FAQs
The Small Business Challenge Grant offers Cambridge businesses, business associations, and groups of neighborhood businesses the opportunity to secure one-time grant funding in increments of $1,000 for well-designed projects that bring together neighborhood business interests around shared goals of improved design, promotion, and business resilience in a commercial area.
Bluebikes Ebikes
Bluebikes ebikes have arrived in Cambridge. Pedal-assist technology and custom reflective paint make them perfect for both leisurely rides and effortless commutes. Bluebikes members enjoy the best ebike rates per minute. Find one near you and take it for a spin. Make sure to follow the rules of the road!
2025 Mt Auburn Street Closures
Due to structural concerns at 221 Mount Auburn Street (Riverview Condominium Building), the City of Cambridge will close segments of Mount Auburn Street and Sparks Street starting Saturday, July 19. Multiple detours and traffic changes will be in place to maintain the closure, which may last through the end of 2025.
A Deeper Look at Key City Initiatives for FY26
Cambridge’s FY26 budget outlines sustained investments in affordable housing, equity, sustainability, and safe streets while prioritizing financial flexibility amid growing economic uncertainty and the wind-down of federal pandemic aid.
Community Update from City Manager Huang
The City of Cambridge is fully committed to acting with urgency on the actions recommended by the City Council following the tragic death of Arif Sayed Faisal. As the City implements these recommendations, the City Manager is providing this update to share our commitments so far to the Council and our community.
The Silenced Muse: Emily Hale, T. S. Eliot, and the Role of a Lifetime (Main)
In January 2020, the largest and most eagerly awaited cache of new materials written by the Nobel-Prize-winning poet T. S. Eliot was finally opened: the 1,131 letters he sent Emily Hale, his little-known American love, over the course of their lifetimes. Their relationship was, in their own words, an “unnatural” love affair, one that began in Cambridge in 1913, when Eliot was a graduate student at Harvard and Hale, an aspiring amateur actress, and that played out in Boston, England and California over the years.
Named as one of its "Fifty Notable Non-fiction Books of 2024" by the Washington Post, Fitzgerald's biography of Hale is based on the embargoed letters and extensive research into Hale’s life and times. Hale was much more than just a muse to a literary celebrity. She overcame personal hardship to pursue a career as a professor of speech and drama at prominent American women’s colleges and schools, including Simmons and Smith Colleges and Abbot and Concord Academies. She was a talented amateur actress and director, who performed at many Boston area theaters and later guided Eliot as he tried his hand at playwriting. But in the end, Eliot disavowed her, sending a secret letter to Harvard in 1960 that claimed his love for Hale was that of “a ghost for a ghost,” and confirming that he had arranged for Hale’s side of their 27-year correspondence to be destroyed. In the words of The Washington Post reviewer, “Missing letters, a secret love affair, a famous poet, a beautiful actress—what else could you possibly want in a story?"
Sara Fitzgerald is a retired journalist whose career included fifteen years as an editor and new media developer for The Washington Post. In 2020, she also published The Poet’s Girl: A Novel of Emily Hale and T. S. Eliot. Since then, her essays about Hale have appeared in multiple volumes of the Journal of the T. S. Eliot Society and the T. S. Eliot Studies Annual. She has presented at the annual meetings of the Modern Language Association, the American Historical Association, the International T. S. Eliot Society, and at the T. S. Eliot Summer School at Oxford. She is also the author of the biography, Elly Peterson: “Mother” of the Moderates and Conquering Heroines: How Women Fought Sex Bias at Michigan and Paved the Way for Title IX.
CityView Newsletter
The CityView Winter 2022-23 newsletter features new City Manager Yi-An Huang's first message in this publication, a look at the PFAS Chemical found everywhere, an update on new bike lanes, winter snow reminders, Cambridge Fire Department's new in-house fire academy. Residential Parking Permit annual renewal and more,
Business Emergency Contacts Form
The following form is used by the Cambridge Emergency Communications Department in the event of an emergency during and after businesses hours for use by Fire, Police, and/or EMS personnel. This information will be kept confidential. Completion of this form does not constitute completion of the business certificate process.
Beginning English Class (Valente)
Join us for an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class! This class will be taught at a beginner level. No testing is needed. Everyone is welcome. For more information, call Maria Balestrieri at 617-349-4013.
This class will be held at the Valente Branch Library, located at 826 Cambridge St.