Cathie is a long-time community advocate known for her careful, data-driven approach. Trained as a museum curator, Cathie diversifies the professional makeup of the Cambridge City Council with a background in research, art and history. She has been actively involved in protecting and enhancing Cambridge’s open spaces, including leading a 15-year effort to revitalize Magazine Beach Park. Cathie prioritizes access to sunlight for residential solar installations and planning that integrates sustainability, infrastructure capacity, and long-term environmental resilience.
She was President of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, co-initiated the exterior restoration of St. Augustine’s African-Orthodox Church, and, since 2022, has led efforts to preserve the legacy of Central Square folk artist Peter Valentine.
While she fully recognizes that Cambridge has an affordable housing crisis, Cathie was the lone vote against the 2025 Multifamily Housing (MFH) Ordinance. Her vote reflects concerns about an ordinance conceived without preliminary exploratory research on current housing needs, infrastructure analysis, and impact studies on neighborhood quality of life, such as diminished open space, increased traffic and parking problems, compromised light and privacy, and disrupted architectural integrity.
Cathie views the MFH Ordinance as zoning without guardrails, as development without accountability. It threatens the city’s neighborhoods as an inappropriate policy experiment. She seeks instead a zoning policy that will promote responsible urban growth by developing evidence-based policy through transparent decision-making and neighborhood input.
While she supports “smart growth” along the transportation corridors, she voted against the recent upzoning of N. Mass Ave. to 12 stories (and 18 stories, possibly at Porter Square), because she believed that the base heights were too high and if granted, should be negotiated in exchange for community benefits: affordable housing, parks, parking and cultural amenities.
