2007 CCJ Notes
(items moved from the main page)

Dec 31 - That was a short one
The City of Cambridge declared a Snow Emergency and Parking Ban effective at midnight on Sunday, Dec 30 into Monday, Dec 31.

The City of Cambridge Snow Emergency and Parking Ban is lifted as of 8am Monday, Dec 31.

Site for Cambridge Selected: December 28, 1630

ON THIS DAY...

...in 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Colony proprietors chose a site along the northern bank of the Charles River for their capital. They named it Newtowne, and laid out an orderly grid of streets fortified by a wooden palisade. It was the first planned town in English North America. Six years later, the colony's first college was established in Newtowne. In honor of the English university town, Newtowne was renamed Cambridge. Contemporary William Wood noted "this is one of the neatest . . . towns in New England, having many fair structures with many handsome . . . seats." Despite its well-ordered appearance, Cambridge did not remain the colony's capital. In 1638 the General Court settled five miles downstream, in the neighboring town of Boston.

Listen to this moment: http://www.massmoments.org/audio/December28%2EAIF1%2Em3u 

Read more about this moment: http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=372 

Visit Mass Moments to search past moments: http://www.massmoments.org 

Scofflaws - My neighbors and I do a pretty good job of clearing our sidewalks of snow and ice during and after each snowstorm. I'll routinely clear a path in front of my commercial neighbor when they're closed so that pedestrians can walk the whole street. (See pictures taken at 10:00am Sunday.) Contrast this with the properties at 46 Dana Street [owner of record: Crowley, Michael J., Tr , of Furcob Realty Trust c/o Jeffrey D. Woolf, Esq., PC; P.O. Box #961267, Boston, MA 02196-1267] and 406 Broadway [owner of record: Whittlesey, Faith, TR of Whittlesey Nominee Trust, 64 Greenwood St., Sherborn, MA 01770].

Consistently these property owners (and many others) do absolutely nothing to make their sidewalks passable and, to my knowledge, the City of Cambridge never goes after them. It's not just the property owners who are at fault here. The residents of these buildings, if they possess human souls, should care about how their neighbors get around without falling down. [The last record I have for residents at 46 Dana are Andrew Dunn (27), Alberto Martinez (37), and Kathryn Thirolf (29). Residents listed at 406 Broadway are Ethan Cohen-Cole (33) and Monika Parikh (34).] If we 50-somethings can shovel snow and clear ice, so can these youngsters. Perhaps they were too busy working out on their treadmills at the health spa. I'm no fan of increased regulation, but pride and shame are concepts we should bring back. Real property owners and residents are proud to do their part.

Broadway from Broadway Terrace to Lee Street, 10am Sunday, Dec 16
Broadway side of 46 Dana Street, Tuesday, Dec 18 - two days later and still untouched
Wonderfully cleared driveway at 406 Broadway Where did they put the snow?	They piled it on the sidewalk, of course! (as long as their cars can get in and out, who cares?)
Worst sidewalk #1 (as always) - 46 Dana Street	Worst sidewalk #2 - 342 Harvard Street (next door to the outgoing mayor - his sidewalk was in great shape, by the way)

The last City Council meeting of the 2006-2007 term took place this on Monday, December 17. The new City Council will be inaugurated on January 7 at 10:00am in the Sullivan Chamber of City Hall.

Nov 24,25 - I just received word that former Election Commissioner Ed Samp passed away yesterday (Fri, Nov 23). Many of us remember when Ed would play the piano during the down time of the old PR Count at the Longfellow School. A friend described him best as "a congenitally honest, civil, and decent human being." The Boston Globe notice (Nov 25) follows:

SAMP, Atty. Edward J., Jr. in Cambridge, Nov. 23, 2007. Beloved husband of Mary (Abbott). Dear father of Edward J. III of Wayland, his twin brother John B. of Westwood, Frederick S. of Saco, ME, Richard A. of Arlington, VA and Margaret H. Samp of Cambridge. Loving grandfather of 6. Devoted brother of Mary Jane Grede, Helen Jean Filkins, Dr. Robert Samp, all of FL and Virginia Knaplund of Falmouth.

Funeral from the Keefe Funeral Home, 2175 Mass. Ave, NORTH CAMBRIDGE, on Tuesday at 9AM. Funeral Mass in St. Peter's Church Cambridge at 10AM. Relatives and friends invited. Visiting hours Monday 4-8. Parking at Pemberton Farms. Please visit KeefeFuneralHome.com. Late Navy Veteran WWII. Interment is private. In lieu of sending flowers, the family requests that you make a small contribution to either the Blessed Sacrament School (http://school.blsacrament.org) or the Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.

