Fix Its — Some of Craig's Ideas for a Better City
Not all of Cambridge's issues need a lot of money to address. Below is a list of simple, fairly cheap "fix it" solutions to some of our more common problems. Feel free to contact Craig with your own suggestions.
People should be able to submit city forms, such as License Commission Complaint Forms or Police Review Advisory Board forms online, not have to print them out, fill them out and then mail them in as is currently necessary. Such unnecessary hurdles make it harder for people to inform the City of issues that need action. After all, if people can file their taxes electronically, they should be able to raise formal concerns about restaurant noise electronically.
Follow-up:
The City continues to increase its interactive on-line presence, but at a relatively slow rate. Craig will continue to push for more of an interactive website, as well as a way for the general public to report non-emergency issues in a comprehensive manner (such as Somerville's 311 program).
To improve our air quality, the City should work with the State to reduce automobile excise taxes for all hybrid and Ultra-Low Emission vehicles from $25 per $1,000 value to $12.5 per $1,000 value. The City should also break the hackney license cap for hybrid livery services, allowing unlimited non-transferable taxi licenses for hybrid and ULE vehicles.
Follow-up:
The City Council has asked the State Legislature to, among other things, "Pass legislation that provides for rule-efficient and alternative fuel vehicles and discourages sales of gas-guzzling cars and trucks." The Council also passed an Order asking that the Manager ensure that the City use hybrid or low-emission vehicles wherever possible. The Council further Orders asking that the Manager investigate options to reward people for driving less or driving more fuel efficient vehicles, such as hybrids. Possible rewards included free parking at metered spots or decreased parking permit fees.
The Council has also asked the City Manager to work on implementing a hybrid taxi program and that issue has been the subject of both a Traffic, Transportation and Parking Committee hearing and a special task force of the City's License Commission. It's not clear when we'll get a final report, but things are moving forward on this issue.
Eliminate the "City Council Only" parking spaces behind City Hall. Councilors might make wiser development decisions if they faced the same traffic and parking issues the rest of us face.
Follow-up:
Craig suggested this via a Council Policy Order. It was voted down.
Crosswalks should cross median strips at street level and have curb cuts where they hit curbs, so that people with limited mobility do not have to climb up several inches of solid curbing to get across the street safely. The City should have a formal policy for getting these street safety improvements implemented, rather than relying on a 'squeaky wheel gets the grease' philosophy.
Follow-up:
The City is spending additional funds on improving our sidewalks, but pedestrian accessibility is not the priority it should be. Craig has held a variety of hearings and put in a variety of Orders on pedestrian-related issues, from sidewalk repair to clearing snow from our sidewalks, but the City is not being very responsive. Craig will keep pushing this simple, pedestrian friendly agenda.
All legal opinions from the City Solicitor's office should be available online. Similarly, how much money the City is spending on outside legal council and current law suits in which the City is engaged should be available online.
Follow-up:
Craig, and other Councilors, have put in Orders asking that a wide variety of information be put on-line. So far, little of it has been placed on the web. Craig isn't clear how to get the Council or the City Manager to make this transparency a higher issue.
The City Council's dinners should be the same food our Cambridge Public School students eat, not specially catered by local delis. Such regular, high profile attention on the public school meals program would result in higher quality, more nutritious meals for our students, something especially important for our more at-risk students. As an added bonus, it would also generate revenue for the public school's food services program.
Follow-up:
Craig suggested this via a Council Order. The Council disagreed for a variety of reasons, including the logistical challenges involved in getting CPS food, even if prepared by Rindge School of Technical Arts culinary program, to the Council meetings. Craig is following up directly with school staff to see if these hurdles are less imposing than stated during the Council discussion.
During street work, obstructions should be clearly marked with very bright paint, not simply dabbed here and there. Cyclists can be easily thrown to the ground by a two-inch metal access cover if they don't see it. By liberally covering obstructions with bright paint, the obstructions would be more visible to cyclists in periods of low-visibility and in heavy traffic, two particularly dangerous times for cyclists to be on the road.
