Helping residents to actually purchase houses is a better plan than attempting to re-establish rent control, because it would not create the same “dependency atmosphere” Cambridge had when the city mandated rents, King says.

“It was like a dust storm” in Cambridge when rent control ended because so many people suddenly couldn’t pay the rent and had to leave the city, King says.

And the city’s current tactic to prevent some rents from skyrocketing—making deals with contractors that a certain number of units in new apartment buildings be “affordable” for low-income people—is somewhat counterproductive, King says.

“The costs to subsidize these few units are shifted to the market-rate units,” King says, adding that the cost shift means that middle-income people can’t afford the other apartments in the building.

“We are turning Cambridge into a city of the haves and have-nots,” King says.

He suggests hammering out a two-tier system, in which contractors make some housing for low-income people and some for middle-income residents.

A Complex View of Harvard

Like all of the current city councillors, King approved of the living wage sit-in at Massachusetts Hall last spring.

And—like decades of Cambridge city councillors—King has general objections to Harvard.

“I don’t agree with a lot of things they do,” King says, adding that “in their zeal to raise money” Harvard sometimes loses its focus on education. When asked about the fundraising aspects of his job, King demurs.

“Leave BU out of this,” he says, smiling.

But King doesn’t approve of the way the council has dealt with Harvard in the past.

“The bottom line is, I don’t thing Cambridge should be constantly haggling about Harvard and their wealth,” King says. “I think Harvard is one of the most ingenious universities in the world.”

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.