Nov 26 - Ed Samp's obituary in the Cambridge Chronicle

Nov 22 - Small Turnout, Large Price Tag - Special elections mean hefty costs (Boston Globe)
We've seen a rash lately of elected officials leaving their positions in the middle of their terms. While turnover is good (and we could use a lot more of it!), there are costs associated with all of these special elections to fill vacancies, and the state reimburses only a portion of the costs. It's also totally unfair to the voters and to the other candidates when an elected official (invariably an incumbent) seeks reelection only to make an early exit. I have a suggestion: Whenever any elected official chooses to leave office during his or her term and requiring a special election to determine a successor, any salary that official was to receive for the entire term is forfeited and used to defray the costs of the resulting special election. Obviously, this would not apply in the case of an official being forced out of office due to health concerns or other exceptional circumstances. - RW

Nov 16 - Patrick OK's law clarifying tideland development (Boston Globe)
It appears that the NorthPoint project in East Cambridge may now be back on track. Expect the Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods (which does not actually represent any Cambridge neighborhoods) to continue to make a fuss.

2007 Unofficial Final Election Results - City Council and School Committee (PDF)

Nov 7 - All of the ballots have now been counted except for a handful of late overseas absentee ballots which, if any, will be included 10 days after Election Day for the "official" count. Here are the final (unofficial) results in the order in which the candidates were elected:

Henrietta Davis was the only City Council candidate to reach the election quota (1364) in the 1st Round with 228 surplus ballots to spare. In the decisive round to determine the last seats, Sam Seidel (1348) and Craig Kelley (1342) eclipsed Eddie Sullivan (1038) to round out the nine elected to the Council.

In the School Committee race, Marc McGovern and Fred Fantini both reached quota (1897) in the 1st Round. McGovern had 380 surplus votes and Fantini had 120 surplus votes. The most interesting aspect of the race is that the three slate candidates (Nancy Tauber, Gail Lemily Wiggins, and Stefan Malner) came in behind all other candidates in #1 vote totals, but their votes coalesced to allow Nancy Tauber to pass Richard Harding in the decisive round by 64 votes. Effectively, Nancy Tauber replaces Nancy Walser, and Marc McGovern's strong campaign coupled with Richard Harding's relatively weak campaign resulted in Harding's defeat.

The other significant aspect of this election is the record low turnout - 13,721 people cast City Council ballots, a significant drop from the previous record low of 16,202 in 2005.

City Council #1 Vote Distribution by Ward/Precinct      School Committee #1 Vote Distribution by Ward/Precinct 

Nov 11 addendum: If you scale the #1 votes totals of continuing candidates from 2005 to correct for the lower voter turnout in 2007, and then subtract these scaled numbers from the #1 vote totals for 2007, you can get some idea of who realized the greatest true gains and losses from 2005 to 2007. Here are the results:

Of course, the source of most of the large gains were the many votes that would otherwise have gone to Anthony Galluccio. - RW

2007 Preliminary Election Results - City Council and School Committee (PDF)

Nov 6 - Based on all ballots scanned on Election Day, the following candidates prevailed (in the order of election):

These preliminary results do not include "auxiliary ballots" which will be counted on Wednesday. The unofficial results will be announced when all of these additional ballots are included. The official results will be announced ten days after Election Day to allow for possible late overseas absentee ballots to arrive. (There were none in 2005.)

Henrietta Davis was the only City Council candidate to reach the election quota (1344) in the 1st Round with 232 surplus ballots to spare. In the decisive round to determine the last seats, Sam Seidel (1339) and Craig Kelley (1325) eclipsed Eddie Sullivan (1020) to round out the nine elected to the Council.

In the School Committee race, Marc McGovern and Fred Fantini both reached quota (1874) in the 1st Round. McGovern had 379 surplus votes and Fantini had 124 surplus votes. The most interesting aspect of the race is that the three slate candidates (Nancy Tauber, Gail Lemily Wiggins, and Stefan Malner) came in behind all other candidates in #1 vote totals, but their votes coalesced to allow Nancy Tauber to defeat Richard Harding in the decisive round by 64 votes.

The other significant aspect of this election is the record low turnout - approximately 13,500 people voted, a significant drop from the previous record low of 16,202 in 2005.

