Ben Simon

Cambridge resident and teacher Ben T. Simon declared his inaugural candidacy for Cambridge City Council earlier this year, running to advocate for rent control and against corporate development.

Simon said he is seeking to join the City Council on a platform aimed at combating gentrification and the displacement of low-income residents. The average rent for an apartment in Cambridge has seen an average annual increase of five percent over the past five years, making it one of the most expensive places to rent on the East Coast, according to RentCafe.

Simon added that increasing rent prices, fueled by development and lack of rent control, drive out low-income people from Cambridge in order to support new higher-income residents.

“What development ends up meaning in many contexts is just development for some at the exclusion of others,” he said.

Simon credited his personal experience with displacement for fostering his interest in public service. He spent his childhood in Porter Square, at a time when rent control capped Cambridge housing costs. After a statewide referendum in 1994 banned rent control, Simon said his family had to move to the Midwest due to “skyrocketing” rents.

“When we were uprooted from our community like that, it shaped my whole view of reality of how cities work and of how unfair cities frequently are,” he said.

If he is elected to the City Council Nov. 5, Simon said his long-term goals are to end displacement and homelessness in Cambridge.

“It’s not entirely clear to me how we get there, but rent control and social housing are definitely tools to get to that goal,” Simon said.

As part of his mission to represent lower-income residents, Simon has pledged to only take home as much of his city councilor salary as he currently makes working as an after-school teacher.

“If I take a huge pay raise, I’m suddenly not in their shoes. I’m no longer low-income. It’s hard to represent people when you’re not in their shoes,” Simon said.

He added that he will use the remainder of his paycheck to promote community organizing efforts.

Simon said that he also supports policies aimed at making the public more engaged in city policy and preventing large corporations from influencing elected officials.

“I’m a socialist. I think capitalism is a fundamentally immoral, broken economic system. Under capitalism, democracy never really works. Elected representatives are not powerful but rather playthings of the powerful,” Simon said.

Simon also said he sees faults within higher education institutions in Cambridge, which he views as drivers of rising housing costs in the city.

“We need to be asking Harvard and MIT for a lot more in taxes especially because their presence, in large part, is what is driving gentrification and displacement,” Simon said.

He also said he hopes to see an increase in student pressure on university administrators to pay local taxes, citing Harvard students’ past involvement in advocating for rent control.

“I hope that some Harvard students are jazzed up about Harvard doing more to help Cambridge in terms of paying more taxes. It’s very likely it can’t happen without Harvard students’ help,” Simon remarked.

MIT spokesperson Sarah E. Gallop cited the university’s Town-Gown report in response to criticisms of their tax payments leveled by several City Council candidates.

“MIT is actually the largest taxpayer in Cambridge by a long shot,” Gallop said. “We pay taxes on all our commercial property and offer payment in lieu of taxes on all our academic property.”

Harvard spokesperson Brigid O’Rourke wrote in an emailed statement that the University does not comment on elections or individual candidates. She directed The Crimson to previous statements about Harvard’s contributions to the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program.

“Harvard has a long tradition of paying taxes and making voluntary PILOT payments to its host communities. During the last fiscal year, Harvard paid more than $4 million in a voluntary PILOT payment, as well as more than $6 million in taxes to the City of Cambridge,” O’Rourke has previously written.