Cambridge Voters Are Becoming Apathetic

Raymond J. Kartwicki describes himself as a steadfast Democrat. He will be voting for Vice President Al Gore '69 in the upcoming presidential election and he says he eventually plans to work in public policy.

Like many new Cantabrigians, Kartwicki--a resident at Cambridge Hospital--works long hours. Like many skilled professionals and graduate students drawn to the city, he only plans to live here for a few years. And like most homeowners, he thinks life in Cambridge could be improved.

But for the past year that he has lived in the city, Kartwicki has not voted or been involved in local politics--and plans to stay on the sidelines in the future.

"Knowing that I won't be here for more than a few years after my schooling, [local politics] seems less important," Kartwicki says.

As one of the Cambridge's ever-increasing number of transient residents, Kartwicki represents a part of Cambridge's changing political landscape--a demographic change that has been accelerated by the end of rent control in 1995 and the economic boom of the past decade.

In the past five years, the median family income in the Boston area has increased by 23 percent. The cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Cambridge has gone up by more than 50 percent. And--mirroring the national trend--voters have turned out in consistently lower numbers for local elections.

But while increased affluence will not threaten Cambridge's strong Democratic leanings, city officials, new residents and urban analysts say the city's classically engaged Democratic voters have been replaced by politically apathetic citizens.

And not only are citizens not voting--the Sept. 19th primary had a record-low turnout of 7 percent--but they have less reason to go to the polls.

With a polarization of wealth squeezing out the middle class, new residents have less time and need for local government services, leaving a city a dying political community.

People's Republic of Cambridge?

In a state some know only for its "lobsters and liberals," Cambridge has traditionally been a hotbed of progressive activism. Richard Nixon scoffed at the ideals of the city and its 'Crimson' institution, calling Harvard the "Kremlin on the Charles."

Today, Cambridge remains resolutely liberal, but many--including former mayor Francis H. Duehay '55--wonder whether the activism that made the city famous is on the decline.

"I do not see the same degree of activism that there was once around local issues," Duehay says.

One explanation suggests that Cambridge's fading activism has occurred because of the lack of a mobilizing issue.

According to Glenn S. Koocher '71, host of the Cambridge political talk show program "Cambridge Inside-Out," rent control was the last issue to capture the constituency.

Instituted in Cambridge in 1969, rent control was a polarizing issue in local politics before it was narrowly defeated in a statewide referendum in 1994.

Although an attempt was made last year to reenact rent control, the petition to return the question to the ballot was thrown out on technicalities.

But while the end of the rent control question--what Koocher calls a "sexy" political issue--might have lowered political involvement, the story of Cambridge's declining activism is more complex.

For residents such as Richard B. Sisson--a clinical researcher--today's issues still matter. He lists without hesitation the local problems he thinks need to be solved.

"Rent control, where money is being spent in the town, less and less affordable places for working people to live, the trend toward making things more upscale," Sisson says.

But his concerns, however, have not transformed into political involvement.

Sisson is another recent arrival to the city--he moved in last June--who has not made any move to take part in local politics.

"It's general apathy, I guess," Sisson says.

A Dying Breed

As in many past years, the agenda of the City Council has dealt with familiar themes like halting development, protecting open space and expanding affordable housing.

And as Cambridge Election Commission chair Wayne "Rusty" Drugan points out, the City Council still holds five progressives and four left-of-center Independents--as it did when rent control was voted out.

But according to Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio, this does not necessarily mean that new residents are equally passionate about liberalism--or even voting. Instead, Galluccio says Cambridge's old guard of liberals might just be the only ones who show up at the polls.

Since an all-time high of 27,593 voters in 1989, voting in municipal elections has consistently declined. A low of 17,299 Cantabrigians cast ballots in 1997, followed by 19,161 last year.

Galluccio says as local voters have died or moved away, they have not been replaced by active new voters.

"That's why I don't think you've seen any drastic changes in terms of who's being elected," he says. "It's [been] a similar voting base since the end of rent control."