Follow-up:
The City has become much better about marking obstructions with cones, but continues to be reluctant to use visible paint in large quantities to mark them, fearing that would be unsightly when the road work is done. Craig will continue to push this issue, as eventually the paint will wear off and the tradeoff for safety is worth it.
Councilors should pay more attention to Citizen comments at public meetings, especially during the Council's Public Comment session.
Follow-up:
Craig stays in meetings except for necessary breaks to use the men's room or get something to drink. He takes notes during Council meetings and is not on his cell phone or using his laptop to check email. To the extent he can, he attends neighborhood meetings or participates in neighborhood list serves to learn first-hand what residents are thinking.
The City should put "Contact if not working" information on traffic light poles. That way, when pedestrians notice a light not working properly, they could use their cell phones and call the problem in immediately. Currently, the City can go for weeks or even months without learning that traffic signals are not working properly.
Follow-up:
The City has put a number of large metal signs on traffic light poles as a pilot program. Craig will ask for an update sometime during the fall, after the program has been running for a bit longer.
The City should try limited off-leash hours at neighborhood parks so that dog owners don't feel they have to violate the law to exercise their pets. Off-leash dogs could be required to have attended obedience school to ensure that owners are able to control their dogs at all times. Both Boston and Brookline are working on off-leash hours in their limited public green spaces. Cambridge should do the same.
Follow-up:
Craig is a member of the City's working group on off-leash issues. He has helped push the City to at least talk about shared space programs. It is not going as quickly as he, and others, would like, but at least there's a little progress. Several months ago, the City was reluctant to think of shared space in a meaningful way. New off-leash parks at Fort Washington and Pacific Field, and the planned construction of one at Danehy Park, help somewhat, but shared space at local parks holds a lot more promise to serve more people than a small number of dedicated off-leash parks.
The Cambridge Police Department should produce and implement a comprehensive traffic enforcement plan, complete with target goals, staffing requirements and review procedures. As it is, CPD is planning to conduct less crosswalk enforcement actions this fiscal year, putting pedestrians in even greater danger on our streets.
Follow-up:
The former Police Commissioner was not receptive to this idea and discussions with him didn't go very far. The new Police Commissioner is still getting to know the City and the Department, but he seems much more willing to engage in discussions about how CPD, and others, can improve our traffic safety. Craig will continue to push the importance of a comprehensive enforcement plan as well as the need to make traffic enforcement statistics public by putting them on the City's website and make them useful by posting them as a spreadsheet that can be downloaded and worked with.
The Cambridge Public School System should explain in detail why it needs so many administrators, clerical workers and supervisors, often at levels of two, three or even four times the state average for those positions. The Superintendent breezily claims that he is cutting the fat out of the school budget, but he refuses to discuss this issue with those who think Cambridge should have more resources in our classrooms and fewer administrators. Only by properly staffing our classrooms can our school system become a system which actually attracts families to Cambridge, rather than drives them away.
Follow-up:
CPS, and the Superintendent, continues not to want to engage in a meaningful discussion on staffing levels. Overall, the City Council has proven less than willing to have difficult discussions with the School Committee and this issue, like other school-related issues such as school climate and bullying, has continued to be put on the Council's back-burner. Given the importance of our school system, the amount of money the City Council gives to the School Department and the inter-related nature of CPS and all sorts of City-based youth service programs from after school to library literacy programs, improving the working relationship between the School Committee and the City Council should be a top priority for all of us.
The City should develop parking data that accurately reflects the number of cars registered to each residential unit. With accurate parking data, the City and affected neighborhoods could better discuss the potential impact of proposed developments. As it is, the City recently used Federal Census data from 2000 to put the overall parking requirements for residential conversions at less than 1 car per unit.
Follow-up:
The City recently did some studies that indicated that buildings of over 25 units within a short distance of a subway stop have far fewer than 1 car per unit. As Chair of the Council's Traffic, Transportation & Parking Committee, Craig plans to hold a public meeting on these studies and also the possibility of allowing greater density to developers who agree to deeds restricting their ability to get City parking permits for their units (Green zoning). Craig put in an Order asking for information on the latter, but the response was less than satisfactory, which is why he will take it up again in Committee.
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