MONDAY, September 11, at 5:30 pm, the full City Council will vote on the 100% Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO) amendments, a crucial tool for keeping a diverse city by meeting the housing needs of more of our low- and moderate-income residents.
The Council’s Ordinance Committee previously voted 6-3 to recommend a favorable Council vote, and a divided Planning Board recently voted to pass along comments, including several voicing strong support (THANK YOU to those who wrote or spoke in favor!), without taking an overall position for or against the amendments.
Opponents of these critical amendments are mobilizing. So, it is critical that we turn out in force this coming Monday. Your voice can make all the difference in firming up Council support.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Sign up (starting Friday morning) to speak at Monday’s City Council meeting to share your strong support for the AHO amendments.
If you are unable to speak at the meeting, please email a letter of strong support to the City Council --[email protected] (cc the City Clerk -- [email protected] and bcc us -- [email protected]).
WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE 100% AFFORDABLE HOUSING OVERLAY AMENDMENTS?
See our AHO explainer and this op-ed by the four City Councillors who co-sponsored the amendments.
A BETTER CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE FORUM, 6 pm, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
You won’t want to miss the A Better Cambridge City Council Candidate Forum to learn about this year’s Cambridge City Council candidates and their plans to end exclusionary zoning, create more affordable housing, and enhance tenant protections in Cambridge.
When: Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Where: The Cambridge Foundry, 101 Rogers St, Cambridge, MA 02142
Time: 6-8 pm
Remote watching will be an option, via Zoom (Register Here).
CCTV will film the Forum, and it will be broadcast several times later in September/October.
Moderator: Bill Boehm, Principal Architect, Boehm Architecture. Bill is a long-time ABC member and a newly appointed Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeals member.
You can take a look at the candidates’ responses to ABC’s issues questionnaire here.
OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS
ABC Book Club
Please join us on Saturday, September 9th at 2:00 pm at Bloc Cafe in Union Square for a discussion of "Homelessness is a Housing Problem" by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern. Along with our friends from Somerville YIMBY, we will talk about what we learned from the book, and if there are any lessons we can apply to our cities.
Abundant Housing Massachusetts Event
This Thursday evening, September 7th at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, ABC is co-sponsoring an event with Abundant Housing Massachusetts. It will be a panel discussion called "Just Action: How to challenge housing segregation and build people-centered communities." The panel will feature Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law and new book Just Action, Dr. Karilyn Crockett, author of People Before Highways, and moderator Abdallah Fayyad of the Boston Globe. There will be a social hour starting at 6:30pm with food and beverages, and the panel will start at 7:30pm. More info here.