A few months ago, I asked in this column if Cambridge politics was dead. I do not know if readers took this question to heart. I certainly did.
I have come to believe more and more that the underlying question in this city is not an issue of specific city services, or the city manager, or even the property tax rate. The S1seidel060_8underlying question in this community its identity in a new era.
I do believe that Cambridge has transitioned into a new era. The rise in housing prices over the past two decades has altered the “look and feel” of Cambridge irrevocably.
Sam Seidel
Every longtime resident knows this, and many lament the shift. It plays itself out in large ways (try buying a house here), and in incidental ways (lack of street life in Harvard Square).
Schools are a perennial issue, and rightly so. But Cambridge’s small school population (5,600 students according to a recent Boston Globe article) may be a harbinger of another shift in this community. We have an aging population that is in need of its own set of services.
Meanwhile, in the schools, we are seeing a trend that should give us pause. The schools are pursuing the important goal of diversity by using socioeconomic indicators rather than race.
The result according to The Globe is that racial imbalance in the schools has gone up since the plan was implemented, from less than 40 percent of the schools imbalanced in 2002 to almost 60 percent today.
Indeed, I think this encapsulates the fundamental challenge that we as a community face: the ideals that underpin our community are being put under the strain of a society that is separating along income lines into separate, distinct, and increasing disconnected worlds.
I believe this ought to be a concern to us as citizens.
As Cambridge becomes wealthier overall, there is a great worry that we will become two separate systems, of “haves” and “have a lot lesses”, with a perniciously strong correlation to race, and all of this in a city that is both wealthy and very well intentioned.
How do we bridge this gap? A recent survey conducted by Cambridge Public Schools found that full 79 percent of parents surveyed feel that a public school education is important to them (as opposed to sending their children to private school).
Meanwhile, 32 percent of parents who have withdrawn their children from the public schools cited their worries over a lack of a quality education and academics.
Middle class parents whom I have talked to say that Cambridge Rindge and Latin works well for students who are self-starters, but does not serve those who aren’t.
Cambridge’s laudable commitment to the creation of affordable housing hasn’t been able to keep pace with overall demand.
Our new model of governing is just that, a new model. We must find a way to balance the legitimate needs of people to live in this city with our resources. It must have a commitment to governmental efficiency, but it also must be infused with a commitment to equity and opportunity.
This societal challenge is fundamentally about our values, and what we hold as important for ourselves and for our community.
In that sense, it is slightly different than our commitment to the environment, or our belief that a wireless network for Cambridge is important, or more street trees, because in a more fundamental way it gets to the core of what we think this community ought to be. The past is past.
Our challenge is to define our future and we need to start this conversation now.
