Alice Wolf - On The Cambridge City Council

On The Cambridge City Council

Wolf’s accomplishments on the Cambridge City Council included the establishment and passage of a number of key laws. In 1984, she sponsored the, that protects Cambridge residents on the basis of sexual orientation, prohibiting discrimination. Wolf also led the City initiative to create a domestic partners ordinance,and establish the to enforce the ordinance.

Wolf was the sponsor of the first Mayor's Gay Pride Breakfast, which has become an annual Cambridge event. At a subsequent Gay Pride Breakfast, she was named an "honorary lesbian."

In the 1980s, in conjunction with the Cambridge Peace Commission, she created a “peace curriculum,” a program of peace education for the public schools, K-12, to assist teachers in assuring kids of all ages could develop a constructive approach to resolving differences and disputes. Wolf led marches and did research to support "economic conversion," trying to convince local companies to convert military-focused enterprises into peace-oriented activities. She developed Sister City relationships, a model for international cooperation at the grassroots level, with San José Las Flores, Chalatenango, El Salvdor and Yerevan, Armenia. Wolf led the effort to make Cambridge a Sanctuary City, where persecuted people fleeing tyranny and death in their countries of origin could come when they were not given political asylum in the U.S.. With the Cambridge Peace Commission and others, Wolf worked to hold a yearly Cambridge Holocaust Commemoration, support Armenia (through the Cambridge-Yerevan sister city relationship) after the 1988 earthquake, continue nurturing the connection with the residents of San Jose Las Flores, El Salvador, and to bring together Cambridge people of diverse backgrounds to support our Muslim neighbors after 9/11.

Wolf led in the creation of the Cambridge Kids Council, which is dedicated to developing policy recommendations and programs aimed at improving the quality of life for children, youth and families in Cambridge.

The Cambridge City Council is elected by Proportional Representation using the Single Transferable Vote system. After inauguration, the Mayor is selected by the elected members of the city council.

Alice Wolf served as the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts from January 1990 to January 1992. She was elected five times to the Council, serving from 1984 through 1994.

Scheme Z

Alice Wolf led Cambridge in their opposition to Scheme Z, the widely criticized proposed interchange for the then-planned Big Dig highway project. Scheme Z would have added additional miles of loop ramps to the interchange. Wolf successfully worked to get Cambridge to file a lawsuit in order to stop this aspect of the plan from going forward.