Candidates Questionnaire -
1. Many residents
feel that their property taxes are too high, and that because of this they
cannot afford to buy a house or rent an apartment to stay in
The property tax bomb was
unfair. It hit moderate-income people more than high-income people; it hit the
elderly and people on fixed incomes; it hit families in moderate- and
low-income neighborhoods; it hit renters whose landlords had to pass on the tax
increase to them. Regressive tax increases should not happen in
The property tax bomb was
disrespectful. Most homeowners didn't find out about their huge increase until
they opened their property tax bill -- "policy by heart attack" is
not a good way to run a city. The City Council knew about the shock value of
the tax increase last October. If they could get the tax bills out to every
taxpayer -- they could have also gotten out a mailing warning people about a big
tax increase coming. A few infomercials on CCTV don’t constitute public notice.
People need to be able to plan their finances.
And the property tax bomb
was unnecessary. It raised an extra $8 million in revenue. The city budget has
a surplus of $35 million. This is above and beyond the rainy day fund. That
surplus is just sitting in a bank account, unused, while hundreds of people are
selling their family homes and moving out of
The City Council has been
saying for decades that we need to encourage rental properties and protect
family-owned homes. I agree. But this tax increase does exactly the opposite --
it faces 2-family and 3-family homeowners with harsh alternatives: convert to
condominiums, or raise the rent, or sell and move out of
I've been researching the
property tax bomb since January. I analyzed the tax assessor's records to show
how unfair this tax increase is. You can see the results -- and explore the
database yourself -- by visiting my website www.CambridgeTaxBomb.com
2. How can we make
public transportation better in
I support transit-oriented
development -- high-density development near mass transit hubs. We have two
very large development projects coming to
Specifically, large-scale
developments should have T passes written into their deeds and leases. If you
want to build a high-rise, you must commit contractually to bulk-purchases of T
passes for your tenants and/or employees. This kind of financial encouragement
We can also encourage
public transportation usage by providing truly useful information on both the T
and the bus systems. Every T station should have large maps showing
people where they are, how they might walk to their destination, and how they
can find buses to their destination. Every bus stop should have a bus
route, major points of interest on the route, and a full bus schedule -- not
just the terminal point of the route (for example, the 77 bus on Mass Ave says
"Arlington Heights" which gives no indication that it stops in
Porter, three blocks from Davis, and all through North Cambridge along the
way).
3. What can the city
do to make sure that future negotiations with the city's unions are fair to
workers?
Our city government should
expect and encourage accountability and good-faith negotiations on both sides.
Please see more about my
vision for
4.
We should start with
establishing municipal internet as part of the city-financed infrastructure.
The city should partner with businesses and universities to set up a public
open internet wi-fi connection along the entire
We should bridge the
digital divide in
We need to see that our
children, and our adults, have opportunities to learn to use tech, through
public and nonprofit sources.
The best attraction
Finally, we need to “sell”
5. What
We need a city liaison who
attends university planning meetings, so the universities know the city's needs
and vice-versa. We need a person who understands the university
administrations, who can work university politics, and who can align the
enlightened self interests of town and gown. This is an issue of community
wellbeing aligned with city planning – it has to get through to the development
groups at the universities from the highest executive level, or it won’t be
effective.
I’m particularly hopeful
that the new president at MIT
We should expand PILOT
(university payments in lieu of taxes) to include non-monetary goals that
benefit
For example, I would like
to see Harvard-TV and MIT-TV as part of CCTV's community cable broadcasting. I
would like to open more university lectures and libraries to residents, and
publicize them to residents. I would like to see discounts for city residents
at university arts and cultural events. I would like to see more scholarships
for city resident high school grads to
6. What can City
Council do to ensure that future development is not environmentally harmful?
Cars are the largest
polluter and largest source of congestion, so mass transit policy should always
come first in any discussion of environmental goals. We should make our city
government a model for better mass transit and alternative transportation --
for example, by using electric vehicles for the city fleet; and by giving T
passes to all city employees.
We must focus in our
development planning on the needs of people, not just the needs of cars. If
there’s a new development off
I would like to see the
We should encourage
education, volunteerism and nonprofit activism on other environmental issues
such as climate change, water usage reduction, recycling, and so on. The people
of
-- Jesse Gordon
1770 Mass Ave #630
(617) 320-6989
jesse@jessegordon.org
http://www.jessegordon.org