Cambridge Council Landmarks Baldwin Home 8-0, Splits 5-4 on Emissions Deadline

CAMBRIDGE — February 13, 2023 — Cambridge City Council voted 8-0 to landmark the Mariah Baldwin-Alvaro Blodgett Houses and passed a contentious building emissions amendment on a 5-4 vote at its February 13 meeting. Charles Sullivan of the Cambridge Historical Commission told the council that educator and civil rights advocate Mariah L. Baldwin, who led the Agassiz School for decades and was nationally known as a suffrage and anti-lynching speaker, is the subject of a pending state historic marker to be installed this spring. The council voted 9-0 to appropriate $1,150,000 from the Parking Fund Balance for deferred maintenance repairs at the First Street Garage, over Councillor Quinton Zondervan's protest that the site should eventually be repurposed away from car storage. On the Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance, a Zondervan amendment restricting a proposed 2035 net-zero deadline to non-residential buildings — exempting residential and condo owners, who would remain on a 2050 timeline — passed 5-4, with Vice Mayor Alanna Mallon and Councillors Marc McGovern, E. Denise Simmons, and Paul Toner dissenting. Councillor Simmons then exercised her charter right on a policy order to continue weekend Memorial Drive car-free closures, delaying that vote at least one week and delivering a lengthy statement connecting Riverside neighborhood traffic impacts to Cambridge's history of displacing communities of color.