Cambridge City Council seats new councillor, passes Rise Up successor study order unanimously.

CAMBRIDGE — September 23, 2024 — Cambridge City Council swears in Councillor Kathy Zussie and votes unanimously to explore a successor to the Rise Up guaranteed-income program. Zussie, certified by the Election Commission to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Councillor Joan Pickett, was sworn in by the City Clerk before public comment, giving the council its full complement of nine members. The council then heard from more than 30 speakers, the majority supporting Policy Order 6, which directs the city manager to confer with the Finance Department, Law Department, and other departments on the feasibility of continuing cash-assistance payments after the ARPA-funded Rise Up program ends in early 2025; the program has served 1,923 families. Lead sponsor Councillor Sumbul Siddiqui said it was "equally important that we do the work that can make a difference every day, one person and one family at a time," while Councillor Zussie cautioned that replacing roughly $20 million in federal funds in a tighter municipal budget "will be the challenge." On zoning, Councillor Patricia Nolan exercised her charter right to delay by one week a vote on whether to accept the CDD-drafted multifamily upzoning petition as a council petition, preserving the council's time to receive pending analyses before triggering the formal Ordinance Committee and Planning Board referral clock. The council also approved $20.2 million in Community Preservation Act appropriations and adopted an amendment to the Alewife Garage redevelopment policy order adding requests for a commuter rail stop and a pedestrian bridge linking the Alewife Triangle and Quad neighborhoods, both 9-0.