City Council Discusses ‘Building Community’

The hallway outside the Sullivan Chamber of City Hall was unusually silent during last night’s City Council meeting. The TV screen that would usually broadcast the meeting was black and the bench on which community activists generally sit was empty.

Inside, the nine city councillors gathered around in an informal roundtable discussion of goals to guide the city’s priorities over the next two years.

Councillors devoted much of their discussion to “building community” among different neighborhoods, racial and ethnic groups and between universities and neighborhoods.

To achieve this aim, they proposed projects such as assistance to new homeowners, a “Neighborhood Bill of Rights” and a Harvard-funded skating rink on the Cambridge Common.

Affordable housing, a perennial bread-and-butter issue for the council, was among the proposals for building community.

Councillors plan to focus on Cambridge residents who currently have incomes just above the cutoff for affordable housing assistance. They talked about beginning a homeowners’ assistance program that would help people afford taking out mortgages on homes.

Councillor Henrietta B. Davis proposed a “Neighborhood Bill of Rights” modelled on those in San Jose, Calif. and Tampa, Fla. The statement would guarantee certain city services to Cambridge’s many neighborhoods under the auspices of the Committee on Neighborhoods and Long-Term Planning led by Councillor Kenneth E. Reeves ’72.

Davis also commented on the importance of a sense of community in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

City Manager Robert W. Healy and Deputy City Manager Richard C. Rossi were also present at the meeting, and brought a voice of limited financial possibilities to the discussion.

Healy said the slowed economy would prevent the city from undertaking previously proposed projects, including the renovation of City Hall.

“Capital projects would have to be slowed given the economy,” Healy said.

Councillor Anthony D. Galluccio—former mayor and chair of the school committee who said he personally met with and advised every graduating senior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin while mayor—geared his comments on building community toward involving youth.

Galluccio proposed the building of two public recreational facilities—a skate park and an outdoor ice skating rink.

In the face of the tighter city budget, Galluccio proposed an alternative way to fund the skating rink, which he said should be the Cambridge Common’s version of the Boston Common’s Frog Pond.

“I’m sure that Harvard could pay for it,” Galluccio said.

—Staff writer Stephanie M. Skier can be reached skier@fas.harvard.edu.