Government Affairs: Archive January 31, 2007

The Council met Monday in a roundtable with the school committee to discuss educational issues. The Council’s Economic Development Committee met Tuesday to discuss the liquor license cap policy. On January 26, the Boston Globe ran an article about the Council’s proposal to regulate the nanotechnology industry. Councillor Galluccio followed-up on his comments from last Tuesday with a letter requesting input from the community on improving services provided at the City’s youth centers.

Next Tuesday the Planning Board holds its annual meeting to discuss Town-Gown Reports at 7:30 at the Cambridge Senior Center, 806 Massachusetts Ave.

Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy will be our guest at the March 27 GAC luncheon and meeting which will be held at noon at the Chamber Board Room. GAC members mentioned last fall that they would to hear from the City Manager annually so this is your opportunity.

On Monday the Council held a round table meeting with the School Committee to discuss the Cambridge Public Schools. This annual event allows members of the Council and School Committee to share information and discuss the Cambridge Schools.

On Tuesday the Council’s Economic Development, Training, and Employment Committee conducted a public meeting to continue discussion of the License Commission's cap policy relative to licenses to serve alcoholic beverages. The Council is gathering information to assist the License Commission, which has the authority to grant licenses and to institute its own policies, in changes to the current cap policy.

Participants expressed concern about the rapidly rising cost of licenses but also raised concerns about the economic impact of granting additional licenses on those who have purchased licenses in the current market. Issues were also raised about quality of life impacts of increasing the number of licensed establishments and the need for restaurants to have affordable licenses in order to compete in the market.

Committee Chair Marjorie Decker asked staff from the License Commission and the City’s Economic Development Division to draft a working document to guide future discussions on this matter. The Council is also looking to appoint a working group of stakeholders to work with the Committee in drafting recommendations for changes in the policy. Business organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce, will likely be part of this group.

Boston Globe Article on Proposed Nanotechnology Ordinance

Several weeks ago the Council, following the lead of Berkeley, California, passed an order asking the City Manager to “examine the Berkeley nanotechnology ordinance and recommend an appropriate ordinance for Cambridge.” The Globe reported on Friday that the Council asked the City’s Public Health Department to draft an ordinance and the article includes a discussion of the Berkeley ordinance and issues surrounding such an action. The Globe article is available at Cambridge considers nanotech curbs. The Cambridge City Council Order is available at Policy Order 11. The Berkeley ordinance is available at Berkeley Nanotechnology Ordinance.

Request for Input on Improving Youth Centers

Councillor Anthony Galluccio mentioned a series of meetings he and Councillor Marjorie Decker are holding at the City’s Youth Centers to gather information on how to improve the services offered to Cambridge youth. He sent the letter copied below and asked that I forward it on to members of the GAC. At Tuesday’s luncheon he said that the Council is looking for input and ideas and members of the business community are welcome to be part of this discussion either by attending one of these meetings or forwarding comments and ideas to the City Council.

As you may know, over my seven terms on the City Council and as Mayor I have worked extremely hard to support and expand our city's youth programs. Councillor Marjorie Decker and I, as Co-Chairs of the City Council Committee on Human Services, are engaging in a visioning process for our City’s youth centers.

The elected officials of Cambridge have been increasingly supportive of our City’s various youth centers. Our job now is to maximize utilization of all our centers.

We will host a series of four community forums to discuss the current programs and talk about the future of our youth centers. We are asking you to join us in a facilitated discussion and sharing of ideas to help improve and strengthen our youth programs. As you may know, our youth centers provide programming at both the teen and pre-teen levels, serving boys and girls from ages 9-19. Our goal is to fill our youth centers with a representative and diverse population of young people and to engage them with interesting and exciting supervised activities

Please join us at one of our upcoming forums:

Thursday January 25 @ Gately - 70R Rindge Avenue
Thursday February 1 @ Area IV - 243 Harvard Street
Thursday February 8 @ Moore - 12 Gilmore Street

(All forums start at 7PM Refreshments and Child Care Available (Please Register). For more info call 617-349-6200)

With your important input we can help plan the vision for the four existing centers, as well as the new center on the way for West Cambridge.

We urge you to attend at least one of these forums and look forward to seeing you there.

Anthony D. Galluccio

Co-Chair
Human Services Committee