City Council Notepad: Michael Sullivan

He's the city's proverbial son. And with his dark suit, clean-shaven face and shiny black shoes, he's a son any parent would be proud of.

Following in a long and influential line of Sullivans on Cambridge's City Council, Michael A. Sullivan was re-elected to the council for a fourth term last week, finishing in the fourth of nine spots.

The year he was born, Sullivan's father Walter, later a Cambridge mayor, ran for the council.

Ever since then, lifelong Cambridge resident Michael, 40, has been involved in city politics in one way or another.

When he was elected to the council in 1993, for example, he got the appointment--unusual for a first-time councillor--to be chair of finance and city safety (a post he still holds).

"After spending my life growing up in the body, I already had a working knowledge of it," Sullivan says.

Sullivan says the city's affordable housing efforts need to provide for middle-income residents as well as low-income tenants.

"We have to be careful...not to lose the middle ground," he says in a deep, calm voice. "Otherwise we become a city of the very very rich and the working poor."

Sullivan, whose son, Michael Jr., is 11 months old, seems to care the most about education. He says that the city needs to beef up the schools that do not perform well so that all children can receive a good education.

The city should combine internal and external resources--such as Lesley College, Harvard and MIT--to give kids "the best we can," he says. "For us all not to work together doesn't bode well," he explains.

Sullivan, who brings Michael Jr. with him to work, gets excited when talking about his son.

"It gives you pause to think about things that you didn't think about before," he says. Sullivan adds that he often brought Michael Jr. along with him during his campaign this year.

"He brightens up in large groups," he says.

Sullivan, who also practices part-time as an attorney in East Cambridge, says that he loves Cambridge for the richness and variety of its community.

"I can't imagine living anyplace else," he says.

--EBC