Attend Somerville meetings from Dec. 5-11: Municipal broadband and Boynton Yards labs

Energy law still has property owners, city at odds, while sense of partnership with Eversource builds. Business leaders continued to express dismay Tuesday over how Cambridge’s Building Energy Usage Disclosure Ordinance has been implemented, and the potential for them to face earlier deadlines to comply. Condo owners, on the other hand, are getting more time to meet the law’s requirements.

Attend meetings in Cambridge Jan. 30-Feb. 5: East Cambridge plans and Gas Light Building. City Council and School Committee joint budget roundtable/working meeting, 5:30 p.m. Monday. Officials look at Cambridge Public Schools’ budget priorities for the upcoming 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1. This is a remote meeting watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.

Attend meetings in Somerville Jan. 30-Feb. 5 about rat damage, Davis labs, Porter rezoning. Rodent Issues Special Committee, 6:30 p.m. Monday. Members hear from staff about current rodent mitigation plans and consider residents’ concerns about rodent expenses, including car and home repairs. Watchable by videoconferencing. Intersection reconstruction due. Powder...

Remembering Alice Wolf, local ‘political legend’ who was as kind as she was resolute on the issues. Alice Wolf is a political legend. (“Alice Wolf leaves behind enduring political legacy encompassing education, council and Legislature,” Jan. 29.) She represents a different era in politics. She started as an active parent at her children’s elementary school and later ran for the School Committee. She worked her way to City Council and later became a state, representative but did not see either as a steppingstone. Every election was hard earned. She served during the tumultuous time of school desegregation and proposition 2½ budget cuts. She served on the School Committee during the killing of Anthony Colosimo in 1980, which shut down Cambridge Rindge and Latin School because of racial tensions and fear of neighborhood clashes. She served when Cambridge Rindge Technical School was merged with Cambridge High and Latin School. She also served during, and to the end of, the very heated and divided rent control era. For all these reasons, she had a deep historical perspective on Cambridge. Alice understood the race and class tensions of Cambridge. She understood the Tale of two Cities. She understood what divisions can do to a community.

A week of events in Cambridge and Somerville, from Valentine’s R&B show to Hasty Pudding. “Marking Their Place in History” exhibit of Cambridge Black Trailblazers (continued) from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge, and continuing through March 1. Free. Information is here.

Everyone agrees that Cambridge has a housing affordability crisis. Biotech labs worsen that housing crisis by increasing displacement and outcompeting the new housing that our city so desperately needs. This is why we, a diverse group of residents of Cambridge, have proposed the Callender et al. zoning petition to regulate excessive biotech expansion and strike a better balance between commercial and residential development in places such as Central Square, Cambridge Street, Broadway in The Port, and North Massachusetts Avenue. We hope you’ll agree with our reasonable direction and urge the City Council to act before it is too late.

Unit treating autism and ADHD may give up beds for more adolescent psychiatric treatment needs. Cambridge Health Alliance wants to switch half the beds in a new unit for children and teens with neurological and developmental disorders to space for adolescents with more common psychiatric illnesses, because most of the special beds are empty. The health care system asked state officials Tuesday for permission to make the change, chief executive Assaad Sayah said.