Remarks by Ben Wheeler
63 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 3
Just on that note of some fun events, I wanted to highlight the theater production of Iphigenia in Nathan Tufts Park, a.k.a. Patterhouse Park, which is just a really cool event. It's free. Anybody can come. You do not need to get a ticket in advance. It's going to be each Saturday and Sunday for three weekends in a row, starting September 26th, going all the way through October 11th, 4 p.m. Really cool. Everyone should go.
Thank you, Mr. President. I want to remember Larry Aronson, a Ward 2 resident and longtime Cambridge Ridge and Latin teacher who died last month. Larry had a huge impact on me, my family members, and friends. As a part of the passionate teaching body in CRLS's pilot school, Larry educated and sparked the imaginations of generations of CRLS students. He taught us to ask tough questions about our world and our values. The importance of that couldn't be clearer right now. Larry, our city and our country and our world, we're more alive and more just thanks to you and your fellow curiosity-seeking…
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate my colleagues putting forward this ordinance, and I also appreciate several people, including my colleague from Ward 7, pointing out how much more effective, how much more necessary it is in addressing the rat problem to address rats' access to food than using poisons. I did some research in the last couple weeks on this as an amateur person interested in this question. It's very consistent. Everybody agrees that poison is, in some cases, useful for temporarily depressing a rat population. But in the long term, there's no solution if you are not cutting…
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you to my colleagues for putting this item forward. One thing I just want to be clear on is that this resolution does not presume that we know all the details about what happened in this case. What it does do is articulate the principles that are at stake here, and it calls on Tufts to engage in good faith towards a fair and comprehensive resolution of this matter. And as my colleagues have said, in an environment where our federal government treats shifts in academic status as grounds for street-level abduction, our government and educational institutions must…
Mr. President, quick question. Item 7.4, the fire department salary contingency appropriation, is that one that we are taking out of order?
Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to see this immediately approved tonight, so I move to approve this item.
Sorry, Mr. President, I had one. Go ahead. Just in the spirit of clarity and understanding, you mentioned there being likely some executive sessions coming up. In the spirit of explaining that, am I right in understanding those executive sessions, which are just private council sessions, the reason why we'll have those about such an important public matter is because there is an element here which will have to be worked out with the two police bargaining units in their collective bargaining agreements to somehow accommodate the existence and role of any civilian oversight board.
Thank you, Mr. President. Just echoing my at-large colleagues' perspective, when I've spoken with abutters on Prescott Street, what I've also heard is that these folks are not looking for reasons to complain about the Warming Center. I have heard support for the mission of the Warming Center. I've heard a sense of civic responsibility for this safe haven. And sometimes I've heard of some troubling behavior they've experienced, particularly also around issues like human waste. And, you know, also echoing my colleague, I think making these facilities able to fulfill their missions well and be…
Thank you, Mr. President. Some of our small streets are particularly sensitive to the impact of parking in illegal zones because if cars or trucks park where they aren't supposed to on these small, small streets, emergency vehicles just cannot get through. Often vehicles which park in these zones, their drivers do not realize these areas are illegal to park in. They might be contractors unfamiliar with these particular streets. I've heard many of these examples. The mobility department has been marking streets for precisely this purpose, such as the fire lane that's on School Street,…
Thank you again, Mr. President. First, I just want to recognize this is an issue that's been worked on and pushed on by many people for a long time, including by my at-large colleague, Councilor Strezow, School Committee Vice President Leron Betone, School Committee President Emily Ackman, and many others, including in this room. Quite simply, we struggle to employ enough crossing guards, and we need to be able to staff every single crossing guard role consistently. We have students crossing very dangerous streets like McGrath Highway to get to school, and we should have no doubt that we're…
And then Mr. President, I move to take up items 7.9 through 7.11 together. My thinking with this is these are three very small dollar items, not that $1,000 is small, but in the scheme of the budget, and I would like to move to approve all three of these tonight.
Mr. President, I move to approve this item.