Jan Devereux
She/Her
- Currently
- City Councillor
She/Her
Jan Devereux is not running for re-election in 2019.
She has lived in Cambridge since 1993, and co-founded the Fresh Pond Residents Alliance in 2014. A graduate of Princeton and Columbia, she's also served on the board of the Princeton Association of New England.
She maintains an annotated summary of upcoming council meeting agendas on her website.
Previous to being elected to the council, she worked in communications and public relations, most recently at Community Charter School of Cambridge and Beaver Country Day School.
The crisis we face today is not merely a supply problem. Let’s eschew absolutist labels such as NIMBY and YIMBY that tend to drive us further apart.
But for now it’s all ‘go, go, go’ and Cambridge is struggling to figure out what the community mitigation should be.
To have someone thank you for sending them an email to me is the highest compliment.
“I don’t think bunnies are in the same category,” Councilor Jan Devereux said. “I think bunnies are like squirrels, and I don’t want to see us rounding up bunnies.”
“They’re not aggressive,” she added. “They’re small, [and] they eat gardens, but they offer no threat to human beings and I think that’s perhaps the distinction.”
Sept. 19, 2017 — Adam Sennott“I don’t think bunnies are in the same category,” Councilor Jan Devereux said. “I think bunnies are like squirrels, and I don’t want to see us rounding up bunnies.”
“They’re not aggressive,” she added. “They’re small, [and] they eat gardens, but they offer no threat to human beings and I think that’s perhaps the distinction.”
Let’s resist the temptation to blame each other for a problem that has no simple solution. The crisis we face today is not merely a supply problem. Let’s eschew absolutist labels such as NIMBY and YIMBY that tend to drive us further apart. We need to come together with cool heads to find creative ways to address a problem that bedevils urban policy makers everywhere. Rather than sparring on social media, let’s acknowledge the formidable challenge presented in creating more below-market housing in a market economy. The challenge is especially daunting in an older city such as ours where land is scarce and access to public transit is uneven, and in an era when federal and state housing subsidies have shrunk and income inequality is rising for a host of reasons.
Aug. 23, 2017 — Jan DevereuxLet’s resist the temptation to blame each other for a problem that has no simple solution. The crisis we face today is not merely a supply problem. Let’s eschew absolutist labels such as NIMBY and YIMBY that tend to drive us further apart. We need to come together with cool heads to find creative ways to address a problem that bedevils urban policy makers everywhere. Rather than sparring on social media, let’s acknowledge the formidable challenge presented in creating more below-market housing in a market economy. The challenge is especially daunting in an older city such as ours where land is scarce and access to public transit is uneven, and in an era when federal and state housing subsidies have shrunk and income inequality is rising for a host of reasons.
Also discussed was a proposal allowing MIT researchers to install test sensors along Massachusetts Ave. for the purpose of “observing the behavior of pedestrians, cyclist, and drivers...reporting on parking occupancy/availability, and measuring air quality.”
Councillors were split over the decision to support the test. Councillors Nadeem A. Mazen and Jan Devereux spoke out in support of the sensors as a state of the art way to improve the city with the help of a local entity; McGovern and City Councillor Craig A. Kelley said that Councillors were not provided information on the sensors in a timely matter and that process needed to be established.
April 25, 2017 — Nicholas SundbergAlso discussed was a proposal allowing MIT researchers to install test sensors along Massachusetts Ave. for the purpose of “observing the behavior of pedestrians, cyclist, and drivers...reporting on parking occupancy/availability, and measuring air quality.”
Councillors were split over the decision to support the test. Councillors Nadeem A. Mazen and Jan Devereux spoke out in support of the sensors as a state of the art way to improve the city with the help of a local entity; McGovern and City Councillor Craig A. Kelley said that Councillors were not provided information on the sensors in a timely matter and that process needed to be established.