People Are Planting Yard Signs: The Movement to Pause MFH Upzoning Is Growing

 Why Cambridge Residents Are Planting Yard Signs Across the City?

 Signs Are Popping Up  Everywhere!!
Look around Cambridge — the PAUSE signs are popping up everywhere. In front yards. In windows. Along busy streets. Beside fences and porches. And next to homes residents fear could be demolished under the new zoning. Neighborhood by neighborhood, this new campaign is becoming harder to miss.

• One PAUSE sign can be dismissed.
• Two signs might be a coincidence.
• Three signs are the beginning of something!!!
• A  STREET FULL OF SIGNS IS A PROTEST.
• A   NEIGHBORHOOD FULL OF SIGNS IS ORGANIZED OPPOSITION!!  
•   

Signs appearing all across Cambridge become something bigger: a movement — and a message City Councillors & City Hall cannot ignore any longer!!

The purpose is simple.
Make the depth and breadth of opposition to the current MFH upzoning visible  -  and ask the City Council to pause long enough to get answers and make workable changes before more irreversible damage is done.

Take Action
1. SIGN THE PETITION — Modify the MFH Ordinance
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/modifying-the-mfh-ordinance?source=direct_link&

2. GET A PAUSE THE UPZONING YARD OR WINDOW SIGN
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0D4DAEAE29AAFDC07-65076740-pause#/

We will bring one to you!   Or email   Suzanne at cambridgeCitywide dot org with your name, address, and how many signs  you would   like and whether it is for a window or yard.

3. SIGN UP FOR CCC NEWS + RESEARCH
https://www.cambridgecitywide.org/

 We will bring you regular news on the upzoning, important issues happening around Cambridge, and our continuing research into housing, development, affordability, neighborhood change, and what is happening across our city.

​What does the sign actually show?

The sign turns complicated zoning language into a picture anyone can understand. A six-story building rises between two familiar Cambridge houses, dwarfing them and sitting as little as five feet from a side or rear property line.

Across the bottom are the consequences residents are worried about: renters displaced, trees cut down, homes put into shadow, asbestos, lead dust, and basement flooding.

That is why these signs belong in real Cambridge yards. They show what a change in the zoning ordinance can mean when it lands on an actual street, beside an actual home, with real people living next door.

Why are residents asking for a pause in the MFH upzoning?

The MFH upzoning dramatically increased what can be built on residential properties across Cambridge. Now we need answers about what those new development rights are doing to the housing and neighborhoods already here.

The case for upzoning was largely about affordability.

But more units do not  mean more housing affordability!  Existing two- and three-family homes and smaller apartment buildings can suddenly become far more valuable as redevelopment sites. When those homes are demolished, renters can be forced out and comparatively modest housing can be replaced by far more expensive condominiums and apartments.

Cambridge City Council and City Staff need to answer:

• What housing are we losing? Who is being displaced?
• What does the replacement housing cost?
• How much of it is actually affordable?
• And is this policy making Cambridge more affordable -   or making housing here even more expensive?

And affordability is only part of the problem!

Cambridge Residents are concerned about :   demolition of existing homes, displacement of renters, destruction of mature trees and green space, loss of sunlight, excavation beside neighboring foundations, asbestos and lead during demolition, groundwater and basement flooding, five-foot setbacks, emergency access, pressure on street parking, loss of family-sized homes, and the cumulative environmental and quality-of-life impact of much larger buildings in Cambridge’s already dense neighborhoods.

Pause the home demolitions.
Pause the cutting of trees.

We need to pause the demolitions and pause the cutting down of mature trees until Cambridge gets answers and develops viable modifications to the MFH ordinance.

Some changes cannot be undone!

• Once a house is demolished, it is gone.
• Once renters are displaced, they may never be able to return.
• Once a mature tree that took 50, 70, or 100 years to grow is cut down, its canopy cannot simply be replaced by planting a sapling.
• And once comparatively lower-cost housing is replaced by homes selling or renting for far more, that piece of Cambridge’s housing stock may be lost permanently.

A pause does not mean stopping housing!

It means stopping long enough to understand what is happening and fix the problems before more irreversible changes are made.

This is what these signs are asking Cambridge City Councillors to vote to do:

• PAUSE THE UPZONING.
• Pause the home demolitions.
• Pause the cutting of trees.
• Get the answers.
• Fix the ordinance.

Then decide how Cambridge should move forward.

A city is more than a unit count.

Housing policy should make Cambridge MORE  AFFORDABLE -   not demolish existing homes, force out renters, remove mature trees, and make it even more expensive to live here.

So keep looking around Cambridge streets and yards.

And if you agree, add your voice.

One sign gets noticed. A street full sends a message. A city full of them is impossible to ignore.

1. SIGN THE PETITION:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/modifying-the-mfh-ordinance?source=direct_link&

2.GET A YARD OR WINDOW SIGN:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0D4DAEAE29AAFDC07-65076740-pause#/

3.GET CCC NEWS + RESEARCH:
https://cambridgecitizens.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d8834c3cec80b337344426e6d&id=d86988c4a6