Even in neighborhoods where residents' activism remains forceful, the number of activists is usually small.

"At one level, there seems to be this great concern about development in the city, but I sometimes wonder whether that's because we have a well-organized minority here," says one city official who asked to remain anonymous.

He says local politics has not captured many of the voters who could have been expected to replace and reinvigorate Cambridge's voting base.

For many, like Kartwicki, this is because they do not plan to stay in the city very long. And others say they just cannot find enough time in the day to concentrate on local politics.

"People moving in are very work-oriented, job-oriented, career-oriented," says Geneva P. Malefant, the vice president of the Cambridge Civic Association. "People think it's just one more thing that they have to spend time on when they don't have any more time."

A High-Tech Magnet

Over the past decade, and especially within the last few years, Cambridge has become a center for high-tech industries that demand a different kind of employee than the city's traditional manufacturing base.

New high tech businesses have sprung up because of the proximity to Harvard and MIT.

"[The city] has become almost a magnet for pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies and informational companies," Duehay says.

More white-collar jobs seem to have translated into lower political participation.

A younger population comes to the city for the work, stays for a few years and moves on to another job in another city.

"Cambridge is increasingly more of a working city than a residential city," says Nicholas P. Retsinas, the director of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. "Historically, it was a residential community that also was a job center."

Along with bringing a different kind of residents into the city, the high tech companies have brought a huge amount of wealth into Cambridge.

In a phenomenon known as gentrification, property prices have risen, Central Square is getting an upscale makeover--and the middle class is fading away.

The Hour Glass Effect

Gentrification has brought many changes: rising incomes and property values across the city, an Abercrombie and Fitch in the once fiercely small-business Harvard Square and an increasing squeezing out of the middle class.

It has also meant fewer families.

"You're getting the extremes--the young and the not-so-young," Retsinas says. "That kind of population sees city government differently than a population of families with young children."

Extremes are becomingly increasingly evident in wealth as well as age--an effect that Retsinas calls the "hourglass economy."

As in the U.S., the stable middle class in Cambridge is disappearing and being replaced by the affluent and the very poor.

"The changing demographic changes the way people perceive city government," Retsinas says.

"For some at the high end, city government becomes less relevant. For some at the lower end, they're so busy surviving that when they need city government, it's most likely because of a crisis," he says.

State Rep. Alice Wolf says she has noted an upswing of people in extreme need. She says her office has been deluged by people who can't pay their bills.

"On a continual basis, we have people who are calling who are homeless, who are about to be evicted, who can't pay their rents," Wolf says.

On the other side, the well-off have been choosing more and more to send their children to private schools--removing an important link with the rest of Cambridge's famously diverse community.

With 1,400 empty seats, Cambridge public schools are struggling to fill their capacity, and school enrollment has declined 10 percent since 1995.

"The people who are moving in are the people who can afford to send their kids to private schools," says Cambridge Public Schools spokesperson Lois Sullivan, sighing in frustration.

How To Turn the Tide?

Despite a lackluster political climate, city leaders say they are hoping for a civic renewal.

Last week, the city held the first in a series of six meetings to solicit public input into the city's overarching goals. And the City Council recently mailed a survey to all the city's residents asking them to identify important city issues and to say how city services could be improved.

"We're really trying to reach out and engage residents in the civic life of the city," Councillor Kathleen Born says.

And Galluccio says he is optimistic that new voters will get involved in solving local issues that directly affect their quality of life such as new libraries and youth centers.

But while city officials are struggling to mobilize new residents to become involved in local politics and worrying that they might lose their classic Democratic voting base, a Republican conversion in Cambridge seems unlikely.

Recent-arrival Roye A. Bourke, who lives a few blocks from the Square and eschews local politics, says her Nov. 7 vote is still safely Democratic.

"I don't know how any thinking person can vote Republican, especially considering the appointments that might happen in the Supreme Court," she says. "To me that's a no-brainer."