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Thursday, April 10, 2026
Emergency Intervention and Demolition Review submitted to Charles M. Sullivan, Executive Director of the Cambridge Historical Commission.
See complete submission here.
Two leading historians of American architecture, Kathryn O’Rourke, PhD and Alice Friedman, PhD, have signed on to a brief detailing the unique historical significance of Wyman Road—and 9 Wyman specifically—to the Cambridge community.
Summary of requests to CHC outlined in the Emergency Intervention:
Immediately contact Cambridge ISD to confirm no demolition permit has been issued and place a hold on any demolition permit application for 9 Wyman Road pending CHC review.
Immediately issue a stop-work order to halt the demolition that has already begun on the site.
Immediately notify the developer and AndersonPorter Design in writing that the existing structure is subject to Chapter 2.78 and that no demolition may proceed without CHC review.
Initiate an early staff review of the historical significance of the existing structure, drawing on CHC archives and the attached expert analysis, so that a significance determination can be made promptly if and when a demolition permit application is filed.
Impose the full six-month demolition delay if the structure is found significant and preferably preserved, providing time for the community's formal landmark and NCD petitions to proceed.
Be prepared to open a landmark designation study for 9 Wyman Road upon submission of the neighbors' formal petition, expected in the near term.
Be prepared to open an NCD study for Wyman Road upon submission of the neighbors' formal petition, and make CHC staff available for a preliminary consultation as we prepare that petition.
Copied on the Emergency Intervention request: Community Development Department, Cambridge Inspectional Services, Cambridge Planning Board, all City Councilors.
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Monday April 7, 2026
Joint Housing Committee Meeting Testimony Shows upzoning increases gentrification and does not make housing more affordable.
Tim Love, Assistant Director of the Master in Real Estate Program, Lecturer and Senior Fellow in Real Estate and Urban Planning at Harvard University, spoke before the Joint Housing Committee, citing recent peer-reviews research in Urban Studies that shows up-zoning to produce the opposite of its intended effect of providing affordable housing. Quite the opposite, it increases gentrification: up-zoned neighborhoods become white, more educated, and more affluent in the long run.
See the full study here.
Watch the full testimony here
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Write to Cambridge City Council now, demanding a moratorium on all new construction of 6 or more units in former A & B residential neighborhoods lots until sane zoning regulations are implemented that actually create affordable housing and don’t destroy our history and neighborhoods: CityCouncil@CambridgeMA.GOV