Alex

Marc Levy launches the Cambridge/Somerville Independent (csindie.com).

They're not even bumping the Olympics for the first 14 minutes!

Eastern Edge Food Hall is now open in Cambridge's Kendall Square, 290 Main St.

Featuring these restaurants:
Bacaro Café & Bar
Clover
Everybody Gotta Eat
Fuji
Juicy J's
Lone Star Taco
Perillas Korean Kitchen
Viêt Citron

#CambMA

www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/13/l...

Should be fine, although I rarely leave more than 5 tabs open, so I'm not sure how bad it can get. But a relative needed a new computer for web browsing and TurboTax and we got that one.

Yes, but do you have a monitor already? It doesn't come with one.

For the first time in a few years, Cambridge #CambMA has posted Kindergarten lottery results. No data for CPP (preschool), although some of it can be estimated using rising PK numbers. www.cpsd.us/administrati...

Massachusetts electric and gas customers will get relief on their bills in February and March. But gas customers will pay that back in full and could be charged interest.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/gov-maura-healey-announces-temporary-rate-cuts-amid-soaring-heating-bills/70083758 

screenshot of text from Adam Serwer in The Atlantic: "The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they're the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive - because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about "Western civilization," while armed brutes try to tear it down by force."

bars

A heck of a chart: in every single one of the 10 major US cities that built the most housing between 2017 and 2023, rents for older, existing units fell—often by quite a bit.

In a 9pm Tuesday message to @cambridgeday.com contributors, editor Michael Fitzgerald announces that founder Marc Levy @mhlevy.bsky.social "has resigned effective immediately."

I don't know any of the details nor the backstory.

Why a College Fighting for Survival Is Slashing Econ and Physics Majors At Albright in Pennsylvania, the new president is cutting programs, selling art and real estate, and vowing not to hire anyone with tenure. Is this the way forward for liberal arts colleges?

For a couple of years now, I've been fascinated with what's happening at small liberal arts colleges, which are running out of money for reasons unrelated to Trump funding cuts. Businessweek let me go deep on the problems, and one college that's trying to blaze a new trail.

How a 1940 electoral system reform in Cambridge made its 2025 housing breakthrough possible   - CommonWealth Beacon This is more than just a housing “win.” It’s a triumph for Cambridge’s unique brand of representative democracy—one that balances citywide priorities with fair representation for diverse communities.

Pulling out and expanding on one point from this article: ward-based elections disenfranchise renters. Because renters move more:

- They have a hard time running for office.
- Ward councilor incentives are to focus on the stable voter population: homeowners.

commonwealthbeacon.org/opinion/how-...

Are You An American? "They" Are Preparing You for "Hard Times"

www.yesigiveafig.com/p/are-you-an...

Diverse Food Hall Coming To Cambridge The multi-vendor eatery is opening in Kendall Square near MIT.

Cambridge #CambMA favorites Clover and Everybody Gotta Eat will open at Kendall Square's new Eastern Edge food hall in 2026, with Juicy Jay's, Perillas (Brighton), and Viet Citron (Somerville's Bow Market).

The windows at 290 Main St have said "Future Food Hall" for years

patch.com/massachusett...

Cambridge restaurants that were named Michelin Recommended:

Giulia
Moëca
Oleana
Pammy’s
Urban Hearth

#CambMA

Jahunger, Pagu, Sumiao Hunan Kitchen are the Cambridge winners of the Michelin Bib Gourmand. #CambMA

The city's unofficial results from today have David Weinstein elected to Cambridge School Committee rather than Eugenia Schraa Huh.

Per the release, part of the cause of this was test ballots incorrectly being counted on Tuesday.

www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/...

Per the city, the high number of alphabetical ballots were test ballots that were incorrectly included. Today's unofficial results don't show that pattern. www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/...

What I was going for in that post was:

1. 2025 voters in precincts on JHawk's live reported results / 2023 official voters in those same precincts

2. 2023 unofficial prelim voters for all precincts / 2023 official voters for all precincts

Yes - in this post I was using prelim unofficial in both cases. I think I had the prelim unofficial data saved locally rather than accessing the city website. bsky.app/profile/awca...

My ultimate theory is that we saw more SC-first voters in 2025 than in previous elections, but the large number of candidates on the ballot compels SC-first to rank their CC choices alphabetically, and vice versa.

Mail-in voting may also be a factor: you might feel compelled to return all ballots.

Comparing that to the 2023 election's school committee is tough, because there were so many fewer candidates.

Bejnood to Harding (2nd) 17%
Pierre to Rojas Villarreal 18%
Travers to D. Weinstein (5th) 11%

Note: Bejnood to Harding did appear in 2025 non-consecutively, and that was only 5%.

Note also this effect was also present in the School Committee votes.

Gause to Goetz 39%
Bejnood to Bowers 35%
Coburn to de Paula Santos 29%
Battle to Bowers 19%
Bowers to de Paula Santos 49%
Lee to Roja Villarreal 14%
Goetz to Harding 11% (elected) + Havstad 18%
Hunter to Jaikumar (3rd) 14%

Plus, we only saw the transfers from the bottom 8 candidates, who got 16% of the #1 votes.

Extrapolating this to other candidates whose votes didn't transfer suggests ~3000 voters who ranked CC candidates alphabetically. That may be excessive - voters might choose #1 intentionally, then #2 alpha.

Looking at ideologically similar but differently alphabetized candidates, there are ~500 more voters who voted the bottom 8 candidates #1 and subsequents alphabetically, than the rates from the previous election.

That's more than the turnout difference between the School Committee and City Council!

Note that in 2025, there was only 1 transfer between candidates that were endorsed by the same group (Wilson to Zusy, CCC).

In 2023, all but the first transfer were between candidates with shared endorsements.

Winters to Zusy was higher in 2025 despite sharing CCC endorsements in 2023.

Compare to the notably lower numbers of alphabetical transfers in the 2023 election:

Hsu to Klein (3rd) 9%
Pierre to Simmons 24%
Pasquarello to Pickett (2nd) 12%
Wang to Wilson (4th) 7%
Winters to Zusy (2nd) 13%
Muchnik to Nolan 15%
Walker to Wilson 17%
Brown to Hanratty 16%

The bottom 4 CC candidates all transferred more votes to the next alphabetical candidate than any other candidate:

Battle to Bisio 51%
Winters to Zusy 33%
Rivkin to Sherin 21%
Sherin to Simmons 31%
Melanson to Nolan (3rd) 18%
Hsu to Nolan 22%
Bisio to Bullister (2nd) 22%
Wilson to Zusy (2nd) 15%