Let’s Change Cambridge

Every post in next door is like “I was driving the other day and accidentally blew through a stop sign, I almost killed a kid that was crossing the street. Please have your kids be more aware.”

Top response: “The dsa e bike city council did this”

My understanding is that it helps, and one of the soil samples we got back was "fruits are fine, other stuff isn't", but we also got one that was rated "don't eat _anything_ you grew here".

Having done some soil testing I'm always a little wary about urban fruit. A few feet over one way or another in the yard the soil can go from "it's fine for fruit" to "hope you like Black Sabbath".

My experience is that Cambridge teachers are for the most part wonderful, principals are hit or miss, and the CPSD district administration is often a shitshow.

Although a lot of this particular fiasco also seems like the fault of Mayor Simmons and the School Committee.

My grandparents were a tiny minority, Jews living in Western Europe in the 1930s. Back then Buttigieg would've been explaining that we need to take the antisemites and Nazi seriously in order to "bring people together."

If you're running out of hope, you can still find nourishment in the deepest reservoir of the human soul: spite.

“They believe in the idea that Christianity says they should be helping the homeless, which is fine,” said Jane Becker, who lives across the street from the church. “But aren’t you supposed to love your neighbors as well?”

also, FCS (I haven't decided yet whether to call it "my" church) is being sued by some neighbors, who want to stop them from opening a low-threshold adult shelter in the church building. this article about it from last year contains an amazing quote: archive.is/202408291359...

*reading the first few stanzas of the poem* Phew, looks like they're never going to come for me. Good thing I never spoke up.

That's my preference too, and so I wish the business owners didn't spend so much energy making it harder for me to shop locally.

Oh, I like local restaurants, and eat at many, I just don't think the fact they're small businesses makes them care about me in any way. It's pretty clear from both smoking bans and bike lanes that most restaurant owners are so panicked about any change that they're fine with their customers dying.

Owner of 1369 personally wrote for delay on Cambridge St, as did owner of Hubba Hubba.

I could go on.

There are certainly exceptions, but it's a _really_ high percentage.

Huge number of business in North Cambridge fought that project.

A bunch of businesses on Mass Ave fought mid Mass Ave project.

Etc

Nope. The whole East Cambridge Business Association, essentially every business in Inman and East Cambridge, has fought bike lanes since 2019. Paid executive director, so they're effective. One attempt to kill them altogether with "reasonable" language, and they were pushing the 2 year delay.

And half of Porter Square business had signs up telling me:

(a) I wasn't a real neighbor
(b) my family's safety was far less important than 10 parking spots being removed.

And I've read the emails business owners have to written to Council calling for no bike lanes to be installed.

Every single time smoking bans we expanded, restaurant owners lobbied hard against it:

1984: www.nytimes.com/1984/07/07/s...
1994: www.thecrimson.com/article/1994...
2003: www.cbsnews.com/news/smoking...

The difference is that an indie restaurant owner will tell you to your face that in order to make more money, they're OK with you dying.

E.g. decades fighting indoor smoking bans, "it will destroy our businesses!!!". Now they fight bike lanes.

But the food is usually much better, at least.

I wish Mt Auburn agreed.

Main Street Safety Improvement Thank You Mini Ride! Connect with your community and celebrate the new pedestrian and micromobility improvements on Main St. Sunday, August third, 11:30 A M, Kendall MIT Open Space. Can't make it? You can still send a thank you to Council@CambridgeMA.gov and TPT@CambridgeMA.gov. Cambridge Bicycle Safety.

Main Street Safety Improvement Thank You Mini-Ride. Sunday, August Third. 11:30 A M, Gather in Kendall MIT Open Space. Put in food orders at Main Street restaurants. 11:50 A M, Ride down the new Main Street bike lanes together. Turn around at Lafayette Square (Main & Columbia). Split off at respective restaurants to pick up orders. 12:15 P M, Regroup in the Open Space & eat together! Cambridge Bicycle Safety members can also help you register to vote or get involved with safe street advocacy!

