Neighborhood Development & Zoning in Cambridge

with Charles Sullivan, Executive Director of the Cambridge Historical Commission

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Thursday, April 29

6:00pm

Zoom

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Watch the presentation here. 

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Sullivan will outline the effect that municipal intervention had on the originally unconstrained organic growth of Cambridge neighborhoods, beginning with sanitary and fire codes in the late 19th century and continuing with the adoption of zoning, slum clearance, urban renewal, and comprehensive planning in the 20th.

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Join us to learn more!

Annual Meeting

Thursday, February 11, 2021

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5:30-6:00 social time/meet the candidates

6:00-7:30 meeting

Zoom

• Social time/meet the candidates 

• Introduction to the CNA

• Annual board member elections

• Neighborhood & Central Sq updates

• Cambridgeport Open Space Study

• Black History in Action for Cambridgeport

• Cambridge City Growers

November Meeting

Thursday, November 19, 2020 ​

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5:30-6:00 social time/meet your neighbors

6:00-7:30 meeting

Zoom

• 5:30-6:00 Social time/meet your neighbors

• 6:00-6:20 Neighborhood updates & MIT dorm conversation

• 6:20-6:30 I-90 project updates

• 6:30-6:45 MBTA Forging Ahead information

• 6:45-7:15 River Street reconstruction updates 

• 7:15-7:30 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion committee projects

September Meeting

Thursday, September 24, 2020​

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5:30-6:00 social time/meet your neighbors

6:00-7:30 meeting

Zoom

5:30-6:00 Meet your neighbors!

6:00-6:15 CNA introductions and updates (CNA members)

6:15-6:25 Starlight Square (Central Square BID)

6:25-6:35 Supporting Cambridge businesses (Cambridge Local First)

6:35-6:45 How to help get out the vote (MassVote)

6:45-7:15 Proposed Vassar St Dorm (MIT) 

Annual Meeting

Tuesday, January 28, 2019​

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6:30 set up and mingle

7:00-9:00 meeting

LBJ Apartments Common Room 150 Erie Street

1) CNA board elections

Anyone who lives in, works in, or has kids in school in Cambridgeport can run and can vote.

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2) Central Square Updates

Speakers:

Michael Monestime (Exec. Dir. of the Central Sq. Business Association)

Wendell Joseph (CDD Neighborhood Planner, member of Central Square Advisory Committee)

Bill Deignan (CDD Transportation Program Planner, lead on River Street Project

Clifford Schorer (Developer of 544 Mass Ave)

Dec. Feedback Session

Wednesday, December 4, 2019​

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6:30 set up and mingle

7:00-9:00 meeting

LBJ Apartments Common Room 150 Erie Street

Students from Boston Architectural College will share their site analysis, zoning, research, and design diagramming for several crucial sites in the neighborhood of Cambridgeport. The goal for the meeting is to get feedback, suggestions, opinions, stories, guidance, and all other input from the community, because we are hoping to use their work as a basis of a neighborhood "comprehensive plan" that is a graphically rich document of the community's desires and needs in the face of inevitable and accelerating development. Students have been focusing on the Central library/parking garage parcel, the MIT parcels, and the KIMCO parcels in great detail and investigating probable outcomes. They have taken much observation, analysis, and conversation with the community into account, and they are also compiling responses to the CNA board's previous polls and studies to inform their work. Please join for a lively meeting of conversation and discussion (not a presentation) with the students that are helping to represent, visualize, and analyze the exciting possibilities that we want in our neighborhood! We, the community, are their clients so this is our time to review their work and make sure they are on the right track!

Inner Belt Presentation

Thursday, November 14, 2019​

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6:00 - 7:00 MIT Boathouse drop-in

6:30 - 9:00 Inner Belt

LBJ Apartments Common Room 150 Erie Street

6:00-7:00: MIT representatives will be available to share plans to renovate the MIT Pierce Boathouse (409 Memorial Dr) and temporarily occupy a portion of Magazine Beach. Attendees will have an opportunity to review drawings and ask questions of MIT, the designers, and the contractor. 

