Ayesha Wilson, Running for Second Term, Wants To Bring More Voices Into City Council Conversations

{image id=1366157 align=left size=large byline=true caption="Ayesha M. Wilson is running for reelection to the Cambridge City Council."

Cambridge City Councilor Ayesha M. Wilson is running for a second term on the promise that she will do her best to ensure that no residents’ concerns are overlooked.

Wilson, who has staked out a position as a moderate on the Council, does not have a signature issue, though her first reelection campaign emphasizes making Cambridge affordable and accessible. But she does have a signature approach to Council discussions: “centering” the voices of residents whose perspectives she thinks are falling through the cracks.

The incumbent councilor, who served two terms on Cambridge’s School Committee before running for a seat in Sullivan Chamber, said her more than 20-year career engaging with youth as a social worker and public servant has guided her work as an elected official.

“I would either hear the stories or see and witness challenges that our young people were faced with each and every day, and it really opened my eyes up to, ‘What can I do? How can I use my voice to help and support our young people?’ So I ran for School Committee, and I was successful,” Wilson said in an interview.

Wilson’s policy stances often lead toward the center, though she is also an advocate of some causes championed by the Council’s progressive wing.

Like many of her colleagues, she has been an ardent backer of establishing universal pre-K in Cambridge and expanding after-school care.

She proposed an amendment to place new conditions on Cambridge’s zoning overhaul before ultimately joining seven of her colleagues in a vote to end single-family zoning this spring — and is the only candidate in the race who boasts endorsements from both A Better Cambridge and the Cambridge Citizens Coalition, two advocacy groups with super PAC wings on opposite sides of Cambridge’s housing development debates.

Wilson was not endorsed by the city’s third major super PAC — Cambridge Bicycle Safety — and said that some residents see her as “anti-biker” after her vote in favor of delaying the installation of separated bike lanes on Broadway Street.

For Wilson, the practice of centering voices is often a reason to slow down and tread carefully. As the Council debates bike lane installation, she has voiced concerns for residents affected by the construction. Her opposition to the Broadway Street bike lanes has been driven by the required removal of parking from one side of the street.

“When we reduce parking by 50 percent on any given street, it’s going to have a ripple effect,” Wilson said. “What I struggle with with our city is the lack of consideration to what that ripple actually looks like. It does not engage the community in trying to find alternatives to this. All we have done is created more division and divisiveness around our communities.”

The city’s discussions on bike lanes, Wilson said, do not consider the voices of elderly or disabled residents, who depend on transport by car or drop off meal services.

“We need to be more thoughtful about who uses our streets and how they use our streets. When we think about folks who are elderly, and folks who may need PCA care or meals to be dropped off to them, if that creates a burden for those who have to provide those services, that’s only going to impact the quality of life for those residents,” Wilson said. “There has been no discussion around how we address that.”

Wilson said she takes that approach across the range of issues that cross her desk.

“Oftentimes, I say, ‘I really appreciate this conversation,’ or I say things like, ‘Who are we actually not centering when we make this policy? What are the unintended consequences?’” Wilson said.

“What people have said to me is that they appreciate my curiosity, but also my questioning of: Who are we leaving behind, who’s not being centered in the decisions that are being made?” she added.

When it comes to affordable housing — the city’s number one issue, according to voters — Wilson said she wants to target middle class families and bring more of them into Cambridge.

“Social housing is one that would really open up the doors for our middle-income, moderate-income folks, the families that are really thinking about ‘is Cambridge the place for me.’ The cost of housing is so hard and high,” Wilson said.

Wilson said she sees value in both the CCC and ABC, which have each endorsed her for two election cycles in a row, despite their conflicting priorities.

“While they may be on the further ends of the spectrum, the reasons why I sought their endorsements is because they all value affordable housing,” Wilson said. “I think that our approaches to everything may not be the most perfect one, and I may not be 1,000 percent aligned with any of the groups, but what I will say is that they value me as a voice.”

If elected for another term, Wilson said she wants to place special emphasis on welfare programs in jeopardy due to federal funding uncertainty.

“Given the administration that we’re in, given the dire needs of programs being cut and funding, and recognizing that so many of our families, our most vulnerable families, are really struggling to put food on the table, there is a heightened need to be addressing a few things at the same time,” Wilson said.

She said her campaign and governing priorities are a product of her own background in the city.

“I’m a mom. I grew up here in Cambridge, public school, public housing in an immigrant household. I’m a social worker and someone who has devoted my life to serving — especially our young people in the city of Cambridge,” Wilson said. “I want to make sure that we continue to create a Cambridge where people want to be here and enjoy living here.”

—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.

—Staff writer Jack B. Reardon can be reached at jack.reardon@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @JackBReardon.