, December 12 at the City Council meeting at 7pm, the co-chairs of the subcommittees and Brent Ryan will present the final report of the Red Ribbon Commission to the City Council.  Councilor Reeves is requesting that as many people as possible attend.  If you would like to speak about the Red Ribbon Commission at the open microphone session of the City Council meeting from 5:30-6, you may do so by signing up through the City Council Office, by calling 617-349-4280, from 9am-3pm on Monday, December 12.  If you miss that time, you may sign up in person at 5:30.