This turned into a stream-of-consciousness on some issues that I think aren't getting enough attention...

I don't yet see anything on WickedLocal Cambridge nor in the CPD neighborhood reports. (Incidentally, rapid reporting on crime incidents is an opportunity that I think WickedLocal is missing.)

Hooray for Cambridge cops. They've generally been there when I need them. I once was very glad that they must've sped to get to a scene.

Regarding Cambridgeport crime, the core of Cambridgeport seem relatively safe to me. I think it gets less safe on edge near Western Ave. and the edge near the park along the Charles River, and there might be other hotspots I don't know about, since I no longer live there. Other Cambridge neighborhoods are much worse.

My impression is that crime in Cambridge tends to stay within a couple blocks of subsidized housing projects. This is not to say that people in subsidized housing are criminals in general, but that seems to be where most of the Cambridge criminals come from.

The Cambridge Housing Authority has around 5000 subsidized units (either owned, or with vouchers). One thing that has baffled me the more I've learned about crime in Cambridge: Cambridge spends a lot of money for what should be a warm-fuzzy program that enrichens the city with a safety net and diversity, yet Cambridge lets this program also be a huge breeder for crime that makes the city much more hostile and dangerous than it should be. I think the currrent situation is not healthy for the city, and I think tolerance of it also sets a self-perpetuating bad example for the kids in subsidized housing.

I think the cause of the current suboptimal policy might involve momentum of institutions, a political environment in which anti-crime measures are decried as anti-minority or anti-poor measures, an assumption among many Cambridge liberals that all programs that spend money must be good, and a general lack of awareness about crime. (You should see when an alert circulates around one of the schools about some minor street robbery, and people get worked up, as if they have no idea that much worse crime is frequent within a few-block radius.)

I'd like to stay in Cambridge indefinitely, but paying a huge premium for a condo in most parts of Cambridge doesn't seem very smart right now, when I see systemic problems not being solved.

Found it, it's item #08-6984 on this page. Turns out this started over a drug transaction. Now I'm all for getting drug dealers off the street, but I don't think that justifies driving 50+ MPH down a narrow side street where children are playing on the sidewalk.

The CPD participates in an "alert" program that enables them to quickly communicate information to citizens through email and text message alerts. They sent out this alert, but it went out 14 hours after the incident took place. This is the kind of information that would have been useful for citizens to receive during the 2 hours the incident was taking place, not the next day. Kind of misses the point of having an alert system. They just started the program this year, so maybe they're just "testing the waters" and haven't fully implemented it yet.