Nov 3: In which parties are Cambridge voters registered? (October 2007) Party Democrat Unenrolled Republican Green-Rainbow Libertarian Other Parties Total Active voters 24927 (61.6%) 12942 (32.8%) 1831 (4.6%) 204 (0.5%) 116 (0.3%) 72 (0.2%) 39462 Inactive voters 8754 (51.9%) 6646 (39.4%) 1145 (6.8%) 192 (1.1%) 98 (0.6%) 42 (0.2%) 16877 Total voters 33051 (58.6%) 19588 (34.8%) 2976 (5.3%) 396 (0.7%) 214 (0.4%) 114 (0.2%) 56339 Nov 3: Age Distributions of Cambridge Voters (Nov 3, 2007) I just did some analysis of the age distribution of current registered voters in Cambridge (except for 2 voters without birthdates). Here are some statistics and graphs:  All Registered Voters (as of Oct 2007) Number of voters: 56337    Median age: 39.33    Mean age: 44.19 Current Voters who voted in Nov 2006 Number of voters: 31212    Median age: 48.68    Mean age: 49.35 Current Voters who voted in Nov 2005 Number of voters: 15059    Median age: 56.33    Mean age: 56.33 Current Voters who voted in last five general elections Number of voters: 9202    Median age: 59.53    Mean age: 60.22 Current Voters who voted in last 13 elections, including primaries (March 2000 through November 2006) Number of voters: 683    Median age: 64.30    Mean age: 64.94 Perhaps the most clear conclusion that you can draw from this analysis is the well-known fact that older voters tend to vote in far greater numbers than younger voters. Nov 3 - The "Random Draw of Precincts" took place today at the Cambridge Election Commission on Nov 1. This determines the order in which ballots from precincts throughout the city are counted in the election. Though this has a relatively minor effect on the tabulation of the ballots (because of the "Cincinnati Method" used to transfer surplus ballots), it can potentially make a difference in a very close election. Here's the ordering determined by lottery (read down the columns): 5-3 2-3 5-2 8-2 1-1 7-3 3-2 10-3 10-1 9-3 3-3 8-3 2-1 6-1 9-2 8-1 5-1 11-3 11-1 4-2 4-1 1-2 4-3 1-3 7-2 6-3 11-2 2-2 7-1 10-2 6-2 3-1 9-1 How'd the City Council candidates do in 2005? The table below shows the number of ranked preferences for each candidate in the 2005 City Council election. Candidate in 2005 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10-18 Total Adkins, Lawrence 243 256 258 242 159 165 162 138 115 580 2318 Condit, James 42 90 111 122 92 104 118 104 93 619 1495 Davis, Henrietta 1459 1441 1428 1110 787 606 359 238 153 289 7870 Decker, Marjorie 1524 1630 1447 1147 848 493 322 225 159 307 8102 Galluccio, Anthony 2001 1598 1353 916 631 440 361 254 175 337 8066 Gordon, Jesse 626 499 502 435 406 307 256 179 111 562 3883 Green, Andre 181 181 192 175 212 157 130 106 101 597 2032 Hall, Robert 75 108 144 139 135 158 141 96 110 636 1742 Hees, Bill 198 165 153 133 131 136 146 113 110 603 1888 Kelley, Craig 1042 749 519 436 364 333 249 210 152 540 4594 LaTrémouille, Robert 118 118 153 156 153 166 124 124 116 612 1840 Maher, David 902 930 989 858 666 513 423 315 239 441 6276 Murphy, Brian 1236 1003 984 872 767 533 439 317 187 371 6709 Reeves, Ken 1207 1082 971 834 713 521 358 260 197 379 6522 Seidel, Sam 973 885 662 557 384 324 244 194 106 527 4856 Simmons, Denise 1330 1458 1337 994 779 531 429 290 177 313 7638 Sullivan, Michael 1464 1761 1449 857 671 504 311 277 228 313 7835 Toomey, Tim 1432 897 834 763 477 394 297 242 196 418 5950 Write-In 17 18 24 14 17 24 15 14 13 21 177 Total votes 16070 14869 13510 10760 8392 6409 4884 3696 2738 8465 89793 Every candidate knows that the Number 1 votes are primarily what determines the election outcome, but part of the game is to convince voters who ranked a candidate #2 or some other high ranking to change that to a #1 vote. This is especially true in an election like this where two of the candidates who won in 2005 (Anthony Galluccio and Michael Sullivan) are not seeking reelection. Of course, there are a number of challengers who would also like to pick up those #1 votes. For information on this year's candidates, visit the Cambridge Candidate Pages at vote.rwinters.com.

Nov 1 - NorthPoint project sold for more than $175m  (Boston Globe)
Excerpts: 

"The purchase of the former rail yard includes 44 acres permitted and ready to go for 5 million square feet of office, lab, residential, retail, and hotel development. Two residential buildings are near completion."

"Cambridge North Point LLC is made up of about 100 investors, most formerly affiliated with Spaulding & Slye, and has a one-fourth share of the ownership. In July, Cambridge North Point said the agreement to sell the property constituted 'a major step forward toward resolving the legal issues between the partners.'"

"Archon (the buyer) has recently sold off some of its substantial holdings in Fort Point rather than develop them.

"Anything of scale has to come to this project, because it's the only permitted project," he said.

"Archon specializes in commercial development and could sell the residential portion of NorthPoint - about 2,500 units - or find a partner to build it."

NorthPoint through the years (Boston Globe photo gallery)

Oct 26 - Mass. House OKs bill to fix glitch in tidelands law  (Boston Globe)

It appears that a version similar to Gov. Patrick's proposed legislation to correct the deficiency in the "landlocked filled tidelands" regulations will soon pass the legislature and be signed by the governor. This occurs as numerous bidders on the North Point development have emerged and new ownership for this very significant project on the edge of Cambridge will soon be in place. The City Manager has this to say on the agenda for the upcoming City Council meeting:

On a big TV in Harvard Square, group watches Olde Towne Team (Boston Globe, Sept 29, 2007) Panel from “Boston, November 1980” taken from American Spendor #7 by Harvey Peker.

Sept 27 - Council Hopefuls Clash on Housing (Harvard Crimson article by Paras Bhayani and Nicholas Tabor)

Sept 14 (updated Sept 22)- A few more election numbers for the truly incorrigible -- How did Cambridge vote in the Sept 11 Special Primary Election? Here's the table showing the Final Official Tally of votes by ward and precinct: