Cambridge City Council Candidates

[fattony]

I've been doing some research on the Cambridge City Council candidates. The election is coming up November 5th and there are 25 candidates running for 9 seats. Voting is done by ranking (1st choice, 2nd choice, etc). I'm hoping this thread can help all Cambridge residents find good candidates and motivate us to actually go to the polls.

I'm looking for pro-urbanism candidates worth voting for. I'm still working on my list and compiling comments on each candidate, but I'd like to solicit input from aB members. Who do you like? Who has a good pro-urbanism track record and who is big ol' NIMBY?

 

[JohnKeith]

I'm looking forward to your posts.

The catty guy in me wonders if there are any pro-urbanism candidates for Cambridge City Council.

 

[fattony]

This is not my analysis, but is from the group called "A Better Cambridge." I am not a member of the group, but their goals and objectives are very much in line with mine. My list is shaping up similar to this, but I was surprised by some discrepancies between my (cursory) research and their (undoubtedly more thorough) research. I'll have to dive back in before posting my final list, but here is theirs:

http://www.abettercambridge.org/201...e&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ctycnclrate13

http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.ne...2792356/ABC_CandidateGrid_2013.pdf?1382792356

 

[fattony]

Here are my rankings as of now, a week from the election. I'm sure these will get shuffled before the end, but none of these is a bad person to have in city government.


100% Pro-growth, Pro-Development, Pro-Urbanism:
1) Leland Cheung
2) Ken Reeves

Very Minor Reservations:
3) Marc McGovern - Supports density, ToD, and urbanism, but somehow rubs me a little wrong. Can't put my finger on it.
4) Sam Seidel - generally excellent, but supports Net-Zero. Probably could be reasoned out of it.

Third Tier - each has some minor drawback, but is preferable to the alternatives:
5) Dennis Benzan - primarily economic growth focused, his pro-urbanism seems to be a side-effect of that agenda
6) Denise Simmons - solid, but just a little skittish about density. I can't quite make out if she is pandering to NIMBYs or pro-development or both
7) Janneke House - seems to "get it" but shares a skittishness about density with Simmons.

Notable Rejections:
Minka vanBeuzekom - I had her higher before seeing the ABC analysis, I can't quite remember why. I think she manages to make each person hear what they want to hear - maybe that makes her a good politician. She has a weird Malthusian notion that growth now is ok, but there is a population limit of about 115,000.
Gary Mello - high probability of being the true identity of Rifleman. Comically grumpy. Concerned with the number of parking stickers on his volvo.