Maher is Mayor

Though I've enjoyed a month or two of ribbing, the City Council finally got around to selecting a Mayor from their ranks in David Maher. Henrietta Davis was selected as Vice-Chair.

Congrats to the new Mayor.

Image from the invaluable Cambridge Civic Journal.

Snowed In

Here's an idea: let's make good use of today's snow emergency and get all the City Councilors in a room for its duration. They can use the downtime to, you know, pick a Mayor, now that they "have a plan"?

But seriously, move your car off of any snow emergency route before the City's noon deadline today.

Good Grief.

Via the Chronicle: After fifth try, councilors fail to select Cambridge mayor

City Councilors agreed Monday night that voting for the next mayor of Cambridge can be "messy." And after completing the fourth and fifth round of voting, no one has been chosen to fill the seat just yet.

Councilor David Maher still leads the pack with four votes — one from himself and three more from Councilors Leland Cheung, Sam Seidel and Tim Toomey. Councilor Henrietta Davis inched closer to the top with three votes - one from herself, and two more Denise Simmons and Craig Kelley, who switched his vote from Ken Reeves. Reeves, whose seniority on the Council allows him to serve as interim mayor for the time being, earned a total of two votes.

Councilors will have a chance to vote again during their next meeting on Feb. 8.

For round-by-round recaps, go here, here and here. For another viewpoint, you can read former Council candidate Minka vanBeuzekom's advice to blow up the mayoral selection process in her open letter to the Chronicle.

Four Weeks of Anarchy

So the first time, it was an interesting insight into our fair city's quirky mayoral election process. A week later, we had to stifle a laugh. But seriously? We're going into February without a Mayor?

Per the Chronicle, "councilors stuck to the same votes they cast the last time around. Councilor David Maher lead the pack with four votes, followed by Ken Reeves with three votes and two for Henrietta Davis. A city councilor requires at least five votes from fellow councilors to become the mayor."

This may indicate one of two things:

1. We should not be generally encouraged that leadership will emerge from the current Council that will be able to wrangle votes on actual issues.
2. Between the City Manager and the Council, there is little reason to keep the Mayoral position around

Maybe if Marjorie Decker moves on to Gallucio's Senate seat they can break the stalemate?

Photo by Colleen Bryant, courtesy of City of Cambridge website

Anarchy, continued.

This does not bode well for the Republic.

City Council, after failing to elect a Mayor from among their ranks last week, resumed the deliberation at last night's meeting where they, um... failed again. This is all pretty hilarious to many of us, but honestly, what if there's an emergency intersection honorary square-naming in the next week?

Kidding aside, David Maher will likely seal the deal at the January 25th meeting.

Anarchy Reigns: Cambridge Goes Mayor-less

Well, not exactly.

The city's quirky mayoral selection process failed to resolve itself in today's City Council meeting, and so we must wait until next week's meeting to identify the new Mayor. From the Chronicle's update:

It was up to the nine newly sworn-in city councilors to elect the mayor, but their votes were too split to reach a decision. David Maher lead with three votes; Marjorie Decker and Kenneth Reeves received two votes each; and Henrietta Davis got one vote (her own.) Former Mayor Denise Simmons’ own vote was also the only one Simmons received.

Cheung Featured in Globe

City Councilman and C-port resident Leland Cheung was featured in the Globe today as part of the wave of press (and blogging) that followed his election and upcoming inauguration to the Council. The article delves into the rising visibility of Asian-Americans in city politics, paralleling Cheung's candidacy with Sam Yoon's career across the Charles.

Cheung - who is working on a business degree at MIT and a policy degree at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government - jumped into the campaign. Using social networking websites and old-fashioned campaigning, he
successfully rallied students, the Asian community, and anyone who would listen around his campaign themes of job creation and bridging the gap between students and residents.

It worked.

“There’s a substantial Asian-American population in Cambridge, without regard to students,’’ said former mayor Frank Duehay, who served 14 terms on the council. “He figured out how to bring his campaign to students and the Asian-Americans who live in Cambridge. He obviously was effective.’’

Image from Rui Luo of The Tech.

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

A topic for every interested C-porter:

• Tuesday, 12/1: Planning Board Meeting, including a "design review of a limited number of façade changes for the church structure phase" of the Blessed Sacrament condo conversion (aka "Dana Park Place"); 7:30pm, City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, 2nd floor meeting room
• Wednesday, 12/2: C-port Neighborhood Association meeting, with an agenda that includes a year end review/visions for next year, the city arborist discussing neighborhood street trees, Housing Authority initiatives, the Police Review Committee on policing policy; 7:00pm, Woodrow Wilson Court, Fairmont Street entrance (via ramp to basement level community room)
• Tuesday, 12/8: City Council Housing Committee meeting to review the significant ongoing and planned initiatives by the Cambridge Housing Authority; 5:00pm, Sullivan Chamber, City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Avenue
• Wednesday, 12/9: City Council Hearing on the Stretch Energy Code, which is contemplated as an option for municipalities to increase energy conservation & energy efficiency beyond statewide code minimums; 5:00pm, Sullivan Chamber, City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Avenue
• Wednesday, 12/16: "Envisioning Central Square," a public forum being orgainized by Mayor Simmons and Vice Mayor Seidel; 6:00pm, City Hall; contact Jeff Walker, Mayor Simmons' Chief of Staff, at JWalker@Cambridgema.gov for more info

C-Port Scene: The Spectacular Shell Sign

Photo by Flickr user EandJsFilmCrew. Used with Creative Commons License.

