Environment
Our health and our prosperity depend on our environment. This includes our immediate green space like the urban canopy, parks, and our waterways, as well as the broader climate. We must do everything we can as a city to plant and preserve trees, infuse green space like swales and catch basins wherever possible, eliminate "forever chemicals" (PFAS) from our water and soil, and reduce the use of gas-powered automobiles to improve air quality. We must also update and improve our sewer system to reduce and eventually eliminate combined sewer overflows (CSOs) when it rains and floods. These overflows--the product of a 19th century sewer and rainwater system--cause waste to pollute our waterways, from the Charles River to the Mystic River Basin to Fresh Pond. This will be a costly fix and require coordination from all levels of government, but I firmly believe we should not sacrifice clean water for budgetary concerns. In fact, the health and environmental costs of polluted air, water, and soil far exceed the costs of remediation and proper management. A clean environment is a green concern in every meaning of the word!
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Our housing and transportation problems are also opportunities for Cambridge's environment. If we can build a little denser, especially near public transit, we can reduce polluting car traffic. Not only will our air be easier to breathe, but there will be less noise pollution from cars as well, making Cambridge a more peaceful place to live. We should work closely with the MBTA to ensure train and bus service is expanded and on time. The City should expand transit option like EZRide and explore new projects like streetcars. Overall, good housing and good transportation policy is good environment policy!
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We must also face the ever-growing threat of climate change. This means more storms that flood the city, more wildfire smoke blowing in from Canada, and more heat waves. We need to mitigate these harms in any way possible while doing our part to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change. This means increasing green space as much as possible and reducing the amount of paved surfaces in Cambridge (which contribute greatly to urban heat island effects and to flooding). It means having a plan for our most vulnerable citizens when a heat wave is predicted. And it means utilizing renewable energy as much as possible.
Rooftop solar has become a contentious issue during the ongoing debate over whether to build more housing in Cambridge and address the housing shortage. Some homeowners with rooftop solar are worried their panels will be partially blocked by taller buildings. I do not think our housing supply and our environment need to be in a zero-sum competition. There are policy options the City can explore to compensate homeowners for periods when a new building blocks their panels. We live in a small, dense city, and there are times when we need to utilize every tool in our toolkit to ensure people can live in Cambridge without going broke and do so in an environmentally sustainable manner.
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Finally, I am one of the strongest proponents of protected bike lane infrastructure of all the candidates running for City Council. Protected bike lanes are shown to double the number of bicycle commuters.¹. We need to expand our network of protected bike infrastructure so that more people feel safe enough to choose cycling instead of driving. This will reduce emissions and make the air in Cambridge easier to breathe (something personally important to me since I suffer from asthma). Making mass transit, pedestrian, and cycling trips safer and more convenient is one of the most effective ways to reduce particulate and carbon pollution.²
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--Ned Melanson
(617) 453-8590
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1. Ferenchak, N. N., & Marshall, W. E.(2025, June 2). The link between low‑stress bicycle facilities and bicycle commuting. Nature Cities. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00255-5
2. A. Millard-Ball, M. Reginald, Y. Yusuf, & C. Bian, Global health and climate benefits from walking and cycling infrastructure, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (24) e2422334122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422334122 (2025).
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