Excited to have safer rides and shorter pedestrian crossings on Main St. @cambridgemass.bsky.social! To celebrate, join @cambbikesafety.bsky.social for a mini group ride & lunch together this Sunday, August 3rd, meeting at 11:30 in the Kendall/MIT Open Space (just south of the T entrance)!

Mass! The Watertown Library has been experiencing organized harassment for including 2 books on summer readings lists; A Map for Falasteen & Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine It got over 2K emails from across the country & some local harassment, claiming these books are antisemitic 1/4

Ramban trash talking Rambam's theology but defending him on the basis he's strict about following the rules.

RFK Jr cut them all up for parts.

NORTH CAMBRIDGE PRO-HOUSING MEETUP Organize with A Better Cambridge IEPAC to elect a pro-housing city council Sunday, August 3 | 2-4 pm 16 Kassul Park, Cambridge affordable housing - environmental sustainability tenant protections - housing abundance Questions? Ask Alex: (617) 599-8613 alexjablokow@comcast.net

Join North #CambMA Pro-Housing Meetup Sunday Aug 3

Organize with www.abciepac.org to elect a pro-housing city council Aug 3 Sunday 2-4pm

Nom nom nom

Joined Cambridge residents at City Hall yesterday to protest recent ICE abductions in Central Square.

Federal actions like this are why
I’ve been pushing to strengthen our Welcoming Community Ordinance protections.

Looking forward to ordaining those amendments at our Council meeting on 8/4

A colorful sign on a green lawn. The left side of the sign reads, "Vote for Safer Streets! Find Cambridge City Council candidates who support separated bike lanes. [QR code] Bit.ly/VoteBikeLanes Cambridge Bicycle Safety IEPAC" On the right side of the is a cartoon depicting a woman and child bicycling in a green bike lane, while two people and a dog walk in a rainbow crosswalk, and a MBTA transit bus and Cambridge City Hall are in the background.

Have you seen our snazzy election yard signs? We are looking for hosts! These look great in your yard next to your favorite City Council candidate's sign, in a street-facing window, or even on your bike!

Sign up here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

(Artwork by @bikeyface.bsky.social )

Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders? A fear of being labelled antisemitic still deters American Jews and Jewish institutions from taking a position that is morally correct.

The mass starvation & killing of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli gov’t is a chillul hashem, a desecration of God.

Jewish leaders who criticized Zohran Mamdani for three words he doesn’t use should raise their voices loudly here as well.
forward.com/opinion/7575...

Amid rising starvation in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli government minister said on Thursday that Israel had no duty to alleviate hunger in the territory and was seeking to expel its population. Amichay Eliyahu, a far-right lawmaker who leads Israel’s Heritage Ministry, said in a radio interview that “there is no nation that feeds its enemies,” adding that “the British didn’t feed the Nazis, nor did the Americans feed the Japanese, nor do the Russians feed the Ukrainians now.” He concluded that the government was “rushing toward Gaza being wiped out,” while also “driving out the population that educated its people on the ideas of ‘Mein Kampf,’” an antisemitic text written by Adolf Hitler.

pretty telling comment here. Britain and America absolutely did feed and clothe Nazi and Japanese POWs during WWII. and they provided food and supplies to occupied territories as the war was won. the Hunger Plan by contrast was a Nazi thing

Gotta wonder if there was some Globe editorial internal conversation where they discussed what to do about people complaining about Jacoby, and decided that the solution was to hire Carine Hajjar.

Somewhat unrelatedly, Gumroad owner went to work for DOGE, so just on principle wouldn't want to work with them.

What I like to do is:

1. Substitute random fresh greens for basil (spinach, turnip greens, carrot greens, beet greens, kale...)
2. Substitute roasted sunflower seeds for pine nuts.

Not pesto, but it's good and not expensive and pestoesque.