This installment of the C-Port Scene doubles as a public announcement.

Everyone knows about the "Spectacular" Shell sign where Magazine meets Memorial down at the tip of C-port. But did you know it was over 75 years old? Did you know it has been on the National Register of Historic Places for over 15?

Next week, City Council will hold a public hearing to consider a proposal by the Cambridge Historic Commission to designate the sign as a Cambridge Landmark. Read the history of the sign and the bygone era of "spectacular" neon signage in the Commission's Landmark Report. The hearing details:

Wednesday, 11/18, 4:30 p.m.
Sullivan Chamber, City Hall
795 Massachusetts Avenue, 2nd floor

Don't Forget to Vote!

I was pleasantly surprised to see my polling place at Morse School bustling at 8am this morning. If that kind of activity is repeated across Cambridge, there might be a nice turnout today.

Don't forget to vote! See this post for a last-minute cribsheet.

A New Twist on Town/Gown Politics

The relationship between city and the world renowned institutions that call Cambridge home is constantly in tension. This is especially true in C-port, which is physically home to parts of both MIT and Harvard. No doubt, the schools have immense positive impact in terms of employment, cultural enrichment and the local economy. But there are other areas of friction, stemming from campus expansions, commercial development and property management, student housing issues, and other, more sensational controversies. In neighboring communities such as Allston, Harvard and BC's expansions are full of controversy. A common response for many residents is to seek Council members who can assert the community's desires against the expanding institutions.

Here in Cambridge, the City Council candidacy of Leland Cheung addresses the Town/Gown issue head on. Cheung is a graduate student at MIT, by his own claim the first active student to run for City Council. His candidacy is more than a grad school fling; he recently was one of two challengers to garner a Chronicle endorsement (along with architect Tom Stohlman). Given his status as both a student and a longtime resident, Cheung's claims about working with universities seem to ring truer than the average candidate, such as his promise that, "as the first current student (who was first and foremost a home-owning resident) I will use my unique status to open university resources to the community." [full disclosure: I'm an MIT alum, but I don't know Cheung, nor have I decided who to vote for just yet.]

Regardless of your choice, please get out and vote on Tuesday. For those still looking for a candidate to support or other election info, be sure to check out the Municipal Election post from last week that links to a bunch of resources, (including the comprehensive Cambridge Civic Journal).

Image of Cambridge City Hall from the city website.

C-Port All Over Monday's City Council Agenda

Some good questions to start the week:

• What's happening at Blessed Sacrament Church (aka the Dana Park Place condo development, pictured at right), and why in the world are they blocking in the beautiful classical portico with CMU?
• As popular as the Pacific Street dog park is, how about a place to sit for dog owners? Or, since it will soon be dark by 4:30pm, how about some lighting?
• What should happen with the old police station building on Western Ave at Central Square?

Via seperate emails from City Council member Craig Kelley, we learned that this Monday's City Council Agenda will take up these exact topics (among others). I'm interested specifically in the Blessed Sacrament questions, as we've noticed lots of folks puzzled by the damaging alterations to the exterior in the past few weeks. I posted earlier this summer about work finally resuming on the project. For Monday, Councilor Decker has asked the City Manager to "provide the City Council with an update on the Blessed Sacrament Church construction project, specifically, why there has been a delay in construction and whether or not the developer is building beyond the scope of the permitted plans."

Per Councilor Kelley's emails, anyone can speak for up to three minutes on any topic on the Council's agenda at Monday's Council's meeting. To speak at a Council meeting, call 349-4280 between 9 AM and 3 PM to sign up, or show up at 5:30 to speak. You may email the entire Council at Council@Cambridgema.gov and the City Manager at RHealy@Cambridgema.gov.

Municipal Elections on Nov. 3rd

Image courtesy Cambridge Chronicle.

UPDATE: Added a link below to the Cambridge Civic Journal, an outstanding resource for residents and voters.

Voting for candidates for City Council and School Committee doesn't have the visceral appeal of national campaigns (Yes we can! Drill baby drill! Ronny Reagan 4-EVA!). The results, however, can have immediate and useful (or annoying) consequences for our day-to-day lives.

So, with less than two weeks until the 11/3 election day, we'll point out the various resources for C-port residents looking for candidates to support. Please vote!

The Chronicle has a Q&A with all the Council candidates (click on each candidates photo). A great resource for viewing multiple candidate profiles (and a host of other city council background) can be found at the Cambridge Civic Journal's 2009 Candidate pages.

The Cambridge Election Commission has the polling places, election calendar (important for absentee voting), specimen ballots, and a list of all the municipal candidates.

Here's the makeup of the current City Council and School Committee with a little background on each.

And I'll admit that I'm pretty curious to see the results of that little contest happening across the river.