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6:30-7:00 Informal showing of a 1967 map of the highway plan and the homes that would have been taken.  At the end of the meeting the plan will also be available for further discussion.

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7:00 Join us to learn about the history of the Inner Belt:

Bob Simha, for forty years Planning Director at MIT, will describe the history of how MIT became the developer of the Johnson Apartment building as part of its housing
plan for Cambridge during the period 1969 to 1975.  Steve Kaiser, a resident of Hamilton Street for 54 years, will discuss his ongoing history of the Inner Belt in Cambridge, with a presentation on the planning for Brookline Street, the role of Tip O'Neill in helping to stop the Inner Belt, and a focus on one Cambridgeport resident – Henrietta Jackson – active in both Save Our Cities and in efforts by City officials to oppose the Inner Belt.  Q&A will follow.

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Sept. Community Meeting

Thursday, September 19, 2019​

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6:30 refreshments

7:00-9:00 meeting

LBJ Apartments Common Room 150 Erie Street

1. Updates from the State House

Speaker: State Senator Joseph Boncore

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2. Soliciting feedback on Alberico Park

Speaker: Gary Chan, Neighborhood planner, CDD

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3. Grand Junction, River St., I-90

Speaker: Gary Deignan, CDD

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4. Cambridge Public Library STEAM lab

Speaker: Muna Kangen, of CPL

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5. Misc. updates: St. Augustine's, Memorial Dr., Eversource

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6. Conversation with our neighborhood sergeants

Speakers: Cambridge Police Department

June Community Meeting

Thursday, June 6, 2019​

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6:30 refreshments

7:00-9:00 meeting

LBJ Apartments Common Room 150 Erie Street

Click here for meeting minutes

April Community Meeting

Thursday, April 25, 2019​

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6:30 refreshments

7:00-9:00 meeting

LBJ Apartments Common Room 150 Erie Street

Click here for meeting minutes

March Community Meeting

Thursday, March 14, 2019​

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6:00-7:00 Eversource open house

7:00-9:00 meeting

LBJ Apartments Common Room 150 Erie Street

6:30-7:00 set-up and refreshments

- Representatives from Central Square's proposed adult-use marijuana retailers will be available to share information, answer questions, and hear concerns

Come meet Western Front LLC (567 Mass Ave), and Revolutionary Clinics (541 Mass Ave). 

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7:00-9:00 meeting

- Updates from the state house (Sen. Joseph Boncore, Chairperson, Joint Committee on Transportation)

- Updates on the BU rotary (Rep. Jay Livingstone)

- Presentation: Regional vision for improved and more livable streetscapes, and recent developments in the city for improved walking and cycling safety (Cambridgeport residents Bob Sloane of Walk Boston, Steve Miller of Liveable Streets, and Randy Stern of Cambridge Bicycle Safety)

- Discussion: strategies and plans for making Cambridge streets more user friendly for all residents

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1. Central Square Library: How can it be a more welcoming place?

Speakers: Jason Yee, Manager of Branch Services

Joy Kim, Deputy Director of the CPL

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2. Discussion of Central Sq. Business Improvement District: What does the BID mean for us?

Speakers: Michael Monestime, Ex. Dir., Central Sq. Business Association

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3. Cambridgeport Committees: Let’s plan for our future!

(See preliminary descriptions here.)

1. Eversource Open House to learn about changes to Putnam Ave site.

2. Envision Cambridge zoning proposals

Speaker: Jeff Roberts, Director of Zoning and Development, CDD

January Annual Meeting

Thursday, 1/17/19

7-9 pm   (Set-up and mingle from 6:30-7:00)

LBJ Apartments Common Room 150 Erie Street

Click here for

meeting minutes.

Pre-meeting workshops: Mass Ave development and BU rotary redesign.

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1. Board member elections

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2. Mass Ave development

Speaker: Kevin Crane, Attorney

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3. BU rotary redesign

Speaker: Jeff Parenti, DCR

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4. I-90 Update

Speaker: Henrietta Davis

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5. Envision Cambridge proposed action steps

Speaker: Melissa Peters, CDD