Crime

Hire more police to achieve and maintain the Cambridge Police Department’s (CPD) authorized strength.

  • Increase and broaden compensation options for police – Greater education opportunities for officer and family, housing in the city, tax breaks, vehicle use, and retention bonuses. Investigate the cost for the city to provide as an additional retirement incentive an annuity for officers depending on length of service and other factors to be determined.
  • In the meantime, develop a program to hire non-police personnel to work in the community – They could run the PAL, or the city could fund an existing program to do it. Have them help identify needs and services, be trained by local agencies and nonprofits, and address trust issue in the community
  • Increase the use of cameras in the city in high crime areas.
  • What the community can do – Help by reporting concerns and criminal/delinquent activity to police or nonpolice personnel, respond to need for information on criminal activity

Community Policing

  • Develop more effective prevention and early intervention programs and services in our most impacted areas
  • Address unlawful use of fireworks in the community through stronger legislation – state or local – In some areas it is used to control the neighborhood
  • Train police on evidence collection for more effective prosecution of domestic violence cases

Economic Development

  • Work with and support CWDI’s efforts to develop Cambridge Harbour in the way that the community has indicated it desires
  • Develop a long-term plan to refurbish the City Marina and promote it to increase revenue
  • Support Phillips Packing House and Cannery Way Park Development
  • Work with City Manager and Council to develop a strategy to more effectively market our assets and create incentives to attract more commercial and manufacturing businesses to the city

Youth and Family

  • Support the Campaign for Grade Level Reading
  • Work with Moving Dorchester Forward (MDF) to facilitate the city finding collaborative resources from state, local, and national funders to address truancy, delinquency, child abuse and neglect, mental health, school engagement, youth summer jobs, court involved children, and after school programs. National funders include the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Possible state funding could come from the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim’s Services
  • Have the MDF Family and Community Engagement staff help to identify skills needed for personnel that would be hired as mentioned above who would not have police powers but would be in the community developing trust and engaging parents and other citizens.
  • Identify effective and positive programming for youth and support establishing them – for instance Girls on the Run – 2 programs have been approved here in Cambridge at the YMCA and Maces Lane. We need many more here and in the county. This is a great program, promotes healthy habits, and costs little to run
  • Support in school programming through collaborative grant applications with DCPS for schools in Cambridge and in the County to reduce violence, provide mental health resources, and encourage academic performance
  • Be sure that planned funding of nonprofits has an effective data collection and program evaluation process to help the City Council know the effectiveness of the programs it has funded to help determine potential future funding

Infrastructure

  • Support the effort to create the Maces Lane Community Center and follow the MOU that I negotiated and obtained 5-0 approval from the prior City Council
  • Pave Pine Street
  • Fully staff Code Enforcement and give them the tools to do their job such as better laws
  • Assess the need for additional penalties of landlords that do not maintain their properties such as a higher tax assessment
  • Support the Cambridge Shoreline Resilience Project – https://www.makecambridgeresilient.org/ as it seeks funding to address the multiple challenges that the city faces regarding sea level rise and stormwater and sewer management

Planning for the Future

  • Set aside the remainder of the ARPA funding to use within time constraints for planning or instituting capital projects and establishing, if allowed, dedicated funds for youth programs and jobs
  • Include in future budgets dedicated funding for purchase of fire equipment and police and other city vehicles
  • Include in future budgets dedicated funding for youth summer jobs that focus on maintaining better community appearance and imparting basic work skills to the youth. Support ongoing future programming for those effective programs started with grants that need to be replaced.
  • Start conversations with companies providing alternative electrical resources such as solar to encourage development with the city being the purchaser of their electricity, if favorable for the city budget. Encourage the use of more solar energy on the roofs of homes and businesses in the community by better publicizing any state, national, and utility incentives or credits being offered
  • Update the existing evaluation of the condition of streets in the community from the one done several years ago to see where we stand – better or worse. Establish a policy on how to use street repair dollars most effectively

Budget and Taxes

  • Make Cambridge more attractive as a place to live and work by annually considering gradual city property tax relief along the lines of adopting the Constant Yield Rate as was done for FY 2023
  • Work with the new County Council to assess whether the county property tax rate levied on Cambridge residents should be further reduced based on the services the city provides
  • Work with the City Manager and Council to develop a 5-year financial plan that would be updated every year
  • Maintain a healthy reserve position for emergencies and economic downturns