These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City Calendar and in the city’s Open Meetings Portal.
A car approaches Aberdeen Avenue on Mount Auburn Street in West Cambridge. (Image: Google)
Talk of reparations returns
Civic Unity Committee, 5 to 7 p.m. Monday. This committee run by city councillor E. Denise Simmons learns about a proposed “Cambridge Truth and Reconciliation Task Force” from activists. There were two reparations and restitution proposals brought up in City Council in 2021, stemming in part from work with cannabis retailers after the federal government’s failed “war on drugs” and a study that put the median net worth of Boston area American-born Black families at $8, compared with $247,000 for white families. The orders were tabled in favor of getting more input from the community. The committee meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Plan for Friends’ former offices
Planning Board, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. A hearing continues from June 8 on a redevelopment of 2161 Massachusetts Ave., where the proposal is to move and expand the former two-story American Friends Service Committee office building near Porter Square, creating a mixed-use building with eight housing units, office space on the ground floor and seven parking spaces. The Planning Board called the parking lot too small. There’s also an extension asked on an apartment project at 88 Holworthy St., Strawberry Hill, resulting from a torrent of litigation – recently resolved, according to the owners – from the person staying in the decaying 1872 structure now on the property. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Changes on Mount Auburn Street
Mount Auburn Street at Aberdeen Avenue intersection safety improvement project meeting, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Lanes for cars heading toward Watertown and Belmont on this stretch of road in West Cambridge go to one from two with improvements to Mount Auburn between Belmont and Brattle streets, including at two intersections within: at Aberdeen Avenue and Homer Avenue. A bus lane is being extended, bike lanes are being improved and turn lanes added. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.