Each January offers that opportunity to imagine and envision what the New Year holds. 2007 does not break this rule, and it's fair to say that Cambridge will face many significant challenges in the New Year, and these challenges will require determined commitment on the part of the leaders at all levels.

First, it should be noted that Deval Patrick's new administration on Beacon Hill comes with high expectations. He starts the New Year with his cabinet in place. The true strength of a newly elected official is not their own skills and abilities, whatever they may be, but all the people they can bring into government. It's what makes me groan when a Republican ascends, and what makes me hopeful in our current situation. In a state that is overwhelmingly Democratic, the pent-up energy after 16 years to have a Democrat in the corner office is palpable.

Patrick's sensibilities should jibe well with the Cambridge ethic. He spent his young adulthood living in this town (albeit at Harvard), he ran as a progressive, and his vote totals were exceptionally strong here.

But much of city's future is in the hands of the city alone. Many strategic decisions are local in nature: they position the city in relation to its region and to the larger economy, both national and increasingly, international. Picking a path for the future needs an important combination of attention to detail joined with an ability to extract the trend out of the apparent chaos. In other words, it?s important to be able to see both the forest and the trees, and to realize that our understanding of one impacts our understanding of the other. Decisions designed to address an immediate need will have long-term implications, and long-term goals require a myriad of interim steps which, joined together, lead to that outcome.

When I ran for the City Council in 2005, here's a phrase I heard more often than not: Cambridge Ought To Be a Leader, which I always understood to mean that Cambridge has the right combination of politics and resources. The politics allow the citizenry to chart a course, and the resources mean that the city can pursue that course even in rough weather.

Cambridge politics are of course progressive politics -- a politics that uses the full gamut of tools, both public and private, to achieve ends that are both social and economic. A progressive politics does not shy away from public expenditures for public purposes, but neither does it abhor or demonize private initiative or risk or ability or capability to engage in that effort, whether social or economic. I think our greatest challenge is to understand more fully that our world is constantly morphing from an interrelated one to an interdependent one, with increasingly profound consequences for all.

Here are some areas that Cambridge needs to focus on in 2007:

Economic: Some people hear Bob Healy tout our AAA Bond Rating and feel that we've sold our Liberty for our Comfort. I do not join that legion. Cambridge is in an enviable position. We have money to spend on goals we support, and we can develop programs to address those needs. A progressive politics invests in its citizenry. The investment of money makes real the expression of hopes. This, however, will require Cambridge to constantly position itself for the changing economics of the future.

Social: The wrenching truth for the city of Cambridge is its changing demographics. It is a city that has always been a city of "always been here" and "just arrived". Most cities are. But the cost escalation of the last twenty years is real, and its impact in the housing market has been devastating. The challenge is relentless, the answers not obvious. On the one hand, Cambridge sits in its enviable position because it's attractive to the very top of the economic pile, the "creative class" that sociologist Richard Florida talks about. At the same time, being attractive to the artists and designers and doctors and lawyers of this group forces out the old backbone of the middle-class, policemen and firemen and teachers. Economics will continue to drive these demographics in spite of the city's laudable commitment to affordable housing. And then, of course, there are the schools ...

 

Environmental: In a global sense, this is the big one, if not the first on the stove. Environmental changes are real, and their potential impact is catastrophic. The city has committed itself to all the right words, but it's not clear that they fully understand what those words mean. Here, Cambridge does not lead. Boston, among others, is ahead of us.

Politics: If we haven't traded our Liberty for our Comfort (see above), we have exactly nurtured it either. Neighbors don't feel part of neighborhoods, and neighborhoods feel ignored by the city. As a city, we're losing kids, we're getting older and some say more distant. Frustrations abound, and people want to find a way to improve things. With a proliferation of groups and organizations, one would think we've got the vehicles we need to get us there. But we don't. Real leadership is needed here, only more so when the day comes to hire a new city manager.

These are the challenges for us in this New Year. With that said, let's get started.