 On Thursday June 25, 2026 at the joint meeting of the Housing Committee and Neighborhood and LongTerm Planning Committee, many residents spoke to the city upzoning negative impacts. The rationale for the meeting was largely to address perspective modest changes to the Milti-Family Housing (MFH) petition proposed by Councillors Flaherity and Zusy. Several of the residents who spoke noted the fact that Marc McGovern and others of the ABC pro-developer political group and their allies had sold the city a bill of goods in the February 2025 Multifamily Housing (MFH) Ordinance as a solution to housing affordability. Councillor McGovern refuted that, insisting that the city’s earlier AHO (Affordable Housing Overlay) was intended to produce affordable housing, but the new 2025 upzoning was simply intended to produce more market rate housing. Councillor McGovern's claim in his followup CCTV interview posted the following day, June 26, and which he had requested was to "correct" what he saw as misinformation about the MFH ordinance. The aim appears to have been to stop any proposed changes by Flaherty, Zusy or others. The interviewer has frequently interviewed city council candidates for the election . The same day, June 26, this Youtube interview was posted on Reddit Cambridge, a regular trolling site for pro-development ABC and McGovern allies. Among the issues featured in this interview was McGovern’s false claim that the MFH was NEVER intended to add much if any affordable housing.  This issue “misinformation” is patently false and McGovern’s comments and those of other ABC supporters and City Staff make this clear. Indeed, during the final Feb. 10, 2025 City Council discussion on the MFH ordinance, McGovern claimed that the up-zoning change was for middle-income people who "earn too much money to qualify for subsidized housing….We can't just have a community of folks who can afford $2 million homes and folks who qualify for subsidized housing." Yet today, with the MFH changes it is $2-$3 million homes that are being built as existing, relatively affordable homes—triple-deckers, two-families, and more modest single-family houses—are being demolished to make way for larger far more expensive ones. The City's own MFH webpage likewise listed as a primary goal of the MFH ordinance: more housing "with a focus on income-restricted affordable housing through the city's inclusionary housing program." Just this month (June 1, 2026), again McGovern claimed that: "In fact, in its first year, the Multifamily Housing ordinance has proven that it can and does result in more affordable housing in Cambridge….If by 'affordable' we mean subsidized-inclusionary units, the MFH ordinance is clearly beneficial….If by 'affordable' we mean 'less expensive,' the MFH is helping there, too."  None of this is correct or accurate. Residents already can see for themselves. We need for Councillor McGovern and city staff to answer the questions: Are rents lower? Are middle-income Cambridge families buying more homes? Are longtime residents more secure, or are more families facing lease terminations and displacement? Has affordability improved—or has the ordinance mainly expanded by-right development which means more expensive housing costs for everyone?  In his example (not unusual) a $3 million home is taken down to build instead several $1.5 to $1.8 million dollar condos. To him this is a good trade - namely three to four luxury condos in exchange for a triple decker whose units likely rented for $3,000-$3,500 a month. However a $1.65 million condo (averaging his two numbers) is way out of the price point of your average middle income family in Cambridge.  Indeed the vast majority of these units will have no inclusionary ("affordable") units which are required of projects containing 10 units or more. And the vast majority of these developments have led to demolitions of existing more affordable units, and the termination of related tenant leases. The example that McGovern 's example proves the point.  Of course this was NOT what McGovern himself said at the time the upzoning was being passed, and indeed more recently. If politicians promise affordability, as McGovern, his ABC allies on Council and the City Staff itself did, they should be judged by measurable affordability changes due to zoning —not by slogans. These politicians and our own city government should be judged by outcomes and negative impacts not by false promises.
Sources • Cambridge Day, Feb. 10, 2025: https://www.cambridgeday.com/2025/02/10/in-landmark-zoning-reform-cambridge-votes-to-legalize-four-story-multifamily-homes-citywide/ • Marc McGovern, Cambridge & Somerville Independent, June 1, 2026: https://csindie.com/correcting-the-record-about-the-impact-of-cambridges-multifamily-housing-ordinance/ • City of Cambridge, Multifamily Housing Ordinance: https://www.cambridgema.gov/cdd/projects/zoning/multifamilyhousing CCTV Youtube interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=m-ezbLPBUb4
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