Cambridge Mayor Siddiqui and Vice Mayor Mallon Talk City Council, Podcast, and Women in Politics

At the start of their terms, Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui and Vice Mayor Alanna M. Mallon reflected on their decision to run for the city’s top offices and their plans for the City Council moving forward.

The Cambridge City Council unanimously elected Siqqiqui and Mallon as mayor and vice mayor, respectively, for the 2020-2021 term at the council's inaugural meeting in January. Siddiqui and Mallon are both in their second term on City Council.

Siddiqui — a Pakistani immigrant raised in Cambridge — is Massachusetts’s first Muslim mayor. Siddiqui and Mallon are the first women to lead the City Council together as mayor and vice mayor.

Mallon wrote that the 2016 United States presidential election inspired her to run for office in a Feb. 24 email to The Crimson.

“I knew that this current administration would be a constant assault on vulnerable residents: our immigrant community, low income residents, LGBTQ+ residents and students, and more,” she wrote.

“I wanted to ensure we had City Councillors here in Cambridge who were going to be ever mindful of our vulnerable population, and actively work on policies that protected them,” she added.

Mallon added that she uses her “lens as someone who grew up low-income” to implement policies while on City Council that give resources to those who need them the most.

During her first term on council, Mallon worked on an initiative to expand the city’s summer food service program, a food security program that provides free lunches to anyone under eighteen. She also helped create a program that facilitates the opening of children’s savings accounts.

She wrote that she wants to focus on supporting small businesses and passing Cambridge’s affordable housing overlay during the 2020-2021 term.

In addition to their roles at City Hall, Siddiqui and Mallon also run a podcast entitled “Women Are Here” about their own lives and Cambridge events. The idea for the podcast emerged when the two met on the campaign trail in 2017.

“We immediately bonded over our shared experiences of running for office, as well as running as women,” Mallon wrote in an email. “We knocked on so many doors over that spring, summer, and fall, and we heard over and over again from residents that there was no easy way to keep connected to what was going on in the city.”

In a January interview with The Crimson, Siddiqui said she and Mallon started the podcast to make local government “more accessible” and “easier to digest.”

Each week during the podcast, Siddiqui and Mallon discuss what is happening in the city — from council meetings to fun events.

“We keep it light sometimes talking about our favorite new restaurants or TV shows we are bingeing,” Mallon wrote in an email. “Other times we dive deep and personal into areas of family, how hard it is to do this job and be in the public eye.”

The podcast also touches on the experiences of women in state and local politics.

In an email to The Crimson, Mallon wrote that “a tremendous amount of talented and incredible women” have taken office since 2016.

“I am so proud that not only does Cambridge have an all female leadership team, the Vice-Chair of the School Committee is a woman as well,” Mallon wrote.

“We also have an incredible female led state and national delegation that includes State Representative Marjorie Decker, Congresswoman Katherine [M.] Clark, Congresswoman Ayanna [S.] Pressley and Senator Elizabeth Warren,” she added.

Mallon also wrote that women in politics serve as important role models for local youth.

“Cambridge kids needn’t look further than their own backyards to find strong, capable women leading the way and providing role model material,” Mallon wrote.

—Staff Writer Maria G. Gonzalez can be reached at maria.gonzalez@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @mariaagrace1.