Iskovitz Hopes for Greener City

Steve Iskovitz wants to bring a fresh approach to Cambridge politics—both literally and figuratively.

The Mass. Green Party candidate for a spot on the Cambridge City Council has crafted a platform that mixes anti-establishment political ideals with environmentally friendly agenda proposals such as reducing traffic and using solar heating in new housing developments.

A newcomer to the political scene, the 41-year-old Iskovitz, who has lived in Cambridge since 1985, has never held public office.

But while he admits that his lack of name recognition and a proven record present problems for his campaign, he says his non-political background may actually be the quality which makes him the most appealing to Cambridge voters this Election Day.

“I’m not a career politician,” Iskovitz says. “I’m concerned about the community, and that’s really why I’m running.”

The Agenda

The need for more affordable housing in Cambridge is one of the central issues on Iskovitz’s platform.

He says that the repeal of rent control put into effect by a 1994 statewide referendum has caused rents to triple—and in some neighborhoods quadruple—and has displaced a large number of working-class and poor families.

“The city had no backup plan, and people just got forced out of the city,” Iskovitz says, adding that the City Council did not do enough to offset the upward pressure on rents that followed the abolition of rent control.

Affordable housing is a cause that has long been dear to Iskovitz’s heart. Throughout the late 1980s, Iskovitz worked with a group from the Cambridge Tenants Union, and in 1999, he became a member of the Cambridge Citizens Union for Rent Equity, which tried to bring rent control back to Cambridge through a referendum.

Though that referendum was kept off the ballot due to a technicality, reinstating rent control remains one of Iskovitz’s top priorities, even if changes in the city’s political climate since 1994 may make that a quixotic quest.

Iskovitz says he agrees with those who say that the old system of rent control had several fundamental flaws that would need to be corrected.

“I shy away from using the term ‘reinstating,’ because I think we need a fair system of rent control that doesn’t pit landlords against tenants,” Iskovitz says. “We need rents that are low enough to be affordable to tenants but high enough that landlords can afford to do upkeep.”

Iskovitz also favors reducing traffic in Cambridge, a problem which he says not only pollutes the city but also is reflective of commercial interests that take up valuable space that could be used for more housing.

“Progress means reducing automobile traffic,” Iskovitz says. “In Cambridge, they still seem to think progress means increasing automobile traffic.”

Halting the movement for increased commercial zoning and reversing further expansion by Harvard and MIT are two other steps Iskovitz hopes to take to ameliorate the affordable housing shortage in Cambridge.

Iskovitz says one of the first steps towards putting his plans into action is ensuring a more democratic political system. Chief among his complaints is the fact that City Manager Robert W. Healy—the most powerful official in Cambridge—is unelected, with his now two-decade tenure extended periodically by the City Council.

“I realize that it would be a lot of work to change the system. But until then, the City Council needs to control the city manager—right now they treat him as their boss,” Iskovitz says.

Though he says he knows it is unlikely that in a single term as a city councillor he could succeed in achieving all these goals, he says it is important to just get those issues on the table.

“I’ll put them on the agenda,” Iskovitz says. “It’s party-building.”

It’s Not Easy Being Green

For Iskovitz, his campaign—the first Green Party candidacy for the Cambridge City Council—represents an opportunity, both for himself and the Mass. Green Party.

Iskovitz says Cambridge’s proportional representation system is ideal for a third-party movement—and an excellent way to grab a foothold in Massachusetts politics.

First he will need to overcome the drawbacks of being a third-party candidate, says local political pundit Glenn S. Koocher ’71.

“I’ve watched dozens of beginnings of small movements come and go,” Koocher says. “They might find it at the state or national level, but not on the local level.”

Iskovitz came to the Green Party after participating in anti-globalization protests in Washington, D.C. and Quebec which he says were too radical to effect any real change.

He started working with the Mass. Greens on a State House campaign, never thinking it would lead to his own candidacy.

“I wasn’t expecting to work on a City Council race—and I definitely wasn’t expecting it to be my own,” Iskovitz says.

Iskovitz says he is much more comfortable talking about policies than politics.

He is most animated when explaining the intracacies of why passive solar heating works or, when at an intersection near Central Square, he stops in the middle of the street to point out how little time is allowed for pedestrians to cross—yet another example, he says, of how traffic reduces the quality of life in Cambridge.

“I’d be a much better Cambridge city councillor than a Cambridge City Council candidate,” he says.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.