A Better Cambridge is excited to announce our endorsements for Cambridge City Council. These six candidates are bold, progressive community leaders who understand that increasing the housing supply is crucial to racial justice, environmental sustainability, and quality of life. We encourage voters to rank these candidates on Nov. 7:

Marc McGovern is a stalwart when it comes to fighting for affordable housing. He led the way on increasing the percentage of affordable units provided and amount of money paid to the city by developers. As a social worker, he takes a holistic approach to the issues affecting the most vulnerable in our city and has a rare talent for bringing opposing stakeholders together to create progress.

Denise Simmons may be famous for being the nation’s first black, openly lesbian mayor, but here in Cambridge, residents know her to be among the most effective and accessible leaders in the city. She’s fought to preserve and expand the city’s stock of affordable housing, and is a tireless advocate for environmental, public safety and diversity issues.

Adriane Musgrave left her management consulting job to run for city council full time. She has put her remarkable analytical, report-reading and data-mining skills to good use in understanding seemingly every problem that Cambridge faces. Her passions are smart zoning and development, and creating inclusive prosperity for all.

Alanna Mallon has already made Cambridge a better place by creating the Weekend Backpack Program, which ensures access to meals for our food insecure students. She has immense talent for spotting problems, creating the structures needed to address them and coordinating existing solutions to better serve our most at-risk neighbors.

Sean Tierney, an attorney who works on tax and housing policy for the state legislature, offers an important perspective on the housing crisis. He is dedicated to finding innovative solutions that balance growth and increased density, while fighting the displacement that threatens Cambridge’s economic, racial and cultural diversity.

Samuel Gebru is an Ethiopian native and 2009 Cambridge Rindge and Latin School graduate. Despite being among the youngest candidates running for city council, he has an extensive record of leadership in community organizing, policy work and advocacy. Drawing from his own experience growing up in mixed-income housing, his commitment is to preserving and expanding housing opportunities for residents of all incomes and creating ownership units for low-income residents to build pathways to wealth and equity.

These extraordinary candidates have earned ABC’s support because they understand the problems facing Cambridge, have tangible ideas for addressing them, and the records to prove that they know how to be effective. Many candidates say the right things; these are the people ABC believes will do them.

-- Jesse Kanson-Benanav, chairman, A Better Cambridge