If you haven't read The Right View in the Feb. 14 edition of the Camb. Chronicle, look it up right now. Once again, the right echoes the left in Cambridge. It's a great example of life in the reality based community. People from seemingly opposing points of view coming to the same conclusion after examining the evidence. What an unusual city this is!

The day before that column was posted, I wrote the following op-ed piece to submit to the Chron. for publication.

For many years I have been watching and helping my neighbors, family and friends in the City of Cambridge work tirelessly and sacrifice time, energy, and money to make our city a better place to live. We are often branded nuts, flakes, fruits, pains in the neck, and antidevelopment obstructionists. Most often by officials of the very city that we are trying to help. I don’t think any of us are antidevelopment. What we object to is giving advantages to commercial interests without requiring some payback in terms of tangible improvements to our neighborhoods and business districts. A city is not a business and should not be run as one. Fiscal responsibility is absolutely necessary, but if a city is going to thrive, it has to be made an attractive place to live, work, and raise a family.

Just voting for your favorite City Council candidates every two years, is not enough. Most of the important decisions affecting quality of life and development take place under the direction of the City Manager. The City Manager appoints the members of every board, and commission, and all city department heads. They work for him, not the Council. Under our Plan E form of government, the City Council is relatively weak. It enacts ordinances, but has no say in implementation or interpretation. It passes Policy “Orders”, but they must be in the form of requests to the City Manager. He is free to comply or not as he sees fit. The really important business of this city happens within the manager’s office and in the chambers of the boards, commissions, and departments. Remember that these people answer not to the Council, but the Manager. Between the Planning Board, Inspectional Services Dept. (ISD) and the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA)and Community Development Department (CDD) almost all of the important development decisions are made.

Under Mr. Healey’s leadership, an organizational culture has evolved that sees its mission as enabling large scale development. The rule is that if you are a developer, you will have the ordinances interpreted, reinterpreted and misinterpreted in your favor. If you are a homeowner or a mere citizen if you can get heard at all, you will likely find the deck stacked against you. This meets my standard for corruption, weather or not any money changes hand. Why should this be? I suspect the main reason is that the resulting increases in the property tax base (a good thing taken by itself), is good for the bond rating. Translate that to “looks good on Bob Healey’s resume” -and citizens are flies in his butter dish.

How can citizens counter this rotten state of affairs? Thomas Jefferson said “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. This situation calls for just such scrutiny. We all need to watch what is going in in our neighborhoods and throughout the city. When these issues come before our boards, if you don’t show up to point out relevant considerations and let them know why they should decide one way or the other, then you are sure to be decided against. Case files are public records and you can come look at them. Building permit applications and plans can be examined at ISD. Information and informed speaking out are our power. Don’t discount your City Councilors either; the Manager serves at their pleasure and they serve at yours. They are not entirely without policy influence, however minimal it may be.

The point of my writing this is that I am beginning to see results. I live in East Cambridge and am pleased that I can count among my neighbors, fellow East Cambridge Planning Team members and allies across town, some of the most vocal, and persistent advocates for a better Cambridge. What have we achieved by being such big pains in the City’s neck?

Eight years ago we were able to get a developer to give the city a piece of land at the corner of Charles St. and Lopez Ave. for a park. And after all these years of pleading, begging Community Development and a good publicity stunt (last summer we painted the pavement with bright colors in shapes of plants, animals, benches and other parkish things and somehow got CDD to bring the paint) construction is scheduled to begin this spring. You can see the design on the CDD web site. Its really nice.

Mirant Kendall, the owner of the electric generating plant on the Broad Canal, is moving forward with plans to build a new boardwalk there. That took six years of persistence, even though it is required in their state license and city variance.

The owners of Cambridge research Park (BioMed Realty Trust, Inc. , Twining Properties, and The Constellation Center) are proceeding with plans to build more public open space, a canoe and kayak launch with rentals at the end of the canal and to connect a bike path to their neighbor’s planned boardwalk.

We now have an outdoor skating rink at Cambridge Research Park right off Third St. in its second year of operation. I hope to see you there soon.

We were able to get major improvements to the redesign of the Playground at Gold Star Mothers Park on Gore St. It’s a keeper.

BioMed also owns 301 Binney St. and has been good enough to give neighborhood groups use of a community room there They have also been generous enough to donate unleased space to The North Cambridge Family Opera Company to build the set for this spring’s production of The Puzzle Jigs. Keep your eye out for that.

We don’t always get what we want, far from it, but if you keep at it long enough and smart enough one day you will be able to look around and see some of the magic that happens when people keep working together for good things.

Mark Jaquith
Hurley Street

Member, East Cambridge Planning Team and Ward 1 Democratic Committee